Local crypto firms in talks with Hong Kong’s SFC on crypto staking

SK Planet and Milk Partners to Propel Blockchain Ecosystem DevelopmentSouth Korean tech company SK Planet announced today a partnership with Milk Partners, the operator of MiL.k, a blockchain-based reward points platform, in order to foster the UPTN blockchain ecosystem. That’s according to a report by local news outlet Edaily. This alliance comes after conglomerate SK Group’s affiliate recently launched its new non-fungible token (NFT) membership program called “Road to Rich.”Photo by Karolina Grabowska on PexelsSK Planet’s NFT initiativeRoad to Rich is an initiative within OK Cashbag, SK Planet’s popular reward points system. In an effort to promote this initiative, the two companies will organize a Road to Rich event on the MiL.k app this month and enable users to exchange between OK Cashbag points and MiL.k points later this year.Milk Partners’ tech contributionMilk Partners’ parent company, Keyinside, has contributed to the development of SK Planet’s blockchain platform UPTN and has been involved in OK Cashbag’s NFT project, providing business consulting and technology development. UPTN, built on the Avalanche network’s subnet, made its debut through OK Cashbag’s NFT initiative, and a dedicated wallet based on UPTN was recently launched.Kim Kyo-soo, the head of the customer experience division at SK Planet, said that the company plans to build the UPTN ecosystem where customers can enjoy various services, including membership benefits, concert tickets, and shopping.Milk Partners CEO Cho Jung-min expressed enthusiasm about the synergies that can be achieved by participating as a major partner in the blockchain project spearheaded by Korea’s major corporate. He added that the two sides will work together to offer valuable and beneficial services to users.

BPMG joins XPLA as validatorSouth Korean blockchain platform developer BPMG has joined South Korean gaming corporation Com2uS Group’s layer 1 blockchain mainnet XPLA as a new node validator, following a partnership deal signed in July agreeing to collaborate on developing Web3 content and technology, according to CoinDesk Korea. As a validator, BPMG will play a crucial role in strengthening transparency, stability and scalability within the XPLA ecosystem.Photo by Shubham’s Web3 on Unsplash“We anticipate that this partnership will not only enhance the XPLA ecosystem’s credibility but also achieve qualitative growth through our collaboration in content and technology,” said Paul Kim, leader of the XPLA team.Competitive gaming and rewardsBPMG operates a Play-to-Earn (P2E) blockchain gaming platform called GemHUB, under which the company recently launched GemPION, a sub-platform dedicated to competitive gaming. GemHUB offers various games, including Number Shoot, Jelly Snake, Find Bird, Push Push Cat and Mayan Cryptex. GemPION allows users to engage in various forms of gaming tournaments and participate in missions to receive rewards.Ecosystem expansionThe two companies also said that they would onboard each other’s games onto their respective platforms. GemPION users will thus be able to participate in gaming leagues using XPLA tokens. “We are delighted to become a validator on XPLA after the previous signing of our content and technology partnership deal. We will work on strengthening our collaboration further by onboarding a variety of XPLA games on GemPION as well,” said Cha Ji-hoon, CEO of BPMG.This comes after Japanese gaming company Gumi recently joined XPLA as a validator as well. XPLA is steadily increasing its number of validators from 50 to 80 this year to build a more robust and trustworthy ecosystem.

FPG Halts Withdrawals Following HackFloating Point Group (FPG), a prominent crypto prime brokerage platform, has temporarily halted trading, deposits, and withdrawals following a cyber security incident that occurred on Sunday.Photo by Thom Milkovic on UnsplashIncident responseFPG, headquartered in Singapore while maintaining a base in Hoboken, New Jersey in the United States, manages over $50 billion in assets. The firm took immediate action upon discovering the incident by engaging third-party forensics experts and law enforcement agencies.The company acknowledged the problem publicly via a tweet thread on Twitter on Wednesday. FPG stated that the company has locked all third-party accounts and secured its wallets while it investigates the extent and details of the breach. Although the full extent of the loss is still under investigation, the current estimate stands at approximately $15 million to $20 million in lost cryptocurrencies.Investigative cooperationIn response to the incident, FPG is collaborating with the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, regulatory bodies, and Chainalysis to comprehend the nature of the attack and initiate asset recovery measures. As the investigation involving those entities is ongoing, specific details are not being disclosed at this stage, but FPG has pledged to provide updates as new information becomes available.The cyber security incident comes six months after FPG obtained a SOC 2 certification, which verifies the implementation of robust security, privacy, and control measures by service organizations to ensure the reliable handling of sensitive data and systems.Originally founded in 2018 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US, FPG functions as both a crypto prime brokerage platform and an agency trading desk for asset managers, offering access to liquidity across various markets. In December, FPG announced that its blockchain foundation customers accounted for 5% of the total treasury management market.Backed by prominent investors such as Coinbase Ventures, Anthony Scaramucci of SkyBridge Capital, and Naval Ravikant, the founder of AngelList, FPG has raised a total of $12 million in funding thus far.In August of the previous year, FPG successfully registered as a virtual asset service provider (VASP) in the Cayman Islands. This registration ensured the secure custody of customer assets and safeguarded them from the company’s creditors in the unlikely event of bankruptcy.Broader crypto issuesIt has not been a good couple of weeks for the crypto sector relative to hacks and platform withdrawal pauses. Within the past twenty four hours, two Asia-based crypto lending platforms, Haru Invest and Delio, have suspended withdrawals. In those cases, the issue is suspected to relate to platform contagion and solvency issues.Earlier this month, the Atomic Wallet platform was hacked despite the understanding that the project offered self-custodial wallets. Originally, the loss was estimated at $35 million, but more recent reports are now estimating that figure to be in excess of $100 million.As FPG continues its efforts to mitigate the aftermath of the cyber attack, industry participants eagerly await further updates and measures undertaken by the company to recover from this incident and restore trust among its clients.