Bybit enables stock trading with USDT

Zettai Pte Ltd., the Singapore-based holding company that controls Indian crypto exchange WazirX through its subsidiary Zanmai India, has filed an application for a moratorium with the Singaporean High Court, under section 64 of the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act 2018. Six months requestedIn the filing (HC/OA 861/2024), the company has pleaded with the court to be granted a six-month moratorium, which would give the firm the space and time needed to restructure its liabilities. The company laid out details of its moratorium application in a blog post published to its website on August 28. The firm outlined that a moratorium represents “ the most efficient way to address users’ cryptocurrency balances on the Platform and facilitate recovery for users.” An automatic moratorium of 30 days has effectively been granted as a consequence of the application itself, and it is up to the court if it approves the six-month moratorium that is being sought. A date for the hearing of that matter has yet to be scheduled.Photo by Palu Malerba on Pexels$234 million hack falloutWazirX has been dealing with the fallout from a $234 million hack which occurred in July. One key entity that is owed funds is Indian crypto app CoinSwitch. In an effort to get its funds back, the company has sued WazirX. Taking to the X social media platform, CoinSwitch outlined why it felt the need to take legal action. It stated: "From the day of the incident, we have tried to be in constant touch with the WazirX team, seeking recovery of the funds that are stuck on their exchange. However, our efforts have not come to fruition." In a follow-up tweet, CoinSwitch assured its own users that its exposure to WazirX has no impact on user balances. The company has WazirX exposure that amounts to 2% of its overall user funds. That exposure is reduced further if WazirX’ claim that only ERC-20 tokens were affected is taken on board, accounting for 1% of CoinSwitch user deposits. White KnightWazirX co-founder Nischal Shetty spoke to the notion of a “white knight” in an affidavit submitted under the Zettai name to support the application. He outlined that WazirX is in talks with 11 crypto exchanges and has signed three non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). The company has also received offers for financing and for partnering with Zettai, the WazirX parent company. WazirX has outlined that it has set aside $12 million in digital assets to cover legal and associated costs that the company anticipates incurring as part of its restructuring efforts. Matters are further compounded by the fact that a cloud hangs over the ownership of the company. Shetty has claimed that he is no longer an owner of the exchange. In 2022, he wrote that Binance had acquired WazirX. Around the same time frame, Binance’s Changpeng Zhao (CZ) outlined that Binance didn’t control WazirX systems.  India’s economic intelligence agency, the Enforcement Directorate, has claimed in the past that Shetty has gone out of his way to obscure the ownership structure by way of a complex chain of companies in Singapore.

Sui Token Debuts on Korea’s Top Five Crypto ExchangesThe native token of Sui, a layer 1 blockchain platform, has debuted on South Korea’s five leading cryptocurrency exchanges — Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax. This marks the first time a token has been listed simultaneously on all five exchanges, according to Korean news agency Newsis.Photo by Sigmund on UnsplashAptos’ successThe decision by these exchanges to list Sui may have been influenced by the success of the APT token, which belongs to Aptos, another scalable layer 1 blockchain platform also developed by former Meta employees. APT was listed on Binance two days after the launch of the Aptos’ mainnet on October 17 last year, and its price skyrocketed to $100 on the first day, a hundred times its listing price. Within a week, the trading volume of APT reached $1.3 billion.Sui’s mainnet launchWith the launch of its mainnet on May 3, Sui is garnering significant interest in the crypto sphere. An official from a notable Korean venture capital firm told Newsis that Sui and Aptos, both developed with the Move programming language, involve many top-tier investors and are highly anticipated by ecosystem participants.

While cryptocurrencies may be banned in China, crypto trading activity continues in some corners, nonetheless, sometimes through accessing overseas exchanges. With that, authorities recently uncovered a massive underground banking operation that exploited crypto trading platforms to evade local forex regulations.Photo by Manuel Joseph on Pexels$2.2 billion laundering operationOn Sunday, an account on popular Chinese social media platform WeChat run by China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) published details of the $2.2 billion laundering operation bust. Xu Xiao, the Inspector at the Qingdao Branch of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, revealed that the scheme involved underground banks who purchased virtual currencies and then sold the virtual currencies through overseas trading platforms to obtain the foreign currency they needed. This process, he explained, completes the conversion of yuan and foreign currencies, constituting the illegal act of buying and selling foreign exchange. Stringent capital controlsChina enforces stringent rules on money transfers outside the country. Citizens are limited to exchanging up to $50,000 in foreign currency and require a permit for transactions beyond that limit. Any transaction exceeding the limit without a permit is considered money laundering. During a recent investigation, authorities seized cryptocurrencies valued at approximately $28,000 in Tether, Litecoin and other digital currencies. However, the operation is estimated to have facilitated the movement of over $2.2 billion, involving more than a thousand bank accounts across 17 provinces and municipalities. Monetary control loopholesChina, once the largest cryptocurrency market, imposed a comprehensive ban on crypto exchanges in September 2017 and subsequently expanded its restrictions to include crypto mining and trading. Despite these measures, reports have surfaced about underground crypto exchange operations. Earlier this year, an investigative report by the Wall Street Journal found that global exchange Binance continues to do thriving business with Chinese customers. Global crypto exchanges are reportedly still onboarding Chinese clients indirectly. The South China Morning Post (SCMP) recently accused Binance of facilitating Chinese crypto trading accounts by falsely claiming they are from Taiwan. While mainland China adopts a hostile stance towards cryptocurrencies, the special administrative region of Hong Kong remains progressive in the sector. Hong Kong’s regulatory authorities have introduced specific rules for cryptocurrencies and are licensing crypto exchanges operating within the jurisdiction. Arthur Hayes, the co-founder of the BitMEX crypto derivatives platform, recently described Hong Kong as the gateway for mainland China to global capital markets. Hayes asserted that wealthy Chinese individuals all bank in Hong Kong and with that, they all have access to crypto exchanges and brokers. In Cambodia, it is understood that illicit Chinese-linked activities oftentimes implicate the use of U.S. dollar stablecoin Tether (USDT) to move funds in and out of China even though Tether is banned in Cambodia. The latest crackdown in China underscores the ongoing challenges faced by authorities in controlling crypto-related activities, highlighting the dynamic nature of such activity within and adjacent to mainland China. As regulatory scrutiny intensifies, the contrast between mainland China’s approach and Hong Kong’s more open stance toward cryptocurrencies becomes increasingly evident.