clarification

The SEC's financial department stated that widely governed participants who are not related and have no separate collaborative action arrangements typically do not constitute a central party in the identification of digital commodities.

The innovation exemption for tokenized securities trading venues launched by the U.S. SEC in September is sparking controversy within the industry regarding blockchain qualification standards. This exemption allows eligible companies to trade tokenized U.S. stocks without registering as traditional securities exchanges, but requires their smart contracts to be auditable, public, and deployed on a public, permissionless blockchain.Currently, three companies have submitted operational intent notices to the SEC. TSV LLC plans to use the privacy-focused Canton Network; OKXICE and Kephas Corp. intend to utilize their respective enterprise group's developed Ethereum Layer 2 networks.In a letter submitted on Thursday, the Solana Policy Institute requested the SEC to tighten the definition of "permissionless," focusing on who actually controls the blockchain, including who can validate or block transactions and modify network rules. Hedera advocates for an expansion of the exemption's scope, arguing that only authorized entities should participate in validation, which should not disqualify their network.The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) also called for clarification on which blockchains are eligible and questioned whether stock tokenization should require explicit prior consent from the issuing company, rather than requiring companies to opt out. The financial regulatory advocacy group Better Markets urged the SEC to withdraw the exemption and instead engage in formal rulemaking.An SEC official stated that companies can begin operations 30 days after submitting a notice, provided they meet the exemption criteria, without waiting for SEC approval, which does not imply SEC endorsement of their chosen blockchain. The official noted that the regulatory agency intends to maintain a broad definition to allow space for companies to experiment; further frequently asked questions may be released, but substantive adjustments would require action from the commission.Meanwhile, more companies are opposing the tokenization of their stocks. As of Friday, among the 62 companies initially listed by OKXICE, 22 have raised objections, exceeding one-third. New objectors include Wells Fargo, Arm, and Intuit.

The American Blockchain Association stated that it has submitted comments on the proposed implementation rules for Section 3 of the GENIUS Act by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The association recommends clarifying the scope of "digital asset service providers" to exclude self-custody software, validators, and businesses that only trade their own assets; regarding criminal liability for participating in the illegal issuance of stablecoins, it should be based on actual knowledge and substantial assistance coordinated with the issuer.The association also suggested that trading platforms could determine the compliance of foreign stablecoins based on the official issuer list and trading bans, and adjust the criteria for determining user locations in unlicensed agreements.

The UK Parliament's Crypto and Digital Assets APPG co-chair Gurinder Singh Josan and Lord Vaizey of Didcot have written to the CEOs of all major UK banks, requesting clarification on how they treat cryptocurrency and digital asset businesses. The letter raises six questions regarding the banks' current policies, whether they provide services to crypto businesses, related transaction restrictions and their determining factors, and whether they have adjusted their practices since the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulatory regime came into effect.The group stated that many crypto businesses find it difficult to open bank accounts in the UK, and some banks restrict related payments. This letter stems from the parliamentary inquiry into access to banking services launched on July 21, with written submissions due by August 31. A January survey by the UK Crypto Asset Business Council indicated that the proportion of transactions blocked or delayed by banks when transferring to crypto exchanges is estimated to be as high as 40%. HSBC, NatWest, Monzo, and Nationwide limit the amount transferred to crypto exchanges each month to between £5,000 and £10,000, while Starling and Chase UK prohibit such transfers altogether. Lucy Rigby, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, stated that the government does not want FCA-licensed businesses to be restricted by banks solely because of their industry; the FCA completed the relevant rules in June, and the regime will be enforced from October 2027.

The cryptocurrency trading platform Bybit stated that it has noted its inclusion in the Investor Alert List of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and is actively communicating with the Monetary Authority of Singapore to further understand the basis for this listing.Bybit claims that the company has maintained open and constructive communication with MAS and continues to take measures to prevent users in Singapore from accessing its platform, including explicitly restricting access in its terms of service and geo-blocking Singapore IPs. It currently does not provide services to users in Singapore and stated that it will continue to cooperate with regulatory authorities globally. Updates will be announced in a timely manner if there are further developments.

Grayscale has released its latest research report, with Grayscale's research director Zach Pandl stating that as the CLARITY Act progresses and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) provides clearer guidelines, tokenized assets and blockchain applications such as decentralized finance (DeFi) may see development.Grayscale believes that Ethereum, Solana, BNB Chain, and Canton Network, which currently dominate financial activities on relevant chains, may be the first to attract institutional capital. The article states that in the fields of tokenized assets, stablecoins, and DeFi, Ethereum, Solana, and BNB Chain are in leading positions, while Canton Network also holds a significant share in the direction of tokenized assets.

According to a recent video interview by Cointelegraph, Dr. Han, the founder and CEO of Gate, stated that the cryptocurrency industry is gradually shifting from a speculation-driven market to a phase focused on infrastructure development and real-world applications.Dr. Han pointed out that stablecoins, RWA, AI, and asset tokenization are becoming the core directions of the industry, while a clearer regulatory framework (such as the CLARITY Act) is expected to further promote DeFi, payments, and on-chain financial innovations.Dr. Han also mentioned that high user entry barriers, security risks, and fragmented liquidity remain significant challenges currently faced by the industry. In the future, the cryptocurrency industry will further integrate with traditional finance and play a more important role in areas such as payments, settlements, and the circulation of digital assets.Gate continues to deepen its multi-asset and TradFi layout. In addition to expanding assets such as stocks, metals, foreign exchange, indices, and commodities, it has also launched Pre-IPOs and listed its first project, SpaceX (SPCX). At the same time, as one of the first CEX platforms to access Polymarket, Gate is continuously promoting the development of the prediction market ecosystem and accelerating the construction of a comprehensive trading platform covering both cryptocurrency and traditional finance.

In response to the recent market fluctuations of THE, THENA officially clarified that it has not been attacked. The incident originated from the THE market on Venus Protocol. THENA's smart contracts and all liquidity pools are secure and operating normally. They have now collaborated with zeroShadow and HypernativeLabs to identify early signals and coordinate with relevant parties (including law enforcement).THENA stated that it plans to significantly increase the APR of THE Single Sided Vaults (driven by the fees generated from this incident). Voters in this Epoch will receive excess returns due to the extreme volatility on Sunday.

YZi Labs issued a letter to the board of CEA Industries stating that CEA Industries' claim of a "secret agreement" with YZi Labs is completely false. The board was already aware of the contents of the agreement, and the law firm Winston & Strawn also provided advice, with board members Alexander Monie, Hans Thomas, and then-CEO of 10X Capital Namdar being involved throughout. The so-called "secret" is merely a misleading statement to the public.The request by CEA to terminate the Strategic Services Agreement (SSA) is equally absurd. YZi Labs terminated the agreement on December 11, 2025, and formally notified the board in writing on December 13. The SSA did not result in any payments and does not affect the negotiations of the 10X asset management agreement.The board is attempting to cover up the facts under the guise of an "investigation," concealing their inaction regarding known circumstances. YZi Labs calls on the board to immediately clarify the misleading statements, fully disclose the related party transactions involving Hans Thomas, and effectively safeguard shareholder interests.

According to the official social media of Backpack's NFT project Mad Lads, the project clearly states that NFT holders will not receive airdrops from Backpack, neither now nor in the future.Mad Lads emphasized in the announcement that community expectations have become overly enthusiastic, thus a reality check is needed, and stated that the community should focus on long-term value creation rather than airdrop expectations.

Scroll's official statement clarifies that the recent rumors about the closure of Scroll DAO stem from a misunderstanding of the governance structure reorganization announcement.The actual situation is that the DAO has not stopped; it is only undergoing governance structure adjustments. Governance is still functioning normally, and the Galileo upgrade proposal has been approved. Moving forward, community feedback will continue to be collected through the co-creation cycle. The complete governance plan for 2026 will be announced in January next year, and the current governance cycle will continue to progress before that.

According to CoinDesk, Circle has clarified that a recent press release claiming the launch of a tokenized gold and silver trading platform "CircleMetals" is false information. The news was released on Christmas Eve, faking Circle's brand and executive statements, and directing users to connect their wallets to participate in the exchange of USDC for gold (GLDC) and silver (SILC) tokens. Circle has confirmed that it has never launched this service, and the related website has been taken offline. Circle reminds users to be vigilant and not to trust unverified links and wallet connection requests.According to previous news from ChainCatcher, Circle launched a tokenized gold and silver swap service based on USDC.

ChainOpera AI issued a clarification statement on the X platform, stating that the project and its related ecosystem have not recently promoted or released any products related to "AI Trading," nor have they launched any testnets associated with such projects.ChainOpera AI stated that the rumors about its launch of a "violating authorization agreement AI trading platform and testnet" are false, this domain is inaccessible, and it has never been publicly disclosed through official channels. Currently, the official offerings include three types of formal products: AI terminal applications, AI Agent development platforms, and model services along with GPU platforms.

ChainCatcher news, the Trump family project World Liberty Financial (WLFI) clarifies the previous transaction regarding "the vault wallet has destroyed 47 million WLFI": "There are some misunderstandings about the WLFI tokens unlocked in the Safe, and WLFI has no plans to sell these tokens on the open market. The allocation of this portion of tokens is solely determined by community governance voting—how to use them is decided by the community.The status of the vault tokens is as follows:Initial quantity of 10 billion WLFI;47 million WLFI destroyed yesterday (governance decision);Current balance is 9.953 billion WLFI.All these tokens are subject to community governance rather than being decided by the team."

ChainCatcher message, according to the official clarification released by MYX Finance, the specific details regarding the 3% "Binance Wallet Airdrop" allocation are as follows:All 3% of the tokens will be reserved for the joint community reward program of MYX and Binance Wallet;These tokens will be specifically used for future community activities and will not be sold on the open market immediately;This batch of tokens was unlocked on August 5, with 1.5% released, and the remaining 1.5% will be unlocked on November 6, 2025. After each batch is unlocked, Binance Wallet will have the discretion to deploy these tokens in community activities. Before such activities are officially announced, the unlocked tokens will be kept in a designated reserve wallet and will not be put into circulation.

ChainCatcher news, according to a post by WLFI clarifying to the community, no tokens of any co-founders, team members, or advisors will be unlocked at the time of launch. Additionally, there will not be another private sale round; instead, they will collaborate with mainstream trading platforms to launch the WLFI token reward program------allowing users to earn tokens on platforms they already trust and use.Regarding the unlocking plan:Only the portion of tokens purchased at $0.015 and $0.05 during the public sale will be unlocked initially; moreover, the treasury tokens are solely for injecting liquidity. After the launch, the team will submit a community vote to decide the unlocking schedule for the remaining tokens at $0.015 and $0.05 (as well as OTC trading tokens). Only after this voting is completed will the team submit another final vote for the community to determine the unlocking schedule for the tokens of the founders, team, and advisors.Currently, they are collaborating with mainstream CEX to ensure WLFI lands on user-friendly and familiar trading platforms. They will also provide DeFi options to cater to users who prefer a decentralized trading experience. Complete details of the launch plan will be announced soon.

ChainCatcher message, the Trump family's crypto project WLFI clarified in a post on the X platform that the governance vote mentioned will undergo KYC re-screening and transaction monitoring through TRM Labs. These are standard compliance updates conducted in the background, and users do not need to take any action. These safeguards have actually been widely adopted by mainstream exchanges and DeFi protocols, benefiting the health of the ecosystem.

ChainCatcher news, according to CNBC, the Bank of Lithuania has contacted Robinhood, awaiting clarification on the structure of the OpenAI and SpaceX stock tokens and related consumer communications. Robinhood has not yet commented on this. Giedrius Šniukas, a spokesperson for the Bank of Lithuania, stated that they can only assess the legality and compliance of these specific instruments after receiving and evaluating this information, and that the information provided to investors must be clear, fair, and not misleading.Previously, OpenAI Newsroom responded to the incident of "Robinhood CEO sharing that Robinhood has minted 2,309 OpenAI stock tokens on the Arbitrum network" by stating that "OpenAI tokens" are not equity in OpenAI, that there is no collaboration with Robinhood, and that they are not endorsing this matter. Any transfer of OpenAI equity requires its approval.