Ripple and the Republic of Palau Collaborate to Mint First PSC Stablecoin

Taiwanese prosecutors have expanded their inquiry into ACE Exchange, urging the detention of Chenhuan Wang, the platform's president and partner at Chien Yeh Law Offices. The Taipei District Prosecutors Office disclosed to The Block that Wang, alongside four other suspects, was summoned after police raids in Northern Taiwan earlier this month. Subsequent to the interrogation, prosecutors sought Wang's detention and restrictions on visitation rights, alleging his involvement in money laundering and fraud linked to the activities orchestrated by the detained founder, David Pan. Chien Yeh Law Offices has moved to distance itself from its partner’s activities, stating that the matter is a personal investment of Wang’s. It stated:”Ace Digital Innovation Co., Ltd. is the personal external investment affairs of lawyer Wang Chenhuan and has nothing to do with the firm.”Photo by Thomas Tucker on UnsplashMisleading advertisingPan, along with colleague Lin Nan, is accused of a three-year collaboration, utilizing misleading social media advertisements to deceive investors into acquiring worthless cryptocurrencies, including MOCT. The inclusion of Wang in the investigation now requires a court determination on potential detention. ACE Exchange responded to Pan's arrest earlier, asserting that Pan had ceased daily operations in 2022, with Wang assuming the presidency in September 2023. Wang claimed to have initiated efforts to delist controversial coins, with ACE assuring cooperation with investigations as a witness. The exchange affirmed the normalcy of trading and operational conditions, emphasizing the security of user assets and smooth cryptocurrency and New Taiwan dollar deposit and withdrawal services. Established in 2018, ACE Exchange ranks among Taiwan's prominent crypto exchanges, alongside BitoGroup and MaiCoin. In spite of alleged wrongdoing relative to key actors within the business, the platform has outlined its commitment to legal principles, stating zero tolerance for any misconduct within its management team. Regulatory focus on offshore exchangesIn the broader context of Taiwan's crypto landscape, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) plans to impose restrictions on offshore cryptocurrency exchanges operating within its jurisdiction, unless they secure required registration. In September last year, the FSC drafted guiding principles for virtual asset service providers (VASPs). These guidelines aim to fortify information disclosure, set review standards for virtual asset listing and delisting and ensure the secure separation of companies' and customers' assets. The FSC intends to strictly prohibit illegal business solicitation by foreign crypto firms, mandating registration and compliance declarations with anti-money laundering regulations. Failure to comply will result in the prohibition of business solicitation within Taiwan or from domestic residents by foreign VASPs. As Taiwanese prosecutors intensify their efforts, the ACE Exchange case unfolds as a critical episode in the evolving regulatory landscape, prompting both legal scrutiny and a reevaluation of the country's approach to crypto oversight.  

Cake DeFi Co-Founder Launches Ordzaar Ordinals MarketplaceU-Zyn Chua, Singaporean Co-Founder and CTO of Singapore-based Cake DeFi, has launched Ordzaar, a Bitcoin Ordinals marketplace.In a social media post on Friday, the marketplace described itself as “a decentralized & trustless marketplace for #Bitcoin Ordinals, bridging the gap between trustlessness and true decentralization.” The Ordinals protocol has been enabled due to the SegWit and Taproot upgrades to the bitcoin protocol. It’s a system for numbering satoshis, the smallest denomination of the Bitcoin cryptocurrency. The protocol assigns each satoshi with a serial number, using that number to track them across transactions.By taking this approach, each individual satoshi becomes unique, allowing additional data to be attached to them in a process called inscription. The project has hit the ground running, with its website online and a step by step guide released, instructing new users in how to buy and sell Ordinals on the marketplace.Releasing a press release to publicize the launch, the project pointed out that “the lack of a fully decentralized Ordinals marketplace [poses] a major challenge”, given a backdrop in which Bitcoin Ordinal inscriptions have surged in popularity over the course of recent weeks. Elaborating on that point, the team stated: “There is a growing need for a reliable and secure platform that allows buyers and sellers to transact in a decentralized manner, giving them complete control over their assets, this is where Ordzaar comes in.”Asia Ordinals marketplace firstOrdzaar represents the first ever Bitcoin Ordinals marketplace based within the Asian region. Alongside U-Zyn Chua, the team behind the project implicates three other seasoned crypto-natives with a wealth of experience in crypto, bitcoin, and blockchain. Cake DeFi colleague Naqib Noor assumes the role of Co-Founder and Development Lead. As well as being Co-Founder, Chua is the project’s Lead Researcher.In an effort to showcase the brand new marketplace, the Ordzaar team sponsored and participated in the Bitcoin Ordinals 2023 conference in Miami late last week, with Chua appearing as a speaker at the event. The Co-Founder told Blockhead that:“Ordinals have proven that Bitcoin is more than just a peer-to-peer payment system and has demonstrated a new, high-value use case for the longest-running cryptocurrency. As the industry continues to build and innovate, Ordinals have the potential to unlock even more value on the Bitcoin blockchain, and will lift the entire crypto ecosystem as a whole.”NFTs took on a life all of their own with a market surge, tripling in value to $250 million in 2020. While that largely Ethereum-based market has cooled somewhat since then, it nonetheless continues to broaden and establish itself. Chua believes that Bitcoin-centric Ordinals can take a large slice of that development. “Along with the explosive adoption seen in the traditional ETH NFT market, we expect to see a similar trajectory in the Ordinals space,” he explained.In a tweet published on Saturday, Crypto journalist and investment team member at Seoul-based crypto venture capital firm #Hashed, Joseph Young, referred to changing dynamics within the NFT space, with relative newcomers Blur and Tensor taking on OpenSea and Magic Eden. Not short on confidence, the Ordinals team responded, stating: “And Ordzaar will be dominating decentralized Ordinals and BRC20 trading.” The overarching crypto space continues its progression at pace, and it will be intriguing to see how Ordinals, together with new marketplaces like Ordzaar, perform as the industry trundles forward.Photo by Dmitry Demidko on Unsplash

Korean Crypto Market Outpaces Stock Exchange Amid Bitcoin ETF OptimismThe anticipation is building around the potential approval of BlackRock’s Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the United States. As the world’s largest asset manager is anticipated to obtain a green light, Bitcoin’s price has surged by more than 17% just this week, capturing the keen interest of investors.Photo by Kanchanara on UnsplashCrypto surpassing stocks in daily trading volumeIt’s worth highlighting the surge in the Korean cryptocurrency market, where the daily trading volume has recently eclipsed that of the Korean Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI).According to local news outlet Maeil Business Newspaper, on October 24, KOSPI recorded a trading volume of KRW 7.83 trillion ($5.8 billion). Yet, in a 24-hour span from 9 a.m. (KST) on October 23 to 9 a.m. on October 24, the combined trading volume of the top five Korean cryptocurrency exchanges reached KRW 8.44 trillion.Breaking it down by exchange, Upbit had a 24-hour trading volume of KRW 6.97 trillion, followed by Bithumb with KRW 1.36 trillion, Coinone with KRW 87.6 billion, Korbit with KRW 18.8 billion, and Gopax with KRW 2.2 billion.Retail investors leaving the stock marketThe surge in the Korean crypto market is largely due to retail investors shifting their focus away from the Korean stock market. This move comes in response to challenges the stock market has been grappling with, such as monetary tightening in the US and increased volatility stemming from the Israel-Hamas war.