Asia

December 27, 2018 @ 6:44 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Mark Carpeles, the disgraced former CEO of the now-defunct early Bitcoin exchange Mt Gox, has told a Japanese court that he did not embezzle 340 million yen (~$3 million USD) from the exchange in 2013, NHK reports. Mt Gox fell apart in the early months… Read More

December 27, 2018 @ 5:02 pm By Cali Haan  |  

The importance of storing one’s cryptocurrency safely was highlighted in South Korea this week when a court there decided that Korean crypto exchange Bithumb is not liable for customer funds hacked from an account there, Han Kyung reports. According to the outlet, an investor with… Read More

December 27, 2018 @ 4:51 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Bitmain, the world’s largest manufacturer of cryptocurrency mining hardware and largest operator of crypto mining pools, and Huobi, the world’s third-largest cryptocurrency exchange, have both confirmed rumours they will be laying off employees, South China Morning Post (SCMP) reports. The value of global crypto markets has declined by… Read More

December 27, 2018 @ 9:22 am By JD Alois  |  

Online lending platform Robocash says that the ASEAN market is the best region for Fintech development during the next year. A report completed in partnership with Deloitte by Robocash states that Fintech investments in Southeast Asia will increase by more than 20-30% in 2018 compared… Read More

December 26, 2018 @ 4:11 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Japan’s Mizuho Financial Group is reportedly planning to introduce its very own digital currency, which will be used for shopping and remitted at no cost, sometime in 2019. According to Asian media website, Nikkei, Mizuho will reportedly allow retail shops using the currency to change… Read More

December 26, 2018 @ 1:07 pm By JD Alois  |  

Hong Kong-based Fintech Supercharger accelerator has partnered with the Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation (APU) located in Kuala Lumpur. Starting in the first quarter of 2019, prospective students may enroll for a Bachelor’s in Banking and Finance with a specialism in Fintech. Supercharger says… Read More

December 26, 2018 @ 12:12 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Madison Holdings Group (HKSE: GEM), a French wine company, is looking to purchase a $30 million stake in Japanese cryptocurrency trading platform, BitOcean. According to South China Morning Post, Madison Lab, a subsidiary of Madison Holdings, is to acquire 6percentcent of BitOcean from independent third parties… Read More

December 26, 2018 @ 10:53 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

DBS Bank recently announced it has teamed up with Halcyon to launch a new digital marketplace for the trading of sustainably processed natural rubber, HeveaConnect. The Singapore bank revealed: “The HeveaConnect digital marketplace aims to connect natural rubber stakeholders such as farmers, rubber producers and tyre manufacturers… Read More

December 26, 2018 @ 9:25 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Chinese peer-to-peer lending platform Hexindai (NASDAQ: HX) announced on Wednesday it has formed a funding sources partnership with Kunming Aotou Economic Information Consulting Co., Ltd. (Kunming Aotou).  Hexindai reported that through this agreement it will assess borrowers that are using its risk management and credit… Read More

December 26, 2018 @ 8:43 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Chinese fintech Pintec Technology Holdings Limited (PINTEC) announced on Tuesday it has formed a partnership with Fullerton Credit (FC) to expand digital lending solutions to the Chinese market.  According to PINTEC, FC provides operating and consumer loans for individuals, micro businesses and SMEs, with total cumulative loans disbursed exceeding more… Read More

December 26, 2018 @ 5:51 am By Cali Haan  |  

“An enormous amount of data” collected by the Blockchain Transparency Institute (BTI) in its December 2018 Exchange Volumes Report shows, “clear evidence of wash trading,” across 80% of bitcoin-altcoin pairs on 95% of exchanges: “Based on this data over 80% of the CMC (CoinMarketCap) top… Read More

December 26, 2018 @ 3:27 am By Cali Haan  |  

GMO, a large Japanese Internet-service provider, announced December 25th that it is abandoning the manufacture of hardware for the mining of cryptocurrencies following “extraordinary losses” in the company’s cryptocurrency division in Q4 2018: “After taking into consideration changes in the current business environment, the Company… Read More

December 26, 2018 @ 1:10 am By Cali Haan  |  

Top 100 cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin announced December 21st that it has “disqualified” 10 tokens and is delisting them from trading on the exchange. The affected tokens are: Jibrel Network (JNT) WePower (WPR) Modum (MOD) EthLend (LEND) STK (STK) Asch (XAS) Bread (BRD) BitClave (CAT) Mobius (MOBI)… Read More

December 24, 2018 @ 12:07 pm By Cali Haan  |  

The stubborn Bitcoin satellite-coverage hole over Asia has been closed. Blockstream, a California-based company dedicated to building out Bitcoin infrastructure, has launched the fifth of five planned satellites sent aloft to allow the world to transmit Bitcoin with or without Internet and/or the permission of… Read More

December 24, 2018 @ 7:01 am By Cali Haan  |  

Twenty-eight Chinese blockchain and Fintech companies have found a home at a newly-inaugurated blockchain incubation centre located in the Guangdong Financial High-tech Zone, CSDN reports. The 120 000 square meter ‘”Blockchain + Financial Technology Professional Incubation Centre” will be located in former ‘Foshan Folk Finance… Read More

December 23, 2018 @ 9:40 pm By Cali Haan  |  

The cryptocurrency mania of 2017 was impossible for Wall Street to ignore, but a mainstream avalanche into crypto is easier said than done, and a stampede of clients demanding crypto-based products from their institutional brokers just hasn’t materialized yet, Bloomberg reports. “The market had unrealistic… Read More

December 23, 2018 @ 9:36 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Seoul School of Integrated Sciences and Technologies, often known as Assist, reportedly announced on Friday it is now offering an MBA program that is dedicated to cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. According to Bitcoin News, the school described this new course as a master’s degree program… Read More

December 23, 2018 @ 9:28 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Researchers at the Mosaic “cryptoasset data and research platform” have assembled a report showing that Asia is still the centre of the universe when it comes to crypto-price action. The company begins by describing “key headline events” in China, Korea and Japan during the course of… Read More

December 23, 2018 @ 9:55 am By Cali Haan  |  

Cybercrime police in the Indian city of Pune have arrested 10 individuals accused of defrauding 8000 investors in a Bitcoin-related Ponzi scheme called “GB21.” According to The Times of India, the leader of the scheme, Amit Bharadwaj, and his brother Vivek, ran a company called Gain Bitcoin,… Read More

December 22, 2018 @ 2:14 pm By Cali Haan  |  

About one week after its CEO delivered a keynote address to the Korean parliament on the regulation of crypto markets there, the Upbit cryptocurrency exchange’s board chair, finance director and an employee have been indicted for allegedly, “inflat(ing) the volume of transactions by making ($226.2… Read More