金融稳定 · 1285
Millions of dollars are rushing into the market, but some are in a hurry to exit: Pharos's high-interest treasury causes a “view of time” collision

Millions of dollars are rushing into the market, but some are in a hurry to exit: Pharos's high-interest treasury causes a “view of time” collision

Article: Sanqing, Foresight NewsSharos Network joined forces with Vault infrastructure agreement R25 and credit asset management agency Axil to launch Axil Prime Credit Vault (APC), an institutional consumer credit RWA wealth management product issued by Pharos on July 15. The products were launched simultaneously with Binance Wallet, TopNod, OKX Wallet, Bitget Wallet, and KuCoin Wallet, with a total fundraising limit of 100 million USDC, with a target annualization of about 14.3%. As of the closing of the deposit window, a total of $45.39 million had been deposited. This year, there have been frequent security explosions in Web3 on-chain strategies. User funds are looking for new stable income sources, and project parties are also there. Binance Wallet is now offering an additional $300,000 PROS as an incentive to explore RWA Vault's market space, causing the Vault to generate a lot of discussion in the market. The launch time coincided with the redemption period of the Pharos TGE pre-deposit campaign. The previous treasury required the submission of a redemption application about half a month before the end of the lockdown period, stop accruing interest on July 20, and complete the redemption within 7 days. Users accustomed to DeFi T+0 looked back and found that they couldn't help but missed the redemption period and began to question the redemption time and asset safety. R25 and Axil then held an AMA at Binance Square. Well-known KOLs such as Haotian and Tianqing participated in discussions, detailing the differences between RWA assets and DeFi Vault, the role of fund managers (Curators), why consumer credit is worth allocating, and risk management methods from pre-investment to post-investment. In complex asset logic and mixed social media discussions, some users put in one million funds on the last day, while others sought early redemptions from the project party. On July 23, Pharos issued an announcement: Users who submitted applications on time in the previous issue have received all principal and interest, breaking the “financial security” concerns; funds that missed the window will automatically be carried forward to the next three-month cycle according to the treasury's preset rules, and interest will continue to be accrued at 14% USDC per annum. The controversy revealed more important issues than the redemption itself. Although the RWA TVL has exceeded $38 billion, non-institutional chain users are clearly dissatisfied when investing in RWA products. Institution-driven, stable, and high interest rates, but often require longer lockdown periods and complex understanding costs. From DeFi to RWA, is the market really ready? High yield, low threshold, and high liquidity. BlackRock's “impossible triangle” of RWA's BUIDL threshold is $5 million. It is only open to qualified buyers, yet it can be redeemed almost instantly through the stablecoin channel; the APC threshold is so low that ordinary users can buy it at will; instead, it must be locked for three months. Liquidity has never been determined by how high or low the threshold is, but rather how quickly the underlying assets can be realized. The bottom layer of BUIDL is US treasury bonds, and the world's deepest secondary market can take over at any time; the bottom layer of APC is hundreds of thousands of emerging market consumer loans, and few people are ready to buy large amounts of capital at any time. This has formed a triangle that RWA cannot bypass at this stage: high yield, low threshold, and high liquidity; the three can only take two. For example, Franklin Templeton's BENJI starts at $20 (low threshold) and supports daily redemption (high liquidity), and the annualization is only 3% to 5%; if you want double-digit returns, you have to accept non-standard assets and a lock-up period. This is the liquidity premium. A significant portion of the excess income is the consideration for abandoning liquidity. APC, on the other hand, is a combination of high returns and a low threshold, and the cost is liquidity. There is nothing wrong with this trade-off itself; it also explains the full source of this controversy. Retail investors have obtained assets that were originally only open to institutions, and they have also taken over the agency's time rules that focus on long-term matching. The period of use of institutional funds is scheduled before investment, and the lockdown period is a predictable cost; private equity credit and closed-end funds already have redemption restrictions. However, most ordinary users on the chain are not the same; most of the latter's first appeal is to go in and out. So the current “retail” RWA is mostly just distribution-side retailing, to be precise. Web3 wallets and low initial investment amounts have contributed to a low threshold, but the liquidity structure is still designed according to institutional logic. Having understood this triangle, the remaining questions became specific: why must the liquidity side be sacrificed, a high income of 14.3%...

2d agoForesight News#WEB3

Federal Reserve Hamak: Unsure that inflation will continue to improve; inflation needs to be reduced to 2% faster

Comparing the news, according to Kim 10, the Federal Reserve's Hamak recently stated that inflation needs to be reduced to 2% faster. He said, “The two recent inflation reports are encouraging, but we are not sure that inflation will continue to improve in this direction. Americans are facing real pressure from inflation. In addition to inflation, we also need to focus on private credit and whether there is a bubble in artificial intelligence. There is also noise in employment data. Currently, a large amount of leverage is used to buy treasury bonds, so treasury bonds are one area where I am concerned about financial stability.”

9d ago
Who are the Chinese buyers who have invested $100 million in Trump's cryptocurrency?

Who are the Chinese buyers who have invested $100 million in Trump's cryptocurrency?

On July 19, at the World Cup final in East Rutherford, New Jersey, Zhou Guren (top left) appeared in a private room with Zach Witkoff on the right. Vincent Alban for The New York Times saw the World Cup finals in New Jersey last month, Zack Witkoff, the co-founder of President Trump's cryptocurrency company, in a luxurious private room. Also watching the game was a man who brought huge wealth to the president and all of the company's co-founders. Two years ago, this man named Zhou Guren (English name Bobby) was also a failed hardwood flooring retailer in the UK and was investigated there on suspicion of money laundering; he headed a small cryptocurrency startup that eventually directed the broadcast. He then seemed to come out of thin air and became one of the biggest buyers of Trump's “World Free Finance” tokens, investing a total of $100 million through a new company called Aqua 1. For several months, he kept a low profile, speaking only briefly as Aqua 1's “Mr. Bobby” during an audio broadcast on the X platform where almost no one followed. “We are very proud to be a major player in 'world liberty', the Trump family's crypto enterprise,” he said. As much as $75 million of this funding was distributed to a company controlled by the president and his three sons, according to World Free Finance regulations. The money also benefited Steve Vitkov's family, the Trump administration's peace envoy and Zach Vitkov's father. In any era in the past, there was no public evidence that a foreigner with such financial resources offered such a huge amount of money to the US president would necessarily be considered contrary to political practice, and could even lead to congressional investigation. However, Zhou Guren's confusing case just revealed how easy it is for buyers with unknown origins and unclear motives to use the anonymity of cryptocurrencies to send large amounts of money to Trump. According to the president's recent financial disclosure report, he received $1.4 billion in revenue from his cryptocurrency business last year, mostly from anonymous sources. At present, it is unclear how deep the World Free Finance Corporation has investigated Zhou Guren's background, but the UK money laundering investigation is publicly searchable information, and part of Zhou Guren's troubled business history can also be found publicly. A court record filed in November last year accuses Zhou Guren of participating in money laundering activities with five other people starting in 2019. However, he has yet to be prosecuted. British officials said at the end of last month that the investigation was still ongoing. His deal with World Free Finance raised a series of questions: How did he obtain such huge sums of money? Does World Free Finance actually comply with anti-money laundering laws? Under relevant laws, in some cases, businesses must record the origin of customer funds before accepting them. Patrick Prinz, chief operating officer of Recoveris, headquartered in Switzerland, which specializes in investigating digital asset crimes, said that the multiple red flags described to him by the “New York Times” — Zhou Guren's experience of business failure, sudden acquisition of huge wealth, large transactions, and the fact that he is being investigated — should have triggered these record requirements. World Free Finance Corporation spokesman David Waxman said in a statement that the company has complied with all applicable laws and regulations. “World Free Finance has established a compliance system that meets or exceeds industry standards,” he said. Zhou Guren set up a company and paid $100 million to President Trump's main cryptocurrency business, “World Free Finance.” Gabby Jones/Bloomberg Waxman declined to say whether the company was aware of the source of the coin purchase funds. He said that the company did not agree with the “New York Times”'s “description of Mr. Zhou,” but did not specify. White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said Trump had no conflicts of interest and “acted only in the best interest of the American public.” Neither Zhou Guren himself nor his company responded to the New York Times's multiple contacts. Reuters was the first to reveal his identity as the person behind Aqua 1 at the helm. To this day, the true origin of the funds Zhou Guren paid to World Free Finance is still a mystery. But through dozens of interviews with former colleagues, reviews of classified documents, and analysis of court records and other public information, the New York Times's in-depth investigation of Zhou Guren's career revealed a bizarre trajectory. Just after his crypto company burned $7.6 million and he left London to move to the UAE in the summer of 2024, the fortune of this man who once seemed to be borrowing money from others took a dramatic turn...

11d agoWendy#Trump #World free finance #Trump

The EU will proceed with the MiCA review and plan to adjust the operating rules for non-EU stablecoins

Comparatively, the European Union (EU) has decided to review the current regulatory framework for crypto assets and stablecoins, even though the European Commission's Director-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets is still consulting on whether to review MiCA-related stablecoin provisions. The review aims to address the issue that non-EU stablecoin issuers are unable to obtain licenses due to current requirements. The review will be influenced by the passage of the US GENIUS Act and the Trump administration's push for stablecoin policies. The current framework doesn't include major foreign stablecoin issuers, including Tether, Patrick Hansen, Circle's senior director of stablecoin strategy and policy, said it left European crypto users unprotected or isolated. EU diplomats will also evaluate whether to expand the MiCA scope to include tokenized payment methods and tokenized deposits. MiCA's transition period for crypto asset service providers ended on July 1, and the framework was approved by the European Council on May 16, 2023, with some provisions based on market conditions over three years ago.

14d ago

Circle Executive: MiCA leaves EU users unable to access most major stablecoins

Comparatively speaking, Patrick Hansen, Circle's senior director of EU strategy and policy, said that after full implementation of the EU Crypto Asset Market Regulation Act (MiCA), 35 types of electronic currency tokens have been licensed from 21 issuers, and local issuers are progressing well. Patrick Hansen pointed out that MiCA's strict regulations have made it impossible for most major stablecoin issuers, including Tether, to meet operational requirements. Currently, only USDG, USDC, and EURC have passed the framework requirements. The rest of the stablecoins are outside MiCA regulations, and EU users are unprotected or unable to access. He believes MiCA's upcoming review should address this issue and provide a more pragmatic path for foreign issuers to operate. The EU Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union General Directorate launched a public consultation on May 20 to assess whether the current framework still applies. The consultation will continue until September 30.

15d ago

US Senator Warren voiced support for crypto regulatory legislation but opposed the CLARITY Act

Comparing news, US Senator Elizabeth Warren said that she supports the promotion of crypto-related legislation, but does not support the current “CLARITY Act,” believing that the bill fails to adequately address key issues such as corruption, consumer protection, national security, and economic risks. Warren pointed out that the crypto industry needs a clear regulatory framework, but the regulatory scheme must ensure investors' rights and the safety of the financial system. She believes the CLARITY Act falls short in preventing conflicts of interest, protecting consumers, and mitigating potential systemic risks. The CLARITY Act aims to further clarify the division of regulatory responsibilities in the US digital asset market and establish a clearer legal framework for crypto asset transactions, issuances, and market participants. Proponents believe the bill will help increase industry certainty and drive innovation. However, some Democratic lawmakers, including Warren, have previously expressed concerns about crypto regulation legislation, believing that some plans may weaken the powers of regulators and create room for regulatory arbitrage for large crypto companies. Warren has long been cautious about crypto assets, focusing on consumer protection, financial stability, and the risk of illegal activity in the crypto market. This statement shows that US crypto regulation legislation still faces a game between the two parties and different interest groups. (CoinDesk)

16d ago#Clarify the topic of the bill

US and UK expand digital asset regulatory cooperation and plan to develop comparable stablecoin standards

Comparing news, the US Treasury Department issued a joint statement outlining discussions at the US-UK Financial Supervisory Working Group meeting held in London on July 8. Both regulators are expanding collaboration in the fields of digital assets, stablecoins, payment modernization, AI, financial stability, capital markets, and cross-border financial cooperation. Participants included the finance departments of the two countries, the Bank of England, the Federal Reserve, the United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority, and various US financial regulators. The US side introduced the progress of implementation of the stablecoin GENIUS Act and the digital asset market structure, while the British side introduced the digital strategy for the wholesale financial market. Both sides support comparable regulatory standards for stablecoins, including cross-border use, comparable treatment of similar risks, and stablecoins used as currency supported by at least one-to-one high-quality liquid asset reserves. The US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has proposed standards for implementing the GENIUS Act, covering reserves, redemption, capital, liquidity, risk management, escrow and custody. The Bank of England has issued draft stablecoin rules that can reach a systemic scale in the UK economy, including a temporary issuance limit of £40 billion for each systemic stablecoin, and unrestricted use and reserve requirements for individuals and businesses. The Financial Supervisory Task Force is expected to meet again in early 2027.

16d ago

US and UK reaffirm commitment to stablecoin and tokenization regulatory cooperation

Comparatively, according to Cointelegraph, at the 13th Anglo-American Financial Supervisory Working Group (FRWG) meeting held in London on July 8, the US and the UK reaffirmed their commitment to strengthen financial supervision cooperation and discussed topics such as stablecoin regulation, digital asset market structure, tokenization, and digital strategies for the UK wholesale financial market. According to the joint statement, the US informed the British side about the progress of implementation of the “GENIUS Act” and the work related to the digital asset market structure. The statement supports “responsible” digital asset innovation and emphasizes financial stability and international regulatory cooperation. On July 14, the “Future Markets Transatlantic Working Group” (TTMF) further issued preliminary stablecoin proposals and joint statements, laying the foundation for the US and the UK to continue to play a leading role in digital assets and capital markets.

17d ago