WazirX seeks moratorium as it looks to restructure its liabilities

Viver Boosts Business Expansion with Blockchain IntegrationViver, a luxury watch trading platform and subsidiary of Dunamu, which operates the Upbit cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea, is gearing up to expand its business by securing operating funds and implementing blockchain technology to enhance the transparency and security of trades.Photo by Caramel on UnsplashIn particular, designated services in which Viver plans to incorporate blockchain technology include the management of transaction history and the authentication of buyers and sellers, which can be used for watch appraisals and guarantees.“We do not plan to introduce services incorporating blockchain right away this year, but we are exploring ways to bring Dunamu’s strengths in blockchain to Viver,” the platform explained.From acquisition to nurturing growthAfter its establishment in February 2021, Viver was soon acquired by Dunamu, which injected KRW 9.5 billion (approximately $7.2 million) into the company on June 30 of that same year.Since then, the platform has been receiving continued financial support from Dunamu. It received KRW 2 billion in operating funds last year and an additional KRW 5 billion last Wednesday through board approval. In total, Viver has received approximately KRW 16.5 billion in funding from Dunamu over the past two years. “We decided to inject these operating funds to facilitate business growth,” Dunamu explained. The company also filed for trademark rights to Viver in July.This move contrasts with Dunamu’s actions in the first half of the year, where it divested its entertainment subsidiary, rrr Entertainment, for KRW 3 billion and its video production subsidiary, Knowmerce, for KRW 2.7 billion.In its first year of establishment, Viver recorded a net loss of approximately KRW 433 million, followed by a net loss of KRW 3.8 billion in 2022. While it has not yet achieved a turnaround in financial performance, the platform is facing promising outlooks as it has witnessed a substantial tenfold increase in its user base over the past year. Furthermore, since the launch of the service in August last year, the number of products directly listed by sellers as of July this year spiked nearly thirty times, with monthly trade count and transaction volume increasing almost fifteen times.Solid leadership and the beginnings of monetizationViver’s efforts to grow as a commerce service have been led by CEO Moon Jae-yeon and Chief Operating Officer Seo Hee-seon. Moon is known for his expertise in the management of commerce platforms through his experience working at eBay Korea and Coupang. Seo has similarly worked at notable companies such as BGF Retail, Interpark, eBay Korea, and 11th Street.Since Tuesday, Viver has started implementing service fees, signaling its move toward monetization. While transaction fees are still free due to an ongoing promotional event, order management fees are set at 2%, and sellers are now responsible for shipping costs.“Since our platform facilitates brokered trades, there are costs involved in order management, shipping, and our own evaluation and diagnostics processes. We have started charging fees for some of these costs so we could provide an improved trade experience,” Viver explained in regard to these changes.Viver also has its own magazine section, where it recently unveiled a special article for its 100th issue outlining its most popular and expensive high-end timepieces.

In a bid to expand the utility of USDC (USD Coin) in Japan, Coincheck, a cryptocurrency trading platform based in Tokyo, has unveiled a strategic collaboration with Circle Internet Financial, the global fintech firm and the issuer of the USDC stablecoin. Broadening USDC accessibilityThe partnership, announced on Feb. 27, signals Coincheck's proactive stance towards broadening accessibility to the USD-pegged coin within Japan's cryptocurrency landscape. This move is particularly noteworthy given Coincheck's stature as a subsidiary of Monex Group, a major securities firm that acquired a controlling interest in Canadian crypto asset management firm 3iQ in December of last year. Coincheck, established in 2014 and boasting a user base of 1.91 million verified accounts as of January 2024, is poised to play a pivotal role in driving USDC adoption within Japan.Photo by Takashi Miyazaki on UnsplashRegulatory hurdlesRegulatory hurdles remain significant for the widespread adoption of USD-backed digital assets within the east Asian country. Presently, major Japanese cryptocurrency exchanges have refrained from listing such coins, awaiting regulatory approval under the jurisdiction of the Japanese Payment Services Act, which mandates obtaining "Electronic Payment Instrument Services" registration. Despite these challenges, fiat-pegged coins like USDC and USDT continue to enjoy substantial popularity across Asia, reflecting a burgeoning interest in stablecoins as reliable vehicles for value transfer and storage. Oki Matsumoto, managing director and chairman of Coincheck, emphasized the strategic significance of the partnership in catalyzing growth within Japan's crypto ecosystem and the broader blockchain industry. He expressed optimism regarding the collaborative efforts between Coincheck and Circle in advancing the adoption of digital assets in the Japanese market. Circle’s ongoing focus on JapanCircle's engagement with Japan is not unprecedented, as the company had previously entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with SBI Holdings, a formidable player in Japan's financial sector. This partnership aimed to spearhead digital currency innovation, streamline cross-border transactions and enhance liquidity in the digital asset market. Last month Circle identified the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region as being ripe for stablecoin adoption. It outlined that it was particularly encouraged by the ongoing development of forward-looking regulatory frameworks in Asian centers like Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan. In a parallel development, Circle recently announced a partnership with Overdare, a joint venture which was originally formed in September between gaming firms Krafton and Naver Z, poised to redefine the landscape of mobile user-generated content (UGC) gaming. This collaboration seeks to empower game content creators by integrating Circle's user-controlled Programmable Wallets, enabling them to seamlessly receive USDC payouts for their creative endeavors. Circle's foray into the creator economy through its collaboration with Overdare demonstrates another strategy that the company is employing to bring about adoption and gain traction in the market, pivoting towards Web3 innovation and its emphasis on development within the APAC region. With USDC boasting a market capitalization of approximately $27 billion and circulating supply exceeding $24 billion, as reported in its December 2023 reserve attestation, Circle's strategic partnerships with Coincheck and Overdare herald the latest efforts to trigger adoption within the Japanese and broader APAC region’s cryptocurrency and gaming spheres.   

MAS and NY Fed Publish Report on CBDC Cross-Border PaymentsNew York’s Federal Reserve Bank and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) have collaborated on an endeavor titled “Project Cedar Phase II x Ubin+,” examining the use of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) for wholesale cross-border payments using one or more vehicle currencies.The joint effort has culminated in the publication of a report detailing their findings and results. Commenting on the initiative, MAS Managing Director Leong Sing Chiong stated:“The Cedar x Ubin+ experiment envisages a future digital currency landscape where central banks can enable interoperability of wholesale CBDCs to facilitate more efficient cross-border payment flows including for less liquid currencies, without requiring a common infrastructure.”Photo by NASA on UnsplashExploiting positive DLT characteristicsSpecifically, the New York Innovation Center (NYIC) of the NY Fed was the entity that contributed directly towards the research project. The work built on previous phases of Project Cedar. The objective was to explore perceived advantages of digital ledger technology (DLT) such as reduced settlement risk and reduced settlement time, in the context of cross-border payments.The conventional system primarily uses the SWIFT financial messaging network. The approach is highly inefficient. It’s time-consuming and needlessly ties capital up in vostro and nostro accounts (accounts held for another entity from an account another entity holds). Tying up capital proves to be a liquidity headache for corporations and any business entity that gets involved with international trade settlement.Smart contracts and off-chain messagingAgainst that backdrop, the project team was focusing on harnessing the ability to effect atomic or real-time settlement using DLT. Having commenced the work in November, the project team decided to rely on hashed timelock smart contracts in order to bridge distinct ledgers, so as to effect cross-currency and cross-border transactions.According to the report, the proposed system also relied on off-chain messaging functionality. Cross-border trade settlement often involves a number of stakeholders. Off-chain messaging can be beneficial in disseminating information relative to the process to all stakeholders.The researchers found that each simulated payment scenario achieved end-to-end settlement in under thirty seconds on average, realizing the goal of near real-time settlement. In turn, that speed of settlement meant that stakeholders could be notified of payment finality within a matter of seconds. Certainty of settlement, and thus reduction in counterparty risk was achieved by simulating atomic settlement, such that transactions only settled if all legs in the cross-currency payment chain executed successfully.From the point of view of interoperability and autonomy, the experiment demonstrated the ability to safely execute across multiple ledgers without the need to involve a centralized clearing authority or the establishment of a shared central network.The Bank of International Settlement (BIS) recently highlighted the finding that on a daily basis, $2.2 trillion of foreign exchange transactions don’t use a payment versus payment (PvP) settlement mechanism. PvP is a less risky form of settlement where two currency legs are exchanged simultaneously. Singapore is more exposed than most in this regard. Therefore, the use of DLT to counteract that risk in line with the experiment’s findings would be a progressive step.