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A Chongqing-based company became the first in the city to pay taxes with China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital yuan, according to local media. See related article: China to issue free digital yuan to boost locked down economy Fast facts See related article: What I learned from my role in digitizing the yuan

STEPN, the move-to-earn blockchain game, suffered a distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attack during an “anti-cheating” update over the weekend, leading to network issues and user frustrations.  See related article: Move-to-earn app STEPN to limit service in China Fast facts During the update, an attack of 25 million messages led to hours of server shutdowns, with some […]

The mayor of Australia’s Gold Coast, Tom Tate, has suggested that city residents could be paying council rates, or local property tax, in Bitcoin. See related article: Aussie watchdog obtains cold wallet holding US$20M in Bitcoin involved with alleged scam Fast facts “It sends a signal that we’re innovative and bring in the younger generation,” […]

The prospect of tighter codes for the crypto industry has given some players the jitters. Others, such as Crypto.com’s Eric Anziani, see it as an opportunity.

The industry should fasten its seat belt, an industry watcher told Forkast, as the largest of crypto firms headline widespread layoffs amid the 2022 market crunch.

Indian cryptocurrency exchange CoinSwitch Kuber launched CRE8 on Thursday, a rupee index tracking the Indian crypto market. See related article: India gets second crypto unicorn within two months Fast facts CRE8 claims to give traders real-time information on the Indian rupee-based crypto market, based on trades on the CoinSwitch exchange. “Until now, investors in India […]

Following another system outage on Thursday, Solana’s (SOL) market capitalization has continued to fall as Dogecoin (DOGE) and Polkadot (DOT) are hot on its heels to possibly bump it out of the crypto top 10 by market cap. See related article: Solana loses consensus after bots flood network, SOL takes hit Fast facts While the […]

Fidelity Digital Assets, the crypto-focused subsidiary of Fidelity Investments, has planned a hiring spree to extend services to include Ethereum trading and custody. See related article: Fidelity allows retirement investments in Bitcoin Fast facts Fidelity Digital Assets was founded in 2018 to enable institutional investors to store and trade Bitcoin — its parent company announced […]

Goblintown NFTs, a new meme-adjacent collection, surpassed the likes of Bored Ape and Mutant Ape Yacht Club, according to CryptoSlam.  See related article: Azuki fortunes reverse as sales soar after floor price drop Fast facts Launched on May 22, Goblintown NFTs are unapologetically crude drawings of goblin-like creatures, with a culture built around poor grammar, […]

Binance Labs’ fundraise comes as venture capital investments face headwinds from expectations of interest rate increases. See related article: Binance’s investment in Forbes is a wake-up call for the crypto industry Fast facts See related article: Binance, a16z among investors backing Musk’s Twitter bid with US$7B

The right balance of regulations can better protect gaming companies’ intellectual property as well as players’ assets, writes Henry Chang of Wemade.

South Korean police said Wednesday they arrested a man in his 30s on fraud charges for allegedly stealing about US$658,000 in cryptocurrencies based on personal data leaked on local social media platform Naver Band. See related article: Guilty verdicts handed down in S.Korea’s biggest crypto scam Fast facts The man allegedly stole cryptocurrencies from 90 […]

Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat cautioned retail investors to steer clear of investments in cryptocurrencies, saying the nascent asset class “is a highly risky area.”  See related article: Singapore wants to bring some adult supervision to crypto Fast facts Many investors suffered losses and even lost their life savings in the recent meltdown […]

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged Nate Chastain, a former employee of the non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea, with wire fraud and money laundering for allegedly using confidential information from the platform to trade NFTs. See related article: Insider trading scandal rocks world’s biggest NFT platform OpenSea Fast facts The DOJ alleges Chastain, […]

Top blockchain and crypto news: Investors shun LUNA 2.0. Ethereum gains amid relief rally. China’s stimulus goes digital.

Cryptocurrency companies in the Philippines await legislation from the new Ferdinand Marcos Jr. administration on how the government will tax the industry. Some are worried.

In its urgency to reign in the cryptocurrency industry in the wake of the Terra collapse, South Korea will launch a “Digital Asset Committee” by the end of June, according to a local news report. See related article: South Korean authorities cite LUNA debacle to call for speedier crypto oversight  Fast facts The committee will […]

Global crypto asset management platform Kassio has launched its services in India to help its users extract value from their crypto holdings beyond just trading, the company said in a statement. See related article: CoinDCX offers to let Indians earn yield on crypto holdings Fast facts Kassio offers instant crypto-backed loans and interest earnings up […]

South Korea’s smart contract auditing firm Sooho.io is partnering with Lambda256, the blockchain subsidiary of Upbit operator Dunamu, to develop a bridge layer connecting the country’s fragmented decentralized finance (DeFi) and Web 3.0 ecosystem. See related article: Two crypto exchanges reach unicorn status in South Korea Fast facts The new bridge will work as a […]

Wall Street did it! At least that is one of the theories about the cause of the nearly US$50 billion meltdown of Terraform Labs stablecoin and LUNA cryptocurrency. How does that stand up?

The Hong Kong-based public trust company Tuesday announced a US$20 million funding round to build up a secondary market for private equity and digital assets, according to a press release. See related article: Singapore wants to bring some adult supervision to crypto Fast facts The venture for empowering startups Nogle and the Blockchain Technology venture […]

Whether the fixing of a pricing error by Mirror Protocol, the decentralized finance (DeFi) application built on Terra Classic, will help prevent a drainage of the pool similar to last year will only be known by the end of U.S. trading hours on Tuesday. See related article: Winning back the trust of the Terra community […]

The Indian government is studying how other countries have regulated the asset class before drafting laws for the industry, the secretary for economic affairs Ajay Seth told local media.  See related article: Crypto regulation has to ‘take its time’: India FM Nirmala Sitharaman Fast facts “Our consultation paper is fairly ready. We have gone into […]

Russia’s Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Vasily Shpak called for regulating cryptocurrency mining as the industry has grown too big to ignore, Interfax news agency reported on Friday. See related article: Russia uncovers a crypto mining farm in its oldest prison: report Fast facts Shpak said that crypto mining activities took up over 2% […]

Financial literacy is a life skill that is often neither taught at school nor home, writes Grace ‘Ori’ Kwan of Orca. How can we close this knowledge gap?

Ethereum gained over 10% in 24 hours to reach US$2,000 on Tuesday morning in Asia after spending the better part of a week below the mark. Ethereum was trading at US$1,985 at press time. See related article: Bitcoin, Ethereum, crypto at 2022’s lowest point Fast facts The world’s second-largest cryptocurrency hit a low of US$1,721 […]

Fueled by seismic shifts in societal values, decentralized autonomous organizations are now poised to go mainstream, writes Hannes Graah of Gro.

Advocates for central bank digital currencies argue their inherent stability supersedes any benefits so-called stablecoins, algorithmic or otherwise, could offer.     

Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Xiong’an New Area announced they are distributing free digital yuan “red packets” to boost local consumption amid China’s economic slowdown fueled by mass Covid lockdowns.  See related article: Covid-19, postponed Asian Games to push digital yuan into the slow lane? Fast facts See related article: What I learned from my role in […]

The new LUNA was trading under US$6 on Monday morning Asia time, after peaking at US$18.87 shortly following the launch of the Terra 2.0 blockchain on Saturday, according to data from CoinGecko. See related article: Winning back the trust of the Terra community a tall order for Do Kwon: Experts Fast facts LUNA Classic (LUNC) […]

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) featuring Chinese late Qing dynasty painter Wu Changshuo’s artwork debuted on Tencent’s Huanhe NFT platform on Thursday with all 28,000 copies selling out immediately after the drop, reflecting a still robust market for such assets in China. See related article: Chinese stock image agency VCG tests NFT marketplace Fast facts The Wu […]

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is aligning its central bank digital currency (CBDC) design with monetary policy objectives and financial stability, the central bank said in its annual report.  See related article: Report: Stablecoins, CBDCs may not resolve financial inclusion, international remittance challenges Fast facts Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in February the RBI […]

The world’s second-largest stablecoin USDC and ERC-20 IAG tokens can now be bridged from Ethereum to the Cardano network through Iagon’s cross-chain bridge powered by the Milkomeda sidechain. See related article: Wormhole to bridge Polkadot, Kusama to Ethereum, Solana Fast facts A cross-chain bridge allows for crypto assets of one blockchain to be converted for […]

The Singapore-based banking behemoth may have found its reach constrained in retail crypto markets, but it still has big plans, CEO Piyush Gupta tells Forkast.

StepN limits their services in China. Meanwhile, Terra 2.0 poses questions relating to investor trust.

Visual China Group (VCG), China’s largest stock image provider, has started a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace that lets users outside of mainland China pay with Ether. See related article: China’s diktat against NFT flipping spawns an ingenious industry Fast facts The platform, dubbed “Vault by 500px,” went live with a beta version on Wednesday, and […]

Pop culture event Comic Con India (CCI) will dive into the metaverse with the launch of non-fungible token (NFT) collectibles Non-Fungible League.  See related article: How the metaverse is closing the gap between virtual and reality Fast facts The Non-Fungible League will create and mint heroes for the metaverse, and will contain a series of […]

U.S. Federal Reserve Vice Chair Lael Brainard said a central bank digital currency (CBDC) could coexist and complement stablecoins in her Thursday testimony to a House Financial Services Committee virtual hearing. See related article: CBDC tracker shows U.S. falling further behind Fast facts CBDCs are digital currencies released and backed by central banks, while stablecoins […]

Did you know that 38% of Americans lack confidence in election fairness? No wonder, since the paper ballot voting system has been in place since the beginning of the 19th century. Can a blockchain-based voting system restore trust in democratic elections? Learn more about the promise of blockchain voting in this Forkast video explainer. What […]

Did you know that the supply chain is responsible for 90% of companies’ environmental impact? This is because our fragmented logistics process doesn’t account for the environmental cost of the products. Can blockchain help create a global environmental standard? Find out in this Forkast video explainer.  What you’ll learn: How blockchain can track the environmental […]

While the banking system has been working well for citizens in first-world economies, people in underdeveloped regions often struggle to gain access to the same financial services that others are taking for granted. Can a blockchain-based financial system restore financial neutrality and bank the world’s unbanked? Find out in this Forkast.News video explainer.  What you’ll […]

From credit card transactions to shopping habits and browsing histories, our digital footprints are recorded and preserved in centralized databases. These data are monetized for profit by third parties. Could blockchain-based Zero-Knowledge Proof put an end to mass surveillance? Find out in this Forkast.News video explainer. What you’ll learn: What is financial surveillance and how […]

Flament’s comments come as governments around the world step up regulation of the sector plagued by frequent frauds, high-profile run-on-the-banks and misrepresentation from the anonymity blockchain and cryptocurrency offer.

The operator of the Indian cryptocurrency exchange is working with large institutional borrowers, third-party lending partners and staking platforms to generate yield on cryptocurrency and digital assets, CoinDCX said in a statement. See related article: CoinDCX investment arm to invest US$13 mln in Web3 startups Fast facts The yield program doesn’t come with lock-in periods […]

Governments around the world are racing to develop their own digital currencies, but an e-HKD may not make sense for Hong Kong’s people. John Mitchell of Episode Six explains why Hong Kong is unique.

The digital assets tax compliance and portfolio tracking firm’s launch in India comes after the country announced a series of measures to benefit off the gains made in cryptocurrencies.  See related article: India tax breaks crypto’s back Fast facts Crypto users in India can use CoinTracker to aggregate and reconcile cryptocurrency and non-fungible token (NFT) […]

Bitcoin’s hashrate dropped by 10.6% to 204.4 exahashes per second on Wednesday on a seven-day average from its peak earlier this month, Blockchain.com data show. See related article: Beijing banned crypto mining, so China miners went underground Fast facts The Bitcoin mining difficulty level fell by 4.33% to 29.9 trillion at block height 737,856 on […]

Terra’s governance vote closed on Wednesday evening Asia time with 65.50% of governance voters in favor of Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon’s proposal to create a new blockchain. See related article: Terra raises aUST initial token float to 30% in revival plan amendment Fast facts Kwon’s “Terra Ecosystem Revival Plan 2” ditches the algorithmic stablecoin […]

Top blockchain and crypto news: Billions cut ties with Tether. Are Terra’s UST troubles just beginning? China’s miners stay one step ahead.

The crypto community is still dealing with the fallout from the multibillion-dollar collapse of Terra-LUNA. At a Davos event organized by Forkast, we asked what caused the crash and if it was foreseeable.

If buying a home is the American Dream and key to building wealth, what is that like in the metaverse? Crypto newcomer Joel Stein finds out.

The Lu Xun High School in China’s Hainan province has provided students with a new campus smart card device with digital yuan payment functionalities, further expanding use of the e-currency at education institutions, China’s largest state-owned broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) reported Tuesday. See related article: Covid-19, postponed Asian Games to push digital yuan into […]

The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) of South Korea will perform an on-site inspection of Terraform Labs and financial services linked to TerraUSD (UST) or LUNA. See related article: Are we heading for a post-Terra crypto winter? Fast facts The FSS said at an emergency National Assembly meeting on Tuesday that the audit aims to prevent […]

A Terra employee has been accused of embezzlement. Meanwhile, a crypto mining farm has been found in Russia’s oldest prison.

Authorities and Bitcoin miners play a cat-and-mouse game as miners find means to stay off the government radar and dodge crackdowns.

Terra’s LUNA and UST implosion is dragging down an already ailing market. What do other developments suggest about crypto’s long-term future?

A deputy warden of Russia’s oldest prison has allegedly mined cryptocurrency in the facility and is under investigation on suspicion of stealing electricity to do so, Bitcoin.com reported on Monday. See related article: To stay relevant, crypto regulations need to evolve, decentralize: Crypto Rising Fast facts The deputy manager of Butyrskaya prison in central Moscow […]

Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s Cyber Crimes Investigations Unit revealed on Monday that it has received a report alleging a Terraform Labs employee was involved in embezzling corporate funds, according to local media reports. See related article: Terra’s S.Korean office closure ‘purely coincidental’: Do Kwon Fast facts The police are currently investigating the validity of the […]

Terra co-founder responds to office closure allegations. Meanwhile, China re-emerges as a crypto mining hub despite 2021 ban.

Startup platform Farandole has a plan to transform the traditional wine industry with NFTs, cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shown that cryptocurrency regulations need to expand beyond the jurisdiction of a single government and blockchain technology can help with that, said panelists at ‘Crypto Rising,’ a series of virtual monthly events organized by Forkast.

Terraform Labs CEO and cofounder Do Kwon claimed on Saturday that the closure of two offices in South Korea was “purely coincidental,” and not a response to the national tax authorities’ investigation. See related article: LKB, 5 clients file lawsuit against Terra, Do Kwon to ‘Grim Reaper’ Fast facts Terraform Labs closed its two offices […]

Blockchain was once associated overwhelmingly with cryptocurrencies — and specifically its poster children, Bitcoin and Ethereum. The latter, in particular, has thrust the industry forwards into the realm of smart contracts integration.  Ethereum started to bear fruit arguably most prominently last year amid a boom in non-fungible tokens (NFTs), while decentralized finance (DeFi) offered a […]

South Korean LUNA investors file lawsuit against Terra. Meanwhile, Singapore’s High Court blocks sale of a Bored Ape NFT.

In an exclusive interview with Forkast, the lawyer representing the claimant discusses what the result means for NFTs and digital ownership.

Crypto exchange FTX.US has introduced FTX Stocks for select U.S. customers to allow stock trading and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) through its app. See related article: FTX reaches US$32B valuation after closing $400M series C Fast facts FTX.US will provide commission-free stock market trading where orders will be routed to Nasdaq through its clearing firm Embed, […]

Commercial paper backing Tether (USDT), the world’s largest stablecoin, has decreased by 17% from US$24.2 billion in Q4 2021 to US$20.1 billion in Q1 2022, according to Tether’s latest attestation report.  See related article: Tether slashes commercial paper, shows more reserves than liabilities Fast facts Commercial paper in Tether reserves has been reduced by an […]

Sony Music Entertainment has set up a new Greater China venture for its American label RCA Records to explore opportunities in streaming, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the metaverse. See related article: John Legend’s OurSong raises US$7.5 mln to fuel music NFTs Fast facts The new label, dubbed “RCA Records Greater China,” will make key hires […]

China southwestern municipality Chongqing recorded 288 million yuan (US$43 million) in total digital yuan trading volume across 1.576 million transactions as of May 15, the People’s Bank of China’s local branch reported at a Thursday press conference.  See related article: China southeastern city tops US$3mln digital yuan transactions in pilot month Fast facts Chongqing is […]

Five South Korean Terra (LUNA) investors with an accumulated loss of around 1.4 billion Korean won (US$1.1 million) represented by local law firm LKB & Partners have filed a complaint against Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon and co-founder Shin Hyun-seung for two charges including fraud, according to local media reports. See related article: Knock, knock […]

Chinese crypto mining rig maker Canaan booked robust revenue growth in Q1 2022 despite logistical issues and supply chains disruptions from the pandemic, the company said on Thursday. See related article: SEC places Chinese crypto mining rig maker Canaan on pre-delisting list Fast facts Canaan recorded 1.36 billion yuan (US$214 million) in revenue in the […]

The man at the center of one of crypto’s biggest flops is trying to resurrect the Terra-LUNA project as his tribe of followers and out-of-pocket investors want to know what went wrong.