Bizplay Improves Payment Experiences for Foreign Tourists in South Korea

Lillius and Crypto.com Team Up for NFT Collaboration and Global MarketingLillius, a Korean artificial intelligence (AI) sports challenge app, has signed a business deal with global crypto trading platform Crypto.com to collaborate on a non-fungible token (NFT) project and global marketing strategies. The two companies will work together to promote Lillius’ platform mainly by issuing and distributing NFT rewards within the app.Elevating fitness with AILillius, set to launch its open beta service this month, is a mobile app where users can participate in exercise challenges that use AI motion detection technology to analyze their form while doing the movements. After they complete a given challenge, they can receive rewards based on the score they earn. Some of these challenges feature lessons from Korean Olympic medalists like taekwondo athlete Lee Dae-hoon, fencer Nam Hyun-hee, and wrestler Jung Ji-hyun.Photo by Huckster on UnsplashTo grow its platform, Lillius has also minted NFT figurines for iconic athletes such as table tennis player Ryu Seung-min, swimmer Park Tae-hwan, and archer Joo Hyun-jung, among others.Unlocking global Web3 sports experiencesUnder the new partnership, Crypto.com will be responsible for leveraging its global infrastructure to support Lillius’ broader global expansion and various marketing endeavors.“Our partnership with Crypto.com will expand access to Web3-based sports experiences for users around the world and serve as an important milestone in advancing our Web3 sports ecosystem,” said Julia Kim, CEO of Lillius. “We plan to enhance Lillius’ global competitiveness and lead the Web3 sports industry.”Crypto.com has consistently been participating in sports-related marketing projects and investing in such businesses as well. In 2021, it signed a naming rights agreement to change the name of the world-renowned sports and entertainment arena, the Staples Center, to Crypto.com Arena. It also became the first virtual asset platform to sponsor the 2022 FIFA Qatar World Cup. Furthermore, the platform has worked with some of the world’s biggest sports associations such as the UFC and Paris Saint-Germain F.C., playing a key role in bridging the gap between blockchain and sports. Its latest business agreement with Lillius comes as part of more concentrated efforts to enter the Korean market.“Through this partnership, we will cultivate the merging of sports and blockchain technology by providing Crypto.com’s 80 million users with a unique sports-related consumer experience,” said Patrick Yoon, CEO of Crypto.com Korea.

Ribbon Finance Enables Altcoin Options TradingSingapore’s Ribbon Finance, a project that offers a suite of DeFi protocols that help users access crypto-structured products, has enabled altcoin options trading via its Aevo decentralized exchange (DEX).The Ethereum-based platform has begun offering options relative to cryptocurrencies beyond the top two of Ethereum and Bitcoin. Examples of coins that users of Ribbon Finance’s Aevo DEX can access as options include Lido’s LDO, Sui’s SUI token, APT, the token of high throughput proof of stake-based blockchain Aptos, the ARB token of layer two Ethereum scaling network, Arbitrum and Litecoin (LTC).Trading options on-chainThe Aevo DEX project took to Twitter on Monday to announce the development. The project has named the options product “Aevo OTC,” terming it as “the best place to trade altcoin options on-chain.” The firm claims that it’s the first platform to allow users “to trade altcoin options on-chain, in size, with institutional grade liquidity providers.”To kick things off, users will be enabled in trading these altcoin options across weekly, bi-weekly and monthly maturities relative to thirteen crypto tokens. The project plans to rotate the list of coins available for options trading every month depending upon what it deems to be the most popular coins on the market at a given time.Early service adoptersAs Aevo is a DEX, it will utilize on-chain margin systems. When a user buys an option the counterparty is required to post margin of approximately 30% of the notional trade size in the form of US dollar stablecoin, USDC. That procedure is all on-chain and transparent, enabled via smart contracts.Although officially launching the product today, Aevo OTC has been used in production for a number of weeks already. Both digital assets firm Galaxy Digital and crypto-native investment firm CoinFund have already been using the product to trade options.Other early adopters of the product include DeFi R&D and liquid crypto investment strategies firm Re7 Capital and crypto options and structured derivatives firm, OrBit Markets. In fact, Galaxy and OrBit Markets, alongside GSR, are acting as market makers for the product, enabling users to get instant quotes.Developing the crypto options marketThe development means that market participants can now strategize and take advantage of trading altcoins relative to specific events that may be fundamental to a project, such as Litecoin’s halving, for instance. At a later stage, the project intends to enable users in writing options contracts to include customized margins and a specified counterparty.The crypto options market is still at a very early stage of development. Deribit has been the dominant crypto options platform. Ribbon Finance’s service rollout broadens that market, extending options trading beyond the current limited offering of bitcoin, ethereum and solana.The product is more capital efficient for market participants as its portfolio margin system calculates real-time margin requirements, in that way offsetting money-making and losing positions relative to a particular portfolio.Photo by Shubham Dhage on Unsplash

Bitcoin's global merchant acceptance witnessed a substantial surge, growing by 174% throughout 2023, with the Philippines proving itself in leading the way within the Asian region.Photo by rc.xyz NFT gallery on UnsplashRegion facing regulatory restrictionsThat’s according to BTC Map, a provider of bitcoin merchant mapping services. The data, derived from BTC Map's open-source mapping data via OpenStreetMap, revealed that the number of venues accepting bitcoin payments surged from 2,207 at the beginning of the year to 6,126 by the year's end. This diverse array of businesses included restaurants, bars, shops and various services. The expansion of bitcoin vendors is a global phenomenon, with concentrations notably observed in Europe, the United States and Latin America. The Philippines stands out in Asia with hundreds of vendors, while regulatory restrictions in East Asia, especially China, have limited adoption. While it's great to see a high level of direct adoption among Filipino merchants, it's easy to understand why this level of adoption hasn’t been matched within Asia’s largest market. China has had a long-standing ban on cryptocurrency trading, mining or its use as a means of payment. Despite the ban, it appears that crypto trading is still alive and well in China, although beneath the surface. With mining too, while the sector shrank considerably once a ban was imposed, there is believed to be a significant ongoing level of bitcoin mining occurring still within China’s borders. However, when it comes to vendors, this is likely to be an activity that is far too visible to the authorities and with that, China’s 1.4 billion citizens are not getting the opportunity to buy goods and services with the world’s leading cryptocurrency. Compounding matters, the Chinese authorities have been working diligently on a myriad of projects to bring about day-to-day retail use of the country’s central bank digital currency, the digital yuan. Those efforts are not likely to be aligned with an accommodation of or tolerance of bitcoin payments. The increase in merchant listings showcased a slight decline from the peak in September, which reached 6,590 merchants. BTC Map's platform allows businesses and users to tag locations accepting bitcoin payments, with the rise in numbers potentially attributed to increased user contributions to the database. This surge in bitcoin adoption globally occurred against the backdrop of the cryptocurrency's price volatility throughout the year. Despite potential limitations in data collection due to its reliance on volunteer contributions, the overall trend indicates a growing acceptance of bitcoin. Ongoing challenges to adoptionA panel of bitcoin leaders at the Plan B conference in October discussed the challenges and opportunities of global bitcoin adoption. Notably, they highlighted the difficulty of onboarding new users and merchants, particularly in diverse cultural contexts. In El Salvador, where bitcoin is legal tender, obstacles persist in convincing merchants to accept bitcoin payments. Geographically, concentrations of bitcoin-accepting vendors were more prevalent in Central and South America, while Africa and Asia demonstrated fewer such establishments. The United States and Europe led in the global count of crypto-friendly merchants. The panel stressed the importance of education in overcoming these challenges, emphasizing the need for user-friendly applications to facilitate mainstream adoption, moving away from complex technologies. As bitcoin continues its global expansion, the industry recognizes the vital role education and user-friendly solutions play in fostering broader acceptance.