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Chinese cryptocurrency miner BIT Mining has signed a deal to build a data center in Texas.

DeFi project Maple Finance is launching a $17 million lending pool to provide crypto startups with capital. Is this the start of a DeFi credit underwriting trend?

The world’s biggest cryptocurrency may have found a new trading range after being battered yesterday following an apparent Chinese clampdown on cryptos, partly reversing losses of around 30% seen when investors dumped their coins on Wednesday.

Former CFTC chairman Chris Giancarlo and Accenture’s David Treat are not in a CBDC race, but a ‘contest’ to develop money that reflects societal values.

China’s newest warning against crypto sends market into nosedive and Bitcoin dips below US$40,000 for the first time since February.

Professional crypto traders appear to be taking the recent plunge in the price of Bitcoin in their stride as they look ahead to an upswing in the cryptocurrency’s fortunes.

Around US$1.5 billion of Bitcoin long positions were liquidated today across some of the world’s top crypto exchanges, including Binance and FTX, according to Bybt data.

In a paper released today by a Senate committee, the Australian government announced it is seeking help in establishing a crypto regulatory framework.

RippleNet has partnered with National Bank of Egypt and UAE-based payment services firm LuLu International Exchange for the processing of cross-border funds transfers from the United Arab Emirates to Egypt.

XRP’s price has slumped almost 7% in the past 24 hours after a so-called whale transferred US$93 million of the cryptocurrency to an unknown wallet on May 18, according to blockchain analytics platform WhaleAlert.

Qingdao-headquartered tech company SOS Ltd. has announced the launch of more than 6,000 ETH and BCT mining rigs, claiming 90% renewable energy sources.

Fan Long, a co-founder of Chinese public blockchain network Conflux, says China’s latest broadside against the use of cryptocurrencies in the financial sector should not be interpreted as a sign that Beijing is intent on shutting down digital currencies.

American Bitcoin miner Riot Blockchain’s mining revenue skyrocketed almost tenfold to US$23.2 million in the first quarter of 2021, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

China has slapped a ban on finance sector businesses, including payment firms, from offering cryptocurrency services.

As Singapore builds Project Dunbar, a cross-border multiple-CBDC platform, its government dives into DeFi learning and ponders a CBDC for the masses.

Privately owned Chinese lender continues to target blockchain opportunities as it remains shut out of Beijing’s digital yuan project.

Banks in Singapore are leading blockchain and DLT developments while South Korean game developer WeMade entrusts its US$130 million crypto holdings to KODA.

Deutsche Bank Securities Services in Singapore and Singapore fintech firm Hashstacs, or STACS, today announced the completion of a tokenized securities proof-of-commercialization test named Project Benja.

The final phase of Polkadot’s rollout — with parachains — just kicked off. Here’s what you need to know about Polkadot and parachains, and why it matters.

The appetite in the United Arab Emirates for cryptocurrency investment is growing, with younger Emiratis more bullish about digital assets than their Western counterparts, according to a study by financial services firm Holborn Assets.

In a new court filing, SEC tries to keep out 6 representatives of 17,100 XRP holders from joining as 3rd party defendants in the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple.

A group of cryptocurrency developers has launched a new coin named $STOPELON, aiming to limit Elon Musk’s influence over the cryptocurrency market.

American consumers have lost an estimated US$80 million in cryptocurrency investments since October 2020, according to new data from the Federal Trade Commission, which calculated that digital currency scams had jumped tenfold year on year.

Tesla founder Elon Musk has lost his position as the world’s second-richest person following a 2.2% decline in the electric carmaker’s share price.

Ripple rebuts SEC’s attempt to obtain Ripple’s confidential communications with lawyers over XRP’s legal status and seeks to bolster ‘fair notice’ defense.

FUD has taken over Bitcoin’s FOMO sentiment as iconic YouTube video ‘Charlie Bit Me’ gets immortalized as an NFT.

The home video that has been viewed more than 880 million times is set to be sold as NFT to highest bidder — and then deleted forevermore from YouTube.

ADA price holds strong as investors shift to greener cryptocurrencies and Cardano smart contracts get set to launch blockchain into DeFi and NFTs.

Fund managers have reacted swiftly to the latest price volatility in the cryptocurrency market triggered by recent Elon Musk tweets that have raised doubts over Tesla’s future relationship with Bitcoin, the Financial Times reports. Fast Facts: T Rowe Price President and Head of Investments Rob Sharps recognized the impact of cryptocurrencies across capital markets, but […]

New York-based artist Brian Donnelly, also known as KAWS, is launching his latest project in Britain, “KAWS:HOLIDAY UNITED KINGDOM,” featuring a 42-meter tall hot-air balloon that people can pay cryptocurrency to take rides in. Fast facts Crypto and fiat payment processor FTX Pay has partnered with Hong Kong production company AllRightsReserved to be the official […]

A single tweet by Tesla founder Elon Musk wiped more than US$55 billion off the cryptocurrency market after he implied on Sunday that the company might have sold its Bitcoin holdings. Fast Facts: Bitcoin’s price fell to below US$43,500 after Musk appeared to agree with a Twitter post that Tesla should divest its Bitcoin holdings. […]

A tweet about Dogecoin by Tesla founder Elon Musk provoked a terse response from high-profile figures in the cryptocurrency industry on Sunday. Fast Facts: Musk responded to a tweet in which Twitter user @itsALLrisky claimed that Dogecoin was superior to Bitcoin, tweeting back: “Ideally, Doge speeds up block time 10X, increases block size 10X & drops […]

A dispute over a Bitcoin mine’s environmental impact leads to a push to ban crypto mines in New York state. Will other places follow Albany’s lead?

It’s only a matter of time that digital currency ‘is going to overshadow all the other forms of money,’ says Neeraj Khandelwal of CoinDCX.

To improve public trust, South Korea is barring police officers from buying cryptocurrency. Could this presage a broader clampdown on crypto in the country?

The Asian crypto industry reacts to the US Department of Justice and Internal Revenue Service money laundering probe into Binance. In South Korea, the nation’s largest internet company plans to join Bank of Korea’s CBDC ventures. Over in Singapore, Southeast Asia’s largest lender DBS Bank expands its crypto services for its private bank clients by […]

What will happen to your Bitcoin keys and crypto wallets when you die? Southeast Asia’s largest bank will now take care of it all for the super wealthy.

Yet another U.S. regulatory probe of leading crypto exchange Binance is underway, but CEO Changpeng Zhao isn’t impressed with news headlines.

As many as 46 million U.S. consumers will consider using cryptocurrency to make retail purchases, regardless of whether or not they currently own crypto, a joint study by media outlet PYMNTS and Bitcoin payment service BitPay shows. Extrapolation indicates that purchases made using cryptocurrency could conservatively represent around 1% of all retail sales in the […]

An Australian computer scientist has become the latest person to claim to have developed Bitcoin, an assertion he hopes might bring him a £4 billion (US$5.6 billion) windfall. Craig Wright, who claims to have invented Bitcoin, and the identity behind the Satoshi Nakamoto pseudonym, has filed a lawsuit in a UK court to retrieve a […]

Bitcoin ATM provider Coinsource is expanding in Alaska after receiving the state’s first and only Alaska Money Transmitter License. Coinsource joins four other operators of Bitcoin ATMs — known as BTMs — in Alaska, none of which have such a license. The Alaska Division of Banking and Securities license provides a guarantee that money transmitters […]

Singapore’s DBS Private Bank has announced the launch of Asia’s first bank-backed trust offering for cryptocurrencies. The service, operated via the lender’s wholly-owned licensed trust subsidiary, DBS Trustee, allows clients to invest, custodize and manage their digital assets. The service will handle only those cryptocurrencies hosted on the DBS Digital Exchange — Bitcoin, Ether, Bitcoin […]

Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice and Internal Revenue Service over alleged illegal activities. Officials responsible for investigating money laundering and tax breaches have interviewed individuals familiar with Binance’s activities, according to a report by Bloomberg. In March, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said it […]

Asia’s crypto industry reacts to Tesla backtracking Bitcoin payments, while Animoca Brands raises US$88,888,888 in a new funding round.

Animoca Brands’ valuation tops US$1 billion as it charges forward in the NFT and blockchain gaming space with $88,888,888 in new funding.

Elon Musk drops ‘fossil fuel’ Twitter bomb on Bitcoin, triggering a BTC price crash and dragging down Ethereum, Dogecoin and Shiba Inu.

China-founded cryptocurrency exchange Huobi Group has launched a US$100 million investment arm to focus on early-stage blockchain and decentralized finance projects over three years. The new operation, named Huobi Ventures, will make strategic acquisitions to diversify and expand Huobi’s offerings and establish a US$10 million non-fungible token fund, the company said in a statement sent […]

Gibraltar’s distributed ledger technology regulations have been credited with the success of Latin American crypto platform BITSO’s latest US$255 million fundraising. The series-C equity round was led by hedge funds Tiger Global and Coatue Management, and boosted BITSO’s value to US$2.2 billion. Gibraltar’s DLT legislation is the world’s first purpose-built regulatory framework for businesses using […]

FTX crypto derivatives exchange pioneered TRUMP crypto futures and now dwarfs Coinbase in trading volume. Is going public in FTX’s near future?

Facebook’s much-anticipated foray into cryptocurrency has got off to a modest start, with the project it is backing confirming that it will launch a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar. The social media giant had announced ambitious plans to launch a global digital currency named Libra in partnership with Visa and PayPal in 2019, but […]

Global US dollar reserves touched a 25-year low in Q4 2020, according to a new IMF report. Will a digital euro and e-RMB muscle in?

US carmaker Tesla has backed away from accepting Bitcoin as payment for its electric vehicles, citing the enormous environmental cost of mining and processing cryptocurrency transactions. In a Tweet posted on Wednesday, Tesla founder Elon Musk said the company would suspend vehicle purchases using Bitcoin. He said, “We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of […]

Other top blockchain and cryptocurrency news: How Dogecoin copycat SHIB coin vaulted into crypto’s top 20. China unveils fingerprint ID for digital yuan.

Shiba Inu is the new “Doge killer” and Chinese investors “can’t get enough” of it, says Gate.io, as #SHIB trends in Weibo.

The United States’ Securities and Exchange Commission has emerged as a top cryptocurrency regulator, bringing 75 enforcement actions and 19 trading suspension orders between July 2013 and 2020, according to a study by Cornerstone Research. “In the last seven years or so, the SEC has established itself as one of the main regulators policing the […]

Ethereum prices rally to new all-time high as Bitcoin’s dominance keeps sliding. Is Ethereum’s upcoming EIP 1559 upgrade boosting its value proposition?

Crypto veterans are appalled by the sudden popularity of $hitcoins like DOGE and SHIB. But others say memecoins are making investing more accessible.

Indonesia’s tax authority is studying a proposal to tax cryptocurrency trading as interest in digital currencies gains momentum among local investors. Directorate General of Taxes spokesman Neilmaldrin Noor was quoted by Reuters as saying, “If there is a profit or capital gain generated from a transaction, the profit is an object of income tax. So […]

Chutian Dragon and IDEX Biometrics offer DCEP digital currency wallets with fingerprint recognition. The companies say the feature enhances security.

Cryptocurrency investment in India has reportedly slowed to a trickle as both investors and cryptocurrency exchanges grapple with banks’ refusal to accept digital currency transactions. Despite the face-off, industry executives are hopeful that banking support will resume soon, according to a report by Moneycontrol. As reported by BloombergQuint, most crypto exchanges, including WazirX, CoinDCX, Zebpay, […]

Bangkok-headquartered financial consultancy and capital manager The Brooker Group is set to invest US$48 million in a portfolio of decentralized applications and decentralized finance tokens, a move that will see the company commit around half of its assets to the sector. The firm has identified what it describes in a press release as “huge” growth […]

Software company Block.one today announced the launch of new subsidiary Bullish Global. An independent entity that will operate under Block.one’s parentage, Bullish Global is focused on the rollout this year of Bullish, a blockchain-based cryptocurrency exchange, according to a press release sent to Forkast.News. Bullish aims to combine the performance, user privacy and compliance offered […]

FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried joins Forkast.News to share how the exchange is able to provide new financial products while still satisfying regulators.

As retail interest in crypto grows, countries around the world are grappling with consumer protection. Asia offers a window into the array of policy responses.

Alpha Finance Lab has developed an oracle aggregator with data from oracle providers Band Protocol and Chainlink to address challenges related to scalability, flexibility and security as the decentralized finance landscape continues its rapid evolution. A data oracle is a platform that combines and integrates real-world data and application programming interfaces that control smart contracts. […]

Dogecoin is on its weekend hangover as trading volumes in India’s WazirX for DOGE reaches new heights. Meanwhile, ESG investments tackle crypto.

London-based regulatory technology startup ALT/AVE today launched its docStribute distributed ledger product, which aims to tackle the paper waste problem generated by companies in the financial services industry. Built on the Hedera Hashgraph network, docStribute enables financial institutions to distribute mandatory and highly regulated documents to customers, offering a secure and more sustainable digital alternative […]

In the latest volley in SEC v. Ripple Labs, the SEC contends that Ripple has waived its attorney-client privilege over legal advice on XRP’s status.

The head of a Philippine electricity generator and distributor says that blockchain-enabled trading of electricity can thrive in the country, so long as the right regulatory environment exists.   Emmanuel Rubio, president and CEO of Aboitiz Power, told the Manila Bulletin blockchain offered an opportunity in the electricity market, particularly in unleashing the potential of […]

Canada-based alternative investment manager Ninepoint is to set aside a portion of its management fees to offset the carbon footprint of the Bitcoin held in an exchange-traded fund it operates. Its aim to provide investors prioritizing environmental, social and governance investment opportunities with carbon-neutral exposure to the world’s biggest cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrencies have attracted considerable criticism […]

Cambodian lender SBI LY HOUR Bank has launched the first blockchain-based remittance services between Cambodia and Vietnam.   SBI LY HOUR Bank is providing the new services with Vietnamese lender TP Bank, in which its parent, SBI Holdings, has a stake, according to a report by the Phnom Penh Post. The lender is the first […]

Is it all those new Ethereum ETFs, rising demand for Ethereum from DeFi and NFTs, or lower gas fees fueling ETH’s price jump to yet another all-time high?