Even in Australia, a country where crypto-assets continue to see immense activity, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia announced that they will enable crypto trading services on the bank’s app for customers.

CRYPTO PAYMENTS BECOMING A TREND AMONG SINGAPOREANS

Aaron Raj | 1 November, 2021

Mastercard has also announced that it is partnering with three Asian crypto companies to launch bitcoin payment cards. They include Hong Kong’s crypto finance firm Amber Group, Thailand’s crypto exchange Bitkub and Australia’s trading platform, Coinjar.

The partnership intends to introduce cryptocurrency-linked credit, debit, and prepaid cards for both individuals and businesses across the Asia Pacific. Cardholders will be able to instantly convert bitcoin and other digital currencies into fiat currencies, which can then be spent online or offline with any of the merchants that accept Mastercard payments.

Yet, despite the increased usage and demand for crypto assets management platforms and such, Binance, which is the world’s largest crypto trading exchange has been banned in some countries in Southeast Asia. In fact, China has also announced a complete halt to crypto trading and has begun cracking down on privately mined cryptocurrencies.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) also warned of sharp speculative wings and potential risks for retail investors who invest in cryptocurrencies. Speaking at the Singapore Fintech Festival, Ravi Menon, managing director of MAS said the Singapore central bank “frowns on cryptocurrencies or tokens as an investment asset for retail investors”.

Interestingly though, according to the Crypto Asset Management Market 2021-2025, the global crypto asset management market size is projected to grow to US$1.2 billion by 2026, with the APAC region expected to provide significant growth opportunities for vendors operating in the cryptocurrency management market during the forecast period.

(Photo by Ozan KOSE / AFP)

The report highlighted that rapid advancements in the network infrastructure, cloud computing, economic growth, and stable geopolitical system have provided a platform for the growth of solution providers in the APAC region.

Also, mobile apps created for exchanging cryptocurrencies have been making things easier for asset traders and miners. There have been several stock market apps that now feature cryptocurrency apps which not only allow to have total control over the digital assets but trade with them. When powered by blockchain, these cryptocurrencies can be used for all sorts of payments and transactions.

The report also showed that electronic wallet apps tend to store digital assets and money allowing the user to spend on transactions involving blockchain technology. These digital asset tracker apps are trying hard to provide updated information about the rates, trades, market dynamics, and a portfolio of various cryptocurrencies. Examples of crypto asset management providers include Coinbase, Gemini, and Crypto Finance, Vo1t, and BitGo.

Buying, selling, and trading crypto assets

As such, Ripple, a provider of enterprise blockchain and crypto solutions, will be launching its Ripple Liquidity Hub in 2022. Currently available in preview mode, the solution will allow customers to seamlessly access crypto assets from a variety of global venues, including market makers, exchanges, OTC desks, and in the future decentralized venues. The product will support turn-key integration and smart order routing to source digital assets at optimized prices giving customers the ability to easily buy, sell, and hold crypto assets.

For nearly two years Ripple has leveraged Liquidity Hub for internal liquidity management as part of its On-Demand Liquidity product, powering millions of transactions, worth billions of dollars. Now Ripple will make the product available for its hundreds of customers globally, as well as any financial institutions, banks, fintech, or corporates who need support preparing for an inevitable crypto-first world.

“We understand firsthand the need for easy and efficient liquidity management – and as such, we’ve received questions from our customers who require solutions that can be a one-stop-shop to buy, sell and hold crypto assets. The combination of Ripple’s crypto DNA and long history working with financial institutions makes us uniquely positioned to address this problem for our customers as they prepare for a tokenized future,” said RippleNet GM Asheesh Birla.

Unlike existing solutions available, Liquidity Hub is designed for enterprise customers and their unique needs through easy onboarding by offering a streamlined API for accessing digital assets from a breadth of liquidity pools. There will also be optimized pricing for a breadth of digital assets, enabling enterprises to provide their customers with the best price from a variety of liquidity venues. Enterprises won’t be required to pre-fund accounts for Liquidity Hub and can receive access to working capital through Ripple to fund their business operations.

Ripple’s first partner of the alpha product is Coinme, the largest licensed cryptocurrency cash network in the U.S., with thousands of locations across the country. Initially, Coinme will utilize the underlying technology platform of Liquidity Hub, with plans to unlock additional functionality as it becomes available.   

The post The Ripple effect for crypto assets appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

Ripple, which is intended to be a platform by which large financial institutions can transfer large sums internationally, fell particularly steeply, by around 40 percent.

Bitcoin’s value at the time of writing was around US$11,000, having bounced lower than the symbolic $10,000 mark before a slight recovery.

Tales of investors who had gone into debt to finance their crypto-speculations have been circulating on social media, and cryptocurrency doomsayers have been quick to chime in.

The crypto crush continues. Here's how much #bitcoin #ethereum #ripple and #litecoin have lost in market cap since hitting new highs pic.twitter.com/inuXeW13JL

— CNBC's Fast Money (@CNBCFastMoney) January 17, 2018

News reports attributed the slump to concerns about Chinese law authorities’ intended crackdown on crypto mining, plus comments by South Korea’s Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeo, who referred in a radio interview to an outright “shutdown of virtual currency exchanges” as one of the options his government might consider.

The Chinese government has already closed down every cryptocurrency exchange in the country, but it has been reported to be taking even more stringent measures against new forms of online trading, as well as bitcoin mining operations.

RIPPLE & MONERO: TWO CRYPTOCURRENCIES TO WATCH

Joe Green | 11 January, 2018

It has also become apparent that in a move probably not related to the Chinese ban, Ethereum’s co-founder Vitalik Buterin has left the China-based venture capital firm Fenbushi Capital. Buterin is known to dislike the hype surrounding cryptocurrencies as investment vehicles, stating on more than one occasion that the hype obscured cryptocurrencies’ greater and designed purpose, which is to be a positive force in society.

Fenbushi is known to be one of the few VC companies which invests solely in blockchain-enabled companies and interests, such as Ethereum. On his departure from the firm, Buterin tweeted:

*All* crypto communities, ethereum included, should heed these words of warning. Need to differentiate between getting hundreds of billions of dollars of digital paper wealth sloshing around and actually achieving something meaningful for society. https://t.co/aNpEnBNGsA

— Vitalik Buterin (@VitalikButerin) December 27, 2017

But the future of cryptocurrencies remains rosy, and in fact, may even be strengthened by the loss of popularity for crytpocurrency as an investment amongst the general population. In the more positive recent news:

• SWIFT, the international payments processing network has recently signed a memorandum of understanding with seven securities depositories to look into how blockchain can be used for post-trade processes.
• Shipping firm Maersk has been looking at blockchain and distributed technologies in partnership with IBM, considering deploying a maritime insurance product using blockchain.
• Players in the pharmaceutical industry, recently the subject of broad deregulation in mainland China, are also thought to be exploring blockchain, especially to comply with new regulatory requirements which require accurate disclosure of supply chain validity. This move is being spearheaded by Caywon Pharmaceutical and Crowdmachine, a crowd-oriented development platform for blockchain technologies.

MASTERCARD RETREATS IN BLOCKCHAIN BATTLE

Joe Green | 24 October, 2017

January has traditionally seen a dip in the value of cryptocurrencies. The value of Bitcoin, in particular, has fallen for the last four years in January, and although this year’s fall has been larger than average, it is probably the burnt fingers of naive investors that have set the headline writers to frenzy, rather than the discovery of a fatal flaw in the concept of a distributed blockchain powering electronic currencies.

The post Cryptocurrency dips burn speculators’ fingers appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

From a business perspective, cryptocurrencies aren’t mainstream enough to have made much of an impact to date, although, of course, this situation is bound to change in due course.

Many business owners will be more interested in the cryptographic technology on which these new currencies are based, which is often publically-distributed and known generally as the blockchain.

Blockchain technology has started to find its feet in areas of commerce where multiple players act in an environment where openness and trust are paramount: contracts and agreements between parties come first to mind. Blockchain continues to find new areas of use too – Kodak’s announcements of a network of blockchain-based photographic IP distribution is the latest.

But the specter of cryptocurrencies still haunts the technological and commercial landscape. Bowing to the inevitable, many governments across the world, and many large institutions, are beginning to start to put cryptocurrencies into practical use – credit card companies and major banks among them.

MASTERCARD RETREATS IN BLOCKCHAIN BATTLE

Joe Green | 24 October, 2017

Bitcoin speculation has certainly hit the headlines, but despite representing some kind of latter-day gold standard, the currency may never be anything other than a conduit for speculation. Its inherent limitations could stop it from becoming a common medium of exchange – so which cryptocurrency might, in time, win the role of de facto currency?

The nature of cryptocurrencies (often public, usually open source, hopefully widely-distributed) means that there is often no overall body dictating the direction this technology may take. So, rather than blindly speculating, the modern business should perhaps become acquainted with some of the possibilities offered by the disparate cryptocurrencies, their blockchain mechanisms, and their underlying cryptographically anonymous networks and methods.

Two currencies which have found some prominence recently are Monero (XMR) and Ripple (XRP).

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about $XRP this week – can’t imagine why!

The team here at @Ripple put together this Q&A – it has some good info for those just beginning to learn about the most efficient digital asset for payments. https://t.co/x4cZH8dDA7

— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) January 4, 2018

Monero and Ripple arguably represent the two extremes of the ideological spectrum of cryptocurrencies. The Ripple network is being adopted by a number of large, traditional financial institutions, while Monero is the darling of the open-source development community, wherein can be found (fairly easily) politics and motives arguably more akin to anarchistic hackers than besuited financiers.

Neither currency is designed to be all things to all men, and more “extreme” (in political or ideological terms) currencies and cryptographic, blockchain-based technologies exist. But XMR and XRP have gained enough traction on the Internet of late to merit commercial interest.

Monero

Monero’s headline is that it is – if desired – entirely anonymous. While Bitcoin’s blockchain is effectively a list of transactions, Monero’s payers and payees are anonymous and transaction amounts are also impossible to discern. Additionally, traditional passive network monitoring will not reveal Monero trading activity, due to its use of I2P “invisible routing” technology.

But Monero is selectively transparent: if desired, any transaction can be made visible to chosen persons, such as auditors, by means of private view key sharing.

Monero was designed in such a way that large organizations, using ASIC hardware, would not be able to dominate the creation of new coins. While this holds good, around 40 percent of mining activity on the Monero network is carried out by three players.

Monero mining is dominated by three players. Source: Monero Hash

At the time of writing, the value of Monero stands at 1 Monero = US$387.91, HK$3,034 and R1551.37.

Monero’s technology is complex and is not recommended for cryptocurrency “beginners” as many speculators are, but for this reason, it may thrive.

Ripple

Ripple is both a cryptocurrency – XRP – and a transaction network. It is used by financial institutions such as the Santander Bank, Bank of America and the Swiss UBS, as a way in which large sums of any currency can be held and easily exchanged in a trustworthy manner, allowing monies to be moved across international boundaries without sanction.

The real appeal of Ripple for banks is its liquidity, speed, and low transaction fees. XRP can be traded quickly, as opposed to Bitcoin for instance, plus it cannot be mined: the currency’s creators have full control over the 100 billion or so tokens.

Ripple was never designed to be a method of payment for everyday purchases: it was instead meant to compete with transaction systems, such as SWIFT.

At the time of writing, the value of Ripple stands at 1 Ripple = US$1.90, HK$14.89 and R7.60

Monero may never be used by banks to move sums internationally, nor will Ripple ever be used on the Tor network for nefarious purposes (the so-called dark web), but either may well unseat more common currencies such as Bitcoin Cash, LiteCoin, or Ethereum – indeed, recently Ripple was briefly the second most capitalized cryptocurrency behind Bitcoin and above Ethereum.

Cryptocurrencies and the blockchain are going to change the nature of exchange: commerce, contracts, and intellectual property are but three areas already feeling the impact. But the technologies are new and far from mainstream. Which will predominate remains a matter, literally, of speculation.

The post Ripple & Monero: Two cryptocurrencies to watch appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.