Search results: innovation

Solana prices are soaring to all-time highs and SOL is now a top-10 crypto. In this Forkast.News explainer, learn why investors are heaping love on this Ethereum rival.

London hard fork is live and Ethereum users are hoping high gas fees will be a thing of the past. Will ETH improvements phase out layer-2 scaling protocols? Polygon’s co-founder thinks not.

Accounting and consultancy giant Accenture has become the latest major victim of a ransomware attack. After Accenture initially reported that it had repelled a hacker group named Lockbit, encrypted files belonging to Accenture began to be published today, according to a report by Decrypt. Fast facts An Accenture spokesperson said in a statement: “Through our […]

With Ethereum 2.0 still in development, rival blockchains like Cardano, Binance Smart Chain, Solana and Polkadot are hot on Eth’s tail. Who might prevail, and why?

Top blockchain and crypto news: NFT wave buoys OpenSea. Are dollars and sense a lifeline for Tether? Tencent gets a target on its back.

Are DAOs and decentralization always beneficial for the group or the user? Antoni Trenchev of Nexo urges you to think again.

K-pop superstars Brave Girls, Se7en and A.C.E. are among the latest to jump on the non-fungible token bandwagon. Are fans buying it?

E-commerce company’s tie-up with government-owned lender suggests hybrid private-state future for central bank digital currency.

In a further move towards cryptocurrency adoption, Mastercard has partnered with one of Australia’s oldest crypto exchanges, CoinJar, to launch one of the country’s first crypto payment cards. Fast facts The card became available on Tuesday in a digital form through integration with Apple Pay and Google Pay, and will be available in a physical […]

The DigitalArt4Climate NFT initiative aims to promote art via blockchain technology to inspire environmental activism around the world.

The next half decade will see mass adoption of decentralized technology, writes Max Kordek of Lisk. Here are the leading uses.

Matrixport, a Singapore-based digital asset financial services platform, today announced the completion of a series-C funding round, bringing the company’s valuation to more than US$1 billion. Fast facts The funding round was led by partners of DST Global, C Ventures and K3 Ventures, with other investors including Qiming Venture Partners, CE Innovation Capital and Tiger […]

Celsius Network CEO says crypto lenders are using Wall Street’s ‘safest’ business tactic to provide high interest rates to customers. What are the risks?

Shifting to renewable energy is now a global goal. Using electric vehicles as an example, Author Joseph Jacobelli examines how digital technologies like blockchain will lead the way to a greener planet.

Flush with capital, blockchain and crypto firms are on a hiring spree. Here’s how the battle for crypto talent is playing out.

Biconomy, a Singapore-incorporated technology company building transaction infrastructure for blockchain applications, today announced it had raised US$9 million in a private funding round led by digital asset fund manager DACM and investment firm Mechanism Capital, according to a company statement. Fast facts Other investors included Coinbase Ventures, Coinfund, Huobi Innovation Labs and Stani Kulechov, founder […]

Top blockchain and crypto news: Is Amazon taking up BTC? Robinhood’s share sale deserves scrutiny. Did Huobi jump or was it pushed?

Thailand’s central bank yesterday published guidelines to regulate and promote the use of blockchain technology in the financial sector.  Fast facts Released by Siritida Panomwon Na Ayudhya, assistant governor of the payment systems policy and financial technology group at the Bank of Thailand, the guidelines provides principles for blockchain technology adoption by financial services providers.  […]

San Francisco-based payments technology company Ripple has partnered with SBI Remit, Japan’s largest money transfer provider, mobile payments service Coins.ph and digital asset exchange platform SBI VC Trade to use XRP for remittances between Japan and the Philippines, according to a company statement. Fast facts The partnership — Ripple’s first on-demand liquidity service implementation in […]

In an effort to “expand and accelerate innovation around digital asset technology”, Mastercard is launching a new global program to support cryptocurrency startups by giving them access to Mastercard’s business network and technology. Fast facts Announced yesterday, Mastercard’s Start Path program already has signed up seven crypto-related startup companies: GK8, Mintable, Stacs, Supraoracles, Taurus, Uphold […]

Ethereum’s future is top of mind for a group of fintech experts polled by Finders. Where do they think Ethereum prices are headed, and will Ethereum overtake Bitcoin?

FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried says it’s time to move on from high leverage in crypto trading. Binance also seeks new CEO with a stronger regulatory background.

Speaking at an SCB 10X DeFi virtual summit, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao says an IPO is not out of the question, but that the exchange first needs to set up corporate structures as it navigates increased regulatory scrutiny.

Despite growing global interest, CBDCs are not all at the same stage of development. Amit Ghosh of R3 explains how countries in Asia are paving the way.

In a special Q&A, Mukaya ‘Tai’ Panich of SCB 10X, the venture arm of Siam Commercial Bank, marvels at decentralized finance innovations. ‘Whatever traditional finance has, there’s a parallel version in DeFi.’

FTX closes record fundraise. Additionally, China Mobile gets hot wallet patent.

Optimum Mining Host-Black Rock Petroleum plan comes as Canaan seeks greener operations through Czech partnership.

The Bank of Canada has presented a positive case for issuing a central bank digital currency, saying it could be an effective competition policy tool and necessary to support innovation in the digital economy, as outlined in a recent report. Fast facts Current problems in Canada’s economy related to competition and wealth distribution were likely […]

Fast-growing FTX just pulled off the largest-ever fundraise for a crypto exchange to date. Will heightened regulatory scrutiny lie in its near future?

Demand for non-fungible tokens appears insatiable as industry distances itself from crypto sector to avoid crackdown.

Buskers and street performers who accept electronic or digital currency often receive larger sums than they do accepting only cash, according to a recent survey by RMIT, a university in the Australian city of Melbourne. The trend has accelerated following global lockdowns amid Covid-19 as familiarity with QR codes and other technologies grows. Fast facts […]

E-CNY white paper explains how it will work with physical RMB while Malaysia steamrolls mining rigs.

Central bank in apparent push for adoption ahead of Olympics as it doubles up on warning over non-state cryptocurrencies.

While the West has first mover advantage in traditional banking, Asia — not wedded to ol infrastructure — now has an edge in the crypto era, says Michael Shaulov of Fireblocks.

Input Output Hong Kong, one of the companies behind the Cardano blockchain, today announced the successful upgrade of its Alonzo testnet to the Alonzo White network. Fast facts The Cardano blockchain is in the midst of a multi-phase Alonzo upgrade that will bring smart-contract functionality to the blockchain. Each phase — named blue, white and purple […]

C.R.E.A.M. Finance’s Iron Bank today announced that it has facilitated a US$3.5 million loan with cypto art collective PleasrDAO using high-value non-fungible tokens as collateral, according to an announcement shared with Forkast.News. Fast facts Taipei-based C.R.E.A.M. Finance, part of the Yearn finance ecosystem, is a decentralized lending protocol for individuals, institutions and protocols to access […]

Singapore state-owned investment firm Temasek has announced record returns of S$381 billion (US$283 billion) for the financial year ending March 2021, up 24.5% from the year before. Fast facts According to its latest annual review, Temasek is “increasingly shaping” its portfolio in line with four trends: digitization, sustainable living, future of consumption, and longer lifespans. […]

Financial index provider S&P Dow Jones has launched five new cryptocurrency indices, according to a company statement, bringing its total number of crypto indices to eight. Fast facts The most significant of these new indices is the Cryptocurrency Broad Digital Market (BDM) Index, which includes more than 240 coins and can be used for a […]

Crypto industry gets the ‘overleveraged’ label and authorities are cracking down on derivatives providers. Alexander Höptner of 100x believes the pushback foreshadows the industry’s next big thing — derivatives.

In a new report, BIS says countries must work together and design CBDCs with interoperability in mind. Hong Kong and Singapore lead mCBDC efforts.

The Financial Action Task Force — the global anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing standards-setter — this week released its second 12-month review on virtual assets and virtual asset service providers, and called on countries to implement the revised FATF standards, including travel rule requirements “as soon as possible.” “The global nature of the underpinning technology […]

The Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Banque de France today announced the successful completion of a wholesale cross-border payment and settlement experiment using multiple central bank digital currencies (m-CBDCs). Fast facts The experiment between the two central banks, supported by J.P. Morgan’s Onyx, simulated cross-border transactions and cross-currency transactions involving a Singapore dollar CBDC […]

More than US$1 billion was spent on crypto-linked Visa cards in the first six months of 2021, according to a Visa blog post this week. Fast facts Apart from enabling customers to buy cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin using its cards, Visa has partnered with 50 crypto platforms on card programs — such as Coinbase, the largest […]

In the first of a special two-part report, Lucas Schweiger of Blockdata explores what the future of capital markets could look like with blockchain-based infrastructure.

Facing an onslaught of regulatory scrutiny, Binance CEO calls crypto regulations ‘positive sign’ of a maturing industry and announces new hires in compliance.

Eddie Yue, CEO of Hong Kong Monetary Authority lays out the future of the territory’s digital currency at a Hong Kong Academy of Finance event.

The standards-setter for banks around the world wants to subject crypto like Bitcoin to higher capital requirements. What do industry players think?

Vietnamese Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính has asked the country’s central bank to pilot a cryptocurrency program from 2021 to 2023, English-language newspaper Việt Nam News reports. Fast facts The plan was signed off in Prime Minister’s Decision No. 942/QĐ-TTg on the country’s broad development strategy of moving towards digital government. It also encompassed artificial […]

Demand for blockchain analytics is on the rise as FTX partners up with NFL superstar quarterback Tom Brady and supermodel Gisele Bündchen.

Formula 1 has announced that Hong Kong-based Crypto.com will be an inaugural global partner for the new F1 Sprint series in 2021.

Hex Trust, a Hong Kong-based digital asset custodian, today announced that it has secured investment from Cyberport, a technology incubator project backed by the Hong Kong government.

Cryptocurrency exchange FTX today announced that American football star Tom Brady and his wife, Gisele Bündchen, are taking equity stakes in it, in a multi-year partnership.

Although institutional interest in Bitcoin is rising, there is still the volatility conundrum to consider. Bitcoin’s market fluctuations, however, make it a poor store of value. But, at the same time, there is an advantage to keeping capital stored in crypto: cashing out crypto into fiat is almost always a taxable event and not ideal […]

Through tomorrow, a Senate committee is taking public comments on how best to make Australia into a global crypto leader and fintech hub.

Agricultural Bank of China has set up a fintech innovation center in Xiong’an, a model for a so-called smart city.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore is inviting proposals for retail central bank digital currency innovations to improve payment services.

Interview with Thor Chan, CEO of AAX Forkast.News: The value of digital assets has exploded during the last year, and we are now at levels well above previous forecasts. What are you seeing in the market right now? Thor Chan: We think that the global crypto market is growing. More money is flowing in, and […]

Kazakhstan is quickly becoming a mining hotspot as China’s mining exodus settles down. In Hong Kong, and update on the e-HKD.

Bitcoin was recovered by the FBI from the Colonial Pipeline ransomware cyber criminals DarkSide, sparking privacy concerns around cryptocurrencies.

Stories of emerging technology at the intersection of business, economy, and politics. From Asia, to the world. Technology is by its very nature, disruptive. But understanding it also helps us navigate this age of disruption better. Forkast was started in 2018 with a simple premise: Technology should be understood by the people it will impact […]

Swiss-based Digital Assets AG, a firm focused on the design of tokenized stock infrastructure, has launched over 50 tokenized stocks on the Solana public blockchain.

Blockchain technology promotes a circular economy of reuse that is vital to our planet’s future. Leanne Kemp, CEO of Everledger, explains how it works.

South Korea’s presidential office has reacted defensively to a petition calling for the chief of the country’s main finance sector regulator to step down over comments he made about cryptocurrencies.

Top blockchain and cryptocurrency news: Bitcoin’s still winning. Titan’s troubles as a teachable moment. Beijing creates a crypto mining diaspora.

In a new report, Bank for International Settlements extols central bank digital currency (CBDC) as the future of money. Will CBDCs replace Bitcoin someday?

Crypto literacy of Indian regulators is evolving and crypto players are trying to keep industry clean via self-regulations, says Nischal Shetty of WazirX.

Yunphant is set to build a second headquarters for its blockchain company in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing, according to a report by China News.

In a recent conference, central bankers from Cambodia and Singapore discuss how digital currencies are transforming existing payment systems for the better.

50 crypto exchanges apply for ISMS in South Korea while Hong Kong sees the birth of a blockchain passport for Covid vaccinations.

Chinese homegrown public blockchain platform Chang’An Chain has been equipped with 96-core blockchain-specific chips, and 23 companies joined its ecosystem yesterday.

The ASEAN Financial Innovation Network (AFIN) is partnering with enterprise software firm R3 on a central bank digital currency (CBDC) sandbox.

What does it mean to own an NFT, and why are some NFTs vanishing? Alexander Hobbs of Zenotta explains the weaknesses in NFTs’ underlying technology.