asia

Blockchain Intelligence Firm Chainalysis Seeks New Partners to Extend Its Reach

New York-based blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis is launching a major partnership program to expand its operations and broaden its intelligence capabilities.As one of the highest-profile analytics firms in the blockchain intelligence industry, Chainalysis develops investigative tools that enable firms, governments and law enforcement agencies to monitor blockchain transactions and track suspected illicit activities.Speaking to Cointelegraph on April 9, Chainalysis chief revenue officer Jason Bonds explained that the program would be dedicated to collaborations with several categories of partners.The first, key crypto infrastructure providers, will help Chainalysis and the wider industry

Binance CEO CZ: Stricter Regulations in Asia Will Lead to Consolidation of Crypto Exchanges

The fragmentation of the Asian market has brought about more rigorous scrutiny from financial regulations and this has led to a consolidation of many cryptocurrency exchanges according to a report on Wednesday. The report cited a decline in the number of Mergers and Acquisitions by 76% in 2019 and a good number of these transactions had involved exchanges and payment services. While the number of deals conducted in the US fell by 40%, those conducted in Asia rose from 14% to 22%. Binance leading the way Binance, the world’s largest

Interchain Data Hosting Project Combines Edge Computing With DLT

Interchain decentralized data hosting project Bluzelle (BLZ) announced the launch of its mainnet which aims to combine the advantages of edge computing with distributed ledger technology (DLT).According to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph on April 9, Bluezelle will host a network stress test dubbed “Swarm of Duty” which will be incentivized with $30,000 worth of tokens for developers, token holders and validators. The company says that this test is “the last step before Bluzelle’s mainnet launches” and is meant to ensure that the network can manage real-world usage.Bluzelle’s team claims that

Here’s How the Crypto Sector Is Navigating the Pandemic’s Challenges

Despite hopes that a peak of the coronavirus cases is near, the pandemic continues to impact almost every aspect of daily life, becoming a rolling news ticker in itself. When such a disaster strikes, it can be easy to go through each day devouring the latest news as it occurs and digesting each piece as a story by itself without forming an overall picture.This pandemic is a seismic event with far-reaching impacts across different sectors, and crypto is no exception. In fact, because cryptocurrency markets move at breakneck speeds, the

After a Volatile Week, Bitcoin Opens Higher on Monday

As we see strong signs of stabilization throughout Europe, the situation in the U.K. seems to be getting worse. Not only has the prime minister himself now been admitted to the hospital, but the number of confirmed cases has seen a significant spike to nearly 6,000 yesterday. Last night, the queen herself addressed the nation in a brief but extremely moving speech. Over in the U.S., the president has mentioned that the peak is near. Yet, even in Asia, leaders are finding it difficult to lift the lockdowns and travel

The New Land of Crypto Fundraising Is in Asia and Europe, Says PwC

Most of the fundraising in the cryptocurrency space shifted from the Americas to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), and the Asia Pacific regions (APAC), according to a recent report by Big Four auditing firm PwC.According to PwC's 2nd Global Crypto M&A and Fundraising Report, during 2019, fundraising efforts in the crypto space obtained 18% less funding, while funds in mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in the space decreased by 40%.As funding decreased overall, APAC and EMEA's share of the pie got larger. While APAC and EMEA saw 44% of

Quarantined Gamers Are Straining Microsoft Azure-based Blockchain Platform

Microsoft has acknowledged that the quarantined gamers are putting a strain on its Azure cloud platform which is a backbone of the company’s Blockchain As a Service (BaaS) offering.In the SEC filing, Microsoft addresses the impact of “the global health pandemic” on its Azure cloud services. The company admits that in certain regions “deployments for some compute resource types (...) drop below our typical 99.99 percent success rates”. Furthermore, Microsoft confirms that “Xbox Live [is] putting a strain on overall Azure capacity”:“As a result of the surge in use over

Binance Shelters Against Job Losses During Global Pandemic

While global unemployment continues hitting new highs amid the coronavirus pandemic, the cryptocurrency industry is stepping in to shelter job losses, with some of the biggest companies in the space announcing their intention to hire new employees.Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has just announced that it is seeking to hire more than 100 new employees, despite the ongoing economic downturn.In an April 3 tweet, Binance invited people around the world to build a career in the Blockchain space, offering a crucial opportunity to “work from home” as global jurisdictions

Market Volatility Continues Amid COVID19 Uncertainty

In times of deep crisis such as this it’s important to stay true to who we are and that seems to get more and more difficult the deeper we get. Last night, I engaged in an interesting discussion on social media when Bruce Fenton posed the question “Are mandated lockdowns right or wrong?” This is something that another bitcoin though leader, Jimmy Song, is on record as being staunchly against and the libertarian in me tends to agree. Jimmy’s point here is simply that a pattern has arisen throughout history

Malaysian Securities Regulator Approves Crypto Trading Platform

Following a nine-month-long probationary period, Malaysia-based cryptocurrency trading firm, Tokenize Malaysia, has received full approval from local securities watchdog.With the approval to operate a Digital Assets Exchange, the company’s cryptocurrency trading platform, Tokenize Xchange, became legally approved and regulated by the Securities Commission (SC) of Malaysia, local news outlet, SoyaCincau, reported on April 3. The exchange offers fiat-to-digital asset pairings.Malaysian laws require that local cryptocurrency exchanges register with the SC, after which they have up to nine month to achieve compliance with the SC’s regulation standards.Commenting on the development, Hong

Top Crypto Exchange Binance Hints at Launching Bitcoin Options Trading

Top crypto exchange Binance has hinted that it plans to launch Bitcoin (BTC) options trading. Two tweets — via the exchange’s official handle and CEO Changpeng Zhao (“CZ”) — posted on April 3 revealed “testflight leaks” and a screenshot of an apparent prototype for trading BTC/Tether (USDT) options contracts:Source: @cz_binance official Twitter handle, April 3“Notice anything new”?Binance’s performative social media “leak” revealed options trading support as one of the items on a “what to test” list, which included other products that have previously been officially announced, such as the Binance Card