DEEPSEEK
DeepSeek is an AI company and a family of large language models based in Hangzhou, China. It was founded in 2023 and funded by High-Flyer, a well - known quantitative asset management giant. DeepSeek is dedicated to developing advanced large language models and related technologies. It has released several models, including DeepSeek LLM, DeepSeek Coder, DeepSeekMath, and DeepSeek - VL. The latest version, DeepSeek - V3, which was launched in December 2024, has 67.1 billion parameters and was trained on a dataset of 14.8 trillion tokens. It uses FP8 training and open - sources the native FP8 weights. Benchmark tests show that it outperforms Llama 3.1 and Qwen 2.5 while matching GPT - 4O and Claude 3.5 Sonnet. In addition, DeepSeek - R1, which was officially released on January 20, 2025, performs on a par with OpenAI O1 in terms of mathematics, code, and natural language reasoning tasks. DeepSeek's models have a wide range of applications, such as chat and coding scenarios, multilingual automatic translation, image generation, and AI painting. With their high performance and low cost, DeepSeek's models have quickly gained popularity. For example, on February 2, 2025, the DeepSeek app climbed to the top of the download charts in 140 countries on the Apple App Store and also topped the Android Play Store in the United States
Binance.US Struggles to Find a Bank Partner in the United States
Binance.US is facing challenges in securing a bank partner to serve as a fiat on-ramp and off-ramp for its clients in the United States. Recent regulatory crackdowns on banks with crypto clients, along with failed attempts to establish direct banking relationships, have left Binance.US without banking services.
Swiss Retail Bank to Offer Cryptocurrency Services
PostFinance has partnered with Sygnum to offer customers cryptocurrency trading and storage services, including Bitcoin and Ether.
OKX Launches Turkish Lira Deposits and Withdrawals
OKX recently announced its name sponsorship of Istanbul Fintech Week, taking place on 13-14 April, 2023. Tim Byun, OKX’s Global Government Relations Officer, will deliver a keynote at the event.
Kraken Halts ACH Deposits and Withdrawals via Silvergate
Kraken has notified its users that it will no longer support ACH deposits and withdrawals via Silvergate starting from March 27, citing difficulties with the automated clearing house. Kraken has advised its users to use alternative funding options until ACH funding is available again.
US Officials Consider Expanding Deposit Insurance Coverage
US officials are discussing the possibility of expanding deposit insurance beyond the current cap of $250,000 to cover all bank deposits, according to Bloomberg. However, sources have said that such a move is not necessary at the moment, as recent steps taken by financial regulators are likely to be sufficient. This potential strategy is being considered in case the current situation worsens.
Mid-Size Banks Ask for Deposit Insurance Extension
The Mid-Size Bank Coalition of America (MBCA) has requested that the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) extend insurance on all deposits for the next two years, which would immediately halt the outflow of deposits from smaller banks and stabilize the banking industry, according to a Bloomberg report. The MBCA proposed that the banks themselves fund the insurance program by raising the deposit-insurance assessment on lenders who opt to participate in the increased coverage, and the failure to provide this could result in up to 300 banks going under.
US Banking Crisis Fuels Regulation Debate
The recent fall of major banks in the US has reignited discussions about the most effective ways to safeguard the economy. Economist Peter Schiff argues that increasing banking regulations could contribute to a worsening economic crisis, while a group of economists warns that nearly 190 US banks are at risk of depositor-driven collapse due to monetary policies.
Uniswap Officially Live on BNB Chain
Uniswap goes live on BNB Chain following a governance proposal, aiming for user growth, lower fees, and new market access.
Okcoin Halts U.S. Dollar Deposits After Signature Bank Shutdown
Okcoin has paused its U.S. dollar wire and ACH deposits due to the regulatory intervention in Signature Bank, Okcoin’s primary partner for customer transactions in dollars. The suspension extends to over-the-counter services, credit card transactions, and trading USD-crypto trading pairs. However, all corporate and customer funds are safe, and USD withdrawal is not affected. The processing pace will be subject to bank operation. All crypto deposit and withdrawal functions remain intact, including those of U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins.
Ackman Urges US Government to Guarantee SVB Deposits
Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman has warned the US government that failing to guarantee all deposits held by Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) within 48 hours could result in the destruction of several financial institutions. Ackman argued that a "giant sucking sound" would be heard from the withdrawal of substantially all uninsured deposits from all banks, which would lead to a drain on liquidity from community, regional, and other banks.