Thailand’s SEC working towards updating ICO portal regulations

Upbit Launches Campaign for Recovery of Mistakenly Transferred AssetsUpbit, the cryptocurrency exchange operated by Dunamu, announced on Tuesday (local time) that it is launching a campaign where users can get back the digital assets that they have transferred mistakenly as part of heightened efforts to protect investors and minimize their losses due to such errors.Photo by Luis Villasmil on UnsplashRole of secondary identifiersAmong the virtual assets that Upbit allows users to deposit, some require users to accurately input their unique identifiers — like a Destination Tag (D.tag) or Memo — in order to properly process a deposit. A D.tag or Memo is an additional address used to identify a transaction recipient beyond a wallet address, which is often required when trading altcoins like Ripple (XRP) and Monero (XMR). In the case of XRP, both the exchange address and the D.tag must be entered accurately for deposits to be processed properly.Enhancing investor convenienceHowever, misdirected transfers caused by incorrect or missing secondary deposit addresses occur quite frequently. Many users also remain unaware when their virtual assets have been mistakenly transferred.In response to this issue, Dunamu has organized its latest campaign to make it easier for Upbit users to recover the virtual assets that they mistakenly sent. A user can access the campaign page on the official Upbit website and search for the transaction ID (TXID) of the deposit where the secondary address was either not entered or entered incorrectly. If a matching deposit is found, they can click “Apply for Recovery” to submit a one-on-one inquiry.Previously, users were required to manually enter information such as the name and quantity of the cryptocurrency, as well as the TXID in the one-on-one inquiry. Now, this information is automatically filled in through the TXID search, boosting user convenience.In an effort to encourage campaign participation, Dunamu also said that it will waive all fees for the recovery of mistakenly transferred assets until the end of the year.As of July, the exchange has successfully processed over 99.5% of the total 45,474 recovery requests that it has received over the past five years by leveraging its industry-leading technical expertise.“Upbit will continue its efforts to protect user assets and provide convenient services,” Dunamu said.Global recognitionMeanwhile, Upbit has secured 9th place in the Kaiko Exchange Ranking for the third quarter of 2023, ranking first among Korean exchanges. Kaiko is a crypto market data company with offices in Paris, London, New York, and Singapore.The ranking evaluates exchanges based on the following criteria: governance (30%), security (20%), liquidity (15%), business (15%), technology (10%), and data quality (10%). Upbit earned a score of 76 points.Coming in first overall on the list was Coinbase with 90 points, directly followed by Bitstamp and Kraken with 86 and 82 points, respectively. Among Korean exchanges, Korbit ranked 15th worldwide with 72 points, followed by Bithumb in 17th with 72 points, then Coinone in 27th with 59 points.

Mohammed AlKaff AlHashmi, co-founder of the HAQQ Network, has expressed the view that Indonesia has considerable potential to establish itself as Asia’s largest crypto hub. AlHashmi made the comments in a discussion with Crypto.news. HAQQ Network claims to be a scalable proof-of-stake-based blockchain, capable of high throughput. The network is fully compatible and interoperable with Ethereum. The project also focuses on the development of a Sharia-compliant Web3.  While the project is headquartered in Niqa Al Dheeb in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Indonesia is also a significant market for the company, given that it has just received regulatory approval for the HAQQ Network’s native token from the Indonesia Financial Services Authority (OJK). Islamic Coin (ISLM) is the network’s native token. It is being offered as a Sharia compliant digital currency, with Sharia law being the Islamic legal system that governs the lives of millions of Muslims throughout the world.Photo by Nick Agus Arya on UnsplashGateway marketOffering his thoughts on the Indonesian crypto market, AlHashmi stated: “When we look at Indonesia as a market, I would say it is incomparable. It can be number one to be honest. Because I have seen statistics of growth happening in a very big volume. The volume of trade, transactions and users, I think Indonesia can be very soon one of the top 3 countries in the world.” Indonesia takes on added importance for the HAQQ Network project. The project’s co-founder sees the Southeast Asian nation as a gateway into a broader market given that it has the largest Muslim population in the world. He said that if his project is successful in Indonesia, then there will be no barrier to enter markets in other predominately Muslim nations. The entrepreneur believes that Indonesia is on the cusp of realizing its potential within the crypto sector. He said that Indonesia has a “competitive edge” when compared with other nations. Population size and rapid economic growth feed into that potential, with AlHashmi claiming that Indonesia is primed to become the largest crypto hub in Asia. Smooth regulatory processFrom a regulatory perspective, he also feels that Indonesia is outperforming other jurisdictions. The HAQQ Network project team experienced a smooth process in acquiring regulatory approval for ISLM recently. He believes that although the process was detailed, it was completed quicker than he would expect in other countries.  AlHashmi added that “regulations are flexible enough to enable project owners to do good business to protect the community as well.” Local regulator, the OJK, has expressed an interest in exploring the development of Sharia-compliant crypto assets. Earlier this month, Hasan Fawzi, OJK's executive head overseeing crypto assets supervision, told local media that the regulator is open to advancing Sharia-based cryptocurrencies.  Hasan stated: “Globally and regionally, this is a common practice. It is not unusual to create crypto assets that adhere to Sharia principles.” The OJK executive is particularly interested in tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs). He believes that if this proves to be successful, it could lead to further Sharia-complaint crypto products being launched. The OJK is currently testing tokenized RWAs within a sandbox environment.

BitOasis Obtains First Early-Stage Broker Dealer License in DubaiBitOasis, a leading platform within the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region for the purchase, sale and trading of cryptocurrency, has become the first crypto company to be awarded a broker-dealer license by the Dubai regulator.Photo by ZQ Lee on UnsplashMinimum viable productIn a blog post published to the company’s website on Monday, BitOasis outlined that it has received a minimum viable product (MVP) Operational License from the Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA) of Dubai. An MVP incorporates the minimum features necessary to satisfy early adopter clients.It’s a means through which a basic offering can be brought onto the market, feedback can be solicited and the product offering can be improved upon on that basis. From the regulator’s perspective, by offering an MVP licensing programme, it too can adjust regulation as products are further developed.BitOasis CEO and Co-Founder Ola Doudin took to Twitter to welcome the news, outlining that the award of the license is “an important milestone for @bitoasis , the Emirate of Dubai and the growing UAE crypto ecosystem.”The license award now allows BitOasis to provide broker-dealer services in respect of virtual assets under VARAs regulatory oversight, to qualified institutional and retail investors, while basing operations out of Dubai.Serving GCC and MENA regionsBitOasis was founded in 2016 by Doudin alongside Daniel Robenek. It’s focusing its efforts on servicing the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) area (which covers six Arab countries, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates), together with the broader MENA region. BitOasis has also obtained “in-principle” approval from the regulator in Bahrain.The platform offers clients the ability to trade in excess of sixty cryptocurrencies in trading pairs with fiat currencies such as the US dollar (USD), the United Arab Emirates dirham (AED), the Saudi rial (SAR) and the Turkish lira (TL). In developing the business, BitOasis has undergone six funding rounds to date, including two initial seed rounds, together with Series A and Series B-level funding. Its backers include companies such as Banvest, Pantera Capital, Digital Currency Group, Wamda Capital and Global Founders Capital.Strategic partnershipsThe company stated that it intends to leverage the license to “launch strategic partnerships in Dubai and across the United Arab Emirates.” Additionally, the licensing will enable the company to launch new virtual asset products “with a continued focus on driving accessibility, consumer protection and utility across the virtual asset ecosystem.”VARAs CEO Henson Orser welcomed BitOasis to the Dubai regulator’s MVP programme phase and outlined that “the VARA ecosystem aims to strike a balance between value creation, risk mitigation, and enhanced investment opportunities with consumer protection at its core.”Dubai and the United Arab Emirates more broadly, have been moving at pace more recently in an effort to develop a regional hub for the virtual assets industry. Last month it emerged that the UAE had begun accepting licensing applications from crypto companies and only a number of weeks later, Dubai’s VARA has already awarded its first license.A number of weeks ago, crypto exchange Bybit announced that it was basing its operations out of Dubai. VARA is licensing crypto companies on a stage by stage basis. In response to a number of high profile crypto firm failures in other jurisdictions in 2022, the Dubai regulator outlined in April that it was stepping up its level of scrutiny of crypto businesses.