Upbit Reassures Investors Following False APT Token Deposits

The Seoul Metropolitan Government has launched a new initiative designed to help South Korean fintech firms expand into global markets. According to a Nov. 18 press release, the city and its blockchain partner, Catalyze Research, will utilize the XRP Ledger (XRPL), Ripple Labs’ public blockchain, to provide technology-focused mentorship and facilitate networking with overseas partners.Photo by Kanchanara on UnsplashFunding for global growthParticipating startups are eligible to receive up to $200,000 each, with the total funding pool capped at $1.8 million. The Seoul government anticipates that this initiative will assist early-stage ventures in establishing a meaningful presence in the global marketplace. Selected participants will receive mentorship from Catalyze Research on entering the blockchain ecosystem via the XRP Ledger, refining business models, and developing multichain strategies. The program is open to applicants working in a variety of specific sectors, including blockchain payments, asset tokenization, cross-border transfers, decentralized identifiers (DIDs), decentralized finance (DeFi), and regulatory technology. Beyond the core business training, Seoul is offering technical workshops that allow participants to explore complex topics such as XRPL-based issuance, liquidity configuration, fee optimization, and security architecture in greater depth. Follow-up support programs will continue to assist participating ventures after the initial phase, offering help with investor relations and jurisdiction-specific regulatory consulting. Pilot projects with overseas partners are also planned to further support company growth. The capital’s move to back crypto ventures follows its recognition in the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI), produced annually by the London-based think tank Z/Yen and the China Development Institute (CDI). In the latest report released in September, Seoul ranked eighth in fintech among 135 cities. Price swings amid XRP ETF debutsWhile the city pushes to grow the country’s blockchain sector, XRP, the native asset of the XRP Ledger, has faced market headwinds. According to CoinMarketCap data, the token’s price dropped more than 15% over the past week amid a broader market downturn. This decline came even after the Nov. 14 launch of XRPC, a Canary Capital–managed ETF that is the first in the U.S. to track the spot price of XRP. Subsequently, the Bitwise XRP ETF is also set to debut on the New York Stock Exchange on Nov. 20. Amid the recent price weakness, XRP’s retail positioning offers a more nuanced backdrop. Glassnode’s Nov. 19 update estimates the average retail cost basis for the token at roughly $2.17, putting the typical holder about 61% in profit. The firm’s analysis a day earlier showed, at the network-wide level, 58.5% of the total supply in profit and 41.5% held at a loss—a structure that the firm said reflected a market dominated by recent buyers and prone to volatility.

Linear Finance Dealing With LUSD ExploitLinear Finance, the Hong Kong-based DeFi protocol, made an announcement by way of a blog post published to the project’s website on Thursday, suggesting that the project’s native stablecoin, LUSD, has come under attack.Photo by Markus Spiske on UnsplashTaking precautionary actionThis security breach has prompted the team to take immediate action to safeguard user accounts and the project’s integrity. The project team is actively investigating the exploit attack on LUSD. It has issued a stern warning to its users, advising them against buying or trading LUSD until the team can confirm the situation’s status.This measure is aimed at preventing further complications and ensuring the community’s interests remain protected. Furthermore, the project has temporarily suspended liquidations to secure users’ accounts. This step has been taken to mitigate immediate concerns and ensure that no user faces undue losses as a result of the exploit.Assets disposed on PancakeSwap & AscendexAmid the ongoing investigation, Linear Finance’s team has pledged to provide timely updates as soon as more information becomes available. In explaining away the nature of the attack, the project team clarified:”The attacker was able to mint an unlimited supply of LAAVE and subsequently traded the liquid asset to LUSD on the Linear Exchange, prior to selling it on PancakeSwap and Ascendex.”Project responseIn its efforts to deal with the issue, the Linear Finance project team has engaged an on-chain data specialist to track down the attackers. The Linear bridge contract has been disabled relative to LUSD. All protocol contracts that allow tokens to be minted, exchanged, or burnt have been paused. Meanwhile, wallets identified as having been involved in the protocol exploit have been shared with the authorities and major cryptocurrency exchanges.Synthetic asset protocolLinear Finance creates synthetic assets with the protocol design enabling unlimited liquidity. The network has been built on top of the Ethereum blockchain. As a consequence of activity surrounding the exploit, trading of LUSD over the course of the past 24 hours has proven to be out of the ordinary. At the time of writing volume over the past 24-hour period had increased by 8412%. The current market price of the stablecoin stands at $0.9874.Protocol and network hacks and exploits have been coming in thick and fast in recent days. Hong Kong crypto exchange CoinEx has been trying to recover from a $70 million hack on the platform over recent days. Meanwhile, Seychelles-headquartered peer-to-peer crypto platform Remitano suffered a $2.7 million hack late last week.On Wednesday, the project team behind DeFi protocol Balancer warned network users that the Balancer front-end user interface was under attack. The Ethereum-based DeFi network fell victim to another exploit last month, resulting in losses in the region of $900,000.In the dynamic crypto sector, unforeseen events like potential exploits can disrupt the market and sow uncertainty. The issue remains a major challenge both for centralized exchange platforms and DeFi protocols.

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.