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The ban comes as Chinese companies seek to comply with Beijing’s diktat against speculative activity in non-fungible tokens (NFTs). See related article: China’s diktat against NFT flipping spawns an ingenious industry Fast facts WeChat banned the official account of a Chinese NFT platform for “business activities related to secondary trading of digital collectibles or cryptocurrency.” […]

Bitcoin recovers from it’s weekend slump, standing at over US$20K. Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s support sees Dogecoin gain 12%.

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele took to Twitter on Sunday to reassure Bitcoin investors, claiming such investments are safe and will grow “immensely” after the bear market. See related article: El Salvador’s Bitcoin adoption, one week on Fast facts “My advice: stop looking at the graph and enjoy life. If you invested in #BTC your […]

Dogecoin (DOGE) has gained 11% since billionaire Elon Musk said that he would continue to support and buy the cryptocurrency. See related article: Bitcoin, crypto return to red after rate hike rally wears off Fast facts According to CoinMarketCap data, the memecoin was up more than 12% in the past 24 hours to US$0.05788 on […]

Bitcoin’s price recovered above the US$20,000 mark Monday morning in Asia after falling to as low as US$17,708 on Sunday — its lowest point since December 2020 — according to CoinMarketCap. See related article: Bitcoin, Ether recover as Fed guidance reduces policy uncertainty Fast facts The world’s largest cryptocurrency gained more than 7% in the […]

After a short-lived recovery, Bitcoin, Ether and other cryptocurrencies are trading lower on fears of a contagion risk from a possible financial implosion at Three Arrows Capital.

BlockFi’s Zac Prince says they have fully liquidated 3AC positions. Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s central bank works with the Bank of Israel to study CBDC security.

Keith Johnson, a U.S. investor in the Dogecoin cryptocurrency, has filed a US$258 billion class-action lawsuit against Elon Musk and two of the companies he heads, alleging illegal behavior to manipulate the memecoin’s price.   See related article: What is the real value of joke coins like Dogecoin and SHIB? Fast facts The lawsuit alleges: “Since […]

Thursday’s crypto market recovery was short-lived as most major tokens fell by at least 7% in the past day, with Bitcoin trading within reach of US$20,000 for the first time since December 2020. See related article: Bitcoin, Ether recover as Fed guidance reduces policy uncertainty Fast facts The world’s largest cryptocurrency fell up to 10% […]

Huobi Thailand will shut its cryptocurrency trading platform’s Thailand unit on July 1 after the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revoked its license. See related article: Can Thailand emerge as a ‘crypto-positive’ travel destination? Fast facts Huobi Thailand said the firm will no longer have any connections or legal bindings with Huobi Group following […]

The crypto hedge fund got called out on social media Thursday for allegedly misappropriating US$1 million to cover risks of insolvency.

Bitcoin, Ethereum and TRX recover as the Federal Reserve raises interest rates. Meanwhile, Three Arrows Capital faces liquidation concerns.

Despite short-term volatility weighing on prices, an inevitable easing of monetary policy in response to the pandemic and other crises means Bitcoin and other cryptos will find value as a hedge against runaway inflation, market participants tell Forkast.

The job cuts in India were much lower than the global average of about 18%, a senior executive at the Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange said.  See related article: Coinbase, biggest US crypto exchange, cuts workforce by 18% Fast facts The largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume in the U.S. Wednesday said about 8% of its India […]

Terra’s LUNA/UST death spiral was entirely predictable — and it served as a stress test for better-designed stablecoins, writes Gytis Trilikauskis of MEV Capital.

Yahoo will host virtual concerts and exhibitions featuring celebrities and influencers for Hong Kong residents on the Decentraland metaverse, the company announced on Wednesday. See related story: Hong Kong’s subway operator plans virtual station in metaverse Fast facts Yahoo is also launching a non-fungible token (NFT) exhibition called The Abyss of Kwun Tong to recreate […]

Top blockchain and crypto news: Cryptos sink as inflation rises. Celsius freeze sends CEL token tumbling. Are Inner Mongolia’s miners catching a break?

Crypto markets posted some gains in Asia trading after a pummeling this week, but the sentiment shifted back to negative as markets across the board try to second-guess the Federal Reserve’s thinking on interest rates.

The USDD reserves sees US$500 million worth of USDC added to it. Meanwhile, the US Federal Reserve’s rate decision has the crypto market bracing for itself.

Amid the ongoing insolvency risk, crypto lender Celsius has hired restructuring attorneys from the law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. See related article: CEL down over 50% since Celsius Network’s withdrawal freeze Fast facts Celsius is exploring financing options […]

U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase will cut its global workforce by about 18% to ensure it stays “healthy during this economic downturn,” CEO Brian Armstrong said in a blog post. See related article: Coinbase is the first crypto firm to make the Fortune 500 list Fast facts Coinbase will cut approximately 1,100 employees, or 18% of […]

The recently proposed U.S. cryptocurrency bill could undermine the existing regulatory framework for broader capital markets, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler said on Tuesday. See related article: Hold onto your crypto bags, the regulators are coming Fast facts Speaking at the Wall Street Journal’s CFO Network Summit, Gensler said many crypto companies […]

USDD loses its dollar parity. Meanwhile, Binance resumes Bitcoin withdrawals.

Still recovering from the Terra-LUNA debacle that wiped off billions of dollars in investor wealth, people sold off cryptocurrencies amid a market slump over expectations that the Fed will act faster to tame inflation.

TRON founder Justin Sun on Monday said he will set up a US$2 billion fund to support the dollar peg of the project’s stablecoin USDD and “fight” against short sellers, after the stablecoin’s price fell to US$0.97. See related article: Binance resumes Bitcoin withdrawals Fast facts USDD uses an algorithmic mechanism to keep its dollar […]

The total value locked (TVL) in decentralized finance (DeFi) fell to US$63.12 billion as prices across the broad crypto market fell. The declines were highlighted by the TRON algorithmic stablecoin USDD losing parity with the U.S. dollar on Monday, along with a 17% drop in the TRON native token TRX over the past 24 hours.  […]

MicroStrategy is leading Marathon, Riot and Coinbase in a cryptocurrency-exposed stock selloff, closing down over 25% on Monday, as the firm’s Bitcoin holdings dropped by around US$1 billion.  See related article: MicroStrategy posts Q1 revenue loss amid falling Bitcoin price Fast facts MicroStrategy became entangled with Bitcoin after founder Michael Saylor added record amounts to […]

Inflation hits crypto markets hard as Bitcoin drops almost 8%. Meanwhile, South Korean exchanges work on new rules to prevent another Terra Luna incident.

CEL has dropped 53.1% over the past 24 hours and was trading at US$0.20, at press time, according to CoinGecko.  Fast facts Crypto staking and lending platform Celsius Network paused user withdrawals, swaps, and transfers on Monday, citing “extreme market conditions,” driving its native token to shed more than half of its value. The lending […]

The survey by one of the Big Four accounting firms found over 85% of U.S. merchants are prioritizing the enabling of cryptocurrency payments while around 83% are doing the same for stablecoins. See related article: AMC rival Regal enables crypto payments for moviegoers Fast facts The survey found that 87% of merchants believe accepting crypto […]

Inner Mongolia has closed 49 cryptocurrency mining farms in total, but only four since September, according to the Inner Mongolia Daily, indicating either the process has been successful or the shutdown drive mandated by Beijing is slowing. See related article: Beijing banned crypto mining, so China miners went underground Fast facts See related article: Crypto […]

Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and other major altcoins dropped significantly over the weekend, as U.S. equity markets faced one of their worst weeks in months. See related article: Has Bitcoin become a victim of its own success? Fast facts Bitcoin dropped 8.3% over the past 24 hours to US$25,240.08, according to CoinMarketCap data, as higher-than-expected inflation […]

A proposed US crypto bill may place crypto under the CFTC’s primary oversight, but that won’t exclude the SEC from the industry, Sidley Austin’s Lilya Tessler says.

Singapore investment behemoth Temasek has been in the digital asset space for several years, and it’s doubling down on its commitment, says its blockchain chief.

As the Terra saga continues to unfold, Do Kwon loses an appeal against the SEC. Meanwhile, Circle’s head of policy slams CBDCs.

The order said Do Kwon and Terraform Labs had sufficient contact with the US for the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate it for possible violations of federal securities laws.

Cryptocurrencies can offer citizens in emerging economies a potential buffer against runaway inflation and financial mismanagement by governments. But buying them increasingly means navigating onerous regulations and punishing taxes.

India’s chief economic adviser V. Anantha Nageswaran compared cryptocurrencies to the “world of Caribbean pirates” in the absence of regulation where “winners take it all” from somebody else, local media reported.  Fast facts See related article: Coinbase blames India’s central bank for exit Cryptocurrencies fail to satisfy basic requirements such as having store value, widespread […]

Head of policy for stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Financial, Dante Disparte, called central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) a “preposterous idea” during a panel Wednesday at Consensus 2022. See related article: CBDCs, stablecoins can coexist: Fed Vice Chair Lael Brainard Fast facts Disparte later added the Fed issuing its own digital dollar is “the equivalent idea […]

Litecoin revealed to have broke privacy laws in South Korea. Meanwhile, the Indian government corrects a typo which mistakenly altered a crypto tax.

The Japanese government on Tuesday gave the green light to a new policy that plans to develop and expand the Web3 environment in the country, including the use of cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). See related article: Japanese crypto firms team up to form a metaverse association Fast facts The approved […]

With so-called stablecoins coming under a cloud from the multibillion-dollar collapse last month of the TerraUST stablecoin, Forkast spoke to Singapore-based investor and financial commentator Jim Rogers for his view on these types of coins as well as the relevance of short sellers in the cryptocurrency market. The former cofounder of the Quantum Fund and […]

Alibaba Cloud on Wednesday said its service will help build NFT marketplaces in a fast and reliable way, without addressing compliance issues. See related article: Resist the temptation on NFTs, Chinese state-backed developer says Fast facts See related article: Move-to-earn app STEPN to limit service in China

Litecoin (LTC), the 20th-largest cryptocurrency in the world, is being ousted from South Korean crypto exchanges after its Mimblewimble Extension Blocks (MWEB) upgrade allowed the token to be sent anonymously — which is against local anti-money laundering regulations. See related article: South Korea’s crypto crackdown: What you need to know Fast facts Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, […]

A typo error on the Income Tax Department’s website mistakenly altered a 1% tax-deducted-at-source (TDS) figure to 0.1%, and has since been rectified, the Income Tax Department said on Wednesday.  Fast facts See related article: India’s crypto tax will incur losses for government, says WazirX CEO “Some media reports have come to the notice of […]

A bipartisan crypto bill has been introduced in the US Senate. Meanwhile, Singaporean investment company ADDX plans on recognizing crypto assets.

Top blockchain and crypto news: Binance BNB slips amid allegations. STEPN marches through attacks. Is China’s slowdown straining crypto prices?

Falling prices, an imploding stablecoin, and more reports of hacks have occupied the cryptocurrency headlines in recent weeks, so it’s perhaps no surprise that regulators have noticed and they intend to do something about it.

High taxes and lack of support from traditional finance make it difficult for smaller crypto operators to survive in India, a senior executive at one of the country’s largest crypto exchanges said.

Nine cryptocurrency and blockchain companies, including crypto exchange FTX, made it to the 2022 list of the Forbes Fintech 50 released Tuesday, with all nine raising a total of US$6.5 billion in venture capital, according to the business magazine. See related article: FTX.US forays into stock trading Fast facts The latest list features private companies […]

Leading crypto exchange Binance swats away double-helping of allegations. Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s regulator scrutinises NFTs.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is reportedly looking into whether Binance violated any rules regarding the sale of securities when its BNB token was sold through an initial coin offering (ICO) in 2017. See related article: Binance’s venture arm raises US$500 mln to invest in Web3, blockchain Fast facts The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange […]

Cytown, the metaverse currently being developed under South Korean software developer Hancom and local social media service Cyworld Z, recently received the green light from Google to launch a mobile app on the Playstore. See related article: Be kind, rewind! South Korea’s Cyworld is back in Web 3.0 avatar Fast facts Hancom will launch the […]

IRA Financial Trust announced a lawsuit against cryptocurrency exchange Gemini Trust Company on Monday for alleged failures in safeguarding IRA’s crypto assets in the exchange. See related article: Binance users burned by outage band together to take legal action Fast facts IRA manages self-directed retirement accounts in non-traditional assets such as Bitcoin which were held […]

Web 3.0 lifestyle app, StepN, was hit by a denial-of-service attack. Meanwhile, South Korean students are looking at metaverse as a platform to prepare for exam.

Beijing’s official GDP growth target is 5.5% this year, but some analysts don’t see how that makes sense in the face of Shanghai-size lockdowns. Could a China slowdown be good news for central bankers trying to tame inflation?

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.

Crypto companies have voted with their feet in response to the city-state’s restrictions on their business. But they are still keeping an eye on opportunities.

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 […]

Singapore issues a crypto warning for retail investment. Meanwhile, Bitcoin took a tumble sparking market concerns

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 […]

Bitcoin dropped more than 6.5% in the past 24 hours to trade below US$30,000 as the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization gave up most of the gains made over the U.S. holiday weekend.  It was trading at US$29,850 at the time of publishing. See related article: Bitcoin, Ethereum, crypto at 2022’s lowest point Fast […]

Singapore announces plans for a digital assets initiative. Meanwhile, Shanghai’s lockdown finally ends, but markets remain hesitant.

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 […]

Dunamu, the South Korean fintech company and operator of the country’s largest crypto exchange Upbit, rebutted claims that it profited by over 130 billion Korean won (US$105 million) off of LUNA Classic last year. See related article: S.Korea eyes restraints on crypto unicorn Dunamu over monopoly concerns Fast facts Last week, multiple local media reports […]

BNB Chain’s roadmap for the year will prioritize faster transactions and enhanced support for decentralized applications (dApps), the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume said. See related article: Binance rebrands blockchains for metaverse, DeFi expansions Fast facts In its 2022 technical roadmap released Tuesday, BNB Chain said it is working to offer end users more […]