Ozys integrates Orbit Swap into SK Telecom’s T Wallet

Gluwa, a San Francisco-based blockchain firm, has become a key partner in Nigeria’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) project, the eNaira, Korean media outlet Seoul Economic Daily reported.   Tapping into Nigeria’s 226M populationGluwa, the issuer of Creditcoin (CTC), announced yesterday that its Nigerian branch Gluwa Nigeria signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Through the MOU, Gluwa Nigeria aims to facilitate the adoption of digital currency in Africa’s largest economy with a 226 million population, by connecting eNaira to Credal, the native API for Gluwa’s Creditcoin network. This integration is expected to enhance Nigeria’s financial ecosystem by recording loan and payment transactions on the Creditcoin network.Photo by Emmanuel Ikwuegbu on UnsplashMaking the financial system more inclusive and efficient The partnership is anticipated to boost financial inclusiveness among many Nigerians who are financially isolated due to their lack of access to traditional financial services. Moreover, the CBN expects that the adoption will improve the eNaira’s functionality and spur innovation in the country’s financial system. Among other objectives of the project is to create an efficient financial infrastructure in the country so that Western fintech firms can easily enter the Nigerian financial market.   Oh Tae-lim, CEO of Gluwa, said the company plans to lay out the project’s blueprint by the end of this year and eventually broaden the acceptance of the eNaira, taking the potential of the digital currency to a new level.  Meanwhile, Gluwa’s native token, CTC, is a real-world asset (RWA) network with a loan transaction volume of KRW 106.8 billion ($80 million) and a user base of 337,000.  

Beleaguered Indian crypto exchange WazirX took to social media on April 21 to clarify to the company’s creditors that it is moving closer towards restarting the platform. While the company hasn’t gone into bankruptcy following a $230 million platform hack which occurred in July of last year, it is going through a restructuring process via the Singapore High Court. Posting on the X social media platform, the company addressed concerns surrounding the restarting of operations.  It said that it understood that users were keen to see the platform restart, while reminding stakeholders that from the outset of the process, it had forecasted a first distribution of user funds and a restart of the platform within the April to May 2025 timeframe. Photo by matthew6910 on UnsplashMay court hearingThe firm outlined that its parent company, Zettai PTE Limited, has accomplished all steps to date, in order to bring about the re-emergence of the platform. It has put forward a scheme of arrangement to the court to distribute assets available to it to creditors and bring the trading platform back online.  It identified a May 13 court date as being pivotal to these plans, when the Singapore High Court will hold a sanction hearing and determine whether it confirms the company’s restructuring plan. WazirX added: “While we’ve worked to stay aligned with the previously shared timelines, court proceedings operate independently, and we respect that process. After the Scheme is sanctioned, the First Distribution and restart will follow within 10 business days from the Effective Scheme Date, as outlined earlier.” 85% payoutEarlier this month, 93% of WazirX creditors, accounting for 94.6% of the overall funds owed, voted in favor of the company’s restructuring plan. As part of the plan, users would be compensated with a payout over several distributions of 85% of the overall funds they held on the platform as of July 18, 2024. The company also plans to issue creditors with a recovery token, in an effort to provide them with further value over time. This communication from the company followed the announcement of a court judgement last week by India’s Supreme Court dismissing a lawsuit filed by 54 WazirX users who have lost funds due to the 2024 hack. While the action was dismissed, one of the plaintiffs pointed out on X that the Supreme Court hadn’t indicated that their action lacked merit. He added:”Our criminal writ petition against #WazirX & Nischal Shetty & others was dismissed on jurisdictional grounds.” On that basis, it would appear that the company may still have to deal with such a complaint if brought via a different forum. Over the course of the past 12 months, the WazirX hack stands out alongside an almost $1.5 billion hack at Bybit. In both cases, fingers have been pointed at notorious North Korean hacking group, Lazarus. According to a report published by Chainalysis last December, $2.2 billion had been stolen from crypto platforms in 2024.

The Stacks Asia DLT Foundation, an organization associated with the Stacks Bitcoin layer-2 network, has become the first Bitcoin-based foundation to establish itself within, and be recognized by, the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM). ADGM is a free zone and international financial centre located on Al Maryah Island within the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In a press release published on April 28, the foundation set out that it has established itself within the ADGM in an effort to further grow the adoption of the Bitcoin layer-2 network within Asia and the Middle East, while leveraging the positive regulatory environment that has been established by the ADGM with regard to distributed ledger technology (DLT).Photo by Joshua Woroniecki on UnsplashAttracting DLT foundationsThe ADGM has played a significant role in positioning the UAE as a go-to location for crypto startups and projects. The Berlin-based IOTA Foundation, developer of the IOTA DLT project, was among the first to establish a foundation within the ADGM to promote use of its network in the Middle East region back in November 2023.Since then, others have followed. In 2024 DLT foundations were established related to blockchain projects such as Kaia, Aptos and Beam. Last month DeFi protocol project NEOPIN announced that it had established a DLT foundation within the ADGM.  The free zone has proven popular not just among DLT foundations, but among crypto startups too. Projects such as Polygon Labs, Chainlink Labs and TON have established a presence there. Regulatory frameworkThe ADGM has its own regulator, the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA), and it established a framework for blockchain foundations in 2023. In establishing the Stacks Asia Foundation within the ADGM, the project would have had to register as a DLT Foundation, while meeting all local legal and regulatory requirements.Kyle Ellicott, interim Executive Director of the Stacks Asia DLT Foundation, commented on the development, providing an insight into why the ADGM was chosen:”We chose to establish our presence in ADGM because of its unparalleled commitment to fostering innovation in the blockchain space. Their forward-thinking approach to policy-making aligns perfectly with the Stacks ecosystem’s history of creating pathways for Bitcoin builders.”  Bitcoin programmabilityThe foundation asserts that it will play a “pivotal role” in forging the future of Bitcoin programmability and its adoption in that respect within Asia and the Middle East.  Referring to Bitcoin while speaking at the Abu Dhabi Digital Assets Forum, Ellicott said that “the once sleepy asset, seen only as a store of value, is now yielding with Layer 2s," through Stacks Bitcoin (sBTC), a 1:1 Bitcoin-backed asset hosted on the Stacks blockchain network. Stacks believes that the next wave of growth for Bitcoin will come through Bitcoin layer-2s. The project claims that unlike wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC), sBTC doesn’t rely on centralized intermediaries. The asset has been designed to extend Bitcoin’s utility, enabling Bitcoin-adjacent DeFi applications and smart contracts. While the project highlights the importance of Bitcoin layer-2 going forward, back in February, Stacks co-founder Muneeb Ali forecast that a shakeout of Bitcoin layer-2 projects will occur, with only a handful of such projects surviving over the course of the next three years.