Today's news tips:

SlowMist: If Bybit upgrades to version 1.3.0 of the Safe contract and properly configures the Guard mechanism, it may be able to avoid a loss of $1.5 billion

Aave votes to suspend Polygon PoS chain lending, which may lead to a loss of more than $300 million in TVL

Matrixport: Wall Street has become an important participant in the BTC market, and BTC may retreat to the recent support level of $73,000

Binance CEO: The current market adjustment is a tactical retracement rather than a trend reversal

Vitalik: Consider migrating Ethereum to Poseidon hashing to optimize zk-prover friendliness

Regulatory/Macro

Oklahoma Bitcoin Reserve Bill Passes Committee

According to Solid Intel, Oklahoma's Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Act (HB 1203) has passed the State House Government Oversight Committee and will be submitted to the full legislature for a vote. The bill allows up to 10% of public funds to be invested in Bitcoin or digital assets with a market value of more than $500 billion.

US lawmakers propose tighter cryptocurrency ATM regulation, capping transactions and requiring anti-fraud measures

According to Decrypt, Illinois Senator Dick Durbin proposed the Cryptocurrency ATM Anti-Fraud Act, which aims to curb the growing problem of crypto ATM fraud. The bill proposes to set a transaction limit of $2,000 per day and $10,000 within 14 days for new users, and requires operators to contact users directly for verification when transactions exceed $500 to prevent fraud. In addition, the bill also stipulates that operators must provide a full refund to victims who report fraud within 30 days. Durbin emphasized that the bill is a "common sense safeguard" to prevent fraud and protect the property safety of the elderly. According to data from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), fraud losses involving crypto ATMs in 2023 have exceeded $110 million, nearly tenfold from 2020.

Hong Kong to issue second virtual asset policy statement

According to a Hong Kong government news release, Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan announced in the 2025-26 Budget that he will soon publish a second policy declaration on the development of virtual assets to explore how to combine the advantages of traditional financial services with technological innovation in the field of virtual assets, and to improve the security and flexibility of real economic activities. He will also encourage local and international companies to explore the innovation and application of virtual asset technology. Paul Chan reiterated that the Hong Kong government will consult on the licensing system for virtual asset over-the-counter trading and custody services within the year. In terms of stablecoin supervision, the Hong Kong government has submitted a draft bill to the Legislative Council. After the bill is passed, the HKMA will review the license application as soon as possible.

Beijing No. 3 Intermediate People's Court and the National People's Congress held a research and demonstration meeting on the disposal of virtual currencies

According to an announcement from the Beijing No. 3 Intermediate People's Court, the Beijing No. 3 Intermediate People's Court and Renmin University of China recently jointly held a thesis-opening seminar for the Supreme People's Court's 2024 major judicial research project "Research on the Disposal of Virtual Currency Involved in Cases". Representatives of political and legal organs such as the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and the Ministry of Public Security, as well as experts from academia and corporate institutions attended the seminar. The meeting discussed the disposal path of virtual currencies involved in the case and the construction of a future regulatory system, and emphasized that research results must be combined with judicial practice to help national financial security. Zhai Chao, deputy director of the Third Criminal Division of the Supreme People's Court, suggested that the research highlight its characteristics and adapt to practical needs. In the future, the research team will deepen research and cooperate with political and legal organs and financial regulatory departments to promote the improvement of virtual currency supervision and judicial adjudication rules.

SEC ends investigation into Uniswap Labs without taking enforcement action

According to Uniswap Labs' announcement, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has officially ended its multi-year investigation into it without taking any enforcement action. Previously, the SEC had issued a Wells notice to Uniswap Labs, accusing it of operating an unregistered securities exchange, engaging in unregistered brokerage or clearing business, or issuing unregistered securities. The end of this investigation is seen as an affirmation of the compliance of decentralized finance (DeFi). Uniswap Labs said it will continue to dialogue with regulators to promote the healthy development of the DeFi industry, and is committed to improving market transparency, reducing transaction costs, and reducing dependence on intermediaries.

SEC confirms receipt of Grayscale Ethereum spot ETF pledge application

According to Watcher.Guru, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has officially confirmed receipt of an application submitted by Grayscale to allow its Ethereum spot ETF to provide staking services.

Financing

DePIN project Geodnet completes $8 million financing, Multicoin Capital leads the investment

GEODNET, a decentralized network hardware infrastructure company, announced that it has completed a strategic financing of US$8 million, led by Multicoin Capital, with participation from ParaFi and DACM, bringing its total financing to US$15 million. The financing will be used to expand its global real-time dynamic positioning (RTK) network and support the development of a new generation of robots and physical AI.

AI

Hong Kong to allocate HK$1 billion to set up artificial intelligence research institute

Financial Secretary of the Hong Kong SAR Government, Paul Chan, announced the government budget for the fiscal year 2025-2026 in the conference hall of the Legislative Council Complex of the Hong Kong SAR today (26th). Paul Chan said that in order to guide and support Hong Kong's AI innovation, R&D and industrial application, the SAR government has reserved HK$1 billion to establish the Hong Kong Artificial Intelligence Research Institute. The Digital Policy Office will formulate the establishment arrangements and specific goals of the institute, focusing on promoting AI upstream R&D, mid- and downstream results transformation and developing application scenarios.

Foreign media: Meta discusses $200 billion AI data center project

According to The Information: Meta Platforms (META.O) discussed a $200 billion AI data center project. Meta Platforms (META.O) is in talks to build a new data center park for its AI business that would dwarf anything the company has done so far and would be the largest project of its kind, according to two people familiar with the matter. One of the people familiar with the matter said the cost could exceed $200 billion, depending on the number of chips and the amount of electricity the company is discussing for the park. Meta's proposed new data center park, which has not been reported before, would be several times larger than a new AI data center that Zuckerberg discussed in Louisiana last month. The discussions suggest that Meta is preparing to respond to a surge in demand for generative AI from billions of users by offering AI chatbots in all of its applications. It also suggests that Zuckerberg may spare no effort to catch up with rival OpenAI.

AI company Anthropic plans to raise $3.5 billion at a valuation of $61.5 billion

According to Bloomberg, artificial intelligence startup Anthropic is about to complete a round of $3.5 billion in financing, with a valuation of $61.5 billion, higher than the initial financing target. Anthropic is one of the leading large-scale language model developers and has attracted the attention of many investors. So far this year, Elon Musk's xAI has sought to raise $10 billion, while OpenAI is negotiating up to $40 billion in financing. Sources revealed that Lightspeed Venture Partners had pushed Anthropic to raise $2 billion at the beginning of the year, and then expanded the financing target to $3.5 billion, and it was oversubscribed, showing the market's high interest in the company. Potential investors include Menlo Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, General Catalyst and Abu Dhabi's MGX.

OpenAI launches Deep Research feature to Plus users

According to the OpenAI announcement, the Deep Research feature is now fully open to ChatGPT Plus, Team, Edu, and Enterprise users. The feature can embed images with citations and optimizes the understanding and citation capabilities of uploaded files. The query quotas for Deep Research are as follows: • 10 times per month for Plus, Team, Enterprise, and Edu users • 120 times per month for Pro users In addition, OpenAI released a system card to introduce the development, capability assessment, and security improvements of the feature, and invited experts to participate in the training of future models.

DeepSeek lowers API call prices by up to 75%

DeepSeek announced today that it will launch a peak discount campaign during the night hours from 00:30 to 08:30 Beijing time. During the campaign, the price of API calls has been significantly reduced, with DeepSeek-V3 reduced to 50% of the original price and DeepSeek-R1 as low as 25%. Officials said that this move is aimed at encouraging users to make full use of the idle time at night and enjoy a more economical and smooth service experience.

Project News

Seraph released the S2 season PTR test, and its $SERAPH token rose by up to 50% in a day

Seraph officially launched the S2 season PTR test today to prepare for the upcoming new season. As a representative chain game in the GameFi track, Seraph attracted a large number of players on the first day of the S2 PTR test, driving the continued increase in the activity of the game ecosystem. In addition, according to Coingecko data, the $SERAPH token market reacted strongly, with the highest increase of 50% in a short period of time. As an important stage in the evolution of the game, the Seraph S2 season PTR brings a new progress system, optimized game mechanisms, and introduces more incentive models. Players can experience new gameplay first during the testing period and influence the future direction of the game through feedback. Seraph said that as the S2 season approaches, it will continue to strengthen the immersive GameFi experience and inject more possibilities into the Web3 ecosystem.

The world's top boy band BTS will tokenize the copyright of its hit singles through Story Ecosystem RWA Protocol Aria

Story Ecosystem IP RWA Protocol Aria announced that it will acquire and tokenize part of the copyright of the single "The Truth Untold" by BTS and Steve Aoki. This move will bring one of the most influential music works in the world into the field of on-chain RWA IP ownership. Previously, Aria Premiere Launch had raised $10.93 million. Its tokenized music catalog has now expanded to 90 songs, including works by top global artists such as BLACKPINK, Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, Dua Lipa, Katy Perry, BIGBANG, etc. The annualized royalty yield is expected to be 6%-7%. "The Truth Untold" is included in BTS's album "Love Yourself: Tear". The album not only topped the Billboard album chart, but also has been played more than 670 million times on Spotify and YouTube Music platforms.

OKX 28th PoR: BTC, ETH, USDT, and USDC have a total value of $28.1 billion

According to official news, OKX released the 28th reserve certificate. The reserve rates of the 22 public currencies all exceeded 100%, of which BTC, ETH, USDT, and USDC had reserve rates of 104%, 102%, 102%, and 100%, respectively, with a total value of $28,125,864,780. It is reported that OKX is the first crypto exchange in the industry to reach the second anniversary of the release of PoR. During these two years, OKX insisted on releasing PoR on a monthly basis, and the number of public currencies increased from 3 to 22. It also continuously upgraded the PoR system through Merkle tree, full Merkle tree, and zk-STARK technologies, and is committed to the transparency of user assets.

Paxos’ USDG stablecoin is now available on Solana

According to Solana's official announcement, Paxos has issued the USDG stablecoin on the Solana blockchain. The token complies with the stablecoin regulatory framework to be implemented by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and uses Solana's Token Extensions technology to support compliance functions.

Coinbase International will launch VIRTUAL, KAITO and Base perpetual contracts

According to the announcement of Coinbase International Exchange, Coinbase International Exchange and Coinbase Advanced will add VIRTUAL, KAITO and Base (B3) perpetual contracts, and the new trading pairs are: VIRTUAL-PERP, KAITO-PERP, B3-PERP. Trading will be open after 09:30 UTC on February 27, 2025.

Hemi mainnet will be launched on March 12, integrating Bitcoin and Ethereum ecosystems

The modular blockchain network Hemi Mainnet will be officially launched on March 12, 2025, aiming to achieve deep integration of Bitcoin and Ethereum through Hemi Virtual Machine (hVM). At present, Hemi has locked in more than $300 million in TVL and received $15 million in seed round financing support from investment institutions such as Binance Labs and Breyer Capital. The core features of Hemi: • EVM has a built-in Bitcoin node to realize Bitcoin smart contract functions • Inheriting Bitcoin security and providing a "super-final" transaction confirmation mechanism • Trustless cross-chain asset transfer, seamlessly moving assets between Bitcoin and Ethereum through "Tunnels" • Compatible with Ethereum development tools, supporting DEX, lending, LST/LRT staking, perpetual trading and other DeFi applications Hemi was founded by Jeff Garzik, an early Bitcoin developer, and Max Sanchez, a blockchain security expert. It is committed to building a super network that integrates Bitcoin and Ethereum, providing efficient, secure and scalable Web3 infrastructure.

Ethereum Foundation Executive Director Aya Miyaguchi to Move to Chairman

Aya Miyaguchi, executive director of the Ethereum Foundation (EF), will move to the position of President, continuing to support the foundation's institutional relationships and promoting the development of the Ethereum ecosystem. Miyaguchi said her leadership philosophy emphasizes decentralized governance, the integration of technology and social innovation, and the long-term sustainable development of Ethereum. During her seven years as executive director, she promoted Ethereum network upgrades, the Devcon conference, client diversification, and cross-L2 coordination, always adhering to Ethereum's core values. She emphasized that the uniqueness of Ethereum lies in its "Infinite Garden" vision, which is to grow through diversity and decentralization rather than being dominated by a single institution. In the future, EF will continue to focus on maintaining the decentralized properties of Ethereum and continue to adjust its role to promote the overall development of the ecosystem. Vitalik Buterin said that the Ethereum Foundation (EF) is developing a new leadership structure and specific details will be announced soon. Related reading: Aya Miyaguchi: Teacher, Executive Director of Ethereum and Her "Infinite Garden"

Aave votes to suspend Polygon PoS chain lending, which may lead to a loss of more than $300 million in TVL

According to The Block, the Aave community has approved a proposal to significantly increase the risk parameters of the Polygon PoS chain, essentially stopping lending services on the chain. Currently, Aave is the DeFi protocol with the highest TVL on Polygon, with deposits exceeding $300 million. The move stems from Polygon's proposal in December last year to use more than $1 billion in stablecoin reserves for yield generation, which caused concerns in the Aave community. Aave founder Marc Zeller proposed adjusting the risk parameters of Aave v2 and v3 to discourage further deposits and prevent users from borrowing against collateral. In the end, Aave DAO passed the proposal with 692,000 votes in favor and 117,000 votes against, reducing the loan-to-value ratio (LTV) of USDT and USDC on the Polygon PoS chain to 0%. Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron once said that ideally Aave should maintain cooperation with Polygon, but the final decision depends on the attitude of the Aave community. Aave founder Stani Kulechov emphasized that the move is to reduce the risk of bridged assets and protect the safety of user funds. (Related reading: Polygon Ecosystem Crisis: AAVE and Lido Withdrew Collectively, Caused by the “Borrowing Chickens to Lay Eggs” Proposal)

Binance Alpha adds JELLYJELLY, PAIN, VINU, and AVL

Binance Alpha adds Jelly-My-Jelly (JELLYJELLY), PAIN (PAIN), Vita Inu (VINU), and AVL (AVL).

Viewpoint

SlowMist: If Bybit upgrades to version 1.3.0 of the Safe contract and properly configures the Guard mechanism, it may be able to avoid a loss of $1.5 billion

According to the analysis of the SlowMist security team, Bybit's multi-signature wallet was attacked on February 21, and nearly $1.5 billion in assets were stolen through a "legal signature" transaction. The attacker used social engineering to obtain multi-signature permissions, and implanted malicious logic through the delegatecall function of the Safe contract to bypass the multi-signature verification mechanism to complete the fund transfer. After version 1.3.0, the Safe wallet introduced the Safe Guard mechanism, which can perform fine-grained security checks on transactions, such as whitelist verification and high-risk operation restrictions. However, Bybit used version v1.1.1 and failed to enable this key feature. The SlowMist team pointed out that if Bybit upgraded to version 1.3.0 and properly configured the Guard mechanism, it might be possible to avoid this loss.

CZ: Bitcoin will not die, no need to panic

Binance founder CZ tweeted: “No need to panic, Bitcoin is not going to die.”

Dragonfly Investor: Capacity expansion remains a topic of continuous concern in the industry, and functional differentiation is another important direction

Dragonfly investor GM shared some thoughts on blockchain development at the Denver event. He mentioned that the performance requirements of block space are elastic, and expansion is still a topic of continuous concern in the industry, and the launch of EVM in the future is exciting. In addition, he pointed out that functionally differentiated block space is another important direction, such as native interoperability, more complex operations (such as ML precompilation), and the exploration of functional dedicated chains. He also mentioned that geography-dominated front ends are on the rise. Currently, there are significant differences in popular memecoin trading tools in Asia and the United States, and the potential of localized front ends is underestimated. At the same time, he re-examined the beauty of Bitcoin's design, especially the dynamics of miner competition, which is relatively missing in modern PoS networks. At the application level, he mentioned that a new wave of applications based on mind share and social indicators is emerging, such as Kaito unlocking a new battlefield. In addition, the possibility of venture capital financing and reintroducing the crowdfunding model was also mentioned.

Xiao Feng, Chairman of HashKey Group: Looking forward to Hong Kong’s second virtual asset policy being aligned with the United States

When talking about Hong Kong's upcoming second virtual asset policy declaration, Xiao Feng, chairman of Wanxiang Blockchain and HashKey Group, said that his biggest hope is not to implement higher and stricter industry rules than the United States. He pointed out that the industry does not expect the rules to be looser than those in the United States, but only hopes to be on par with the United States. He cited the example of Alibaba choosing to go public in the United States because Hong Kong's rules were stricter than those of the New York Stock Exchange, and called for a similar situation not to be repeated in the virtual asset market. Earlier news, Hong Kong will issue a second virtual asset policy declaration.

Matrixport: Wall Street has become an important participant in the BTC market, and BTC may retreat to the recent support level of $73,000

Matrixport said that Wall Street has become an important player in the Bitcoin market, and its 60% market dominance remains an important benchmark for the crypto market. The impact of institutional trading behavior on Bitcoin price trends is becoming increasingly significant. Recent market concerns about Trump's proposed tariffs and the possible six-month delay in the Bitcoin strategic reserve plan may be one of the reasons for the top pattern on the current technical chart. In addition, BlackRock's IBIT ETF followed the price fluctuations of Bitcoin and ushered in an important trading day with a trading volume of US$5.1 billion. Although it did not reach its historical high, this data is still worth paying attention to. From a technical analysis point of view, Bitcoin may retreat to the recent support level of US$73,000, corresponding to the position of about US$40 for the IBIT ETF.

Binance CEO: The current market adjustment is a tactical retracement rather than a trend reversal

Binance CEO Richard Teng said in a statement that the recent market volatility should be viewed as a "tactical pullback" rather than a structural recession in the crypto market. He emphasized that the crypto market has experienced macroeconomic shocks many times in history and rebounded strongly. For example, Bitcoin briefly fell below $20,000 in 2022 due to the Fed's interest rate hike, but quickly recovered as the market stabilized. Teng pointed out that institutional investor interest is still rising, ETF funds continue to flow in, and Binance is also growing steadily. He believes that the Fed's suspension of interest rate cuts is a key factor in the recent market adjustment. Although the possibility of a rate cut in March has decreased, future policies will still depend on inflation and employment data. He said that market pullbacks are often opportunities for senior investors to lay out the next rising cycle. The crypto market has become part of the global financial system and has proven its resilience in dealing with macroeconomic fluctuations.

Former Coinbase CTO: Tariffs may hurt the U.S. economy, but are good for cryptocurrencies

Former Coinbase CTO Balaji tweeted that tariffs may be bad for the US economy, but good for cryptocurrencies. He explained: Why are tariffs bad for the US economy? Production cannot be increased in a short period of time, but prices can rise quickly. The United States relies more on the income from currency issuance than on manufacturing profits to rebuild production. Why are tariffs good for cryptocurrencies? Global capital will turn to the chain, even if offline nationalism and socialism are on the rise. The only truly enforceable cross-border contracts in the future will be smart contracts. Although the country's economic commitments may be unreliable, the mathematical guarantees of cryptography are credible.

Vitalik: Consider migrating Ethereum to Poseidon hashing to optimize zk-prover friendliness

Vitalik Buterin said on social media that he strongly encourages researchers to participate in the Poseidon cryptographic analysis program. He revealed that the Ethereum team is seriously considering migrating Ethereum to the Poseidon hash algorithm to optimize the friendliness of zero-knowledge proofs (zk-prover).

Important data

The second largest investor on the $MELANIA list sold out at a loss of more than $3.7 million

According to monitoring by Ember, the second largest holder of $MELANIA sold out his position at $0.937 two hours ago, a huge loss compared to the purchase price of $1.5. The user used 10.007 million USDC to purchase 6.688 million $MELANIA at the beginning of the month, but now he has sold all of them and only received 6.267 million USDC, with a loss of up to $3.739 million.

CZ: We suggest that Bybit temporarily suspend all withdrawals and will provide any assistance if needed

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