Crypto Morning Brief: PayPal Merchants Can Now Conduct On-Chain Transfers, OneKey Card Announces Service Discontinuation

Author: TechFlow

Yesterday's Market Dynamics

Harris: The U.S. should maintain leadership in AI, quantum computing, blockchain, and other emerging technologies

According to The Block, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris stated during a speech at the Pittsburgh Economic Club that under her leadership, America will recommit to "maintaining leadership in artificial intelligence, quantum computing, blockchain, and other emerging technologies." Until last weekend, Harris had remained silent on cryptocurrency throughout her campaign, but recently at a fundraising event in Manhattan, she included AI and crypto as part of her vision for an "economy of opportunity," emphasizing support for innovative technologies while protecting consumers and investors, and promising a secure business environment with consistent and transparent rules.

PayPal expands crypto services, enabling merchants to conduct on-chain transfers

Payment giant PayPal has announced an expansion of its cryptocurrency services, allowing U.S. merchants to perform on-chain transfers. Jose Fernandez da Ponte, Senior Vice President of Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, and Digital Currencies at PayPal, said the move responds to growing merchant demand for crypto functionality. The new feature enables merchants to make external crypto transfers to third-party qualified wallets and receive or send supported crypto tokens between external blockchain addresses.

Initia, full-chain Rollup network, raises $14M in Series A led by Theory Ventures

Initia, a full-chain Rollup network, has announced the completion of a $14 million Series A funding round led by Theory Ventures, with participation from Delphi Ventures, Hack VC, and several prominent angel investors. This brings Initia’s total funding to $22.5 million, including prior seed funding from Delphi Ventures and Hack VC, and pre-seed investment from Binance Labs. Initia plans to launch its mainnet and token generation event (TGE) within the next two months, with at least six L2 networks going live on day one. Currently, 12 teams have publicly announced they are building application-specific chains on Initia’s Interwoven Stack, collectively having raised over $13 million.

Binance launches pre-market spot trading service

Binance has announced the launch of a pre-market spot trading service, allowing users to trade tokens before their official listing. This is the first industry offering of actual token pre-market trading, not derivatives. The service will operate in conjunction with Binance Launchpool, with only selected Launchpool tokens eligible. During the pre-market phase, tokens will be subject to withdrawal, transfer, and deposit restrictions until the official listing. Binance stated that pre-market trading will end at least four hours before formal spot trading begins.

OneKey Card announces service termination, no new registrations or top-ups after September 30

OneKey Card users recently received official email notifications stating the service will officially shut down on January 31, 2025. According to the email, the shutdown plan consists of three phases: starting September 30, 2024, the platform will cease accepting new user registrations and existing user top-ups; on October 31, 2024, all cards will be automatically deleted, with remaining balances transferred to users’ OneKey Card wallet accounts, from which funds can be withdrawn to exchange accounts or Web3 addresses at any time; finally, the OneKey Card service will fully terminate on January 31, 2025.

Vitalik: Glad to see Celo gaining attention; focusing on developing countries is a smart choice

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin posted on social platform X, expressing appreciation for Celo’s recent developments. He said: “Improving global access to basic payments and financial services has always been one of Ethereum’s key ways of benefiting the world—glad to see Celo getting attention.” He specifically highlighted Celo’s clear focus on developing countries, calling it a wise strategy due to the significant challenges and opportunities present in these regions. Celo recently announced its transition into an Ethereum L2 solution and emphasized alignment with Ethereum’s culture. Data shows that Celo recently surpassed TRON in daily active addresses related to stablecoin usage.

AC: Sonic mainnet to open to the public in December

Andre Cronje, Chief Technology Officer of Sonic Labs, announced on social platform X that the Sonic mainnet will open to the public in December 2024. The network will offer multiple advantages for developers and users, including up to 90% gas fee rebates for applications built or submitted on the network—funded by user and contract transaction fees. In terms of performance, Sonic promises over 10,000 TPS and approximately 1-second transaction confirmation times. The network will launch a native stablecoin and connect via an Ethereum security gateway. Developers will receive various forms of funding support, including grants from the Sonic BOOM program and Innovator Fund. A 200 million token airdrop is also planned.

OpenAI CEO announces major executive changes, refocusing on technology and products

Sam Altman, OpenAI founder and CEO, announced on social media significant leadership changes: CTO Mira Murati, Chief Scientist Bob, and another senior executive Barret are departing. Altman described these decisions as independent and amicable. Mark will take over as Senior Vice President of Research, working alongside Chief Scientist Jakub to lead the research team. Josh Achiam will serve as Head of Mission Alignment, while Kevin and Srinivas continue leading the applications team, and Matt Knight becomes Chief Information Security Officer. Altman emphasized that although the changes may seem sudden, leadership transitions are a natural outcome of rapid company growth. He plans to refocus his efforts on the company’s technology and products and will discuss these changes further in an upcoming all-hands meeting.

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