HashKey Gears Up to Offer Trading Service to Retail Traders

Korean Prosecutors Allocate $734K Budget for Crypto Crime InvestigationsThe South Korean Supreme Prosecutors’ Office has earmarked a budget of up to KRW 986 million (approximately $734,000) this year for investigations pertaining to virtual assets, according to data received by the local newspaper Law Times from the Ministry of Justice last Thursday. The significant size of the budget suggests that the prosecution is prioritizing efforts to combat the growing surge in virtual asset-related crimes.Photo by Tingey Injury Law Firm on UnsplashBudget divisionWithin this budget, KRW 778 million has been designated for the purchase of software licenses for virtual asset tracing and analysis equipment, while KRW 280 million has been allocated for an integrated strategic plan to establish a platform for analyzing and tracing unauthorized virtual asset transactions. The budget for this platform consists of preliminary planning costs. Related expenditures are expected to increase as the project is fully implemented.“It is true that our budgets are being concentrated on crimes related to virtual assets due to the fact that they have recently become a social issue,” said a prosecution official. “It may not be a lot compared to our overall budget, but assigning almost KRW 1 billion for one specific field of investigation is still a considerate amount.”Rising crypto crimesIn Korea, crimes associated with virtual assets have been increasing annually. This includes tax evasion, bribery, foreign exchange law violations, and money laundering, as well as cryptocurrency market issues including issuance, listing, and distribution. According to the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, reported cases of suspicious virtual asset transactions received by the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit (KoFIU) surged from an average of 66 cases per month in 2021 to 900 cases in 2022, then 943 cases in 2023 — a fourteen-fold increase in just three years.Subsequently, the scale of the damages caused by cryptocurrency crimes has also seen a sharp rise. The total value of all reported damages skyrocketed from KRW 467.4 billion in 2017 to KRW 1.02 trillion last year, more than doubling in five years. The cumulative loss over this period exceeds KRW 5.3 trillion.Focused effortsThe prosecution has thus dispatched financial experts from organizations including KoFIU and Korea Exchange to create a joint virtual asset crime investigation unit under the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office dedicated to investigating cryptocurrency crimes.The prosecution’s Cybercrime Investigation Division has also begun developing a tracking system optimized for the Korean market to trace the flow of virtual assets. The foreign software that is currently being used for tracking comes with considerable expenses and limitations, particularly for tracking flows within the domestic market, where there are many transactions involving smaller, locally-issued cryptocurrencies called “kimchi coins.”“We are dedicating our manpower and technological development to virtual asset investigations,” said a high-ranking official from the prosecution. “We will also strive to secure the budget necessary for these efforts.”

Singapore-based decentralized liquidity infrastructure and on-chain funding project Solv Protocol has raised $11 million in funding, bringing its total inward investment to date to $25 million. Taking to Medium on Oct. 14, the project outlined that in this most recent funding round, $11 million had been raised with participation from Nomura subsidiary Laser Digital, Blockchain Capital, gumi Cryptos Capital, OKX Ventures and CMT Digital. Angel investors associated with a number of blockchain projects such as Berachain, Ethena, Mezo, Core, GMX, Curve and EigenLayer also invested. $200 million valuationThis latest funding round was carried out while placing a $200 million valuation on the company. Going forward, the company plans to roll out additional products over the course of the next few weeks, with a view towards further expanding yield opportunities for Bitcoin (BTC) holders. Solv Protocol’s leading product, SolvBTC, was introduced to the market last March as the world’s first-ever yield-bearing Bitcoin. The protocol initially ran on Ethereum, Arbitrum, BNB Chain and Merlin Chain. Since launch, it has been expanded across 10 blockchain networks. The product claims to enable BTC holders to earn additional BTC all the while maintaining Bitcoin exposure. In excess of 20,000 BTC is currently staked within Solv Protocol’s SolvBTC product, accounting for around $1.3 billion in value. The project claims to have 400,000 users, with 80% of their assets allocated to yield-generating strategies.Photo by Traxer on UnsplashMarket opportunitySolv Protocol’s Co-Founder Ryan Chow spoke to the market opportunity that Bitcoin staking presents. Chow stated: “With a market cap of over $1.2 trillion, Bitcoin holds immense growth potential, Bitcoin’s staking rate is currently much lower than Ethereum’s 28%. If we can unlock similar levels of participation, Bitcoin staking could unlock $330 billion in value. We believe BTCFi will drive the next wave of innovation in the blockchain space.” In a series of X posts published on Oct. 14, the project pointed out that the lack of a native yield, limited integrations with core DeFi primitives and fragmented BTC liquidity relative to DeFi are key challenges for Bitcoin, which Solv claims to have resolved. Staking Abstraction Layer (SAL)Earlier this month, Solv, alongside BNB Chain, Ceffu and Chainlink, launched the Staking Abstraction Layer (SAL). SAL is a framework which has been designed to simplify and standardize Bitcoin staking across a number of blockchain networks. Key SAL features include cross-chain compatibility with Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible chains, support for liquidity staking tokens (LSTs) and a focus on security and custody with the involvement of crypto custodian Ceffu deemed to ensure that the user’s underlying Bitcoin is secure. Solv has launched three LSTs. These include SolvBTC.BBN, an LST representing staked Bitcoin on Babylon, another Bitcoin staking platform. SolvBTC.ENA is a trading strategy involving Ethena’s basis trading. Meanwhile, SolvBTC.CORE focuses on providing Bitcoin liquidity on CoreDAO, a Bitcoin-aligned EVM-compatible layer-1 blockchain. Bitcoin staking is a more recent development which appears to have considerable potential. As Solv pointed out on X, Ethereum has a 28% staking rate right now, with Bitcoin not coming anywhere close to this figure. Staking platforms on Ethereum like Lido has $23.7 billion in total value locked (TVL) while EigenLayer weighs in at $10.9 billion.

South Korea Introduces ABLE Alliance for Blockchain Advancement and CollaborationThe South Korean Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) celebrated the launch of the Alliance of Blockchain Leading Digital Economy (ABLE) yesterday, according to its press release. The ministry convened a meeting in Seoul to discuss the government’s digital transformation agenda with the alliance’s members.Photo by Shubham Dhage on UnsplashStartups’ challengesIn the rapidly evolving blockchain technology landscape, Korean startup vendors have encountered challenges in finding clients for their products. Moreover, they often face the problem of their services or technology becoming outdated by the time they are ready to be brought to market. To address these issues, MIST and the Korea Internet and Security Agency (KISA) took the initiative to establish the ABLE alliance.64 ABLE membersThe ABLE alliance consists of 64 entities, categorized into three distinct groups: clients, vendors, and advisors. Prominent clients include financial institutions such as the Bank of Korea, KB Kookmin Bank, and Hana Bank. Notable vendors within the alliance include Lambda256, a blockchain solution provider; AhnLab Blockchain Company; and Raon Secure, a mobile security solution. Serving as advisors are well-known participants like SK Securities; NH Investment Securities; and Nice Information Service, a credit bureau and corporate intelligence data provider.Objectives and rolesThe primary objective of the ABLE alliance is to promote effective communication among its entities, fostering a better understanding of each other’s requirements for blockchain projects. ABLE will serve as a centralized point of contact for handling various industry suggestions.To achieve its goals, ABLE will operate an advisory body that offers consultations on diverse areas such as attracting investments, expanding into overseas markets, formulating regulations and policies, and facilitating networking within the technology sector. The alliance will also provide opportunities for its members to showcase and explain their products and technologies to one another. Regular meetings will be conducted to share industry trends and policy developments, ensuring seamless communication among the alliance members.