Fantom’s Rebranded Project, Sonic Labs, Set to Redefine Blockchain Speed ​​with 720ms Finality.

Earlier this year, the blockchain project formerly known as Fantom rebranded as Sonic Labs, causing quite a stir in the crypto community. Recently, Sonic Labs CTO Andre Cronje demonstrated testnet performance, noting transaction finality in 720 milliseconds. This achievement indicates that the project could set a new standard as the fastest distributed ledger system in the world upon its mainnet launch.

Sonic Labs is set to set a new benchmark in blockchain technology.

While rumours have been swirling for months, Fantom officially announced its rebranding as Sonic Labs with an announcement on X on August 1, 2024. That day, the team stated, “As we approach the launch of Sonic, we are excited to provide users, developers, stakers, and validators with additional guidance on migrating to the new chain.” Sonic’s whitepaper describes the blockchain as a layer-one (L1) network designed to provide a secure bridge to Ethereum. Furthermore, Sonic aims to provide the fastest settlement layer for digital assets, claiming over 10,000 TPS and one-second confirmation times.

 

WisdomTree Withdraws Ethereum Trust SEC Filing.

WisdomTree, one of the largest ETF providers in the U.S., has withdrawn its Ethereum Trust S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The New York-based asset manager first filed the trust registration statement on May 27, 2021, and the U.S. regulator has neither granted nor denied its application since.

WisdomTree has requested that the SEC retain fees for future filings.

WisdomTree has filed a request with the SEC asking it to withdraw its Ethereum Trust S-1 filing.

The company wrote that the registration statement was originally filed on May 27, 2021. It also confirms that no securities have been or will be issued or sold pursuant to the Registration Statement.

The platform noted that it would not seek a refund of the registration fee paid to the SEC. However, it did request that the commission retain the fees for future filings under Rule 457(p) of the Securities Act.

 

SEC fines from crypto companies increased by 3000% and exceeded $4.7 billion.

Experts from Social Capital Markets have published a report on the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) fines from the cryptocurrency industry in 2024. The volume of fines imposed increased by 3000% compared to the previous year and exceeded $4.7 billion.

This was made possible by the settlement of the dispute between the regulator and the collapsed Terraform Labs. As part of the agreement, the company will pay $3.6 billion in compensation, a fine of $420 million, and interest in the amount of $467 million.

Former CEO of the company Do Kwon, who is also a defendant in the SEC lawsuit, must, in turn, reimburse more than $204 million.

In total, for 2024, the agency has imposed 11 enforcement measures, and the average fine was $426 million. For example, in 2018, this figure was $3.39 million.

 

Japanese firm Metaplanet invested $2 million in the purchase of Bitcoins.

The investment company Metaplanet, which is called the "Japanese MicroStrategy", continues to accumulate bitcoins on its balance sheet. On September 10, 2024, the company announced the purchase of another 38.46 BTC for about 300 million Japanese yen.

As a result of the purchase, the total bitcoin reserves in the company's wallet reached 398.83 BTC, which is about $22.6 million.

Note that against the backdrop of the news of the acquisition of cryptocurrency, Metaplanet shares rose by 5.87% in a day.

Back in May 2024, the company announced plans to use Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset. After the first investment in cryptocurrency, Metaplanet shares jumped by 10%.

In August, the company took out a loan of $6.8 million at 0.1% per annum to buy bitcoin. The organization emphasized that investments in the first cryptocurrency are in line with the company's long-term strategy and are expected to have a positive impact on its market value.

Recall that Metaplanet's last purchase was made on August 20, 2024. Then the Japanese company acquired 57.27 BTC for a total of $3.42 million.

 

PayPal and Venmo Add Support for Ethereum Name Service Domains.

ENS Labs announced the integration of its Ethereum Name Service domain protocol into PayPal and Venmo payment services. Now users of these platforms will be able to transfer cryptocurrency using the ENS domain instead of a long wallet address.

The new feature will initially be available to users in the United States. It will reduce the likelihood of transferring assets to incorrect addresses and minimize the risk of losing funds, the release notes.

ENS Labs' solution allows you to assign a unique name to your wallet - for example, "xyz.eth". According to the team, this makes the process of remembering the address and sending funds more convenient for users.

The integration of Ethereum Name Service domains may indicate a renewed interest in traditional payment services for cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.

It should be noted that PayPal is already an active participant in the crypto industry. In August 2023, the payment service provider launched its own stablecoin PYUSD. A month later, the company filed a patent application for trading non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

 

The UK will consider a bill on the legal status of cryptocurrencies.

The UK government has introduced a bill to parliament aimed at officially defining digital assets as a new form of property. If adopted, it will provide legal protection to owners of bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies, the authors of the document said.

The report says that the bill will be able to protect asset owners and crypto firms from fraud and scams. In addition, it will help in considering cases in which digital assets are disputed or are part of a settlement.

According to the document, there are two categories of property in the UK: “things in possession” (for example, gold, money, cars) and “things in circulation” (loans, shares). If parliamentarians pass the bill, the country will have a third type of property that “will allow certain digital assets to attract personal property rights,” said Justice Minister Heidi Alexander.

It is assumed that not only cryptocurrencies but also other digital assets, such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and real-world tokenized assets (RWAs), may receive legal status in the UK. The Bill is a response to the Law Commission's 2023 report, which found that digital assets are not things owned or traded.
 

Trader made and lost $1.2 million on the AURA meme token.

A Solana trader managed to turn ~$80,000 into more than $1.2 million on the AURA meme token in a few weeks before losing almost all of his profits. This was noted by analysts from Arkham Intelligence.

According to their data, at the end of June, three weeks after the cryptocurrency was launched, a user under the nickname XCkM purchased 16 million AURA for $80,000.

In August, when the coin's market capitalization reached $75 million, the value of the trader's assets exceeded $1.22 million. However, as a result of the subsequent market correction in September, this amount fell to $91,000.

Earlier, ForkLog reported that an unknown trader made $670,000 in 48 hours on the VISTA token of the Ethervista decentralized exchange.

 

OpenAI Unveils o1, an AI Model That Can Think.

AI startup OpenAI has unveiled a new large language model called o1, trained using reinforcement learning to perform complex reasoning.

The neural network can think — it can create a long internal chain of thoughts while analyzing a question, the company claims.

o1 avoids some “reasoning traps” because it can effectively self-check itself, spending more time analyzing parts of a question. The model can approach the analysis of a problem holistically, planning and executing a series of actions over a long period. OpenAI’s new tool is suitable for problems that involve multiple subproblems, such as detecting privileged emails or brainstorming a marketing strategy.