Cryptocurrencies

TRON DAO announced it has added US$500 million in USDC to its reserve to bolster its algorithmic stablecoin’s dollar parity, but USDD has been off its peg to the greenback for about two days.  See related article: Michael Saylor, MicroStrategy stick to their guns on Bitcoin Fast facts See related article: Bitcoin, Ether bear brunt […]

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 […]

MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor says the company will not have a margin call on their US$205 million Bitcoin-backed loan after their crypto holdings dropped by over US$1 billion over the past week, according to data from CoinGecko.  See related article: MicroStrategy, crypto firm shares plunge with Bitcoin’s freefall Fast facts When MicroStrategy adopted a Bitcoin […]

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.  […]

Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume, has resumed withdrawals on its Bitcoin (BTC) network after a short pause early on Monday, according to an official statement. See related article: CEL down over 50% since Celsius Network’s withdrawal freeze Fast facts On his verified Twitter handle, CEO Changpeng Zhao said the issue was […]

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 […]

To protect the country’s investors, South Korea’s top five crypto exchanges are forming a joint council to monitor the listing and delisting of cryptocurrencies. See related article: S. Korea finance regulator to audit Terra and related exchanges Fast facts Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax, five exchanges authorized to provide cash-to-crypto services in Korea, will […]

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 […]

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 […]

Indian crypto investors got lucky after February’s tax announcements reduced trading activities ahead of the market crash, Nithin Kamath, founder and CEO of online stockbroker Zerodha said. See related article: Short selling is good for any market, including crypto: Jim Rogers Fast facts “Even when trading stocks, the biggest reason for losses is trying to […]

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.

It’s been a ‘Waiting for Godot’ experience for the crypto industry regarding US approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF. A decision next month by the SEC could bring a lift to crypto markets or be a boon to lawyers.

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.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is planning to introduce a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in stages this fiscal year, T Rabi Shankar, deputy governor of the central bank, said in a press conference on Wednesday.  See related article: RBI wants its CBDC to bring ‘little or no disruption’ Fast facts “Process of [the] […]

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.

Is El Salvador committing a major blunder in making Bitcoin legal tender — or finding its way out of the hell of dollarization? Bryan Hernandez explains.

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 […]

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 […]

Bitcoin mining difficulty recovered slightly on Wednesday, recording a 1.3% increase from the previous downward adjustment two weeks ago, according to data from BTC.com. See related article: Beijing banned crypto mining, so China miners went underground Fast facts The mining difficulty reading is now at 30.28 trillion at a block height of 739,872, according to […]

Ethereum’s successful merge of the Ropsten testnet overnight Wednesday Asia time brought the world’s largest smart contract blockchain closer to becoming a proof-of-stake (PoS) network. See related article: Vitalik Buterin: Why Eth2 will propel Ethereum’s use in enterprise Fast facts One of Ethereum’s oldest testnets, Ropsten, successfully merged the proof-of-work (PoW) execution layer with the […]

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

Ethereum’s move to proof of stake (PoS) is inching closer as the network’s oldest testnet Ropsten is expected to transition to PoS on Wednesday night Asia time. See related article: Ethereum PoS move is now being tested on a mainnet shadow fork Fast facts Ropsten’s proof-of-work (PoW) chain will merge with its PoS Beacon Chain […]

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 […]

Before the development, only traditional assets like stocks, bonds, cash and real estate could be used for an individual to have access to complicated investment options in private markets, ADDX said.  See related article: ADDX, Fullerton partner to tokenize PE fund of funds Fast facts ADDX’s move signals crypto’s status as an asset class in […]

Following Australia’s recent approvals of crypto-based exchange-traded funds (ETFs), Canada’s 3iQ Digital Asset Management launched two crypto feeder ETFs on the Cboe Australia Exchange on Tuesday. See related article: Canada’s 3iQ could be first to launch Australian crypto ETF Fast facts The two feeder funds, one in Bitcoin and another in Ether, track the asset’s […]

A proposal by the ApeCoin (APE) decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) to stay on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain is winning majority support from token holders, despite the efforts of some crypto whales to migrate the coin to its own chain.  See related article: Otherdeeds NFT sale puts Ethereum scalability in glaring spotlight Fast facts The proposal […]

Bitcoin’s total year-to-date inflows passed the half-billion mark at US$506 million after adding US$126 million last week, digital asset manager CoinShares reported.  See related article: Crypto market reverses course after strong start to the week Fast facts Ethereum, on the other hand, saw outflows totaling US$32 million, enduring negative investor sentiment with nine straight weeks […]

The Fed’s new No. 2 is ahead of the curve in her thinking — which bodes well for crypto’s future around the world, writes a former colleague of Brainard.

A Chongqing-based company became the first in the city to pay taxes with China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital yuan, according to local media. See related article: China to issue free digital yuan to boost locked down economy Fast facts See related article: What I learned from my role in digitizing the yuan

STEPN, the move-to-earn blockchain game, suffered a distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attack during an “anti-cheating” update over the weekend, leading to network issues and user frustrations.  See related article: Move-to-earn app STEPN to limit service in China Fast facts During the update, an attack of 25 million messages led to hours of server shutdowns, with some […]

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,” […]

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 […]

Following another system outage on Thursday, Solana’s (SOL) market capitalization has continued to fall as Dogecoin (DOGE) and Polkadot (DOT) are hot on its heels to possibly bump it out of the crypto top 10 by market cap. See related article: Solana loses consensus after bots flood network, SOL takes hit Fast facts While the […]

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

Fidelity Digital Assets, the crypto-focused subsidiary of Fidelity Investments, has planned a hiring spree to extend services to include Ethereum trading and custody. See related article: Fidelity allows retirement investments in Bitcoin Fast facts Fidelity Digital Assets was founded in 2018 to enable institutional investors to store and trade Bitcoin — its parent company announced […]

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.

Lei Wai Nong, Macao’s secretary for economy and finance, said China’s expertise in developing its digital yuan could help the specially administered region introduce a central bank digital currency (CBDC), according to local media reports. See related article: China to issue free digital yuan to boost locked down economy Fast facts Lei said he 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 […]

Global crypto asset management platform Kassio has launched its services in India to help its users extract value from their crypto holdings beyond just trading, the company said in a statement. See related article: CoinDCX offers to let Indians earn yield on crypto holdings Fast facts Kassio offers instant crypto-backed loans and interest earnings up […]

Popular Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution Optimism airdropped its new OP governance token to nearly 249,000 eligible wallets on Wednesday morning Asia time. See related article: Vitalik Buterin: Layer 2 is the future of Ethereum scaling Fast facts The airdrop was first announced in an April blog post which outlined plans for the network to launch […]

Mirror Protocol’s price match error nearly led to another crisis for Terra. Meanwhile, Ethereum rises back up after nearly a week below US$2,000.

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?

The pseudonymous creator of Shiba Inu, Ryoshi, came online after a year on Monday only to delete all of its social media activity, and disappear again. See related article: Shiba Inu metaverse tease fuels 60% price boost Fast facts Ryoshi, who last tweeted on May 29, 2021, deleted all tweets and Medium blog posts, leaving […]

With over 1 million vendors, unique non-fungible token (NFT) sellers on the Solana blockchain hit an all-time high in May, outpacing unique buyers, according to data tracker CryptoSlam. See related article: Solana NFT sales drop by 21% after OpenSea integration Fast facts From April to May, the number of unique sellers grew by almost 170%. […]

Whether the fixing of a pricing error by Mirror Protocol, the decentralized finance (DeFi) application built on Terra Classic, will help prevent a drainage of the pool similar to last year will only be known by the end of U.S. trading hours on Tuesday. See related article: Winning back the trust of the Terra community […]

The Indian government is studying how other countries have regulated the asset class before drafting laws for the industry, the secretary for economic affairs Ajay Seth told local media.  See related article: Crypto regulation has to ‘take its time’: India FM Nirmala Sitharaman Fast facts “Our consultation paper is fairly ready. We have gone into […]

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?

Ethereum gained over 10% in 24 hours to reach US$2,000 on Tuesday morning in Asia after spending the better part of a week below the mark. Ethereum was trading at US$1,985 at press time. See related article: Bitcoin, Ethereum, crypto at 2022’s lowest point Fast facts The world’s second-largest cryptocurrency hit a low of US$1,721 […]

The Reserve Bank of India explores digital rupee options. Meanwhile, Terra’s new Luna coin drops significantly since launch.

Fueled by seismic shifts in societal values, decentralized autonomous organizations are now poised to go mainstream, writes Hannes Graah of Gro.

Advocates for central bank digital currencies argue their inherent stability supersedes any benefits so-called stablecoins, algorithmic or otherwise, could offer.     

Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Xiong’an New Area announced they are distributing free digital yuan “red packets” to boost local consumption amid China’s economic slowdown fueled by mass Covid lockdowns.  See related article: Covid-19, postponed Asian Games to push digital yuan into the slow lane? Fast facts See related article: What I learned from my role in […]

The new LUNA was trading under US$6 on Monday morning Asia time, after peaking at US$18.87 shortly following the launch of the Terra 2.0 blockchain on Saturday, according to data from CoinGecko. See related article: Winning back the trust of the Terra community a tall order for Do Kwon: Experts Fast facts LUNA Classic (LUNC) […]

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is aligning its central bank digital currency (CBDC) design with monetary policy objectives and financial stability, the central bank said in its annual report.  See related article: Report: Stablecoins, CBDCs may not resolve financial inclusion, international remittance challenges Fast facts Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in February the RBI […]

The world’s second-largest stablecoin USDC and ERC-20 IAG tokens can now be bridged from Ethereum to the Cardano network through Iagon’s cross-chain bridge powered by the Milkomeda sidechain. See related article: Wormhole to bridge Polkadot, Kusama to Ethereum, Solana Fast facts A cross-chain bridge allows for crypto assets of one blockchain to be converted for […]