Here’s a rundown of the most noteworthy web3 industry events and project developments to look out for in the coming week
- The 9th Annual Wanxiang Blockchain Global Summit will be held from September 19th to 20th.
- The deadline for FTX bids is September 24th.
- Mainnet2023 will take place in New York from September 20th to 22nd.
- The voting deadline for the proposal initiated by Huang Licheng to “Purchase Yuga assets with 11 million APE tokens and issue DAM tokens” is approaching.
- Approximately $3.68 million worth of SPACE ID tokens will be unlocked in a single transaction this week.
Key Events
This week, the 9th Blockchain Global Summit hosted by Wanxiang Blockchain Lab will be held at the W Hotel in Shanghai from September 19th to 20th. The theme of this conference is “Next Stop, Web3.0,” and the guest list includes figures such as Xiao Feng, Chairman of Wanxiang Blockchain, Hong Kong Legislative Council Member (Innovation and Technology) Charles Mok, and the CEO of Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company, George Tee. In addition to the summit, there will be nearly 40 peripheral events taking place in Shanghai this week (more details).
Furthermore, regarding crypto policies, this week, South Korea will begin a three-month investigation into cryptocurrency trading and holdings by members of the National Assembly, starting from September 18th. The goal of this investigation is to verify whether the virtual asset holdings of National Assembly members match the declarations made to the National Assembly Ethics Special Committee earlier. South Korea had previously passed legislation in May of this year, requiring legislators and high-ranking public officials to register their virtual assets by June.
An important macroeconomic event to watch this week is the Federal Reserve’s announcement of its interest rate decision for September. This announcement is scheduled for September 21st at 02:00 Beijing time, followed by a press conference by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell at 2:30. The Federal Reserve has already raised benchmark rates to their highest levels in 22 years, and the market perceives a high probability of a rate hike pause in September, with a likelihood of 98%.
Project Updates
Genesis, a digital asset financial firm, previously announced the closure of Genesis Global Trading’s OTC trading platform on September 18th and the discontinuation of digital asset derivatives trading on GGC International on September 22nd. This means that Genesis will no longer provide trading services through any of its business divisions. Genesis Global, the parent company, applied for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. bankruptcy law in January of this year after laying off 30% of its staff. In the same month, Genesis Global ceased new lending. During its peak in March 2022, Genesis Global held $14.6 billion in active loans.
Ethereum Devnet #9, which was previously delayed at the Ethereum Core Developers’ Consensus Meeting (ACDC), is scheduled to be launched on September 19th. Developers believe it’s a priority to thoroughly test on Devnet #8 until all issues regarding client implementation are resolved before introducing Devnet #9. The only significant change in code specifications between Devnet #8 and Devnet #9 is the deployment strategy of EIP-4788. Additionally, the Ethereum testnet called Holesky, initially planned for launch on September 15th, failed to start due to network configuration errors. Developers plan to restart Holesky on September 28th, intending for it to replace the Goerli testnet in early 2024.
Bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX confirmed plans to relaunch FTX 2.0 in May of this year and opened bidding. The deadline for bids for FTX 2.0 is September 24th, and bids can include acquisition, merger, capital restructuring, or other transactions to restart FTX.com or FTX US exchange. Participants in the acquisition bidding include cryptocurrency exchanges like Bullish under Block.one and Tribe Capital, among others. Currently, there are 75 bidders, and the reserve price for the FTX 2.0 auction will be announced on October 16th.
Upcoming Events
Apart from the intensive Web3 events happening in Shanghai this week, the Tokenized Assets Consortium (TAC), initiated by Coinbase, Circle, and others, will host its first Real World Assets Summit on September 19th in New York. The alliance’s members include Aave, Centrifuge, Circle, Coinbase, Base, Credix, Goldfinch, and RWA.xyz. The consortium aims to promote the adoption of asset tokenization.
In addition, the annual Mainnet2023 summit, organized by Messari, is scheduled to take place in New York from September 20th to 22nd. Bitmain will host the 2023 Global Digital Mining Summit in Hong Kong from September 22nd to 23rd.
Token Unlocks
According to Token Unlocks data, there will be significant token unlocks between September 18th and September 24th. During this period, SPACE ID token ID will experience a one-time unlock of 18.49 million tokens (approximately $3.68 million) at 08:00 on September 22nd (Beijing time). This represents 6.46% of the circulating supply. Additionally, the 1inch token 1INCH will have 53,570 tokens unlocked (approximately $13,000) at 16:00 on September 22nd, constituting 0.01% of the circulating supply.
Proposal Voting
This week’s governance events include:
- The proposal vote for Arbitrum’s “Distribution of 75 million ARB to Active Ecosystem Protocols” ended on September 18th.
- The Convex Finance community’s proposal vote on “FXS Protocol Treasury Fee Changes” will conclude on September 19th.
Notably, there is a proposal initiated by Huang Licheng in the ApeCoin community, titled “Purchase Yuga Assets and Issue DAM Tokens with 11 Million APE,” which will end on September 21st. This proposal suggests using 11 million APE tokens to purchase Yuga assets, including NFTs like BAYC, MAYC, BAKC, and Punks, for exhibitions and donations to art institutions to enhance the global dissemination of digital art. If this proposal is approved, a new governance token called DAM will be introduced for the selection and management of NFT collections. Thirty percent of DAM tokens will be distributed to ApeCoin stakers over five years, while the remaining 70% will be allocated to the treasury, subject to decisions made by token holders through voting.
NFT Minting
Japanese electronics giant Casio is set to release 15,000 free limited edition G-SHOCK CREATOR PASS NFTs on Polygon on September 23rd. These NFTs will serve as access passes to the community, allowing holders to access the project’s dedicated Discord channel and participate in voting for the appearance and design of the watch.