Thai VC fund acquires troubled exchange Zipmex for $100M: Report

Indonesia’s Ministry of Trade is reportedly aiming to roll out a national crypto exchange by June this year, six months after its previous target of December 2022. Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan shared the new target launch date on Feb. 2 at the opening of Crypto Literacy Month in Jakarta, noting that the government is currently reviewing which companies meet their criteria to become part of the exchange, according to local reports.

Nearly $13 million has been moved into the consolidation wallet of bankrupt crypto trading firm Alameda Research in just 24 hours, data from blockchain security firm PeckShield revealed on Feb. 2. The address received $6 million in Tether (USDT) and $2.5 million in Ether (ETH) from the hot wallet of...

The debacle between the global cryptocurrency exchange Binance and Zanmai, the operator behind the Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX, continues, with a new blog post stating that Binance is banning the latter from utilizing its services. On Feb. 3, Binance released a post that acknowledged the ongoing “public debate” with Zanmai...

Software analytics company MicroStrategy recorded a paper loss of over a billion dollars on its Bitcoin (BTC) holdings in 2022 but says it has no plans to stop trading the digital asset. MicroStrategy released its 2022 Q4 and year-end earnings on Feb. 2 showing the recorded impairment charges on its...

United States fund manager WisdomTree saw the value of its digital asset holdings decline sharply in the fourth quarter, reflecting the prolonged bear market in Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies. WisdomTree’s cryptocurrency funds held $136 million worth of assets as of Dec. 31, 2022, down from $163 million at the...

Just four men controlled 86% of stablecoin issuer Tether Holdings Limited as of 2018, according to documents obtained by The Wall Street Journal in connection with United States authorities investigations. Probes by the New York Attorney General’s office and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission into Tether Holdings in 2021 exposed...

Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols experienced a boom in total value locked across different staking pools in January. The market hit $74.6 billion worth of staked assets, increasing by 26% from December. In its latest monthly report, DappRadar outlined the growth of the DeFi sector alongside rejuvenated nonfungible token (NFT) markets...

A Voyager creditor and finance lawyer wants to see a Chapter 11 trustee appointed in crypto brokerage Voyager Digital’s bankruptcy trial, which would see Voyager lose control of its estate. In a Feb. 1 motion, Voyager creditor Michelle DiVita accused Voyager of having a “history of financial statement inaccuracies...

London, United Kingdom, Feb. 2 2023 – The Metacade presale is selling out fast with stage three coming to a close after just 12 days. The presale of the play-to-earn (P2E) metaverse arcade saw its previous rounds sell out in four weeks, raising $2.7 million, but this has been dwarfed in comparison to the third stage selling out at lightning speed and bringing the project to raise $5 million in just several days.

The Australian government is bolstering its market regulator’s digital asset team as part of a “multi-stage approach” aimed at clamping down on crypto and ensuring proper risk disclosures from crypto firms. A Feb. 2 joint statement by Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones explained...

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has closed its office in Abu Dhabi less than 12 months after receiving regulatory approval to operate in the region. According to a Feb. 2 report from Bloomberg, Kraken shut down its Abu Dhabi office, laying off roughly eight people on the team focused on the Middle East and North Africa, or MENA. The exchange had been licensed to offer services in the Abu Dhabi international financial center and Abu Dhabi Global Market since April 2022 — prior to the market downturn affecting many crypto firms.

In this week’s newsletter, read about how Moonbirds founder Kevin Rose lost nonfungible tokens (NFTs) worth more than $1.1 million. Find out why an NFT collector is suing NFT marketplace OpenSea over locking his account for three months and how the Porsche NFT collection gained almost $5 million in sales volume, despite a failed launch. In other news, find out how NFT trademarks could potentially be a reliable signal for NFT traders. Lastly, professionals within the Web3 space shared various ways to combat NFT theft.

In this week’s episode of Market Talks, Cointelegraph welcomes Budd White, chief product officer and co-founder of Tacen, a United States-based software company developing compliance software for a well-regulated crypto space. To kick things off, we get to know White a little better and find out his background and...

According to Feb. 1 tweet, MakerDAO has approved the creation of a new fund dedicated to expenses related to legal defense. MakerDAO is the issuer of the Dai (DAI) U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin. As told by developers, Maker will allocate 5 million DAI to “reimburse legal defense expenses in case of legal or regulatory action against specific participants of MakerDAO.” The post further explained:

HSBC, the British multinational bank that manages the largest amount of assets in Europe, doubled down on its interest in digital currencies. The bank is looking for a top executive to work with asset tokenization. On Jan. 30, HSBC opened the GPBW product director of tokenization position with a hiring...

Bitcoin’s (BTC) price has been trading above $22,500 for 12 days. Of course, this situation can change even if Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell issues positive statements about the economy in today’s post-FOMC presser. Even if the decision matches the market consensus, the post-meeting statement should be investors’...

Cryptocurrency and blockchain technology found no mention in India’s union budget for the year 2023, bringing down the hopes of millions of crypto holders in the country. Many in the Indian crypto community were hoping for some reduction to the high crypto tax, implemented in March 2022. Indian Finance...

After a year of development and innovation in blockchain gaming technology, GameFi pioneer company, Neon Link, is opening the presale of its native NEON coin that will cover all the transactions within its ecosystem. London, England, Feb. 2, 2023 — Neon Link, a blockchain gaming company building a technologically robust...

Melbourne, Jan. 31, 2023 — Australian-founded derivatives broker, Eightcap, has today announced the appointment of Alex Howard as CEO, commencing in the role this month. Founder and outgoing CEO, Joel Murphy, said he was confident that Eightcap would continue to thrive under Howard’s leadership. “Alex is an outstanding...

The fifth annual Blockchain Futurist Conference is set to take place on Aug. 15 and 16, 2023 in Toronto, Canada. The event will be returning to Rebel Entertainment Complex and Cabana Pool Bar — an unconventional venue providing a one-of-a-kind crypto experience. The conference is organized by Untraceable, a veteran blockchain events company that has been organizing iconic crypto events for over a decade.