Korean blockchain firms Creder and ITCEN partner with Malaysia STO exchange Green-X

Bhutan Quietly Mining Bitcoin Since $5,000The tiny nation of Bhutan continues to be full of surprises recently where crypto is concerned, with the latest report suggesting that the kingdom has been mining bitcoin for a number of years already.© Pexels/Pema GyamtshoAccording to a recent report in The Bhutanese, a Bhutan-based publication led by investigative journalist, Tenzing Lamsing, the landlocked nation had been mining bitcoin over the course of a “few years” already, in an effort to diversify its sovereign portfolio.Long-term investment strategyUjjwal Deep Dahal, CEO of Druk Holding and Investments (DHI), told the publication that the venture was part of a long-term investment strategy. DHI is the commercial arm of the Royal Government of Bhutan. It was formed pursuant to a Royal Charter in 2007 with the mandate of making investments on behalf of Bhutan while optimizing usage of resources.The mining activity had centered on Bitcoin although there was a small provision for Ethereum-based mining when Ethereum was a mineable proof-of-work (PoW)-based blockchain network. It’s unclear of the precise timeline but the report outlines that DHI has engaged in the mining space over a number of years, and at a time in which the Bitcoin unit price was as low as $5,000.Exploiting cheap hydroNestled in the Himalayas, Bhutan has considerable hydroelectric resources. Bitcoin mining is ordinarily an expensive exercise but in scenarios where there are plentiful energy resources with a marginally cheaper cost of production than the average, it can be an attractive and profitable enterprise. Dahal outlined that these conditions enabled DHI to reinvest profits back into additional mining equipment.The precise time-frame of DHIs entry into Bitcoin mining is open to speculation. However, we do know that the Bitcoin unit price was last below $5,000 at the onset of the pandemic in March 2020. Prior to that, Bitcoin had risen above $5,000 in April 2019 following an acute bear market in 2018.Crypto lender entanglementsBhutan and DHI hit the crypto radar last month when it was revealed that the kingdom had made significant investments into and out of failed crypto lenders Celsius and BlockFi. Dahal has said that the royal charter-mandated firm had taken out loans with both crypto lenders and had fully repaid those loans. However, that may have been something that happened later than anticipated. The Bhutanese company had a $30 million loan from BlockFi. BlockFi liquidated the Bitcoin collateral associated with that loan in 2022 but it left a shortfall of $800,000. The failed lender subsequently sued DHI. As of an April 13 court filing, BlockFi submitted a voluntary dismissal of the lawsuit to the courts, presumably because the shortfall was subsequently paid by DHI.In the case of Celsius, DHI had withdrawn $65 million from the lending platform prior to it declaring bankruptcy. Consequently, the matter has been the subject of speculation relative to the potential for the Celsius bankruptcy estate to pursue DHI for a clawback of the withdrawn funds.

Pyth Network, an oracle network that provides a bridge between blockchain smart contracts and real-world data, has added pricing data related to stocks listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) to its service offering. Data covering 85 stocksIn a social media post, the project stated that it’s “bringing the Hong Kong market onchain.” In building out the future of finance, DeFi application developers need real-world data from traditional finance sources. Pyth Network confirmed that real-time data in the case of 85 stocks listed on HKEX is now live. In announcing the development, the company disclosed that price feed data is updated every 400 milliseconds and sourced from institutional-grade venues. Once added to the Pyth Network, the data is made available on a multi-network basis across in excess of 100 blockchain networks.Photo by Anne Nygård on UnsplashGateway dataHKEX data is perceived to be significant given that it is a major global exchange, while acting as a key gateway between global and Chinese markets. Pyth Network stated: “Whether you’re building trading strategies, structured products, tokenized portfolios, or simply want access to real-world stock prices from Asia’s financial gateway, these feeds bring Hong Kong’s equity market onchain openly, instantly, and permissionlessly.” In a blog post published to its website on July 28, Pyth Network outlined that this data addition accounts for data related to companies that have a combined equity market value of over $5 trillion. The project stated that this new data is “giving builders, traders, and protocols around the world direct, real-time access to one of the largest financial markets on earth.” Improving access to APAC equitiesThe project made the point that for many years, access to real-time data from the primary markets within the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region has been cost-prohibitive. It claimed that data terminals with this information can cost in excess of $30,000 per year. Pyth Network feels that with its market offering now incorporating HKEX market data, it is opening up access to this data for developers and DeFi protocol projects. This development is the latest in a string of updates that the project has brought about recently. Earlier this month, the project announced a partnership with tokenized real-world asset (RWA) provider Ondo Finance. The deal sees the duo oversee the launch of a USDY/USD price feed, which will be distributed by Pyth across 65 blockchain ecosystems. Similar to its latest unlocking of HKEX equity data, in June it enabled access to real-time onchain pricing related to the UK’s most actively traded equities. Going forward, the company states that “foundational market data will be open, composably integrated, updated in real-time, and available to anyone with an internet connection.” In March 2024, Pyth’s price feeds went live on Injective inEVM, an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible layer-2 rollup developed by Injective Labs. At the time of writing, the unit price of PYTH, Pyth Network’s native utility and governance token, was $0.1204, according to CoinGecko data.

Seoul Labs to build layer 2 blockchain mainnet using SASEULSouth Korean blockchain solutions provider Seoul Labs announced Thursday (local time) that it will build a layer 2 mainnet utilizing the third-generation blockchain engine SASEUL. This comes in an effort to strengthen the scalability of the SASEUL network and improve capabilities for large-scale traffic processing. Layer 2 refers to a set of off-chain solutions built on top of a layer 1 network to reduce bottlenecks with scaling and data.Photo by Shubham Dhage on UnsplashScalability and stabilitySeoul Labs plans to actively utilize the mainnet’s core functions, such as its HAP-2 hypothesis acceptance verification algorithm and dual chain mechanism as well as its ability to solve storage space problems. In particular, the HAP-2 hypothesis acceptance verification algorithm is a more efficient method for generating blocks than the proof of Work (PoW) algorithm that is widely used in blockchain mainnets, significantly improving scalability.According to the company, the layer 2 mainnet will implement an approach to becoming a node on the network without a graphics processing unit (GPU).“By building the layer 2 mainnet, we will be able to build the SASEUL blockchain network into a stable and scalable platform,” said Dohee Jang, CEO of Seoul Labs.Multifaceted solutionThe project is also poised to become a solution to the excessive computing resources and electrical energy required to run blockchain networks that lead to environmental repercussions. In addition, the company is facilitating research and development for the implementation of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) into the global economy. Notably, the South Korean government is also planning to launch a CBDC pilot project by 2024.“Recently, central banks around the world have been promoting the integration of CBDCs, but they are facing various problems in terms of scalability and speed,” said an unnamed employee at ArtiFriends, the company behind the SASEUL mainnet. “Layer 2 mainnet is a stable and scalable platform suitable for CBDCs.”