Bitget Targets MENA Business Expansion

Wemade has signed a deal with Maniac Panda Games, a development studio of Spanish gaming company JURVAL CORP SL, to onboard the blockchain game Underground Waifus to WEMIX PLAY, Wemade’s gaming platform, according to an official announcement on Monday (KST).Photo by Syed Ali on Unsplash“Underground Waifus proposes top-level gameplay and fun,” said Maniac Panda Games CEO Daniel Valdés. “We believe that the collaboration with WEMIX PLAY can take the game to another level, adding a wider reach and implementation among players around the world.” Unveiling the cyberpunk battlegroundUnderground Waifus is a multiplayer NFT trading card game set in a cyberpunk, post-apocalyptic universe. It is notable for its circular economy model that employs Free-to-Play (F2P) and Play-to-Earn (P2E) mechanisms within a tokenized system. The game revolves around a player-driven economy, where players can participate in player versus player (PVP) battles where the winner takes all. The game is built on blockchain technology, offering exclusive NFT collections. Gamers are subject to ownership of these assets, which they can use for collecting or playing. The ecosystem also has a utility token called Underground Waifus Token (GQ), which can be used off-game or in-game as a cryptocurrency. Wemade’s ongoing effortsWemade has been consistently growing its lineup of Web3 games on WEMIX PLAY, endeavoring into diverse genres in an effort to appeal to all gamers. The firm revealed that it is working with developers around the world, including North America, Europe and Asia, to expand the gaming platform’s ecosystem.

BitMEX Chalks Up Two New Perp Contract ListingsSeychelles-based cryptocurrency exchange and derivative trading platform BitMEX announced recently that it has added perpetual contracts relative to two additional digital assets.A perpetual contract is a crypto futures contract without an expiry date. Just like with a more conventional futures contract, a perpetual contract is a derivative product, deriving its value from the underlying crypto asset.$SUI tokenTaking to Twitter, the company outlined that it has added perpetual contracts for the $SUI token. The contracts will be available in $SUI/USD and SUI/USDT pairings. Leverage relative to the contracts is being made available up to a maximum of 50x.$SUI is the native token of the Sui blockchain platform. Sui is a layer one blockchain which launched earlier this week. It’s a smart contract platform maintained via a network of permissionless validators. The blockchain network claims to offer a scalable network with ultra low latency. Such low latency can enable diverse use cases such as retail point of sale payment systems and gaming.The contract allows users to post bitcoin as collateral, earning or losing in bitcoin as the SUI/USD rate changes. Maximum risk limit is set at 50 bitcoin. Meanwhile maker and taker fees have been set for the product at 0.02% and 0.075% respectively. A base initial margin of 2% applies while base maintenance margin of 1% applies.$PEPE tokenOn Wednesday, BitMEX also launched perpetual contract products relative to the $PEPE token at 04:00 UTC. There are two listings, PEPE/USD and PEPE/USDT. Pepe coin is a meme token project, inspired by the Pepe the Frog meme. The origins of the cartoon character stem from the Boy’s Club comic in 2005. It later became an internet meme, and later still it was adopted as a meme within the crypto space.The token itself was launched in April, sky rocketing to a $502 million market capitalization since then, representing a 2,100% rise in the token’s unit price since its launch.As in the case of the $SUI token, $PEPE is also available to trade on BitMEX with leverage as high as 50x. In an interview with one crypto news publication, a representative of BitMEX commented on the launch as follows:“PEPE needs a Perp! Perpetual Contracts are the most traded product in crypto and offer all investors taking a long or short position on tokens with better liquidity and fewer network risks. At BitMEX, we offer Tether-margined and Bitcoin-margined perpetual contracts. We are proud to be the inventor of the Perpetual Swap and have long been a leading trading venue for crypto derivatives, offering uncompromised security, a reliable platform, and deep liquidity — as professional traders deserve.”Many commentators in the crypto space have repeatedly pointed to the high risks involved with leverage. In this instance 50x leverage is incredibly high risk, making the product suitable only for those traders that fully and thoroughly understand the risk that comes with such leveraged trading.Photo by Shubham Dhage on Unsplash

True Potential of Asian Crypto ETFs Yet to Be RealizedA recently published report by Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd. (HKEX), the Hong Kong stock exchange, has found that crypto exchange traded funds (ETFs) have the potential to play a significant part in unlocking the next phase of digital asset expansion in Asia.©Pexels/Burak The WeekenderThe report, titled “Crypto ETF: Key to unlocking the next phase of digital asset growth in Asia,” highlights how crypto ETFs could attract more institutional investors and lead to increased liquidity in the digital asset market. Furthermore, HKEX claims that the ETF investment mechanism can play its part in offering a more regulated and safe manner through which investors can gain exposure to digital assets.Regulatory progressWhile the report cites an Asian regulatory environment that is becoming increasingly more supportive of digital assets of late, it still identifies a need for further progress to be made to improve the level of regulatory clarity and to provide a truly standardized approach to digital assets. That, it says, will result in crypto ETFs becoming more accessible, offering a diversified way in which the investor can access and gain exposure to digital assets in Asia.Nonetheless, HKEX applauds the work done thus far by regulatory authorities in Hong Kong and Singapore, where regulatory frameworks relative to crypto ETFs have been implemented. Those are measures that the Hong Kong stock exchange believes will increase investor confidence, and in turn, bring about further adoption of digital assets.Modest daily trading volumeBetween December 16 and February 7 the two Bitcoin ETFs and one Ether ETF listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange achieved a daily trading volume of $1.19 million. That’s rather underwhelming when compared with the $3 billion in daily volume being achieved by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) relative to its Bitcoin and Ether futures ETF in the United States. On the New York stock exchange ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF achieves a daily average trading volume of $196 million.These findings are a bit counter-intuitive given the contrasting regulatory approaches in the two territories. In the US, regulators have failed to approve a physically settled Bitcoin ETF. Furthermore, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has denied the attempts of Grayscale Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC) to convert the Bitcoin fund into an ETF. Meanwhile, Hong Kong has much more regulatory clarity but yet trading volume in crypto-related ETFs remains minuscule by comparison with the United States.Despite that, the report remains upbeat with regard to what can be achieved in the market with crypto-related ETFs. It makes a case for crypto ETFs as a means for traditional financial institutions to enter the digital assets market with relative ease. Similarly, it sees a role for global stock exchanges in facilitating future growth of crypto-related ETFs and in developing new ETF products that could unlock access to specific digital assets or bespoke investment strategies.