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BIG3 NFT buyers sue Ice Cube's basketball league for alleged fraud.
PANews reported on July 8th that, according to Decrypt, buyers of NFTs for the BIG3 basketball league, owned by American rapper Ice Cube, have filed a class-action lawsuit in California court, accusing the league of engaging in false and fraudulent marketing during its 2022 Ethereum NFT sales. The NFTs were divided into two tiers: Fire tier at $25,000 and Gold tier at $5,000. BIG3 promised holders ownership of the team, voting rights, season tickets, and a share of future team sales revenue, claiming these rights would be "permanent," but these promises were not fulfilled. In 2024, BIG3 sold four teams to external investors for approximately $40 million, and the lawsuit alleges that a portion of the proceeds should have gone to the NFT holders, who were among the league's earliest private investors.
Kraken's parent company wins $22 million arbitration case against auditing firm Mazars.
Odaily that Kraken's parent company, Payward, has won an arbitration against its former auditing firm, Mazars USA, with the arbitrator ruling that Mazars must pay Payward $22 million. Payward is currently seeking confirmation of the arbitration award and a final judgment from the Delaware Court of Chancery. The controversy stemmed from the peak of "Operation Choke Point 2.0" in 2022. Payward claims that Mazars abruptly withdrew from an audit of Kraken that was nearly complete, without finding any problems with the company, but this move damaged Kraken's reputation and forced it to spend years and significant legal fees clarifying its situation. Payward co-CEO Arjun Sethi stated that auditing is not a "gift" for crypto companies, but rather a critical infrastructure for maintaining trust with banks, licenses, counterparties, and regulators. An auditing firm withdrawing without finding anything negative leaves the company unjustly shrouded in suspicion. "Operation Choke Point 2.0" is the crypto industry's term for the regulatory pressure exerted during the Biden administration, referring to the informal pressure exerted by US regulators on banks to restrict services to crypto businesses after the FTX collapse. Sethi stated that the US FDIC sent at least 25 letters to 24 banks, demanding that they suspend or avoid expanding their crypto-related businesses. This ruling is also seen as a legal counterattack by the crypto industry against such regulatory pressure.
Dragonfly partner Haseeb: VVV's essence has been misunderstood. Venice is essentially a company, not a decentralized network or on-chain protocol.
On July 5th, PANews reported that Dragonfly partner Haseeb released a video on the X platform stating that Venice is essentially a company, not a decentralized network or on-chain protocol, and the vast majority of its customers are not crypto users. There is a clear misunderstanding in the market regarding its token, VVV: VVV does not represent company equity, nor does it possess attributes similar to "network equity." Even after the airdrop, the company founders invested millions of dollars of their own funds in operations and did not raise funds by selling tokens. Haseeb pointed out that no founder would give up 50% of a company's equity for free in the early stages, and the narrative that equates tokens with equity is logically flawed. He also denied claims of "unclear information," stating that the project team has always clearly defined VVV's positioning.
Venice AI raises $65 million in Series A funding, valuing the company at $1 billion.
PANews reported on July 1st that Venice AI, a privacy-first AI platform, announced the completion of a $65 million Series A funding round, valuing the company at $1 billion post-money. The round was led by crypto venture capital firm Dragonfly, with participation from Coinbase Ventures and others. Founded two years ago, Venice AI offers access to over 200 open-source and closed-source models, claims to be "uncensored," and emphasizes user-side encryption and no data retention. Currently, it boasts over 3 million monthly active users, approximately 1.7 million daily API calls, and annualized revenue exceeding $70 million, and is already profitable. The company plans to use the funds to purchase GPUs and build its own data center to reduce reliance on leased GPUs and improve gross margins.
With the US copper tariff decision imminent, the supply and demand of "computing power metals" is poised for a shift.
Last July, the US government announced a tariff plan for copper. Previously, only semi-finished copper products were subject to a 50% tariff, while refined copper was temporarily exempted. However, the plan was to gradually impose tariffs on refined copper starting in 2027. The final decision on whether this plan would be implemented was expected by the end of June. The US Department of Commerce was required to submit its investigation report on the "Section 232 tariffs" by June 30th and make a final decision accordingly. With the June 30th deadline for the release of the US "Section 232 tariffs" investigation report approaching, the global AI computing power-related metals market is expected to experience another round of volatility. International investment banks such as Goldman Sachs analyze that if the US implements a new round of tariffs on copper, US buyers may begin large-scale stockpiling. Currently, US COMEX copper inventories have exceeded 650,000 tons, reaching a historical high. At the same time, in the international market, the supply shortage of minor metals deeply integrated into the AI computing power industry chain, such as tungsten, tin, tantalum, and indium, may be further exacerbated. (Securities Times)
TikTok's Parent Company Just Borrowed $30 Billion to Go All-In on AI
Nearly 30 banks backed the rare unsecured facility as TikTok’s parent company spends heavily on AI chips, models, and overseas data centers.