Gemini receives in-principle MPI license approval in Singapore

Pakistan’s newly appointed Minister of State for Crypto and Blockchain, Bilal bin Saqib, has been spending time in the United States recently with a view towards collaborating with the Trump administration and Wall Street on matters related to digital assets and digital asset regulation. Pakistani TV channel 24 News HD reported on June 4 that bin Saqib met with Bo Hines during a visit to the White House in Washington, D.C. Hines was appointed by U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this year as the executive director of the President’s Council of Advisors on Digital Assets. Ways to broaden cooperation between Pakistan and the U.S. with regard to the digital assets sector were a primary topic covered during their meeting. Consideration was given to the potential for future partnerships between the two nations, with a particular emphasis on strategic alignment on digital asset policy.Photo by Kanchanara on UnsplashStrategic Bitcoin ReserveBitcoin was also a topic of conversation during the meeting. Last week, bin Saqib, who also heads up the South Asian nation’s newly formed Pakistan Crypto Council (PCC), appeared at the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas to announce that “the Pakistani government is setting up their own government-led Bitcoin Strategic Reserve.” In his keynote address, he stated that Pakistan would hold Bitcoin in a national wallet and would “never ever sell them.” Following his meeting with Hines, bin Saqib took to X, stating:”We’re building strong bridges with the U.S. on Bitcoin reserves, stablecoins, and digital asset frameworks.” Responding to bin Saqib’s X post, Faizan Siddiqi, a Pakistani expat and COO of Canadian advertising services firm, MonetizeMore, underscored the importance of the meeting for an emerging generation in Pakistan inspired “to believe in a brighter, decentralized future.” In addition to meeting with Hines, bin Saqib also met with officials from the White House Counsel’s office, engaging with them on blockchain governance and legal framework matters. New York meetingsFollowing his meeting in Washington, D.C., bin Saqib moved on to New York. A video clip posted by the PCC to the X social media platform on June 6 showed bin Saqib meeting with New York City Mayor Eric Adams. The Pakistani minister thanked Adams for all he is doing for the crypto ecosystem, while inviting him to visit Pakistan and to consider a partnership between New York and the PCC. While in New York, bin Saqib also met with Brandon Lutnick, chairman of global financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald and son of former Cantor Fitzgerald Chairman Howard Lutnick, who was appointed by U.S. President Donald Trump to the position of secretary of commerce back in February.  While Cantor Fitzgerald is a well-established traditional finance (TradFi) firm founded in 1945, the company has embraced digital assets more recently. Cantor has taken on leading stablecoin issuer Tether as a client, having also invested in the company. Last month, the firm launched its first Bitcoin fund. It’s understood that bin Saqib discussed tokenization, Bitcoin mining, the future of Web3 in Pakistan and potential for collaboration with Lutnick. Last month, Pakistan allocated 2,000 MW of surplus electricity to Bitcoin mining and AI data centers.

Axie Infinity Moves Further Mainstream with App Store ReleaseThe developer of Axie Infinity, one of Asia’s most iconic Web3 projects to date, has released a version of its latest game on Apple’s App Store.Photo by James Yarema on UnsplashGame adoption strategyAxie Infinity’s Origins game is a card-based strategy game that allows players to collect, own and use a limitless variety of creatures to take into combat. Sky Mavis, the Singapore-headquartered developer behind Axie Infinity, has taken an interesting approach to bring about adoption for what will ultimately be a Web3 game.Initially, the game was launched on iOS with zero Web3 aspects to it. NFTs will not feature. Players will be given free non-NFT “starter characters.” That’s an entirely different approach to the one employed on the original Axie Infinity game. In that instance, players had to acquire NFT-based characters, by either renting or buying them, in order to participate in the game from the outset.While those starter characters will remain non-NFT in nature, the plan is to facilitate players in purchasing NFT-based characters at a later stage, as they progress within the game. Axie Infinity Co-Founder and COO Aleksander Leonard Larsen explained the strategy in an interview with Decrypt:“Starter Axies will remain as non-NFTs, but eventually as people buy other Axies in app we will want [to] turn them into NFTs.”App Store listingIt appears that the firm has been working on an Apple App Store listing for quite some time already. Larsen explained: “We have been in touch with Apple for about two years now, after a lot of trial and error, the current version is a lite version of Axie Origins with more to follow.”In a social media post, the project confirmed the significance of the listing: “We believe this is the first time that Apple has agreed to make an externally-purchased NFT usable on the App Store.” The initial step to getting listed on the large application platforms started out with a feature-limited Origins listing on the Malaysian version of the Google PlayStore in December 2022, before getting listed on that platform on a broader basis.The project outlined that it was following a similar strategy with Apple. This release will see the Axie Infinity Origin game listed on the Apple App Store relative to the following markets: Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, Venezuela, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam. The expectation is that the game will be listed in more territories as matters progress.Token price increaseAs the game runs on Sky Mavis’s Ronin network, an Ethereum sidechain, players who own Axie NFTs will still be able to utilize them in gameplay via the iOS version. The significance of the listing wasn’t lost on Axie Infinity community members. The unit price of the Axie Infinity Shards ($AXS) token, a governance token for the Axie Infinity gaming ecosystem, increased by 8% on Wednesday.Axie has proven to be a standout Web3 project for the Asian region. Axie’s developer, Sky Mavis is headquartered in Singapore although the project first emerged via its Vietnam-based development team.The original Axie game, which captured the imagination of crypto-enthusiasts more so than traditional gamers due to its ‘play-to-earn’ model, really came into its own during the pandemic. In particular, the game garnered a lot of adoption in the Philippines due to the opportunity it presented to Filipinos to earn tokens as a result of gameplay.

Remixpoint, Inc., an energy management solutions provider that trades on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TYO:3825), has announced the raising of $215 million to finance its Bitcoin treasury while the company’s CEO has become the first public company executive in Japan to receive his entire salary in Bitcoin.Photo by Michael Förtsch on Unsplash3,000 BTC targetIn a statement published to X on July 9, the company outlined that it had raised ¥31.5 billion ($215 million). The proceeds will be entirely allocated to Bitcoin acquisition. The company is targeting the accumulation of 3,000 BTC.  As of June 16, the company held 1,051 BTC, valued at around $114 million. At today’s pricing, the funds raised would allow Remixpoint to buy a further 1,977 BTC. However, the firm warned that actual acquisition volume may vary depending upon Bitcoin pricing over a certain period of time, combined with the firm’s share price. Providing its justification for the funds raised, Remixpoint said that the decision reflected its “conviction in Bitcoin’s future,” a view that the company has formed following extensive internal discussion. Remixpoint initiated this treasury strategy in September 2024, compelled to do so due to concerns about the Japanese yen, with a desire to hedge against its depreciation. In addition to Bitcoin, the company has also bought altcoins such as Ether (ETH), Solana (SOL) and Dogecoin (DOGE). Japanese firms buying BitcoinRemixpoint is one of a growing number of Japanese firms to establish crypto-based treasuries. Japanese fashion retailer ANAP Holdings held 200 BTC as of July 8, with plans to acquire over 1,000 BTC by August. Publicly listed marketing business Agile Media Network stated in April that the company would make an initial purchase of ¥10 million worth of Bitcoin on a trial basis in an effort to determine if it's worthwhile to invest in the asset on a broader basis. Earlier this year, Japanese gaming firm Gumi announced plans to build up a Bitcoin treasury worth in the region of ¥1 billion. In recent months, SBC Medical Group, nickel processing firm S Science and textile manufacturer Kitabo have either added Bitcoin to their balance sheets or announced plans to do so. Japan’s standout Bitcoin treasury company is Metaplanet, a former hotel operator. Earlier this week, it emerged that the company aspires to build up a 210,000 BTC treasury. Furthermore, it plans to use its Bitcoin holding to buy cash-producing businesses, with a digital bank being one of its potential acquisition targets. On July 8, Remixpoint announced that it had taken the decision to pay the entire salary of its recently-appointed CEO, Takashi Tashiro, in Bitcoin. Tashiro will become the first Japanese CEO of a publicly-listed company to receive his salary in Bitcoin. Remixpoint said that it had taken this decision as part of a shareholder-perspective management outlook. In a tongue-in-cheek comment on X, market analyst Caleb Franzen said that "Now that the Remixpoint CEO is taking their salary in Bitcoin, I think Satya Nadella [CEO of Microsoft] will do the same any day now!" The emergence of crypto treasury firms has faced criticism. However, Elliot Chun, a partner at Architect Partners, asserted back in March that by 2030, a quarter of S&P 500 firms will have invested in Bitcoin.