Korean Drama Studio Unveils Web3-Based Project Featuring BTS Universe

KITC Cooperates with Buysell Standards to Develop Security Token Products in KoreaKorea Investment and Securities Co. (KITC), a leading securities company in South Korea, has partnered with Buysell Standards, the operator of the fractional investment platform PIECE, to jointly develop security token services.Photo by Tierra Mallorca on UnsplashNon-traditional securitiesAccording to a report from local news outlet News1, the two entities have agreed to collaborate comprehensively on security token products. This includes offering non-traditional securities such as investment contracts and non-monetary trust contracts, establishing infrastructure for launching investment products on token issuance platforms, and setting up processes for trust agreements.Buysell Standards has been expanding its range of fractional investment products from art and luxury goods to ships. The company has successfully completed various blockchain-related projects, including the development of its own blockchain mainnet for security token issuance.KITC’s security token effortsIn March, KITC established ST Friends, an alliance established in cooperation with Internet-only banks Kakao Bank and Toss Bank. The alliance has been actively working towards commercializing security tokens by signing business agreements with fractional investment firms like content investment platform Funderful and proptech platform Valuemap Corp. Proptech, the abbreviation of property technology, refers to the use of information technology to facilitate real estate buying, selling, and management.KITC believes that the partnership with Buysell Standards will accelerate the process of providing innovative financial products. Choi Seo-ryong, the head of the platform division at KITC, expressed excitement about collaborating with Buysell Standards, renowned for its expertise in digitizing real-world assets (RWAs). Choi emphasized KITC’s commitment to converting various content that we encounter in our daily lives into security tokens.Last month, KITC inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Open Asset, a blockchain fintech company based in Seoul, to develop a distributed ledger system for ST Friends.Similarly, Buysell Standards has also been proactive in forming partnerships for security token projects. In February and April, the fractional investment platform operator entered into collaborations with Shinhan Securities and KB Securities, respectively.

Korean crypto exchange Upbit adds one-second interval chartsSouth Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Upbit, now offers one-second interval charts for its users.Dunamu, the blockchain and fintech company behind Upbit, announced on Friday (local time) that it has introduced a one-second interval feature to Upbit’s “original” charts. This makes Upbit the first Korean cryptocurrency exchange to offer this functionality.Photo by m. on UnsplashResponding to user demandUpbit has rolled out this one-second interval feature in response to user demand. This addition facilitates a broader range of investment strategies, allowing Upbit users to fine-tune their decisions based on their investment preferences. Now, the time frames available on Upbit are 1 second, 1 minute, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 4 hours, 1 day, 1 week and 1 month.A representative from Upbit said that they have incorporated the one-second interval feature into their original charts to provide users with quick and easy access to virtual asset price information for their investments. The official added that the company will remain committed to fostering a user-friendly and comfortable trading environment.Available on both web and mobileUsers can access the one-second interval feature on both the web and app versions of Upbit. To utilize this feature, they can select the “1s” time frame on the original charts found under the “Exchange” tab of Upbit.

Animoca Indicates Fund Interest From Console MakersThe head of Animoca Ventures has said that Web3 gaming is attracting the interest of veterans of the gaming world as well as that of “key Japanese console makers.”Animoca Ventures is a subsidiary company of Hong Kong-headquartered Web3 gaming and NFT firm, Animoca Brands. In a conversation with The Block recently, James Ho explained that although Web3 gaming has seen a short to medium-term downtrend when using the pricing of gaming-related tokens as the metric, the Animoca Ventures lead is seeing interest coming from “some of the best, most profound veterans in gaming.”Photo by Albie Patacsil on UnsplashProof of interestHo elaborated that there are a host of examples that back up his claim. He referred to FunPlus’s investment in global cross-platform play-and-earn games developer and publisher, Xterio. FunPlus itself is a Switzerland-headquartered independent games developer and publisher with offices and operations in China, Singapore, Canada, Spain, and the United States. Xterio raised $40 million in a funding round led by FunPlus in August of last year, with funding going towards building out its platform alongside further game development.Ho also cited Square Enix, a Japanese gaming conglomerate that has shown an interest in blockchain-based gaming in recent years. In April, it announced that it was tripling down on blockchain by partnering with Web3 platform Elixir. The objective of the collaboration is to generate visibility and adoption of Web3 gaming among traditional gamers.It’s also understood that Chinese tech giant Tencent has had a games studio under its group of companies which is believed to be building a blockchain-based first-person shooter game. Meanwhile, French video game publishing behemoth Ubisoft is an investor in Animoca Brands while also participating in a crypto-focused fund run by multi-stage technology investment platform, White Star Capital.Console-maker intentMost notable from Ho’s interview, though, is his claim that “key Japanese console makers” have an interest right now in pursuing Web3 gaming. That’s incredibly significant because if Web3 can conquer the consoles, it will truly be a mass-market affair at that point.Ho elaborated: “Console makers never cared about free-to-play until it grew into multi-million users, what we’re seeing here now is some of the console makers with their deep pockets want to get involved in potentially a fund to stay on top of innovation… And that to me is a signal that they want to build something in this space in the near future, or not too distant future.”The Animoca Ventures lead talked about “key Japanese console makers,” specifically in the context of interest expressed by them in investing in a second early-stage venture fund that Animoca is considering. The expression of interest has become evident to the company as it’s a response it received having touted the prospect of establishing the fund.It’s interesting to hear that Animoca is actively pitching the notion of raising another fund, as it had been speculated that the firm has scaled down some of its existing funds. It’s understood that the firm was working on the new fund in November of last year, initially proposing a target of $2 billion. Once January came around, Animoca took the decision to scale that target back by half to $1 billion.The company denies that reporting on the subject, suggesting instead that the original target of the fund was $1 billion from the outset.