Barunson Labs and EQBR forge partnership to develop film-based security tokens

NEOPIN Partners with Lena Network for NFT-Fi Service DevelopmentNEOPIN, the global CeDeFi platform of South Korean investment holding company Neowiz Holdings, announced on Tuesday that it is teaming up with Lena Network, a Japanese developer of non-fungible token finance (NFT-Fi) services.Photo by Choong Deng Xiang on UnsplashFostering NFT-Fi and DeFi synergyIn this collaboration, the companies plan to promote NFT-Fi usage by onboarding NEOPIN onto Lena’s service framework and by launching NEOPIN as a decentralized finance (DeFi) product based on Lena’s governance token $LENA. They will also strengthen cooperative ventures by channeling NEOPIN and Lena Network’s NFT-Fi products. Both companies’ worldwide partners will also receive collective support as part of this agreement.“This partnership is meaningful in many ways. We have been able to secure an important Web3 partner in Japan, expand our global DeFi products, and grow our NFT-Fi business,” explained Ethan Kim, CEO of NEOPIN.This comes as part of NEOPIN’s bigger efforts to broaden its global user demographic by launching DeFi products associated with global projects, the first of which is the latest collaboration with Lena. This move will create a strong base for the entry of NEOPIN’s Web3 projects into the Japanese market.“We will continue to strengthen our partnerships with outstanding Japanese Web3 projects such as Lena Network, and establish a foundation for our success in the Japanese market,” CEO Kim added.Innovation at Lena NetworkLena Network is operated by professionals who formerly worked at institutions like SBI Holdings and JP Morgan. It plans to officially launch its new service, LENA, in the third quarter of this year, which offers loans in Ethereum or stablecoins against collaterals such as NFTs, tokens, and real-world assets (RWA).Key partners for this service include NFT collections such as Monkey Kingdom — the first Asian NFT collection and one of Solana’s chart-toppers — and Trekki, a collaborative travel-themed collection made by Polygon and Trip.com.“By onboarding NEOPIN, we aim to provide a seamless NFT-Fi adoption and launch DeFi products based on LENA tokens,” said Casper Cheng, CSO of Lena Network. “Following NFT-Fi, Lena Network’s next product will be RWA-Fi. Together with NEOPIN, we will continue to drive innovation in the Web3 space and explore new possibilities for NFT utilization.”The current NFT market capitalization is approximately $4.9 billion as of today, according to insights from the NFT analysis site NFTGo. While these assets have historically been liquidated through trading, NFT-Fi opens up various methods of liquidation, thereby expanding access to ownership of these assets.

Velo Token (VELO) has experienced a significant surge in popularity within Southeast Asia's crypto market, drawing comparisons to established players like XRP. Market intelligence platform Santiment highlighted VELO's meteoric rise, noting a substantial 358% increase in price over the last six weeks. This remarkable performance has captured the attention of investors and analysts alike, leading to discussions regarding its potential to become the "XRP of Southeast Asia."Photo by Lucas George Wendt on UnsplashFactors driving VELO's growthThe primary factor fueling VELO's rapid ascent is its substantial trading volume, particularly in the Asian market. According to Santiment data, VELO's trading volume has surged to $95.95 million, a noteworthy figure for a token outside the top 100. This surge in volume reflects growing interest and confidence in VELO, attributed to its integration with leading blockchain platforms such as Solana (SOL) and Binance Smart Chain. VELO has demonstrated significant progress, with a 57% increase over the past seven days and an impressive 225.51% surge over the last 30 days. Despite recent market fluctuations, VELO has maintained a bullish trend, recording a 16.88% rise from a 24-hour low. Santiment's Weighted Sentiment metric indicates a bullish outlook for VELO compared to XRP, further bolstering investor confidence in VELO's potential. Contributing factors to VELO's successSeveral factors have contributed to the unprecedented surge in VELO's value. Notably, VELO tokens are stored in reputable self-custody wallets such as Ledger, Lobstr, and Freighter, enhancing their popularity among investors. Endorsements from crypto influencers, who have labeled VELO as the "XRP killer," have also amplified investor interest. Additionally, VELO's strategic partnerships with industry leaders like iRemit, Visa and Lightnet have expanded its regional market and validated its capacity to revolutionize cross-border payments and digital financing solutions. As a result, VELO has witnessed substantial growth in trading volume, with its price reaching $0.029 per token. VELO's rise signifies its potential as a catalyst for innovation in the cryptocurrency sphere, akin to XRP. Its unique combination of smart contracts, absent in the XRP blockchain, adds to its appeal for investors seeking efficiency and versatility in financial transactions. Velo Labs' focus on revolutionizing international remittance markets further solidifies VELO's position as a game-changer in the crypto landscape. With the possibility of expanding its popularity beyond Asia, VELO's market cap could experience significant growth, further cementing its presence in the cryptocurrency market. 

Bitget Introduces Innovative MPC Wallet for Enhanced SecurityBitget, the Seychelles-registered crypto derivatives platform, has unveiled a cutting-edge security and key management feature that could potentially be a game changer in terms of the way users safeguard their assets.Photo by Shubham’s Web3 on UnsplashIntroducing Multi-Party Computation (MPC)As confirmed via a press release on Tuesday, the Bitget team has introduced the Multi-Party Computation (MPC) wallet service to its Bitget Wallet, a relatively new solution in the realm of cryptocurrency security. This development comes on the heels of the launch of the account abstraction wallet service powered by the Ethereum scaling protocol Starknet in July.The introduction of the MPC wallet could well be a paradigm shift relative to crypto security as it leverages a distributed key generation mechanism, distributing multiple key shares to various locations under the control of different parties. This approach introduces a robust process, demanding that the owners of these distributed private key shares collectively sign and authorize transactions.Notably, the MPC wallet shatters the conventional industry practice of relying on users to store or memorize mnemonic phrases and private keys. In a departure from the current norm, this wallet streamlines the user experience by eliminating the need for mnemonics and instead implementing a password-based authentication method provided by Bitget, effectively eliminating the reliance on a single-point private key.Unlocking MPC technologyBitget’s vision with the MPC wallet is to deliver a user experience reminiscent of traditional Web2 products and services. From a technical standpoint, the MPC wallet is rooted in a threshold signature scheme, employing secure large prime numbers to underpin its security architecture.This consumer-oriented development mandates a minimum number for signature authorization, requiring two-thirds of the total key shares to complete the signature necessary for authorizing a transaction. Notably, the final key share finds secure refuge on a backup cloud server, contributing to a highly decentralized and secure ecosystem.Moreover, the MPC wallet offers a robust sharing mechanism that automatically invalidates key shares on older devices when new devices are integrated. This innovative feature substantially mitigates the risk of key shares being compromised on outdated or forgotten devices, reinforcing user confidence and security.Trending towards crypto self-custodyBitget’s introduction of the MPC wallet underscores the growing significance of self-custody in the cryptocurrency space. In the wake of high-profile failures and security breaches on centralized exchanges, such as FTX, self-custody has emerged as a paramount consideration for cryptocurrency enthusiasts and investors.As a testament to this trend, in March 2023, Ledger, a prominent hardware wallet manufacturer, secured $109 million in funding to bolster hardware production and develop novel products, underlining the increasing demand for secure and user-centric solutions in the crypto world.Bitget Wallet is a rebrand of the wallet produced by BitKeep, a Singapore-based project which Bitget acquired earlier this year. The crypto platform has been working on various initiatives that go some way towards reassuring customers. It had previously introduced proof of reserves reporting. While this system doesn’t provide the whole picture, proof of reserves does go some way in reassuring customers that their funds are still held by the platform and not loaned out or otherwise removed from the platform.