Techub News Evening Report: Plasma Raises Over $373 Million, ETH Strategy Raises 12,342 Ethereum

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority will hold a technical briefing on the stablecoin issuer regulatory system today at 16:30. The briefing will be led by a senior management team, including Deputy Chief Executive Chen Weimin, Assistant Chief Executive Chen Jinghong, Assistant Chief Executive He Hanjie, and Digital Finance Head He Hongzhe. The HKMA previously stated that it will release stablecoin implementation guidelines this month, clarifying core regulatory details such as anti-money laundering and customer identification. The regulator also reminds the market to maintain a rational perspective and avoid excessive hype, with the first batch of stablecoin issuer licenses strictly limited to single digits, planned to be issued by the end of the year.

With Hong Kong's stablecoin regulations set to take effect in August, local media reports that JD's (9618) blockchain platform has registered "JCOIN" and "JOYCOIN", suggesting these may be the names of their stablecoins. According to the registration details cited in the report, the services for "JCOIN" and "JOYCOIN" include electronic fund transfers and crypto financial transactions via blockchain technology.

Crypto venture capital firm Mill City today announced signing a securities purchase agreement for a private investment in public equity, purchasing 83,025,830 common shares (or equivalent) at $5.42 per share, with an expected total yield of approximately $450 million. Participants include Big Brain Holdings, Galaxy Digital Inc (NASDAQ: GLXY), Dr Jack Kong – NLABS Fund, as well as Pantera Capital, M2, Electric Capital, GSR, Selini, Protagonist, ParaFi Capital, Borderless, dao5, Arrington Capital, Comma3 Ventures, FalconX, Paper Ventures, and Maven 11. The issuance is expected to be completed around July 31, 2025, subject to customary closing conditions. The company plans to use approximately 98% of the private placement net proceeds to acquire the native cryptocurrency of the Sui blockchain, with about 2% allocated to supporting the company's short-term lending business. SUI will serve as the company's primary financial reserve asset.

With Hong Kong's stablecoin regulations taking effect on Friday (August 1), Circle Tech, a participant in the HKMA stablecoin issuer sandbox, has its CEO Liu Yu stating in a recent interview an intention to issue a Hong Kong dollar stablecoin HKDR on the Ethereum public chain. The planned stablecoin will have three main application scenarios: digital asset trading, cross-border trade, and asset tokenization, with an expectation that enterprise and personal operations will become commonplace within 3-5 years.

Fidelity National Information Services (FIS), a U.S. banking technology service provider, has partnered with Circle Internet Group to offer USDC-based transaction services for financial institutions. The two aim to help U.S. banks provide options for domestic and cross-border payments using USDC. FIS plans to integrate USDC into its capital flow platform, with the service expected to launch by the end of the year. This collaboration provides Circle with a potential distribution channel covering thousands of financial institutions using its technology.

Plasma announced the conclusion of its public offering, with subscription amounts exceeding $373 million, oversubscribed by more than 7 times.

ETH Strategy announced that this financing was completed through three separate channels targeting different investor groups. The private pre-sale raised 6,900 Ethereum, while the public offering raised 1,242 Ethereum. Additionally, 4,200 Ethereum were raised through redeemable warrants. All categories offer STRAT tokens at different rates, with investors subject to a four-month lock-up period, followed by a two-month linear release plan starting from the token generation event. ETH Strategy plans to deploy 11,817 Ethereum into core protocol operations, including Ethereum staking and protocol liquidity protection. The remaining 525 Ethereum will be dedicated to protocol development and growth activities, covering operational expenses, security audits, team compensation, and community projects.

The bill allows issuers to collect interest income from endorsed assets while prohibiting payments to stablecoin converters. This can be easily circumvented by buying digitized U.S. Treasuries with exchanged stablecoins, which is no different from purchasing Treasuries with fiat currency. Moreover, cryptocurrency loan yields are higher than Treasury yields.

When "manipulation" becomes a key indicator of token price increases, we can conclude that the current on-chain cycle is nearing its end. While the ecosystem's "health" appears better on the surface, in reality, some participants are using "manipulation" as a tool to artificially drive up the prices of certain tokens.