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Seychelles-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitget said it has invested US$30 million in decentralized multi-chain wallet BitKeep to become its controlling shareholder. 

Japan’s been a little behind in the Web3 space, but their new Metaverse Economic Zone could be a game changer.

Poolz Finance, a cross-chain crowdfunding launchpad for Web3 projects, has been exploited for US$390,000 worth of digital assets

Top blockchain and crypto news: USDC stabilizes after SVB collapse. Silvergate closes shop. China tightens financial supervision.

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, announced that it is halting its British pound deposits and withdrawals.

The recent U.S. banks fallout is a stress test for both traditional finance and digital assets but to weather the storm side by side is a powerful opportunity, says Circle Chief Strategy Officer Dante Disparte.

The recent U.S. bank failures are proof that the banking system is introducing systemic risks to the crypto industry, not vice versa, says Circle chief strategy officer Dante Disparte.

As the U.S. tries to head off a bank run, crypto is quickly running out of places to bank with.

Euler Finance, a decentralized finance lending protocol has lost approximately US$197 million in an exploit, according to online crypto security analysts.

The collapse of Voyager and Celsius highlights the risks of crypto investing apps and underscores the need for tailored user education, writes Jackson Zeng of Caleb & Brown.

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.

Crypto markets slammed by Fed, Silvergate, lawsuits.

The Forkast SOL NFT Composite dropped 6.13% over the past week while sales increased. Industry expert suspects casino-like behavior of traders moving funds to new projects.

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

The NY State Attorney General is suing crypto exchange Kucoin for not registering as a securities and commodities broker-dealer and calling itself an exchange.

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.

CFTC chair Rostin Behnam has called Ethereum a commodity and not a security, in apparent contrast to past statements from SEC Chairman Gary Gensler.

Canaan’s shares on Nasdaq closed 3.83% lower at US$2.51 on Wednesday after the cryptocurrency mining rig maker reported an 82% year-on-year drop in revenue on Tuesday for the fourth quarter of last year, citing “lackluster market demand” for mining machines as the price of Bitcoin fell.

Silvergate Capital said Wednesday it will cease operations and liquidate its bank unit.

The Forkast 500 NFT Index dipped 1.25% to 4,235.97 in the 24 hours through 10:00 a.m. in Hong Kong on Thursday.

Top blockchain and crypto news: Silvergate woes spark bankruptcy talk. LDO dips on false enforcement rumors. Chinese leaders push digital development.

Stablecoins could have a place in the U.S. financial services sector if appropriate regulation is put in place, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said on Tuesday at a hearing before Congress.

As multi-chain NFTs take off, Forkast Labs launches a vital new way to measure value on the blockchain.

Alameda Research has filed a law suit against crypto conglomerate Digital Currency Group and its asset management business Grayscale over trust investments.

Web3 is growing more rapidly than the early internet, writes Ken Timsit of Cronos Labs. But to achieve mainstream success, the following issues must be addressed.

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.

A U.S. central bank digital currency would “crowd out” the cryptocurrency ecosystem and protect national security, according to an ex-top presidential adviser.

Top blockchain and crypto news: Blur wash trading explodes. Coinbase extends developer foray with Base test. Hong Kong crypto embrace gets Beijing’s nod.

American payments giant Visa is not slowing down its cryptocurrency plans despite last year’s bear market, according to the firm’s crypto head Cuy Sheffield.

Yuzo Kano, co-founder of Japan’s largest cryptocurrency exchange bitFlyer Inc., said he plans to return as CEO, sell shares to public.

Now a teenager, crypto is wrestling with its identity and purpose. But it’s learning from its mistakes and on its way to maturity, writes Zach Bronstein of Endaoment.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have remained stable while Wall Street reported its biggest loss of the year. How has crypto remained unimpacted by problems seen by the stock market?

World governments should not grant cryptocurrency legal tender status, the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) executive board said in its new nine-point action plan on how countries should approach crypto assets published Thursday. See related article: India working with IMF, FSB on crypto regulations, says economic affairs secretary Fast facts See related article: India’s finance minister […]

The blockchain sector’s gender divide is narrowing. Its newness and founding ideals also allow for more flexible workplaces, writes Anastasia Kor of Choise.com.

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has partnered France-based global payments giant Ingenico to offer in-store crypto payments in France using Binance Pay.

Top blockchain and crypto news: Blur’s success spurs changes at OpenSea. Is Binance eyeing US exit? Taiwan asset disclosure rules may include crypto.

Vancouver-based cryptocurrency mining firm Hive Blockchain Technologies Ltd. reported bigger losses in its latest quarterly earnings report published Tuesday, mainly due to Ethereum’s Merge and lower Bitcoin prices.  See related article: Bitcoin mining difficulty dips 0.5% over two weeks after hitting record high Fast facts See related article: Bitcoin miner Greenidge Generation cuts NYDIG debt […]

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.

Cryptocurrency exchange Huobi Global is seeking to relocate its Asia headquarters from Singapore to Hong Kong.

Greater transparency and confidence in who you are transacting with could go a long way toward alleviating public mistrust, writes Travis Nelson of Quadrata.

The cryptocurrency industry this week reacted to the recent moves by U.S. authorities against Kraken and Paxos. Meanwhile, India has been calling for a collaborative approach to crypto regulations.

Blur.io, the NFT marketplace that beat OpenSea’s trading volume in the past month, airdropped its platform tokens on Valentine’s Day, contributing to the global NFT sales increase this week.

Top blockchain and crypto news: Paxos halts BUSD issuance. Kraken faces disclosure charges. Beijing backs new blockchain research center.

The cryptocurrency industry faced criticism during a Senate committee meeting on Tuesday entitled “Crypto Crash: Why Financial System Safeguards are Needed for Digital Assets.”

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) plans to propose rule changes that would make it difficult for cryptocurrency firms to hold digital assets.

Self-custody is cumbersome and carries risks of seed phrases getting lost, but how can we ensure if a third-party custodian can be trusted?

CEO Brian Armstrong said that the company will defend its staking services in court against claims that they need to be classified as securities.

The U.S. SEC may sue the Paxos Trust Company for allegedly violating investor protection laws in its issue of the Binance USD (BUSD) stablecoin.

Luxury fashion house Hermès International won its lawsuit against NFT artist Mason Rothschild on Wednesday for violating its Hermès’ Birkin trademark.

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?

Governments are pushing central bank digital currencies to exert more control over macro policy, writes Josef Tětek of Trezor. But your money and privacy are also at stake.

Top blockchain and crypto news: GOPAX deal sees Binance return to South Korea. Inflation fight spooks crypto markets. Chinese liquor giant gives cheers to NFTs.

Digital Currency Group has started to sell shares of its cryptocurrency funds at a significant discount, according to a Tuesday report from the Financial Times.

As new technologies emerge, could there be a shift in crypto storage methods?

The non-fungible token (NFT) project by former U.S. President Donald Trump has helped its host network, Polygon, outsell Ethereum on the leading NFT marketplace OpenSea for the second straight month, according to transaction data.

Celsius Network may have misled its investors and spent customer funds, an independent examiner said in a Tuesday court filing.

Digital asset investment products reached US$117 million in the week ending Jan. 27 — the highest since July 2022 — with nearly all of that going into Bitcoin.

FTX’s implosion is spurring a regulatory scramble to rein in the crypto sector. But one influential US lawmaker may do more harm than good, writes Kadan Stadelmann, CTO of Komodo.

European Union lawmakers have voted in favor of a draft bill that imposes stricter capital requirements on banks holding crypto assets.

Bankrupt BlockFi reportedly had over US$1.2 billion of assets tied to FTX.com and its sister trading firm Alameda Research

Top blockchain and crypto news: Genesis bankruptcy begins. FTX chief ponders a reboot. China’s CBDC gets a smart-contract upgrade.

Software developers for Ethereum, the world’s second-largest blockchain, on Monday said they successfully deployed a copy of the blockchain — or “shadow fork” — to run tests of the upcoming Shanghai hardfork upgrade scheduled for March.

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.

Crypto lender Nexo Capital has agreed to pay US$45 million in a settlement with the SEC and the NASAA, over allegations of failing to register its lending product,

Crypto prices have been on the rise so far this year, but the arrest of a crypto exchange owner has spooked the market.

Small details can make a big difference on performance, and one careless error can lead to calamity. How should those in crypto drivers’ seats navigate their path?

Top blockchain and crypto news: SEC frowns on Genesis, Gemini. Solana soars. Will China tighten its embrace of WeChat Pay and Alipay to push its CBDC?

U.S.-based cryptocurrency bank Silvergate Capital Corp., which saw clients withdraw more than US$8 billion late last year, on Tuesday reported a US$1 billion loss for the fourth quarter of 2022, a slump it attributed to a “crisis of confidence” in the sector resulting from several large bankruptcies.

IPFS will be heading to space this year to reduce latency between nodes communicating in orbit for blockchain applications, Marta Belcher of the Filecoin Foundation told Forkast.

The Lazarus Group, a North Korean cybercrime organization, has transferred 41,000 Ether (US$63.9 million) stolen from the 2022 Harmony bridge hack onto cryptocurrency exchanges Binance, OKX and Huobi, according to blockchain data shared by Twitter sleuth ZachXBT.

NFTs, tokenization and blockchain-based cross-border payments will see big paradigm shifts, but their success will depend on regulation, investment and adoption, writes Stephen Richardson of Fireblocks.

El Salvador has passed landmark legislation that establishes a legal framework for all cryptocurrencies to build on the country’s “first-mover advantage.”