India’s RBI Collaborates Internationally on Digital Rupee Payments

Korbit Joins Zero-Fee Crypto Trading Trend in South KoreaSouth Korean cryptocurrency exchange Korbit reduced trading fees to zero on October 20 (local time) for all of the cryptocurrencies supported on the platform. This move follows in the footsteps of Bithumb, another Korean exchange that introduced zero-fee trading earlier this month.Photo by Jeremy Perkins on UnsplashNo extra registration requiredKorbit users can now benefit from zero-fee trading immediately, with no special registration required. This arrangement will continue indefinitely until further notice.Market maker incentives continueKorbit’s market maker incentive program will remain in place. Under this program, users earn 0.01% of the transaction value whenever they place an order.Oh Se-jin, CEO of Korbit, underscored the exchange’s commitment to enhancing user satisfaction. He pointed out several initiatives they’ve undertaken, including enhancing the login system, raising the daily Korean won (KRW) deposit and withdrawal limits, and eliminating transaction fees. He further noted that by removing trading fees, they aim to alleviate the cost pressures of crypto trading for their users and breathe new life into the market.

Mixin Network Suspends Services Amid $200 Million HackOn Monday, Mixin Network, a decentralized peer-to-peer network whose project team is based in Hong Kong, officially confirmed a substantial security breach that resulted in the loss of approximately $200 million in crypto assets from its mainnet.Photo by GuerrillaBuzz on UnsplashSeptember 23 hackThis incident, disclosed via an X (formerly Twitter) post, prompted the immediate suspension of all deposit and withdrawal services on Mixin Network until further notice.The project team outlined that the hack occurred on September 23, exposing vulnerabilities that allowed malicious actors to compromise the database of a third-party cloud service provider. Mixin Network has taken action to address the situation, enlisting the expertise of Singapore-headquartered blockchain security investigator SlowMist and the support of Google to conduct a thorough investigation and formulate a recovery plan.At the time of the breach, Mixin Network’s holdings included $94.48 million in Ether, $23.55 million in Dai, and $23.3 million in Bitcoin, as reported in an independent investigation by PeckShield. The total value of assets affected amounted to $141.32 million.Cyvers, an Israeli Web3 security firm, has also been looking into the matter on Monday. In a social media post, the firm stated:”Our internal investigation has uncovered suspicious funding transactions involving @MixinKernel hacker addresses. Two of hacker addresses received 51 $ETH from 0x1795F0eBDa5A836aE63F28CE546E72de069A8bd2 who was interacted with @HuobiGlobal and @binance.”The firm goes on to call on Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) and Huobi to help identify the wallet address in question.Halting withdrawalsIn response to the security breach, Mixin Network has temporarily halted all deposits and withdrawals on its platform. These services will only resume once the vulnerabilities have been identified and fully resolved. On X, the project stated:”Deposit and withdrawal services on Mixin Network have been temporarily suspended. After discussion and consensus among all nodes, these services will be reopened once the vulnerabilities are confirmed and fixed. During this period, transfers are not affected.”Details regarding the plans to recover the lost assets for affected users have yet to be announced.Despite initial promises that Mixin Network’s Founder, Feng Xiaodong, would address the incident in a public Mandarin live stream on September 25, links to the live stream were not provided on the official social media channels or the website mixin.network.The incident has garnered criticism on the basis of a lack of decentralization. One commentator stated:”Some of those blockchain protocols are so decentralized that when their cloud database is hacked, coins are also gone.”Ongoing hacksThis security breach on Mixin Network is the latest in a series of high-profile crypto-related incidents. Ethereum Co-Founder Vitalik Buterin recently fell victim to a SIM swap attack, which resulted in the compromise of his X (formerly Twitter) account.In a statement, Buterin revealed that the hackers had successfully executed a SIM swap, a type of attack that targets the victim’s mobile phone number to gain unauthorized access to various online accounts, including social media, banking, and cryptocurrency platforms.The repercussions of the Mixin Network hack underscore the ongoing challenges faced by the crypto industry in ensuring the security and protection of digital assets. As investigations continue, affected users await further developments and the eventual resumption of deposit and withdrawal services.

Crypto Exchange Loss Deters Temasek from Investing in Crypto FirmsSingapore’s state-owned investor Temasek has ruled out investing in crypto companies for now, following a $275 million loss in the bankrupt US crypto exchange FTX.Photo by Plato Terentev on PexelsRegulatory uncertainty concernsTemasek’s Chief Investment Officer Rohit Sipahimalani said in a CNBC interview on Tuesday that the regulatory uncertainty in the crypto sector made it very difficult for the fund to make another investment in an exchange.“There’s a lot of regulatory uncertainty in this environment. And I do think that it will be very difficult for us to make another investment and exchange in the middle of all this regulatory uncertainty,” Sipahimalani said.He added that Temasek was not interested in investing in cryptocurrencies, but rather in exchanges that could generate fee-based revenue without taking balance sheet or trading risks. In May, it was reported that Temasek had invested in algorithmic currency system, Array. However, the global investment company was quick to deny those reports.“We’ve never been looking to invest in cryptocurrencies. Even the investment in FTX, we’ll be talking about investing in an exchange, which allowed us to get fee-based revenue without thinking [of] balance sheet risk or any trading risks,” he said. However, he said that Temasek would not be comfortable investing in exchanges given the way things are right now, and that it would depend on the right regulatory framework and investment opportunity.“If you have the right regulatory framework, and we are comfortable with it, and you have the right investment opportunity, there’s no reason for us to not to look at it,” he said. Temasek’s FTX investment was part of its early-stage investment strategy, where it invests in new disruptive technologies and tries to find the next winners, Sipahimalani said.But the strategy backfired when FTX filed for bankruptcy in November, with more than 1.4 million creditors and billions of dollars in liabilities, according to bankruptcy filings.Reputational damageTemasek wrote down its $275 million investment in FTX to zero soon after the collapse of the exchange. However, the bigger concern for the company is the posting of its worst returns since 2016 amid macroeconomic and geopolitical challenges. In the financial year ending in March 2023, the investing behemoth posted a $7.3 billion loss.The FTX loss sparked criticism from Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lawrence Wong, who called it “disappointing” and damaging for Singapore’s reputation. And that is the greater issue for Temasek relative to FTX.The amount of that particular loss is not that significant, given the size of the company and the scale of losses incurred elsewhere. The issue has been the reputational damage that the company has experienced as a direct consequence. Temasek maintains that it carried out competent due diligence, as have all of the venture capital investors who have all had their FTX investments wiped out.Further details on that due diligence are likely to emerge as Temasek, alongside many other leading investors in FTX, is being sued by creditors on the basis that they gave credence to what transpired to be a fraud. Temasek announced in May that it would cut the salaries of the staff responsible for the FTX investment, after conducting an internal review of the deal.