Search results: technology

The Securities and Exchange Board of India, a markets watchdog, has asked depositories to employ blockchain to record and monitor the creation of securities and covenants involving non-convertible securities, according to a report by Livemint. Fast facts SEBI formed a group in November to suggest ways to strengthen the process of creating and monitoring securities, […]

Binance — the world’s biggest cryptocurrency by trading volume — today announced the appointment of Greg Monahan, a former U.S. Treasury criminal investigator, as its global anti-money laundering officer, according to a company statement. Fast facts Monahan’s appointment comes as Binance seeks to bolster its compliance efforts amid increasing scrutiny from regulators around the world — […]

BC Technology Group, a Hong Kong-listed technology digital asset company and parent of OSL, the first licensed digital asset platform in the city, today announced that its group revenues rose 54% year on year to HK$153 million (US$20 million) in the first half of 2021, driven by a 70% increase in OSL’s digital asset business […]

IBM Japan, Mitsui Chemicals and Nomura Research Institute have announced a new consortium to explore how blockchain technology can be used to create better plastic recycling methods, according to a press release from the NRI. Fast facts Making new plastics from recycled plastics is an exact process that requires knowing the specific chemical makeup of […]

Following a few years of inactivity, the Dogecoin Foundation is being reestablished with Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin serving as the organization’s “blockchain and crypto adviser,” according to an announcement posted Tuesday on the foundation’s website. Fast facts Originally founded in 2014, the non-profit organization aims to support the Dogecoin ecosystem and community with a particular […]

Union Bank of the Philippines and Hex Trust, a Hong Kong-based digital asset custodian, today announced that the bank was partnering with Hex Trust to provide digital asset custody services to it as it enters the digital asset sector. Fast facts As part of the collaboration, Hex Trust will provide digital asset custody as an […]

If cabinet approves crypto bill by November, it could be introduced as early as parliament’s winter session.

The number of digital yuan patents is growing, with patent applications related to digital currency numbering 271 since the beginning of last year, data compiled by Mpaypass.com show, as tests of e-CNY continue under the Chinese government’s watchful eye. Fast facts The data shows that the total number of patent applications since 2020 has surpassed […]

Accessibility of Alibaba Auction through Tencent’s WeChat service hints at closer relationship between two longtime rivals.

Non-fungible tokens are taking the art and collectibles world by storm. But more valuable uses for NFTs lie just around the corner, writes Ilja Laurs of Dappscape.

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.

Hermez Network, a prominent zero-knowledge cryptography-based scaling project, will merge with India-based Polygon, an Ethereum scaling project, Polygon announced on Friday. Fast facts Polygon has initiated the process of merging Hermez, including its technology, team, live solutions and HEZ tokens into its ecosystem. Hermez will operate under the name Polygon Hermez as a part of […]

GoSats, an Indian Bitcoin rewards app, has launched a new cash back card that will allow Indians to earn up to 100% of their spending in Bitcoin and provide a chance to win one full Bitcoin on every spend, GoSats announced in a tweet. Fast facts The GoSats prepaid RuPay debit cards will be released […]

While Delhi goes back and forth over a crypto ban, crypto’s huge growth potential in the world’s second most populous country is captivating American venture capital.

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.

Samsung Electronics will participate in the Bank of Korea’s central bank digital currency pilot program to test the practicalities of digital currency remittances without internet availability, according to a report by the Korea Times. Fast facts An unnamed source familiar with the issue told the Korea Times: “Samsung Electronics has recently decided to participate in […]

Alipay, one of China’s major payment apps, has again rolled out non-fungible token artworks designed as wallpapers for users’ payment code pages, with a total of 80,000 copies of two editions combined having sold out within a day. Fast facts Alipay yesterday started selling two editions of artworks — built on its own Ant Chain […]

Rario, an officially licensed cricket non-fungible token startup built on the Polygon blockchain, has announced its integration with Polygon’s NFT platform, Polygon Studios. Fast facts Polygon Studios, an NFT-focused gaming and metaverse hub, was launched last month by Indian Ethereum scaling platform Polygon to facilitate Web 3.0 gaming and fuel mainstream adoption of NFTs. It […]

Crypto exchanges, or VASPs, are coming under increasing regulation. Complying with the Financial Action Task Force’s travel rule will be one of them.

Malaysia’s Maybank and the National Bank of Cambodia yesterday announced the launch of a real-time funds transfer service between Malaysia and Cambodia — the first international partnership between a bank and Cambodia’s Bakong digital payments system. Fast facts The service facilitates fund transfers via NBC’s Bakong e-wallet and Maybank’s MAE app. It allows Maybank customers […]

As African countries such as Morocco, Egypt, Kenya and South Africa continue to explore the feasibility of central bank digital currencies, the Bank of Ghana is set to launch a retail CBDC pilot project, the bank has announced. Fast facts For the pilot, the central bank has partnered with German firm Giesecke+Devrient, which will provide […]

Hong Kong-based crypto finance firm Amber Group has announced a collaboration with the Institute of Risk Analysis, Prediction and Management (Risks-X) on a crypto risk management research project, according to a company statement. Fast facts Risks-X is a research institute collaboration between ETH Zurich, a public research university in Zurich, and the Southern University of […]

DBS Vickers, the brokerage arm of Singapore’s DBS Bank, today announced that it has received in-principle approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore to provide digital payment token services in Singapore as a major payment institution under the Payment Services Act. Fast facts DBS Vickers’ notification follows that of Australian cryptocurrency exchange Independent Reserve, reported […]

San Francisco-based payments technology company Ripple this week announced that South Korean money transfer company, Global Money Express Co. Ltd (GME Remittance), has joined RippleNet to expand remittances between South Korea and Thailand. Fast facts Some 184,000 Thai nationals live in South Korea, and they account for the third largest group of foreign nationals in […]

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.

Impact of one of the biggest heists in the industry looks set to be mitigated as hackers agree to return funds.

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?

Hong Kong artists embrace NFTs. NFT’s to become must-have merchandise for K-Pop fans.  And an Indonesian resort offers NFT timeshares. We’ll have more on that story — and other news shaping the cryptocurrency and blockchain world — in this episode of The Daily Forkast, August 10th. Transcript Welcome to The Daily Forkast, August 10th 2021. […]

Despite speculation that the NFT market is cooling, OpenSea continues to post record transaction volumes, and Hong Kong artists are getting in on the action.

Amid a period of increasing regulatory interest in stablecoins, Circle, the digital payment company that issues USDC, the world’s second-largest stablecoin , has announced plans to become a full-reserve national digital currency bank in the U.S. Fast facts In a company blog post, CEO and co-founder Jeremy Allaire said the company was prepared to operate […]

Cryptocurrency platform Poloniex has agreed to pay more than US$10 million to settle charges for operating an unregistered online digital asset exchange, according to an announcement by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Fast facts According to the SEC’s order, Poloniex violated securities laws from July 2017 to November 2019 as the company did […]

Several cryptocurrency payment methods exist around the world, but new service is the first major one of its kind in India.

A landmark US$1 trillion infrastructure bill moved one step closer to becoming law on Sunday, notably without carve-outs for cryptocurrency miners and network validators. What does it mean for the industry?

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has taken its first regulatory action involving decentralized finance in a case involving the “unregistered sales of more than US$30 million in securities,” according to an agency press release. Fast facts Gregory Keough and Derek Acree were charged along with their Cayman Islands-based company, Blockchain Credit Partners, over allegedly […]

As more crypto companies go public, some are returning to a decentralized business model. ShapeShift CEO Erik Voorhees explains the ethos and reasons why.

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

Blockchain startup TBCASoft has announced the initial close of its series-B funding round, raising US$25 million from Naver Financial and SoftBank as it aims to tap more commercial growth. Fast facts U.S.-based TBCASoft announced its latest financing round on Wednesday, led by Naver Financial — the fintech arm of Korean internet giant Naver Corp. — […]

As court grants CEO request to obtain info from Binance to bolster defense in SEC lawsuit, Ripple seeks to expand use cases for XRP Ledger.

As blockchain begins to make its way into more consumer applications, decentralized, Ethereum-based music streaming platform Audius has reached 5 million monthly users for the first time, Yahoo! Finance reports. That milestone makes Audius one of the biggest consumer-centric blockchain applications. Fast facts Launched in 2019, Audius boasts approximately 100,000 artists, including big names such […]

Ethereum’s London hard fork sees a smooth launch as the crypto market sends Ether’s price soaring.

Will Google greenlighting US crypto ads, Ethereum’s London upgrade and clearer regulations pave the way for another Ether price rally?

Bosch, a German manufacturing and technology company, today announced that it will be using a decentralized machine learning network built by Fetch.ai, an artificial intelligence lab based in the British city of Cambridge, to predict potential failures in manufacturing machinery. Fast facts The Bosch research team will be initiating machine learning trials on the Fetch.ai […]

DBS eyes bigger investor base as digital assets under custody top US$100 million.

Cryptocurrency miners are front-running Ethereum transactions to make profits called MEV that critics decry as unfair. What can be done about it?

Ethereum upgrade closely watched also India launches e-RUPI voucher

Top blockchain and crypto news: Is Ethereum’s price flatlining on eve of revolution? Uncle Sam wants pay to play. China’s Big Tech toes the line with NFTs.

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 cryptocurrency trading industry has been labeled a “Wild West,” riddled with fraud and investor risk, by U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, according to a Reuters report. Fast facts Calling on Congress at the Aspen Security Forum to give the SEC more power to regulate the industry, Gensler said many of the […]

Bitcoin SV has suffered another 51% attack beginning around 11:45 am EDT on Tuesday resulting in up to three versions of the chain being mined simultaneously, as initially reported by analytics firm CoinMetrics.io. It is the fifth such attack on the network since late June. Fast facts Further reporting by the firm reported all of […]

Binance’s woes continue to mount as global banking giant HSBC is now blocking its customers in the United Kingdom from making credit card payments to Binance, according to Yahoo News. Binance is the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. Fast facts HSBC’s move follows similar actions taken by NatWest — a Scotland-based bank with 12.5 million customers […]

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.

The city of Miami is set to launch its own cryptocurrency, MiamiCoin, tomorrow. The token will allow people to invest in the city to fund infrastructure projects and events, according to a report by Decrypt. Fast facts The token is being released in partnership with CityCoin, a project that facilitates cities releasing their own tokens […]

Australian cryptocurrency exchange Independent Reserve said Monday that it had received an “in-principle approval” for a Major Payment Institution License in Singapore to operate as a regulated digital payment token (DPT) service provider, according to a company statement. Fast facts Founded in Australia in 2013, Independent Reserve set up its first overseas operations in Singapore […]

Crypto-related crime has hit record levels in Hong Kong for the first six months of this year, with one victim losing HK$124 million (US$15.95 million) to fraudsters, according to the South China Morning Post. Fast facts Hong Kong police recorded 496 such cases totaling HK$214.4 million (US$27.58 million) in just the first half of this […]

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has a vision for metaverses — online worlds that one day will replace big parts of our offline lives. But some say that future is already here.

World’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange steps up compliance and cuts product offerings, with a ban in Malaysia and end of lucrative derivatives business in three EU nations.

A new NFT platform built on Hedera Hashgraph aims to give patients greater control over their health information. How does it work?

Busan plans digital asset exchange meanwhile Tencent launches digital IOUs.

Blockchain technology is part of the important work being done toward a safer and healthier world. Lucas Schweiger of Blockdata summarizes this year’s strides forward.

The International Monetary Fund says it has a mandate to help countries around the world adopt and adapt to digital currencies, but only if the digital money is in the public interest — which Bitcoin is not, according to an IMF report published yesterday. Fast facts While the IMF recognizes the potential benefits of digital […]

Wire fraud, including cryptocurrency-related fraud, becomes fastest-growing crime as scams — some even involving China’s digital yuan project — proliferate.

Tokenization is creating new ways to invest. 3 crypto firms are partnering to also offer crypto retirement portfolios and inheritance planning.

Despite China’s crackdowns on Bitcoin mining and growing consternation about crypto mining’s carbon footprint, some miners are betting big on a rosy future.

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 […]

Binance CEO CZ confirms that a new executive may lead the organization. Meanwhile, Bitmain spins off one of the world’s largest mining pool Antpool.

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 […]

Binance also tightens withdrawal limits and unveils new tax reporting tool, to counter recent flurry of government investigations and bad publicity.