Companies

Ripple also challenges SEC’s use of ‘deliberative process privilege’ to prevent agency documents on Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP from disclosure.

After six consecutive weeks of outflows, institutional sentiment for digital assets is turning, with net inflows of US$21 million last week, according to CoinShares, Europe’s largest digital assets fund manager. Fast facts Total assets under management (AUM) across all digital asset fund providers rose to US$57.3 billion, the highest since mid-May, driven by the recent […]

Upbit submits compliance report: China’s e-CNY trials broaden

Led by Ethereum rivals, crypto prices are in an upswing with over $2.1 trillion in total market cap. Is this the start of another crypto bull run?

Binance Singapore today announced the appointment of Richard Teng, former chief regulatory officer of the Singapore Exchange (SGX), as chief executive, bolstering its leadership ranks with former regulators while battling growing regulatory woes around the world. Fast facts Teng was CEO of the Abu Dhabi Global Market for six years before stepping down in March. […]

Beset by legal and regulatory woes around the world, Binance — the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume — today announced that it is implementing mandatory know-your-customer (KYC) with immediate effect as it steps up its anti-money laundering (AML) compliance. Fast facts All new Binance users are now required to complete “intermediate verification” — which […]

Coinbase launches in Japan while Binance users take legal action

The largest cryptocurrency exchange in the U.S. has partnered with one of Japan’s largest banks to gain market entry. What does the move say about the Japanese market as the industry is rocked by yet another crypto exchange hack?

The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) is seeking to bring an enforcement action against Aux Cayes Fintech Co. Ltd., which operates the OKEx platform, for allegedly violating Ontario securities law, according to a statement. Fast facts According to the statement of allegations filed by the OSC’s enforcement team on Aug. 18, Seychelles-incorporated Aux Cayes — which […]

TRON founder Justin Sun’s social media account on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like microblog platform, appears to have been blocked again, along with the accounts of several other cryptocurrency-related interests. Fast facts TRON is a blockchain with a cryptocurrency native to the system founded by Sun in 2017. Sun, 31, has been active on social media, and […]

Crypto traders who suffered losses on Binance due to tech outages are turning to arbitration and crypto litigation finance.

As ESG drives more corporate agendas, Sonic Capital’s Sphere aims to provide access to blockchain investment opportunities toward a greener future.

The central bank of the Netherlands has issued a warning that Binance — the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world by trading volume — is illegally operating in the country. Fast facts Binance is providing crypto services in the Netherlands without the required legal registration with De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), according to the regulator. “This […]

Top blockchain and crypto news: A darkweb stain is scrubbed away. Solana’s moment in the sun. Alibaba huddles with Tencent.

Bybit, a cryptocurrency exchange based in Singapore, announced today a multi-year partnership with popular esports team NAVI (“Natus Vincere”), which will display Bybit’s logo on NAVI’s jerseys as well as charity initiatives, school projects, and anti-hate and anti-bullying campaigns. Fast facts “The Covid-19 pandemic has changed many established conventions in a number of human experiences,” […]

Binance — the world’s biggest cryptocurrency by trading volume — today announced the appointment of Greg Monahan, a former U.S. Treasury criminal investigator, as its global anti-money laundering officer, according to a company statement. Fast facts Monahan’s appointment comes as Binance seeks to bolster its compliance efforts amid increasing scrutiny from regulators around the world — […]

BC Technology Group, a Hong Kong-listed technology digital asset company and parent of OSL, the first licensed digital asset platform in the city, today announced that its group revenues rose 54% year on year to HK$153 million (US$20 million) in the first half of 2021, driven by a 70% increase in OSL’s digital asset business […]

IBM Japan, Mitsui Chemicals and Nomura Research Institute have announced a new consortium to explore how blockchain technology can be used to create better plastic recycling methods, according to a press release from the NRI. Fast facts Making new plastics from recycled plastics is an exact process that requires knowing the specific chemical makeup of […]

Following a few years of inactivity, the Dogecoin Foundation is being reestablished with Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin serving as the organization’s “blockchain and crypto adviser,” according to an announcement posted Tuesday on the foundation’s website. Fast facts Originally founded in 2014, the non-profit organization aims to support the Dogecoin ecosystem and community with a particular […]

If cabinet approves crypto bill by November, it could be introduced as early as parliament’s winter session.

Ripple claims the SEC’s request for 1 million more of the company’s internal messages is costly and unlikely to resolve disputes at the heart of the litigation.

Twitter’s much anticipated decentralized social media standard, Bluesky, finally has a project lead in crypto developer Jay Graber, Graber announced yesterday on her own Twitter account. Fast facts Bluesky was announced in late 2019, and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said decentralization could address some of the key issues surrounding social media, such as moderation. “Centralized […]

Accessibility of Alibaba Auction through Tencent’s WeChat service hints at closer relationship between two longtime rivals.

U.S. software behemoth Microsoft is looking to develop anti-piracy measures on Ethereum using research from Chinese internet giant Alibaba and Carnegie Mellon University, according to a paper released by Microsoft’s research department. Fast facts Partnering with Alibaba and Carnegie Mellon, Microsoft says the new system — dubbed “Argus” — will run on a public blockchain […]

Digital asset investment products saw outflows of US$22 million last week — the sixth consecutive week of outflows, according to CoinShares, Europe’s largest digital assets fund manager. Fast facts Total outflows for the past six weeks amount to US$115 million and mark the longest run of consecutive outflows since January 2018, CoinShares reported. However, the […]

HIVE Blockchain Technologies, a Vancouver-headquartered crypto mining company, is buying 1,800 machines from Chinese mining rig maker Bitmain to expand its mining operation. Fast facts HIVE said that it had ordered 1,800 Antminer S19j Pro miners from Bitmain, and the new machines are expected to bring an aggregate hash power of 180 petahash per second, […]

Chinese tech giant Tencent’s music streaming arm, QQ Music, has jumped on the non-fungible token bandwagon and over the weekend sold out its first NFT featuring popular Mando-pop singer Tiger Hu. Fast facts QQ Music, one of China’s major music entertainment platforms, plans to roll out a slew of music NFTs. Over the weekend, all […]

Solana price hits new record and enters top 10, beating Uniswap, following launch of blockchain communication bridge Wormhole and sellout debut of Degenerate Ape NFTs.

GoSats, an Indian Bitcoin rewards app, has launched a new cash back card that will allow Indians to earn up to 100% of their spending in Bitcoin and provide a chance to win one full Bitcoin on every spend, GoSats announced in a tweet. Fast facts The GoSats prepaid RuPay debit cards will be released […]

Alipay, one of China’s major payment apps, has again rolled out non-fungible token artworks designed as wallpapers for users’ payment code pages, with a total of 80,000 copies of two editions combined having sold out within a day. Fast facts Alipay yesterday started selling two editions of artworks — built on its own Ant Chain […]

Mawson Infrastructure Group, an Australian cryptocurrency mining company, has purchased an additional 17,352 ASIC Bitcoin mining machines from Chinese rig maker Canaan in a move to bolster its mining operations on its home turf and in the United States. Fast facts Mawson plans to deploy the additional machines — Avalon A1166s and A1246s — purchased […]

Tier II and Tier III cities in India registered massive growth in new user signups on WazirX, more than the larger cities.

DBS Vickers, the brokerage arm of Singapore’s DBS Bank, today announced that it has received in-principle approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore to provide digital payment token services in Singapore as a major payment institution under the Payment Services Act. Fast facts DBS Vickers’ notification follows that of Australian cryptocurrency exchange Independent Reserve, reported […]

Accounting and consultancy giant Accenture has become the latest major victim of a ransomware attack. After Accenture initially reported that it had repelled a hacker group named Lockbit, encrypted files belonging to Accenture began to be published today, according to a report by Decrypt. Fast facts An Accenture spokesperson said in a statement: “Through our […]

San Francisco-based payments technology company Ripple this week announced that South Korean money transfer company, Global Money Express Co. Ltd (GME Remittance), has joined RippleNet to expand remittances between South Korea and Thailand. Fast facts Some 184,000 Thai nationals live in South Korea, and they account for the third largest group of foreign nationals in […]

Amid a surge in the price of Dogecoin, Seychelles-based crypto and derivatives exchange OKEx has listed Baby Doge Coin — a new cryptocurrency “created by fans of of the widely popular Dogecoin” — for spot trading, according to a company news release. Fast facts OKEx’s listing had a brief positive impact on Baby Doge’s price […]

With Ethereum 2.0 still in development, rival blockchains like Cardano, Binance Smart Chain, Solana and Polkadot are hot on Eth’s tail. Who might prevail, and why?

Largest hack in DeFi history while ADA hits two month high

Top blockchain and crypto news: NFT wave buoys OpenSea. Are dollars and sense a lifeline for Tether? Tencent gets a target on its back.

Are DAOs and decentralization always beneficial for the group or the user? Antoni Trenchev of Nexo urges you to think again.

After nearly a year under investigation, crypto exchange and derivatives trading platform Bitmex has agreed to pay as much as US$100 million to settle charges brought by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, according to a company blog post. Fast facts Alex Höptner, BitMEX’s CEO, told Forkast.News in a […]

As Cardano’s Alonzo Purple upgrade launches and the full roll-out of smart contract support is teased, the price of ADA — the native cryptocurrency of the Cardano blockchain network — surged more than 20% in the past 24 hours. ADA was trading at US$1.71 at press time — its highest in over two months, according to […]

The US Securities and Exchange Commission wants to review ‘terabytes’ of Ripple’s Slack chats for evidence of XRP-related wrongdoing. How much is too much?

Chinese blockchain company RongxinChain has alleged that Tencent’s IOU applet is operating in breach of the country’s Unfair Competition Law, according to a report by the Shenzhen Baoan District Credit Promotion Association. Fast facts Tencent’s IOU blockchain applet went online in July on the company’s “super app,” Wechat, allowing users to issue legally valid IOUs […]

CoinDCX, an Indian cryptocurrency exchange, has become the country’s first crypto unicorn with a US$90 million Series C fundraise, the company announced today. The funding was led by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital. The fresh funding pegs CoinDCX’s valuation at US$ 1.1 billion. Fast facts Founded in 2018, CoinDCX offers a range of crypto […]

Unocoin offers bitcoin vouchers as Alonzo upgrade onboards users

Singapore-headquartered cryptocurrency exchange Zipmex has announced that it has struck a cooperation agreement with Visa. Fast facts The exchange’s payment network, ZipSend, will be integrated into Visa’s global merchant network. Visa will also cooperate with another 50 cryptocurrency platforms. Zipmex plans to launch Visa-branded payment cards later this year. In July, Visa said that its […]

Cardano’s much-anticipated Alonzo Purple upgrade has begun onboarding users to its testnet, according to a 12-part Twitter thread by developer Input Output Hong Kong. Fast facts Alonzo Purple is the third and final stage of the Alonzo upgrade, following Blue and White, and when complete will be the first fully public Cardano testnet to support […]

Binance bans derivatives in Hong Kong while Ethereum fork boosts trading

Since its launch in October 2020, Cambodia’s central bank digital currency project, Bakong, has reached 5.9 million users across the country, according to a report by Nikkei Asia. Fast facts The figure includes users of member bank mobile apps, with the number of Bakong electronic wallet addresses doubling in June from three months before to […]

Binance — the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume — today announced that it will be restricting the use of its derivatives products for customers from Hong Kong. Fast facts Hong Kong customers will, with immediate effect, not be able to open new Binance deriviative product accounts, according to a Binance announcement posted at […]

As court grants CEO request to obtain info from Binance to bolster defense in SEC lawsuit, Ripple seeks to expand use cases for XRP Ledger.

Will Google greenlighting US crypto ads, Ethereum’s London upgrade and clearer regulations pave the way for another Ether price rally?

In a long-awaited reversal of a 2018 policy decision, Google will allow crypto exchanges and wallets to advertise on its platform in the U.S. But not everyone’s happy.

DBS eyes bigger investor base as digital assets under custody top US$100 million.

Amid a turbulent time for the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance has announced a new partnership with Alchemy Pay to bring crypto payment options to e-commerce platforms such as Shopify. Fast facts Running on the exchange’s Binance Pay feature, the partnership will allow users and merchants to send and receive crypto globally in over 40+ […]

Ethereum upgrade closely watched also India launches e-RUPI voucher

Top blockchain and crypto news: Is Ethereum’s price flatlining on eve of revolution? Uncle Sam wants pay to play. China’s Big Tech toes the line with NFTs.

North America emerges as hardware demand hotspot amid Beijing’s regulatory onslaught against cryptocurrency sector.

In a further move towards cryptocurrency adoption, Mastercard has partnered with one of Australia’s oldest crypto exchanges, CoinJar, to launch one of the country’s first crypto payment cards. Fast facts The card became available on Tuesday in a digital form through integration with Apple Pay and Google Pay, and will be available in a physical […]

Bitcoin SV has suffered another 51% attack beginning around 11:45 am EDT on Tuesday resulting in up to three versions of the chain being mined simultaneously, as initially reported by analytics firm CoinMetrics.io. It is the fifth such attack on the network since late June. Fast facts Further reporting by the firm reported all of […]

Binance’s woes continue to mount as global banking giant HSBC is now blocking its customers in the United Kingdom from making credit card payments to Binance, according to Yahoo News. Binance is the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. Fast facts HSBC’s move follows similar actions taken by NatWest — a Scotland-based bank with 12.5 million customers […]

The Ethereum ecosystem is continuing to see strong growth, with institutional capital ‘flooding’ into decentralized finance and decentralized autonomous organizations flourishing.

Hong Kong crypto crime surges as Tencent launches NFT platform.

The DigitalArt4Climate NFT initiative aims to promote art via blockchain technology to inspire environmental activism around the world.

Nasdaq-listed Marathon Digital Holdings, one of the biggest Bitcoin mining companies in North America, has announced a deal to buy an additional 30,000 mining machines from Bitmain to boost its mining capacity. Fast facts Marathon has entered into a contract with Bitmain to purchase 30,000 Antminer S19j Pros worth a total of US$120.7 million, the […]

Chinese internet giant Tencent is making a foray in the world of non-fungible tokens, launching an NFT trading platform named Huanhe. Fast facts The tech conglomerate has rolled out the Huanhe app — built on the company’s own Zhixin chain — on its Android application platform. Its debut sales feature 300 audio NFTs created based […]

Cryptocurrency mining rig manufacturer Canaan has announced the appointment of James Jin Cheng as its new CFO, following the resignation of his predecessor in February. Fast facts Cheng was previously vice president of Chinese internet recruiting platform Zhaopin Ltd., which listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014 before being taken private in 2017. […]

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has a vision for metaverses — online worlds that one day will replace big parts of our offline lives. But some say that future is already here.

People’s Bank of China vows to keep sector under ‘heavy pressure’ as it pushes digital yuan.

World’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange steps up compliance and cuts product offerings, with a ban in Malaysia and end of lucrative derivatives business in three EU nations.

Matrixport, a Singapore-based digital asset financial services platform, today announced the completion of a series-C funding round, bringing the company’s valuation to more than US$1 billion. Fast facts The funding round was led by partners of DST Global, C Ventures and K3 Ventures, with other investors including Qiming Venture Partners, CE Innovation Capital and Tiger […]