First Digital to Introduce USD-Backed USD Stablecoin

NEOPIN Partners with Lena Network for NFT-Fi Service DevelopmentNEOPIN, the global CeDeFi platform of South Korean investment holding company Neowiz Holdings, announced on Tuesday that it is teaming up with Lena Network, a Japanese developer of non-fungible token finance (NFT-Fi) services.Photo by Choong Deng Xiang on UnsplashFostering NFT-Fi and DeFi synergyIn this collaboration, the companies plan to promote NFT-Fi usage by onboarding NEOPIN onto Lena’s service framework and by launching NEOPIN as a decentralized finance (DeFi) product based on Lena’s governance token $LENA. They will also strengthen cooperative ventures by channeling NEOPIN and Lena Network’s NFT-Fi products. Both companies’ worldwide partners will also receive collective support as part of this agreement.“This partnership is meaningful in many ways. We have been able to secure an important Web3 partner in Japan, expand our global DeFi products, and grow our NFT-Fi business,” explained Ethan Kim, CEO of NEOPIN.This comes as part of NEOPIN’s bigger efforts to broaden its global user demographic by launching DeFi products associated with global projects, the first of which is the latest collaboration with Lena. This move will create a strong base for the entry of NEOPIN’s Web3 projects into the Japanese market.“We will continue to strengthen our partnerships with outstanding Japanese Web3 projects such as Lena Network, and establish a foundation for our success in the Japanese market,” CEO Kim added.Innovation at Lena NetworkLena Network is operated by professionals who formerly worked at institutions like SBI Holdings and JP Morgan. It plans to officially launch its new service, LENA, in the third quarter of this year, which offers loans in Ethereum or stablecoins against collaterals such as NFTs, tokens, and real-world assets (RWA).Key partners for this service include NFT collections such as Monkey Kingdom — the first Asian NFT collection and one of Solana’s chart-toppers — and Trekki, a collaborative travel-themed collection made by Polygon and Trip.com.“By onboarding NEOPIN, we aim to provide a seamless NFT-Fi adoption and launch DeFi products based on LENA tokens,” said Casper Cheng, CSO of Lena Network. “Following NFT-Fi, Lena Network’s next product will be RWA-Fi. Together with NEOPIN, we will continue to drive innovation in the Web3 space and explore new possibilities for NFT utilization.”The current NFT market capitalization is approximately $4.9 billion as of today, according to insights from the NFT analysis site NFTGo. While these assets have historically been liquidated through trading, NFT-Fi opens up various methods of liquidation, thereby expanding access to ownership of these assets.

Bank of Korea and Samsung Team Up for Offline CBDC ResearchIn a move aimed at advancing central bank digital currency (CBDC) technology, the Bank of Korea (BOK) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Samsung Electronics on Monday, according to a press release. The agreement was sealed during a signing ceremony attended by Lee Seung-heon, BOK’s Senior Deputy Governor, and Choi Won-joon, Executive Vice President and Head of Development in the Mobile Experience (MX) Division at Samsung Electronics.Under the terms of the MoU, both parties have committed to ongoing research on CBDC issued by the Bank of Korea, with a specific focus on collaboration in the offline payment sector. Samsung Electronics had previously participated in the second phase of the CBDC simulation study conducted by the BOK last year.Photo by Aleksandar Pasaric on PexelsCBDC without InternetThe company’s efforts have led to the development of an offline CBDC technology that facilitates transfers and payments via near-field communication (NFC) between devices without requiring an internet connection. These transactions are conducted within the embedded secure element (eSE) chip of Samsung Electronics’ mobile devices, which holds one of the highest levels of security certification, CC EAL 6+.The Evaluation Assurance Level (EAL) is a numeric grading system that measures the security level of tech products and systems according to the Common Criteria (CC) security standard. It ranges from EAL0 to EAL7, with EAL7 representing the highest level of security.Leveraging this technology, the BOK and Samsung will continue their joint research to enhance security in offline payments using Samsung Galaxy smartphones and watches. Additionally, they aim to provide support for stable payments in situations where network connectivity is disrupted, such as during disasters.Growing interest in CBDCsGiven the global interest in CBDCs, with central banks worldwide exploring their potential, the research collaboration between the BOK and Samsung assumes great significance. The results of this partnership will guide further cooperative efforts to develop the international CBDC ecosystem.BOK Senior Deputy Governor Lee Seung-heon emphasized the significance of the joint achievement, expressing optimism that the partnership would keep Korea at the forefront of offline CBDC technology.Samsung’s Executive Vice President Choi Won-joon underscored that the company’s collaboration with the Korean central bank allowed Samsung to utilize its advanced security technology in digital currency. He expected their combined efforts would considerably contribute to the global development of CBDC technology.

Singapore’s DBS Bank has announced the launch of the distribution of crypto-linked structured notes. The development will see structured notes tokenized on the Ethereum blockchain, with the product being made available to eligible non-DBS clients across three digital investment platforms and exchanges. In a press release published to its website on Aug. 21, DBS, the largest bank in Southeast Asia, disclosed that its tokenized structured notes would be made available to the investing public via ADDX, DigiFT and HydraX. These platforms have signed agreements with DBS to distribute its tokenized structured notes, which are debt securities that combine various types of financial products into one offering.Photo by Shubham Dhage on UnsplashFirst token distributionThe development marks a milestone for DBS insofar as it makes for the bank’s first-ever token distribution. The bank explained that the nature of the note means that investors are provided with a cash payout when cryptocurrency prices rise. In this way, the investor can build exposure to the asset class without having to directly manage any digital assets.While this is DBS Bank’s first token distribution, the bank had launched crypto-linked structured notes for its own eligible clients back in September 2024. DBS asserted that demand for the product has been strong, given that it enables investors to run advanced investment strategies related to their digital asset portfolios. ‘The next frontier of financial markets infrastructure’Commenting on the development, DBS Bank’s Head of Foreign Exchange and Digital Assets, Li Zhen, said that “asset tokenization is the next frontier of financial markets infrastructure.” He added that the tokenized product offering addresses a growing institutional appetite for digital assets. Singapore-based Ryan De Souza, APAC partnership lead at blockchain development firm Offchain Labs, described the product offering as an example of the fractionalization prophecy starting to play out. Access to this type of product would typically be available with a minimum investment size of $100,000. With the tokenization of the product, accessibility is increased given that minimum investment has been reduced to $1,000. Each tokenized note represents a fungible $1,000 share of the conventional structure note product. The development is also significant from the perspective of Ethereum. It demonstrates yet another instance of institutional adoption, which increases both liquidity and demand relative to ETH. Tokenized product offerings are likely to gain further momentum given that they bring greater transparency and efficiency by comparison with conventional offerings. DBS outlined that its clients executed in excess of $1 billion in trades involving tokenized structured notes and crypto options within the first half of 2025. Additionally, trade volumes related to these products grew by almost 60% from Q1 2025 to Q2 2025.Singapore-headquartered product distribution partner DigiFT recently partnered with crypto market maker GSR with the launch of its secondary over-the-counter (OTC) trading service for tokenized real-world assets (RWAs). Back in March, DigiFT announced plans to launch an on-chain index fund, backed by a tokenized stock portfolio. ADDX, another Singapore-based platform, had joined forces with OCBC Bank back in 2023 with a view towards facilitating the launch of a tokenized equity-linked structured note.