Asia

July 16, 2019 @ 10:19 pm By JD Alois  |  

GOJEK, a Southeast Asian unicorn, has received backing from global credit and payments provider Visa. According to a release, Visa participated in GOJEK’s ongoing Series F funding round for an undisclosed amount.  Other investors include Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, Mitsubishi Corporation, and investment from Mitsubishi UFJ… Read More

July 16, 2019 @ 1:07 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency platform Crypto.com announced on Tuesday it has named OS Limited (OSL), a digital asset brokerage providing global counterparts with a suite of institutional products and services. OSL offers over-the-counter (OTC) trading services, as its first Settlement Agent and Paxos, financial institution regulated… Read More

July 16, 2019 @ 8:00 am By JD Alois  |  

Backed by JP Morgan and Sequoia, Near has just raised $100 million in new financing from PE firm Greater Pacific Capital. Near is a company that uses AI to make “real-world data actionable.” The company claims to have the “largest data set of people’s behavior… Read More

July 14, 2019 @ 1:12 pm By JD Alois  |  

Digital banking and online lending is a huge portion of the future of finance. The days of brick and mortar dominance is slowly drifting away as the next generation of consumers prefer banking on their iPhone or Android smartphone. Last week, Deutsche Bank announced a… Read More

July 13, 2019 @ 2:32 pm By Xu Gao  |  

China’s State Council Approves the Research and Development of CBDC At the launching ceremony and the first academic seminar of the Digital Finance Open Research Project held on July 8th, Wang Xin, director of the Research Bureau of the People’s Bank of China, revealed that… Read More

July 13, 2019 @ 12:56 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Development of “the largest data centre in the world,” in Rockdale, Texas, has slowed to a halt less than a year after the facility was announced by Bitmain, the world’s largest cryptomining firm, Wired reports. While courting officials in the region, Bitmain representatives promised to… Read More

July 12, 2019 @ 4:55 pm By Cali Haan  |  

More than a hundred proposed “crypto asset” exchange projects are seeking permission to operate in Japan, according to information furnished to Bitcoin.com by an official from Japan’s financial market regulator, the Financial Services Authority (FSA). “The number of crypto asset exchange service providers which have… Read More

July 12, 2019 @ 10:06 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Bitpoint, a licensed cryptocurrency exchange based in Japan, has reportedly shut down operations following a hack that caused the platform to lose ¥3.5 billion yen ($32 million) in cryptocurrency.  According to Bloomberg, The exchange revealed about 2.5 billion yen of stolen funds belonged to customers,… Read More

July 12, 2019 @ 8:38 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Singapore-based Pundi X announced on Friday it has completed integration support of its XPOS module on X990 made by U.S.-based Verifone. Pundi X reported that with this integration, shops and retail outlets using the Verifone X990 with XPOS module activated will now be able to… Read More

July 10, 2019 @ 9:44 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Protestors believing they were bilked out of 200 million yuan ($29 million USD) by the cryptocurrency/blockchain project TRON occupied the offices of TRON affiliate company Raybo Monday in Beijing. The protestors were eventually “removed” from the offices by police, TRON CEO Justin Sun claimed in a response on… Read More

July 10, 2019 @ 8:24 am By JD Alois  |  

Special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) 8i Enterprises Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ: JFK) has entered into a definitive share exchange agreement with Diginex Limited. The deal claims to engender the largest publicly traded blockchain company in the US – once it closes. JFK is a BVI company… Read More

July 9, 2019 @ 3:26 am By Cali Haan  |  

Influential bankers convening at an academic conference at Peking University’s Institute of Digital Finance this week have expressed serious concerns about Libra, Facebook’s forthcoming cryptocurrency payments network, South China Morning Post (SCMP) reports. Wang Xin, director of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC)’s research bureau warned… Read More

July 8, 2019 @ 9:57 pm By Cali Haan  |  

India’s Economic Affairs Secretary, Subhash Garg, has confirmed rumours that India is less than keen on Facebook’s current effort to create a private, global currency network aimed particularly at citizens in the developing world, Bloomberg reports. “(The) Design of the Facebook currency has not been… Read More

July 6, 2019 @ 5:51 pm By JD Alois  |  

Crowdfunding on PitchIn, Qeos LED plans to raise sufficient capital and then plan a public listing in Singapore later this year or in early 2020, according to a report in Digital News Asia. If the company is successful in their ambition, Qeos will be the… Read More

July 6, 2019 @ 5:05 pm By Xu Gao  |  

Min Zhu: Libra is not Alipay. Its core concept is currency. On July 1st, the 13th Annual Meeting of the New Champions (also known as the Summer Davos Forum) in Dalian, China. Min Zhu, Chair of Tsinghua National Institute of Finance Research and former vice… Read More

July 5, 2019 @ 9:09 am By JD Alois  |  

PayU, Naspers’ payments firm, is expanding into Southeast Asia through the acquisition of a majority stake in Red Dot Payment (RDP), a Singapore-based online payment Fintech. RDP currently serves more than 500 merchants in 22 countries. RDP supports global and local alternate payment methods such… Read More

July 5, 2019 @ 8:30 am By JD Alois  |  

Payments and transfer Fintech InstaReM has launched an API-based digital platform that will enable start-ups, Fintech companies, and other corporations to launch their own branded cards. InstReM says its “card issuing platform” will offer next-generation digital payments as a B2B solution. InstaReM’s customers may now… Read More

July 5, 2019 @ 7:21 am By Cali Haan  |  

Outspoken Bitcoin and cryptocurrency critic and economist Dr Andy Xie, renowned for predicting the 1997-8 Asian currency crisis, told The Korea Times this week that Bitcoin is “a gambling instrument” primarily exploiting Asian investors and that it can never function properly as a currency. “Bitcoin… Read More

July 5, 2019 @ 7:14 am By JD Alois  |  

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR) in France have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to “enhance collaboration between the two authorities in supporting Fintech innovation. The French ACPR is a supervisory authority attached to the… Read More

July 5, 2019 @ 6:49 am By JD Alois  |  

Ethis Dubai, part of the Ethis Group of crowdfunding platforms headquartered in Singapore, has announced its participation in the Dubai “Real Estate Investment Opportunities” (REIOs) launched by Dubai Land Development. Ethis said the initiatives came at a time when the Dubai property market is at… Read More