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Dubai-based Fasset says Indonesia digital asset adoption is still in early stages, but the country’s young population is taking to crypto faster, encouraging exchanges to move in despite infrastructure constraints.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said the charges are “an unexpected and disappointing civil complaint” in response to the CFTC lawsuit filed on Monday against him and the world’s largest crypto exchange.

Hong Kong’s new crypto licensing regime isn’t the only bullish sign for the city’s digital asset industry, says Signum Digital, the first company to win a preliminary license to handle securitized tokens in the city.

Angelina Kwan, who helped shape early Hong Kong automated trading services and internet trading regulation, told Forkast the upcoming virtual asset licensing regime is almost identical to that for traditional financial institutions.

India’s crime fighting agencies have been investigating crypto exchanges and individuals on money laundering charges and have now put the onus on exchanges to report suspicious transactions.

Circle said its $3.3 billion of USDC cash reserves at the collapsed Silicon Valley Bank will be available Monday after regulators stepped in to backstop deposits.

Savvy traders are quick to extract liquidity to reinvest into the “slot machines” of the NFT casino, according to CryptoSlam’s NFT strategist.

NFT sales and market capitalization show rising investor activities, but recycled liquidity and wash trading may tell a different story, Forkast Labs co-CEO says.

Ethereum validators are benefiting from the increasingly heated competition between the two largest NFT marketplaces that is driving up gas fees, but the windfall may not last much longer.

Look for blockchain, self-reliance in technology discussions in China’s biggest political meetings of the year as China’s President Xi Jinping’s aims to build a digital economy.

DBS bank’s digital exchange, which serves institutional clients, said macroeconomic conditions last year were not suitable for security token offerings (STO), but it will explore opportunities for such listings in 2023 and plans to add more crypto tokens.

Officials at Bitcoin mining companies say the rebound in prices so far this year for the world’s biggest cryptocurrency has thrown a lifeline to the industry after some miners sought protection from creditors last year amid the slump in the token’s price.

NFT data aggregator Cryptoslam has flagged more than half a billion dollars worth of NFT wash trades related to Blur since the marketplace’s Valentines airdrops started

Hong Kong’s proposed crypto licensing regime received Huobi Global’s pledge to return to the city, and more companies may follow, industry experts told Forkast.

Multi-billion dollar bankruptcies, fraud allegations, scandal, and plunging cryptocurrency prices in 2022 all characterized why investors came to distrust centralized exchanges. Yet, some commentators expect platforms to become ever more centralized … and regulated.

The digital asset space is ripe for regulation, and tokenized real estate is no exception. But views differ when it comes to finding a framework that fits.

The current payment system relied on by truck drivers runs through third parties and adds costs to supply chains and consumers. Could blockchain tech provide an alternative, and would truckers trust it?

Last year was memorable in the emerging world of digital assets for the sheer number of corporate failures. The industry itself has been asking for clearer legal guidelines to help development. Is that what’s happening now?

Hester Peirce said using enforcement action to dictate law in an emerging industry is the act of a “lazy” regulator, after the SEC fined the U.S.-based Kraken crypto exchange for failing to register staking programs.

Blockchain developers want a piece of the multi-billion dollar cloud computing pie. Do current heavyweights in the industry – Amazon, Google and Microsoft – have cause for concern?

Prosecutors flew to Serbia earlier this month as part of an investigation into Terraform Labs chief Do Kwon, who faces fraud accusations related to the US$40 billion collapse of his Terra-Luna cryptocurrency project in May last year.

Nearly three out of four institutional traders surveyed “have no plans to trade crypto,” while most see Artificial Intelligence as the next big disrupter.

The move marks a shift in tone from December when recipients of FTX donations were requested to “voluntarily” return the funds.

Cryptocurrency exchanges in India had lobbied the government to reduce taxes introduced last year, arguing the levies were backfiring by driving local investment offshore.

Bitcoin has long been the world’s largest cryptocurrency blockchain, but non-fungible tokens or NFTs were always the domain of Ethereum. A new protocol could change that, and some in the Bitcoin community are not too pleased.

Cryptocurrencies post the Terra-Luna, FTX failures were a debated topic at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos in the week through Jan. 20, with some authorities calling for a doubling down on regulations. Others had a more nuanced view.

India announces its full year budget on Feb. 1, the last before general elections in 2024, and the cryptocurrency and digital asset industry is lobbying the government for changes in tax rules, among others.

Hong Kong’s new digital asset-friendly policies could set the city up as the home for secondary NFT marketplaces from China as trading of ‘digital collectibles’ remains a gray area on the mainland.

The central bank rolled out a “red packet” feature for its digital currency, the e-CNY, for the Lunar New Year holiday but it will require help from the tech giants it has bashed to popularize the digital yuan.

South Korea’s attempts to extradite the founder of the collapsed Terra-Luna stablecoin will remain hamstrung while the courts in Seoul dispute the charges against him.

Indian cryptocurrency exchanges faced a flurry of taxes on trading last year that saw volumes across most platforms drop as much as 90%, slashing income from trading fees. What’s a crypto exchange to do? Maybe sell mutual funds?

Slump in prices of some non-fungible tokens and other digital assets allows U.S. holders to take advantage of a loophole to reduce capital gains taxes.

Ripple Labs Inc. expects a court decision in the first six-months of this year in the case filed against the company by the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission. The SEC sued Ripple in December 2020 for allegedly selling US$1.3 billion in unregistered securities.

Cryptocurrencies had a turbulent 2022 to say the least. Blockchain technology made progress but that failed to offset the multiple bankruptcies and hacks that plagued the industry through the year.

After a year of new all-time highs for major cryptocurrencies in 2021, 2022 was a challenging year for Web3. Industry experts tell Forkast what crypto has in store for 2023 and beyond.

India loves religious festivals, but are its citizens ready to attend such celebrations in virtual reality? An Indian startup reckons they are and launched its first effort this year, saying 20,000 avatars showed up.

A centuries old Taiwan temple dedicated to a popular goddess has latched onto non-fungible tokens or NFTs as a means for worshippers to get access to pilgrimages and other events.

A lot of the troubles for India exchanges in 2022 will run into next year as they shed staff and run down reserves to stay afloat, and not all are expected to make it.

Bankman-Fried won an upgrade from his Bahamas prison cell after posting bail following his extradition to the U.S. on Wednesday, where he faces charges for what prosecutors called “fraud of epic proportions.”

The deal will need approval in a court hearing on January 5 and also faces a vote by creditors under Voyager’s chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.

Sam Bankman-Fried has reportedly made a second application for bail in the Bahamas – this as lawyers feud over control of the FTX bankruptcy, raising concern the sour grapes may seep into efforts to have Bankman-Fried extradited to face fraud charges in the U.S.

As U.S. prosecutors line up charges against Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the collapsed FTX cryptocurrency exchange, Senator Elizabeth Warren is seeking to pass bipartisan regulation to rein in the “dark underbelly” of the crypto industry.

Members of a U.S. Congressional hearing expressed frustration about the timing of Bankman-Fried’s arrest, saying they wanted him to testify under oath so the public could get the answers they are seeking about the collapse of FTX.

By some estimates, job cuts in the cryptocurrency-specific industry are running at about 30-40%, which means tough times for employers and employees, and compensation packages are also taking a hit.

The fall from grace: Once one of the most admired figures in crypto, the former head of the FTX exchange is unlikely to see his Bahamas penthouse anytime soon after being arrested Monday on U.S. charges that are expected to lead to his extradition.

Before the FTX implosion there was Mt. Gox, an exchange that oversaw 80% of all Bitcoin trades before it collapsed in 2014. In this exclusive interview with Forkast, former Mt. Gox Chief Executive Officer Mark Karpeles says what he sees in store for the industry in 2023 in the wake of the FTX bankruptcy.

The exchange has gone silent since pausing withdrawals and liquidating all futures positions, with users fearing a repeat of the FTX collapse.

NFT investors seemingly see opportunities in a month full of surprises and headwinds for the broader cryptocurrency market.

Many are minting NFTs and posting articles on Matters, a decentralized content-sharing platform, amid protests across China against Covid-19 lockdowns that turned political.

Employee accounts of life at Sam Bankman-Fried’s flagship cryptocurrency trading arm Alameda Research paint a picture of overworked and inexperienced millennials running a ship headed for the rocks: one seemingly escaped.

The cryptocurrency lender was hit by the earthquake set off across the industry by the collapse and bankruptcy of the FTX crypto exchange this month, and other companies are looking vulnerable.

The former CEO of the collapsed crypto exchange “needs to keep his mouth shut” and stop making public comments that could be used against him in future court cases, lawyers tell Forkast.

The Genesis brokerage arm of the Digital Currency Group is one of the latest cryptocurrency platforms to lock down withdrawals following the bankruptcy of crypto exchange FTX, and the freeze is spreading.

The country is one of the first to say it will act to set up regulations to prevent a collapse similar to FTX, which filed for bankruptcy protection and froze the assets of hundreds of thousands of investors.

Can decentralized platform Mastodon, named after an extinct elephant, replace the little blue bird that has dominated the world’s social media landscape for over a decade?

The number of creditors with claims on the collapsed FTX cryptocurrency exchange and its affiliates may run into the hundreds of thousands and possibly more than 1 million.

The failure of cryptocurrency exchange FTX has been compared to the Lehman Brothers collapse in 2008, but it may have more similarity to the bankruptcy of energy trading giant Enron Corp. – an event FTX’s new chief executive officer knows all too well.

Panelists at Forkast’s livestreamed event ‘Crypto Rising: How Top VCs Are Investing Out of Crypto Winter’ shared their thoughts on the future of the industry following FTX.

Exchanges to the rescue? Cash is reportedly being made available to help blockchain and crypto projects caught in the fallout of the FTX exchange collapse.

Changpeng Zhao, founder and chief executive of Binance, tells the B20 Summit in Indonesia that the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange aims to help improve business and operation standards in the crypto industry.

The collapse of one of the world’s biggest crypto exchanges last week has investors worried about the finances of other trading platforms. Cold wallet time?

The FTX.com unraveling has prompted crypto industry leaders to demand clearer rules of the road for trading digital assets.

Binance may have nixed the deal to bailout rival exchange FTX.com, but it could still gain a big chunk of FTX’s business as investors flee the platform.

Just over 24 hours after news of Binance’s planned acquisition of FTX shook the crypto market, a reversal of that decision sent prices even lower.

Commonly known as “CZ,” the Chinese-Canadian founder of Binance appears to have stolen Sam Bankman-Fried’s shine, coming out of the FTX acquisition with the most to gain.

Binance chief executive officer Changpeng Zhao already runs the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange so just what are his ambitions?

Binance steps in with deal to buy FTX.com, but with so many moving parts to consider how messy could this pending acquisition get?

In a period of toxic divide between the Democrats and Republicans, the need to figure out how to regulate the growing cryptocurrency industry is one of the few issues both parties seem to agree on.

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

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.

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.

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.