1.Bankless: Can Bitcoin flourish on the chain?

Bitcoin has been the cornerstone of the crypto ecosystem for more than a decade – praised for its decentralization, censorship resistance and proven scarcity. However, despite its dominant market capitalization and its recent re-seeking, Bitcoin remains largely disconnected from one of the most active areas in the crypto space: DeFi (decentralized finance). Click to read

2. After a hundred times, it crashed 90%. Binance and OKX responded one

after another: Who is behind the "demon coin" OM?

To talk about OM, let’s briefly introduce MANTRA first. OM is a native token issued by MANTRA. The predecessor of the project was MANTRA DAO. It was established in 2020. It was established based on Polkadot at the beginning, focusing on staking and lending. In short, it is Defi, and later turned into an L1 blockchain with RWA as the core. According to Rootdata's data, the project also has a number of luxury investors, including Shuidi Capital and Lede Capital. In March last year, it also completed a US$11 million financing led by Shorooq Partners. RWA's business is also progressing quite well. MANTRA signed an agreement with UAE property developer Damac Group in January this year, planning to tokenize the assets of DAMAC Group worth at least US$1 billion this year. No matter how the project develops, at least the operation will continue. For a token, it is already a bit of a background to be able to exist for 5 years. OM has also successively joined OKX and Binance, which can indirectly indicate that the team behind it is strong. Click to read

3. Are mining machines also securities? Review the Green United case

In 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) launched a landmark lawsuit against crypto company Green United LLC, accusing it of mass fraud by selling cryptocurrency mining machines called "Green Boxes", involving as much as $18 million. The SEC clearly requires in the complaint: permanently prohibit the defendant from participating in suspected securities trading and business activities, confiscate his illegal income, and prohibit Krohn and Thurston from participating in any unregistered securities issuance (including crypto-asset securities). According to the verdict of September 23, 2024, Judge Ann Marie McIff Allen found that the SEC had fully demonstrated that Green Boxes combined with the custody agreement constituted securities and that the defendant created the false statements to return on investment, ultimately supporting the SEC's request for punishment. The core of this scam is to build a seemingly perfect investment trap: after an investor paid $3,000 to buy a mining machine, the defendant promised to earn $100 a month, with an annualized return of up to 40%-100%. However, the truth is far from being so beautiful: Green United did not use the miners for actual mining, but disguised itself as income by purchasing unmined "GREEN" tokens, which ultimately lost value due to lack of secondary market liquidity. Click to read

4. Looking back at these three years at the Hong Kong Carnival:

Fanaticism, Disenchantment and Time Travel

Those who only use web3 technology achievements as casinos, relying on screenshots of three bananas in each cycle, influence the overall direction, build more slot machines, lure more gamblers, and siphon the new achievements of builders. Click to read

5. US dollar seigniorship ends stablecoin super cycle

The 2008 financial crisis gave birth to the earliest believers of Bitcoin. The "suicide" of the fiat currency system in 2025 will also promote the growth of on-chain stablecoins, especially non-USD and non-full reserve interest-bearing stablecoins (YBS, Yield-Bearing Stablecoins). However, non-full reserve stablecoins are still under the theoretical concept. The aftermath of the Luna-UST collapse in 2022 is still there, but under the urging of capital efficiency, some reserve stablecoins will definitely become the mainstream of the market. Click to read