Archives

Central bank digital currencies draw fire over inflation, privacy and threat to innovation, as questions raised over status of stablecoins in digital asset ecosystem.

The U.S. SEC has received approval from the court to extend the time for all parties to submit reply briefs, in the ongoing lawsuit the SEC filed in 2020 against Ripple.

Bitcoin and Ether dropped in afternoon trading in Asia along with almost every other top 10 cryptocurrency by market capitalization, excluding stablecoins. MATIC was the only coin to gain.

Fashion’s ‘greenwashing’ scandals could be a thing of the past if blockchain is used to hold companies accountable, writes Lars Rensing of Protokol.

Hong Kong’s latest FinTech policies indicate it wants to reclaim its position as a hub for cryptocurrencies and digital assets, but that means finding the right people for the job.

WazirX, India’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trade volume, has introduced a profit and loss function for users to analyze and calculate their investments. 

Bitcoin mining difficulty nudged down 0.2% in Monday’s biweekly adjustment, according to data from BTC.com.

LG Electronics is recruiting chief technical officers (CTOs) to lead the company’s growing Web3 business.

Amid uncertainty and criticism following Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, nearly half a million users have flocked to Mastodon, a decentralized alternative.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said Binance will liquidate its remaining FTT tokens issued by the second-largest crypto exchange FTX amid questions over Alameda Research.

KakaoBank, one of South Korea’s online-only banks with nearly 20 million users, said it will start providing accounts for users of Coinone exchange in November.

Bitcoin and Ether fell in Monday morning trading in Asia as the crypto market gave up some gains made on the weekend on the back of U.S. job numbers on Friday.

HashKey Capital Singapore, an investment arm of Hong Kong-based HashKey Group, said on Friday that it received an in-principle approval for the Capital Markets Services license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

Singapore blockchain-based carbon credits exchange Metaverse Green Exchange (MVGX) will partner crypto data provider Chainlink to explore tokenized carbon trading.

Bitcoin and Ether gained with mixed results across the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, excluding stablecoins. The Hong Kong Hang Seng Index gained 5.30% amid speculation that the Chinese economy will soon reopen.

Cryptocurrency exchanges and Web 3.0 companies, including Coinbase and Polygon, have formed the Bharat Web3 Association in India to strengthen regulation and consumer protection for the industry.

The network says the apparent attack was just a preemptive safeguard against an issue with a cross-chain bridge.

The Canadian government will begin a consultation on the risks that digital assets and currencies may pose to the country’s traditional financial system.

San Francisco-based dashcam maker and decentralized mapping service provider Hivemapper issued cryptocurrency tokens HONEY to reward dashcam users for contributing driving data and road imagery on Friday Hong Kong time, according to a press release shared with Forkast.

After dabbling in cryptocurrency product offerings, Goldman Sachs is now offering a service to clients to help analyze tokens and market trends.

The South Korean founder of the collapsed Terra stablecoin faces multiple allegations of wrongdoing, the latest being price manipulation.

U.S. computer scientist Stuart Haber, recognized with Scott Stornetta as the co-inventor of blockchain, says he is excited to see the evolution of the technology, not only in the financial sector, but also in entertainment, business, and technology industries.

Bitcoin and Ether rose in Friday morning trading in Asia. Polygon’s Matic led gains in the top 10 tokens after Instagram said it would use Polygon to integrate NFTs into its platform.

London-headquartered banking giant Standard Chartered announced on Thursday that it had invested in the blockchain-based interbank settlement platform Partior, a joint venture of JP Morgan, DBS bank and Temasek.

Bursting of speculative bubble described as a turning point in the evolution of digital assets as industry players and observers welcome promise of mainstream adoption and better governance.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) wants to build the city-state into a “crypto hub” fueled by instant settlements, tokenized assets and programmable money, not “speculating in cryptocurrencies,” Ravi Menon, the central bank’s managing director, said at the Singapore FinTech Festival on Thursday. 

The MAS launched Project Ubin+ on Thursday, a collaborative initiative with international partners to explore cross-border foreign exchange settlements using wholesale CBDC.

OpenSea will pilot a system that freezes the trading of NFTs involved in suspicious sales while it reviews the transaction.

Digital wallet service provider Cryptillian Payment Systems has requested to file an amicus brief to support Ripple Labs Inc. in the latter’s ongoing court battle against the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC).

Bitcoin and Ether dropped in Thursday afternoon trading in Asia, while the rest of the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, excluding stablecoins, posted mixed results.

‘Bad actor’ or a ‘sliding market’? Blockchain industry leaders at Hong Kong FinTech Week offer insights into the Terra-LUNA crash.

Binance is preparing to operate in South Korea’s crypto market, said CEO Changpeng Zhao at the Web Summit 2022 held in Lisbon.

The world’s largest crypto exchange seeks to become a bridge between traditional finance and cryptocurrencies.

Instagram will soon allow creators to mint and sell NFTs through the platform to buyers both on and off Instagram using an ‘end-to-end toolkit.’

The ongoing Crypto Winter is ‘only going to get worse’ as the industry is re-evaluated amongst tighter interest rates, the cofounder of Tezos predicts.

What are soulbound tokens, and how can they end the ‘credit paradox’ that has been holding back the unbanked masses? Fakhul Miah of CreDA explains.

Digital asset and blockchain highlights of event draw huge crowds, even as industry figures say they want the technology behind them to become just a normal component of the finance system.

Markets: Bitcoin and Ether fall with crypto top 10 as Fed raises rates 75 bps

Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has urged all Group of 20 (G20) nations, as well as international bodies like the International Monetary Fund and Financial Stability Board, to come together to help regulate crypto assets. See related article: India’s finance minister sees 46% growth in blockchain technology use in next few years Fast facts Sitharaman […]

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has launched a new project with the central banks of Singapore, France and Switzerland to study the possibility of integrating some decentralized finance (DeFi) features with central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). See related article: mBridge participants to end domestic payments of foreign CBDCs Fast facts The BIS announced on […]

Top blockchain and crypto news: Hong Kong rethinks digital assets. CBDC to debut in India. China’s e-yuan privacy problem.

Singapore-based StraitsX, a payments infrastructure for digital assets, will pilot stablecoin applications at the ongoing Singapore Fintech Festival. 

Bitcoin and Ether dropped in Wednesday afternoon trading in Asia amid losses among all top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, excluding stablecoins, led by Shiba Inu.

As governments look towards zero carbon emission goals, new means of creating climate-related financial products are being tested on the blockchain.

Huobi Global, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, plans to move its headquarters to the Caribbean, its new advisory board member Justin Sun said.

NEAR Foundation is establishing a Web3 hub in South Korea to expand its allegiance with blockchain projects in Korea and Asia.

While October saw the emergence of two very popular NFT collections, sales failed to break US$500 million in the lowest figures since July 2021.

DBS, the largest bank in Southeast Asia, said it tested trading of foreign exchange and government bonds using permissioned decentralized finance (DeFi) liquidity pools on a public blockchain as part of the city-state’s Project Guardian exploration of blockchain in finance.

The bank is in the center of developments shepherded by the Monetary Authority of Singapore to explore digital financial technologies emerging around blockchain.

Naver Z Corp. announced its partnership with INHOPE to protect youth from sexual abuse and exploitation on the virtual platform.

The issuer of the world’s second-largest stablecoin is joining a fleet of companies in the digital asset industry moving into Singapore. What’s the attraction?

Bitcoin and Ether were little changed in Wednesday morning trading in Asia along with most of the cryptocurrency top 10 by market capitalization, excluding stablecoins.

Deputy director of monetary and capital markets at the IMF, Dong He, said at Hong Kong Fintech Week on Tuesday that his message to the crypto industry is to embrace regulation.

Interconnectivity is on the way, even as various segments of the Web 3.0 ecosystem are largely disconnected from reality and one another, said Web 3.0 experts at Hong Kong Fintech Week on Tuesday.

Bank of Thailand’s Vachira Arromdee said on Tuesday the four central banks in the mBridge CBDC trials agreed to end use of foreign CBDCs domestically.

Bitcoin and Ether traded up in Tuesday afternoon trading in Asia, while memecoins Dogecoin and Shiba Inu were the biggest gainers among the top 10 coins by market capitalization excluding stablecoins.

India’s Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC), responsible for policy formulation and collection of indirect taxes like the goods and services tax (GST), has asked major cryptocurrency exchanges to provide details on the type of digital coins and tokens being traded and their valuation. 

Crypto exchange Coinbase has requested to file an amicus brief in support of Ripple to weigh in on the ongoing lawsuit between the SEC and Ripple.

JPMorgan Chase and Standard Chartered execs were in disagreement at Hong Kong Fintech Week over how significant Bitcoin and the wider crypto industry are.

The country looks to pass an initial bill that focuses on protecting digital asset investors and preventing unfair trade acts, ahead of wider legislation.

Cryptocurrency exchanges in Singapore are shifting focus to heavy-hitter investors, such as family offices and financial institutions, in line with the central bank’s warnings about the risks in retail crypto trading.

The billionaire founder of crypto exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, criticized regulations in Hong Kong and elsewhere that limit access to crypto investment to wealthy investors.

Hong Kong will increase funding for startups, including fintech companies, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Algernon Yau said on Tuesday.

Many DAOs suffer from voter apathy and are hobbled by too much decentralization. What can help DAOs make better decisions?

Bitcoin and Ether prices fell in Tuesday morning trading time in Asia, while memecoin Dogecoin and Shiba Inu had the biggest gains among the top 10.

India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), will pilot the country’s first digital rupee in the wholesale segment (e₹-W) from Nov. 1 and has identified nine banks for participation in the trial. 

A hybrid middle ground between Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 is necessary before full Web 3.0 integration, argued Jehan Chu, co-founder and managing partner of blockchain venture capital firm Kenetic Capital, adding that “it’s not the fully decentralized future we were promised, but it’s the one we’re going to get first.”

Singapore-based Alta, a digital marketplace for alternative investments, has acquired private digital securities exchange Hg Exchange (HGX) for an undisclosed amount. 

Hong Kong reveals digital asset policies to distinguish itself from China, where cryptocurrency trading was banned in September last year.

Privacy protection is “top on our agenda,” but combating crime is equally important for the digital yuan, central bank governor Yi Gang said at the Hong Kong Fintech Week.

DBS Bank, the largest lender in Southeast Asia, has partnered the Singapore government’s Open Government Products (OGP) to pilot purpose-bound money-based vouchers (PBM) using tokenized Singapore dollars to facilitate live transactions with selected merchants. 

Bitcoin fell in evening trade in Asia along with almost all other top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, excluding stablecoins, with the sole gain seen in Polkadot’s uptick.