This Week's Noteworthy Events(2024.1.8-2024.1.14)

Swan Bitcoin CEO: Bitcoin Spot ETF Approval Window May Have Narrowed to January 8th, 9th, or 10th

Swan Bitcoin's CEO, Cory Klippsten, in an interview with Bloomberg, highlighted that the Bitcoin spot ETF functions similarly to warrants on a product, distinguishing it from futures-based alternatives. Essentially, it represents a paper form of Bitcoin, necessitating companies to acquire actual Bitcoin to support investors.

Klippsten remarked, “It's a great way for people to get exposure to Bitcoin, and then if they want to dig deeper into Bitcoin, they can also own more Bitcoin.”

Moreover, aligning with other

cryptocurrency

analysts, Klippsten anticipates the potential approval of the Bitcoin ETF in January 2024. He expressed optimism, stating, “The timeframe seems to have narrowed down to January 8th, 9th, or 10th. Given all the signals we've received from the U.S. SEC and insiders, this speculated timing seems plausible.”

BitMEX Plans to Send Bitcoin to the Moon on January 8

BitMEX will collaborate with Astrobotic, Bitcoin Magazine, and Oxcart Assembly to send Bitcoin to the moon. The mission is scheduled to launch on January 8, 2024, from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. It aims to showcase the potential of Bitcoin and blockchain technology in establishing a borderless financial system beyond Earth.

This mission will mark the first Western soft landing on the moon since NASA's Apollo 17 mission in 1972. Bitcoin is expected to arrive on the moon around February 23, 2024.

Bitstamp to Terminate Services for Canadian Customers on January 8

Cryptocurrency exchange

platform Bitstamp will cease its services in Canada on January 8. Bobby Zagotta, the CEO of Bitstamp USA, stated, “After providing preliminary notice to customers in March, Bitstamp will officially cease offering services to Canadian customers starting from January 8, 2024. All Canadian accounts will be closed, and customers will no longer have access to their accounts.”

Binance Launches New Coin Mining for Project Xai (XAI), Trading Open on January 9th

According to the official announcement, Binance's

new coin

mining has now launched its 43rd project, Xai (XAI), which is the first game blockchain built on Arbitrum L3.

Users can deposit BNB, FDUSD, TUSD into the XAI mining pool on the Launchpad website after 8:00 AM (GMT+8) on January 5, 2024, to receive XAI rewards. The XAI mining period will last for a total of 4 days. The website is expected to be updated approximately within twenty-four hours of this announcement before the start of the mining activity.

Binance will officially launch Xai (XAI) on January 9, 2024, at 6:00 PM (GMT+8). They will open XAI/BTC, XAI/USDT, XAI/BNB, XAI/FDUSD, XAI/TUSD, and XAI/TRY trading markets, applying the seed label trading rules.

SEC to Decide on Bitcoin Spot ETF Application by January 10th

SEC officials have previously met with representatives from at least 7 issuers who are looking to launch Bitcoin spot ETFs in early 2024. The decision regarding the joint proposal submitted by ARK Investments and 21 Shares is expected to be made by January 10 next year, at the latest, whether to approve or reject it.

ETHGlobal Releases 2024 Hackathon Schedule, LFGHO Starts on January 12th

ETHGlobal has officially announced its 2024 schedule, confirming 20 hackathon events: LFGHO (January 12 - January 24), Circuit Breaker (February 2 - February 21), Pragma Denver (February 28), Pragma London (March 14), ETHGlobal London (March 15 - March 17), Scaling Ethereum 2024 (April 5 - April 26), Pragma Sydney (May 2), ETHGlobal Sydney (May 3 - May 5), Pragma Brussels (July 11), ETHGlobal Brussels (July 12 - July 14), ETHOnline 2024 (August 23 - September 13), ETHGlobal Singapore (September 20 - September 22), Pragma San Francisco (October 15 - October 17), ETHGlobal San Francisco (October 18 - October 20), ETHGlobal Devcon 2024 (tentatively in November), and 5 other additional events.

Winter 2023 Polkadot Hackathon Announces Top 25 Finalist Projects, Demo Day on January 14th

The list of finalists for the 2023 Winter Polkadot Hackathon, co-hosted by OneBlock+ and Parity, has been officially announced, featuring a total of 25 outstanding projects successfully advancing to the finals. These selected projects cover various domains, including decentralized operating systems (W 3 OS), blockchain indexing (CBIndex), games (Space Trader, zkPokerdot), financial applications (Whale Finance), among others.

The shortlisted projects will present demonstrations on Demo Day, scheduled for January 14, 2024, at Hong Kong Cyberport, with the chance to win over $600,000 in prize money! This event offers a unique opportunity for project teams to showcase their innovation and technical prowess while engaging in in-depth discussions and interactions with industry professionals, envisioning their plans within the Polkadot ecosystem.

The list of finalists for the 2023 Winter Polkadot Hackathon is as follows: W 3 OS, Bilinearity, CBIndex, Space Trader, Mimir, OpenQF, CreatorX, AIDot, zkPokerdot, Melodot, ThreeCat, Trable, Blend, Whale Finance, Web3 Plugin Polkadot, EVM Account Mapping, Cyborg Network, Zerk, DeQ, MonteCarlo, Xcavate-RealXchange, Plats Event, DePHY Blockchain, PlanetDAO, and Hexalem.