Meta tests prediction-market app, DOJ moves to seize $1.2 billion from Binance hack, and more

The following article is adapted from The Block's newsletter, The Daily, which comes out on weekday afternoons.

Happy Friday! Bitcoin fell below $69,000 as Nvidia-related turmoil added to market jitters over the Federal Reserve's interest rate outlook.

In today's newsletter, Meta tests a prediction-market app with employees, the DOJ moves to seize $1.2 billion from the Binance hack, two dormant bitcoin addresses move 100 BTC after more than 16 years, and more.

Meanwhile, Hyperliquid overtakes Bybit, Kraken and OKX in open interest, and MEGA cuts 20% of its workforce.

P.S. Don't forget to check out The Latent, our sister website covering AI. Get The Latent Daily here and all other The Block newsletters here. Also, follow The Block and The Latent on X for more updates.

Meta tests prediction-market app using points instead of cash: WSJ

Meta has begun testing a prediction-market app with employees, allowing them to wager points on the outcomes of events rather than real money, The Wall Street Journal reported.

• The app, currently called Takes, uses "cred" points, short for credibility. Users earn points for correct predictions and lose them for incorrect ones.
• The project was first reported in June under the name Arena, when Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg directed employees to develop a standalone prediction-market app.
• The app is not publicly available, and it remains unclear whether Meta will release it. The testing comes as Kalshi and Polymarket face state lawsuits over their event contracts.

DOJ moves to seize $1.2 billion from Binance hack, disrupts North Korean deepfake scheme

The U.S. Department of Justice obtained court approval to seize or restrain more than $1.2 billion stolen from Binance and disrupted a separate North Korean crypto theft scheme.

• The Binance funds are part of more than $2.7 billion frozen through efforts by U.S. authorities and private companies, with investigators continuing to trace stolen assets.
• The DOJ attributed the Binance hack to North Korean military hackers known as TraderTraitor, who stole more than $6 billion from the exchange in October.
• Separately, the DOJ seized cloud infrastructure used in a scheme the FBI calls FaceStealer, which has resulted in more than $400 million in crypto theft over 18 months.

Dormant bitcoin addresses move 100 BTC after more than 16 years

Two Bitcoin addresses that had been inactive for more than 16 years transferred a combined 100 BTC on Friday, worth around $6.9 million.

• Both addresses received 50 BTC each as mining rewards in September 2010, when the coins were worth about $3 per address.
• The transfers took place just over two minutes apart, with some of the bitcoin later consolidated into a new address.
• The identity of the owners, the reason for the transfers, and whether the two addresses belong to the same person remain unknown.

JPMorgan increases Strategy stake by 36%, holds $540 million in BlackRock's bitcoin ETF

JPMorgan increased its Strategy share holdings by 36% in the third quarter to 848,932 shares as of Sept. 30, according to its latest SEC filing.

• The position was valued at around $131.3 million at the end of September, up from 624,387 shares at the end of June.
• The bank also held 11.4 million shares of BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), worth about $540 million, a 9.6% increase in shares from the previous quarter.
• Other reported crypto-related holdings included 1.58 million Coinbase shares, stakes in Robinhood and several publicly traded bitcoin mining companies.

White House nominates four officials to fill SEC and CFTC seats

The White House nominated four individuals to fill vacant seats at the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

• Nathan Anonick and Matthew Rowland were nominated to the CFTC, while Kristin Johnson and Steven Levine were nominated to the SEC.
• Anonick and Rowland have both worked on the Clarity Act, while Johnson, a former CFTC commissioner, has regularly addressed crypto regulation.

In the next week

• The U.S. will release October retail sales, industrial production and import prices on Tuesday; housing starts and the Federal Reserve's meeting minutes on Wednesday; weekly jobless claims on Thursday; and November consumer sentiment data on Friday.
• The eurozone will release September industrial production data on Monday; November ZEW economic sentiment figures on Tuesday; final October inflation data and the ECB's Financial Stability Review on Wednesday; third-quarter labor cost figures on Thursday; and negotiated wage growth and November consumer confidence data on Friday.
• Major token unlocks next week include Cronos (CRO), Arbitrum (ARB), LayerZero (ZRO), Connex (CONX), Starknet (STRK) and KAITO (KAITO).

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