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Cointime News Wrapup-Afternoon Version: Crypto Investors Spent $4.6B Buying 'Pump and Dump' Tokens Last Year
To smooth and facilitate the reading experience for all users, we hereby compose this wrapup, especially for users who cannot check out what’s going on in a timely manner.
On October 22, U.S. semiconductor stocks collectively declined, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropping 5.67%, marking a new low since July 29. Among the component stocks, AMD fell 7.21%, Intel dropped 6.57%, Applied Materials decreased by 6.57%, Arm fell 6.75%, Seagate Technology dropped 7.81%, and Western Digital decreased by 6.95%. Micron Technology fell 4.29%, NVIDIA dropped 3.93%, TSMC decreased by 3.97%, Broadcom fell 3.79%, and ASML dropped 4.83%. Various sub-sectors, including memory and semiconductor equipment, as well as chip design, faced simultaneous pressure. Additionally, Lam Research fell 9.78%, Lumentum dropped 9.24%, Coherent decreased by 11.81%, and the 3x Long Semiconductor ETF fell 17.09%.
U.S. stock indices opened lower, with the Dow Jones down 0.44%, the S&P 500 down 0.91%, and the Nasdaq Composite down 1.55%. Chip equipment manufacturer Lam Research provided a disappointing earnings outlook, causing its stock to open down over 9%. Following a reduction in spending plans, Tesla's stock fell by 2.8%. Meta dropped over 4%, with the company's future spending commitments totaling $825 billion. IBM also fell over 4%, reporting third-quarter revenue of $17.1 billion, a 4.7% year-over-year increase.
On October 22, market sources reported that domestic large model company DeepSeek plans to raise approximately 100 billion yuan (about 15 billion USD) in its latest financing round. Tencent and CATL are the largest investors in this round, with the transaction expected to be officially completed in the coming days. As of now, neither DeepSeek nor the related investors, including Tencent, have publicly responded. Journalists have cross-verified the information with multiple sources close to the company and investors, confirming its accuracy. Sources revealed that the initial fundraising target was set at 50 billion yuan, which has since been raised multiple times to approximately 100 billion yuan, although it has not been officially announced and the final amount is still not fully determined. The funds will continue to be used for model training, computing power construction, and talent recruitment to support DeepSeek's participation in global competition. Some sources also speculate that this round of financing will pave the way for the company's upcoming IPO on the Sci-Tech Board. (Shanghai Securities Journal)
On October 22, Ethereum researchers proposed a draft for a rapid finality mechanism aimed at reducing the final transaction confirmation time from the current approximately 16 minutes to about 4 minutes, targeting an enhancement of around 4 times. The draft was submitted on Wednesday by Ben Edgington, the coordinator of the rapid finality research, and is still in the early stages, with no activation timeline determined yet. The proposal plans to split the validator voting for determining new blocks and finalizing historical blocks into two separate mechanisms, allowing for a faster pace of finality.
On October 22, Bloomberg reported that Visa is in talks to acquire the cryptocurrency custody infrastructure company Fireblocks, with a transaction valuation of approximately $2.5 billion. If the deal is finalized, it will further expand Visa's presence in the digital asset custody and blockchain payment infrastructure sectors. This information is yet to be confirmed, and specific terms and progress of the acquisition negotiations have not been disclosed.
On October 22, Sonic announced on the X platform that approximately 13 million S tokens will be transferred in the next 24 to 48 hours under a strategic over-the-counter (OTC) agreement. The counterparty is a long-term partner of Sonic, and both parties will collaborate to expand Sonic's reach and enhance user engagement through the partner's network.
On October 22, the Bank of Korea kept the policy interest rate unchanged at 3%, in line with market expectations. Previously, South Korea raised interest rates in consecutive meetings in July and August.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Becerra stated that the GENIUS Act is a milestone in the American financial sector, further solidifying the U.S. position as a global cryptocurrency hub. He compared the bill to the National Currency Act signed by President Lincoln in 1863, asserting that it establishes a federal regulatory framework for stablecoin payments in the digital age. Becerra also mentioned that the final rules issued by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) will facilitate the implementation of the bill, providing a clear and pragmatic institutional foundation for private sector innovation, market competition, and maintaining U.S. leadership in the digital asset space.
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