NHN Corporation, a South Korean entertainment conglomerate with over US$2.4 billion in total assets, announced Friday that it has partnered with U.S.-based Mysten Labs, the developers of the Sui blockchain, to launch an on-chain game scheduled for 2024. The partnership arrives despite a ban in South Korea against all blockchain-related games.

See related article: It’s time for Web3 gaming to up its own game

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“What excites me about building with NHN is what we’re beginning to refer t

NHN Corporation, a South Korean entertainment conglomerate with over US$2.4 billion in total assets, announced Friday that it has partnered with U.S.-based Mysten Labs, the developers of the Sui blockchain, to launch an on-chain game scheduled for 2024. The partnership arrives despite a ban in South Korea against all blockchain-related games.

See related article: It’s time for Web3 gaming to up its own game

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“What excites me about building with NHN is what we’re beginning to refer t

South Korea’s top internet company Kakao and leading game developer Com2uS are sizing down their metaverse teams as the virtual world platforms recorded large losses in the first half of 2023, local news agency Newsis reported.

See related article: South Koreans hold nearly US$100 billion in crypto overseas

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Com2uS, a major mobile game developer that recorded US$536 million in revenue last year, recently downsized its staff in its metaverse division, according to Newsis. The details

South Korean investors and corporations hold over 131 trillion Korean won (US$97.9 billion) worth of cryptocurrencies in overseas accounts, South Korea’s National Tax Service announced Wednesday. The figure is 70% of the total reported financial assets held by South Koreans overseas.

See related article: Korea Blockchain Week: diverging crypto paths for the US and Asia

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In an annual assessment of monthly tax filings carried out from January to June this year, South Korea’s National

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will expand its regulatory enforcement beyond Coinbase and Binance.US onto other cryptocurrency exchanges, intermediaries and decentralized finance (DeFi) entities, the agency’s head of crypto assets and cyber unit David Hirsch said Tuesday at a forum in Chicago.

See related article: U.S. SEC denied immediate access to Binance.US software

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The SEC is currently investigating other companies that have allegedly conducted similar breaches as

A U.S. federal judge has denied the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) immediate access to Binance.US’ software, in response to the regulator’s motion demanding more detailed information from Binance and greater availability of its executives for depositions.

See related article: JPEX crypto exchange shuts trading amid Hong Kong regulator probe

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On Monday, Federal Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui said he was not “inclined to allow the inspection at this time.” He asked that t

Citigroup, the third largest banking institution in the U.S., announced Monday the launch of Citi Token Services, a blockchain-based cross-border payments solution for institutional clients.

See related article: Standard Chartered’s crypto custody arm Zodia launches in Singapore

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The service will use tokenized deposits and smart contracts to provide real-time cross-border settlements and liquidity for institutional clients anywhere in the world and around the clock, Citi said in a p

Dubai-based cryptocurrency exchange JPEX is shutting trading on its platform amid a probe by the Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission that said the firm was operating as an unlicensed entity, according to media reports. 

See related article: Hong Kong Web3 industry forms new associations to push crypto hub ambition

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JPEX attributed blame to its “third-party market makers” for freezing funds and restricting liquidity, after news of investigations by Hong Kong authorities.

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The U.S. House Financial Services Committee announced last Friday that it will discuss a new bill to prevent the issuance of a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

See related article: Nepal central bank plans CBDC within two years

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Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry announced that the markup, a session where committee members examine the proposal in detail and possibly offer amendments, of the Digital Dollar Pilot Prevention Act will take place on Sept. 20.

#NEW: Chairman @Patric

A U.S. bankruptcy court in Delaware approved failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX’s motion to sell its crypto assets at a court hearing on Wednesday. The company, led by restructuring expert John J. Ray III, is looking to repay its creditors while considering a possible revamp of the trading platform.

See related article: Why FTX deserves a second chance

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Delaware bankruptcy court Judge John Dorsey allowed the bankrupt exchange to liquidate up to US$100 million in cryptocurrencies per

Japan-based Astar Network announced Wednesday that it is launching its zkEVM solution powered by Polygon’s Chain Developer Kit (CDK) to improve the interoperability of its network with Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chains.

See related article: How Japan is illuminating the path of blockchain’s future

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Astar’s zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine, or zkEVM in short, is a layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum that offers a more scalable software computing environment for Ethereum-

Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange CoinEx Global suffered a security breach on Tuesday, resulting in an estimated loss of US$43 million in cryptocurrencies.

See related article: Crypto in the time of cockroaches

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The exchange is still assessing the full extent of lost crypto assets in the exploit but said on Wednesday morning that it identified a second set of suspicious wallet addresses linked to the breach, which siphoned off tokens such as Ether, XRP, Solana, Kadena and Dagg

The U.S. affiliate of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance has laid off one-third of its staff, or more than 100 employees. Brian Shroder, the chief executive officer, has also departed the company, a Binance.US spokesperson told Forkast on Wednesday.

See related article: Mastercard and Binance end crypto card partnership, services shut down in Latin America, Middle East 

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This downsizing effort will provide Binance.US “more than seven years of financial runway,” the

Zodia Custody, the cryptocurrency custodian owned by Standard Chartered, announced Tuesday that it is launching its services in Singapore for financial institutions, CNBC reported. Standard Chartered is a U.K.-based multinational banking conglomerate with total assets of US$838.7 billion as of July 2023.

See related article: Will Singapore steady the stablecoin ship?

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Zodia reportedly said it is the first bank-owned entity to provide crypto custody services for institutional clients

Oasys, a blockchain-based game development platform, will team up with non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace αU market and cryptocurrency wallet αU Wallet – a crypto wallet by KDDI, one of Japan’s top three telecom companies – for users to trade NFTs on the αU market.

See related article: Weekly Market Wrap: ETF developments bolsters Bitcoin above US$26,000

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This will enable users to buy and sell NFTs on Oasys in the αU market, manage the assets directly in the αU wallet, and transfe

Animoca Brands, a Hong Kong-based software and investment giant specializing in blockchain entertainment, announced Monday that it has raised US$20 million to accelerate the development of Mocaverse, its flagship project to build a decentralized metaverse.

See related article: Animoca Brands says it holds US$3.4 bln in assets

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The new capital will be used to develop Mocaverse’s core infrastructure, such as its digital identity system and loyalty program. It will also be used to acqu

FTX cryptocurrency exchange has filed a lawsuit against LayerZero Labs, the company behind cross-chain interoperability protocol LayerZero, to recover US$21.37 million that LayerZero allegedly withdrew from the exchange illegally prior to its Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

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FTX’s complaint alleges that LayerZero exploited Alameda Ventures, the venture capital arm of FTX’s sister c

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) submitted a filing last Friday that pushed the court of the Southern District of New York to appeal its ruling on the agency’s lawsuit against Ripple Labs.

See related article: Former FTX exec Ryan Salame to forfeit US$1.5 billion after pleading guilty to charges

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The SEC requested the court review its prior ruling by Judge Analisa Torres, which posed “knotty legal problems,” according to the filing.

In July, a summary judgment by J

Former FTX top executive Ryan Salame pleaded guilty Thursday in New York to two criminal charges related to the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange last November. Salame has agreed to forfeit approximately US$1.5 billion, including two real estate properties and a Porsche automobile, according to The New York Times.

See related article: Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyers granted unlimited prison visits; FTX tries to sell crypto holdings

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Salame, the former co-chief executive of FTX’s B

The Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) charged three U.S.-based decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols – Opyn, ZeroEx and Deridex – on Thursday for omitting necessary registrations as a merchant and illegal offerings of digital asset commodities.

See related article: US response to crypto is like ‘deer caught in headlights,’ says ex-CFTC chair

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CFTC accused the projects of illegally offering “leveraged and margined” digital asset commodity transactions. Deridex and Opyn a