Golden Weekly is a weekly blockchain industry summary column launched by Golden Finance, covering key news of the week, mining information, project dynamics, technological progress and other industry dynamics. This article is one of the news weekly, taking you to a glance at the major events in the blockchain industry this week.
Headlines
▌MicroStrategy Bitcoin holdings currently have a floating profit of approximately US$12.9 billion
According to the current price of Bitcoin at US$88,875.7, MicroStrategy's Bitcoin holdings have a floating profit of approximately US$12.9 billion. According to previous news, as of November 11, 2024, MicroStrategy holds a total of 279,420 bitcoins, with a total purchase cost of approximately US$11.9 billion and an average price of approximately US$42,692.
▌Dollar rises to two-year high, Wall Street unanimously bullish
The dollar index rose to its highest level since November 2022 on Tuesday, pushing the euro to its lowest level in a year and other currencies under pressure. The yen and Canadian dollar also fell, heading towards key psychological levels. Since Trump's re-election, strategists across Wall Street have been unanimously bullish on the dollar as the Republicans are expected to sweep both houses of Congress. According to recent strategy reports, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs Group and Citigroup all expect the dollar to rise further from its current level.
▌US FBI seizes Polymarket CEO's mobile phone and electronic devices
On November 13, local time, the US FBI seized the mobile phone and electronic devices of Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan. According to the New York Post, the FBI raided Coplan's home in Soho, New York, and demanded the surrender of electronic devices. The action took place eight days after Polymarket successfully predicted that Trump would win the 2024 presidential election, with a platform trading volume of over $3 billion. Anonymous sources said the FBI may suspect that the platform was manipulating the election market and believed that the move was a "political retaliation" against Polymarket by the previous government. At present, the FBI has not responded to the incident, and Coplan has not made any public comments.
▌18 states in the United States have filed a lawsuit accusing the SEC of "persecuting the cryptocurrency industry" under the leadership of Gary Gensler
According to Fox Business reporter Eleanor Terrett, 18 states in the United States have filed a lawsuit accusing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and its commissioners of exceeding their authority and illegally persecuting the cryptocurrency industry under the leadership of agency head Gary Gensler.
The lawsuit, signed by 18 Republican attorneys general, details how the agency has committed "serious government overreach" against the $3 trillion cryptocurrency industry through enforcement actions, infringing on states' rights to regulate their economies.
Policy
▌Trump seeks crypto-friendly candidates for financial institutions
According to the Washington Post, U.S. President-elect Trump is preparing to give the U.S. government a more relaxed stance on cryptocurrencies, and he is looking for candidates for key positions that are friendly to the crypto industry, while his senior advisers are consulting crypto executives on potential changes in federal policy. Early discussions focused on a range of financial regulators, including the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. According to five people familiar with the matter, Trump advisers considered letting current regulatory officials, former federal officials and financial industry executives take important leadership positions, many of whom have publicly expressed pro-cryptocurrency views. They warned that the discussion process is still in the early stages and the list of candidates is still changing.
▌US judge dismisses former Celsius CEO's request to dismiss fraud and manipulation charges
Alex Mashinsky, former CEO of crypto platform Celsius, faces criminal prosecution in the United States, and his representative lawyers failed to dismiss two charges related to commodity fraud and manipulation of Celsius (CEL) token prices.
Judge John Koeltl has filed a document with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, ruling that the arguments put forward by Mashinsky's legal team to dismiss the charges are "either meaningless or baseless." The judge rejected the motion to dismiss the two charges, leaving seven counts in the indictment, and Alex Mashinsky's trial is scheduled to begin in January 2025.
▌U.S. prosecutors demand confiscation of FTX founder SBF's cryptocurrency
A year ago, FTX founder SBF was convicted of fraud. In a document submitted to the New York court on Tuesday, U.S. prosecutors filed a lawsuit to confiscate SBF's cryptocurrency. Its cryptocurrency is stored in an account, including Solana and Ripple, with a value of $8.6 million as of December 12, 2023, and has appreciated to $18.5 million in the past 11 months, mainly due to the sharp increase in the price of Solana coins.
▌Biden: The United States will achieve an orderly and peaceful transition of power
White House Press Secretary Karin Jean-Pierre said at a briefing that day that the current US President Biden met with the US President-elect Trump at the White House for about two hours that day. The current White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and the next White House Chief of Staff Susan Wells also attended the meeting. Karin Jean-Pierre said that Biden and Trump discussed important national security and domestic policy issues facing the United States and the world. Biden raised important matters for Congress, including funding the government and providing disaster supplementary funds requested by the president. Finally, Biden reiterated that the United States will achieve an orderly and peaceful transition of power.
▌Trump announces four of his senior campaign advisers will serve as senior positions in the White House
On November 13, local time, US President-elect Trump announced that his four senior campaign advisers will serve as senior positions in the White House during his second term. It is understood that Stephen Miller will serve as Assistant to the President, Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor. James Blair will serve as Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Legislation, Politics and Public Affairs. Tyler Budovich was appointed Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications and Personnel. Dan Scavino will also serve as Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff.
▌U.S. Senator John Thune was elected Senate Majority Leader and supports crypto legislation
U.S. Republican Senator John Thune of South Dakota was elected Senate Majority Leader in 2025. Thune was involved in promoting the Digital Commodity Consumer Protection Act (DCCPA), which aims to provide a legal definition for digital commodities and bring their trading under the supervision of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). In addition, he also supports the abolition of SAB 121, an accounting rule for crypto assets, and promotes regulatory reforms in the crypto industry. Thune has long been committed to promoting cryptocurrency-related legislation and supporting the legalization and regulatory development of the industry.
Blockchain Applications
▌Aave Labs and Lens parent company Avara launch crypto wallet Family Wallet
Aave Labs and Lens' parent company Avara announced the launch of Family Wallet, which the team called a "secure, user-friendly crypto wallet for everyone" and "it provides features such as in-app messaging, NFT support, DeFi integration, and advanced security."
As previously reported, about a year ago, Aave Companies acquired Los Feliz Engineering, the development team behind Family, and changed its name to Avara.
▌World Identity Service Launched in Brazil
OpenAI founder Sam Altman's World project (formerly Worldcoin) announced that World ID has launched an identity verification program in Brazil. As the project increases its efforts to increase the total number of registrations, Brazil has become an attractive region in the eyes of World. According to the World Bank's 2023 data, the country is not only relatively friendly to cryptocurrencies, but also has a population of more than 215 million.
▌Huma Finance Expands to Solana Blockchain
Huma Finance expands to the Solana blockchain, providing instant liquidity support for scenarios such as cross-border remittances, digital asset credit cards, and global t+0 payments. The protocol already runs on Ethereum Layer 2 networks such as Polygon, Celo, and Scroll.
▌Phantom Wallet iOS update causes app reset, reminds users to back up recovery phrases
Phantom Wallet recently reminded iOS users that some users encountered "app reset" problems after the update, resulting in inability to access their wallets. The problem seems to be limited to the iOS version, and users who have not backed up the recovery phrase have lost access to their funds. Phantom emphasized that users can restore their wallets through the recovery phrase and have released an update to prevent more users from being affected. The company reminds users to keep the recovery phrase properly to avoid losing funds. Recently, some users reported losing their wallets and funds due to updates, and some users lost more than $1 million.
▌UK Treasury to launch a pilot to launch digital government bonds using distributed ledger technology
The UK government will launch a pilot to issue digital government bond instruments similar to bonds using distributed ledger technology, the UK Treasury said in a statement on Thursday. The country's Ministry of Finance said: "The government will launch a pilot to provide digital government bond instruments using distributed ledger technology (DLT) to demonstrate its commitment to innovation in the financial services sector." DLT is the underlying technology for crypto assets, where each node can save and update data. Tulip Siddiq, the UK Treasury's economic secretary, said the Labour Party will soon announce its plans in the cryptocurrency field. Bloomberg cited unnamed sources as saying that the Labour Party is likely to continue to follow in the footsteps of the former ruling Conservative Party and develop stablecoin and equity pledge legislation.
Cryptocurrency
▌OpenAI CEO: I am confident in the bright future of cryptocurrency
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman posted on the X platform: "World (also known as Worldcoin) has made amazing progress in the past year. I am extremely proud of the team, especially the leadership of alexblania! A rare combination of vision and execution. Overall, I am confident in the bright future of cryptocurrency!"
▌Bitcoin's market value surpasses that of silver
Bitcoin's market value surpasses that of silver, becoming the world's eighth largest asset. The current market value of Bitcoin is $1.741 trillion, and the current market value of silver is $1.735 trillion.
▌Stablecoin supply increased by $5.4 billion after the US election
Since the US election, the supply of two major stablecoins, Tether (USDT) and Circle (USDC), has increased by $5.4 billion in a week. Analysis points out that this increase reflects the rising demand for crypto assets among investors. Data shows that the supply of USDT and USDC on different networks has reached a record high, showing the diversified development of stablecoin demand.
▌Analyst: The potential peak of Bitcoin prices may come around the end of May 2025
Based on historical data, the Copper report estimates that the potential peak price of Bitcoin may come around the end of May 2025. Analysts have studied the historical growth of Bitcoin's market value in different bull and bear market cycles and believe that Bitcoin's cycle lasts about 756 days on average. Analysts say that as of now, Bitcoin is on day 554 of its current cycle, which begins around mid-2023. The report states, "Based on average cycle duration, this timeline suggests that Bitcoin could peak in about 200 days, or mid-2025." The report also states that Bitcoin's expected peak could coincide with the likelihood of a U.S. recession. The analysts highlighted a report from JPMorgan Chase that said there is a 45% chance of a recession in the second half of 2025, which overlaps with their predicted Bitcoin peak time.
▌A dormant address holding 426 BTC was activated after 13.3 years of dormancy
According to Whale Alert monitoring, a dormant address holding 426 BTC was activated two minutes ago after 13.3 years of dormancy. The current value of these BTC has reached about 36,620,098 US dollars.
▌Kashkari, a Federal Reserve official who has severely criticized Bitcoin, said he will remain open to cryptocurrencies
Neel Kashkari, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, recently said that he will remain open to cryptocurrencies. Kashkari has been one of the strongest opponents of cryptocurrencies for many years, once calling them "worthless", "fraud" and "nonsense".
Neel Kashkari said in an interview in New York on Tuesday: "I'll keep an open mind." Despite this, Kashkari still questioned the significance of cryptocurrency during the conversation. He said that the industry has been around for a long time but has not yet been widely adopted, which shows that it lacks practicality.
▌Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht said he believes Trump will "fulfill his promise to commute his sentence"
Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht is currently serving a life sentence in federal prison. He tweeted for the first time since the US election, expressing hope that President-elect Donald Trump will fulfill his promise to commute his sentence.
Ross Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison without parole for money laundering, computer hacking and drug conspiracy charges in 2015. Ulbricht said in the X post: "Thank you very much to everyone who voted for President Trump on my behalf. I believe he will fulfill his promise and give me a second chance. After more than 11 years in the dark, I finally see the light of freedom at the end of the tunnel. Thank you very much Trump." According to media PolitiFact reported in 2020, Trump only fulfilled or partially fulfilled about 27% of his campaign promises in the first three years of his last term in the White House. ▌ 89% of new tokens were issued based on the Solana network last week According to data from The Block, 89% of new tokens were issued based on the Solana network last week. DEX launched a total of 181,000 new tokens, with the issuance of memecoin on platforms such as pump.fun being the main factor driving this activity. Despite the large issuance, only about 1% of the tokens were successfully listed on Raydium. Solana is able to handle a high volume of transactions without significantly increasing fees, thus supporting ongoing activity.
▌Bitfinex hacker Ilya Lichtenstein sentenced to five years in prison for laundering 120,000 bitcoins
Ilya Lichtenstein was sentenced to five years in prison for his involvement in the 2016 Bitfinex exchange hack and money laundering activities. The sentence was based on Lichtenstein's cooperation with the investigating authorities, and prosecutors recommended a reduced sentence. Lichtenstein and his wife Heather Morgan conspired to launder money, using crypto mixers, layered transactions, dark web and other means to launder about 120,000 stolen bitcoins, which were once worth up to $72 million and now have reached $10.7 billion. Lichtenstein and Morgan pleaded guilty to money laundering related to this in August 2023. Morgan's sentencing is scheduled for November 18, and prosecutors recommend that he serve an 18-month sentence.
Important Economic Dynamics
▌The probability of the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates by 25 basis points in December is 65.1%
According to CME's "Fed Watch", the probability of the Federal Reserve maintaining the current interest rate unchanged by December is 34.9%, and the probability of a cumulative interest rate cut of 25 basis points is 65.1%. The probability of maintaining the current interest rate unchanged by January next year is 23%, the probability of a cumulative interest rate cut of 25 basis points is 54.8%, and the probability of a cumulative interest rate cut of 50 basis points is 22.3%.
▌U.S. Congressman: Fed may reduce rate cuts if 2017 tax cuts are made permanent
U.S. Congressman Nouriel Roubini said the Fed may reduce rate cuts if the 2017 tax cuts are made permanent.
▌Fed's Harker: Fed must "pay a very close attention" to fintech
Fed's Harker said the Fed must "pay a very close attention" to fintech.
▌Bridgewater: U.S. economy expected to grow strongly during Trump's term
Karen Karniol-Tambour, chief co-investment officer of Bridgewater Fund, said on Tuesday that holding U.S. stocks is a "good thing" and she expects strong economic growth during President Trump's term. Karniol-Tambour said the outlook for U.S. economic growth has driven stocks higher, even though 10-year Treasury yields rose to a four-month high after Trump's victory in the November 5 presidential election. "We may still have room for growth, even with tariffs and a lot of unknowns," she said. The S&P 500 has risen nearly 5% since Trump won the election.