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Circle, the digital payment company that operates the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin, this week announced it is setting up a regional hub in Singapore and looking to partner with local businesses for its stablecoin Lighthouse Project. Fast facts U.S.-based Circle says its move into Singapore is part of its global expansion plans and the company […]

The digital artist who helped launch the non-fungible token craze earlier this year, Beeple, has sold his first physical artwork and accompanying NFT for US$28.9 million at a live Christie’s auction in New York on Tuesday night. Fast facts Beeple’s first physical work “Human One” is a seven-foot-tall box with LED screens on each side […]

Within minutes of reports showing U.S. consumer prices rising and weekly wages falling, Bitcoin surged on inflation fears.

Bitcoin & Beyond

Panel explores sustainability issues surrounding the energy-intensive industry at Bitcoin & Beyond Virtual Summit.

Despite movement from both the ruling Democratic Party and the conservative party to delay the 20% virtual asset gains tax, South Korean finance minister still thinks it should start as planned for Jan. 1, 2022.

Panel looks at best practices in news coverage from Decrypt Media, CoinDesk, South China Morning Post.

FTX founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried says building products that people want is what matters most, and the crypto industry and regulators will need to find compromises to resolve some of the industry’s pressing issues.

The Indian government is looking to introduce a cryptocurrency bill in the winter session of parliament in a bid to “fast track” regulation of a rapidly growing ecosystem, CNBC-TV18 reported. Fast facts India first drafted a bill to ban all cryptocurrencies in the budget session of 2021, but it was never tabled for discussions. Officials […]

Co-founder and CEO of popular social media platform Discord, Jason Citron, has hinted at integration with Ethereum via wallets such as MetaMask by tweeting a screenshot of Discord connecting to the world’s number two blockchain along with the caption “probably nothing.” Fast facts It came in response to another tweet by writer Packy McCormick, which […]

While El Salvador carved out its place in history as the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, there are others that may follow for an array of reasons.

From China’s crackdowns to El Salvador’s Bitcoin adoption, where is the world headed in how governments regard crypto? An expert panel explores the future of decentralized finance in the global economy.

Cryptocurrency exchange Huobi Global will stop serving Singapore-based customers from March 31, 2022 to comply with Singapore laws, according to a company announcement on Nov. 9. Fast facts “To comply with the laws of Singapore, we will have to include Singapore as a restricted jurisdiction. Regrettably, this means Huobi Global can no longer offer services […]

The largest U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, earned just US$406 million net income in Q3 this year — a 74.7% decline over the previous quarter — according to the company’s investor earnings report released yesterday. Fast facts That figure represents a 500% increase over Q3 last year, but is significantly less than the US$1.6 billion in […]

Crypto is ‘a behavioral economics experiment,’ says Real Vision co-founder Raoul Pal. ‘Your incentive system is not a like button on Facebook, it’s money.’

One of South Korea’s largest entertainment agencies, SM Entertainment, plans to create future content under its SM Culture Universe (SMCU) metaverse in NFTs — according to its founder Lee Soo-man at Solana’s Breakpoint 2021 conference. Fast facts Lee said SM’s own metaverse, the SMCU, needs to be a place for creation where K-pop prosumers can […]

After the SEC approved a Bitcoin futures ETF, the cost of crypto mining rigs jumped. Coincidence? Varit Bulakul of The Brooker Group explains.

As Ethereum has become the preferred blockchain for smart contracts, what’s the future of the Bitcoin blockchain?

Trust, data privacy and job elimination are some of the challenges that society will face as blockchain ushers in Web3.0, according to Don Tapscott.

What makes 2021’s roaring crypto market different from 2017’s are the banks and VCs piling in, writes Calvin Shen of Hex Trust. What’s behind their crypto adoption?

The highly competitive cryptocurrency exchange industry appears to be consolidating, according to blockchain analytics provider Chainalysis as part of its Competitive Landscape Report that will be released next week. Fast facts The number of active cryptocurrency exchanges peaked at 845 in August 2020 and stood at 672 as at August 2021, Chainalysis reported. The exchanges […]

Crypto market cap breaks US$3 trillion, also APAC crypto cards to launch

Speaking at the Singapore FinTech Festival, Ethereum’s creator discusses DeFi adoption and why he expects Ethereum’s ‘killer ecosystem’ to grow over the next few years.

Top blockchain and crypto news: Ethereum rises and rivals follow. Taxing times for US investors. New life for reborn crypto miner.

Amid the global energy crisis, nine companies from four countries — China, Japan, Australia and Saudi Arabia — announced they will jointly build a blockchain documentation platform to speed up customs clearance and cargo delivery to trade the commodities of energy, chemical products and metal. Fast facts Platform participants includes Sinochem Energy, Mitsui.Co, Macquarie CGM, Saudi […]

Speaking at the Singapore FinTech Festival, Singapore central bank chief Ravi Menon announces the launch of Project Orchid, a digital dollar project.

Affinidi, a Singapore-based technology company founded by state-owned investment firm Temasek, today announced the launch of a new business unit called Finnovate that aims to serve millions of underbanked individuals and small and medium enterprises across Southeast Asia by leveraging on Web 3.0 blockchain technologies. Fast facts Affinidi Finnovate is partnering with the financial services […]

The Central American nation is the first to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. As many countries face similar issues of large unbanked population and high remittance fees, will others follow suit?

New Jersey-based crypto banking services provider BlockFi and investment management firm Neuberger Berman jointly filed for a Bitcoin spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday. Fast facts In September, the U.S. got its first Bitcoin-linked ETF with the launch of ProShares Bitcoin Strategy Fund. But ProShares’ ETF was backed […]

Signaling increased confidence in the future of digital assets, cryptocurrency investment products saw institutional investment inflows of US$174 million last week — the 12th consecutive week of inflows — bringing year-to-date inflows to a record US$8.9 billion, according to digital assets manager CoinShares. Fast facts Institutional investment into crypto products have surged this year with […]

BTC and ETH are surging to dizzying new heights today as part of a broader crypto market rally. What’s going on?

Before the crypto-enthusiastic mayor-elect has been sworn in, a grassroots effort announces it will launch a Bitcoin-backed token to support the city.

Mastercard has partnered with three crypto companies in Asia Pacific — Hong Kong-based Amber Group, Bitkub in Thailand, and CoinJar in Australia — to launch crypto-funded payment cards, according to a Nov. 8 media statement. Fast facts The three companies are the first APAC-based cryptocurrency platforms to join Mastercard’s global Crypto Card Program, which enables […]

Ethereum hits new all-time high meanwhile South Korea says NFTs not virtual assets

Cryptocurrency exchange Huobi Global, which obtained a distributed ledger technology license from the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission in 2018, will be migrating its spot trading services to the regulated entity in Gibraltar (“Huobi Gibraltar”), the company announced today. Fast facts Huobi has received approval from the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission to migrate its cryptocurrency spot […]

The city’s disaffected post-protest youth and recent statistics suggest a brain drain in the city’s future.

China’s capital city, Beijing, is  inviting public tenders on a project to build a blockchain platform and computing center for government affairs with a total bidding price of 242 million yuan (approximately US$37.8 million). Fast facts The bidding project, “Beijing Municipal Experimental Blockchain Platform,” is for storing residents’ and city facility’s information and dealing with […]

Digital assets are disrupting financial services in ways not seen since the Middle Ages, writes Alex Tapscott of Ninepoint Partners. Here is the taxonomy for the future of finance.

As China continues to crack down on the private tutoring sector, one education-tech company has decided to pivot into blockchain and cryptocurrency mining. Fast facts Nasdaq-listed Meten Holding Group, which officially changed its name from Meten EdtechX Education Group in August, has moved forward with plan for the new business venture in the crypto world, […]

The country will follow global crypto guidelines in excluding non-fungible tokens (NFTs) from its categorization of virtual assets — meaning income from NFTs may remain untaxed in Korea.

Ethereum reached a new all-time price high of US$4,766 earlier today, flying past its previous all-time high record of US$4,634 set five days ago, according to CoinGecko data. Fast facts The world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market value has been on a record run since late last month. On Oct. 28, Ethereum’s price climbed to US$4,416 for the first time. The […]

hashport, a public utility that facilitates the movement of digital assets between distributed ledger technology networks without the need for a native network token, today announced that it will launch on Nov. 9, according to a media statement. At launch, hashport will connect the Hedera public distributed ledger to the Ethereum and Polygon networks. Fast […]

The familiarity of centralized systems may feel comforting, but decentralized technologies like blockchain are the wave of the future, writes Corey Petty of Status.

Solana Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners and cryptocurrency exchange FTX today announced that they are partnering to invest US$100 million on gaming studios and projects building on the Solana blockchain. Fast facts “Gaming has a massive opportunity to bring the next billion users to Web3,” said Amy Wu, partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, in a statement. […]

Canaan sues over patent infringement also, PayTM considers crypto services

Chinese companies are in a craze for trademark registrations related to the metaverse, and Baidu and NetEase are the latest tech giants to register such trademarks. Fast facts According to the QiChacha, a website where you can search for information about Chinese company information, shows that NetEase has applied for three trademarks with the metaverse: […]

As Solana surges to new all-time highs, 50 fintech experts surveyed by Finder offer predictions on SOL’s price outlook for the end of the year and longer-term.

The traditional financial industry is getting its feet wet in tokenization of assets, and there’s an influx of interest in the private asset space, as Mathew McDermott, managing director of Goldman Sachs, said today at a Hong Kong Fintech Week panel moderated by Angie Lau, editor-in-chief and founder of Forkast.News. Fast facts McDermott said Goldman […]

Blockdata co-founder Jonathan Knegtel thinks so. Almost a teenager, Bitcoin is reaching a level of maturity that’s defying the predictions of its critics.

22 private sector finance heavyweights together with the BIS and central banks of China, Hong Kong, Thailand, and UAE aim to achieve a production-ready international trade settlement platform using CBDCs.

Canaan is seeking $14 million in alleged losses from Shenzhen HighSharp Electronic Technology and Sichuan Yinbimei Technology.

India digital payments giant Paytm will consider launching crypto-related services if it becomes a regulated asset class in the country, Paytm CFO Madhur Deora told Bloomberg TV on Thursday. Fast facts “Bitcoin is still in a regulatory gray area, if not a regulatory ban in India,” Deora said. “If it [Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies] was […]

The idea of the metaverse has gone from the realm of science fiction to the latest business model of major companies from Facebook to Nike. What do metaverses powered by blockchain look like, and why is there so much interest in Decentraland?

DBS Bank — Southeast Asia’s largest lender — intends to scale its crypto exchange as it invests in blockchain and wants to be nimble to adapt to how DeFi evolves.

London-headquartered fintech startup Revolut is looking to build its own crypto exchange, according to a new job posting. Fast facts The selected candidate will lead neobank Revolut’s “technical team to architect and build Revolut Crypto exchange,” the job posting says. The candidate will need experience in building order matching engines, like those used on crypto […]

The bell has rung on the friendly, post-Election Day competition between leaders of two major American cities for who will be the crypto-friendliest mayor of all.

Equities and Bitcoin have a clearly demonstrated bond, but now oil is strengthening its relationship to crypto, too

Solana prices keep cresting to new heights, making SOL a top-five cryptocurrency by size. What makes Solana and its ecosystem stand out? Forkast.News explains.

Project Serum, a decentralized exchange on the Solana blockchain, has seen its total value locked (TVL) more than double over the past month to US$2.468 billion, according to data from a new Serum Markets Analytics dashboard launched today. Fast facts Solana — a high performance blockchain and alternative to Ethereum — has been gaining ground […]

Lee Jae-myung, the ruling Democratic Party’s candidate for the upcoming presidential election in South Korea, may include in his election pledges setting up a government sector dedicated to supervising the virtual asset industry. Fast facts It is reported that Lee is considering including a plan in his presidential campaign to set up a unit similar […]

DeFi is here to stay, but regulations are still lacking. Jason Blick of EQIBank explores the challenges and how authorities can move forward.

e-CNY scam investigated meanwhile S Korea gets metaverse bug

BTS’ label dreams bigger than just dominating the K-pop world — they want to digitize the IP even more.

Information Technology (IT) firms in South Korea set up shop in the realm of the metaverse, with their first step being non-fungible token (NFT) platforms.

Police crack a tele-fraud case related to digital yuan money laundering, potentially thanks to the CBDC’s ‘managed anonymity’ feature.

The price of Solana (SOL), the native cryptocurrency of the high-performance proof-of-stake Solana blockchain, hit a new all-time high US$245.69 this morning Asia time and briefly overtook Tether as the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market value, according to CoinGecko data. Fast facts Solana’s price surge comes ahead of the inaugural Breakpoint conference organized by the Solana Foundation, which will […]

As the U.S. economy shows signs of recovery from the pandemic-related recession, the Federal Reserve has announced it will begin tapering the US$120 billion a month it spends on bond purchases, hoping to address concerns of rising inflation. This has caused unease in the crypto industry as Bitcoin adoption over the past 18 months has […]

NYC Mayor-elect Eric Adams said he wanted to ‘look at what’s preventing the growth of Bitcoins and cryptocurrency in our city.’

Why archiving the internet is vital for the future, how a decentralized web can help, and why looking at history is a good way to predict the future

Pay-for-play on Web 3.0 will instigate seismic shifts from centralized social media to community-driven platforms, writes Solo Ceesay of Calaxy. How would it work?

One of Asia’s largest fintech events returns for its sixth year with a hybrid format of live and virtual sessions. Regulators, corporations and experts share what’s important now in crypto.

ETH and SOL hit all-time highs as well as CBA offers crypto services