Coinbase Signals Interest in UAE Base

With Thailand just having elected its youngest-ever Prime Minister (PM), speculation has arisen within the crypto sector as to whether the new appointee will be bullish where digital assets are concerned. On Sunday, 37-year-old Paetongtarn Shinawatra was sworn in as the Southeast Asian country’s Prime Minister, having received two-thirds of the votes in a House of Representatives ballot on Friday. On Aug. 18, a pseudonymous crypto commentator, @martypartymusic, told his 109,000 followers on X that Shinawatra’s appointment was positive for crypto. He wrote:”She is a crypto bull. Her father was a crypto bull. IMO: Thailand could be next to adopt crypto as legal tender. Let’s watch it play out."Photo by Evan Krause on UnsplashDigital wallet programShinawatra has committed to continuing a similar approach to policy as followed by her predecessor, Srettha Thavisin. That will include an emphasis on pursuing economic reform and accommodating economic stimulus measures.  One crypto-related measure introduced by her predecessor is the digital wallet handout project. According to Nikkei Asia, the scheme has been burdened with both legal and budgetary challenges. Kasit Piromya, a former Thai Foreign Minister, is understood to have said that Shinawatra would be committing “political suicide” if she continues to drive that project forward.  It’s understood that she has indicated that the government will continue with the project but that it plans to take steps to ensure that the program can proceed in a financially sustainable way. Shinawatra’s Pheu Thai Party had first floated the notion of giving 10,000 baht in digital assets, at the time valued at $300, in April 2023, to Thai citizens above the age of 16. Further moves were made to progress that $14 billion project earlier this year. While insiders have reported that Shinawatra has been non-committal about the digital wallet project, she has been quoted as stating previously that “the digital wallet scheme is a project we intend to use as a major economic stimulus.” As various commentators speculate on her likely course of action, the reality is that these matters will remain unclear until such time as she appoints a cabinet and announces relevant policies. Tanawat Sutunthivorakoon, the CEO of Thai digital asset management platform Bitazza Thailand, expressed the view that this change in leadership will have very little impact on the development of digital asset regulation in the Southeast Asian country. Regulatory developmentThe country has seen a number of crypto-positive developments over recent months. Back in March, the country’s tax authority approved a crypto income tax exemption in an effort to incentivize crypto-based fundraising. The authorities had already made crypto trading VAT-free the previous month. Earlier this month, Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) introduced a digital asset regulatory sandbox in an effort to foster innovation relative to the digital assets sector. The SEC allowed institutional investors in Thailand to access U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) products. In June, the regulator followed up by approving the country’s first spot Bitcoin ETF.

HTX experiences $258 million outflow post-hackHTX, the digital-asset trading platform associated with Chinese-born crypto mogul Justin Sun, has witnessed a substantial net outflow of $258 million since resuming operations after a significant security breach.According to Bloomberg, data from DefiLlama indicates that the outflow occurred between the exchange’s restart on Nov. 25 and Dec. 10, signaling unease among some clients following last month’s cyberattack. In November, HTX reported a loss of $30 million in crypto tokens due to the breach, prompting a temporary suspension of withdrawals and deposits.Towards the end of last month, the platform re-enabled withdrawal services for major cryptocurrencies, gradually bringing the exchange back to full service, supporting withdrawal of all digital assets.Photo by Amritanshu Sikdar on UnsplashMultiple hacksJustin Sun is also associated with the Poloniex exchange and the HECO Bridge, a network established by HTX for blockchain transfers. Both Poloniex and HECO fell victim to hacks in November, resulting in the theft of approximately $200 million in crypto. It’s worth noting that hackers had previously stolen $8 million from the HTX platform in September.HTX, which was formerly known as Huobi up until a business rebrand in September, boasts an average trading volume of $1.5 billion in the past 24 hours, securing its position as the fifteenth largest exchange when measured in terms of trading volume.Increased vigilanceIn the wake of several high-profile crypto platform failures in 2022, digital-asset investors are increasingly vigilant about monitoring flows and reserves at virtual currency exchanges. In particular, that trend gained momentum after the FTX platform’s collapse last year due to fraud.November turned out to be the most damaging month this year so far in terms of platform digital asset theft. Exit scams and exploits encountered during the month totaled a staggering $363 million in losses.In October, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) included HTX, alongside KuCoin, on a warning list, due to their promotion of services in the UK, without having obtained the required regulatory approvals.A third of reserves in BitcoinDefiLlama data reveals that Bitcoin constitutes the largest portion of HTX’s reserves, accounting for approximately 33%. Tron’s TRX token, launched by Sun in 2017, represents around 32% of the reserves. HTX’s native exchange coin, HT, makes up 14%, followed by a Sun-backed token named stUSDT at 12%.In August, Travis Kling, Founder of Ikigai Asset Management, had this warning relative to Sun and HTX:”Justin Sun is a criminal. There’s a hole in Huobi, a hole in TUSD and a hole in Tron DeFi. Act accordingly.”TRX, at the center of U.S. fraud allegations against Sun, prompted a March lawsuit by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), accusing him and his firms of market manipulation to inflate the token’s trading activity. Sun dismissed the suit on the X social media platform back in March, stating that it “lacks merit.” On Sunday, Sun claimed that the Tron blockchain network which he founded had reached a new milestone of 200 million users.Despite security firm BlockSec reporting the recovery of the $8 million stolen in September, hackers still appear to control the $30 million taken last month. The ongoing situation raises concerns about the security measures and resilience of HTX in the face of persistent cyber threats.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has outlined that it has established a community initiative relative to its recently launched Project Ensemble tokenization market development effort. 'Project Ensemble Architecture Community'In a press release on May 7, the Hong Kong regulator set out the establishment of the “Project Ensemble Architecture Community.” Project Ensemble was launched two months ago on March 7. At the time, the regulator described the project as “a new wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC) project to render support to the development of the tokenisation market in Hong Kong.” The HKMA is trying to create an environment in which it can “develop standards” for the emerging tokenization market, with particular emphasis on the use of a wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC). The Chinese autonomous territory’s central bank has launched the “Project Ensemble Architecture Community,” with a view towards supporting interoperability between a wholesale CBDC, tokenized money and tokenized assets. The HKMA has outlined the community's primary objective, stating it aims to provide recommendations on various topics, with initial emphasis on devising a mechanism to facilitate seamless interbank settlement of tokenized deposits through wCBDC for tokenized asset transactions.Photo by Jimmy Chan on PexelsPublic and private sector participantsFurthermore, the working group intends to support the design and execution of Project Ensemble. Notable participants in the "Architecture Community" include the HKMA itself, Hong Kong’s other financial regulator, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), the BIS Innovation Hub Hong Kong Centre, the CBDC Expert Group and seven private sector entities.  Among these are Bank of China (Hong Kong), Hang Seng Bank, HSBC, Standard Chartered Hong Kong, HashKey Group, Ant Digital Technologies and Microsoft Hong Kong. Hashkey Group owns one of two Hong Kong-regulated cryptocurrency exchanges, HashKey Exchange. It also runs a brokerage, asset manager and tokenization platform, amongst other entities. Ant was recently involved in a tokenized deposit trial with HSBC. Regulatory sandboxOne of the first matters on the agenda for the newly-formed Community is to make recommendations about using a wCBDC for interbank settlement of tokenized deposits. Following that, the project plans to work towards the design and implementation of the Project Ensemble Sandbox which will launch in the coming months. The HKMA has been actively testing its CBDC and commenced the second phase of the e-HKD pilot in March. This phase of the pilot program is slated to extend until mid-2025. The journey towards exploring CBDCs in Hong Kong dates back to 2017, with the authorities intensifying their focus on researching a potential e-HKD in 2021, spanning both wholesale and retail levels. With the participation of key stakeholders from both the public and private sectors, including leading financial institutions and technology firms, the initiative appears to be well-positioned to drive innovation and address the evolving needs of the financial industry in Hong Kong.