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How has layer-2 innovation saved Bitcoin from becoming a victim of its own success? Blockstream chief Adam Back explains.

Hong Kong-listed Chinese food delivery giant Meituan, which occupies 70% of the market share, on Wednesday started to accept digital yuan for payments, as tested by Forkast.News.  Fast facts Users first need to link their wallets to Meituan in the e-CNY app; then they can pay for an order by selecting digital yuan in the […]

Guangxi, China’s southern provincial-level region, is researching cross-border finance, supply-chain service platforms and e-CNY applications, according to a report by local state-run media Guangxi Daily. Fast facts The Guangxi autonomous region — often seen as a gateway for Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) trade — plans to support cross-border circulation of capital, according to the […]

NFTs are finding novel uses across many sectors, from fashion to real estate. What industries stand to benefit most from this technology in the year ahead?

Looking beyond this year’s headlines like El Salvador’s Bitcoin adoption, here are the key developments in blockchain technology that will have lasting impact in the new year and beyond.

From China’s ban to FATF’s travel rule, crypto regulations have been top of mind this year. How might regulatory impulses and current trends play out?

Animoca Brands chairman Yat Siu sees a mass migration to the ‘open metaverse’ while the ‘closed’ ones will fail. What does this godfather of blockchain gaming mean by that?

Hackers scam 7,000 Solana, or US$1.3 million, from would-be buyers of a new NFT collection of the Monkey Kingdom project.

China prepares to show off its tech innovation muscles at the Beijing Winter Olympics as it unveils some unusual-looking wallets for its new digital yuan.

China tries to stamp out Bitcoin mining while increasing its influence over blockchain technology and preparing the digital yuan for launch. What lies in store for 2022?

Of the Big Four central banks, including those of the EU, UK and Japan, only the Federal Reserve has not progressed beyond research mode in central bank digital currencies.

What are the responsibilities of blockchain companies when it comes to freedom of expression? A controversial cartoonist finds out the boundaries.

Bitcoin’s current price is not indicative of the crypto’s future prospects, says Mark Yusko, who looks forward to the tokenization of everything.

Games like Axie Infinity are now the darlings of big investors. Does it matter that revenue is falling and many players earn less than the minimum wage?

Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), one of the most successful non-fungible token (NFT) collections, is joining hands with Animoca Brands — a Hong Kong-based blockchain gaming, metaverse and NFT company — to develop a play-to-earn game utilizing BAYC’s popular avatar NFTs, according to a company statement. Fast facts The new game, which will feature play-to-earn […]

Shibu Inu coin struggles, meanwhile could blockchain an inflation hedge solution?

Blockchain gaming unicorn Animoca Brands announced yesterday a partnership with Aquis Farm — a major racehorse-breeding business owned by Hong Kong’s billionaire Fung family — to bring equestrian activities into the metaverse. The blockchain specialist will leverage Aquis Farm’s equestrian intellectual properties to develop blockchain games and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).  Fast facts “Aquis recognises the […]

Animoca Brands — a Hong Kong-based blockchain gaming, metaverse and non-fungible token (NFT) company — said it held US$15.87 billion worth of digital assets at the end of November, reflecting robust growth in its metaverse business units. Fast facts Animoca Brands said in a statement released Wednesday that in the first three quarters of this […]

OpenSea IPO plans in choppy waters. Crypto markets crumble. Bitcoin mining power struggles.

Iceland, which is suffering from a power shortage, is reducing electricity to some industrial clients and turning away new requests for power from cryptocurrency miners, reported Bloomberg, citing a statement from national power company Landsvirkjun. Fast facts The Nordic island nation is now reducing power supply for heavy consumers, including aluminum smelters, data centers and […]

Nexo, a globally regulated crypto-collateralized credit provider, has announced a partnership with Fidelity Digital Assets, an execution and custody services provider, to establish a platform to provide institutional access to digital assets with custodial and lending services, according to a news release shared with Forkast.News. Fast facts The partnership will allow Nexo to establish an […]

Bilibili — one of China’s biggest video sites particularly known for its content dedicated for anime, comics and games fans — is testing its blockchain UPowerchain that could help the company build its metaverse business, as Chinese tech giants are sparing no efforts to enter the metaverse space. Fast facts Bilibili has confirmed with Forkast.News […]

Tourism officials want to attract more crypto-wealthy travelers to Thailand’s shimmering shores. But will the crypto faithful come if Thailand still has a ban on SHIB and Dogecoin?

But the head of the central bank’s digital currency research institute says issues remain such as technical standards for blockchain interconnectivity.

Binance Smart Chain (BSC) has joined hands with Animoca Brands — a Hong Kong-based blockchain gaming, metaverse and non-fungible token (NFT) company — to launch a US$200 million investment program to accelerate and incubate early crypto gaming startups built on BSC, according to a company statement released Monday. Fast facts Specifically, the duo are co-investing up to US$100 million […]

For the second weekend in a row, markets were hit with a massive shock due to external factors. Market watchers weigh in on price movements and what to expect.

Crypto resilient to Omicron meanwhile Japan speeds up on CBDC

The non-fungible token (NFT) frenzy has extended to the luxury wine and spirits industry. The Dalmore, best known for its Scottish whiskies, has partnered with BlockBar, an NFT platform for luxury liquor brands, to offer a limited-edition liquor NFT with a set of The Dalmore Decades No.4 Collection, the brand said in a Wednesday statement. […]

Huobi Group, which operates Chinese cryptocurrency exchange Huobi Global, has decided to set up a regional hub in Singapore, a representative of company has told Forkast.News. Fast facts In November, Huobi Global pledged to stop offering services to Singapore-based users from March 31, 2022, to comply with local laws, according to a company statement. Huobi […]

Korea crypto tax postponed, meanwhile CoinDCX looks to IPO

Hong Kong Stock Exchange-listed Huobi Technology Holdings today announced that it will be launching Huobi Lending, a cryptocurrency lending service for institutions and high net worth individuals (HNWI) through its new digital asset brokerage platform Huobi Brokerage, according to a company announcement. Fast facts Alongside growing institutional interest in digital assets, crypto lending services leveraging […]

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has joined hands with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) to launch an innovation hub in New York— dubbed the New York Innovation Center (NYIC) — to explore and build financial technology products for the central bank community. Fast facts The NYIC will focus on five areas — […]

In Nigeria, the eNaira — the country’s newly launched central bank digital currency (CBDC) — has already seen nearly 600,000 downloads, according to local media Nairametrics citing the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Fast facts The local media reported Saturday that the CBN governor has revealed the country’s total digital transactions rose by more than […]

Metaverse picks up momentum, on the other hand Binance tweet gets yellow card

The metaverse has been the hottest trend in tech this past month and tokens attached to metaverse projects are showing that growth with the Sandbox’s SAND and Decentraland’s MANA are both up over 600% in the past month to reach all-time highs of US$8.51 and US$5.90 yesterday, respectively, according to CoinMarketCap. Fast facts The Sandbox […]

Hex Trust and Animoca Brands team up to tackle a key problem in gamefi.

Shenzhen’s special zone for cooperating with Hong Kong, Qianhai District, will allocate 10 million yuan (US$1.57 million) to motivate enterprises to develop e-CNY-compatible businesses, especially in cross-border e-CNY and fintech labs. Fast facts The Qianhai Administration introduces the policies in a document released on Monday called “Interim Measures for Managing Special Funds for Supporting Financial […]

Another e-CNY scam busted, meanwhile SCMP to tokenize history

OliveX, a digital health and fitness company listed on the national stock exchange of Australia (NSX), today announced it will be raising AUD$8 million (US$5.8 million) via a share placement with investors including Hong Kong-based blockchain gaming company Animoca Brands, One Football, a digital media platform for football, and Bombora Investment, as it builds out a […]

Inner Mongolia police bust yet another digital yuan money laundering case.

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 […]

Billions have been stolen through hacks from decentralized finance protocols, with Ethereum seeing the bulk of losses, according to a report by Elliptic.

How to sift through millions of NFTs before buying? NFT marketplace Mintable is hoping to attract more users with these new organizing and ranking features.

Ethereum blockchain software company ConsenSys today announced the completion of a US$200 million funding round, bringing the company’s valuation to US$3.2 billion as it seeks to spearhead the growth of Web 3.0. Fast facts ConsenSys’ announcement comes as the number of monthly active users of its MetaMask non-custodial wallet product exceeded 21 million — a 38-fold increase from […]

Central banks around the world are exploring digital currencies, writes Aymeric Salley of StraitsX. Here’s why Southeast Asia may be especially ripe for them.

South Korea a metaverse hub, also NFTs go from digital to physical

The projects topped 300 rivals in their potential to improve the future digital Singapore dollar in payment services and financial inclusion. Who were the other winners?

As Circle expands into Asia as part of a global expansion plan, what does the investment in a yen-back stablecoin mean for the market?

As crypto projects are relocating from China to friendlier shores, it represents ‘huge opportunity’ for Taiwan.

As central bank digital currencies begin picking up steam around the world, the Central Bank of Nigeria announced on Friday the digital wallet for its own digital currency, the eNaira, has been downloaded 488,000 times in 160 countries — in just 19 days after its launch. Fast facts According to local news reports, after President […]

Animoca Brands, a Hong Kong-based blockchain gaming unicorn, announced today that it has teamed up with Cube Entertainment, a major K-pop entertainment agency, to form a joint venture dedicated to building a music metaverse and issuing non-fungible tokens (NFTs), joining a slew of K-pop labels to make forays into the NFT and metaverse space. Fast […]

Covid laid bare the gaps in people’s access to banking services. Moeda Seeds is looking not just to fill the gaps but to change the banking paradigm.

China’s soft rollout of the first major economy’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) continues apace. Yi Gang, governor of the People’s Bank of China, and Mu Changchun, director of the Digital Currency Research Institute of the bank, reported that the average weekly transaction volume of e-CNY is growing by 3 billion yuan (US$469 million) and […]

As speculation continues over the fate of the Chinese property development giant, crypto markets were not spared the downturn over fears of its potential collapse.

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.

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

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

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 […]

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 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 […]

e-CNY scam investigated meanwhile S Korea gets metaverse bug

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.

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

Top blockchain and crypto news: Stablecoins at regulatory crossroads. Squid Game crypto players suffer shocking fate. Are metaverses China’s new national insecurity?

Wrapped XRP (wXRP) will be supported on the Ethereum blockchain from December, according to an Oct. 31 announcement by Wrapped.com, a cross-chain wrapped assets provider. Fast facts Wrapped XRP will be backed 1:1 with XRP — the native cryptocurrency of the XRP Ledger (XRPL) — and held in custody with Hong Kong-based licensed digital asset […]

Sebastien Borget, COO and co-founder of The Sandbox tells Forkast.News how NFTs and an open and decentralized metaverse is transforming the way we live, work and play.

China’s tech cut ties to NFTs as Squid Game token leaves users questioning its legitimacy.

The global AML watchdog provides clarifications on how crypto is to be regulated — and why DeFi could see more scrutiny.

The wild popularity of South Korean Netflix TV series Squid Game and K-pop boy band BTS prompt parody tokens in the crypto space under circumstances that are being called into question.

Even the most reliable media can report wildly different crypto numbers. Forkast.News dives into DeFi math and crypto exchange economics to find out who’s right.

Top blockchain and crypto news: Is Tesla’s turbocharge a boost for Bitcoin? Mastercard’s Bakkt with a new crypto deal. Chinese NFTs on knife-edge.