Rhythm Morning News｜A summary of important news from last night and this morning on August 21

60% of the world’s top 25 hedge funds have disclosed holdings of Bitcoin ETFs

BlockBeats news, on August 20, according to Bitcoin Magazine, 60% of the world’s top 25 hedge funds have disclosed their Bitcoin ETF holdings. Among them:

· Citadel Investment Group: holds 812 BTC, with 41 new ones added this quarter;

· Millennium Management: holds 27,263 BTC, with 1,429 new ones added this quarter;

· Mariner Investment Group: holds 930 BTC, with 493 new ones added this quarter;

· Balyasny Asset Management: holds 6 BTC, with 6 new ones added this quarter;

· Renaissance Technologies: holds 286 BTC, with 152 new ones added this quarter;

· Point72 Asset Management: holds 1,089 BTC;

· D.E. Shaw: holds 132 BTC;

· Verition Fund Management: holds 93 BTC;

· G.S. Asset Management: holds 6,202 BTC, 6,202 more this quarter;

· Schonfeld Strategic Advisors: holds 6,734 BTC;

· Bluecrest Capital Management: holds 9 BTC;

· Fortress Investment Group: holds 1,181 BTC, 428 more this quarter;

· Elliot Investment Management: holds 1,092 BTC, 924 more this quarter;

· Two Sigma Investments: holds 458 BTC, 428 more this quarter. · Sculptor Capital Management: holds 876 BTC.

Other funds such as Bridgewater Associates, AQR Capital Mgmt., Alphadyne Asset Mgmt., etc. have not yet disclosed that they hold Bitcoin ETFs.

Binance and its founder CZ face new class action lawsuit in Seattle court

BlockBeats news, on August 21, Bill Hughes, senior legal counsel and director of global regulatory affairs at Consensys, posted on social media, "Last Friday, Binance and its founder CZ faced a new class action lawsuit in the Seattle federal court. This is a class action lawsuit filed by top class action lawyers, alleging that consumers were harmed by Binance's money laundering. This is a natural and predictable follow-up civil lawsuit that attempts to take advantage of the results of the U.S. government's prosecution and law enforcement actions at the beginning of the year.

In short: These plaintiffs and the American consumers they represent lost cryptocurrency in hacking and other thefts, and these funds were sent to Binance for money laundering, and Binance knew about this and encouraged this profitable business model to a certain extent. The plaintiffs said that Binance played a key role in money laundering, which constitutes an illegal racketeering practice in violation of the RICO Act.

These plaintiffs have a well-deserved background in attorneys. They have represented class actions against Facebook for consumer privacy violations, drug manufacturers, and Wells Fargo for fake accounts.

Of note: Paragraph 4 essentially alleges that “if it weren’t for Binance, blockchain transaction tracing would have given these victims a chance to recover their stolen funds because everything was so transparent — there was no place to launder/hide the funds.”

If this case gets further than discovery or even to dispositive pretrial motions (which it probably won’t), then the effectiveness of blockchain analysis itself and on-chain asset recovery will go to trial. "

Trump's second son: important announcements about encryption projects are coming soon

BlockBeats news, on August 21, Eric Trump, the second son of former US President Donald Trump and current executive vice president of the Trump Organization, posted on social media, "Some important announcements about encryption projects are coming soon. I'm very excited. Make sure you have joined our Telegram group."

BlockBeats previously reported that Donald Trump Jr. announced the opening of the Telegram channel "The DeFiant Ones" on the X platform to introduce the upcoming crypto project.

A certain address increased its holdings of $1.8 million worth of AAVE today

BlockBeats news, on August 20, according to 0xScope monitoring, the address labeled "ThisWillMakeYouLoveAgain" on OpenSea today exchanged 675 wETH (about $1.8 million) for 14,000 AAVE.

The address also holds 3 trillion PEPE, with a current floating profit of 600%.

Aave protocol on-chain activity surges, doubled from 3 months ago

BlockBeats news, on August 20, according to IntoTheBlock monitoring, the number of active addresses on the Aave protocol chain surged this month, doubling from 3 months ago.

As of the time of writing, AAVE has risen by 15.46% in the past 24 hours and 28.37% in the past 30 days.

BRETT rose above $0.088, a 24-hour increase of 15.8%

BlockBeats news, on August 20, according to HTX market data, BRETT rose above $0.088, and is now quoted at $0.08819, a 24-hour increase of 15.8%.

BlockBeats previously reported that at 15:00 on August 20, Upbit launched the USDT trading pair of Brett (BRETT).

DRIFT rose more than 29% in 24 hours, temporarily reported at $0.4181

BlockBeats news, on August 20, according to HTX market data, DRIFT rose more than 29% in 24 hours, temporarily reported at $0.4181.

Axelar (AXL) and OpenZeppelin reached a cooperation to solve the interoperability problem of Ethereum

BlockBeats news, on August 20, the cross-chain interoperability protocol Axelar (AXL) and Ethereum technology service provider OpenZeppelin reached a cooperation to solve the interoperability problem of Ethereum.

OpenZeppelin and Interop Labs (Axelar Network initial development team) are working together to develop key developer resources and open source standards for Ethereum cross-chain communication.

This collaboration represents an important step in addressing these issues, empowering developers to create more complex and interconnected applications by providing a standardized and secure cross-chain messaging solution, thereby enriching the Ethereum ecosystem and driving its continued growth.

As Ethereum scales, similar interoperability solutions will be critical to maintaining a unified and efficient on-chain ecosystem.

Multiple meme coins on the Sun Pump platform rose, and SUNDOG rose more than 63% in 24 hours.

BlockBeats news, on August 21, according to market information, multiple meme coins on the Sun Pump platform rose, including:

SUNDOG is currently quoted at US$0.2127, with a 24-hour increase of 63.61% and a market value of US$211 million;

FOFAR is currently quoted at US$0.04269, with a 24-hour increase of 59.93%;

SUNCAT is currently quoted at US$0.01801, with a 24-hour increase of 135%.

BlockBeats reminds users that meme coins have no actual use cases, prices fluctuate greatly, and investment should be cautious.

Base announces that Basenames is now online

BlockBeats news, on August 21, according to official news, Base announced that Basenames is now online. Basenames will be released through a Dutch auction, and the price will start high and gradually decrease within 36 hours until it reaches a normal level. This ensures that robots cannot immediately snap up names, giving everyone a fair chance to get their favorite names.

Binance will add spot trading pairs such as AAVE/FDUSD and DOGE/JPY

BlockBeats news, on August 21, according to the official announcement, Binance will launch AAVE/FDUSD, DOGE/JPY, MATIC/JPY, NEAR/JPY and TON/USDC spot trading pairs at 16:00 (Eastern Time) on August 22, 2024.

In addition, Binance will open trading robot services for the following trading pairs at 16:00 (Eastern Time) on August 22, 2024:

Spot Grid and Spot DCA (Average Dollar Method): BANANA/USDT, BTC/EUR, BTC/TRY, LISTA/USDT, TAO/USDT, TON/USDT Smart Position: BANANA/USDT, LISTA/USDT, TAO/USDT, TON/USDT Spot Algorithmic Orders: AAVE/FDUSD, DOGE/JPY, MATIC/JPY, NEAR/JPY, TON/USDC

Binance will launch BRETT 1-50x USDT perpetual contract

BlockBeats news, on August 20, according to the official announcement, Binance will launch BRETTUSDT perpetual contract at 18:35 (Eastern Time) on August 20, 2024, with a maximum leverage of 50 times.

Upbit adds USDT trading pairs for BRETT and PEPE

BlockBeats news, on August 20, according to the official announcement, Upbit added USDT trading pairs for Brett (BRETT) and Pepe (PEPE).

Deposits will be opened within 2 hours after the announcement, and trading is expected to open at 19:30 on August 20, Korean time.

Ethereum L2 network Corn completed $6.7 million in financing, led by Polychain Capital

BlockBeats news, on August 20, Ethereum L2 network Corn completed $6.7 million in financing, led by Polychain Capital, with participation from Binance Labs, Framework Ventures, ABCDE, OKX Ventures, HTX, Ventures and Relayer Capital.

The project aims to enhance the utility of Bitcoin and introduce new yield-generating opportunities. Corn is a new Ethereum L2 network that uses a tokenized Bitcoin as the network's gas fee and economic incentive, codenamed BTCN.

Corn went live on August 19th, and unlike most yield-generating protocols, Corn launched with no fixed yield. The yield percentage will depend primarily on the growth of the ecosystem and the number of protocol participants achieved through Corn's flywheel mechanism.

ZK identity authentication solution zkMe completes $4 million seed round investment, led by Multicoin Capital

BlockBeats news, on August 20, ZK identity authentication solution provider zkMe announced the completion of a $4 million seed round investment, led by Multicoin Capital, with participation from OKX Ventures and Robot Ventures.

The funds will be used to optimize the zkMe zero-knowledge identity protocol, which has been online for 13 months, and develop zero-knowledge identity layer infrastructure to build a more complete zkMe privacy identity layer network, which is expected to be officially launched in Q4 2024.

zkMe is committed to providing decentralized compliance services that meet FATF standards through cryptography, and providing comprehensive credential verification solutions for the Web3 industry to cope with the EU MiCA regulations that will soon take effect. At the same time, zkMe also gives users the right to control their identity credentials, and users can maximize privacy protection and value creation by participating in verification.

Anti-MEV tool developer Sorella Labs completes $7.5 million seed round of financing, led by Paradigm

BlockBeats news, on August 21, according to The Block, Sorella Labs, a crypto startup dedicated to solving the Ethereum MEV problem, completed a $7.5 million seed round of financing, led by Paradigm, with participation from Uniswap Ventures, Bankless Ventures, Robot Ventures and Nascent.

Sorella Labs is developing tools to solve Ethereum’s Maximum Extractable Value (MEV) problem. MEV refers to the profit that validators or bots can extract by reordering, inserting, or censoring transactions within a block. Common MEV strategies include front-running (executing transactions before others), sandwich attacks (trading before and after a large transaction), and arbitrage (taking advantage of price differences between platforms). These actions can lead to increased costs for DeFi users and give those with more resources an advantage.

To help prevent such MEV losses, Sorella Labs is developing two tools - Brontes and Angstrom, the former of which will be launched today.

Brontes is an open source blockchain analysis tool that processes Ethereum blocks, classifies transaction behavior, and identifies MEV through pattern matching and analysis. Ludwig Thouvenin, co-founder and CEO of Sorella Labs, describes it as "an open source Etherscan with custom block analysis capabilities."