Companies

Binance says it works closely with law enforcement to freeze funds and the news agency’s report left out “critical facts.”

Top blockchain and crypto news: JPMorgan swoops as another bank falls. NFT market rivalry heats up. Bitget seeks Hong Kong exchange license.

Singapore-headquartered cryptocurrency miner Bitdeer Technologies is planning to expand its mining operations to Bhutan and raise up to US$500 million for a fund through a new partnership with the Himalayan kingdom’s state-owned investment company Druk Holding and Investments.

Coinbase, the publicly listed largest cryptocurrency exchange in the U.S., opened its offshore derivatives exchange in Bermuda on Tuesday.

NFT prices and trading volume are dropping but this could be an indicator of a maturing market.

Now that the Bitcoin Ordinals genie is out of the bottle, a debate is raging about whether they’re good for the original blockchain and their long-term consequences.

Temasek, Singapore’s state-owned investment firm, has denied that it had invested in Array, an algorithmic cryptocurrency developer.

Bitcoin dropped 2.09% in Tuesday afternoon trade in Asia while Ether lost 0.81%. BNB fell 2.93% and Polkadot declined 2.66%.

CFTC and SEC disagree over whether cryptocurrencies are securities, and two big lawsuits clouding the industry’s future invoke laws that long predate the digital era.

Bitcoin edged up on Monday morning in Asia to hold above US$29,000. Ether fell below US$1,900. Most other top 10 non-stablecoin tokens traded lower except BNB.

Welcome to The Daily Forkast – April 28, 2023 – presented by Megha Chaddah. The crypto markets end the week on a strong note after a difficult start, with most of the major cryptocurrencies trading in the green once again. The NFT markets had a tougher time today though, as most of the Forkast Indexes […]

Binance said it has more than 700 employees in its compliance team, which includes 170 staff working to combat crypto fraud.

Google Cloud has announced that its node hosting service, the Blockchain Node Engine, will be available for developers on the Polygon blockchain. 

Top blockchain and crypto news: Coinbase in court to force SEC’s hand. PEPE surge lifts memecoin mood. China paves CBDC path with payroll.

Welcome to The Daily Forkast – April 27, 2023 – presented by Jeff Cheung. The crypto markets suffered from a minor heart attack earlier today when unsubstantiated rumors surfaced, claiming Mt Gox and US Government wallets had allegedly moved large amounts of Bitcoin.

New York-based investment bank H.C. Wainwright has initiated a “buy” rating on publicly traded Coinbase Global Inc., the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the U.S., saying the company is poised to benefit from growth in the global digital asset economy as the so-called “crypto winter” of falling prices is over.

Meta Platforms Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said the social media giant is not moving away from its metaverse focus despite reporting repeated losses in the billions of dollars at its division dedicated to developing the virtual reality online world. 

Bitcoin rose above US$29,000 on Thursday morning in Asia, rebounding from an earlier drop. Ether gained. Other top 10 non-stablecoin tokens traded mixed.

Welcome to The Daily Forkast – April 26, 2023 – presented by Jeff Cheung. Most major cryptocurrencies are back in the green as earnings reports from tech giants like Microsoft and Alphabet are showing positive results, outperforming analyst expectations.

Binance.US, a cryptocurrency exchange set up by Binance chief Changpeng Zhao to serve U.S. clients, has pulled out of a US$1.3 billion deal to buy bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital, the company said Tuesday, citing a lack of clear regulations in the country for the crypto industry.

Bitcoin rose in Wednesday morning trading in Asia to reclaim the US$28,000 mark, with Ether and all other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies moving higher.

Welcome to The Daily Forkast – April 25, 2023 – presented by Jeff Cheung. In an unexpected twist of events, Coinbase is suing the United States Securities and Exchanges Commission after receiving a Wells notice from them just last month. The crypto markets haven’t reacted to this news well, and after a rough start to […]

South Korean prosecutors on Tuesday indicted Terraform Labs co-founder Daniel Shin for alleged fraudulent transactions related to the collapse of the Terra-Luna crypto project.

Ethereum-linked digital asset investment products saw inflows of around US$17 million in the week ending April 21, up from US$300,000 in the previous week, appearing to show investor confidence following the blockchain’s milestone upgrade, Coinshares report shows.

Coinbase sued the U.S. SEC on Monday, asking that a court require the regulator to publicly respond to the Coinbase July 2022 petition asking for clearer crypto regulation guidelines. 

Kwon Do-hyeong will have a court hearing on May 11 in Montenegro on charges of allegedly attempting to travel using a false passport.

Do Kwon has been charged by Montenegrin authorities for attempting to travel with forged documents as the US and South Korea race to extradite him.

Mempool congestion issues subsided after the Bitcoin network surpassed 1 million Ordinals inscriptions.

Bitcoin fell to near US$28,000 on Friday morning in Asia, with Ether trading flat and most other top 10 non-stablecoin tokens losing steam.

South Korea’s Do Kwon went from a poster boy of digital finance as a co-founder of the US$40 billion Singapore-based Terraform Labs to a fugitive on Interpol’s wanted list, all in a matter of several rollercoaster years. He’s now in a Montenegro jail where he may face more time in detention as the U.S. and South Korea demand his extradition to face a long list of charges, including securities fraud – allegations he has repeatedly denied. The following is a timeline of how we got here.

Shares of Singapore-based cryptocurrency miner Bitdeer have slid more than 35% since their Nasdaq debut on April 14, and were trading at US$6.41 at closing on Wednesday.

Welcome to The Daily Forkast – April 18, 2023 – presented by Megha Chaddah. Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies slipped in early morning Asia time. Meanwhile, Dogecoin shrugged off the overall down market, gaining almost 3% as sentiment around the memecoin got a lift after Twitter – led by Dogecoin fan Elon Musk – officially […]

CoinShares data showed Ethereum-linked products saw little investment interest with inflows of around US$300,000 in the week ending April 14, accounting for a tiny portion of the total US$114 million weekly inflow into digital assets and despite the blockchain’s milestone upgrade last week.

Bitcoin dipped below US$30,000 in early Monday morning trading in Asia. Ether stalled after strong gains that followed last week’s blockchain upgrade.

Bitcoin continued its rally to near the US$31,000 mark in Friday afternoon trading in Asia. All other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptos gained, led by Ethereum.

As part of its February settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the U.S.-based Kraken crypto exchange has submitted the largest Ether withdrawal request since Wednesday’s upgrade to the Ethereum blockchain. The SEC ordered Kraken to shut down what it called unregistered staking programs.

Securing keys is an issue that has bedeviled the crypto world, as the $600M Ronin and $300M Wormhole heists have painfully shown. Is there a better way?

Cardano NFT ecosystem sees a significant decline as users sell off top-tier projects for newer ones, according to Forkast CAR NFT Composite.

Twitter users will soon have access to stocks and cryptocurrency through a new partnership with eToro, a trading platform. 

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said regulators need to come up with clear crypto regulations and should understand that the crypto industry is different from the traditional financial industry.

ZA Bank, the largest virtual bank in Hong Kong, has started offering cryptocurrency conversion services through licensed crypto exchanges.

The failed FTX cryptocurrency exchange has recovered around US$7.3 billion in assets and is considering the option of restarting its business.

Bitcoin dipped but held above US$30,000 in Thursday morning trading in Asia that saw mixed performances among the top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies.

NYDFS superintendent Harris called the idea of Operation Choke Point 2.0 “ludicrous,” but industry participants largely disagree. Was the shutdown of the three largest crypto-friendly institutions a coordinated effort to unbank crypto?

Top blockchain and crypto news: Ethereum fork prompts price fall fears. Satoshi is found — in Apple software. Hong Kong ramps up Web3 plans.

China has fined Bitmain, one of the world’s biggest producers of cryptocurrency mining rigs, nearly US$3.6 million for alleged tax violations, according to the Beijing tax authorities.

Singapore-headquartered crypto mining firm Bitdeer Technologies is set to go public on Nasdaq on April 14 via a SPAC merger following multiple delays in closing the US$4 billion deal.

Binance.US, a unit cryptocurrency exchange Binance set up to serve U.S. customers, will delist the native token of the Tron blockchain, TRX, on April 18.

The French government announced a public consultation on “virtual immersive universes,” or the metaverse.

Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office is in the process of freezing 7.1 billion won worth of assets that belong to Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon.

The Bitcoin Network has recorded over 1.05 million Ordinals inscriptions within the first three months since launch.

Former executives of the bankrupt crypto exchange FTX failed to install appropriate financial controls in the company, complicating the asset recovery process, the restructuring team of the failed exchange said.

The arrested crypto fugitive Kwon Do-hyung has “zero ” identifiable assets in his native South Korea, prosecutors said on Friday.

India is reportedly aiming to have one million users of its CBDC within three months of launch, according to sources familiar with the matter cited by CoinDesk. 

Ethereum is set for a few upgrades which will see quality of life improvements and aproof-of-stake protocol.

The Australian securities regulator has canceled Binance Australia’s derivatives license.

Meta is investing heavily in artificial intelligence and this will benefit its metaverse businesses, Meta’s Andrew Bosworth told Nikkei Asia.

Bitcoin dipped below US$28,000 in Thursday morning trading in Asia as most other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies lost steam. Dogecoin led the losers.

MicroStrategy acquired 1,045 Bitcoin for around US$29.3 million, at an average price of US$28,016 per coin, between March 24 and April 4, 2023

Americans spend more than US$12 billion in remittance fees each year when sending money to family and friends living overseas using the traditional financial system. However, overseas remittances using Bitcoin and Ethereum cost 96.7% less, according to research by Coinbase.

The Philippines has licensing requirements and proactively monitors crypto firms, while the US regulates by enforcement only after consumers are already badly hurt, writes Robert De Guzman of Coins.ph.

Taking bribes in exchange for listing cryptocurrencies has been common practice among South Korean exchanges, one expert told Forkast.

Bitcoin dipped on Monday morning in Asia but held above US$28,000. Most top 10 non-stablecoin cryptos dropped following a week unsettled by regulatory woes.

With a U.S. regulator coming after Binance with a lawsuit and the seeming mounting pile of warnings and fines against other exchanges in the country, Bitcoin briefly skidded below US$26,677 only to rebound and pop up above US$29,000 on Thursday. Since then it has moved along the US$28,000 line, so what does this lawsuit by the heavyweight Commodity Futures Trading Commission mean for the broader crypto market?

Most cryptocurrencies remained calm in spite of the CFTC-Binance lawsuit.

Bitcoin and Ether fell during Asian trading hours on Friday, while the rest of the top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies by market capitalization were mixed, amid mounting allegations against Binance

Welcome to The Daily Forkast – March 31, 2023 – presented by Megha Chaddah. Bitcoin holds above US$28,000 even as over US4 billion dollars worth of bitcoin option are set to expire later in the day. BNB prices saw a dip mid-week as news regarding the Binance-CFTC lawsuit came to light, but saw a slight […]

A South Korean court dismissed for the second time a request by prosecutors for an arrest warrant for Terraform Labs co-founder Daniel Shin.

Bitcoin dipped in Friday morning trading in Asia but held above US$28,000. The top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies traded mixed. Binance’s BNB led the winners.

From traditional finance to digital transformation – how can both learn from each other?

The U.S. may have gained an edge in a race with South Korea to extradite Terra chief Kwon Do-hyung from Montenegro on charges of fraud.

The Binance comments came in response to a Financial Times article that cited internal documents and said the company had close ties with China despite claims it had left the country in 2017 following a government crackdown.