Terraform Money Trail Leads to Swiss Bank

Crypto.com, one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has indefinitely delayed its service launch in South Korea after the country's financial regulators conducted an on-site inspection on the exchange. The inspection came after the country’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) under the Financial Services Commission detected data that appeared to violate anti-money laundering (AML) compliance requirements from the documents submitted by Crypto.com, according to local media Segye Ilbo. This decision came just six days ahead of its planned launch, originally scheduled for April 29.  The exchange has secured a virtual asset service provider (VASP) license by acquiring the local trading platform called OkBit in June 2022. A VASP license allows a digital asset exchange to operate in Korea.  Photo by Leeloo The First on PexelMitigating ‘Kimchi Premium’ effect Crypto.com initially planned to launch a mobile app featuring cryptocurrency trading on April 29, targeting South Korean retail investors. The platform aimed to differentiate itself from other local competitors by offering crypto assets at reasonable prices, mitigating the so-called Kimchi Premium effect, as announced in a press conference on April 2. The Kimchi premium refers to relatively high crypto prices in the Korean market compared to other foreign markets, which is prevalent in Korea’s major licensed crypto exchanges. The effect often results in Korean investors buying crypto assets at higher prices than those on other global crypto exchanges such as Binance. This is likely where the concerns for AML violation come up, financial experts assume, as the platform’s strategy could facilitate arbitrage during operation.  Crypto.com remains committed to Korea launch In a statement sent to CoinDesk, a spokesperson of Crypto.com said, “Crypto.com maintains the highest Anti-money Laundering standards in the industry. We will postpone our launch and take this opportunity to make sure Korean regulators understand our thorough policies, procedures, systems and controls, which have been reviewed and approved by major jurisdictions around the world.”  The person also mentioned that South Korea is a difficult market for global crypto exchanges to enter, but still emphasized the company’s commitment to cooperating with local regulators.  “OkBit maintained approximately 900 customers at the point of acquisition by Crypto.com, and OkBit has never been cited for any AML infractions. Since the acquisition, existing OkBit customer access has been limited to withdrawals,” the spokesperson said. 

Japan’s largest bank, MUFG, has teamed up with KlimaDAO Japan, the provider of a digital reserve currency backed by carbon credits, to explore the use of the JPYC stablecoin for settling tokenized carbon credit transactions on the Progmat blockchain platform. Settlement on ProgmatProgmat provides the infrastructure to enable the issuance of various stablecoins. Last September, MUFG announced a collaboration with Binance geared towards stablecoin issuance. The JPYC stablecoin, operational since 2021, functions as a prepaid money instrument, similar to a prepaid card, due to its existence before Japan’s stablecoin legislation. Under new regulations, JPYC can either obtain a money transmitter license or issue a trust-style stablecoin with a bank like MUFG acting as the trustee for the stablecoin's reserves. Last year, JPYC formed a partnership with MUFG implicating the use of the Progmat platform.  This partnership, along with the involvement of Kansai Electric subsidiary Optage as the integration partner, sets the stage for the KlimaDAO stablecoin experiments. Optage will provide the corporate infrastructure required to manage the carbon credits added to the blockchain and provide a means for funds settlement to be achieved via bank transfer. Through the use of various local stablecoins for the purpose of settlement, it’s hoped that improved liquidity on a global basis may be achieved.Photo by Dan Meyers on UnsplashInitially recognized for making tokenized carbon credits accessible on public blockchains, KlimaDAO's functionality extends beyond this. The organization also offers the capability to retire credits. Last year, KlimaDAO expanded its reach by launching Carbonmark, an enterprise-focused marketplace.  This platform, which utilizes blockchain technology, namely Polygon, and smart contracts, offers a user-friendly experience by integrating traditional payment methods like bank transfers and SAP integration.  J-CreditsJapan operates a national scheme known as J-credits, and the Tokyo Stock Exchange has introduced a secondary market for these credits. J-credits are designed to certify the amount by which greenhouse gas emissions have been reduced through the use of carbon sinks in Japan. However, the volume of J-credit transactions remains low, reflecting the broader state of Japan's voluntary carbon market.  KlimaDAO aims to address this by launching the KlimaDAO Japan Market, simplifying the process for domestic companies to purchase and utilize carbon credits. This initiative will involve tokenizing J-credits, referred to as D-Carbons.  Andrew Bonneau, KlimaDAO co-founder, outlined on X that “@KlimaDAO is in a unique position to facilitate an efficient J-Credit market on chain, while serving as the base infrastructure for integrating these assets with 3rd party services.” While the initial phase will use traditional bank payments, the ultimate goal is to transition to using stablecoins, particularly the JPYC stablecoin. Norbert Gehrke, an observer of developments within the Japanese fintech scene, outlined on Medium that the Japanese carbon credit market is likely to reach three trillion yen ($19.15 billion) by 2030. Meanwhile, the global carbon credit market has a current value of 39 trillion yen ($249 billion). KlimaDAO Japan has mentioned the use of a permissionless blockchain for this initiative but has fallen short of confirming that the Polygon network will be relied upon. Japan has several homegrown blockchains, which might be considered for this project.  At the time of writing, the KLIMA token had risen 31% over the course of the previous 24 hours, with a unit price of $3.53 according to CoinGecko. 

Cultural content company Com2uS Holdings announced Monday that XPLA, its layer 1 blockchain, is now supported by on-chain content (OCC) aggregator Gall3ry. Photo by GuerrillaBuzz on Unsplash"We are pleased with the recognition of our technology and ideas, and with our collaboration with global mainnet XPLA," said Joseph Lee, CEO of Gall3ry. "We plan to provide various experiences based on our decade of expertise in the IP industry." Empowering multifaceted ownershipGall3ry offers an OCC tokenizer solution that converts off-chain data into on-chain tokens – mainly NFTs – boosting user engagement and revenue while building Web3 communities. It ultimately gives NFT holders a sense of true ownership because they can personalize their social identities and build connections with other users through their assets. In particular, they can display their NFT artwork on the Gall3ry platform to share with the community, which can lead to increased communication and engagement on social media platforms, thus lowering the barriers to entry for NFTs. Elevating gaming experiencesBy supporting the XPLA blockchain, users on XPLA can now experience an innovative and improved Play-to-Own (P2O) aspect of their favorite games. Now that Gall3ry’s solution is linked to XPLA, NFT holders will be able to experience more active and vibrant connections with each other, moving away from the now outdated concept of one-dimensional ownership on XPLA. "This partnership is a significant collaboration for XPLA and our NFT marketplace X-PLANET," said Paul Kim, Team Leader at XPLA. "It will provide new and diverse ways for holders to utilize their NFTs."