Japan to Trial Digital Yen With Three Megabanks in Early 2023
- The Bank of Japan will collaborate with three Japanese megabanks on a CBDC with offline functionality starting early next year.
- The central bank plans to experiment and stress test the potential digital yen for two years, and make a final decision on whether to widely issue it by 2026.
November 23, 2022, 4:48 PM
Bank of Japan headquarters in Nihonbashi, Chūō, Tokyo. Kaisuke Ota/Nikkei Asian Review
Elrond to Focus on Metaverse Development, Rebrands as MultiversX
- Blockchain developer Elrond is switching its focus to the metaverse, and in order to reflect that has now rebranded itself as MultiversX.
- The company has also introduced three new metaverse products, which include a metaverse portal, digital assets holder, and a deployable blockchain module.
November 4, 2022, 4:25 PM
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Meta to Allow NFT Minting and Trading on Instagram
- Meta will soon offer NFT creators an “end-to-end toolkit” that will enable them to mint and sell their digital collectibles directly on Instagram.
- The company will add support for the Solana blockchain and Phantom wallet, and further expand its supported blockchains with the addition of Solana.
November 3, 2022, 12:27 PM
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Singapore Completes First DeFi Pilot Using Polygon and Aave
- The Monetary Authority of Singapore successfully completed a cross-currency transaction using DeFi technology as part of its Project Guardian initiative.
- Singapore’s DBS Bank, Japan’s SBI Digital, and J.P. Morgan all participated in the trials that were conducted on the Polygon blockchain.
November 2, 2022, 2:58 PM
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Oct 31, 2022
India’s Central Bank to Launch Wholesale CBDC Pilot in November
- The Reserve Bank of India will launch a wholesale CBDC pilot on Tuesday, and has selected nine locally operated banks to participate in the trial.
- The central bank noted that it also plans to conduct retail CBDC trials within a month, allowing households and businesses to make payments using the digital rupee.
Oct 31, 2022
Hong Kong Changes Stance on Retail Crypto Trading
- During the opening of Hong Kong’s FinTech Week, the city government revealed it was considering ways to give retail investors a “suitable degree of access” to crypto trading.
- Hong Kong will also introduce a new licensing regime for virtual asset service providers, and has invited them to set foot in the city for new business opportunities.
Oct 27, 2022
Google Cloud Launches Blockchain Node-Hosting Service
- The “Blockchain Node Engine” was designed to be a fully managed service that would help Web3 developers build and deploy new products for the blockchain.
- It features a number of security features, such as Google’s Cloud Armor that helps prevent DDos attacks from slowing down a network.
Oct 24, 2022
Fireblocks Launches Payments Engine Following Successful Checkout.com Pilot
- Though officially launched today, the Payments Engine has already been used by Checkout.com during its pilot phase to settle around $1 billion in crypto transactions.
- The solution offers quick access to fiat-to-crypto conversion, cross-border internal settlement, micropayments, and merchant adoption with lower processing fees.
Oct 20, 2022
Online Bank N26 Launches Crypto Trading With Bitpanda Partnership
- German digital bank N26 will use Bitpanda’s White Label solution to allow select clients to buy and sell close to 200 crypto assets.
- The service will initially be available only to Austrian customers, but N26 plans to expand its reach to other key markets over the next six months.
Oct 19, 2022
Brazil’s Largest Digital Bank to Launch Token in 2023
- Powered by Polygon technology, NuCoin will provide NuBank customers in Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico with exclusive perks and discounts.
- Brazil’s largest digital bank will select 2,000 loyal customers by the end of the month to participate in the creation process of the digital asset.