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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?

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

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 […]

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.

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 […]

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: […]

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.

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?

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 […]

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.

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 […]

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

Blockchain technology company Huobi Group is celebrating its 8th-year anniversary with a slew of events and giveaways — including a space trip “to the outer perimeters of Earth” — and a focus on expanding its global footprint, according to a company announcement. Fast facts Founded in 2013 in China, Huobi has made global expansion a priority […]

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

Ethereum crosses the $4,600 mark for the first time and Solana overtakes Cardano as the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market value.

CMCC Global, a venture capital firm based in Hong Kong, is targeting US$300 million worth of assets in its latest crypto fund, according to Bloomberg. Fast facts Since being launched in April, CMCC’s fourth digital asset fund has gathered assets close to an estimated value of US$90 million with a goal to reach the US$300 […]

Ant Group and Tencent recently rebranded NFT projects as digital collectibles amid China state media criticism.

The darling of the play-to-earn gaming world had an explosive start but now struggles with deflation and lower player earnings. Is the play-to-earn model sustainable?

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.

Bitcoin is awakening humanity to its own sovereign capacities, says Ben Caselin of AAX. Here’s why the world’s first cryptocurrency is still at the cutting edge of finance and culture.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the social media giant is rebranding its corporate name to Meta as it focuses on building out its metaverse vision of an embodied internet with immersive spaces and experiences where people can digitally connect. Fast facts “The metaverse is the next chapter for the internet and it’s the next chapter […]

Behind this year’s giddy markets, evil and tragedies abound. Just in time for Halloween, Forkast.News shakes out the skeletons in crypto’s closet.

South Korea crypto debate heats up, also Bitcoin mining ETF starts trading

‌‌As‌ ‌Asia‌ ‌warms‌ ‌to‌ ‌crypto,‌ ‌cyber attacks‌ ‌are‌ ‌growing‌ ‌in‌ ‌sophistication,‌ ‌writes‌ ‌Shahnawaz‌ ‌Backer‌ ‌of‌ ‌F5.‌ ‌What can be done to thwart bad actors?

Popular play-to-earn blockchain game Alien Worlds has launched its Alien Worlds Missions game on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC), according to a media statement. Fast facts Alien Worlds is a decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible token (NFT) metaverse where players compete using unique digital items (NFTs), earn Trilium (TLM), the in-game currency, and travel on Alien World Missions […]

This appears to be the third hack for the protocol this year — yet the biggest one so far.

South Korean mobile game developer Netmarble to create a virtual K-pop idol group under partnership with internet giant Kakao group using meta-human technologies.

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.

As Ethereum surges to a new all-time high, 50 fintech experts surveyed by Finder offer predictions on ETH’s year-end and longer-term price outlook.

Ethereum’s creator explains why rollups can help scale Ethereum while preserving decentralization.

Philippines trials blockchain voting meanwhile Byron Bay to host crypto mining

New virtual worlds are full of opportunities, writes Sandra Helou of Zilliqa. But what if real-world problems get magnified in the metaverse?

As the crypto market lit up with green across the board this morning, the price of Solana (SOL) jumped 6% in a few hours overnight to reach a new all-time high of US$218.73, according to data from CoinMarketCap. Solana’s price has since lost some of this ground, however, and was trading at US$208.57 at press […]

Australia’s Senate report into fintech regulations includes 12 recommendations for a clear digital assets framework.

Ethereum prices surged to new heights ahead of next week’s Altair Beacon Chain upgrade but then pulled back. How do crypto experts make sense of it?

Just three months after closing a record US$1 billion series B, the two-year-old cryptocurrency exchange is now valued at US$25 billion. Fast facts The US$420,690,000 Series B-1 funding round saw the participation of 69 investors, with prominent names the lineup, including Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, via its Teachers’ Innovation Platform, Singapore’s state-owned investment firm […]

Bitcoin hits all-time high, also Lotte World opens in metaverse

When the world’s largest cryptocurrency last reached a price high, China had yet to crack down on crypto mining, and there was no U.S. Bitcoin futures ETF. What do changing market conditions mean for the growth of Bitcoin and the crypto industry?

DeFi is a real-world experiment testing out a new model for finance, writes Alex Grebnev of Oxygen. What is the future of banking without Wall Street?

Animoca Brands, a Hong Kong-based blockchain gaming, metaverse and non-fungible token (NFT) company, has closed a capital raise for US$65 million at a pre-money valuation of US$2.2 billion, according to a company statement. Fast facts Investors in the round included Liberty City Ventures, Ubisoft Entertainment, Sequoia China, Dragonfly Capital, Token Bay Capital and Justin Sun, […]

How the crypto economy is engaging with legislators, what policy makers need to know about Web 3.0 and what role the U.S. infrastructure bill has played in kickstarting better cryptocurrency education.

Money, culture and community are now converging in NFTs and the token economy, writes Lily Z. King. Welcome to a new world where ‘money Lego’ meets ‘culture Lego.’

After iron-fisted regulations closed down many exchanges, remaining trading platforms look for alternatives to transaction fees.

More than one-third — or 37% — of Singapore residents are already using or are interested in using cryptocurrencies to pay for purchases, according to the latest research from Worldpay from FIS, a payment platform. But nearly half — or 47% — of Singaporean respondents said that they were not interested in using cryptocurrencies for payments. […]

Some are registering companies overseas, via — you guessed it — Taobao vendors.

As the price of Bitcoin hovers just under its all-time high, a report released today by Australia-based comparison site Finder.com is predicting that the world’s largest cryptocurrency will peak at US$80,021 later in 2021 before ending the year slightly lower at US$71,415. Fast facts Bitcoin was trading at US$62,294 at publishing time, just below its […]

Facebook says it will create 10,000 jobs in the European Union over the next five years to build its highly anticipated metaverse — a digital platform that utilizes technology such as virtual and augmented reality that the company says has the potential to unlock new creative, social and economic opportunities. Fast facts According to a […]

Conglomerates including Samsung continue to invest in blockchain and crypto startups despite a government crackdown on the industry.

As luxury brands eye the virtual realm, Zilliqa co-founder Max Kantelia looks forward to a convergence of desirable objects and digital opportunities.

Ripple, a San Francisco-based blockchain payments company, has joined the Digital Pound Foundation, a non-profit organization supporting the implementation of a digital pound in the United Kingdom, according to a Ripple blog post. Fast facts As a foundation member, Ripple will be represented on the board by Susan Friedman, Ripple’s head of policy. Other foundation […]

Sotheby’s, the 277-year-old auction house, is launching its own immersive digital experience to offer prospective buyers a new way of engaging with the latest art-world craze — non-fungible token (NFT) artworks — according to a press release shared with Forkast.News. Fast facts Sotheby’s is creating a metaverse to allow users to explore and learn about […]

Binance — the world’s biggest cryptocurrency by trading volume — today announced the appointment of Mark McGinness, former head of international relations at the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), as its chief regulatory liaison officer, according to a company statement. Fast facts McGinness’ appointment comes as Binance bolsters its compliance efforts and navigates regulatory headwinds […]

Cryptocurrency investors on the Chinese mainland continue to feel the chill from the country’s latest crypto ban, as more and more industry players exit the Chinese market. Cobo, a Singapore-based crypto management platform, is among the latest to opt out. Fast facts In order to reflect the regulatory requirements on the mainland, Cobo said Wednesday […]

Top blockchain and crypto news: Big money heads for Bitcoin. How fishy are Squid Game NFTs? China mothballs mining.

Coinbase and Binance move to diversify meanwhile Stablecoins under scrutiny

As non-crypto players like Twitter and PayPal take up digital assets, Coinbase, Binance and others look for ways to expand offerings.

Hong Kong-based digital asset custodian Hex Trust has integrated enterprise-grade public blockchain network Hedera Hashgraph into its Hex Safe custody platform, the company announced today. Fast facts With the integration, Hex Trust’s Hex Safe custody platform will support HBAR — the Hedera network’s native cryptocurrency — and tokens issued using the Hedera Token Service (HTS), […]

Blockchain analytics company Elliptic has raised US$60 million in its Series C funding round led by Evolution Equity Partners and Japanese investment giant SoftBank, the company has announced. Fast facts Elliptic counts a number of marquee investors among its existing backers who participated in the current financing round, including Digital Currency Group, Wells Fargo Strategic […]

South Korean conglomerate Samsung is increasingly involved in the burgeoning world of blockchain-based gaming, while within Korea, games with blockchain elements are banned from official release in the country. Fast facts Samsung Next, the tech giant’s investment subsidiary, participated in a US$152 million Series B round of Sky Mavis, the Vietnam-based blockchain game company and […]

While most of the market was down around 5% coming into the Asia trading day this morning, altcoin Stacks was up over 70% in 24 hours on Sunday night, according to data from CoinMarketCap, hitting a high of US$2.45 — the highest point the token had reached since the market-wide crash in May. The price has fallen […]

A South Korean tech company is partnering with the largest organization of professional journalists in the country to develop digital tools and techniques to tackle problems in the journalism industry. Fast facts Media technology developer PUBLISH recently announced signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Journalists Association of Korea (JAK), which represents over 11,000 […]

Tether fires back while Easy Crypto closes Series A funding round