News article:
00:00-09:00
Keywords: Curve founder delivers 7.5 million CRV to Christian, US federal judge upholds “most” of SEC’s charges against Binance, IRS finalizes new regulations for cryptocurrency taxation, Solana chain NFT minting exceeds 500 million.
1. According to on-chain analyst Yu Jin, the Curve founder stated that the 30 million CRV sold to Christian will be delivered in mid-August because he still has 24.7 million CRV that will only be fully unlocked on August 12. He has already delivered 7.5 million CRV to Christian, which, combined with the remaining unlocked ones, is enough in quantity. This also means that by August 12, the Curve founder’s CRV will be fully unlocked. In addition, he has locked 103 million CRV until June 2028.
2. On June 30, according to Token.unlocks data, WLD will undergo a large linear unlock starting from July 24, with a daily unlock of 6.62 million WLD tokens, equivalent to approximately $18 million. The unlock will last for 730 days and includes community unlocks, initial development team unlocks, and investor unlocks.
3. A report states that a US federal judge upheld most of the SEC’s charges against Binance, suggesting that the company may have offered unregistered investment products, violating anti-fraud provisions. The ruling deemed most of the agency’s arguments reasonable and rejected certain arguments put forth by Binance, which were also dismissed by other judges, such as the Major Questions Doctrine suggesting that the SEC does not have complete authority to regulate the cryptocurrency industry. Furthermore, the court found that Binance founder and former CEO CZ is currently serving prison time in another case brought by the Department of Justice against Binance, and given his control over Binance, he may be held personally responsible for the company’s misconduct. However, the judge also dismissed certain appeals related to some of the charges. Judge Amy Berman Jackson’s ruling indicated that these charges did not meet the Howey test. Judge Jackson also dismissed the charges related to BNB secondary sales and Binance’s Simple Earn program, but the charges against Binance’s Earn Vault will continue. Among the 13 charges, only one charge (related to BUSD sales) was completely dismissed.
4. Consensys Software issued a statement in response to the SEC’s accusation of conducting unregistered securities issuance through Metamask staking and swaps. Consensys believes that the SEC’s actions are regulatory overreach and vows to defend its position in court, emphasizing the broader impact on the web3 ecosystem. On Friday, Consensys Software released a statement in response to the SEC’s allegations. The SEC accused Consensys of engaging in unregistered securities issuance and sales through a service called Metamask Staking, as well as operating as an unregistered broker through Metamask Staking and another service called Metamask Swaps.
5. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued a warning to consumers about the surge in social media investment scams, particularly in cryptocurrency investments. These scams involve fraudulent claims of guaranteed high returns with minimal risk. The FTC advises consumers to ignore such information and reminds them that all investments carry inherent risks. The FTC issued the consumer alert on Friday, written by FTC consumer education specialist Andrew Rayo, stating that sudden investment-related information on social media is almost always a scam.
6. Consensys Chief Legal Officer Bill Hughes stated that the IRS has canceled a final broker reporting rule that does not definitively establish rules regarding non-custodial wallets and related non-custodial software products. They state that these products are still under review and may be brokers, and their status will be determined later. The scope of “digital assets” under this final rule is too broad and objectionable. Every NFT disposition is a reportable event. Every stablecoin disposition is as well. If you don’t submit a form to the IRS explaining that your gains or losses are fractions of a penny, you won’t be able to convert USDC to dollars on exchanges.
7. On June 30, the Axelar (AXL) Foundation, a cross-chain interoperability network, will collaborate with blockchain analytics company Metrika to host a panel discussion at the Zero Forum in Zurich from July 1 to July 3. The panel discussion will focus on insights derived from specific papers and challenges related to asset tokenization, with representatives from Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, and Mastercard in attendance.
8. A report states that the IRS has finalized new regulations for cryptocurrency taxation, requiring cryptocurrency trading platforms to report transactions to the IRS starting from 2026. However, decentralized platforms that do not hold assets will be exempt. These are the main provisions of the new rules finalized by the IRS and the US Department of the Treasury on Friday, essentially implementing a provision from the Biden administration’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed in 2021. Even without these new rules, cryptocurrency holders are still required to pay taxes. However, there has been no true standardization on how to report these holdings to the government and individual investors. Starting from 2026 (covering transactions in 2025), cryptocurrency platforms must provide standard 1099 forms, similar to the forms sent by banks and traditional brokerage firms. In addition to streamlining the cryptocurrency tax process, the IRS also stated that it is working to combat tax evasion.
9. Vitalik Buterin described a scenario in his response to a user on the social media platform Warpcast, based on the Farcaster protocol, where current regulatory measures essentially push honest cryptocurrency developers into a corner. The main challenge of cryptocurrency regulation, especially in the United States, has always been that if you do something useless or ask people for money in exchange for vague mentions of potential returns, then you are free and innocent. But if you try to clearly explain to your customers where the returns come from and promise them certain rights, then you’re done because you are a “security.” The incentive gradient created by this “anarchy of government” is ultimately worse than pure anarchy or pure tyranny. From the perspective of anarchy, there seems to be an endless stream of bad actors, scammers, and baseless pumpers on social media and sharing platforms. Previously, Buterin proposed three suggestions aimed at addressing the issue of “useless” cryptocurrency products and services.
10. Former SEC ** John Reed Stark stated that the burden of proof always lies with the SEC to prove that a product is a security. To my knowledge, the judge only required the SEC to prove that the people who purchased Binance’s products were “investors” who bought them in the hope of price appreciation, rather than “customers” who bought the products because they provided some utility (such as trading discounts). According to the judge, if a digital asset security somehow transforms into a utility tool rather than an investment speculative tool, then it “ceases to be a security.” It is worth noting that the judge specifically rejected the perplexing finding from the Ripple ruling, which concluded that there must be some kind of contractual relationship between investors and issuers in the secondary market to trigger registration requirements, a conclusion that has never been adopted or even cited in any form of support by other regional courts.
11. SolanaFloor posted on the X platform, stating that the number of NFTs minted on the Solana chain has exceeded 500 million, with the majority using the new compressed NFT standard. At the same time, the total number of collections exceeds 100,000, and the number of collector addresses exceeds 49 million.
