Singapore Elects Crypto Skeptic as President

Chainlink, a prominent decentralized oracle network, has partnered with the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), a free zone and international financial center located on Al Maryah Island in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), with a view towards further developing tokenization frameworks.Photo by Shubham Dhage on UnsplashCompliant tokenization frameworksAccording to an announcement on the ADGM website, the international financial center signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Chainlink. It claimed that the collaboration marks “a major step in advancing compliant tokenisation frameworks.” Chainlink provides a suite of services. Central to that is the delivery of real-world data feeds into blockchain networks. ADGM believes that through the partnership, projects located within the free zone will be able to access this technology, while the ADGM’s Registration Authority will ensure regulatory compliance. The CEO of the ADGM Registration Authority, Hamad Sayah Al Mazrouei, said that the strategic alliance is a significant step towards ADGM leadership in blockchain innovation. He added: “By collaborating with Chainlink, we are aiming to set a global benchmark that spearheads transparency, security, and trust across the blockchain space.” The collaboration includes plans to host events and workshops aimed at educating the blockchain sector within the UAE. The two parties also aspire to the initiative, sparking greater dialogue on regulatory matters relative to blockchain, artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies. Global collaborationsThis is the latest in a long list of collaborations that Chainlink has entered into, relative to asset tokenization. In October, it partnered with Singapore’s DigiFT, an exchange dedicated to tokenized real-world assets (RWAs). The following month, it completed a pilot program alongside financial messaging service SWIFT and UBS Asset Management under the umbrella of the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) Project Guardian. The project concerned itself with the settlement of tokenized funds. Earlier in 2024, Chainlink partnered with U.S. financial market infrastructure firm DTCC on the Smart NAV pilot project. The initiative centered on the creation and issuance of tokenized funds, counting JPMorgan, State Street, BNY Mellon, Invesco and Franklin Templeton among its participants. In the UAE, Chainlink has been added as a member of the Digital Asset Lab of one of the country’s largest banking groups, Emirates NBD. For its part, the ADGM has also been on the front foot with regard to tokenization initiatives. Its Regulatory Authority has established a regulatory framework with regard to asset tokenization, with an emphasis on investor protection. In October of last year, RWA tokenization platform Realize launched the financial center’s first tokenized U.S. treasury bill fund. At the time, the ADGM said that the development highlighted an objective for the region in becoming the global market leader where RWA tokenization is concerned. The ADGM began operations in 2015 with its own legal system. As of the end of 2024, the financial center hosted 134 fund and asset managers. Market maker and Web3 investment firm DWF Labs moved its headquarters from Singapore to Abu Dhabi’s ADGM at the end of last year, citing the goal of wanting to expand tokenized RWA-based projects as one of the reasons for the move.

Bithumb Live Files for BankruptcySouth Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb’s live commerce platform Bithumb Live — an attempt at business diversification — has filed for bankruptcy. The platform entered bankruptcy proceedings last year, brought on by business difficulties and various suspicions of embezzlement involving its CEO.Photo by Melinda Gimpel on UnsplashAccording to legal sources on Monday, the Seoul Bankruptcy Court declared Bithumb Live’s bankruptcy last Monday. The court plans to hold creditor meetings and inspections on November 28 to incorporate creditors’ opinions into the bankruptcy proceedings and assess the status of the company. Major companies like LG Uplus, SK Telecom, SK Magic, and Lotte Card are among the platform’s creditors.Bithumb Live’s backgroundBithumb Live was founded in September 2021 by Bithumb and Bucket Studio, who each invested KRW 6 billion (approximately $4.4 million). Bucket Studio is a content distribution company that gained considerable attention with the global success of the Netflix original series “Squid Game” last year because it holds a 15% stake in Artist Company, an entertainment planning agency co-founded by “Squid Game” lead actor Lee Jung-jae and actor Jung Woo-sung. In particular, Bucket Studio’s CEO Kang Ji-yeon is the sister of Kang Jong-hyun, who is embroiled in allegations related to the ownership of Bithumb.Bithumb and Bucket Studio each hold a 37.5% share of Bithumb Live, making a combined ownership of over 75%. Bithumb Live, led by Kang Ji-yeon, had been established with the intent to create a commerce platform with various features like a metaverse, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and cryptocurrency payments. After its establishment, it announced that it would challenge its key competitor Naver’s prominent live shopping platform by preparing to sign deals with 15 different companies.Financial hardshipsHowever, the platform hit a roadblock just one year after its establishment and found itself unable to escape financial difficulties. According to last year’s business report, Bithumb Live’s liabilities exceeded its assets by approximately KRW 248 million and the platform recorded a net loss of KRW 10.2 billion. Unable to withstand such losses, it announced an indefinite temporary closure via its internal messenger to employees in October of last year. The employees ended up working only four hours a day, resulting in a more than 50% reduction in working hours. Subsequently, the number of employees, which was 73 in September, plummeted to just four in January of this year, essentially signaling a total stop to business operations. In the first half of this year, Bithumb Live’s net loss amounted to almost KRW 1.1 billion.Management entanglementsOn top of these financial strains, the company was also plagued by Kang Ji-yeon and her brother Kang Jong-hyun’s owner’s risk, which encompassed allegations of embezzlement and misappropriation. In July of this year, Kang Ji-yeon was sent to trial on charges of embezzlement and misappropriation at Bucket Studio. Along with her brother and former Chorokbaem (CRB) Group Chairman Won Young-sik, she was accused of granting call options on convertible bonds held by Bithumb affiliates Vidente and Bucket Studio for free to companies controlled by Won’s children between December 2021 and July 2022, inciting damages worth approximately KRW 58.7 billion to the respective companies. In the process, she was also found to have received KRW 32.2 billion in acquisition payments. Kang Jong-hyun had been detained and on trial since February of this year.Bithumb Live’s largest shareholder, Bucket Studio, is also in a tight spot. Back in June, the Korea Exchange imposed a penalty of three points on Bucket Studio for reversing its disclosure. The company had been penalized five points the previous month after withdrawing its decision to issue convertible bonds. In particular, the studio also recorded an operating loss of KRW 7 billion and a net loss of KRW 195.6 billion last year based on consolidated financial statements. In the first half of this year alone, it suffered an operating loss of KRW 896 million, raising red flags for its management.

Japan Tops Crypto Losses to North Korean HackersHackers affiliated with the North Korean regime have been responsible for the theft of $721 million in digital assets from Japan.That’s the finding of a recent report by UK-based crypto compliance analysis firm Elliptic. Elliptic had produced the report on behalf of Japanese news media group, Nikkei. It leaves Japan at the top of the table when considering the distribution of digital asset losses suffered due to North Korean hackers on a country by country basis.Photo by FLY:D on UnsplashIncreasing lossesElliptic has the wherewithal to track and identify blockchain-based transfers. As part of its analysis, it grouped by region and by country those businesses that it identified as having cryptocurrency holdings that later were transferred to digital wallets held by the Lazarus Group, the most notorious hacker group connected with the North Korean government. It’s the first such analysis to break down crypto-related hacking losses on a country by country basis.The study included a consideration of both hacking and ransomware attacks. The loss associated with Japanese-based entities represents in excess of 30% of the global recorded loss. This latest analysis follows a recent report submitted to the United Nations which found that North Korea stole more digital assets in 2022 than any other year. That report had been submitted to the 15 members of a North Korea sanctions committee, finding that between $630 million and $1 billion worth of digital assets had been stolen.Lax securityElliptic’s analysis and subsequent report point to lax security being employed within Vietnamese and Japanese cryptocurrency marketplaces. Nikkei referred to an unnamed source who asserts that at least three Japanese cryptocurrency exchanges had been compromised by hackers between 2018 and 2021.One of those instances involved Zaif, a company that lost $51.4 million in 2018 and subsequently shut down operations. Overall, Elliptic estimates a global loss of $2.3 billion to hackers between 2017 and 2022 in digital assets, as suffered by crypto firms. It also estimates such losses suffered in the United States at $497 million, while Hong Kong-based losses have been calculated at $281 million.International responseIn April, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) within the Department of the Treasury in the United States stated that it had sanctioned two Chinese nationals and a Hong Kong British national for allegedly having aided the North Korean government in crypto money laundering activities.On Saturday, a joint statement was issued by the Group of Seven finance ministers and central bank governors, following a meeting in Japan, outlining the “growing threat from illicit activities by state actors.” It’s widely believed that the proceeds of these hacks are contributing towards the funding of North Korea’s missile program and other such activities that threaten stability within the region.The Japan External Trade Organization (JETO) has estimated that the estimated $721 million stolen from Japan amounts to 8.8 times the value of North Korea’s exports in 2021.