OpenAI plans to compete with Google, Nigeria asks Binance for $150 million bribe

Headlines

▌OpenAI plans to announce a competitor to Google Search next Monday

OpenAI plans to announce its AI search product next Monday, a move that will increase its competition with search giant Google. The announcement date has not been reported before and may change. Earlier media reports said that OpenAI is developing a search product that could compete with Google and well-funded artificial intelligence search startup Perplexity.

▌Binance CEO: Nigerian officials demanded $150 million in bribes

Binance CEO Richard Teng has remained silent on the legal crisis in Nigeria in the past few months, but today issued a statement on the charges faced by Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan in Nigeria, saying that unidentified persons had contacted employees of the exchange and suggested a payment to resolve the charges. According to DLNews, Nigerian officials demanded cryptocurrency bribes from Binance that could be as high as $150 million. Richard Teng said in a statement that the lawyers were asked to secretly pay a large sum of money in cryptocurrency within 48 hours.

Market

As of press time, according to Coingecko data:

BTC's latest transaction price is $63037.57, with a daily increase or decrease of +3.1%;

ETH's latest transaction price is $3034.89, with a daily increase or decrease of +2.1%;

BNB's latest transaction price is $596.04, with a daily increase or decrease of +1.3%；

SOL's latest transaction price is 152.73 US dollars, with a daily increase or decrease of +7.4%；

DOGE's latest transaction price is 0.1519 US dollars, with a daily increase or decrease of +5.7%；

XPR's latest transaction price is 0.5208 US dollars, with a daily increase or decrease of +0.7%.

Policy

▌American University Law Professor: Stablecoins need federal regulation to prevent financial risks

Hilary Allen, a law professor at the American University, pointed out that stablecoins pose a potential threat to the banking system and the public, and advocated for federal regulation. She warned that stablecoins could lead to bank instability and ultimately require emergency government assistance. The remarks came as the U.S. Congress stepped up its regulation of stablecoins, although the stablecoin bill has little chance of passing in the presidential election year. Financial policy and regulatory expert Marcelo M. Prates believes that stablecoins should be properly regulated, but emphasizes their potential as electronic money, which will help improve financial competitiveness, reduce costs and promote financial inclusion. He suggested that the U.S. federal government formulate three pillars of stablecoin regulation: issuing non-bank licenses, direct access to central bank accounts, and bankruptcy protection of backup assets. This proposal is intended to ensure that stablecoin issuers can operate in a low-risk and transparent regulatory environment, so as to better serve the payment industry and protect consumer rights.

▌Citadel Securities CEO: Unclear cryptocurrency regulation is still a problem

Kenneth Griffin, a cryptocurrency skeptic and CEO of Citadel Securities, said in an interview today that unclear cryptocurrency regulation is still a problem. The use of artificial intelligence and false information are concerns before the US election. Griffin also called on US regulators to strengthen coordination in regulating the cryptocurrency industry.  

Last year, it was reported that Citadel was considering establishing a cryptocurrency trading market with a high-frequency trading company.

▌JP Morgan Chase: If the US SEC refuses to approve the spot Ethereum ETF, it may face legal challenges and ultimately lose the case

JP Morgan Chase (JPM) said that the Wells Notice issued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to the trading platform Robinhood (HOOD) should not pose an obstacle to the final approval of the spot Ethereum ETF. JPMorgan said the SEC's legal action against cryptocurrency exchanges appears to be an attempt by the agency to influence U.S. policymakers and lawmakers who will be responsible for passing cryptocurrency market regulations at some point. The SEC could face legal challenges and ultimately fail if it refuses to approve a spot Ethereum ETF.

▌Canadian Anti-Money Laundering Regulator Fines Binance $4.4 Million

The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) has fined cryptocurrency exchange Binance Holdings Ltd 6 million Canadian dollars (about $4.4 million) for anti-money laundering violations. Binance was reportedly penalized for failing to register as a foreign money service business and for failing to report virtual currency transactions exceeding 10,000 Canadian dollars. The fine was handed down on Tuesday, and the Canadian regulator announced the news on Thursday.

Blockchain Applications

▌Hyperbolic Launches PoSP Protocol to Solve Trust Challenges in Decentralized AI Networks

Hyperbolic, a startup focused on decentralized AI computing, announced the launch of a protocol called "Proof of Sampling (PoSP)" to address trust challenges in decentralized AI networks. Developed by a team led by Mathematical Olympiad athlete Jasper Zhang, the protocol combines advanced sampling methods and game theory to incentivize integrity and minimize computing requirements. Zhang said the innovation can be applied not only to artificial intelligence, but also to second-layer blockchains and active verification services. They have submitted a paper to arXiv and launched an implementation of "spML". The move marks an important step forward in addressing key issues at the intersection of blockchain and artificial intelligence.

Cryptocurrency

▌Marathon Digital mined 2,811 bitcoins in the first quarter

Bitcoin miner Marathon Digital (MARA) failed to meet revenue expectations in the first quarter due to operational challenges in the first quarter. The miner mined only 2,811 bitcoins in the first quarter of this year, a 34% decrease from the previous quarter. The miner's stock price fell about 1.5% in after-hours trading on Thursday.  

The miner said in a statement that bitcoin production and revenue this quarter were negatively affected by unexpected equipment failures, transmission line maintenance, and higher-than-expected weather-related power cuts in Garden City and other locations this quarter.

▌WisdomTree's digital currency business launched in New York despite shareholder opposition

WisdomTree's digital currency application WisdomTree Prime has been launched in New York, allowing users to use digital assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. However, CEO Jonathan Steinberg has come under pressure from shareholders for the company's move into decentralized finance. Graham Tuckwell, the company's largest shareholder, has voiced opposition to Steinberg's initiative and called on investors to oppose his re-election. Tuckwell called Steinberg's decentralized finance initiative a "huge distraction and a complete failure." WisdomTree has emerged as a major traditional financial player in the crypto space since 2019, but its digital currency fund has attracted relatively little funding, only about $70 million, while other issuers have attracted billions of dollars in investment. Coinbase Head of Tokenization: Base will be KYC-able via Ethereum Proof Service and Coinbase Coinbase Head of Tokenization Anthony Bassili said that Coinbase's Ethereum Layer 2 Base blockchain will be KYC-able via Ethereum Proof Service and Coinbase, saving time on Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) verification, which will create a label on the user's so-called smart wallet, designed to be ready for decentralized applications on the blockchain. While this may not be enough for all situations, Bassili said it is expected to eventually evolve into something like a KYC-dependent model, which will start to form a market structure. More than 300,000 wallets have been verified so far.

▌Kaspersky: Nearly 6 million attempts to track cryptocurrency-themed phishing links were blocked in 2023

Mobile banking Trojan attacks on Android users increased by a third globally in 2023, while cryptocurrency-related phishing also increased sharply, according to the Kaspersky report. The most popular banking Trojan was Bian.h, accounting for 22% of all Android attacks. Geographically, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan had the highest percentage of users encountering banking Trojans, with Turkey seeing the most mobile banking malware attacks.  

In contrast, the number of users affected by financial PC malware fell by 11% in 2023, with the Ramnit and Zbot families targeting more than half of affected users. Consumers remain the main target, accounting for 61% of all attacks. Kaspersky said it blocked nearly 6 million attempts to track cryptocurrency-themed phishing links, 16% more than in 2022. Scammers imitate cryptocurrency exchanges and offer tokens in the name of large companies such as Apple. More generally, financial phishing remains a major threat, accounting for 27% of all phishing attacks against corporate users and 31% of home users. PayPal phishing accounts for more than half of phishing pages targeting users of electronic payment systems. ▌ Spot Bitcoin ETF GBTC had a net outflow of $43 million yesterday According to HODL15Capital monitoring data, yesterday (May 9), the spot Bitcoin ETF GBTC had a net outflow of 700 bitcoins, equivalent to about $43 million; ARKB had a net inflow of $4.5 million; BITB had a net inflow of $7 million.

▌CTC Alternative Strategies holds $27.7 million worth of BlackRock Spot Bitcoin ETF

CTC Alternative Strategies reported that it holds $27.7 million worth of BlackRock Spot Bitcoin ETF, the second largest position in its portfolio.

Important Economic Dynamics

▌The probability of the Fed keeping interest rates unchanged in June is 91.5%

According to CME's "Fed Watch", the probability of the Fed keeping interest rates unchanged in June is 91.5%, and the probability of a 25 basis point rate cut is 8.5%. The probability of the Fed keeping interest rates unchanged by August is 66.9%, the probability of a cumulative 25 basis point rate cut is 30.8%, and the probability of a cumulative 50 basis point rate cut is 2.3%.

▌The three major U.S. stock indexes closed up collectively

The three major U.S. stock indexes closed up collectively, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.86%, the S&P 500 up 0.51%, and the Nasdaq up 0.27%.

Golden Encyclopedia

▌How difficult is it to mine Bitcoin alone?

Mining Bitcoin alone requires a miner to compete with all other miners around the world. Bitcoin's Proof of Work (PoW) consensus protocol makes mining a natural competition. Regardless of the power of the mining equipment, the chances of a single miner beating the rest of the world's miners to obtain the block target hash value are almost zero.

Disclaimer: As a blockchain information platform, Golden Finance publishes articles for information reference only and is not intended as actual investment advice. Please establish a correct investment philosophy and be sure to raise your risk awareness.