Japan’s Largest Airline Opens NFT Marketplace

Bank of Korea Explores Jeju, Busan, and Incheon for Citizen-Centric CBDC Pilot TestThe Bank of Korea (BOK) is reportedly reviewing three potential locations for a pilot test of a citizen-centric payment system utilizing the Korean Won central bank digital currency (CBDC). Instead of choosing Seoul, the nation’s capital city, the BOK is considering Jeju, Busan, and Incheon for the pilot. That’s according to local tech news outlet IT Chosun.The three cities have been selected as possible testbeds, and discussions with commercial banks are ongoing to move the project forward. Once a city is chosen, the BOK will collaborate with local retailers, including hypermarkets, to test the CBDC payment and distribution system.Photo by Ethan Brooke on UnsplashRegional currency modelThe CBDC test will be limited to a specific area, operating similarly to regional currencies issued by municipal governments to stimulate local economies. The CBDC wallet app will be available to all citizens, but its usage will be restricted to retailers in the designated area. Presently, Jeju, Busan, and Incheon already have their own regional currencies managed by local banks and financial institutions.However, implementing the CBDC system poses technical challenges. In remote tests last year, the BOK discovered that transaction speeds for small transfers were slower compared to traditional payment processing providers in regions outside the Seoul Metropolitan Area.Against this backdrop, the BOK seeks to recruit an unusually large number of tech experts in order to build a large-scale system for small payments. The bank has been actively hiring individuals for this purpose since the beginning of the year.CBDC test next yearWith the test scheduled for next year, the BOK aims to promptly select the test destination based on the system’s expected performance, estimated user numbers, and potential economic impact.While Busan is more or less shunned due to its large population, Jeju is emerging as a preferred choice. However, the final decision has been tentatively postponed due to internal issues within the BOK.Following the pilot test results, the BOK may gradually broaden the scope of the CBDC system. Meanwhile, in a similar development, China began its CBDC pilots in 2020 and has now expanded its CBDC use to 26 cities across 17 provinces.According to a BOK official, the Korean central bank is making seamless preparation for the test and engaging in discussions with commercial banks to explore their operating models and devise effective implementation strategies.

MANTRA, a real-world asset (RWA) tokenization blockchain project headquartered in Hong Kong, has announced that it has been awarded a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) license in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In a community update published on its website, MANTRA co-founder and CEO John Patrick Mullin outlined that Dubai regulator, the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), had awarded the company the VASP license, meaning that the project is now entitled to act as a virtual asset exchange. Additionally, it is authorized to offer broker-dealer and investment management services. Photo by Aleksandar Pasaric on PexelsMullin claimed that the milestone is huge for both the company and the broader industry. He stated:”It’s a major step in our objective to bring the world’s financial ecosystem onchain by being the preferred ledger of record for real world assets. It’s a validation of our purpose,which is to provide developers and institutions with a purpose-built RWA Layer 1 Blockchain, that’s capable of adhering to real world regulatory requirements.” Scaling operations in the Middle EastThe project sees the license as a key step in broadening MANTRA’s global footprint and scaling its operations within the Middle East. Mullin outlined that both the UAE and broader Middle East & North Africa (MENA) have become “a progressive global hub and thriving ecosystem for Web3 and virtual assets owing to their regulatory initiatives and frameworks.” Mullin added that the license not only strengthens the project’s presence regionally, but it also “positions us internationally to deliver unique DeFi products that bridge the gap between decentralized finance and traditional finance.”  Shorooq Partners, a Dubai-based venture capital firm and investor in the project, commented on the announcement on X. It said that the license would mean that MANTRA would set a new standard for compliant and secure DeFi solutions. It emphasized the importance of regulatory compliance in enabling institutional DeFi adoption on a global scale. The venture capital firm was the lead investor in an $11 million funding round completed by MANTRA in March 2024. At the time, Shane Shin, founding partner at Shorooq, said that he liked MANTRA’s strategic focus on key markets like Hong Kong and Dubai, adding that the investment implicated a future where digital and traditional assets converge seamlessly. The project intends to launch DeFi-based products that have been formulated to meet investors' needs by combining the benefits of DeFi with the structure and security provided by conventional finance. Token's price performanceThe OM token is a utility and governance token within the MANTRA decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). It was the best-performing layer-1 token as of Feb. 17. At the time of writing, it’s trading at $7.59, according to CoinMarketCap data. The project also announced a $1 billion deal with UAE-based DAMAC Group, a property development company, last month.

CarrieVerse Token CVTX Listed on BingXBlockchain-based Web3 metaverse platform CarrieVerse has recently listed its native token CVTX on the cryptocurrency exchange BingX.Photo by m. on UnsplashMultipurpose tokenBuilt on Polygon, CVTX is integrated into the tokenomics ecosystem of CarrieVerse and its card strategy role-playing game (RPG) SuperKola Tactics. It is also the governance token for the CarrieVerse blockchain gaming platform Cling. It is currently tradable on other international exchanges in addition to BingX, such as Gate.io, MEXC Global, BitMart, and ProBit Global, as well as the Korean exchange GOPAX. CVTX can be traded for USDT on all of the above exchanges except for GOPAX, which offers a CVTX/KRW pair. KRW stands for Korean won.“CVTX has expanded its global presence one step further. We will continue to strive for market expansion through listings on leading exchanges, building on the excitement inspired by gaming and staking,” said David Yoon, CEO of CarrieVerse.About BingXFounded in 2018, BingX is a Singapore-based digital asset exchange that offers spot derivatives, copy trading, and grid trading services to over five million users across 100 countries worldwide. Its spot trading volume over the past 24 hours at the time of publication, according to recent data from CoinMarketCap, stands at $602 million. Notably, it allows for easy transfer of assets between Korean exchanges Bithumb and Coinone, having passed their Travel Rules requirements last year.