Binance partners with Bhutan on tourism payment system

In the Philippines, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has introduced an on-chain system utilizing the Ethereum layer-2 network Polygon to notarize and track documentation and the expenditure of public funds. The government contracted Manila-headquartered blockchain technology company BayaniChain Ventures in order to implement the system. The firm took to social media on July 31 to provide details on the DBM Blockchain Project.Photo by GuerrillaBuzz on UnsplashBuilding trust into infrastructureBayaniChain Ventures CEO Paul Soliman outlined that the new system “builds trust into the infrastructure itself.” The DBM Blockchain Project connects a DBM internal platform, the Action Document Releasing System (ADRS), which creates official budget documentation, with the Lumen Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) system created by BayaniChain.  Lumen functions as a core framework, enabling government systems to connect securely with blockchain infrastructure. Consequently, Lumen facilitates the tokenization of government documents, managing access to those documents and publishing data to a portal. A third system, Prismo Protocol, interacts with Lumen and ADRS, determining what documentation should be shared with the public and what documentation should remain accessible exclusively to DBM staff.The upshot of the interaction of these systems is that select budget documentation is published to the Polygon blockchain. Soliman stated that the system provides transparency, enabling members of the public to “see proof, not just promises” with regard to the activity of the government department. Integrating blockchain into public governanceThe Undersecretary at DBM, Maria Francesca Montes Del Rosario, took to Facebook on July 30 to confirm that the DBM blockchain initiative had gone live. She described it as the “first ever Transparency Government Blockchain for immutable and verifiable action documents.” She added: “We are using cutting edge technology like AI, blockchain, satellite imaging to enhance how we do public policy and governance.”Del Rosario was quoted by local media as stating that the technology combats the problem of AI deepfakes and fake documents. Another stakeholder in the development of the system was Exakt IT Services, a local company that specializes in assisting government organizations in the Philippines to bring about digital transformation. Exakt was awarded a contract by DBM to act as a technology partner, supporting the project with technical expertise and infrastructure in order to bring about the implementation of the blockchain solution. BayaniChain’s Soliman believes that the new system “sets a precedent for transparency and accountability in public finance.” However, the timing of the launch of the service proved to be unfortunate, as it coincided with an outage suffered by the Polygon network. The outage, which lasted for one hour, disrupted apps running on Polygon. On X, Polygon CEO and Founder Sandeep Nailwal asserted that the incident didn’t prevent the blockchain from operating or producing blocks and with that, user transactions on the network were still being processed.In better news for the blockchain network, Crypto Analyst Lennaert Snyder reported on July 31 that Polygon has reached a yearly high of $1.2 billion in total value locked (TVL), an 80% increase since March.

Exploring the motivations behind Crescendo’s multi-million dollar investment in LINE NEXTIn a move that has made headlines as the largest investment made in the Asian blockchain and Web3 industry this year, Seoul-based private equity firm Crescendo Equity Partners has decided to invest $140 million in LINE NEXT, the NFT business arm of Tokyo-based Internet giant LINE Corporation. According to South Korean news outlet DealSite, this can be seen as a strategic decision to leverage LINE’s global network, which dominates the Japanese market. Considering Crescendo’s track record of successful investments in various IT companies, the industry is keen to see whether the firm can replicate this success in the rapidly growing blockchain sector.Photo by Pepi Stojanovski on UnsplashConsortium takes controlAccording to the South Korean Financial Supervisory Service’s (FSS) Data Analysis, Retrieval and Transfer (DART) System on Thursday (local time), Crescendo’s special purpose company (SPC) established to manage the LINE NEXT investment dubbed Ludwig Holdings will act as a third party in the investment by providing KRW 130 billion in paid-in capital. Other financial investors will also contribute KRW 52 billion through a consortium formed with Crescendo, bringing the total investment amount to KRW 182 billion, or approximately $140 million.As a result of this capital increase, 795,401 new shares will be issued. Crescendo’s consortium will thus secure a 50% stake plus one more share, making it the largest shareholder group. However, among individual shareholders, LY Corporation will maintain its position as the single largest shareholder. The existing number of shares was 795,400. Crescendo plans to utilize its third fund, which raised KRW 1.1 trillion in 2021, to provide the funds by next February.Smooth transitionAlthough the consortium has become the largest shareholder group, there is no indication of an immediate change in LINE NEXT’s current management board. This decision is likely because blockchain development companies should be run by executives who are familiar with the unique ins and outs of the blockchain industry. The firm’s current CEO, Ko Young-su, is an IT expert who had been responsible for financial technology (fintech) operations at LINE Corp.Web3 expansionThrough the investment, LINE NEXT plans to popularize Web3 by expanding its global platform and developing new services. This includes DOSI, a global mobile NFT marketplace app for trading digital products, which will be integrated with LINE’s Japanese NFT marketplace LINE NFT. DOSI’s launch is scheduled for January next year.Navigating uncharted territoryMany believe that LINE NEXT’s ambitions for dominating the blockchain sector aligning with Crescendo’s tradition of investing in promising IT companies is sufficient justification for the major funding decision. However, some observers find the development surprising, considering the fact that it is rare for private equity firms in Korea to make such large investments in blockchain firms — an industry that has mostly been an unpopular choice for investors, likely due to its close association with crypto assets. Indeed, Crescendo’s interest in the company may have been partly driven by the fact that it is more focused on blockchain technology itself rather than crypto.“Crescendo seems to have focused on LINE’s global network, which pushed it to invest in its subsidiary. Considering the popularity of NFTs and other related projects last year, expanding this area of business seems plausible,” said an anonymous source from the investment banking industry. “Peter Thiel [the billionaire entrepreneur and venture capitalist who sponsored Crescendo] is known to have a keen interest in blockchain technology and is actively making investments in the sector, which probably made the decision-making process much smoother.”This development signifies yet another shift in the evolving business landscape, where parts of the industry that have not been traditionally associated with blockchain are increasingly recognizing the potential of its role in the future of industry and technology.

Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), an independent state agency responsible for the supervision of capital markets including the digital assets sector within the Southeast Asian nation, has moved to block five cryptocurrency exchange platforms. In a statement published by the agency to its website on Thursday, May 29, the SEC outlined that it deems the five exchanges, namely OKX, Bybit, CoinEx, XT.com and 1000X.Live, to be unauthorized crypto trading platforms.Photo by REY MELVIN CARAAN on UnsplashCountering money laundering activityIt is acting against these platforms “to protect investors” and to prevent their use for money laundering purposes. In offering services to Thai users on an unauthorized basis, the exchanges were found to be in breach of Thailand’s Digital Asset Business Act B.E. 2561 (2018). The agency has asked the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (MDES) to take measures to block local access to these online platforms. That block will be put in place on June 28. On that basis, the SEC has advised Thai users of such platforms to proceed to remove their assets from them before that June 28 deadline.  An updated version of the Royal Decree on Measures to Prevent and Suppress Technology-related Crime, (No. 2) B.E. 2568 (2025), was introduced by the Thai government in April. It facilitated the establishment of the Committee for the Prevention and Suppression of Technological Crime.  Following practices overseasThe committee met with the MDES in April, with the parties setting out the process through which unauthorized digital asset platforms would be restricted and blocked. On that occasion, similar practices carried out in other jurisdictions within the Asian region were referred to.  In December 2023 India’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) moved to block nine offshore crypto exchanges, having issued them with compliance show-cause notices.  In April 2024 the Philippines SEC requested that Google and Apple remove apps associated with global exchange Binance from the local versions of their application stores. Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) similarly ordered both companies to remove apps belonging to unregistered crypto exchanges in February of this year. Back in March, the Thai SEC filed a lawsuit against Aux Cayes FinTech Co. Ltd., an OKX affiliate company. The complaint alleged that OKX had been running an unlicensed exchange in Thailand, and was filed with the Economic Crime Suppression Division of the Thai police force. The SEC outlined on March 21 that a similar criminal complaint had been filed against XT.com. It’s understood that Bybit, CoinEx and 1000X.Live have also been recipients of complaints on the same basis. Earlier this year, the Economic Crime Suppression Division considered taking action against Polymarket, a crypto-based prediction market, on the basis that the platform violated Thailand’s gambling laws, and in doing so, posing a risk to economic and social stability in Thailand. In April 2024, the SEC issued a warning to crypto exchange platforms against the use of misleading advertising, drawing their attention to the fact that advertising of that nature would potentially place those platforms in breach of regulatory guidelines.