Mammoth Foundation signs deal with the Philippines’ AFAB for blockchain business collaboration

Zodia Custody to Commence Yield Offering on StablecoinsIn a play that’s designed to entice institutional investors, Zodia Custody, a portfolio company of Japanese financial services conglomerate SBI, is gearing up to offer a yield on digital assets.Photo by CoinWire Japan on UnsplashIntroducing “Zodia Custody Yield”The crypto startup has introduced “Zodia Custody Yield,” a crypto staking option designed to reward holders of crypto assets stored within its platform. The initiative has been launched in partnership with Singapore-based DeFi platform OpenEden. It promises returns on stablecoins although full details on the offering remain undisclosed.Jeremy Ng, Co-Founder of OpenEden, expressed his belief in the potential of cryptocurrencies to generate substantial passive income for their holders. Ng stated:“There are billions of dollars worth of stablecoins sitting on the sidelines when they could easily be generating yields for investors.”TradFi embracing digital assetsZodia’s move aligns with a growing trend in the financial industry. Yesterday, a leading US bank, Citi, disclosed its collaboration with Maersk to facilitate services that convert funds into digital assets. The primary goal is to enable the bank’s customers to execute nearly instantaneous payments, unrestricted by traditional business hours.Simultaneously, several prominent asset management firms are awaiting a pivotal decision from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding their applications to launch a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). This list includes major players such as BlackRock, Invesco, WisdomTree, ARK Invest, Valkyrie, and Franklin Templeton. BlackRock, the frontrunner in the efforts being expended towards ETF approval, submitted its application for a spot Bitcoin ETF on June 16.In a recent interview, Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas said that he expects $150 billion in capital to flow into the Bitcoin market within two years of a spot Bitcoin ETF approval in the US.The financial strategies of these entities now prominently feature blockchain and crypto-based products, once considered niche but now integral to their operations. Nonetheless, even with widespread anticipation of the approval of BlackRock’s ETF, the firm faces substantial obstacles. US regulators have subjected BlackRock to intense scrutiny due to concerns regarding its ties to China. Additionally, political figures have criticized the asset manager for prioritizing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria over investor returns.Zodia was spun out of British multinational banking firm Standard Chartered. The bank has a positive outlook relative to crypto. In a bold prediction made in June, the UK-based bank forecasted that the value of Bitcoin could potentially surge to $50,000 by the end of the year, with an even more optimistic projection of $120,000 for 2024.In 2021 Standard Chartered, in collaboration with Northern Trust, a leading asset servicing firm, founded Zodia Custody. Since its inception, the venture has garnered a respectable level of success. It successfully secured $36 million in investments and solidified a partnership with SBI Digital Asset Holdings, enabling its expansion into the Japanese market.In May, the firm launched its crypto custodian service in Dubai, having signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC). In June, Zodia partnered with blockchain infrastructure provider Blockdaemon, in an effort to further its crypto staking offering. Earlier this month, the company announced its arrival in Singapore, with a view towards expanding its digital asset custody service there.

British multinational banking conglomerate Standard Chartered has partnered with global crypto exchange OKX in Dubai on a collateral mirroring pilot program.Photo by appshunter.io on UnsplashOff-chain collateralIn a press release published on April 10, the companies set out details of the collaboration. The initiative will facilitate institutional clients to utilize digital assets and tokenized money market funds for trading as off-chain collateral. Trading activity requires the ongoing movement of funds and assets between custodians and exchange platforms. The activity is expensive and slow. Back in 2023, OKX had collaborated with crypto custodian Komainu and asset manager CoinShares to enable collateral mirroring to overcome this operational inefficiency. In that instance, CoinShares was enabled to trade on OKX using a collateral mirroring facility provided by OKX with Komainu acting as asset custodian. This latest initiative has also seen OKX work with alternative investment management firm Brevan Howard, global investment management company Franklin Templeton and local regulator in Dubai, the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA).  Developed within regulatory frameworkThe collateral mirroring facility has been established on a pilot program basis to start with, having been developed within the regulatory framework established in Dubai by VARA. Standard Chartered will act as the digital asset custodian as part of the arrangement.  The press release points out that Standard Chartered is a Globally Systemically Important Bank (G-SIB), asserting that this will afford clients a higher level of security. By not having to manually move the digital assets, there is an additional security-related process improvement, given the ongoing risks associated with digital assets held on exchanges due to incidents of hacking. Hong Fang, OKX president, provided some insight into why the company has partnered with Standard Chartered, stating:”By leveraging Standard Chartered's position as a top custodian globally, as well as OKX's market leadership in cryptocurrency trading, the partnership sets an industry standard for current and potential institutional clients to deploy trading capital at scale in a trusted environment." OKX CEO Star Xu outlined on X that the service offering is geared towards tokenized money market funds with the aim of improving capital efficiency and counterparty risk protection. Standard Chartered launched its crypto custody services in Dubai last September. The service was established in partnership with Brevan Howard Digital, having been licensed by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), the independent regulator for financial service providers located within the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), an economic free zone. In October 2024, OKX selected Standard Chartered as its digital asset custodian for the crypto exchange platform’s institutional clients. First clientsBrevan Howard Digital and Franklin Templeton will participate as the first clients to trial the new service offering. Furthermore, as part of the collaboration, OKX platform users will gain access to tokenized on-chain assets developed and offered by Franklin Templeton. Franklin Templeton’s head of digital assets, Roger Bayston, commented on the firm’s on-chain product offering, stating: “By ensuring assets are minted on-chain, we enable true ownership, allowing them to move and settle at blockchain speed – eliminating the need for traditional infrastructure.”

Upbit Launches Campaign for Recovery of Mistakenly Transferred AssetsUpbit, the cryptocurrency exchange operated by Dunamu, announced on Tuesday (local time) that it is launching a campaign where users can get back the digital assets that they have transferred mistakenly as part of heightened efforts to protect investors and minimize their losses due to such errors.Photo by Luis Villasmil on UnsplashRole of secondary identifiersAmong the virtual assets that Upbit allows users to deposit, some require users to accurately input their unique identifiers — like a Destination Tag (D.tag) or Memo — in order to properly process a deposit. A D.tag or Memo is an additional address used to identify a transaction recipient beyond a wallet address, which is often required when trading altcoins like Ripple (XRP) and Monero (XMR). In the case of XRP, both the exchange address and the D.tag must be entered accurately for deposits to be processed properly.Enhancing investor convenienceHowever, misdirected transfers caused by incorrect or missing secondary deposit addresses occur quite frequently. Many users also remain unaware when their virtual assets have been mistakenly transferred.In response to this issue, Dunamu has organized its latest campaign to make it easier for Upbit users to recover the virtual assets that they mistakenly sent. A user can access the campaign page on the official Upbit website and search for the transaction ID (TXID) of the deposit where the secondary address was either not entered or entered incorrectly. If a matching deposit is found, they can click “Apply for Recovery” to submit a one-on-one inquiry.Previously, users were required to manually enter information such as the name and quantity of the cryptocurrency, as well as the TXID in the one-on-one inquiry. Now, this information is automatically filled in through the TXID search, boosting user convenience.In an effort to encourage campaign participation, Dunamu also said that it will waive all fees for the recovery of mistakenly transferred assets until the end of the year.As of July, the exchange has successfully processed over 99.5% of the total 45,474 recovery requests that it has received over the past five years by leveraging its industry-leading technical expertise.“Upbit will continue its efforts to protect user assets and provide convenient services,” Dunamu said.Global recognitionMeanwhile, Upbit has secured 9th place in the Kaiko Exchange Ranking for the third quarter of 2023, ranking first among Korean exchanges. Kaiko is a crypto market data company with offices in Paris, London, New York, and Singapore.The ranking evaluates exchanges based on the following criteria: governance (30%), security (20%), liquidity (15%), business (15%), technology (10%), and data quality (10%). Upbit earned a score of 76 points.Coming in first overall on the list was Coinbase with 90 points, directly followed by Bitstamp and Kraken with 86 and 82 points, respectively. Among Korean exchanges, Korbit ranked 15th worldwide with 72 points, followed by Bithumb in 17th with 72 points, then Coinone in 27th with 59 points.