OKX Burns $244M $OKB in Record Exchange Token Supply Cut

Dubai Regulator Issues Reprimand to OPNX FoundersThe Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), the regulator that concerns itself with the digital assets market in the Emirate of Dubai, has formally reprimanded the founders of digital asset exchange OPNX.Photo by Kai Pilger on UnsplashVARA issued an investor and marketplace alert on April 12 to inform investors that OPNX was not a licensed entity regulated by VARA and with that, it urged investors to be cautious. The regulator has now gone one further, this time formally writing to OPNX’s founders to reprimand them.The statement cites the following rationale for the issuance of the reprimand:”Carrying out VA (Virtual Asset) Exchange Services on an unregulated basis in and from the Emirate of Dubai; and Marketing, promoting and/or advertising OPNX services and its native token [FLEX] without the necessary permits from VARA.”Contextual backgroundThe statement goes on to provide the context for the regulator’s most recent action. VARA became aware of OPNX soliciting the public to use the exchange in February of this year. It noted that the business was actively marketing through various social media channels “without establishing warranted restrictions for residents of Dubai/UAE.” VARA went on to explain that OPNX commenced trading in April without having secured a regulatory license despite the activity warranting such a license.Cease and desistOn February 27, VARA issued OPNX with a cease and desist order, relative to the foundation of the business and the marketing and promotion of services. Thereafter, the exchange applied certain restrictions but the regulator deemed the measures to not have been applied comprehensively across all OPNX communication channels, prompting it to issue a further cease and desist order the following month.The investor and marketplace alert followed in April as OPNX proceeded to launch its exchange. The written reprimand was then issued on April 18, “to address historical and ongoing activity conducted on an unregulated basis.” The recipients included the OPNX founders, (Mark Lamb, Sudhu Arumugam, Kyle Davies and Su Zhu) and the firm’s CEO Leslie Lamb.Given what the regulator deems to have been “a continued lack of satisfactory remedial action [taken] by the responsible parties,” it is continuing to actively monitor the situation. VARA stated that it will further investigate OPNX’s activity to assess further corrective measures that may be required to protect the market.Lack of industry supportThe digital assets industry is in no way enamored with founders Davies and Zhu. Their record has been badly blemished by the unceremonious collapse of their crypto hedge fund, Three Arrows Capital, in 2022. That failure wreaked major damage on the overarching crypto space, directly leading to the failure of other crypto businesses later that year.Prominent crypto venture capitalist Michael Arrington said of their capital raise for OPNX that it was “the saddest bulls**t I’ve heard in a long time.” It later transpired that two of the investment firms that OPNX suggested were backing the start-up refuted the claim.In response to this latest development, OPNX’s CEO Leslie Lamb told Blockworks that the business was initially launched in Hong Kong. “To confirm, we have no Dubai or UAE customers and do full KYC on all users,” she stated.

With the Chinese autonomous territory of Hong Kong having introduced its new Stablecoins Ordinance on August 1 and local taxi operators required to facilitate two forms of digital payment from April 1, 2026, a case is being made that this eventuality lends itself to an ideal test case for stablecoin payments.Photo by The Transport Enthusiast DC on UnsplashA perfect test caseIn an opinion piece published by Bloomberg on Aug. 3, columnist Andy Mukherjee asserted that Hong Kong taxis would be “a perfect stablecoin test case,” suggesting that the timing is ideal for stablecoins, given that a new licensing regime has come into effect via the city’s Stablecoins Ordinance.  In an interview, Franz Bergmueller, CEO of Switzerland-headquartered crypto bank AMINA Bank, said that “stablecoins for me are a killer use case.” On social media, AMINA Bank claimed that it would be “a major step in the right direction” if Hong Kong taxis start to accept stablecoin payments from customers. It emerged last December that the city’s taxi drivers would be required to install both electronic payment facilities and navigation systems, based on a filing made to Hong Kong’s Legislative Council. The filing outlined that while some taxi drivers currently offer electronic payment options, many insist on cash payment. The city’s Transport and Logistics Bureau suggested that “drivers offer at least two electronic payment options, including both QR code and non-QR code methods.” Stablecoin payments overseasThere has been some limited use of stablecoins as a payment method by taxi services in places with unstable currencies such as Argentina and Venezuela. The world’s most popular ride-hailing service, Uber, is understood to be studying the feasibility of offering stablecoin-based payments. In 2024, Asian rival Grab commenced accepting crypto, including the USDT and USDC stablecoins, as a means of payment for ride-sharing and food delivery services in Singapore. Last month, it extended that facility to its platform users in the Philippines.In June it emerged that Tawasul Transport, a taxi service in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), had partnered with Al Maryah Community Bank (Mbank) and Abu Dhabi’s Department of Municipalities and Transport to launch a pilot program implicating the use of AE Coin, a UAE dirham-pegged stablecoin, as a means of payment. Bloomberg’s Mukherjee suggests that for entities now applying for stablecoin licensing, this new digital payment requirement for Hong Kong’s taxi services could provide an immediate segue to onboard users and make a new stablecoin product popular. Mukherjee places specific emphasis in this regard on what actions Ant Group may take. It emerged recently that Ant Group, an affiliate of the Alibaba Group, intends to apply for stablecoin licensing across Asian markets, including Hong Kong. The company is already a leader in Asia in digital payments through Alipay, which serves 1.3 billion users.Although Ant Group is based in mainland China, Hong Kong would offer the company the opportunity to test the establishment of a stablecoin for retail payments.

LG Goes Further Down the Web3 Rabbit Hole with NFT PatentSouth Korean consumer electronics behemoth LG has delved deeper into the Web3 world, this time with a patent filing that would make NFTs more available to TV viewers.Enabling NFTs for the mass marketAccording to the filing, which was made with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the electronics giant is seeking to acquire intellectual property protection on a capability to have a smart TV connect with an NFT market server.That ability would allow the user to then send, receive and display digital artwork. Furthermore, the consumer could complete purchases using an associated digital wallet, relative to NFT-based artwork that they would have the ability to browse through on their LG smart TV.While crypto and Web3 continue to garner a lot of attention, it can still seem sometimes that it exists in a bubble all of its own. Moves like this one from an organization as professional as LG are encouraging, as they demonstrate that LG believes that NFTs are going to be a part of the future, and most importantly, that they’re going to enable mass market participation and adoption.Blade WalletThis is not LG’s first venture into the world of NFTs. Last year, the corporation launched its very own NFT marketplace. Known as “LG Art Labs”, it enables users of US LG TVs that run the WebOS 5.0 operating system, to trade digital collectibles.Earlier this year, the firm launched the Blade Wallet, a third party audited, self-custody digital wallet which runs on the Hedera public ledger. That development has come out of a partnership that LG has developed with the Hedera Hashgraph platform much earlier in 2020. Just as with the Blade Wallet, the LG Art Labs NFT marketplace also runs on Hedera. To support these early stage products, LG itself has been a node operator on the Hedera network since 2020.This recent patent filing references an NFT marketplace and a digital wallet. As we’ve established, the corporation has already launched both of them already. All of that points to the electronics giant executing on a well thought through plan which will bring NFTs to the mass market.Broader interestLG isn’t going to have it all to itself. Samsung, yet another South Korean consumer electronics giant, has also dipped its toe in the water where NFTs are concerned. In January 2022, the company released an NFT marketplace on three of its TV models. That initiative was enabled due to its partnership with leading curated NFT marketplace, Nifty Gateway.Neither will the South Koreans have the consumer electronics-enabled NFT market all to themselves. Japanese consumer electronics conglomerate Sony filed a patent in March that will allow players of Sony products to access interactive Web3 gameplay. That application will be centered upon the use of NFTs also.Sony’s attempts to delve into the Web3 arena have been more recent. In February of this year, Sony Network Communications, its internet provider division, partnered with the project team behind the Astar blockchain in order to create an incubation program for companies who are working on NFT-based innovation and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).Photo by Shubham Dhage on Unsplash