SafePal Delves Into Korean Market Through Klaytn Partnership

As cryptocurrencies increasingly position themselves as a recognized asset class and potential hedge against fiat inflation, illicit activity tied to digital tokens is becoming more visible. A recent high-profile case in the UK has brought this issue into sharp focus, centering on a fraud scheme originating in China. According to BBC News, the case involves Qian Zhimin, a woman who raised funds from more than 100,000 investors in China by claiming to operate a crypto mining company that also develops health products. Instead, she laundered the proceeds and fled the country. On Nov. 11, Qian was sentenced to 11 years and eight months in prison by a UK court.Photo by Vasilis Chatzopoulos on Unsplash$6B fraud and lavish lifestyle​Qian entered Britain on a forged passport in September 2017 and proceeded to live an extravagant lifestyle, renting a mansion in Hampstead for over £17,000 ($22,700) per month. She was arrested in northern England in April 2024, and it was found that she held roughly 61,000 Bitcoin, valued at roughly £5 billion ($6.6 billion), having converted portions of her holdings to cover her substantial living expenses. ​The sheer scale of her wealth was revealed after police searched her rented residence, discovering the Bitcoin reserves on hard drives and laptops. It marks the largest crypto seizure ever recorded in the UK. During the raid, officers also found four other individuals at the property illegally employed to handle household tasks such as shopping, cleaning, and security. ​Since Qian’s arrival in the UK, the value of her Bitcoin holdings has appreciated more than 20-fold. With the fraudster now sentenced, victims are seeing a glimmer of hope for restitution. A civil case scheduled for early next year will determine the fate of the seized assets. However, while many defrauded Chinese investors are reportedly preparing to file claims, establishing a clear paper trail may prove difficult. Many victims routed funds through local intermediaries rather than transferring them directly to Qian’s firm. ​U.S. Bitcoin forfeiture and Beijing’s allegationsWhile the UK courts grapple with the aftermath of Qian’s fraud, a separate crypto controversy is brewing between the U.S. and China, highlighting Beijing's continued vigilance over the sector despite its 2021 ban on trading and mining. According to Cointelegraph, the state-supported National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center (CVERC) has alleged that American authorities are connected to the disappearance of roughly 127,000 Bitcoin, valued at around $14.5 billion, from the LuBian mining pool. ​These allegations surfaced after the U.S. filed a civil forfeiture claim in October against Chen Zhi, the Cambodia-based founder of the Prince Group, who is believed to have owned the assets prior to the breach. At the time of the filing, the U.S. Treasury Department noted that the funds were already under its control. ​CVERC contends that Washington hasn't explained how it accessed the assets. Citing data from analytics firm Arkham, the Chinese agency suggested the funds had been under U.S. control for over a year. They argued that the prolonged inactivity of the Bitcoin before the formal seizure is inconsistent with the typical behavior of hackers seeking quick profit, implying state-level involvement. Economic chess between Washington and BeijingThis matter of Bitcoin control adds a new layer of complexity to U.S.–China relations, even as a trade truce between the two countries took effect on Nov. 10. In a report by CNBC, Washington cut tariffs on China’s fentanyl-linked imports to 10% and extended a reciprocal rate reduction under that agreement. In exchange, Beijing is said to have eased certain restrictions on rare earth exports. Analysts at Morgan Stanley suggest that China is maintaining its export-control regime, implemented in April, to retain strategic leverage. They caution that recurring negotiations and strategic divergence will remain defining features of the evolving bilateral relationship. 

In a press release published by Business Wire on Nov. 20, American crypto custodian BitGo announced the launch of its Singaporean subsidiary company, BitGo Singapore Pte. Ltd. The company has set out the key features that the BitGo Singapore platform intends to offer going forward. These include secure, regulated cold storage. The platform is offering digital asset custody support in respect of over 1,100 digital assets. BitGo claims that the range of assets supported far exceeds that offered by competitors in the digital asset custodian space. Photo by Joshua Ang on UnsplashRegulatory complianceIn January, the company achieved in-principle approval (IPA) relative to a Major Payment Institution (MPI) license from local regulator the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). By August the company had satisfied regulatory requirements sufficiently to be awarded a full MPI license. The company will also offer clients electronic and voice trading, allowing them to access deep liquidity directly through the digital assets held in cold storage. BitGo had deployed its Go Network to effect automated settlement. It claims that the Go Network mitigates counterparty risk through the use of delivery versus payment (DVP) settlement processes, while enabling access to exchange liquidity. Token management is another area that the firm identified in its press release as a feature of its overall service. Back in September, the company rolled out a streamlined token management service for crypto foundations. Broadening APAC service offeringThe crypto asset custodian has launched this separate subsidiary in Singapore with the purpose of broadening its service offering within the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. BitGo Singapore CEO Youngro Lee stated that BitGo is “thrilled to launch BitGo Singapore and offer the APAC region a best-in-class suite of digital assets solutions and regulated infrastructure services.”  Lee added that the new regional entity is committed to providing its clients “with the highest quality products and services while maintaining strict regulatory standards,” while also looking forward to “further strengthening the APAC digital assets ecosystem.” In expanding the reach of its service offering, BitGo has engaged in a collaborative approach. It has partnered with companies such as Vancouver-headquartered Lightning Network infrastructure provider Neutron Pay, and crypto market maker Wintermute, who announced in July 2023 the planned establishment of a base in Singapore. Taking to X on Nov. 21, Neutron Pay stated: “We're excited to announce a strategic partnership with @BitGo Singapore, paving the way for expansion of our #Bitcoin and #LightningNetwork services across Asia-Pacific (APAC).” The firm’s CEO Albert Buu said that “by leveraging BitGo's robust custodial infrastructure, we aim to enhance our ability to serve businesses throughout Southeast Asia.”  Wintermute Co-Founder Yoann Turpin offered his own thoughts on the BitGo Singapore announcement, stating: “Having recently expanded our own footprint in the region, we see strong potential for collaboration in addressing the sophisticated needs of institutional players. By working together, we aim to build a more robust environment for institutions and drive meaningful growth across APAC’s digital asset markets.” At the time of writing, 29 crypto-sector firms, including the likes of Circle, Coinbase and Blockchain.com, have acquired full MPI licenses to trade in the city-state of Singapore. 

Aave v3 Launches on Metis Scaling NetworkMetisDAO confirmed on Tuesday that leading decentralized liquidity protocol Aave has been deployed on the layer 2 Ethereum-centric scaling platform.Photo by Joshua Sortino on UnsplashGiven the distributed nature of the teams behind decentralized networks and projects, it can be difficult at times to determine where project teams are based, albeit in the case of MetisDAO, according to LinkedIn, its primary location is Singapore despite having a Canadian Co-Founder and CEO.Aave’s move to ZK networksThe move comes following a vote taken by Aave’s user community, who voted in favor last month of a proposal to deploy the liquidity protocol on zero knowledge-based networks. In a social media post, the Metis team referred to the decentralized lending market going live on the network as “a new era of Decentralized Finance.”The development is significant for Metis, given that Aave is the third largest project in crypto based on the total value locked (TVL) metric. Within DeFi lending, it’s the biggest project in the sector, holding a TVL of $5.4 billion.One of the keys of Aave’s dominance is its multi-chain strategy. Metis marks the eighth network upon which it has been deployed. The others include Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, Fantom, Harmony and Avalanche.Metis technical roadmapWhile there’s a lot of uncertainty as to how various crypto projects will pan out over the longer run, most agree that Ethereum is here to stay. Metis stands a good chance of contributing to that ecosystem over the long term as layer two scaling networks are likely to be part and parcel of the Ethereum environment for some time to come.Last month, the project set out a technical roadmap, detailing what the project has in store, while claiming that in general, 2023 would be a great year for Ethereum. Metis is a layer two network based on Optimistic Rollup architecture. It has grown into the third largest scaling network relative to Ethereum.The project plans to roll out Bedrock, a technical upgrade that will enable improved network security. Furthermore, it plans on bringing about consensus and execution separation. Also in its sights are faster deposit times, which the project claims, will enable better UX.Many DeFi networks are under scrutiny in terms of the centralized elements that they incorporate. Metis plans to make improvements in this regard, with the intention of decentralizing the sequencer pool. The project claims that “Metis Andromeda will be decentralized to the core.”Hybrid rollupsDemonstrating further ambition, Metis is aspiring to bring about hybrid rollups, combining the features of optimistic rollup architecture with zero-knowledge proofs. In a tweet, Head of Marketing and MetisDAO Co-Founder Kevin Li said that “by combining the best traits from both schemes, hybrid rollups will offer the unmatched scalability and EVM-equivalence of optimistic rollups, together with the censorship resistance and fast finality enabled by zero-knowledge proofs. The best of both worlds.”MetisDAO believes it adds value for users of its network through Aave’s offering, enabling them to borrow assets with less collateral via Aave’s High-Efficiency mode. Furthermore, the deployment makes for improved risk management through supply and borrow caps, and siloed borrowing, reducing the risk in the event of market contagion.