South Korea's leading virtual currency exchange Bithumb is set to reopen withdrawals and deposits today, according to an official announcement August 4. The world's twelfth largest cryptocurrency exchange by trade volume noted that the time for resuming withdrawals and deposits has been moved from August 4 at 11 a.m. [Korea Standard Time] to 7 p.m. [KST]. In a separate post, Bithumb stated that it is first reopening the withdrawal and deposit services for nine altcoins, adding that it has been slightly delayed in order “to provide a more stable service environment.” At the end of June, hackers stole around a …

Germany’s second largest stock exchange, the Stuttgart Börse, has revealed plans to develop a new platform for Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) as well as a multilateral crypto trading venue, Finextra reported August 2. The German bourse, which had a trading volume of EUR 81 billion (about $95 billion) across all asset classes in 2017, had already this May unveiled a prototype of its zero-fee crypto trading app for the public, dubbed “Bison,” slated to be released in September. Now the bourse is setting its sights on the primary and secondary markets by developing both an ICO platform and a multilateral, …

South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has advised local regulatory agencies and companies to work towards developing an integrated blockchain system for stock transactions, according to an official report published August 2. The FSS undertook a detailed analysis of international stock exchange operators’ use of blockchain technology to date, focusing on existing initiatives in the U.S., Japan, UK and Australia, among others. The report concluded that a tamper-proof blockchain-based system would increase the efficiency, integrity and security of tracking and storing transactions. The report added that existing conventional systems that use a centralized ledger are both less efficient and more …

A company is creating an ecosystem where tangible assets such as gold can be traded for virtual currencies in a digital environment. The platform, known as the Digital Gold Exchange (DGE for short,) says it has the goal of establishing a place where users can securely store their assets and trade with others “quickly, safely, and without intermediary intervention.” It is designing a blockchain-based ecosystem which it hopes will allow individuals and companies to join – trading without borders wherever they are in the world. Although gold is going to be a primary focus for the platform, DGE’s white paper …

South Korean authorities are investigating a possible crypto investment scam involving the Seoul-based Shinil Group as the key figure, Korea JoongAng Daily reported July 31. Shinil Group (Shinil) allegedly promised to pay investors in gold from a sunken Russian shipwreck. Earlier this month, Shinil announced it had found the Dmitrii Donskoi, a Russian armored cruiser that sank 113 years ago, according to Reuters. The company claimed that the ship was loaded with 150 trillion won ($131 billion) worth of gold. To encourage investors to purchase the company’s own cryptocurrency, Shinil allegedly promised to reimburse them with the gold from the …

Huobi, currently the world’s third largest crypto exchange by daily trading volumes, is set to support Indian rupee (INR) transactions on its proprietary peer-to-peer trading platform, according to an email cited by Crypto News India July 26. Huobi, whose over-the-counter (OTC) service will reportedly offer Indian users zero-fee trading on Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Tether (USDT) using rupees, noted in the email that: “We do think it’s time that we provide a solution of buying/selling digital assets with INR for all Indian users...every registered Indian user of Huobi can log in to https://otc.huobi.com to trade digital assets with INR.” …

South Korean watchdog the Financial Services Commission (FSC) has urged lawmakers to hasten their approval of the country’s first cryptocurrency bill, Bloomberg reports July 26. Hong Seong-ki, head of the FSC’s virtual currency response team, has reportedly warned of the security and money laundering risks courted by the country’s domestic crypto exchanges. Bloomberg cites Seong-ki as saying that: “While crypto markets have seen rapid growth, such trading platforms don’t seem to be well-enough prepared in terms of security. We’re trying to legislate the most urgent and important things first, aiming for money-laundering prevention [AML] and investor protection. The bill should …

State-owned KT Corporation, South Korea’s largest telephone company, has announced the launch of its blockchain-powered commercial network. The firm has built a blockchain layer on top of its existing nationwide network in order to make it “more secure and transparent,” according to an article by The Korea Herald published Tuesday, July 24. The news outlet reports the head of KT Blockchain Center Seo Young-il as saying that blockchain tech can be used in telecommunications for secure and efficient data management. Seo added: “The whole point of applying blockchain to networks is to address security and transaction issues by making the …

Crypto price tracker and exchange rankings site CoinMarketCap.com (CMC) is making major changes to its exchange listings method in light of concerns over skewed trade volume data, according to an official announcement July 19. As of July 16, the site has now removed the minimum volume requirements that it had been using to limit the number of exchanges listed on the site. According to CMC, this represents the first measure among others that will be phased in to address widespread concerns about the integrity of trade volume figures on exchanges. Although CMC says it transparently aggregates volume data based on …

Former Wall Street executive Mike Novogratz has recently predicted that mass adoption of crypto and blockchain is “still five to six years away,” Blokt blockchain and tech news outlet reports July 19. Speaking at the Beyond Blocks conference in South Korea, Novogratz, CEO and founder of crypto investment firm Galaxy Digital, still expressed confidence that many institutions will come into the industry “in the next two to three years,” claiming that “without that, we will be running in circles.” However, the mass adoption of crypto and blockchain technology will come not earlier than in a half a decade, Novogratz added …

South Korea’s Yeongdeungpo-gu district has established a "Proposal Evaluation System" based on blockchain to improve the fairness and integrity of administrative procedures, according to a July 19 governmental press release. Yeongdeungpo-gu, an administrative district in southwest Seoul, will implement a smart administration through new technologies with the blockchain-based "Proposal Evaluation System" to improve the integrity, transparency, and reliability of the evaluation proposal process. The adoption of blockchain technology for administrative procedures aims to improve existing evaluation processes including real-time result disclosure, holding proposal review meetings, and publishing results of negotiations. The press release describes how the results of an evaluation …

The Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) and the Korea Housing Finance Corporation (HF) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to develop a blockchain-based storage system for documents, Korean news agency Newsis reports July 16. KISA and HF will introduce a blockchain system to manage electronic documents for mortgages and loans. KISA will provide HF with consulting and technology for building and operating the new system. HF, which provides housing finance services for low and middle-income families, will digitize paper documents and migrate them onto an online registered documents storage system. The system also aims to provide blockchain-based self-identification …