Bitmain’s Latest Air-Cooled Antminer Set to Ship in Q1 2024

Hana Bank to Establish Joint Digital Asset Custody Venture with BitGoSouth Korean commercial bank Hana Bank announced on Tuesday at Impact, the main event of Korea Blockchain Week (KBW) 2023, that it has signed an agreement with US-based digital asset trust company BitGo to undertake a joint venture for digital asset custody services in Korea.Photo by Chris Liverani on UnsplashBitGo’s Korean branch aims to kick off full-fledged operations for the venture in the second half of next year after obtaining Information Security Management System (ISMS) certification and completing registration as a virtual asset service provider (VASP).Fostering transparency and securityThe two entities will collaborate through multiple approaches, such as considering equity investments in the joint venture, working together on BitGo’s security solutions and digital asset custody technology, and leveraging Hana Bank’s expertise in financial services, security, and compliance. The scope of the partnership will expand as time goes on, they said.“By working with a global leader, we will contribute greatly to the enhancement of confidence in the Korean digital asset market as well as consumer protection,” Hana Bank said.BitGo’s ongoing global expansionBitGo has been offering digital asset custody services to institutional clients since 2013, serving over 1,500 institutions in more than 50 countries, including the US, Switzerland, and Germany. It also provides custodial services for over 700 different digital assets, including Bitcoin.“We aim to establish a long-term foundation in the Korean market, in line with the expected growth of the security token market there,” said Mike Belshe, CEO and Co-Founder of BitGo.

Coinone Hires Former FSS Official as Head AuditorKorean crypto exchange Coinone has established an audit department and recruited a former director general of the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) as head auditor, according to local news outlet Moneytoday. This comes in an effort to establish a permanent internal control system and enhance communication with financial authorities.Photo by Hunters Race on UnsplashBringing in a seasoned expertAccording to industry sources on Wednesday, Coinone recently signed an audit contract with the official, who is now the highest-ranking auditor to be hired by a crypto exchange. It was reported that they had retired from the FSS just last week.The new auditor has an extensive career in financial regulation, starting as an investigator at the Bank of Korea’s Legal Affairs Office, and then holding multiple leadership positions at various departments in the FSS, such as the Bank Supervision Department and the Financial Consumer Protection Department. More recently from 2020 to 2021, they served as the Director of the General Affairs Department. During their comprehensive 30-year tenure at both establishments, they gained expertise in the supervision of financial enterprises.Coinone’s dedication to regulatory complianceThey are expected to start their duties at Coinone soon, shortly after the end of the recent Chuseok holiday. The decision to hire them was strongly influenced by its commitment to auditory regulation, the exchange said, emphasizing the need for internal control and preemptive risk management during the complex process of establishing itself as a formal business.Considering the continued tightening of regulations on cryptocurrencies in Korea, such as the enactment of the Virtual Asset User Protection Act and the introduction of guidelines for accounting and reporting on trading cryptocurrencies, Coinone also said that it is determined to actively engage with financial authorities through the new auditor.“This move reflects the intention to build practical expertise in audit services with FSS personnel who have professional knowledge in the area,” an industry insider commented.

Stella Chan, the chief operating officer of Phemex, a crypto derivatives exchange with a presence in Turkey and Singapore, recently provided details of the company’s unveiling of its Lending Protocol and SocialFi initiative Pulse Season 3. In an interview with Cointelegraph, Chan outlined that since the founding of the firm in 2019, the company has been evolving and working towards carving out a niche for itself in the industry. The executive confirmed that the exchange business has reached a point where daily trading volume now exceeds $2 billion across more than 300 trading pairs. Pulse Season 3Chan is also the co-founder of Phemex’s Pulse, a social trading platform that rewards users while attempting to foster a community spirit within the crypto sphere. As part of Phemex events held at Token 2024 in Dubai last week, the company announced Pulse Season 3, a SocialFi mechanism to incentivize community engagement. The initiative introduces casting and tipping features. Casting is a means through which community members can post up content. Meanwhile, tipping serves as a method through which other community members can acknowledge and reward high-quality community member contributions. Through this initiative Phemex is hoping to deliver an enhanced experience where trading seamlessly intersects with trending topics and insightful content.Photo by Shubham Dhage on UnsplashPhemex Lending ProtocolAlongside Pulse Season 3, the company has also launched the Phemex Lending Protocol, a feature allowing users to borrow crypto at competitive rates while earning interest. As part of that offering, all loans are safeguarded through the collateralization of the user’s digital assets. With an initial liquidity allocation of $22 million, this protocol has been established with an eye towards empowering traders to amplify their capital without selling their assets, while aligning in a more general sense with the user’s overall trading needs. Phemex is attempting to spearhead the transition towards greater user autonomy without compromising security. The Phemex Lending Protocol is central to that effort, offering users competitive borrowing rates and opportunities for passive income generation.  Standing testament to that, the platform offers interest rates on USDT starting at 3.57%. For those that hold vePT, the wrapped version of the platform's native Phemex token (PT), an additional 30% discount on borrowing rates is being offered. vePT is destined to act as a token which confers voting authority in the not too distant future, relative to Phemex’s governing decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). The platform is further enabling capital efficiency from the service user’s perspective by applying very little restriction so that funds can be withdrawn and redeployed at will, with minimum delay. Coming off the back of these announcements during Token 2024, the company appears to be following through on that momentum. Taking to the X social media platform on April 25, Chan outlined details of a plethora of user experience (UX) upgrades relative to its Pulse offering. Future plansLooking ahead, Phemex envisages the offering of a broader range of products tailored to user needs. Plans for an automated market maker (AMM) protocol aim to provide users with passive earning opportunities by contributing to liquidity. Additionally, Phemex is exploring the development of an on-chain credit scoring mechanism, leveraging its soulbound digital identity token to enhance access to decentralized finance (DeFi).