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DeFi’s amorphous autonomy proves a policy puzzle

The promise of financial democratization forms the bedrock of DeFi’s appeal. But who’s in charge — and who to hold responsible when things go south?

Crypto exchange Gemini raises $400M for product and market expansion

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 […]

Algorand price soars over 50% to new two-year high

Algorand (ALGO) — the native cryptocurrency of the Algorand blockchain — soared 50% from just under US$1.70 noon Asia time today to a new two-year high of US$2.66, according to CoinGecko data. But the surge was short-lived, with ALGO currently trading just under US$2 as of publishing time. Fast facts Algorand’s surge amidst the wider […]

Bitcoin ETFs beckon as SEC spurns sweet spot

Top blockchain and crypto news: Spot ETFs stymied as SEC stands firm. Is Bitcoin’s Taproot upgrade worth the wait? China’s crypto mining goes underground.

Vitalik Buterin imagines a future of crypto cities

In a speech, Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin notes the rise in cities experimenting with crypto, DAO and NFTs. What are the possibilities of blockchain cities?

How to avoid getting rug-pulled in crypto and DeFi

Scams like the Squid Game Token rug pull are every investor’s nightmare. How to avoid hoaxes and not feel like a fool? Forkast.News explains.

Polygon launches Miden for Ethereum scaling

Ethereum Layer 2 solutions — protocols built on top of the Ethereum blockchain that handle transactions off the Ethereum mainnet — have been on the rise as developers work on improving Ethereum’s scalability as its number of users and applications continue to grow. Polygon, a Layer 2 Ethereum scaling platform, today announced the launch of […]

SEC enlists court to compel Terraform Labs and its CEO to testify

The creator of the Mirror protocol and its CEO Do Kwon have little recourse but to comply with the SEC subpoena to produce documents and testify.

Algorand Foundation, Blockchain Association Singapore partner to grow blockchain ecosystem

The Algorand Foundation, a Singapore-based blockchain organization supporting the development of the Algorand ecosystem, has partnered with the Blockchain Association Singapore to drive the development of blockchain technology in Singapore and the wider Southeast Asia region. Fast facts In a memorandum of understanding signed on Nov. 12, the ecosystem partnership will see the Algorand Foundation […]

How charities can use NFTs to amp up fundraising from viral content

Charities are just beginning to explore the potential of NFTs, writes Billy Sebell of XinFin Network. Here’s how NFTs can help raise big money beyond artwork auctions.

This Brazilian digital bank wants to change the world, one block at a time

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.

Ethereum’s Web 3.0 ecosystem expands, 3.4 million now into DeFi

Ethereum’s sprawling Web 3.0 ecosystem — which includes the majority of the decentralized finance (DeFi), stablecoins, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and blockchain gaming worlds — continues to expand and draw users, with 3.4 million Ethereum addresses interacting with DeFi protocols, according to ConsenSys’ Web 3 Q3 2021 report published this week. Led by Ethereum co-founder Joseph […]

3 themes driving institutional adoption of digital assets

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?

Vitalik Buterin: How DeFi, NFTs and DAOs are building a value exchange layer for Web 3.0

Speaking at the Singapore FinTech Festival, Ethereum’s creator discusses DeFi adoption and why he expects Ethereum’s ‘killer ecosystem’ to grow over the next few years.

How Singapore is looking at Web 3.0 and DeFi as it prepares for a digital Singapore dollar

Speaking at the Singapore FinTech Festival, Singapore central bank chief Ravi Menon announces the launch of Project Orchid, a digital dollar project.

What are the digital assets powering the DeFi revolution?

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.

South Korean regulator confirms that NFTs are not virtual assets

The country will follow global crypto guidelines in excluding non-fungible tokens (NFTs) from its categorization of virtual assets — meaning income from NFTs may remain untaxed in Korea.

Disrupting the status quo: Why the world needs decentralization

The familiarity of centralized systems may feel comforting, but decentralized technologies like blockchain are the wave of the future, writes Corey Petty of Status.

Solana Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners and FTX partner to invest $100M in Web3 gaming

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. […]

Is 2021 the year of crypto’s coming of age?

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.

What is the Solana ecosystem and how is it fueling SOL’s stratospheric rise?

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.

Aleph.im launches Serum Markets to provide DeFi trading data on Solana

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 […]

How DeFi regulation can propel the next economic revolution

DeFi is here to stay, but regulations are still lacking. Jason Blick of EQIBank explores the challenges and how authorities can move forward.

Solana hits new ATH, briefly overtakes Tether as 4th-largest cryptocurrency

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 […]

Hong Kong Fintech Week’s live comeback talks digital renminbi and DeFi

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.

Ethereum, Solana, Polkadot climb to new all-time price highs in altcoin rally

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

BXH says its exploit, now estimated at $139M, came from admin key leakage

The hacked DeFi platform called China’s cyber police first thing as most users appear to be in China.

Hong Kong’s CMCC seeks to raise $300 million crypto fund

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 […]

Another DeFi platform, BXH, suffers $130M exploit

This follows an attack on Cream Finance that also resulted in a $130M hack.

FATF updates regulatory guidance for crypto industry

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

Back to the future: Why Bitcoin is still a game-changer

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.

Unraveling the mystery behind why Bitcoin prices are all over the place

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.

‌How‌ ‌can we better ‌protect‌ ‌digital‌ ‌assets‌ ‌and‌ ‌guard‌ ‌against‌ ‌hackers‌?

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

DeFi platform Cream Finance suffers $130M exploit

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

Vitalik Buterin: Layer 2 is the future of Ethereum scaling

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

Ethereum price touches new all-time high in altcoins rally

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?

What Singapore’s novel crypto license scheme means for the future of payments

In a special Q&A, CEO Louis Liu describes the hoops FOMO Pay jumped through to win Singapore’s first crypto license and calls its regulator a ‘collaborator.’

How to make sense of the hot new digital assets, like Bored Apes? Think: Lego blocks

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.’

South Korean crypto exchanges look for new revenue sources

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

How Singapore’s crypto regulations are shaping its DeFi space

Singapore is a major crypto hub. But for whom? In this primer, Malcolm Tan explains the island-state’s regulatory evolution and which groups are no longer in its favor.

As regulators circle above, how should the DeFi industry respond?

Traditional finance evolved over centuries while DeFi is coming into its own in a few years, writes Adi Ben-Ari of Applied Blockchain. Are its risks inevitable?

Taking opulence online: How blockchain is beckoning luxury brands

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

Ripple joins Digital Pound Foundation as it looks to expand its CBDC business

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 […]

Bitcoin bulls set for stampede amid six-figure forecasts

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

Crypto exchanges diversify amid growing competition

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

Is DeFi at war with traditional finance, and should TradFi be scared?

Decentralized finance may look like it’s consuming TradFi, writes Will Hamilton of TCM Capital. But here’s why one won’t survive without the other.

NFTs and the music industry: Flatten the learning curve | Part 3

Singers and musicians are embracing non-fungible tokens, but will their non-crypto active fans buy it?

South Korea calls for legal review on DeFi businesses

As South Korea’s ongoing efforts at regulating cryptocurrency continues, a top financial services official said DeFi (decentralized finance) businesses need legal review before they are officially recognized as providers of financial services such as loan-for-consumption. Fast facts At the National Assembly’s annual review, lawmaker Oh Gi-hyoung, member of the National Policy Committee, asked Jeong Eun-bo, Korea’s Financial […]

Australian Tax Office warns: taxpayers on the hook for crypto tax earnings

Officials are concerned that many investors may not be aware crypto trading is taxed in a similar way to share trading.

Crypto miners blamed for Kazakhstan’s power shortages; Bitcoin on the up

Kazakhstan blames its newly settled crypto miners for power shortages as South Korea’s largest exchange is accused of listing faulty tokens for profits.

How should the world tackle crypto criminals and digital dangers?

Top blockchain and crypto news: US leads charge in ramping up cybersecurity. Crypto fans crow as Facebook flops. China bears down on metaverses.

Central and Southeast Asia among fastest-growing regions in global crypto adoption: Chainalysis

Much of the growth in the region is driven by strong grassroots adoption rates led by Vietnam, India and Pakistan, new data from Chainalysis shows

e-CNY chat wallet launched; Korean illegal crypto transactions surge

China’s telecom giants to bring digital yuan transactions to mobile chatting boxes.

What are stablecoins, and why are some governments so afraid of them?

Stablecoins combine the portability of crypto with the price stability of fiat currencies. But are they all that stable?

After the crackdown: go underground, go along, or buy the dip?

Chinese social media has been abuzz since authorities lowered the boom on crypto. Forkast.News has been following the chatter. Here’s what they’re saying on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter.

Following crypto ban, digital wallet imToken restricts some access for China users

Decentralized wallet imToken is restricting access to some of the services it offers for users in China, in the wake of the latest ban imposed by top Chinese authorities last Friday. Fast facts The company has restricted users in China from accessing and using third-party financial applications, including those from decentralized crypto exchanges, stake mining […]

Why China’s latest stomp on crypto is turbo-charging DeFi growth

DeFi tokens like dYdX soared after China’s latest move to throttle crypto. Is this a short-term spurt or decentralized finance shifting into high gear?

South Korean banks find workaround to cash in on crypto services

NH Nonghyup is the third bank in South Korea to invest in a virtual asset custody service while they are prohibited from running their own.

XinFin’s XDC Network and Tradeteq partner on NFTs for trade finance

Singapore-based blockchain protocol eXchange inFinite (XinFin) and trade finance distribution platform Tradeteq today announced their partnership to tokenize trade finance assets into non-fungible tokens (NFTs), according to a company statement shared with Forkast.News. Fast facts Atul Khekade, co-founder of XinFin, told Forkast.News in an interview that traditional trade finance assets that are typically paper-based such […]

FTX CEO: This is the canary in China’s crypto ban coal mine

Amid China’s new clampdown, why is DeFi surging and the RMB-to-crypto market important? Sam Bankman-Fried analyzes what it all means and why FTX is leaving Hong Kong for a new home.

Crypto markets shrug off China’s latest saber-rattling

Is China’s influence over Bitcoin and the global crypto market waning? Chinese exchanges get a thrashing as decentralized exchanges get happy on clampdown news.
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What does China’s crypto ban really mean? Insights from the ground

China’s hardline stance against crypto is already rippling beyond its borders. A mainland crypto insider explains the global shakeup yet to come.

Why DeFi holds the key to metaverse success

A profound shift is underway in online culture, writes Anndy Lian of BigOne Exchange. Here’s how decentralized finance might one day power the NFT and metaverse economy.

Chinese blockchain Conflux partners with GIGXPAD to tokenize real-world assets in Africa

GIGXPAD, a decentralized finance (DeFi) project based in Africa, is partnering with public blockchain network Conflux to tokenize real-world assets, according to a company statement shared with Forkast.News. Fast facts The collaboration, which marks the Chinese blockchain Conflux’s first use case in Africa, will see GIGXPAD deploying a decentralized crowdfunding platform on Conflux. According to […]

Fewer South Korean crypto exchanges remain in business under new industry regulations

Around 35 virtual asset exchanges will vanish as of midnight Friday, as the country imposes new rules designed to protect consumers.

Second Avalanche hack hits Vee Finance for $35M in assets

Decentralized finance platform Vee Finance, which is based on the Avalanche blockchain, has suffered from a hack that saw the loss of Ether and Bitcoin tokens worth US$35 million, the lending platform announced on Tuesday. Fast facts Vee Finance suspended the platform’s contracts as well as its deposit and borrow function to protect user assets […]

Over 90% of the world’s poor are not insured, but blockchain could soon change that

Blockchain and parametric insurance offer a bigger safety net for the world’s most vulnerable, writes Jan Stockhausen of Etherisc. Here’s how it works.

Upbit passes Korea crypto race post; P2P transactions surge in India

Upbit passes Korea crypto race post meanwhile P2P transactions surge in India

Boba network announces mainnet launch of layer 2 optimistic rollup

ETH 2.0 is expected to address transaction speeds and gas fees on the world’s number two blockchain, but a growing number of layer-2 protocols are looking to solve those issues today.

Cosmos price reaches for the stars as market remains firmly on the ground

As most of the crypto market stagnates, Cosmos has been on a tear over the weekend, gaining 35% since Saturday morning Asia time to reach an all-time high of US$44.54 this morning, according to CoinMarketCap.com. Fast facts Though it dropped slightly to US$41.72 just before press time, this jump marks the first time the ATOM […]

Avalanche’s AVAX token surges to all-time high after $230M fundraise

AVAX — the native token of the Avalanche blockchain — today surged to a new all-time high of US$68.34, according to CoinGecko data, boosted by news of a US$230 million investment into the Avalanche ecosystem. AVAX has increased by 60% over the past seven days. Fast facts Launched in September 2020, Avalanche is an open, […]

Institutional DeFi poised to become a $1 trillion industry, Blockdata says

Blockchain research firm sees explosive growth in smart contract-based products that can replace existing financial services.