Bybit Suspends UK Services Due to New Marketing Regulations

Alchemy Pay, a Singapore-based platform that supports fiat to crypto purchases across 173 countries using Visa, Mastercard, regional mobile wallets and domestic transfers, has announced that it now provides a rupee-denominated on-ramp using India’s UPI real-time payments system.Photo by rupixen.com on UnsplashIn a recent blog post, the fiat to crypto payments solutions provider outlined that it now has the capacity to more effectively on-ramp India’s 1.4 billion citizens by enabling domestic transfer payments to effect crypto purchases through the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), a popular instant payments system in India. Processing domestic transactionsThe move means that Indian citizens can interact with the platform by way of simple, real-time domestic transfers, with a minimum purchase value of 1250 INR. First introduced in 2016, UPI has been wildly successful. In September 2022, the system recorded a monthly transaction volume of 6.7 billion transactions, representing a movement of $140 billion.The platform has partnered with 358 banks and continues to grow and expand its network. In Alchemy Pay’s home territory of Singapore, UPI has recently secured an integration with PayNow, a Singaporean secure funds transfer service. Referring to the PayNow/UPI integration in its blog post, Alchemy Pay is likely to be extending its UPI-based transfer service as a direct consequence.The payments facilitator claims that its plugin is “now being used by many wallets, DeFi, gaming and NFT marketplaces, as well as exchanges like OKX and LBank.”The Alchemy Pay platform has focused in particular on emerging regional real-time payments platforms. Within emerging markets it supports similar systems such as Pix, SPEI, GCash, Dana and OVO. As the Singaporean start-up puts it, ”simplifying the on-boarding process is crucial for the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies and by enabling local payment options, Alchemy Pay makes the adoption by a growing number of users possible.”Off the back of this expanded service offering, the company is currently inviting developers of Web3 platforms and dApps to get in touch so as to enable them in adding its plugin and integrating its API. Importance of bridging crypto with fiatIn another blog post on Monday, Alchemy Pay underscored the importance of an ability to on/off ramp to and from the crypto ecosystem. The company points out that in its recent history, the crypto space has been a complex and intimidating environment to enter or exit to/from the conventional world. It claims to be playing its part in changing this.According to the firm, its available options of transferring fiat currency to a user’s credit card, savings card or bank account via SWIFT, IBAN or local bank transfer is far more seamless than what has been offered to crypto space participants up until now. These transfers can be effected in minutes, with the platform supporting 22 currencies and payouts facilitated in over 60 countries.The digital assets space doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Current generations were all born into fiat-based monetary systems and naturally enough, the overwhelming majority of wealth is tied up within traditional systems.While digital assets have garnered quite a bit of attention over the course of the past few years, the overall market capitalization of crypto, which stands at $1.2 trillion at the time of publication according to cryptocurrency data aggregator CoinGecko, is only a drop in the bucket by comparison with the wealth that exists within the conventional system. More seamless bridging in line with what Alchemy Pay is offering will be necessary for this space to have a realistic chance of conquering mass market adoption.

Internal Dispute Sees Co-Founder Depart 5ire5ire, the Dubai-based blockchain platform, is facing a departure of one of its co-founders, Vilma Mattila, due to an internal dispute with her fellow co-founders.In discussion with Tech in Asia, Mattila confirmed her upcoming resignation, stating that she disagreed with the management and financial decisions made by the other co-founders without her consent. The exact timeline of her departure was not disclosed.Photo by bady abbas on UnsplashIndian originsMattila, who was already recognized as an angel investor, co-founded 5ire alongside Indian nationals, CEO Pratik Gauri and CTO Prateek Dwivedi. The company gained attention last year after a successful series A funding round that valued it at a remarkable $1.5 billion, establishing its status as a blockchain unicorn.While the start-up project has established itself in Dubai, its origin story leads back to India. In 2022, 5ire entered into a partnership with the Indian government via Atal Tinkering Labs (ATL). ATL is running an initiative to create and promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in India. As part of that program which is being run in more than 10,000 Indian schools, 5ire collaborated with ATL to provide a blockchain module.Although headquartered in Dubai, the project still maintains that it is “a network of local developer communities established in various cities across India.” It has also been active in the country that makes for its administrative home. Last month, Abu Dhabi University in the United Arab Emirates hosted its first 5ire Web3 and blockchain hackathon.The university had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with 5ire in February, with a view towards strengthening blockchain education, research and entrepreneurship, while maintaining a focus on sustainability and accessibility.$100 million raiseIn July 2022, it emerged that 5ire had raised $100 million from the UK-based Sram & Mram Group, an international conglomerate that concerns itself with projects in South and Southeast Asia. It got $10 million on signing the deal, with other tranches to follow. As of January, it had called off $20 million of that funding.5ire is positioning itself as “the world’s first blockchain unicorn with sustainability at its core.” The project seeks to align itself with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set out by the United Nations. It’s a layer one EVM-compatible smart contract platform that focuses on the development of a for-benefit blockchain ecosystem, aligned with the United Nations SDGs.Working towards mainnet releaseThe company has been diligently working on the development of 5irechain, a blockchain designed around the principles of the “Fifth Industrial Revolution,” from which the company derives its name. The launch of its mainnet is anticipated to take place in the coming quarters. In November 2022, it launched its Thunder (Alpha) testnet. Testnet Thunder (Beta) went live in February of this year.As the departure of Vilma Mattila unfolds, the future direction and leadership of 5ire will come under scrutiny. It remains to be seen how this internal dispute will impact the company’s progress and reputation in the blockchain industry.

South Korean Web3 and metaverse game developer OneUniverse announced today that the Champions Mystic Box NFT collection for its Web3 role-playing game (RPG) Champions Arena has sold out in just an hour, according to local news outlet GameTOC on Wednesday (KST), making it the game’s second NFT collection to be completely sold out. Photo by Jack B on UnsplashUnveiling the Champions Mystic BoxA subject of high anticipation among gamers, the Champions Mystic Box includes the game's highest-tiered NFT as well as a new Champion that was revealed for the first time. It also includes an aid with a one-year time limit that was leveraged for driving user response, according to OneUniverse. Prior to the NFT pre-sale, Choi Hwan-jin, the new producer-director (PD) of Champions Arena, held an Ask-Me-Anything (AMA) session with the gaming platform Gala Games to discuss the RPG's updates and improvements, which also contributed to a successful pre-sale. "We are delighted that the first NFT pre-sale after the game’s PD transition sold out so quickly," said Se-jun Go, CEO of OneUniverse. "We will continue to deliver on the game improvement plans we promised our users before the transition and strive to meet their expectations." Diving into the realms of Champions ArenaChampions Arena launched worldwide in August last year and has since then gained popularity for its real-time tactical battles where gamers can collect over 100 adaptable and customizable NFT Champions and various other in-game items. Players can also battle solo or in guilds.  The game is currently available for download on both PC and mobile on the Google Play Store, Apple App Store and Gala Games platform.