Finance

Our 21st century economy still rides on old, slow and costly financial rails. Here’s how blockchain technology can build a network of monetary superhighways.

Crypto is “part of the future,” said Melissa Wisner, vice president of crypto risk at Ciphertrace, during her panel discussion at D3 Bahamas.

Fractionalizing assets on-chain can greatly increase liquidity, security and market efficiency, writes Hamilton Keats. Here are the key trends and challenges.

Moves by big financial institutions into digital assets are worrisome to crypto purists, but it could be just what crypto needs to shake off its doldrums, writes Konstantin Horejsi of Blocktrade.

$1 trillion in capital is needed to fight climate change, but investment money is sitting on the sidelines, going unused. How can we close this funding gap?

Change won’t happen overnight, but tokenization is a trend that will trigger seismic shifts in the financial landscape, writes Hamilton Keats of Krayon Digital.

Fractionalizing assets on the blockchain opens up investment opportunities for the public and the capital market’s access to liquidity, writes Bob Ras. Here’s what’s holding it back.

Many tokenized platforms have grave shortcomings, but if better standards could be adopted, the improved transparency can avert future crises, writes Ralf Kubli of the Casper Assn.

As bank after bank topples, fingers are pointing everywhere. But crypto is not to be blamed for this unfolding crisis, writes Winston Hsiao of XREX.

Top blockchain and crypto news: USDC stabilizes after SVB collapse. Silvergate closes shop. China tightens financial supervision.

As the U.S. tries to head off a bank run, crypto is quickly running out of places to bank with.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Reuters after the G20 meeting in India on Saturday that while the U.S. has not indicated any outright bans, it is critical to put in place a strong regulatory framework for the cryptocurrency industry. 

Renewable energy is plagued by financing difficulties, but blockchain technology can bridge the sector’s funding gaps, writes Brianna Welsh of Reneum.

CeDeFi offers the benefits of CeFi and DeFi without their shortcomings, writes Alexander Tkachenko of VNX. Here’s how it works.

The future global financial system will be reliant on the cloud, especially when it comes to CBDCs and stablecoins, writes Michael Greenwald and Logan Weber.

While much of the world economy remains mired in winter doldrums, it’s springtime for the Islamic finance sector. Mohammed AlKaff AlHashmi of Islamic Coin explains why.

Signature Bank will not handle transactions of less than US$100,000 for crypto exchange customers starting in February, according to exchange giant Binance.

Asset tokenization and DeFi hold tremendous potential for the finance sector, writes Han Kwee Juan of DBS Bank. Here’s how the Singaporean government is at the forefront of change.

The world’s largest publicly traded hedge fund manager, Man Group Plc, plans to launch a cryptocurrency exclusive fund.

The world’s largest crypto exchange seeks to become a bridge between traditional finance and cryptocurrencies.

The ongoing Crypto Winter is ‘only going to get worse’ as the industry is re-evaluated amongst tighter interest rates, the cofounder of Tezos predicts.

Top blockchain and crypto news: Celsius founder in hot water. European bank woes cast crypto shadow. Will BSN’s Chinese roots thwart its global ambitions?

The second Forkast report on Asia Crypto Week’s anchor event explores what bets TradFi players are making, how Asian investment patterns differ from those elsewhere, and what cooperation between crypto companies and regulators should look like

Sam Bankman-Fried‘s FTX is in talks with potential investors about a funding round that would keep the company’s valuation in line with prior financing at the start of the year, CNBC reported Wednesday.  See related article: Binance and FTX lead bidding for bankrupt Voyager Fast facts FTX Trading Ltd.’s latest funding round in January raised […]

Cryptocurrency markets continued their skid in Wednesday afternoon trading in Asia, with the global market capitalization dipping to around US$997 billion, down 6% in the last 24 hours. All cryptocurrencies in the top 10 by market cap fell. Solana led the losers, with Bitcoin coming in second. Stock markets slumped. See related article: Markets: Bitcoin, […]

EDX Markets Crypto Exchange, backed by Charles Schwab, Citadel Securities, Fidelity Digital Assets, Paradigm, Sequoia Capital and Virtu Financial, seeks to settle trades on the blockchain for greater speed and efficiency at lower cost, eliminating the need for bilateral settlements, according to a press release on Tuesday. See related article: FTX agrees to help South […]

The financial services giant Fidelity Investments is considering a move that would allow its individual brokerage customers to trade Bitcoin (BTC), according to a Wall Street Journal report.  See related article: Fidelity’s crypto arm wants to add Ethereum trading, plans hiring spree Fast facts The WSJ cited “people familiar with the matter” and a statement […]

GameStop shares jumped over 11% in after-market trading on Wednesday following an announced partnership with the cryptocurrency exchange giant FTX US, which will focus on “new e-commerce and online marketing initiatives.” See related article: FTX agrees to help South Korea’s Busan build its own crypto exchange Fast facts The announcement came in tandem with GameStop’s […]

The country’s growing ties to crypto could expose its financial sector to volatility and ‘damage its credibility,’ a researcher says.

The new payments system will allow faster payments of bills, paychecks and other transfers around-the-clock instead of days. See related article: Fed issues guidelines for crypto banks to enter central banking system Fast facts The U.S. Federal Reserve expects to launch the payments system between May and July of 2023, after a testing phase beginning […]

The crypto winter may have chilled many in Web3, but metaverses are an increasingly hot prospect in traditional finance, says DBS Bank’s legal chief

India’s government doesn’t like cryptocurrencies and has made that clear in statements and with heavy taxes on the asset class, but what does that say about blockchain adoption?

Aiming to uncover the next “BTS in finance,” Chairman Kim Joo-hyun of the Korean Financial Services Commission (FSC) is calling for “bold reforms” in financial regulations, including in crypto assets.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Tuesday that the cryptocurrency market turmoil hasn’t quite affected global financial stability. See related article: Crypto volatility hasn’t had macroeconomic implications so far: Jerome Powell Fast facts In a report published Tuesday, the IMF said crypto assets have “experienced a dramatic selloff” that has led to losses in crypto […]

Animoca Brands has raised US$75 million in a new round of fundraising in a move toward an “open metaverse,” defying plummeting markets and a drop in non-fungible token (NFT) sales during the crypto winter season, the Hong Kong-based blockchain game specialist announced on Tuesday.  See related article: Animoca says crypto winter ‘a great time’ for […]

The failure of a crypto market player may have spillover effects on traditional finance such as short-term funding markets, says the Basel-based international body.

Genesis Chief Executive Officer Michael Moro confirmed on Wednesday the cryptocurrency brokerage was exposed to the now-bankrupt hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC). See related article: Three Arrows Capital files for Chapter 15 bankruptcy Fast facts Genesis sold collateral and hedged downside once 3AC was unable to meet margin call requirements on a loan, Moro […]

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?

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?

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 […]

As decentralized finance redefines the way money moves, a do-or-die moment is approaching for traditional finance sector businesses, says Anthony Scaramucci.

Blockchain can save time, money and reams of paperwork, writes Tim Bailey of Red Date Technology. But its future in global trade remains uncertain.

Circle, the issuer of the world’s second-largest stablecoin USDC, has raised US$400 million in its latest funding round with major investments from BlackRock and Fidelity Management and Research, as the stablecoin issuer looks to explore possibilities with the traditional financial world. See related article: Circle’s growth outpaces Tether as it doubles valuation Fast facts Circle […]

Self-regulatory bodies overseeing China’s banking and securities industries are urging members to “resolutely curb” the “financialization and securitization” wave of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Unregulated and fragmented, DeFi remains niche, writes John Mitchell of Episode Six. Here’s how programmable money can help banks do what decentralized finance is doing.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) will close its blockchain payment venture due to slow profits, Japan’s largest bank announced on Tuesday.  See related article: Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ to issue yen-pegged stablecoin: report Fast facts MUFG said it is preparing to halt and liquidate Global Open Network Japan, Inc. (GO-NET Japan). GO-NET Japan, set up in […]

Yuval Rooz of enterprise blockchain company Digital Asset Holdings, predicts traditional banks like JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs will tokenize more assets to provide more privacy and scalability.

2021 will go down as the year the DeFi giant woke up, writes Derek Alia of Futureswap. What lies in store for decentralized finance in the year to come?

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 […]

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?

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.

Nigeria, Chile and Tajikistan have taken major steps in their plans for central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), while mainland China, Hong Kong, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates explore the potential for CBDCs in cross-border payments. Fast facts The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has launched a website for eNaira, the country’s CBDC, which will […]

Much of traditional finance still believes DeFi is too risky and not worth the bother, writes Ilia Maksimenka of PlasmaFinance. Are these perceptions accurate?

Investing in litigation was once limited to the wealthy. But a lawsuit’s monetary potential can now be tokenized for sale to the masses. Is that a good idea?

In collaboration with Wharton business school, WEF releases a toolkit for governments to consider the opportunities and risks of decentralized finance.

Fintech companies in Asia-Pacific pulled in US$2.35 billion in investment during the first three months of 2021, more than the total amount raised in the first half of the previous year.

New and innovative lenders are taking advantage of DeFi’s low costs to offer savings account interest rates that Main Street banks simply can’t match.

Chainlink, a data oracle, has joined the Hedera Governing Council, which oversees the distributed governance of the Hedera network, an enterprise-grade public network for the decentralized economy.

The ASEAN region has 290 million unbanked, and only 18% have access to credit. Here’s how decentralized finance (DeFi) can lift lives via mobile phones.

The Lion City’s status as Asia’s crypto haven was no accident, writes Shaun Djie of Digix. What can other countries learn from Singapore’s fintech success?

Traditional finance is costly and inefficient, and too many people are left out. Could decentralized finance (DeFi) be the answer?

Before Tesla’s bitcoin moves, big money was already placing BTC bets. What are bitcoin’s long-term fundamentals? Geoff Morphy of Bitfarms explains.

2021 is already shaping up to be a very different bull market for bitcoin compared to the past, writes Kadan Stadelmann of Komodo. Here’s why.

In written testimony, the US Treasury Secretary-nominee calls digital assets ‘fintech innovations’ and pledges to ‘encourage their use for legitimate activities.’

In this edition of Forkast Forecasts, the bestselling author offers his views on crypto regulations, DeFi’s rise and digital assets becoming mainstream.

Decentralized digital access to financial services like cryptocurrency trading, lending and borrowing is the wave of the future, writes James Wo of ETC Labs

Risks, bugs and mistakes are a necessary part of DeFi’s evolution — just like the early days of the internet, writes Justin Banon of Boson Protocol

Blockchain has become a national priority in China’s public and private sectors, in contrast to many Western governments’ approach to cryptocurrency.

Digital currency efforts now mirror global economic rivalries, with China’s DCEP leading the pack. Central banks would be wise to avoid these pitfalls.

2020 is banner year for DeFi as industry balloons by over $100 billion in volume from Q2 to Q3 — most of it riding on Ethereum, according to a new report

The risk of getting scammed is real, but DeFi also offers investors opportunities to earn yields in this pandemic economy, says Two Prime CEO Marc Fleury.

In a special interview, Konstantin Richter of Blockdaemon also discusses the critical role of government in encouraging greater blockchain adoption.