Fed Rate Cut Disagreements, Lighter TVL Surpasses Linea, Sonic Labs Plans, and More

Fed Internal Discord on December Rate Cut

Nick Timiraos, known as the "Fed whisperer," indicates growing disagreements within the Federal Reserve regarding a December rate cut. This level of division is almost unprecedented in Powell's eight-year tenure. Officials are split on whether persistent inflation or a sluggish labor market poses a greater threat, and even revised official economic data may not bridge this divide. While investors still believe there's a good chance of a rate cut at the next meeting, this split complicates a plan that seemed viable less than two months ago. It remains uncertain whether officials will cut rates again at the December meeting. New data might quell the debate. Some officials believe the December and January meetings are largely interchangeable, making the year-end rate cut deadline seem somewhat artificial. Another possibility: a December rate cut coupled with guidance setting a higher bar for subsequent rate cuts.

Lighter TVL Surpasses Linea

Lighter's Total Value Locked (TVL) has reached $1.17 billion, surpassing Linea's $1.04 billion, according to L2beat data. Previously, news yesterday indicated that crypto trading protocol Lighter completed a $68 million funding round led by Founders Fund and Ribbit Capital.

Sonic Labs Announces Next-Stage Plans

Sonic Labs CEO Mitchell Demeter shared the project's next-stage plans on platform X. Demeter stated that Sonic is currently well-funded with no liquidity concerns, and has the resources to execute long-term plans. In this round of development, Sonic will be driven by actual use, clear economic benefits, and continuous results delivery, rather than speculation. Additionally, Sonic plans to perfect token economics, strive for deflation, and intends to introduce a new tiered fee monetization (FeeM) structure, with reward levels ranging from 15% to 90%. 10% will be allocated to validators, and the remainder will be burned. This measure not only rewards actual use and network activity, but also promotes deflation. Sonic is also promoting plans to establish an office in New York City to strengthen the growing team and refocus on institutional collaboration and maintaining political relations. Currently, Sonic's focus will shift to promoting business value upgrades, adopting selected Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs), and launching Sonic Improvement Proposals (SIPs).

GoPlus Warns of Hello 402 Contract Risks

GoPlus Chinese communities on platform X revealed that the Hello 402 contract has some hidden risks - concerns about unlimited issuance and centralized manipulation. The administrator address has extremely high permissions, completely controlling the minting and distribution of H402 tokens. For example: the addTokenCredits function, the administrator assigns H402 token minting quotas to users, but does not check whether it will exceed the total MAX_SUPPLY, which is similar to forming a backdoor for unlimited issuance; the redeemTokenCredits function, users mint the actual H402 tokens according to their quotas; the WithdrawDevToken function, which allows a one-time address to mint all unallocated quotas, resulting in high risks of centralized operation. The project's declaration in X that the WithdrawDevToken function is only used for "token completion," "ecological incentives," and "profit spaces" after the private sale ends has not been implemented at the contract level, resulting in high risks of centralized default. Previously, news yesterday indicated that OKX has launched an investigation into the abnormal behavior of Hello402 and will continue to track on-chain evidence and reserves the right to take legal action.

New Wallet Receives 1130 Bitcoin from FalconX

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, a newly created wallet received 1130 Bitcoin from FalconX in the past 7 hours, worth $116.46 million.

MARA CEO Warns of Difficulties Facing Bitcoin Mining Companies

According to CoinDesk, MARA Holdings CEO Fred Thiel said that the Bitcoin mining industry is entering a difficult period characterized by increasing competition, rising energy demands, and declining profits. He pointed out that Bitcoin mining is a zero-sum game, where rising computing power leads to increased mining difficulty and energy costs, squeezing profit margins. The industry is becoming increasingly brutal, and only farms with low-cost, reliable energy sources or those that adopt new business models will survive. Many mining companies have turned to artificial intelligence or high-performance computing infrastructure areas, while some have been squeezed out of the market by participants deploying their own hardware at low cost. Thiel warned that after the next Bitcoin halving in 2028, the survival environment for mining companies will be even more severe, and block rewards will drop to just over 1.5 Bitcoin. Unless transaction fees rise or currency prices soar, mining economics will be difficult to sustain. The design idea of Bitcoin is that transaction fees will eventually replace block subsidies, but this has not happened. Currently, transaction fees are generally low, and although there are brief surges, it is difficult to replace block subsidies. In this environment, small mining companies face tremendous pressure. Large mining companies are adapting by controlling energy sources and investing in artificial intelligence dedicated infrastructure, while more streamlined mining companies may be forced to close. Thiel expects the market to self-regulate, saying: "By 2028, mining companies will either become energy producers, be acquired by energy producers, or cooperate with energy producers."

Former BlackRock Executive Joseph Chalom Calls Ethereum the "Infrastructure" of Wall Street

According to CoinDesk, Joseph Chalom, co-CEO of Sharplink and former head of digital asset strategy at BlackRock, said that Ethereum is not just another blockchain, but the cornerstone upon which Wall Street will eventually rely to build (financial) infrastructure, The trust, security, and liquidity that financial institutions value, Ethereum has it all, which has made him bet his career on it. He said that there is a large amount of stablecoins, asset tokenization, and smart contract activity on Ethereum, which is a credible chain for realizing financial digitalization. Sharplink is one of several digital asset finance companies that are accumulating Ethereum, but Chalom believes that most companies have difficulty achieving scale. Without strong trading volumes, clean balance sheets, and internal teams to manage staking and investments, many companies will not perform well. Chalom does not see Sharplink as a departure from his BlackRock career, but as an extension of his mission: connecting traditional finance with the cryptocurrency ecosystem, because Ethereum can rebuild the system faster, cheaper, and more securely. He sees Ethereum as the foundation for the next wave of financial digitalization, which in the future will be collectively referred to as "finance," and Ethereum is the infrastructure behind it.

"A Whale Who Once Shorted ETH" Increases Its ETH Holdings Again

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, a whale who once shorted 66,000 ETH continues to increase its ETH holdings. This whale again withdrew 28,262 ETH (worth approximately $98.59 million) from Binance, and its current total holdings have reached 355,164 ETH, with a total value of approximately $1.21 billion.

VCI Global Plans to Purchase $100 Million Worth of OOB Tokens

According to Cointelegraph, VCI Global (listed on Nasdaq under the symbol: VCIG), based in Malaysia, announced that it plans to purchase $100 million worth of OOB tokens and supervise the digital treasury of Singaporean cryptocurrency payment platform OOBIT. In addition, Tether will become the largest shareholder of VCI Global through its shareholding in OOBIT. It is reported that Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder of Solana, CMCC Global, and 468 Capital are also investors. VCI Global acquired $50 million worth of OOB tokens from the OOB Foundation with a market value of $200 million (i.e., $0.20 per token), with the issuance of company shares as payment. The company plans to purchase an additional $50 million worth of OOB tokens on the open market after the official launch. VCI Global is a technology and investment company that develops platforms covering AI, digital finance, and data infrastructure. In February 2024, the company raised $25 million in a Series A funding round to expand its cryptocurrency payment application.