Several major global banks have successfully completed a cross-border payment pilot test using Thai bank Krungsri’s (Bank of Ayudhya) Blockchain Interledger, according to a press release May 22. The pilot, conducted in the Bank of Thailand’s (BOT) regulatory sandbox, was executed by Japan’s Mitsubishi Group, their banking unit MUFG Bank, and the Standard Chartered Singapore bank. The test involved sending money in a period of seconds from a Thailand-based Mitsubishi Group subsidiary to the Standard Chartered account of a Singapore-based Mitsubishi Group Subsidiary, using Kungsri’s Interledger tech. Thakorn Piyapan, head of the Krungsri Consumer Group and the Digital Banking and …

The Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) has partnered with major U.S.-based cloud delivery platform Akamai Technologies to release a global payment network based on blockchain, Cointelegraph Japan reports today, May 21. Akamai, a Massachusetts-based firm, was able to test the blockchain platform “under realistic business conditions,” showing a capability for processing a million transactions per second and a capacity for finalizing transactions in under two seconds, according to MUFG’s official press release. Tokyo-based MUFG’s and Akamai’s payment network, which will go live starting in the 2018 fiscal year, will include an interface that functions as a communication network, and will …

Recently hacked Japanese crypto exchange Coincheck will end trading for four privacy-oriented cryptocurrencies, Monero (XMR), Zcash (ZEC), Dash (DASH), and Augur (REP), Cointelegraph Japan reported May 18. Following reports from back in March, the exchange has now officially confirmed the removal of the four anonymity-focused coins will come into effect June 18. According to Coincheck’s blog, the exchange will remove the four cryptocurrencies to comply with counter-terrorist financing (CFT) and anti-money laundering (AML) measures recently issued by Japan’s financial regulator, the Financial Services Agency (FSA). The FSA has been especially active in regulating domestic crypto exchanges, specifically around customer protection, …

Monex Inc, the company that recently acquired hacked Japanese crypto exchange Coincheck, has revealed plans to expand the exchange to the U.S. in an interview with Bloomberg today, May 18. Monex CEO Oki Matsumoto said he expects Coincheck will receive an official license from Japanese authorities next month, but - without specifying a timeframe - he revealed the company now has its sights beyond Asia: “Japan may seem like it’s one step ahead in crypto, but in terms of deciding what’s a security or a token and attracting institutional investors, the U.S. and Europe are moving ahead.” Japan has long …

Line Plus, the mobile platform subsidiary of Japan’s most popular messaging app Line, has launched a joint blockchain initiative - Unchain - with crypto platform Icon, Cointelegraph Japan reports today, May 16. In the beginning of April, Line Plus had also released its blockchain affiliate Unblock in South Korea, in order to integrate blockchain tech into Line’s cross-market system. Line is itself a subsidiary of South Korean search engine giant Naver, but is based in Tokyo to avoid competition from Kakao. Line’s press release notes that Unchain will work with Unblock to bring Line’s blockchain mainnet and its DApps closer …

Japan’s financial watchdog, the Financial Services Agency (FSA), has laid out yet further regulatory stipulations for domestic crypto exchanges, Cointelegraph Japan reports today, May 6. The regulator is reportedly intensifying its efforts to prevent a repeat of January’s $532 mln hack of crypto exchange Coincheck, the biggest single exchange hack in the history of the crypto ecosystem. As Cointelegraph Japan reports, an FSA source told local news outlet Nikkei Asian Review that identifying potential risks in advance has been a challenge for the watchdog. The source reportedly told Nikkei that "without the necessary know-how, we've been feeling our way through …

16,000 Bitcoin (BTC) and 16,000 Bitcoin Cash (BCH) have been moved out of cold wallets associated with the infamous, now defunct Japanese Bitcoin (BTC) exchange MT. Gox today, April 26, according to Mt. Gox cold wallet tracking data on Crypto Ground. The wallets are under the control of Mt. Gox’s bankruptcy trustee, Nobuaki Kobayashi. As displayed on the cold wallet monitor, the exchange has moved 16,000 BTC, worth $144 mln, and 16,000 BCH, worth around $21.7 mln by press time. The sums were moved out in multiple batches of 2,000 BTC and BCH to various addresses. The BTC amounts were …

Bitcoin captured global curiosity when its’ value skyrocketed in 2017. Yet, financial institutions have been slow to add operational value to the crypto market. The common denominator among places where governments and banks have restrained digital markets is the lack of transparency and control they have in exchanges. Many research initiatives launched by global fintech leaders remain in developmental stages, while government officials and financial actors grapple with the learning curve of the new technology. The two biggest crypto concerns of global banks are debt liability from customers who have no protection from market volatility; and security risks associated with …

The emergence of Bitcoin (BTC) has been predicted by the Final Fantasy III video game released 28 years ago, according to a recent joke post on Reddit which has managed to amass more than three thousand upvotes as of April 18. The post refers to a symbol that looks similar to Bitcoin’s logo, pictured on an object in the game that was originally released on April 27, 1990. The first Bitcoin block was mined on Jan. 3, 2009, making the appearance of the symbol in Final Fantasy III an apparent coincidence. However, this is not the first such coincidence discovered …

The aftermath of the January 26 hack of more than $500 mln worth of NEM from Japanese crypto exchange Coincheck has led to a regulatory re-examination of Japan’s crypto industry, so far culminating in the $33.5 mln sale of the hacked exchange to Japanese financial services provider Monex Group. Japan had been one of the leading countries in crypto adoption when it legalized Bitcoin as a payment method a year ago. The move was made in part to prevent another hacking incident such as that of the now defunct Japanese crypto exchange Mt. Gox — arguably the most infamous, and …

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision. The market data is provided by the HitBTC exchange. Global Equity Markets: fear and uncertainty returns Stocks took a beating across the globe last week with the U.S. market getting hit the hardest. The S&P 500 Index dropped by 5.95%, its largest weekly loss in over two years. A culmination of factors seems to have spooked investors, all within the larger context …

Banking group Santander will be partnering with Ripple to release an international money transfer app using Ripple’s Blockchain xCurrent and RippleNet platforms, Business Insider reports today, March 24. When speaking about the upcoming app release at the International Fintech conference in London yesterday, March 23, Nathan Bostock, the UK CEO of Santander said: “This spring, if not [sic] one beats us to it, we will be the first large retail bank to carry out cross-border payments at scale with Blockchain technology.” At the end of January of this year, Ana Botin, the CEO of Santander, had mentioned the app launch …