Our weekly roundup of news from East Asia curates the industry’s most important developments. Samsung’s new Bitcoin ETF On Jan. 13, Samsung Asset Management, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the namesake South Korean conglomerate, successfully listed the Samsung Bitcoin Futures Active ETF on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. According to local news outlet Edaily, the ETF
Crypto lender Nexo Capital has agreed to pay $45 million in penalties to the United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) for allegedly failing to register the offer and sale of its Earn Interest Product (EIP). The news was announced by the SEC and NASAA in two separate
If the foreign exchange market starts using DeFi protocols instead of the current centralized systems, the cost of remittances could be reduced by “as much as 80%,” according to a Jan. 19 paper jointly published by researchers at Circle and Uniswap. On-chain foreign exchange (FX) is a new model of global value exchange that offers
The decentralized exchange aggregation service 1inch Network has announced the launch of a cold storage hardware wallet. The team notes that the project is in its final stages of development. The hardware wallet, expected to go on sale later this year, features a 2.7-inch e-ink grayscale touch display and it does not require a wired
The total crypto market capitalization soared by 29.4% in two weeks, although Bitcoin’s (BTC) price stabilized near $21,000 on Jan. 19. As a result, it became increasingly difficult to justify that the 5-month-long bearish trend still prevails after the $930 billion total crypto channel top has been breached. Still, the psychological $1 trillion resistance remains
Crypto exchange OKX disclosed $7.5 billion in reserves of Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Tether (USDT) as part of its monthly proof-of-reserves (PoR) report. Based on data from blockchain analytics firm CryptoQuant, OKX claims to have the “largest clean asset reserves among major exchanges.” OKX claims to maintain 1:1 reserves, which would mean means the
Bitcoin (BTC) miner CleanSpark is expanding operations in the state of Georgia, adding to its mining capacity despite the ongoing bear market. Groundbreaking on a new 50-megawatt Bitcoin mining facility in Washington, Georgia, is underway, with expected completion in late spring, CleanSpark disclosed on Jan. 19. The nearly $16 million expansion is expected to increase
Following recent disclosure that FTX debtors and bankruptcy administrators located $5.5 billion in liquid assets, the new FTX CEO John J. Ray III discussed the business in his first interview since taking over the exchange’s restructuring process. Ray detailed during the interview that he is open to the possibility of reviving the now-defunct digital currency
sponsored Spacewalkers, a gaming studio, is revolutionizing the way that investors can participate in the profits of their projects. The company is releasing a series of games and offering the opportunity for anyone to invest in them through the use of blockchain technology. Spacewalkers is an already established developer with a portfolio of released and
Avalanche (AVAX) came into the spotlight early at the beginning of 2023 by adding its blockchain support to Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud. However, empirical and on-chain analysis suggests that Avalanche’s price surge is likely due to a broader cryptocurrency market pump which will likely end with the rest of the market. Is Avalanche’s Amazon
Two days ago, bankruptcy administrators and FTX debtors published an update for unsecured creditors claiming the discovery of $5.5 billion in liquid assets. Roughly $3.5 billion of these funds are cryptocurrency assets, with 11 different digital currencies classified as “liquid assets.” However, two of the firm’s top cryptocurrency caches are not liquid as the company’s
On this week’s episode of Market Talks, Cointelegraph welcomes Grant Shears, founder of Blocmates — an educational and consultancy company that aims to create crypto, decentralized finance (DeFi) and Web3 content that anyone can understand. This week, to kick things off, the show takes a look at the emerging trends of 2023 and what people
Meme coins moved lower on Jan. 19, as cryptocurrency markets plunged following recent highs. Shiba inu, which rose to a nine-week high on Wednesday, fell by nearly 10% today. Markets have been largely overbought in the past few days, with bears seemingly reentering. Dogecoin was also in the red today. Shiba Inu (SHIB) Shiba inu
Bitcoin (BTC) price has held above $20,700 for 4 days, fueling bulls’ hope for another leg up to $23,000 or even $25,000. Behind the optimistic move was a decline in inflationary pressure, confirmed by the December 2022 wholesale prices for goods on Jan. 18. The United States producer price index, which measures final demand prices
Based on the year-to-date performance and their drawdown from their all-time highs (ATHs), Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) have performed very similarly. While BTC has risen by 25.5% since the beginning of the year, ETH has climbed by about 27%. From its ATH, Bitcoin has declined by 69.9%, while Ether is down by 68.9%. Despite
In his latest blog post released on Jan. 19, Arthur Hayes, the former CEO of BitMEX exchange predicted a “global financial meltdown” thanks to future United States economic woes. Hayes: Crypto will “get smoked” in Fed pivot Bitcoin’s current rally should likely not be taken as the start of a new bull run. That is
After a 48-year relationship solely with the U.S. dollar, Saudi Arabia’s Finance Minister, Mohammed Al-Jadaan, said the kingdom is open to trading in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. The statements follow China’s president, Xi Jinping, urging the Gulf monarchs to accept yuan for oil, and Riyadh officials saying last March the country would consider
Decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator 1inch Network is the latest cryptocurrency platform to move into the hardware wallet industry amid the rise of self-custody. On Jan. 19, 1inch officially introduced the 1inch Hardware Wallet, a proprietary hardware wallet developed by an independent team working within the 1inch Network. In order to provide maximum security, the 1inch
Validator infrastructure developer ssv.network has launched a new ecosystem fund to support Ethereum proof-of-stake decentralization — a move that the company said would promote innovation around Ether (ETH) staking technologies. The ecosystem fund, valued at $50 million, will support projects building applications using distributed validator technology, or DVT, the company announced on Jan. 17. The
Ethereum fell lower on Thursday, as cryptocurrency markets continued to react to the latest U.S. retail sales figures. Sales in the United States fell by more than expected, coming in 1.1% lower in December. Bitcoin also declined in today’s session, with prices falling below the $21,000 mark. Bitcoin Bitcoin (BTC) dropped below the $21,000 mark