Grab joins hands with StraitsX to enable stablecoin retail payments across Asia

Bithumb META Offers Metaverse Fashion Experience at Preview in Seoul 2023Bithumb META, the metaverse subsidiary of leading South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb, is participating in the 24th annual Preview in Seoul 2023, Korea’s largest international textile fair organized by the Korea Federation of Textile Industries. The company is using its metaverse, Naemo World, to present the integration of fashion into the metaverse and vice versa.Photo by Amanda Vick on UnsplashFashion’s future unveiledUnder the theme of “Dramatic Core,” this year’s Preview in Seoul is the largest to date with 746 booths from 14 countries participating. Participants are responsible for showcasing materials, textiles, and machinery that represent a future of elevated value.In particular, the digital fashion zone features prominent tech companies from both Korea and abroad and showcases the future of the textile fashion industry’s expansion into the metaverse. Visitors can experience firsthand fashion in the metaverse through artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR) technologies.Envisioning fashion in the metaverseTo shed light on the future of digital fashion commerce, Bithumb META created a setup where visitors can dive into Naemo World to virtually replicate real-world environments and items — such as clothing made of high-quality garments — through digital twin technology.Attendees can customize their avatars and explore the brand halls of fashion brand Hazzys and athletic gear brand HEAD in Naemo World. They will also be led through a realistic shopping experience within the metaverse — this includes the entire process, from trying on clothing pieces featured in the brands’ 2023 fall/winter season collections to ordering and purchasing products and getting them delivered in the real world.“At this year’s Preview in Seoul, Bithumb META unveiled some of the blueprints for the future of Naemo World’s integration with real-world products and services,” said Bithumb META CEO Cho Hyun-sik.He added that the company would continue to expand and develop Naemo World’s ecosystem to be used for various purposes.Bithumb META also contributed to the planning and development of an ultra-realistic, three-dimensional showroom using Unreal Engine 5, a real-time 3D creation tool developed by Epic Games.Preview in Seoul 2023 is currently being held at Starfield COEX Mall in southern Seoul until Friday.

OPNX Makes a Play for Struggling Crypto Lender HodlnautIn a strategic move OPNX, the crypto claims trading platform associated with the founders of failed Singaporean crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC), is eyeing the acquisition of Hodlnaut, a beleaguered crypto lender currently undergoing court-supervised restructuring in Singapore.Photo by Meriç Dağlı on UnsplashCompelling offerThat’s according to a person familiar with the matter cited by Bloomberg News on Sunday, together with a term sheet seen by Bloomberg. It’s understood that OPNX has presented a compelling offer to infuse Hodlnaut with a much-needed capital injection of approximately $30 million worth of FLEX digital tokens.These tokens are closely tied to CoinFLEX, a trading platform that ran into difficulty in 2022, co-founded by Mark Lamb and Sudhu Arumugam. The Seychelles-based company rebranded and relaunched as OPNX earlier this year with the 3AC founders on board. The FLEX token holds a current market valuation of around $647 million, according to CoinGecko data.Partial creditor payoutThe OPNX proposal aims to fund a partial creditor payout to facilitate the resolution of pending claims. This proposal comes on the heels of efforts by Hodlnaut’s directors to reach out directly to its users, a move that was met with objections by the interim judicial managers overseeing Hodlnaut’s restructuring. A letter dated July 29 from the administrators confirms this development.Under the terms of the deal outlined in a term sheet, OPNX’s capital injection through FLEX tokens would translate into a 75% ownership stake in Hodlnaut. The restructuring plan, if approved by creditors, would see these creditors receiving 30% of their claims in FLEX and other tokens. Alternatively, they would be entitled to a pro-rata payment of up to 95% of the total available corporate assets, whichever is more favorable to them.Hodlnaut, headquartered in Singapore with operations also in Hong Kong, got caught up in crypto market turbulence, leading to a suspension of withdrawals a year ago. Subsequently, it embarked on a court-monitored restructuring journey in Singapore. Neither Hodlnaut nor its judicial managers have provided immediate comments on the OPNX bid.The founders of Hodlnaut, Simon Lee and Zhu Juntao, had earlier proposed a business sale as a preferable alternative to liquidation. This proposal aimed to provide better outcomes for creditors, who had initially expressed preference for liquidation over a proposed restructuring plan earlier in the year.OPNX reprimandThe journey of both OPNX and Hodlnaut is also marked by legal and regulatory challenges. In April, authorities in Dubai reprimanded Su Zhu, Kyle Davies, Mark Lamb, OPNX’s CEO Leslie Lamb, and Sudhu Arumugam for operating and promoting OPNX without the required local license. Meanwhile, the liquidators of 3AC have alleged a lack of cooperation by Zhu and Davies, as they seek to recover $1.3 billion from the duo, reflecting the losses preceding the fund’s downfall.The 3AC founders recently claimed that they would donate OPNX profits to 3AC creditors. However, Kyle Davies is fighting the efforts of the 3AC liquidator to reclaim funds from the founders.

Crypto Winter Halves Korean Bank Fee ProfitsLast year, Korean banks collected only half the amount in fees from crypto exchanges compared to the previous year, according to Korean news agency News1.©Pexels/PixabayDeclining bank fee profitsFiles submitted by the Korean Financial Services Commission to Yun Chang-hyun, a member of the ruling People Power Party, revealed that the five major Korean crypto exchanges paid 20.4 billion KRW (~$15.6 million) in fees to banks last year, which is a 49.4% decrease from the previous year’s 40.3 billion KRW (~$30.7 million). These exchanges (Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax) have established agreements with banks to hold real-name bank accounts, which is a legal requirement for exchanges that wish to conduct trades in Korean won.Banks that have provided real-name accounts to crypto exchanges saw an increase in fee profits from 2019 to 2021. However, due to a decline in market sentiment last year, trade volume decreased, resulting in a reduction of bank fees. Last year’s crypto winter is attributable to various factors, including uncertainties in the global economy and collapses of crypto enterprises such as Terraform Labs and FTX.Fees by exchangesIn terms of fees paid to banks by exchanges last year, the largest exchange, Upbit, paid 13.9 billion KRW (~$10.6 million) in fees to Kbank, a mobile banking service provider. Bithumb and Coinone paid 4.9 billion KRW (~$3.7 million) and 989 million KRW (~$750,000) in fees to NH Bank, respectively. It is worth noting that Coinone switched its bank from NH Bank to Kakao Bank last November, paying 72 million KRW (~$55,000) to Kakao Bank in the fourth quarter. Korbit paid 486 million KRW (~$370,000) and 19 million KRW (~$14,500) to Shinhan Bank and Jeonbuk Bank, respectively. Gopax partnered with Jeonbuk Bank to obtain its real-name accounts in April last year.Lawmaker Yun said it was apparent that partnerships were being forged between only a handful of banks and crypto enterprises. Current regulations have to be reviewed to encourage more banks to participate in various blockchain businesses, he added.