SAND Token to be Listed on Japanese Crypto Exchange bitFlyer

Korean Prosecutors Say Do Kwon and His Colleagues Knew Terra Was Unviable from the BeginningKorean prosecutors claimed that Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon and the key members behind the Terra-LUNA crash were aware of the project’s unviability from the beginning, according to a file issued by the Seoul Southern District Court.©Terraform LabsTerraform Labs founders misleading Korean investorsTerraform Labs founders Do Kwon and Daniel Shin attracted 280,000 investors in Korea alone, claiming that the Terra stablecoin is a means of transaction, even though the company leaders had been notified by the financial authority that Terra-accepting businesses were impermissible. It is reported that during a search and seizure of the company, Korean prosecutors collected evidence that its employees shared such knowledge on their internal messaging system.Terra’s cross trading on crypto exchangesKnowing their cryptocurrency’s unviability, Terra executives registered its sister token LUNA for listing on major Korean crypto exchanges in May 2019. According to the Korean prosecution, they used a bot to create a trade volume of more than 800 million won in three domestic crypto exchanges by cross trading between 2019 and early last year.Cross trading is illegal in the stock market, as it is considered as an act of price manipulation, but LUNA was traded in crypto exchanges and it hasn’t been determined whether their token is a security or not. Under current Korean law, the court has to accept it as a security to punish those behind the Terra collapse.Shin’s denial of allegationsMeanwhile, Daniel Shin denied the prosecution’s allegations and argued that they had never received such a notice from the financial regulator.

Bitget withdraws from Hong Kong crypto marketSeychelles-incorporated cryptocurrency derivatives platform Bitget has made a decision to permanently exit the Hong Kong market, discontinuing its efforts to obtain a virtual asset trading platform (VATP) license.Photo by SHUJA OFFICIAL on UnsplashBitgetX platform shutdownThe decision comes only months after it had introduced its BitgetX platform to comply with local regulations. The company, which bases its operations out of Singapore, is a well-known entity in the crypto space, renowned as the operator of the 12th-largest cryptocurrency exchange globally in terms of 24-hour trading volume. It made this revelation on Monday, citing what it referred to as “business and market-related considerations.”In a published statement, the company said:”With a heavy heart, we regret to inform you that due to business and market related considerations, we have decided not to pursue a Virtual Asset Trading Platform (VATP) license in Hong Kong. As a result of this decision, the BitgetX website (www.BitgetX.hk) will cease its operations effective December 13, 2023. At the same time, Bitgetx.hk will permanently exit the Hong Kong market.”While outlining that BitgetX will close its doors, the firm urged users to withdraw their assets beforehand. Bitget is among a handful of exchanges that had publicly expressed their intent to secure a license following Hong Kong’s proactive push over the course of the past year to embrace the virtual asset sector.Broader challengesThe decision to abandon the pursuit of a VATP license echoes the broader challenges faced by the cryptocurrency industry in Hong Kong. Despite the city’s recent enthusiastic regulatory embrace of the virtual asset sector, a number of stumbling blocks remain.High compliance costs and the lingering aftermath of the JPEX financial scandal have hindered Hong Kong’s aspirations to establish itself as a leading crypto hub. A report back in June identified the major cost implications of acquiring a license in Hong Kong. At the time, it was estimated that the required spend to obtain a VATP license could range from $2.55 million to $25.5 million.Banking crypto companies has also become a major bottleneck. In June, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) urged banks such as HSBC, Standard Chartered and the Bank of China to bank the crypto sector, having identified a reluctance amongst them to do so.Limited interestThe forthcoming closure of BitgetX adds to a growing trend of limited interest in Hong Kong’s new licensing scheme. Only five companies, all local, have submitted applications for virtual asset licenses to the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC). This list began publication in response to the JPEX scandal, which significantly damaged public trust in virtual assets.The challenges faced by the industry go beyond regulatory hurdles. The damaged public trust, coupled with the high-profile exit of JPEX, has contributed to the hesitancy of international crypto platforms in pursuing licenses in Hong Kong. The abrupt withdrawal of Bitget raises questions about the viability of Hong Kong as a central player in the cryptocurrency industry and underscores the complexities faced by exchanges navigating the evolving landscape of the digital asset sector.

MAS and NY Fed Publish Report on CBDC Cross-Border PaymentsNew York’s Federal Reserve Bank and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) have collaborated on an endeavor titled “Project Cedar Phase II x Ubin+,” examining the use of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) for wholesale cross-border payments using one or more vehicle currencies.The joint effort has culminated in the publication of a report detailing their findings and results. Commenting on the initiative, MAS Managing Director Leong Sing Chiong stated:“The Cedar x Ubin+ experiment envisages a future digital currency landscape where central banks can enable interoperability of wholesale CBDCs to facilitate more efficient cross-border payment flows including for less liquid currencies, without requiring a common infrastructure.”Photo by NASA on UnsplashExploiting positive DLT characteristicsSpecifically, the New York Innovation Center (NYIC) of the NY Fed was the entity that contributed directly towards the research project. The work built on previous phases of Project Cedar. The objective was to explore perceived advantages of digital ledger technology (DLT) such as reduced settlement risk and reduced settlement time, in the context of cross-border payments.The conventional system primarily uses the SWIFT financial messaging network. The approach is highly inefficient. It’s time-consuming and needlessly ties capital up in vostro and nostro accounts (accounts held for another entity from an account another entity holds). Tying up capital proves to be a liquidity headache for corporations and any business entity that gets involved with international trade settlement.Smart contracts and off-chain messagingAgainst that backdrop, the project team was focusing on harnessing the ability to effect atomic or real-time settlement using DLT. Having commenced the work in November, the project team decided to rely on hashed timelock smart contracts in order to bridge distinct ledgers, so as to effect cross-currency and cross-border transactions.According to the report, the proposed system also relied on off-chain messaging functionality. Cross-border trade settlement often involves a number of stakeholders. Off-chain messaging can be beneficial in disseminating information relative to the process to all stakeholders.The researchers found that each simulated payment scenario achieved end-to-end settlement in under thirty seconds on average, realizing the goal of near real-time settlement. In turn, that speed of settlement meant that stakeholders could be notified of payment finality within a matter of seconds. Certainty of settlement, and thus reduction in counterparty risk was achieved by simulating atomic settlement, such that transactions only settled if all legs in the cross-currency payment chain executed successfully.From the point of view of interoperability and autonomy, the experiment demonstrated the ability to safely execute across multiple ledgers without the need to involve a centralized clearing authority or the establishment of a shared central network.The Bank of International Settlement (BIS) recently highlighted the finding that on a daily basis, $2.2 trillion of foreign exchange transactions don’t use a payment versus payment (PvP) settlement mechanism. PvP is a less risky form of settlement where two currency legs are exchanged simultaneously. Singapore is more exposed than most in this regard. Therefore, the use of DLT to counteract that risk in line with the experiment’s findings would be a progressive step.