Wemade joins hands with DIFC to establish WEMIX Play Center in Dubai

China’s Jiangsu Province Integrates Digital Yuan Into Education SystemChina has taken a raft of measures to try to build momentum in its digital currency, the digital yuan or e-CNY, with the latest step being an expansion into the education system in Jiangsu Province.Photo by Kimberly Farmer on UnsplashChina’s digital yuan is a legal tender fully backed by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) and pegged to the renminbi. Unlike most cryptocurrencies, it is not decentralized or anonymous but is monitored by the PBOC. While adoption has been slow, China has been first off the blocks in developing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) to the point of some level of active use by comparison with its international peers.Enforcing a payments use caseJiangsu Province will attempt to establish the use of the digital yuan in its education system by the end of 2025, according to the Jiangsu Education Department. By the end of the year, students studying within the province are likely to be paying tuition fees using the digital currency. The pilot plan that Jiangsu administrators within the province’s Education Department have put together also aims to establish a means through which examination registration fees will be paid in digital yuan, while scholarships will be received in the digital currency.Zhou Maohua, a researcher with Beijing-headquartered Everbright Bank, told China Daily that it is imperative that more users are registered and go on to actively use the digital yuan to further its development.“The establishment of infrastructure for the digital yuan should be further accelerated,” said Maohua. “Its software and hardware must be upgraded to improve user experience. The security and reliability of the system must also be strengthened,” he added.Over the course of the past three months, four million digital yuan accounts have been opened by ordinary citizens within Jiangsu Province. Total e-CNY transactions have reached a level in excess of 200 billion yuan ($29 billion).Multiple initiativesIn April, the administrators of the city of Changshu, which is situated within Jiangsu Province, announced that it was gearing up to commence paying state employees within the city in digital yuan. Around the same time, officials within the city of Xuzhou, also located within Jiangsu Province, announced that they were in the process of publishing a pilot scheme which will set out a means for promoting China’s e-CNY digital currency.If that was enough in proving Jiangsu’s commitment to furthering the development of the e-CNY, another Jiangsu Province city, Suzhou, was one of the first locations in China to run a digital yuan pilot scheme in April 2020.Earlier this month, it was revealed that the French international banking group, BNP Paribas, had partnered with the BOC in enabling an initiative to promote the use of the digital yuan among its corporate clients.China is working with other countries on a Multiple CBDC Bridge project to explore the feasibility of cross-border fund transfers among different currencies. Launching its own CBDC for cross-border transfers may allow China to reduce its reliance on the US dollar and increase its influence over global trade and monetary policy.

Anboto Labs Reveals $3M Funding and Platform LaunchHong Kong-based crypto trade execution specialist Anboto Labs has successfully secured $3 million in funding and unveiled an institutional-grade non-custodial trading platform.Investors who participated in the funding round included Kronos Ventures, Cherry Crypto, Mechanism Capital, XBTO, and Singaporean digital assets financial services platform Matrixport, contributing to this funding round during the third quarter of this year. Anboto Labs, known for its crypto trading execution tools, has been on a steady growth trajectory, having raised $1.9 million last year, elevating its valuation to $35 million, according to Guillaume Forcade, the company’s co-founder.Photo by Csaba Nagy on PixabayCrypto trade executionFrom its inception, Anboto Labs has consistently generated revenue, and now it’s ready to introduce its execution platform to a broader audience of experienced traders. The public launch of the platform will enable Anboto to scale up to support thousands of traders simultaneously.The newly released platform underwent an extensive 18-month closed beta phase, during which it processed $4 billion in trading volume across 20 exchanges and blockchain networks. Anboto Labs is attempting to distinguish itself in the market with its execution algorithms, including TWAP, VWAP, and iceberg, which are designed to optimize pricing and execution quality.TWAP, or time-weighted average price, can be incorporated into a trading algorithm with a view towards optimizing a trade’s average price while executing the trade over a predefined time period. In recent days, the project’s Head of Quantitative Research, Suren Markosov, took to blogging site Medium to outline how Anboto’s TWAP algorithm is geared up to save on trading costs. According to Markosov, the firm’s approach could lead to traders saving between two and eight basis points in costs.VWAP, or volume-weighted average price, can be used to filter out the “noise” in the market to determine the real buy/sell price that exists within the market within a given period. Meanwhile, an iceberg order is executed such that it is sliced up into smaller orders. In this way, the impact cost of overall trade execution is minimized.Focus on securityAnboto Labs also places a strong emphasis on security. It allows users to sign up without the need for a time-consuming Know Your Customer (KYC) process, offering a streamlined experience. Additionally, the platform provides multi-factor authentication and the option to whitelist IP addresses, further enhancing security measures.Brett Sun, an investor with Cherry Crypto, took to X (formerly Twitter) to recognize Anboto’s platform launch. Sun stated:“Big strides from @guiviaje and the team at @anboto_labs. They’ve come out of beta to democratize access to professional-grade trading tools for all traders.”WOO Network integrationEarlier this week, Anboto announced the integration of Taipei-based liquidity provider WOO Network into its platform. Forcade said that the integration will enable the firm to offer even more efficient trading tools to its users.In the coming months, Anboto Labs plans to expand its trading features with the aim of democratizing access to institutional-grade execution tools for all crypto traders. With a track record and fresh funding behind it, Anboto Labs is setting itself up to potentially make a significant impact in the cryptocurrency trading space, offering traders the tools they need for success in the crypto market.

South Korea’s retail-heavy crypto market is losing momentum ahead of broader institutional access to trading. Data from the Financial Services Commission (FSC) and the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), cited by Financial News, shows that in the first half of 2025, Korean-won balances held at the country’s five licensed fiat-to-crypto exchanges sank 42% to 6.2 trillion won ($4.4 billion), signaling less dry powder waiting on the sidelines for trading. Only five platforms are permitted to support won-denominated trading, and the drop in parked cash underscores a broader cooling. By the end of June, the Korean crypto market cap stood at 95.1 trillion won ($67.5 billion), down 14% from six months earlier. The global market also contracted, but the decline was more modest at about 7% over the same period.Photo by Y K on UnsplashTrading slows but retail base expandsTrading activity eased as well. Average daily volumes across 25 domestic virtual asset service providers (VASPs) fell 12% to 6.4 trillion won ($4.5 billion) in the first half. Paradoxically, the number of market participants climbed 11% to 107.7 million across those platforms. Nearly all were individuals, as only 220 were institutions, reflecting long-standing restrictions on institutional won trading. That retail skew has consequences. Data submitted by the FSS to a lawmaker, cited by Digital Asset, reveals that the top 10% of users by trading volume accounted for roughly 90% of activity at the five fiat on-ramps. By exchange, the figures were Upbit (89.36%), Bithumb (97.97%), Coinone (97.54%), Korbit (97.52%), and Gopax (97.95%).  Market lawyers warn that this concentration heightens manipulation risk. Lee Seung-min of SEUM Law Firm said volatility may be more pronounced in tokens listed only on Korean venues, but added that deeper institutional participation could help reduce such volatility and support longer market cycles.  Regulators are inching in that direction. Earlier this year, authorities allowed universities and nonprofits to sell their crypto holdings. By year-end, the FSC plans to let about 3,500 publicly traded companies and professional investors, excluding financial institutions, open accounts at the licensed platforms for trading. Exchanges pour cash into promotionsWhile regulators are preparing to bring more institutional players into the fold, exchanges continue their long-running effort to draw in retail users. Another Digital Asset report noted that from 2023 through July 2025, promotional outlays by the five won-enabled platforms totaled 190.3 billion won ($135 million). Bithumb alone accounted for 180.3 billion won ($128 million), far outspending Upbit (9.4 billion won), Coinone (1.7 billion won), Korbit (1.6 billion won), and Gopax (100 million won). The gap suggests Bithumb, which ranks second in market share, has pursued a particularly aggressive approach to expand its customer base. Taken together, the numbers depict a subdued market, with less capital parked on exchanges and lighter trading while activity remains heavily concentrated among a small cohort of traders. Even so, the expanding base of individual accounts represents a bright spot, underscoring the market’s continued dependence on retail investors. If policymakers follow through on opening the door to a broader set of corporate and professional players later this year, Korea’s crypto landscape could shift from retail-driven fluctuations toward steadier, institution-supported flows.