According to Odaily, the Changzhi City Public Security Bureau's Anti-Fraud Center, with assistance from the Cyber Security Brigade, has successfully dismantled a cryptocurrency money laundering ring. The operation led to the arrest of 11 suspects and involved a sum exceeding 2 million yuan. Investigations revealed that all members of the group were local residents of Changzhi. They profited by purchasing virtual currency at low prices and selling it at higher rates. The illicit funds were then withdrawn from various banks in cities such as Xi'an and Taiyuan. The police conducted arrest operations in locations including Xiaodian District of Taiyuan City and Jingle County of Xinzhou City. During interrogations, the suspects confessed to their crimes. All members of the fraudulent money laundering ring have been subjected to criminal coercive measures, and the case is currently under further investigation.

According to BlockBeats, on July 13, data from Coingecko revealed that Axelar (AXL) has overtaken Wormhole to become the leader in the cross-chain market cap rankings. The current standings are as follows: Axelar (AXL) has a market cap of $503.7 million and a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of $811 million. Wormhole (W) follows closely with a market cap of $503.4 million and an FDV of $2.797 billion. LayerZero (ZRO) holds the third position with a market cap of $415 million and an FDV of $3.764 billion. Axelar's advantage lies in its high circulation and lower FDV. The token's price has surged by 43.2% over the past seven days.

According to Odaily, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has reported that out of 130 jurisdictions, 97 are either partially compliant or non-compliant with anti-money laundering (AML) recommendations for the virtual asset sector. In its latest update on virtual assets (VA) and virtual asset service providers (VASP), FATF noted that the proportion of non-compliant governments remains unchanged from April 2023. Many jurisdictions are struggling to implement the basic requirements of Recommendation 15. Specifically, 29% (42 out of 147 companies) have not conducted any virtual asset risk assessments. Additionally, over a quarter of respondents have yet to decide whether to regulate the VASP industry. Meanwhile, 88 jurisdictions (60%) have chosen to permit VA and VASP activities, while 14% (20 jurisdictions) have explicitly banned them.

On Jul 13, 2024, 05:51 AM(UTC). According to Binance Market Data, Bitcoin has crossed the 58,000 USDT benchmark and is now trading at 58,047.988281 USDT, with a narrowed 1.79% increase in 24 hours.

According to Odaily, the Stacks Foundation announced on X that the code for the Nakamoto upgrade has been completed ahead of schedule. Originally set for completion by July 15, the code is now undergoing internal and external reviews, testing, and bug fixes. The Stacks Nakamoto upgrade aims to achieve transaction speeds of approximately 5-10 seconds, representing a 100-fold improvement over the current transaction speed.

According to Odaily, Arthur Cheong, founder and CEO of DeFiance Capital, recently shared insights on X regarding the current trends in the cryptocurrency market. Cheong noted a significant accumulation of high-quality tokens, indicating a shift in investor focus towards cryptocurrencies with clear fundamentals. This trend suggests that market participants are increasingly prioritizing the intrinsic value and potential of digital assets over speculative investments.

According to Odaily, Pudgy Penguins has announced that their new 'Pudgy Wizard' series will be released exclusively on NTWRK. The launch is scheduled for July 16 at 8:45 AM Beijing Time (July 15 at 8:45 PM EST).

According to Foresight News, data from Dune reveals that the total amount of staked Ethereum on the Beacon Chain has reached 33,406,525 ETH. This staked amount represents 27.85% of the total Ethereum supply. Among the various staking protocols, Lido holds a significant share, accounting for 29.01% of the staked ETH.

According to Foresight News, the OpenTensor Foundation has announced the full launch of the decentralized 'AI Data Chain' Masa on the Bittensor mainnet. Alongside this launch, the foundation has released version 7.3.0 of Bittensor. This new version introduces consensus-based weight features now available in the 'master' branch. Additionally, a new btcli command option, check_coldkey_swap, has been added. This feature allows users to check the remaining time before a scheduled coldkey swap is executed on-chain or to determine if it is in arbitration status.

According to Odaily, the Paraguayan Senate has passed a series of reforms that alter the penalties for energy theft related to cryptocurrency mining. Individuals and companies found guilty of stealing energy for crypto mining activities will now face up to 10 years in prison. In contrast, energy theft for other purposes will result in a maximum penalty of 3 years in prison. This legislative change follows a recent decision to increase electricity rates for cryptocurrency mining by 14%, which has drawn criticism from industry stakeholders and lawmakers.

According to Odaily, Grass has announced on X that the final epoch (Epoch 7) of its closed testing will commence tomorrow. During the testing phase, Grass has successfully demonstrated its most crucial feature: the ability to access 100% of the public network. With the release of UpVoteWeb on Hugging Face, Grass has become the first network to establish and open-source the largest dataset of its kind. The platform currently boasts a user base of 2 million.

According to Odaily, DBS Bank recently announced a substantial rise in the value of digital payment token transactions on its digital exchange in the first five months of 2024. The bank detailed that the value of digital payment tokens traded on the DBS Digital Exchange (Ddex) nearly doubled in Singapore dollar terms compared to the same period in 2023. Additionally, the number of active trading customers increased by 36%, and the digital assets under DBS Bank's custody surged by over 80% in Singapore dollar terms. DBS Bank attributed this significant growth to a large influx of deposits from customers seeking a secure, bank-grade platform for trading and custody of digital assets. This trend coincided with an approximate 50% increase in the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies during the same period.

According to Odaily, Santiment has reported on X that major stakeholders holding between 10,000 and 1 million LINK tokens have been accumulating significantly in the current market. Since June 24, this group has increased their holdings by 9.2 million LINK, marking a 4.65% rise in their total holdings.

According to Odaily, the OpenTensor Foundation announced the latest developments regarding Bittensor early this morning on X. The foundation confirmed that Bittensor's normal operations have been restored, with the mainnet fully reopening in less than an hour. Additionally, there is no need for updates to the testnet today. The foundation also revealed that Bittensor version 7.3.0 will be released today. This new version introduces several changes, including the availability of consensus-based weight features in the 'master' branch. Furthermore, a new btcli command option, check_coldkey_swap, has been added. This feature allows users to check the remaining time before a scheduled coldkey swap is executed on-chain or to determine if it is in arbitration status. Yesterday, blockchain explorers indicated that Bittensor had resumed block production.

According to Odaily, a study by CoinWire indicates that global cryptocurrency trading volume is projected to exceed $108 trillion by the end of 2024, marking an increase of nearly 90% compared to 2022. The research was compiled using CoinGecko's list of centralized exchanges (CEX) with a trust score greater than 6. CoinWire also gathered additional data, including web traffic for each CEX in different countries, peak trading time zones, supported languages, and headquarters locations for each CEX. The report highlights that the United States currently ranks first in terms of individual country trading volume. As a region, Europe leads with a cumulative cryptocurrency trading volume accounting for 37.32% of the global market. Asia follows closely, contributing 36.17% to the global digital currency trading volume, underscoring the geographical diversity and overall growth in the market. The report suggests that Europe's dominance in the global market size may be attributed to the region's 'progressive' approach to cryptocurrency regulation.

According to Odaily, recent data reveals that the utilization rate of sustainable energy in Bitcoin mining has reached a historic high of 56.2%. This milestone marks a significant achievement in the cryptocurrency industry's efforts to adopt more environmentally friendly practices. The increased use of renewable energy sources in Bitcoin mining operations reflects a growing awareness and commitment to sustainability within the sector.

According to PANews, the relationship between Layer 2 (L2) solutions and Layer 1 (L1) Ethereum has sparked discussions about whether L2 is benefiting at the expense of L1. L2 solutions use L1 for settlement while offering users cheaper transaction services, acting as intermediaries and capturing value through fees, including MEV. The question arises whether L2s are paying enough for the valuable block space they use on L1. This article explores the impact of L2 on Ethereum through various metrics. Firstly, L2 solutions contribute to the Ethereum ecosystem by enhancing its overall value. By adding the market value of the top 10 L2 tokens to ETH, termed as 'effective ETH,' the combined value of the Ethereum ecosystem can be assessed. However, the current impact of the top 10 L2s on the ETHBTC ratio is minimal, indicating that L2s have not significantly boosted the ETH (effective)/BTC ratio. Value capture in the Ethereum ecosystem can be measured through revenue and market capitalization. Ethereum captures approximately 90% of the total revenue generated within its ecosystem. In the second quarter of 2024, Base led in revenue among L2s, followed by Blast. In terms of market capitalization, ETH still accounts for over 95% of the top 10 L2s' market value. L2 solutions incur costs for storing data on Ethereum, which is a critical operational expense. The balance of these costs is essential; if too high, L2 operations become challenging, and if too low, Ethereum earns less from providing settlement services. The Ethereum 4844 upgrade, also known as Proto Danksharding, reduced L2 operational costs, decreasing L2's revenue contribution to Ethereum from about 10% to around 2%. While this might seem detrimental, it prepares L2s for more users by lowering transaction costs. In a week in 2024, Ethereum supported 7.1 million transactions, generating $10.6 million in revenue, with an average cost of $1.5 per transaction. In contrast, five L2s (Arbitrum, Base, Blast, Optimism, and Polygon) supported over 70 million transactions with fees totaling $2.75 million, averaging $0.03 per transaction. Although the quality of these transactions can be debated, Ethereum cannot support such a high volume of transactions alone. Overall, building L2 solutions and providing cheaper data storage options on L1 benefits users by reducing transaction costs. However, it poses challenges for Ethereum (L1) as more data is pushed to L1, increasing base fees and potentially boosting Ethereum's revenue. Thus, the increased use of L2 solutions could be a win-win for both Ethereum and its users.

According to Odaily, CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju recently shared insights on the X platform regarding the trading behaviors of whale users in the cryptocurrency market. He noted that whales tend to use significant leverage only at cyclical bottoms. Interestingly, when whales go long, the Bitcoin market becomes excessively leveraged, leading to a trend reversal. Ju emphasized that while it would be ideal for whale users to maintain high leverage, this is not currently the case. He concluded by suggesting that traders should adopt strategies similar to those of whale users.

According to Odaily, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Department of Justice's (DOJ) National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET) held their inaugural Fraud Disruption meeting this week to address cryptocurrency scams such as 'pig butchering' schemes. These scams result in billions of dollars in losses for Americans each year, making them a critical focus for law enforcement agencies. The meeting saw participation from several key agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Social Security Administration, Department of the Treasury, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), U.S. Postal Inspection Service, U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). CFTC Chairman Rostin Behnam underscored the urgency of combating these schemes, stating, 'Hearing countless stories of Americans becoming targets of global criminal organizations is shocking.' He emphasized the CFTC's commitment to enhancing customer protection measures against retail fraud. The meeting focused on prevention strategies, technological disruption of fraud, and collaborative enforcement efforts. Participants also launched an anti-fraud campaign to alert Americans to emerging scam threats.

According to Odaily, recent monitoring by HODL15Capital reveals that as of the latest report, Bitcoin spot ETFs in the United States collectively hold 888,607 BTC, marking a historic peak. The assets under management (AUM) for these ETFs have surpassed $51.5 billion.