China’s Jiangsu Province Integrates Digital Yuan Into Education System

BitBunny, a South Korean mobile app that distributes rewards based on walking activity, now offers rewards in the form of Bitcoin, according to an article by local news outlet TechM on Tuesday (KST).Photo by Thom Milkovic on UnsplashUnlocking rewardsBitBunny allows users to earn Bitcoin by completing missions like walking, checking daily attendance, inviting other friends to use the app, watching advertisements and participating in quizzes and games. Last Friday, the app added a new feature called "Catch the Bunny," a game where users can earn up to 10,000 points, or “coins”. These coins can either be used as cash when exchanged for vouchers – which can be used at various brands like Starbucks or Burger King – or invested in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple and Dogecoin. Due to these features, the app surpassed 100,000 users within just three months of release. BitBunny's vision"BitBunny's growth is an example of how mobile app technology and crypto are converging in everyday life, creating new user experiences," said Lee Kyung-tae, Team Lead at BitBunny. "We will continue to try different things to keep users interested and engaged." With a commitment to experimentation and user engagement, BitBunny is poised to redefine the way that users interact with both mobile apps and cryptocurrencies, offering a glimpse into a more integrated and rewarding digital future.

The global cryptocurrency market is poised for unprecedented growth, potentially reaching $200 trillion within a decade, according to Yat Siu, co-founder of Animoca Brands, a prominent Hong Kong-based Web3 game software company and venture capital firm. 2-3x within 18 monthsCurrently valued at approximately $2.7 trillion according to data from crypto aggregator CoinGecko, the cryptocurrency market is set to double or triple in the near term, Siu predicted on The Valr Podcast on May 28. “In the near term — within 12 to 18 months — we can conceive of a doubling or tripling of the space,” he stated, expressing strong confidence in the industry's future milestones. Siu elaborated on his bold forecast, suggesting that over a five to ten-year period, the market could accelerate by 100 to 200 times, potentially reaching a valuation of $200 trillion or even higher. In conversation with Farzam Ehsani, the co-founder of Valr, a platform that allows users to buy, sell, store and transfer crypto assets, Siu said:“I think we could reach that kind of number within a decade.” This explosive growth, according to Siu, will be driven by billions of people becoming digital property owners within the Web3 ecosystem. Siu stated: “It is entirely conceivable that we’re going to have a billion property owners because we’re going to have a billion token holders. This is not possible in the physical world.”Photo by Pierre Borthiry - Peiobty on UnsplashAsia fastest growing marketSiu also pointed out the regional dynamics within the Web3 space, noting that Asia has emerged as the fastest-growing market. “Right now, the leading force in Web3 is clearly Asia,” he argued, citing robust adoption rates in regions such as Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Japan. In contrast, jurisdictions like the United States are lagging behind, primarily due to regulatory uncertainties. Siu pointed out that historically, the United States has tended to take a leadership role where new technology is concerned. Web3 is turning out to be the exception to that rule. With that, he thinks that it is Asia that will lead the way and that it will continue to lead for the foreseeable future where Web3 is concerned. Bullish on BitcoinHis optimism about the Web3 market's potential aligns with his bullish stance on Bitcoin, currently standing at a market capitalization of $1.3 trillion. Siu made another bold prediction recently, expressing confidence that Bitcoin would eventually reach $1 million. At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $68,346. While that’s far from his $1 million unit price prediction, he did state at Web Summit Rio in April that it would do so “over time.”  That bullishness from the Animoca founder has also manifested itself within the company itself. In early May, the company announced its entry into the Bitcoin ecosystem by endorsing the Opal Foundation, a Bitcoin-centric protocol. At the time, Siu suggested that Bitcoin is now primed for Web3. Siu's projections reflect a broader optimism in the cryptocurrency industry, where rapid technological advancements and increasing adoption rates are expected to drive significant growth. As more individuals and institutions embrace digital assets, the potential for exponential market expansion becomes increasingly plausible.

IOTA accelerates Middle East expansion with $100M foundation launchIn a move aimed at catalyzing the adoption of its distributed ledger technology (DLT) in the Middle East, the Berlin-headquartered IOTA Foundation, the developmental force behind the IOTA-directed acyclic graph-based ledger network, unveiled a $100 million foundation in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.Photo by Imtiyaz Ali on UnsplashTokenizing real-world assetsThe IOTA Foundation announced details of the initiative, known as the IOTA Ecosystem DLT Foundation, via a blog post published on its website on Wednesday. The new foundation is designed to facilitate the transformation of tangible assets into digital entities, marking a significant stride in the convergence of real-world assets with the digital realm, according to IOTA Co-founder and Chairman Dominik Schiener.Taking to the X platform, Schiener wrote:”We will double down on our efforts to bring the real world to Web3. We will pave the way to tokenize RWA [Real World Assets] assets on #IOTA and work with the governments in the UAE, across the Middle East and Africa to digitize their trade infrastructure and tokenize assets. We will make Blockchain real, with real use cases, real adoption, real yield and real assets.”IOTA is not a blockchain, but a related distributed ledger technology. DLT has garnered attention for its diverse applications over the past decade. IOTA’s digital tokens will serve as the financial backbone for this substantial investment, signaling a strategic move amidst recent setbacks in the cryptocurrency sector.Regulatory first in Abu DhabiThe IOTA Ecosystem DLT Foundation stands out as the first blockchain-focused foundation sanctioned by the regulatory authorities of the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), a key financial hub within the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The ADGM solidified its blockchain regulations in early November, creating a conducive environment for innovative blockchain-focused entities. The regulatory framework was crafted to offer a comprehensive structure specifically for DLT foundations and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).Schiener expanded further on plans for the DLT Foundation:”With a new headquarter in the UAE, we are positioning IOTA from being an Enterprise Blockchain in Europe, to becoming one of the largest, global Crypto ecosystems. We will fully support Web3 and DeFi use cases on IOTA with the #EVM launch in Q1.”Endowed with over $100 million in IOTA tokens, the foundation’s funds will be gradually vested over the next four years.The financial infusion is earmarked for the development and expansion of the IOTA network. Additionally, IOTA will embark on asset “tokenization,” a process involving the representation of ownership rights for land or buildings as digital tokens stored on a blockchain. These tokens, akin to digital certificates of ownership, extend to virtually any valuable object.IOTA launched in 2015, and within its first two years, it rose to be a top-ten crypto project on the basis of market capitalization. Over the course of the last six years, the project has struggled to make the network less centralized. There have also been internal conflicts, which resulted in a number of the project’s co-founders stepping away from the project. With this latest development, Schiener suggested that IOTA could work its way back to being a top-ten project once again.