Planet Daily | Harris supports policies that promote the continued development of the crypto industry; Federal Reserve meeting minutes: The vast majo

Headlines

Harris supports policies that will help the crypto industry continue to grow

Brian Nelson, a policy adviser to Kamala Harris’s campaign, said she would support measures to help grow digital assets, highlighting efforts to woo the nascent cryptocurrency industry to expand its political influence.

“She’s going to support policies that ensure that emerging technologies and industries like these can continue to grow,” Nelson said Wednesday during a Bloomberg News roundtable at the Democratic National Convention when asked about Harris’ efforts to engage with the crypto community.
Harris’ team has said it remains interested in implementing safeguards in the industry, even though it has seen a number of high-profile companies fail.“Obviously, they’ve said what the industry needs is stable rules, rules of the road,” Nelson said, referring to a speech Harris gave last week laying out the initial pillars of her economic policy.

Fed meeting minutes: The vast majority of members believe a September rate cut may be appropriate

According to the minutes of the meeting released by the Federal Reserve, members believed that the risks of rising inflation had been reduced, several members saw reasons for a rate cut at the July meeting, and the vast majority of members believed that a rate cut in September might be appropriate.

BlackRock’s on-chain asset value exceeds Grayscale, becoming the world’s largest digital asset management company

According to Arkham Intelligence data, as of August 21, the value of BlackRocks on-chain assets officially surpassed Grayscale, making it the worlds largest digital asset management company.

By the second quarter of 2024, BlackRocks AUM rose to an all-time high of $10.65 trillion from $9.43 trillion in 2023. In the digital asset sector, as of August 21, 2024, BlackRock held $21.527 billion in on-chain assets. In comparison, Grayscales on-chain assets were worth $21.457 billion, $70 million less than BlackRock.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: U.S. nonfarm payrolls for March 2024 revised down by 818,000

U.S. job growth for the full year through March may not have been as strong as previously reported, according to government data released on Wednesday. Nonfarm payrolls are likely to have fallen by 818,000 in the 12 months through March, or about 68,000 a month, according to preliminary baseline revisions from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Some agencies had previously predicted a drop of up to 1 million. The final revised data will be released early next year. Some economists say the initial employment data may have been inflated by a variety of factors, including adjustments for business creation and closures, and how unauthorized immigrant workers are counted. It is worth noting that the data, originally scheduled for release at 10 p.m. Beijing time, was delayed by more than 30 minutes. It is rare for a small episode to occur on the release schedule, and it is not clear what happened. (Jinshi)

Industry News

FTXs restructuring plan has received preliminary support from creditors

FTX Trading Ltd. and its affiliated debtors announced that the amended reorganization plan filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware has received preliminary support from all classes of creditors entitled to vote, including classes of FTX US and FTX Dotcom customers.

Unofficial voting reports indicate that over 95% of voting creditors support the Plan, representing 99% of the value of the claims voted. More than 2/3 of all solicited claims, by vote value, participated in the Debtors’ solicitation process. Based on these results, the Plan is expected to exceed the acceptance thresholds set forth in the Bankruptcy Code.
“The innovative structure of this plan provides for the return of 100% of bankruptcy claims plus interest to non-government creditors and resolves complex disputes with dozens of government and private stakeholders,” said John J. Ray III, CEO and Chief Restructuring Officer of FTX. “We will continue to work constructively with creditors and the court in the coming weeks leading up to the confirmation hearing.”
FTX will submit its final vote results to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware prior to the confirmation hearing scheduled to begin on October 7, 2024.

Yesterday, Grayscale ETHE had a net outflow of 31.14 million US dollars, a net outflow of 30.1% in 22 trading days

According to Trader Ts monitoring, Grayscale ETHE had a net outflow of US$31.14 million yesterday, a net outflow of 30.1% within 22 trading days, and a net outflow of 50% is expected within 65 days (until October 18).

Report: Nearly Half of Corporate Election Spending in 2024 US Election Cycle Comes from Crypto Companies

Nearly half of corporate political donations in the 2024 election cycle came from cryptocurrency companies, according to a report released Wednesday by corporate influence watchdog Public Citizen.

Public Citizens report, which is based on data provided by government transparency group OpenSecrets, found that 48% of corporate election spending so far has come from crypto companies such as Ripple and Coinbase.
The vast majority of these donations went to pro-cryptocurrency super PACs, such as Fairshake. The report notes that of the $203 million raised by Fairshake, $107.9 million came directly from crypto companies, with the remainder coming from prominent figures in the tech and crypto industries, including large donations from the Winklevoss brothers and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.
Rick Claypool, the author of the report and research director at Public Citizen, described the crypto industry’s political spending as “unprecedented.” Direct spending by crypto companies over the past three election cycles totaled $129 million, or 15% of all known corporate donations since 2010. Only the fossil fuel industry has outspent crypto companies since 2010, donating $162 million to fossil fuel-friendly politicians over the past 14 years.

VanEck Research Director: 17 Emerging Market Companies and Consumers Are Willing to Pay a 4.7% Premium for Stablecoins

Matthew Sigel, head of research at VanEck, wrote that according to an analysis conducted by the Center for Economic and Business Research from April to June this year, businesses and consumers in 17 emerging markets are willing to pay an average premium of 4.7% above the standard dollar price to obtain stablecoins. In countries such as Argentina, this figure rises to 30%. By 2027, consumers in these countries will pay a premium of $25.4 billion to obtain stablecoins.

People familiar with the matter: Bitcoin mining company Bitfarms is in talks to acquire Stronghold for $164 million

Bitcoin mining company Bitfarms Ltd. is in talks to buy Stronghold Digital Mining Inc. for about $164 million while also fending off a takeover attempt by Riot Platforms Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.

Stronghold shareholders will receive about 2.5 Bitfarms shares for each share they own, the people said. The deal includes the assumption of debt.

Project News

Aave: Aave V3 is launched on ZKsync Era mainnet

According to official news, DeFi protocol Aave announced that Aave V3 has been launched on the Era mainnet powered by ZKsync. It is reported that the launch of Aave V3 on ZKsync Era is expected to bring liquidity and revenue generation capabilities to the Elastic Chain ecosystem.

Brett whitelisted 139 addresses when deploying tokens, and the associated addresses currently hold at least 1.86 billion BRETT

Lookonchain posted on social media that Brett deployers whitelisted 139 addresses when creating BRETT. These addresses purchased 8.16 billion BRETT (81.6% of the total) within an hour of increasing liquidity, and then distributed and sold part of them.

Among them, two whitelisted addresses spent only 0.034 ETH (about 102 US dollars) to buy 172 million BRETT, and then sold 122 million BRETT at a price of 890.65 ETH (about 3.14 million US dollars), making a profit of 30,830 times.
In addition, among the addresses holding more than 10 million BRETT, 54 addresses are related to whitelist addresses, holding a total of 1.86 billion BRETT (approximately US$163 million).

The number of independent active addresses on the Base chain reached 900,000, setting a record high

According to a post by growthpie on the X platform, the number of independent active addresses on the Base chain exceeded 900,000 on August 20, setting a record high.

@base is expected to become the first ecosystem to maintain 1 million daily active addresses.

After the ZKsync Era airdrop, daily revenue was only about $6,800, a significant drop from the previous high of $746,000.

Layer 2 scaling solution ZKsync Era has seen a sharp drop in revenue. Revenue plummeted to just $6,800 last Sunday, in stark contrast to the high of $746,000 before the airdrop.

Historical data shows that the sharp drop coincides with the project’s June 24 token airdrop, when 3.675 billion ZK tokens (17.5% of the total supply) were given to eligible wallets. Although highly anticipated, the airdrop triggered a massive exodus of network users and liquidity, with daily transactions falling from a peak of 1.8 million to just 200,000.

Aptos Foundation and Web3 streaming platform Myco reach cooperation

The Aptos Foundation announced a partnership with Web3 streaming platform Myco to decentralize streaming, aiming to transition its infrastructure to the Aptos blockchain and support Web3 streaming service providers in achieving their long-term vision of full decentralization.

Investment and Financing

Base Ecosystem DeFi Protocol BSX Completes $6.2 Million in Financing

BSX, the Base ecosystem DeFi derivatives protocol, announced the completion of $6.2 million in seed and pre-seed rounds of financing, of which the seed round amounted to $4 million, led by Blockchain Capital. The pre-seed round was completed two years ago with a fundraising amount of $2.2 million.

Skyfire, an AI-powered encrypted payment network founded by former Ripple executives, completes $8.5 million in seed round financing, with Circle and others participating

Skyfire, founded by former Ripple executives, recently announced the completion of a $8.5 million seed round of financing, aiming to provide crypto payment solutions for AI agents. Investors include USDC issuer Circle, Ripple, Gemini, and the venture capital firm of Tim Draper, a well-known Silicon Valley billionaire and Bitcoin advocate. The company has developed an open source payment system that allows autonomous AI agents to conduct various transactions on the Internet, including the purchase of data storage, creative assets, air tickets, and daily necessities. Its payment network runs on the USDC stablecoin and is currently deployed on the Polygon network, with plans to expand to other blockchains in the future.

Intellectual property blockchain Story completes $80 million Series B financing, led by a16z, with participation from Polychain and others

PIP Labs, the core contributor team of Story, an intellectual property blockchain, announced the completion of a $80 million Series B financing led by a16z crypto. Polychain participated as a strategic investor. Other existing investors include Scott Trowbridge, senior vice president and board member of Stability AI, Adrian Cheng, founder of K11, and digital art collector Cozomo deMedici, No Capital, etc. The new round of financing brings the total financing amount of PIP Labs to $140 million.

Animoca Brands subsidiary GAMEE announces investment from Pantera Capital

According to an official announcement, Web3 gaming platform and Animoca Brands subsidiary GAMEE announced that it has received investment from Pantera Capital. GAMEE will use the funds to expand its influence on the Open Network (TON) through WatBird, a popular game Telegram Mini App developed by GAMEE that connects and guides Telegram users to Web3 through fun and meme-inspired gameplay.

Regulatory trends

U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis: The window for crypto legislation is shrinking, but some bills may still be passed this year

U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis said on Wednesday that the window for encryption legislation in 2024 is shrinking, but it is still possible for some bills to pass this year.

While neither she nor Sen. Tim Scott, R-Vt., who also spoke at the SALT Wyoming Symposium ahead of the Fed’s annual Jackson Hole conference, delved into the details of any particular bill, she pointed to the work of the Senate Agriculture Committee.
Lummis and Scott also appealed to voters during their brief appearance on SALT, saying Republicans are more supportive of crypto industry interests than Democrats. Scott is the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee and has been quiet on cryptocurrencies during his tenure as a senior member of the committee. However, at last months Bitcoin Nashville conference, he called for more lenient regulators and said he would support crypto-friendly legislation.
Scott, who would become chairman if control of the Senate falls to Republicans, on Wednesday floated the possibility of creating a subcommittee focused on digital assets if he holds that position, “so we can get more clarity into the conversation, have more hearings on banking, so we can get things done faster. We’ll go further, faster, in less time.”

Character Voice

US presidential candidate Kennedy plans to withdraw from the race by the end of the week

Independent U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to drop out of the race by the end of the week.

In addition, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will address the nation in Arizona on Friday to outline his future path. Trump will also hold a rally in Arizona on Friday.
Earlier news, US presidential candidate John F. Kennedy Jr. and his running mate considered withdrawing from the presidential race and supporting Trump. Trump said he was considering appointing John F. Kennedy Jr. to a government role.

Fed mouthpiece: US employment level revised by 0.5%, the largest since 2009

After the release of the revised data on the total number of non-farm payrolls in the United States in March, Nick Timiraos, the Federal Reserve mouthpiece, commented on social media that the data showed that US job growth was indeed not as strong as previously reported each month. In the 12 months ending in March, the United States added 818,000 fewer jobs than previously reported, which reduced the average monthly employment by 68,000 (previously 246,000). The specific revisions for each month will not be officially announced until February 2025. In addition to the total number of people, the report revised the employment level by 0.5%, the largest since 2009.

Economist Shivaan Tandon: The Fed may cut interest rates more than other countries

Capital Economics said the dollar could fall further in the coming years as it remains relatively expensive and faces the impact of unfavorable interest rate differentials and reduced safe-haven demand. The Federal Reserve is likely to cut interest rates more than other countries, meaning interest rate differentials may continue to be unfavorable to the United States, economist Shivaan Tandon said in the report. We also expect risk appetite to remain strong, which suggests that the dollar will continue to be under pressure. Despite recession concerns, the US economy looks set to achieve a soft landing. Capital Economics expects the dollar index DXY to fall to 98 by the end of 2025.

Circle CEO: USDC will become the preferred stablecoin network for AI agent projects

Jeremy Allaire, co-founder and CEO of Circle, said on the X platform that USDC will become the preferred stablecoin network for AI agent projects. Circle has previously invested in the Skyfire project in this field, aiming to further promote the arrival of the era of on-chain machine-to-machine economic activities.

Justin Sun: The Tron network may give birth to a meme coin with a market value of billions of dollars

Justin Sun said that he will have an exclusive interview with well-known KOL Mario Nawfal (1.6 million followers on the X platform) at 9 pm Eastern Time next Monday. He believes that Tron and encrypted Meme coins are just beginning to become popular. He has a strong feeling that a Meme coin with a market value of billions of dollars will soon be born on the Tron network.

Vitalik Buterin teases the release of ETHs bull chart

Vitalik Buterin posted on the X platform: Someone told me that I need to do less philosophical thinking and post more content that drives Ethereum up, so I posted an Ethereum bullpost. Vitalik Buterin attached a picture of a bull holding a sign that says Ethereum is good under the post.

Vitalik: I am optimistic about the concept of diversity being experimented in three areas: blockchain, social media, and government

Vitalik published an article discussing the concept of diversity. He said that diverse technologies advocate a fairly broad set of digital and social technologies that span what are traditionally considered to be a large number of spaces or industries. In addition, he said that he is most optimistic about the experiments of the concept of diversity in three areas: social media, blockchain ecosystems, and local governments.