Dunamu & Partners Invests $109M in 60 Promising Startups

BNP Paribas Partners With Chinese in Digital Yuan PushThe Chinese authorities continue with their sustained efforts to promote use of the digital yuan, on this occasion by hooking up with French international banking group, BNP Paribas.According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP) on Friday, the partnership will see BNP Paribas collaborating with the Bank of China (BOC) to promote the digital yuan to its corporate clients. The digital yuan or e-CNY is a digital representation of the Chinese sovereign currency, issued by the BOC.Photo by Eric Prouzet on Unsplashe-CNY system accessAs part of the arrangement, BNP Paribas China will connect into the BOCs system, accessing an e-CNY management system. The BOC has authorized ten banks in China including the four state-owned banks, all of which are domestic lenders, to deal with its digital currency business.The direct e-CNY system access enables straight-through processing, allowing BNP Paribas to offer digital wallet functionality to its corporate clients relative to the digital yuan. Essentially, the system will allow BNP Paribas China’s corporate clients to link their bank accounts with an accompanying digital wallet. Other functionality that will be enabled as a consequence includes access to smart contract applications through the m-CBDC bridge (central bank digital currency).BNP Paribas China CEO CG Lai commented on the partnership: “While this collaboration can supplement the Bank’s offline payment collection capabilities and further optimize our clients’ account structure, this also reinforced the Bank’s commitment to the China market.” Lai outlined that the bank intends to enhance customer service capabilities by pursuing digital innovation that, like in this instance, contributes to China’s economic development.Louise Zhang, Head of BNP Paribas China Transaction Banking claimed that the partnership will “provide innovative, efficient cash management and trade financing services to local and multinational clients.”CBDC developmentThere has been a lot of activity in recent years when it comes to the development of CBDCs. The central banks of most nations have carried out some level of preparatory or investigative work relative to a digital currency. However, China has been by far the leader in its development of a CBDC.The BOC first began research into a digital currency in 2014. The country’s State Council approved the development of the digital yuan in partnership with China’s commercial banks in 2017. Beyond initial development, a testing phase began in 2019 with the project known as the Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP) system emerging as the first version of the digital yuan after a number of years of development.In 2020, the BOC began more extensive testing of the digital currency in four Chinese cities — Shenzhen, Suzhou, Chengdu and Xiong’an. To promote use of the currency at that time, they offered free digital yuan to residents of those cities to spend, in that way, stepping up efforts to popularize the digital currency.Last month, the administrators of the Chinese city of Xuzhou announced that it was in the process of publishing a pilot scheme which will set out a means for promoting China’s e-CNY digital currency. Also in April, the eastern city of Changshu clarified that it is gearing up to commence paying state employees in the city in e-CNY. According to an announcement made by the city’s finance bureau the civil servants will start to receive e-CNY as payment in May.

Rotonda Launches iOS Version of Web3 Bithumb Burrito WalletRotonda, a subsidiary of Korean crypto exchange Bithumb, said Monday that it has officially released the iOS version of its Web3 digital wallet, Bithumb Burrito Wallet. This comes as part of the company’s efforts to make the app available for Web3 users on all operating systems.Photo by Shubham’s Web3 on UnsplashBoosted accessibilityRotonda has recently expanded the number of mainnets supported on the wallet to a total of 11 in order to enhance the accessibility of the service as well. Plans are underway to continuously improve features and build a user-friendly experience and interface.“By expanding our iOS-based services, we expect more users to be able to experience the new Web3 ecosystem,” the company said. “We will continuously enhance necessary features on Burrito Wallet for our users and strengthen competitiveness as a global service.”Collaborative eventThe company is also holding a two-part promotional event to mark the latest release in collaboration with ROACORE, an art tech platform created by ROALAND Foundation that allows non-fungible token (NFT) trading and NFT-based service experiences for artists and consumers. Users of the platform can participate in various Web3 experiences such as content consumption and offline events by using the native token ROA CORE (ROA).For the first part of the promotion, the first 10,000 users who sign up for Burrito Wallet and add the ROA token will receive 10 ROA tokens.The second part is a Learn-To-Earn (L2E) activity aimed at introducing ROACORE to users in a more engaging manner. Both new and existing wallet users can partake in a quiz after learning about ROACORE on the app. Four ROA tokens will be given to the first 5,000 participants.This promotional event will run from now until September 3. All reward tokens will be airdropped to winners, Rotonda said.Upcoming eventsRotonda is also set to co-host Next Block 2023 — a conference for exploring new business collaboration opportunities in building a new ecosystem for Web3 projects — with Bithumb META, Bithumb’s metaverse subsidiary on September 4.

Datachain Secures Funding from Japan’s MUFG to Advance Blockchain Interoperability InitiativesDatachain, a Japanese blockchain interoperability solution provider, has secured funding from Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFJ), one of Japan’s largest banking institutions, according to a press release. This investment will boost their collaboration as they work together to advance ongoing initiatives involving stablecoins, security tokens, and cross-chain technology.Photo by Shubham Dhage on UnsplashGrowing token marketIn a joint report by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Singapore-based investment platform ADDX, it is projected that the market for illiquid asset tokenization could reach $16.1 trillion by 2030 (as a conservative estimate) or potentially $68 trillion in a best-case scenario. This growth in the illiquid asset tokenization market, coupled with the expanding stablecoins and cryptocurrencies market, is expected to drive the overall digital asset market’s expansion.Cross-chain techDatachain will collaborate with MUFG and other partners to develop an infrastructure that enables the transfer of digital assets across different blockchains. Boasting prowess in cross-chain technology, Datachain has been conducting tests and collaborative research with numerous companies in Japan and abroad. Notably, Datachain has been working closely with MUFG to drive initiatives utilizing stablecoins scheduled for issuance and distribution through the Progmat Coin stablecoin platform.Moreover, Datachain, MUFG, and cross-chain bridge provider TOKI will form a three-way partnership aimed at commercializing the issuance and distribution of stablecoins on public blockchains like Ethereum between April and June 2024.Datachain is also collaborating with MUFG to promote cross-chain settlements involving security tokens based on stablecoins. Their goal is to realize this initiative in cooperation with securities firms by 2024.Starting with this new funding, Datachain plans to expedite its business expansion by seeking investments from other companies that can create synergies.Tomohiro Kimura, Director and Managing Executive Officer at MUFG, commented on the investment, emphasizing MUFG’s commitment to the digital asset market’s anticipated growth. According to Kimura, MUFG has established and promoted Progmat Coin in preparation for the expanding digital asset market. Highlighting that multi-chain and cross-chain transactions are essential to the future of digital assets, Kimura expressed delight over MUFG’s investment in Datachain, citing the blockchain company’s unparalleled expertise in key technology areas such as multichains and cross-chain transactions. He also highlighted MUFG’s increased involvement as a shareholder in Datachain, underlining its dedication to making a substantial impact in the digital asset market.