Japan to implement crypto insider trading restrictions

Bitget invests in Morph layer 2 networkBitget, the Seychelles-incorporated crypto derivatives exchange, has injected a multi-million dollar investment into Morph, a Layer 2 blockchain that puts consumer experience at the forefront.Photo by Shubham Dhage on UnsplashCombining zero knowledge and optimistic rollupsThe collaboration, unveiled on Monday, signals a significant stride toward cultivating a novel, value-driven decentralized application (dApp) ecosystem. Morph, formerly known as Morphism, has garnered attention for its unique use of roll-up technology. By seamlessly blending optimistic and zero-knowledge (ZK) roll-ups, Morph aims to revolutionize scalability, reduce cost barriers, expedite dispute resolutions and ensure secure and adaptable transactions.The project’s modular framework allows individual components of the ecosystem to evolve independently, staying abreast of rapid innovations in consumer applications.Combating MEVA distinctive feature of Morph’s design is the Decentralized Sequencer Network, a mechanism that ensures swift and cost-effective Layer 2 transactions. This challenges the dominance of maximal extractable value (MEV) and eradicates central points of control. MEV involves the maximum amount of value that can be extracted from a block on a blockchain network. It may be manipulated through the ordering and sequencing of transactions on the chain.Technological innovation is not the sole objective of the Morph development team. Their ambition extends to creating a space where dApps seamlessly integrate into users’ daily lives, delivering tangible value. This consumer-centric approach prioritizes user experience through easy onboarding processes and intuitive interfaces. The network is attractive to developers due to lower cost barriers and accelerated dispute resolution.Gracy Chen, Managing Director of Bitget, underscored the significance of the collaboration, praising Morph’s exceptional team, multicultural approach and strategic capabilities. Chen notes that Morph’s emphasis on a decentralized and consumer-centric approach aligns seamlessly with Bitget’s vision. This partnership, she believes, has the potential to transform the blockchain space, making the technology more accessible for everyday use and unlocking widespread consumer adoption.Cecilia Hsueh, Co-Founder and CEO of Morph, expressed gratitude for Bitget’s support, emphasizing that the recent capital infusion underscores confidence in Morph’s unique value proposition, setting the stage for an upcoming seed funding round. The strategic alliance with Bitget provides Morph with a robust platform for growth, tapping into Bitget’s expansive user base of 20 million exchange users and 12 million Bitget Wallet users. Notably, Morph had previously entered into a strategic alliance with Foresight Ventures, a crypto fund based in Singapore.Looking ahead, Morph is gearing up for significant milestones as it develops further. The project plans to intensify the refinement of its technical framework and broader ecosystem in the coming months. Notably, Morph is slated to launch its public testnet in January 2024, followed by the beta mainnet of its Optimistic zkEVM, which is scheduled for Q2 2024.As Bitget continues to forge ties with up-and-coming Web3 entities, this collaboration with Morph has the potential to propel the project towards its strategic goals but also sets the stage for a transformative shift in the landscape of Layer 2 solutions.

With reports of American exchange platform Coinbase having been in talks with regulators to re-enter the Indian market emerging last month, the firm has made further progress with those efforts, registering with the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). In a blog post published to the Coinbase website on March 11, the company confirmed that it had successfully registered with the FIU, a national agency which is responsible for gathering, processing, analyzing and circulating data related to suspicious financial transactions.Photo by Big G Media on UnsplashOffering retail services in 2025As a consequence of this registration, the company intends to commence trading activity in India once more, with plans to offer retail services to Indian investors later this year. Commenting on the development, John O'Loghlen, Regional Managing Director for the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region at Coinbase, stated that the company is committed to building its business in markets where potential exists for crypto and on-chain innovation. He added: “India represents one of the most exciting market opportunities in the world today, and we’re proud to deepen our investment here in full compliance with local regulations.” News of this development has been interpreted as a positive for the crypto sector. Taking to X, Suraj Chawla, founder and CEO of GPU.net, a decentralized network of GPUs, suggested that the registration was indicative of a softening in the regulatory approach taken to crypto in India. He believes that the Trump administration in the U.S., which is pro-crypto, is collaborating with India’s government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He added: “This is extremely positive news with countries like UAE, IND, RUS, USA adopting mainstream crypto and working on critical infra like exchanges, ETF and stablecoins.” Taking this development as a sign of a crypto awakening in India, Chawla suggested that we could see major Indian corporations like Reliance, Tata and Adani going into mainstream crypto infrastructure. ‘Informal pressure’Coinbase was forced to disable UPI payments on its platform in India back in 2022 due to what Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong described at the time as “informal pressure” from India’s central bank, the Royal Bank of India (RBI). Armstrong offered the following take on the status of crypto in India at that time:“India is a unique market in the sense that the Supreme Court has ruled that they can't ban crypto, but there are elements in the government there, including at the Reserve Bank of India, who don't seem to be as positive on it.” In 2023 the company disabled new user sign-ups on its platform.  India’s central bank has leaned against crypto over the last few years. In January of last year, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, said that there was no place in India for “crypto mania,” following the approval of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the U.S. He said at that time that "the way we look at crypto remains unchanged, irrespective of who does what."  While taking what has been at best an ambiguous approach to cryptocurrencies, the RBI has advocated for the adoption of blockchain technology by India’s banks.

OKX Wallet to Support BRC-20 Tokens and Bitcoin OrdinalsIn a press release published on Tuesday, Seychelles-based cryptocurrency spot and derivatives exchange OKX announced that it is in the process of enabling an Ordinals marketplace on the OKX Wallet, which will enable customers to mint and trade BRC-20 tokens.Photo by Karolina Grabowska on PexelsRising BRC-20 market capThe move will also enable users to inscribe non-fungible token (NFT)-based digital content on the Bitcoin blockchain by way of ordinal inscriptions. The market capitalization of BRC-20 tokens has been rising exponentially over the course of the past few weeks despite only being in existence since March.BRC-20 is an experimental token standard which was created by an anonymous developer with the handle “Domo” and username ‘@domodata’ on Twitter. A token standard governs how and where a cryptocurrency can be used. The approach has been pioneered by developers on the Ethereum blockchain who created the ERC-20 standard a number of years ago, relative to the Ethereum network.OKX has clearly identified a rising trend and wants to be an early adopter in benefiting from it. In their short existence, BRC-20 tokens have mainly implicated meme tokens but as more experimentation follows, use cases that rely on the token standard are likely to expand.Binance has signaled a similar intent, having stated last week that before the month is out, Bitcoin Ordinals will be added to its NFT marketplace. Ordinals preceded the development of the BRC-20 standard by a couple of months, with over five million of the inscriptions having been generated since they emerged. It’s believed that the minting of those Ordinals has generated fees to the value of around 1,000 BTC (or $27 million as per the BTC/USD price at the time of publication).Growing painsWhile the emergence of the BRC-20 standard and Bitcoin Ordinals brings quite a lot of excitement to a bitcoin blockchain that many found to be boring and lacking diversity in terms of potential use cases, it’s not been without its problems. On the one hand, these tokens and inscriptions make use of unused block space on the network.They also offer a solution to the longer term issue of a reduction in fees. The bitcoin blockchain in-built subsidy to miners is halved every four years, meaning that there will be a need for fees to sustain the incentive to miners to continue to secure the network.The downside to these recent developments is that the new tokens are going beyond using up unused block space. Instead, they’ve been responsible for driving Bitcoin transaction fees up to uncomfortable levels over the course of the past two weeks. It’s still early days in terms of this development, so there is every hope that developers can find solutions to the issue.Last week, Singapore-based project OmniBOLT announced that it will support BRC-20 tokens on Lightning Network. Taking some of this activity away from the bitcoin mainnet will serve to dampen excessive transaction costs and transaction delays due to an excessively long queue of transactions within the bitcoin mempool.The recent transaction cost difficulty relative to Bitcoin has prompted Binance to respond by stating its intention to add support for Lightning Network transactions in the not too distant future. OKX already supports Lightning transactions but not from within its wallet. As part of this announcement, the company stated that Lightning support will be coming to its wallet in the near future.