Galaxia Metaverse, NFT Marketplace Pala Join Forces to Expand Blockchain Ecosystem

US Sanctions Chinese for Enabling Crypto Money LaunderingIn a press release published earlier this week, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) within the Department of the Treasury in the United States, stated that it had sanctioned two Chinese nationals and a Hong Kong British national for allegedly having aided the North Korean government in crypto money laundering activities.©Pexels/RODNAE ProductionsThe Americans claim that the funds are the proceeds of cyber crime with the laundered money in turn being used to support the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) regime, including its ballistic missile and weapons programs.Illicit OTC crypto tradesThe three OFAC-sanctioned individuals are Wu Huihui (Wu), Cheng Hung Man (Cheng) and Sim Hyon Sop (Sim). Wu is an over the counter (OTC) cryptocurrency trader based within China. OFAC claims that he has facilitated the conversion of millions of dollars worth of stolen digital assets into fiat currency at the behest of a North Korean cyber-crime syndicate.In 2009 OFAC sanctioned a small North Korean bank, Korea Kwangson Banking Corp. (KKBC). At the time, the agency claimed that KKBC had extended financial services to previously designated North Korean banks including Tanchon Commercial Bank and Korea Hyoksin Trading Corporation. Fourteen years on, OFAC has now identified Sim as a facilitator of KKBC money laundering schemes. OFAC claims that Sim represented the sanctioned bank, and in the process, he was the recipient of millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency.Overseas earningsThe agency claims that the source of this money was the earnings of North Korean IT workers who had worked overseas, including within the United States. The North Korean regime has pursued a strategy of sending workers into employment overseas in an effort to raise capital in harder currency.Like Wu, Cheng was also identified as an OTC cryptocurrency trader. It’s understood that Cheng collaborated with Wu, and employed a series of shell companies in order to convert cryptocurrency into fiat money.Blockchain data analysis firm Chainalysis has researched the topic based upon the OFAC and Department of Justice data and information. That analysis has revealed that the North Korean hackers and cyber-crime facilitators make use of cryptocurrency mixers such as Tornado Cash and Sinbad. While other illicit entities utilize these crypto mixers which attempt to obfuscate the origin of digital assets, Chainalysis’ research suggests that the North Korea-affiliated actors use mixers to a far greater extent than others.Reward offeredIt’s understood that the US authorities indicted a fourth person who remains unknown beyond his/her online moniker, “live:jammychen0150.” Properties in the United States connected with the three known individuals have been frozen. The State Department has also outlined its willingness to provide a reward of up to $5 million for any information that leads to the arrest or conviction of Sim. Furthermore, rewards of $500,000 each are being offered relative to the apprehension of two of Sim’s associates, Han Linlin and Qin Gouming.In a statement, Department of Justice Criminal Division Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite Jr. said that “the North Korean operatives have innovated their approach to evading sanctions by exploiting the technological features of virtual assets to facilitate payments and profits, and targeting virtual currency companies for theft.”

Buysell Standards and AGST collaborate to expand security token projects in Southeast AsiaBuysell Standards, a South Korean company operating fractional investment platform Piece, is accelerating its expansion into the Southeast Asian market through a recent business collaboration.A report from Korean news outlet Financial News indicates that the company has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with AGST, a subsidiary of blockchain-focused investor Fundiant Holdings. This collaboration aims to launch security token projects within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region.Photo by Kelvin Zyteng on UnsplashSingapore in Q1 2024As an asset manager in Singapore and Japan, AGST is set to play a pivotal role in the issuance and distribution of security tokens in these markets. Their strategy includes launching security token products in Singapore in the first quarter of next year. These products will be backed by assets from Buysell Standards.The partnership between Buysell Standards and AGST is set to be multifaceted, encompassing several key areas of collaboration. Together, they will focus on developing new investment products and building the necessary infrastructure to support them. They will also focus on marketing and promotional efforts in the ASEAN region.Anticipating regulatory exemptionBuysell Standards is among the seven companies that received approval from the South Korean Financial Services Commission to issue security tokens. The company is anticipating a regulatory exemption from the government, which would allow them to introduce fractional investment products linked to ship finance.Buysell Standards expects that its partnership with AGST will facilitate quicker access to funding from international sources for high-quality investment products in South Korea. Meanwhile, AGST seeks to introduce a range of Korean assets to the global security token market.Emphasizing the quick adoption of fintech by ASEAN investors and their fondness for South Korea, Shin Beom-jun, CEO of Buysell Standard, stated that the company is committed to actively promoting Korean security token products on the global investment stage.Kim Chang-soo, Chairman of Fundiant Holdings, expressed his ambition to strengthen the Korean security token market. He observed that the market is currently in an early stage of development, leading to the undervaluation of underlying assets. He believes that introducing Korean security tokens to international markets will reciprocally aid in the expansion and maturation of the domestic market.

In the Philippines, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has introduced an on-chain system utilizing the Ethereum layer-2 network Polygon to notarize and track documentation and the expenditure of public funds. The government contracted Manila-headquartered blockchain technology company BayaniChain Ventures in order to implement the system. The firm took to social media on July 31 to provide details on the DBM Blockchain Project.Photo by GuerrillaBuzz on UnsplashBuilding trust into infrastructureBayaniChain Ventures CEO Paul Soliman outlined that the new system “builds trust into the infrastructure itself.” The DBM Blockchain Project connects a DBM internal platform, the Action Document Releasing System (ADRS), which creates official budget documentation, with the Lumen Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) system created by BayaniChain.  Lumen functions as a core framework, enabling government systems to connect securely with blockchain infrastructure. Consequently, Lumen facilitates the tokenization of government documents, managing access to those documents and publishing data to a portal. A third system, Prismo Protocol, interacts with Lumen and ADRS, determining what documentation should be shared with the public and what documentation should remain accessible exclusively to DBM staff.The upshot of the interaction of these systems is that select budget documentation is published to the Polygon blockchain. Soliman stated that the system provides transparency, enabling members of the public to “see proof, not just promises” with regard to the activity of the government department. Integrating blockchain into public governanceThe Undersecretary at DBM, Maria Francesca Montes Del Rosario, took to Facebook on July 30 to confirm that the DBM blockchain initiative had gone live. She described it as the “first ever Transparency Government Blockchain for immutable and verifiable action documents.” She added: “We are using cutting edge technology like AI, blockchain, satellite imaging to enhance how we do public policy and governance.”Del Rosario was quoted by local media as stating that the technology combats the problem of AI deepfakes and fake documents. Another stakeholder in the development of the system was Exakt IT Services, a local company that specializes in assisting government organizations in the Philippines to bring about digital transformation. Exakt was awarded a contract by DBM to act as a technology partner, supporting the project with technical expertise and infrastructure in order to bring about the implementation of the blockchain solution. BayaniChain’s Soliman believes that the new system “sets a precedent for transparency and accountability in public finance.” However, the timing of the launch of the service proved to be unfortunate, as it coincided with an outage suffered by the Polygon network. The outage, which lasted for one hour, disrupted apps running on Polygon. On X, Polygon CEO and Founder Sandeep Nailwal asserted that the incident didn’t prevent the blockchain from operating or producing blocks and with that, user transactions on the network were still being processed.In better news for the blockchain network, Crypto Analyst Lennaert Snyder reported on July 31 that Polygon has reached a yearly high of $1.2 billion in total value locked (TVL), an 80% increase since March.