The so-called Kimchi premium, which measures the premium of the Bitcoin (BTC) price in South Korea’s cryptocurrency exchange market, plummeted overnight.
The premium declined from 22% to 15% within a matter of hours on Wednesday, and it is continuing to drop across major South Korean exchanges.
A big pullback in South Korea’s Bitcoin market
Overnight, as CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju noted, the price of Bitcoin fell particularly hard on South Korean exchanges.
As the price of Bitcoin dropped, the Kimchi premium fell in tandem. But, since BTC’s price fell significantly harder on South Korean exchanges, the premium plunged quickly within a matter of hours.
There are two possible reasons why the premium dropped in the manner that it did.
First, traders from outside of South Korea might have found a way to successfully…
A state-owned Moroccan fertilizer company has executed a $400-million transaction using blockchain technology, in what it says is a first for intra-African commerce.
In a deal facilitated by the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank, OCP Group sold phosphate fertilizer exports to Ethiopia, using blockchain technology, in a deal worth an initial $270 million. The remaining deals will be executed in the coming months, taking the full transaction value to $400 million, reports Global Trade Review.
Trade finance deals that are typically executed over a matter of weeks can be finalized in hours using blockchain, according to OCP Group. TDB previously used distributed ledger technology to facilitate the export of $22 million worth of sugar from India to Ethiopia. The companies said that the use of blockchain tech simplifies the supply chain process, making it easier to validate documentation and improve transparency.
TDB CEO Admassu Tadesse…
Six-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady is backing a new major development in the nonfungible token industry by launching his own NFT platform.
The new NFT platform, dubbed Autograph, will target some of the biggest figures in sports, entertainment, fashion and pop culture, and provide a tool for unique digital collectibles, a Brady representative told CNN on Tuesday. The platform is expected to launch this spring.
Autograph CEO Dillon Rosenblatt said that the platform will bring together “some of the world’s most iconic names and brands with best in class digital artists” in order to create and launch NFT pieces to a community of fans and collectors. Autograph will also have interactive offerings like live auctions and physical product drops, as well as in-person experiences.
According to CNN, Brady and entrepreneur Richard Rosenblatt will serve as co-chairs of Autograph. According to the company’s website, the board of advisors and…
Bitcoin (BTC) extended its price drop on Wednesday amid warnings that excessive long positions needed to be flushed out to allow for fresh gains.
BTC price barely clings to $56,000 support
Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD hitting new local lows of $55,760 during Wednesday trading.
A second day of more substantial losses for the pair came as altcoins also began to reverse their earlier successes, with Ether (ETH) dropping below $2,000.
A look at trader behavior pointed to leveraged long positions in place at previous spot price, indicating belief that further upside is more likely than another correction. These positions, analyst Filbfilb believes, need to be liquidated before Bitcoin can make a meaningful attempt at new all-time highs.
The latest price action went some way to refreshing market composition — $2 billion in liquidations in…
Blockchain
Policy & Regulation
Tech
DeFi needs regulatory clarity to interface with ‘real-world’ finance, experts say
Rune Christensen, co-founder of DeFi bluechip MakerDAO, says the decentralized finance space is set to move from its current isolated bubble phase towards more integration with the broader financial landscape.
Christensen made this known during Tuesday’s plenary session “Behind the Decentralized Finance Hype” at the ongoing Global Technology Governance Summit organized by the World Economic Forum.
According to the MakerDAO chief, DeFi protocols interacting with real-world assets like commercial real estate and trade financing will require significant regulatory input, stating:
“The huge difference between the primordial soup of DeFi building and DeFi in the real world is that now you have to engage with regulation and laws.”
Indeed, the dematerialization of securities is an already existing example of the emerging asset tokenization trend. Countries like Germany and Switzerland have already created legal frameworks that allow tokenized securities to fall under the same regulatory compliance requirements as traditional…
Bitcoin
Blockchain
Investment
CEO of biggest crypto exchange has ‘close to 100%’ of net worth in crypto
Changpeng Zhao, founder and CEO of the largest global cryptocurrency exchange Binance and one of the world’s top crypto billionaires, does not own much except crypto.
“I’m one of those guys who value liquidity much more than owning something. I actually prefer not to own anything,” Zhao said in a Bloomberg interview on Wednesday.
He noted that various cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) now make up nearly 100% of his entire net worth as he does not own any real estate or much fiat holdings. When asked how much of his net worth is invested in crypto, Zhao said:
“I would say probably close to 100%. I don’t own any fiat. The physical stuff that I own is probably negligible in terms of my net worth. So, this is a concept shift. I’m not using crypto to buy fiat; I’m not using crypto to buy houses. I…