3D Avatar Platform GoodGang Labs Joins Finschia as Joint Mainnet Operator

Thailand has taken steps to tighten controls on digital asset mule accounts and overseas crypto peer-to-peer (P2P) platforms in an effort to combat cybercrime.Photo by Growtika on UnsplashLegislative amendmentsOn April 8, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a local regulator, published a statement explaining that the Thai cabinet has passed a resolution approving a number of amendments to the Southeast Asian nation’s digital asset business law and its cybercrime law. The regulator asserted that the amendments are designed to “strengthen measures against cybercrime and mule accounts, enhancing the security of public financial transactions and improving the effectiveness of combating online scams.” The amendments won’t become effective until such time as they are published in the Government Gazette of Thailand, an official public journal that acts as a primary source for Thai law. Mule accountsOne aspect that has been addressed is the enhancement of measures taken in an effort to block digital asset mule accounts. Criminals utilize mule accounts in an effort to launder the proceeds of crime.  While this happens with conventional bank accounts, it is also now happening with digital asset exchange accounts and digital asset wallets. Accounts may have been established for legitimate purposes but later fall under the influence of criminals who utilize them for money laundering. According to a report by the Bangkok Post last month, the Thai SEC had been collaborating with the Thai Digital Asset Operators Trade Association (TDO) and digital asset businesses in order to formulate these new measures.  The standard was also established following consultation with the Bank of Thailand, the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau, Central Investigation Bureau, the Anti-Money Laundering Office and the Thai Bankers' Association. It is hoped that these enhanced mechanisms will lead to earlier detection of unusual customer behavior, enabling the authorities to intervene at an earlier stage to block mule accounts.Going forward, the regulator will collaborate with the TDO in monitoring and evaluating implementation of the new measures. Individuals who allow their digital asset accounts to be used by criminals will face up to three years' imprisonment and a fine of up to 300,000 Thai baht ($8,765). Blocking P2P platformsAnother change is being implemented in respect of offshore crypto P2P platforms. The objective of that particular measure is to deter and prevent the use of such platforms by investors within Thailand.  It’s envisaged that the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society will now be enabled to move more swiftly in blocking website and application access to these foreign P2P platforms. Such offshore platforms will be deemed to be attempting to solicit local investors if they offer payment options in Thai baht, provide online services or applications using the Thai language or if they accept payments through Thai bank accounts. Earlier this month, Thai law enforcement raided five unlicensed crypto firms. The raid led to the arrest of 11 individuals, charged with illegally operating e-money services related to enterprises responsible for a combined $29 million turnover. 

Sun Flags Unjust Token Profits of Huobi Founder’s BrotherJustin Sun, Founder of the Tron blockchain and stakeholder in Seychelles-based global crypto exchange Huobi, has stated that the younger brother of the founder of the exchange, Li Wei, has received millions of Huobi tokens ($HT) when he shouldn’t have.Taking to Twitter, Sun wrote:“Li Lin’s younger brother Li Wei has repeatedly acquired a large amount of zero-cost HT through abnormal means. He has sold it on the Huobi platform many times in history, and has withdrawn huge amounts of cash”.Negotiating a refund and token burnSun went on to outline the action that he is in favor of taking in unison with decisions taken by the Huobi Global Advisory Committee (HGAC). “In order to protect people’s interests, the [HGAC] and the HT DAO community decided to recover and destroy the HT obtained by Li Wei at zero cost,” he wrote. “The HT destruction will be announced in the HT community. Such behavior will not be condoned,” he added.Sun complained that not only were the tokens wrongly allocated to Li Wei, he had been dumping the tokens on the market, selling them off for fiat money. In addition to the tokens being burnt, Sun says that he alongside the HGAC will “negotiate a refund” by engaging directly with Li Wei relative to the fiat money that he has already extracted through selling off the token.The Tron founder added that he doesn’t think it equitable that Wei should benefit from the token allocation as he hasn’t made any contribution to the Huobi community, stating that “fairness and the importance of rewarding those who genuinely contribute to the growth and development of HT DAO” are important.Double standardsSome in the crypto community would call double standards on Sun’s claims of a lack of fairness. At the time of the collapse of the FTX exchange in November of last year, Sun offered to help, collaborating with FTX’s Sam Bankman Fried to allow assets related to Sun’s crypto projects (TRX, BTT, JST, SUN, and HT) held by FTX customers on the exchange to be traded out of the exchange into external wallets.Trading in these assets recommenced for a time, with the price within the exchange being exorbitant relative to the regular market price outside of FTX. Many FTX customers ended up buying these tokens at excessive prices, without being able to extract them from the exchange like Sun had promised. To cap it off, those customers then had the newly installed FTX Debtor under the guidance of John J. Ray III, record their loss at the time the exchange officially went bankrupt at the normal market price for these tokens.Although originally a China-based exchange, Huobi moved out of the Chinese market due to adverse regulation, re-establishing itself in the Seychelles. The firm maintains offices in South Korea, the United States, Japan, and Hong Kong, where it has had a listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange since 2018.The $HT token has proven to be very volatile both in intraday trading on Tuesday and over the course of the past seven days. In both instances, it has hit high points in excess of $3.00 and low points of $2.70. At the time of publication, the token was trading at $2.90.Photo by Ant Rozetsky on Unsplash

Coinbase Signals Interest in UAE BaseIn further evidence of a contrast in progression relative to the approach taken to digital assets in the United States versus other world regions, US crypto exchange Coinbase is understood to be considering the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as a potential strategic hub for the company.Photo by Aleksandar Pasaric on PexelsCause and effectA number of weeks ago, while Gary Gensler of the Securities of Exchange Commission (SEC) was facing a grilling in a House Financial Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Brian Armstrong of Coinbase put out a statement saying that if the regulatory approach to crypto in the United States didn’t change, then the company would choose to locate itself elsewhere.It hasn’t taken Armstrong long to act on that intention. Late last month, the digital assets platform took its first step outside the United States by securing a license to operate in Bermuda. In line with Armstrong’s earlier comments, the move was seen as a strategic action taken by the company to expand its operations on a global basis.Armstrong had warned that unless regulators in the US provided complete regulatory clarity in relation to the activities of cryptocurrency firms, then the innovation would quickly develop in offshore havens. Alongside the announcement of the license to trade in Bermuda, a blog article was published which indicated that the company was also in discussion with regulators in Abu Dhabi in the UAE with a view towards potentially obtaining a license to operate there.Blog articleFast forward to Sunday, with the publication of yet another blog article by the company, and it seems that the company is hinting at a much stronger likelihood of establishing a UAE base. The article outlines that over the course of the next week, the Coinbase founder and CEO and the company’s executive team are in the UAE to participate in a round of meetings with regulators, industry partners, policymakers, clients and web3/crypto founders.The article outlines that Armstrong would give a keynote at the Dubai Fintech Summit, while elaborating that “the region has the potential to be a strategic hub for Coinbase, amplifying our efforts across the world.” In a recent interview with Bloomberg TV, the Coinbase CEO said that “we are looking for a home to set up an international hub that could serve the long tail of countries in the world.”At the Dubai Fintech Summit on Monday, Armstrong stated that the UAE “is leading the way regionally in crypto” and that it could be a potential international hub. He added: “I would say that the UAE’s approach has been more forward thinking than the US.”UAE crypto aspirationsThere’s no doubt that the UAE is trying to develop itself as a center for crypto and digital asset innovation. The country’s Prime Minister has said as much, declaring his intention to establish the Middle Eastern nation as a key player in the future of crypto. Both the Emirates of Dubai and Abu Dhabi have been proactive in working towards a digital asset regulatory framework, complete with a crypto licensing program in recent months.