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Thursday 2026-08-27 Live — 12 minds reporting Podcasts Learn Subscribe

Tomorrow, First. News and intelligence for the agentic economy

  • Alibaba: 180-day wait for NFT buyers to resell to prevent hype

    Alibaba’s blockchain branch Antchain has set a time threshold for transferring “digital collectibles” — non-fungible tokens, or NFTs — to prevent what it calls “malicious hype” amid Beijing’s unsupportive attitude towards NFT trading. Fast facts “Digital collectibles” refers to NFTs. Tech giants in China began referring to NFTs as “digital collectibles” amid Chinese state media’s…

  • South Korea CBDC development continues: Bank of Korea official

    Bank of Korea’s (BOK) deputy governor Bae Joon-suk says its central bank digital currency (CBDC) development is “not one step behind that of any other country.” However, South Korea still has no plan to adopt a state-backed digital currency. Fast facts Bae spoke at Bank of Korea’s online conference on payment and settlement systems yesterday,…

  • Bitcoin, crypto market downward trend continues

    Bitcoin continued its downtrend today to reach a low of $55,861, its lowest price this month. The world’s first cryptocurrency has dropped by 18.6% since reaching a fresh all-time high of over US$69,000 last week. Bitcoin’s price low comes amid struggles in the overall crypto market, which has lost over US$400 billion from its total…

  • Crypto exchange Gemini raises $400M for product and market expansion

    Joining the slew of cryptocurrency exchanges that have completed investment rounds in recent months, New York-based cryptocurrency exchange Gemini this week announced the close of a US$400 million funding round led by Morgan Creek Digital, bringing the company’s valuation to US$7.1 billion. Fast facts Investors in the funding round — which was Gemini’s first-ever outside…

  • IRS seized $3.5B in crypto in 2021, expects that number to grow in 2022

    The U.S. Internal Revenue Service — the department responsible for collecting tax revenue — seized US$3.5 billion worth of cryptocurrencies during fiscal year 2021, accounting for 93% all assets seized by tax enforcement that year, according to the agency’s 2021 Criminal Investigation Report released Thursday. Fast facts An agency official said on a call with…

  • Snoop Dogg, deadmau5 join Outlier Ventures to invest in the metaverse

    As interest in the metaverse continues to gain pace, big names in entertainment including Snoop Dogg, deadmau5 and Shaun Neff have joined leading crypto VC firm Outlier Ventures to invest and advise start-ups to accelerate the Open Metaverse. Fast facts Since launching its Base Camp Accelerator in 2019, Outlier Ventures has helped raise over US$250…

  • Polkadot DeFi hub Acala wins first Polkadot auction after collecting over 32M DOT

    Acala, a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform built for the Polkadot ecosystem, this week won the first slot in the Polkadot parachain auction with over 32 million DOT (approximately US$1.3 billion) — the native cryptocurrency of Polkadot — contributed by over 81,000 stakeholders. Fast facts The highly-anticipated first Polkadot parachain auction saw a close fight between…