☕️The Morning Cup: DBS plans to apply for HK-regulated crypto licence
Good morning, good day, and good evening. Welcome back to The Morning Cup. It’s your weekly recap of the latest in crypto news and your start to the week, no matter where you are. Don’t worry, we’ve selected just what you need to stay up-to-date, so you won’t spend time pouring through the news you don’t need, only the news you care about.
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📈📉 Market Watch!
BTC, ETH fell amid uncertainty
The price of Bitcoin (BTC) fell below $22,000 for the first time in three weeks amid uncertainty in the crypto industry, and the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization is now trading at $21,722. Meanwhile, Ethereum (ETH) also lost its upward trajectory and is currently trading at around $1,501. As for the 24H Gainers on Poloniex, they are HFT/USDT, AAVE/BTC, TRR/USDT, ETHF/USDT, and TRX/USDT.
🗞️ So, what happened?
DBS plans to apply for HK-regulated crypto licence despite reeling industry
DBS Group Holdings plans to apply for a license that allows Hong Kong customers to trade crypto when the city is committed to becoming a digital asset hub in the region, said Mr. Sebastian Paredes, Chief Executive of DBS Bank (Hong Kong) at a briefing on Monday.
Although the industry is reeling from the collapse of FTX, it doesn’t change the city’s determination to make it as a regional crypto hub, as mentioned by Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan last month. While the industrial players are still waiting for the government to roll out more clear regulations and frameworks on crypto trading for retail investors, Paredes broke the news that DBS is one of the lenders interested in participating.
Headquartered in Singapore, DBS first launched a crypto exchange in the city for corporate and institutional investors in late 2020, then it announced plans to expand its DBS Digital Exchange with more services provided to wealthy clients in Asia. However, the two cities — Hong Kong and Singapore took divergent approaches to crypto trading as the latter focuses more on digital asset innovation instead of crypto speculation.
On the other hand, Hong Kong sounds more welcoming on retail crypto trading. So far, two organizations, OSL Digital Securities Limited and Hash Blockchain Limited, were given a license issued by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) for the establishment of centralized virtual asset (VA) trading platforms.
Rihanna’s popular song offered as NFT with royalty sharing
Rihanna, the famous American singer and business mogul, got a portion of her popular song, “B**** Better Have My Money”, reproduced and released in the form of a non-fungible token (NFT) by Web3 music startup anotherblock last week, allowing holders to receive partial streaming royalties.
The music producer of the Rihanna hit, Deputy, granted a portion of his streaming royalties to collectors through anotherblock. 300 royalty-linked NFTs were available for purchase last Thursday with each priced at $210. The collection sold out in minutes.
According to the company, each holder will receive “a portion of 0.0033 % of the streaming royalties” for the song. Holders are expected to receive their first royalty payout on February 16, receiving payments every six months thereafter.
Paxos to halt minting BUSD as directed by NYDFS
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) plans to sue Paxos, the regulated blockchain and tokenization infrastructure platform, over the issuance of Binance USD (BUSD) tokens, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.
The stablecoin issuer confirmed the news through a press release, revealing that it received a Wells notice, which is sent by the SEC to individuals or entities when it is planning to bring an enforcement action against them. Paxos continued that the notice alleged that BUSD is a security and that it should have registered the offering of the stablecoin under federal securities laws.
While Paxos categorically disagreed with the SEC’s narratives and reaffirmed that BUSD is always backed 1:1 with US dollar-denominated reserves, Paxos announced in a separate press release that it will halt the issuance of new BUSD tokens with the effective date of February 21, stressing that the action was directed by and working in close coordination with the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS).
However, Paxos reaffirmed that it will fully support BUSD and that the token is redeemable to onboarded customers through at least February 2024. In addition, new and existing Paxos customers will be able to redeem their funds in US dollars or convert their BUSD tokens to Pax Dollar (USDP).
Meanwhile, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, “CZ”, said on Twitter: In summary, BUSD is issued and redeemed by Paxos. And funds are #SAFU!”
He continued that BUSD is a stablecoin wholly owned and managed by Paxos. As a result, BUSD market cap will only decrease over time. Paxos will continue to service the product, manage redemptions, and will follow up with additional information as required. Paxos also assured the funds are safe, and fully covered by reserves in their banks. Last, he acknowledged that given the ongoing regulatory uncertainty in certain markets, they will be reviewing other projects in those jurisdictions to ensure users are insulated from further undue harm.
The latest movement from SEC came right after the settlement with crypto exchange Kraken over the allegation on its staking services which offered unregistered securities. Although Kraken did not admit or deny the charges under the terms of the settlement, it shut down all of its U.S. staking programs later. CoinDesk, Cision PR Newswire,
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Polopedia
What is CORE ($CORE)? CORE is designed to overcome the ‘Blockchain Trilemma’, which refer to decentralization, security, and scalibility that many popular decentralized networks have faced due to increased popularity. In Core’s case, it leverages the Proof of Work consensus mechanism of the Bitcoin blockchain, and a modified Proof of Stake mechanism, called Delegated Proof of Stake. Click here to find out more! Or else, you can join the following AMA to understand about the project:
Crypto Glossary
What is a hard cap? A hard cap is the upper limit placed by a blockchain’s code on the maximum supply of a token, which guarantees scarcity. In other words, a hard cap means the ultimate goal of an ICO/ IEO campaign so the developers will neither accept any fundings, nor produce relevant project tokens after reaching the limit of circulation or production.
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Thanks for spending some time with us as we went over what’s going on. And wherever you are, from the team here at Poloniex, good morning, good day, and good evening!
