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South Korean conglomerate Samsung is increasingly involved in the burgeoning world of blockchain-based gaming, while within Korea, games with blockchain elements are banned from official release in the country. Fast facts Samsung Next, the tech giant’s investment subsidiary, participated in a US$152 million Series B round of Sky Mavis, the Vietnam-based blockchain game company and […]

While most of the market was down around 5% coming into the Asia trading day this morning, altcoin Stacks was up over 70% in 24 hours on Sunday night, according to data from CoinMarketCap, hitting a high of US$2.45 — the highest point the token had reached since the market-wide crash in May. The price has fallen […]

As international regulators seek to implement oversight, crypto industry players say it is a positive sign that regulators are now considering including stablecoins in banking regulations.

Sri Lanka has formed a panel to recommend a regulatory framework covering the growth of digital banking, blockchain and cryptocurrency mining, the government has announced. Fast facts Developing an integrated system of digital banking, blockchain and cryptocurrency mining is crucial for Sri Lanka to keep up with its regional neighbors while expanding international trade, the […]

According to a Shenzhen state-owned newspaper, Shenzhen now has nearly 120,000 e-CNY pilot program application scenarios, ranking first in the country. Fast facts In October last year, Hong Kong’s neighboring city, Shenzhen, became the first e-CNY pilot city, which rolled out the first batch of 50,000 e-CNY red packets with a total value of 10 […]

A South Korean tech company is partnering with the largest organization of professional journalists in the country to develop digital tools and techniques to tackle problems in the journalism industry. Fast facts Media technology developer PUBLISH recently announced signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Journalists Association of Korea (JAK), which represents over 11,000 […]

Australians are now able to buy a house using cryptocurrency, as Lloyds Auctions Australia has announced it is accepting Bitcoin for purchases of real estate in online auctions, according to a press release shared with Forkast.News. Fast facts While Covid lockdowns impacted how in-person real estate auctions could take place in Australia, Lloyds began looking […]

Decentralized finance may look like it’s consuming TradFi, writes Will Hamilton of TCM Capital. But here’s why one won’t survive without the other.

China’s Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN) — a public-private nationwide infrastructure project to spur mass adoption of blockchain technology — is setting up more portals overseas, as it moves a step closer to more international exposure. Fast facts Red Date Technology, the company China tapped to manage its BSN, announced today that it is working to […]

The companies have a longstanding working relationship on virtual currency investigations with government agencies.

China’s eastern province of Jiangsu today announced that it is cracking down on covert cryptocurrency mining activities, in response to the notice jointly issued two weeks ago by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and several other public security and information technology authorities. Fast facts The Jiangsu Communications Administration said it is strengthening its […]

Singers and musicians are embracing non-fungible tokens, but will their non-crypto active fans buy it?

Editor’s Note On October 8, 2021, a Forkast.News article was published with the inaccurate SEO headline “Bitcoin Futures ETF Approved By SEC.” One of our readers rightfully identified this mistake. We have made the correction, and we apologize. Serving the community is our top priority, and Forkast.News would like to thank @scottmelker for bringing it […]

New Zealand-based exchange Easy Crypto has closed a NZ$17 million (US$11.75 million) Series A funding round, in what may be the largest investment raised for a startup from the country. Fast facts Led by venture capital fund Nuance Connected Capital, Easy Crypto told Forkast.News the funding round was oversubscribed by 50%, helped along by participation […]

As South Korea’s ongoing efforts at regulating cryptocurrency continues, a top financial services official said DeFi (decentralized finance) businesses need legal review before they are officially recognized as providers of financial services such as loan-for-consumption. Fast facts At the National Assembly’s annual review, lawmaker Oh Gi-hyoung, member of the National Policy Committee, asked Jeong Eun-bo, Korea’s Financial […]

Tether is facing another round of scrutiny as the world’s number one stablecoin responds to a damning Bloomberg report published yesterday that claimed — among other things — that Tether is not fully backed as the company claims and is using its reserves to make crypto-backed loans. Fast facts In the article, reporter Zeke Faux […]

Binance — the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world — is looking at setting up regional headquarters in Ireland, according to Reuters. Fast facts “Historically, we claim that we don’t have headquarters. We are actually just in the process of establishing a few headquarters in different parts of the world,” Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao told […]

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy returned a cryptocurrency bill to Parliament for revision on Tuesday, demanding the National Securities and Stock Market Commission of Ukraine be designated the country’s main crypto regulator. Fast facts The crypto bill had passed the second parliamentary hearing on September 8. Had Zelenskyy signed the bill, it would have made the country the fifth […]

Global healthcare data sharing suffers from lack of security, clear ownership, interoperability and accessibility. Can blockchain provide solutions?

  Jerome Powell’s remarks on Sept. 30 following his testimony about the financial hardships of the pandemic caught the attention of crypto enthusiasts. Taking questions from the House Committee on Financial Services, Chairman Powell said the Federal Reserve would not seek a ban on crypto but reiterated that stablecoins should be regulated.  Bitcoin jumped by […]

Notabene, a travel rule solution provider, this week announced that it has successfully completed travel rule test transactions between four Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM)-licensed firms and three crypto companies in Singapore. Fast facts In July, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) — the global anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-financing of terrorism (CTF) standards-setter — […]

The NFT boom is transforming the art world, writes Laura Ballman and Michael Greenwald. Collectors would be wise to learn all they can about this new technology.

Indian crypto exchange CoinSwitch Kuber has become the country’s second crypto unicorn after raising US$260 million in a Series C funding round, the startup announced. Fast facts The latest funding round drew in marquee investors — it was led by Coinbase Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). Existing investors Sequoia, Paradigm, Ribbit and Tiger Global also participated […]

A US court has denied XRP holders’ bid to join the SEC v. Ripple lawsuit as third-party defendants, but XRP advocates say being ‘amici curiae’ is still a win.

South Korea’s finance minister says that while income from virtual asset transactions will be taxed starting Jan. 1, 2022, NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are not to be taxed yet. Fast facts At the National Assembly’s annual review on Wednesday, Minister of Economy and Finance Hong Nam-ki said the government plans to start taxing virtual asset gains […]

Outstripping the explosive growth of Dogecoin in the past week, copycat memecoin SHIB was up over 300% over the past four days this morning, briefly reaching a five-month high of US$0.00003436, according to CoinGecko. Fast facts Trading at US$0.00003079 at press time, this marks the second massive jump in the Shiba Inu coin’s price since […]

Making the most of cybersecurity awareness month, which marks its 18th year this October, the U.S. Department of Justice has announced it is launching a national cryptocurrency enforcement team targeting cybercrime. Fast facts During a virtual speech at the Aspen Cyber Summit on Wednesday, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said: “Cryptocurrency exchanges want to be […]

Officials are concerned that many investors may not be aware crypto trading is taxed in a similar way to share trading.

Singapore’s United Overseas Bank (UOB) and digital securities exchange ADDX today announced the digitization of a S$50 million (US$37 million) sustainability-linked bond using blockchain and smart contract technology. Fast facts The bond allocation was part of a S$675 million (US$496 million) sustainability-linked bond issued on Sept. 29 by Singapore-based energy provider Sembcorp Industries, through its […]

Top blockchain and crypto news: US leads charge in ramping up cybersecurity. Crypto fans crow as Facebook flops. China bears down on metaverses.

Blockchain payments company Ripple has partnered with Qatar National Bank (QNB) to improve cross-border payments and launch a new remittance platform, Ripple announced on Tuesday. Fast facts QNB will pilot RippleNet, a network of banks and other payment companies developed using Ripple’s technology, with QNB Finansbank in Turkey as part of a group rollout, the […]

Brazil’s legislators are expected to discuss in the next few days a bill that seeks to establish a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies, which may be a major step toward making Bitcoin a legal “payment currency” in the country if approved by the congress. Fast facts Bill 2.303/15, proposed by Federal Deputy Aureo Ribeiro, aims to […]

Bitcoin miners saw another mining difficulty adjustment on Tuesday, with an increase of 4.71%, according to data from BTC.com. Fast facts The mining difficulty level is now at 19.89 trillion at block height 703,584, reflecting the most difficult level since a previous adjustment on June 14, the data show. The latest increase follows five increases after four […]

Xive co-founder says its one mining farm in the south of the Central Asian nation has been forced to disconnect from the grid.

A lawmaker claims Upbit earned hundreds of millions by listing sketchy cryptocurrencies, while the exchange rebuts that it follows fair and strict standards.

Sky Mavis, the company behind leading non-fungible token game Axie Infinity, has raised US$152 million in a Series B funding round with a valuation of nearly US$3 billion, according to news outlet The Information. Fast facts Led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, Sky Mavis said it will use the funds to improve its blockchain […]

This is the second time the world’s largest cryptocurrency has hit the mark in recent months. Does that mean this price point is here to stay?

U.S. Bank, the country’s fifth-largest retail bank, will now offer custody services for cryptocurrencies, starting with Bitcoin, the bank announced on Tuesday. New York Digital Investment Group, a fintech firm dedicated to Bitcoin, is the first crypto sub-custodian in the bank’s network of providers, the statement said. Fast facts The services are geared toward institutional […]

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) today published a joint report proposing that international standards for payment, clearing and settlement systems should be applied to “systemically important stablecoin arrangements.” Fast facts The BIS, CPMI and IOSCO report comes amid the […]

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has no plans to ban cryptocurrencies, chair Gary Gensler said during a congressional hearing on Tuesday. He added that any decision to ban crypto is “up to Congress.” Fast facts Gensler responded to Rep. Ted Budd’s question about whether the U.S. plans to ban crypto along the lines of […]

MetaMask Institutional (MMI), the version of the MetaMask decentralized finance (DeFi) wallet for institutions, today announced its partnership with digital assets custodians U.S.-based BitGo, British Virgin Islands-headquartered Qredo, and Hong Kong-based Cactus Custody to facilitate companies seeking access to DeFi. Fast facts The partnership comes amid growing institutional interest in DeFi and aims to address […]

What does it mean to provide ‘institutional’ crypto services, and what role does blockchain technology play? Robert Cooper of Digivault explains.

Crypto investors say virtual asset gains will be taxed on uneven grounds compared to stock capital gains.

TikTok, an app that is popular for making and sharing short videos, is jumping onto the non-fungible token (NFT) bandwagon. TikTok placed a full-page advertisement in the New York Times to promote its entry into that market. Fast facts The fast-growing social media platform, which has just surpassed 1 billion monthly users worldwide, announced plans […]

It’s been quite a run for the world’s leading play-to-earn game, but as its monthly revenue takes a hit, what’s in store for the future of the game?

As China intensifies its crypto crackdown, regulatory clarity is a beacon for safer shores in Southeast Asia.

Hong Kong, a hotbed for crypto startups and exchanges, is at a crossroads, writes Jeremy Ng of Gemini. Here’s how the industry can better secure its future.

Much of the growth in the region is driven by strong grassroots adoption rates led by Vietnam, India and Pakistan, new data from Chainalysis shows

Bitcoin investment products saw inflows of US$69 million last week amid improving investor sentiment, according to digital assets fund manager CoinShares. Fast facts “We believe this decisive turnaround in sentiment is due to growing confidence in the asset class amongst investors and more accommodative statements from the U.S. Securities [and] Exchange Commission and the Federal […]

Laos enlisted Soramitsu, a blockchain company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, to explore a central-bank backed digital currency (CBDC). The Lao Central Bank and Soramitsu’s research will begin as early as this month. Fast facts The Central Bank of Laos reportedly has recently signed a memorandum with the Japan International Cooperation Agency to discuss the development […]

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) on Monday released a white paper proposing potential technical architecture and design for the infrastructure of a digital Hong Kong dollar. The paper is one of the deliverables described in Project e-HKD, a feasibility study the HKMA announced in June 2021. Fast facts Hong Kong began its exploration of […]

In a special Q&A, a Canadian law advisor who works with Chinese clients breaks down the ban’s potential legal boundaries and concerns held by overseas Chinese.

Chinese communications giant China Mobile and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China jointly released an e-CNY wallet based on the upgraded SMS service Message over 5G. The wallet allows users to transfer money, check balances, pay bills, and perform other functions through the chat window. Fast facts Message over 5G is an upgraded text message […]

The country sees a rise in the amount of illegal currency transactions across the border while the use of virtual assets makes it almost impossible to track down.

Stablecoins combine the portability of crypto with the price stability of fiat currencies. But are they all that stable?

Technical woes continue to beset decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Compound this week as a hack resulted in 202,472 COMP, or US$68 million at the time, being transferred from its reservoir to its Comptroller where the funds remain vulnerable to being drained by subsequent transactions. Fast facts Yearn.Finance developer Banteg tweeted about the hack late Sunday […]

Mainland China’s recent clampdowns on crypto are reverberating beyond its borders. In a special Q&A, former regulator and crypto industry leader Angelina Kwan discusses what this means for Hong Kong.

This week, FTX announced it is moving its headquarters from Hong Kong to the Bahamas, as the larger Caribbean region takes on a bigger role as host to virtual currency exchanges.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) today granted licenses to DBS Vickers (DBSV), the brokerage arm of DBS Bank, and Independent Reserve, an Australian cryptocurrency exchange, to provide digital payment token services under the Payment Services Act (PS Act). Fast facts Formal approval from MAS, which follows its earlier “in-principal approval” granted to both companies […]

Markets on Tuesday in the U.S. were unsettled by the prospect that energy crises in Europe and China could lift inflation to new highs, compelling central banks to reverse accommodations sooner than expected. US Treasuries reacted with a fierce rise in yields and that spilled over to the equity markets.  Although the markets drove down […]

The Hainan International Art Exchange Center on Wednesday launched an NFT art-trading platform that supports e-CNY payments, according to China News’ report. According to the staff of the center, the blockchain platform provides services for the purchase and sale of art between art institutions. Institutional traders will be able to tokenize physical artworks as NFTs […]

Mobile game company Gamevil buys a large share of crypto platform Coinone, planning to develop blockchain-based gaming.

Although scarcely the size of a human palm, Mr. Goxx is earning big returns in the virtual currency market, raking in a 16% return as of Tuesday.

Chinese social media has been abuzz since authorities lowered the boom on crypto. Forkast.News has been following the chatter. Here’s what they’re saying on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter.

Ali Sahraee, the CEO of Tehran Stock Exchange, has resigned after Iranian authorities recently busted an illegal crypto mining operation in the basement of the bourse building, according to a report by Iran’s state media. Fast facts The authorities discovered the illegal mining rigs during a sudden inspection. The operation was being run by several […]

dYdX, the governance token for the dYdX exchange protocol, surged to a new all-time high of US$27.86 today, according to CoinGecko data. Fast facts dYdX is a decentralized exchange (DEX) built on Ethereum that currently supports perpetual contracts, margin trading and spot cryptocurrency trading, as well as lending and borrowing. It is a non-custodial exchange […]

Decentralized wallet imToken is restricting access to some of the services it offers for users in China, in the wake of the latest ban imposed by top Chinese authorities last Friday. Fast facts The company has restricted users in China from accessing and using third-party financial applications, including those from decentralized crypto exchanges, stake mining […]

DeFi tokens like dYdX soared after China’s latest move to throttle crypto. Is this a short-term spurt or decentralized finance shifting into high gear?

As Chinese authorities take aim at crypto violations outside mainland borders, Forkast.News asks lawyers in the know: Who is in China’s line of fire?

Ripple, a San Francisco-based blockchain payments company currently embroiled in litigation against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, has launched a US$250 million “creator fund” for content creators, brands and marketplaces to build non-fungible token (NFT) use cases on the XRP Ledger, according to a company blog post. Fast facts Ripple’s latest move to expand […]

Against the global tide of digital asset adoption, China’s harshest crypto ban yet heralds golden opportunities, writes Richard Byworth of EQONEX. Other governments should take note.

The Xi’an taxi industry and the Bank of Xi’an launched an e-CNY pilot program to accept e-CNY as fare, becoming the first city in China to accept digital renminbi as a taxi fare, a local newspaper reported. Fast facts Ten cabs selected as pilot vehicles have QR codes posted, and passengers can scan the QR […]