Hedera Hashgraph in Micropayments, Avalanche Raises USD 42m + More News
Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.
Blockchain and DLT news
- Distributed ledger company Hedera Hashgraph (HBAR) has started a collaboration with Australia’s debit card system eftpos on a micropayments proof-of-concept. The companies said in an emailed press release that their goal is to provide an alternative to traditional online paywalls and subscriptions to web users. eftpos CEO, Stephen Benton, said the integration with Hedera is part of the company’s digital payments innovation strategy, aiming to show how micropayment transactions could be used for online content such as pay per page content or streaming services on a pay-per-second basis.
- Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Bank will join a Singapore-based, blockchain-powered trade transaction platform, per NNA. The bank will take part in tests on a solution operated by Singapore’s Contour, and could seek to issue blockchain-powered letters of credit. Paper-free import-related documents are also said to be in the pipelines.
- The Bank of Korea (BOK), South Korea’s central bank, has launched a new department devoted to AI and blockchain technology adoption, reported Inthenews. The BOK said the move is part of a companywide shakeup. The new department will answer to the BOK’s Vice President in charge of planning, and will be charged with implementing new digital technology policies, as well as building up the bank’s digital infrastructure.
- Alibaba’s Ant Group has signed a deal that will see it attempt to introduce a blockchain-powered real estate registration service. Per Sina, the Ant Group will team up with the Real Estate Registration Center of the city of Zhuhai, in China’s Guangdong Province, as part of the deal, and hopes to eventually roll out blockchain-powered mortgage registration services.
- Cross-chain data oracle Band Protocol (BAND) and South Korea’s major blockchain project ICON (ICX) have announced a strategic partnership and integration. The announcement stated that the collaboration will allow “reliable and decentralized applications in DeFi, gaming, prediction, betting, and lottery to be built.” It enables new use cases for developers in the ICON Ecosystem, as well as the expansion of the use of data oracles in South Korea for Band Protocol.
- The Armenian Apostolic Church has expressed its support for the Russian government’s IPChain blockchain network, per media outlet Rossiyskaya Gazeta. The church’s patriarch Karekin II stated that he supports the creators whose intellectual property the IPChain helps to protect.
Investment news
- Avalanche, a project by the developer of the AVA blockchain, AVA Labs, has raised USD 42 million in 4.5 hours in the Public Sale of its Avalanche Token (AVAX). Per the announcement, proceeds from the sale will be used only for the growth and development of the Avalanche network.
Regulation news
- The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said that it is looking to extend its reach to include crypto companies that offer services to overseas clients only, and are thus currently outside its jurisdiction. The MAS stated that it wants to “expand the scope of anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism requirements to persons in Singapore who provide digital token services overseas.”
- Thailand’s Securities Exchange Commission has issued a Digital Assets Exchange License to ERX, a trading platform launched by asset digitization firm Elevated Returns. ERX offers tokenized digital assets for exchange and is one of six crypto exchanges to receive the license since 2018.
Legal news
- Legal representation for GNY, a firm focused on artificial intelligence and the issuer of the LML token, filed a final notice of liquidator’s – accounting firm Grant Thornton‘s – failure to comply with duties. GNY lost over LML 15 million on the Cryptopia exchange, following a hack, which resulted in the crash of the price of LML tokens listed elsewhere, losing over 95% of its market value, said the press release. GNY added that they are concerned that the total of the liquidators’ fees and other expenses in the liquidation have consumed more than half of the receipts in the liquidation to date.
- Officials of the Latvian Cybercrime Division dismantled an organized cybercrime ring, during which they confiscated more than EUR 110,000 (USD 127,500)-worth of bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), XRP, and tether (USDT). In other searches, more than USD 324,100, as well as properties and cars worth hundreds of thousands of dollars were confiscated. According to the press release, the group allegedly laundered money from 2015 until 2020, and if convicted, will face 3 to 12 years in prison.
