Maple Finance Secures $5 Million to Fund Asia Expansion

Dunamu’s Luxury Watch Trading Platform Thrives with Blockchain EdgeViver, a luxury watch trading platform and subsidiary of Dunamu, which operates the Upbit cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea, has been experiencing continued success amidst an ever-growing interest in luxury items as real-world assets and lucrative investment drivers.Photo by Christian Wiediger on UnsplashLeveraging blockchain technology and a showroom experienceThis success can be attributed to the platform’s commitment to taking advantage of Dunamu’s cutting-edge blockchain technology and infrastructure, setting it apart from other luxury platforms and boosting competitiveness in the market.Another major factor is the Viver showroom in Gangnam, southern Seoul, which allows visitors to try on and purchase watches, get their own watches polished and checked, and speak with a professional watch curator.Moon Jae-yeon, CEO of Viver, unveiled plans to surpass global competitors like the US’ Watchbox and Europe’s Chrono24 within five years by growing the app into a global vertical commerce platform focused on luxury watches.Rolex’s finest dominate Viver’s diverse collectionIndeed, Viver has become a popular trading hub for timepiece enthusiasts and investors across the country, and the platform recently revealed in a special article for its 100th magazine issue that its best-selling watch is the Rolex Submariner — a globally renown line of high-end divers’ wristwatches.Different models from the Submariner line have taken up the top three ranks of most sold watches. Coming in first is the Submariner Date in Oystersteel, priced at KRW 16.5 million (approximately $12,500) on Viver, which accounted for 16.5% of total sales. Following close in second place with just two fewer watches sold and a 16.2% share of sales is the Submariner in Oystersteel, which is set apart by its lack of a date indicator. Last but not least, the Submariner Date in Oystersteel and yellow gold took up 13.7% of sales.The watch sold the fastest on the platform was the Rolex Datejust 41 in Oystersteel and white gold. Sporting the iconic Jubilee bracelet and fluted bezel, the timepiece took just a minute and 42 seconds from registration to sale.Though Rolex has evidently claimed its superlative title as the platform’s most popular brand, Audemars Piguet secured its own as the most expensive. The priciest timepiece to ever be sold on Viver is the Royal Oak model for KRW 130 million.Exponential growthThe platform also added four new brands in June — Patek Philippe, Omega, Cartier, and Vacheron Constantin. Consequently, total transaction value, product registrations, and product purchases in July increased by 34%, 116%, and 36%, respectively.As a result of these combined efforts, both monthly trade count and transaction volume on Viver have spiked by more than 15 times since its establishment last August, while the number of users has grown by about 10 times over the past year.The number of products directly registered by sellers also increased by about 30 times compared to the first month since the platform’s launch.

Terraform Labs seeks summary judgment to dismiss SEC allegationsLawyers representing bankrupt Singaporean crypto firm Terraform Labs and its co-founder, Do Kwon, have requested a summary judgment from a New York judge in their legal battle against the United States’ Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).If granted, such a dismissal could potentially spare them from a full-blown trial. In their motion, the legal team argued vehemently that they are innocent of the SEC’s allegations, maintaining that the regulator has failed to provide any compelling evidence of wrongdoing.Photo by Bermix Studio on UnsplashDefining a securityThe motion, which was filed last Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, asserts that the implicated cryptocurrencies of Terra Classic (LUNC), TerraClassicUSD (USTC) and Mirror Protocol (MIR), together with its Mirrored assets (mAssets), are not securities as claimed by the SEC in its complaint.The heart of the matter revolves around the SEC’s assertion that Terraform Labs offered or sold securities, a claim vehemently denied by the defendants. The SEC initially brought the case in February, referencing algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD, which famously collapsed in May 2022.Lawyers claim case is unsubstantiatedBoth Kwon and Terraform Labs’ attorneys argued that despite over two years of investigation, more than 20 depositions, and the exchange of a staggering two million pages of documents, the SEC’s case remains unsubstantiated.The SEC’s original complaint in February accused Kwon and Terraform of raising substantial sums from investors by offering and selling an inter-connected suite of crypto asset securities, many of which were unregistered transactions. SEC Chair Gary Gensler added that Terraform and Kwon had failed to provide investors with full disclosures, notably concerning LUNA and TerraUSD.A key element of the dispute centers on the SEC’s allegation that Kwon and Terraform moved millions of dollars into Swiss bank accounts for personal gain. According to the agency’s complaint, the company and Kwon transferred 10,000 bitcoins to a financial institution based in Switzerland. The legal team representing Kwon and Terraform vehemently denies this allegation, characterizing it as baseless and unfounded.Flawed stablecoin designAlgorithmic stablecoins, such as TerraUSD, operate using market incentives via algorithms to maintain a stable price. Terra was tied to Luna, a governance token, in an attempt to stabilize prices. Unfortunately, the collapse of TerraUSD in 2022 destroyed in excess of $40 billion in value held by investors. It also had a domino effect, leading to a series of other crypto platform collapses later in 2022.Judge Jed Rakoff, presiding over the case in the Southern District of New York, had previously denied an attempt by Terraform Labs and Kwon to have the case dismissed. This new motion for summary judgment represents their latest effort to put an end to the legal proceedings.In a separate but related action, lawyers representing Terraform Labs Co-Founder Daniel Shin asserted that Shin played no role in the collapse of TerraUSD. In a Seoul district court, they emphasized that Shin had nothing to do with the collapse despite being indicted in South Korea in April on various charges, including fraud.

Coins.ph, the leading crypto exchange in the Philippines, has announced its support for BRC-20 tokens. As part of that move, the exchange has successfully integrated the ORDI token, thereby becoming the inaugural platform in the country to embrace the BRC-20 standard. The platform clarified its support for BRC-20 in a recent blog post, which it published to its website. Coins.ph revealed its intention to expand its services further by adding support for additional BRC-20 tokens, showcasing a forward-looking approach to cater to the evolving needs of its user base. BRC-20 is a standard facilitating the creation of fungible tokens on the Bitcoin blockchain. The inclusion of this technical standard allows for the minting of tokens with unique features, introducing a new dimension to the capabilities of the world's flagship cryptocurrency.Photo by Kanchanara on UnsplashORDI memecoin additionORDI stands out as one of the most popular BRC-20 tokens, gaining traction and reaching an all-time high above $81 earlier this week. This surge in value followed the addition of trading support by crypto exchange Binance in early November, underscoring the influence of strategic partnerships and market dynamics on token performance. Wei Zhou, CEO of Coins.ph, expressed the company's commitment to staying at the forefront of digital asset innovation through this strategic move. Highlighting the remarkable growth in BRC-20 activity since its launch earlier in the year, Zhou emphasized the importance of enabling users to participate in these opportunities. He mentioned the recent listing of $ORDI and hinted at future product offerings enabled by the BRC-20 standard. Industry trendWhile coins.ph may have been the first exchange in the Philippines to introduce BRC-20 support, it's not the first mover in the broader Asian region. Back in May, leading crypto exchange OKX decided to support the BRC-20 standard through its OKX Wallet product. The company’s support of the standard was validated more recently when it emerged that BRC-20 support played a large role in OKX NFT Marketplace taking top rank as the NFT marketplace with the greatest trading volume earlier this month. Seychelles-based crypto derivatives platform Bitget has also identified the associated growth potential. Earlier this week, the platform unveiled a plan to support development within the Bitcoin ecosystem, inclusive of BRC-20. The fusion of ordinals and BRC-20 enables users to embed images, texts or audio, among other data, into satoshis—the smallest units of BTC. Bitcoin community controversyAmidst these developments, concerns have been raised by Bitcoin core developer Luke Dashjr. On Dec. 6, Dashjr disclosed that developers are working to remove Bitcoin inscriptions before the v27 update scheduled for the next year. This would imply the elimination of ordinals and BRC-20 from the Bitcoin landscape. Dashjr clarified that Bitcoin Core has allowed users to set limits on extra data size in transactions since 2013 through the "datacarriersize" setting. Despite this, inscriptions have found a way to bypass the limit by obfuscating their data as program code. He reassured the community that a recent bug in Bitcoin Knots v25.1 has been fixed, addressing concerns about vulnerability.