Asia’s top automobile manufacturer’s latest research details how Ethereum can turn vehicles into public infrastructure as Korean police crack $2M drug case, and more! The post Toyota’s love for Ethereum, HK nods inverse Bitcoin ETF, stablecoin: Asia Express appeared first on Cointelegraph Magazine ..read more

John-Paul Thorbjornsen, who also goes by the name “JP Thor,” recently confessed to something he had been hiding for a very long time. He’s the founder of a well-known layer-1 cross-chain protocol — THORChain — and pretended to be a completely made-up woman called “Leena” for six years while doing it. Now, just a few months after revealing his identity, Thorbjornsen has revealed his next crusade: “vampire-attacking” bad players in the decentralized finance (DeFi) industry while building his own super app.  “I am vampire-attacking all of DeFi to wake everyone up,” Thorbjornsen tells Magazin ..read more

Top Stories This Week Pixelverse to put Pudgy Penguin character on Telegram mini game The face of the popular non-fungible token (NFT) collection Pudgy Penguins will be integrated as a character on Pixelverse’s mini-game on Telegram. On July 16, Pixelverse announced that it would introduce the Pudgy Penguins character “Pudgy” into the game, joining other crypto favorites such as Doge from the Dogecoin memecoin and Mew, a character that represents a Solana memecoin. The integration allows players to play the character in the Pixelverse game. A standalone Pudgy Penguins mobile game is slated for ..read more

WazirX hackers were preparing 8 days before the $235M theft The hackers behind the $235 million WazirX crypto exchange breach began preparing onchain at least eight days prior, according to Polygon Labs’s security chief. WazirX, one of India’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, lost hundreds of millions to a multisig wallet hack on Thursday, July 18, which is being blamed on North Korean hacking organization Lazarus Group.  Mudit Gupta, the Chief Information Security Officer of Polygon Labs, suggests the hackers had started “practicing” the hack onchain more than a week prior to executing ..read more

Most NFT PFP projects have come and gone. The euphoric period of 2021–2022, with its lofty expectations, roadmaps and promises, is mainly in the rear-view mirror. But one project, Mad Lads, has emerged from the rubble of the bear market and solidified itself as a leading PFP project community on Solana. What is Mad Lads? The “Lads” minted on April 21, 2023, following a highly curated allowlist process that began 12 months earlier, spearheaded by co-founder Tristan Yver. Minting at 6.9 SOL, about $144 at the time, the Lads were a galvanizing force for good in the Solana ecosystem after the inf ..read more

City: Riyadh Country: Saudi Arabia Population: 7.82 million (metro) Established: 1737 Language: Arabic In the center of the an-Nafud desert rises Riyadh, Arabic for “the meadows,” the third most populous city in the Middle East. But it’s likely not the first place that comes to mind when you think about crypto and gaming. Cryptocurrency is a gray area, neither banned outright nor endorsed, and it can be tricky to access. Despite this, research by KuCoin suggests that 14% of Saudis between 18 and 60 own crypto. Morrad Irsane, CEO of Takadao — a blockchain for halal insurance — takes this as cl ..read more

According to Avichal Garg, co-founder of venture capital firm Electric Capital, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase will probably not need to mention the word “crypto” in the future. Garg predicts that “probably in the next five years,” Coinbase will not “really mention crypto” as part of their advertising, as people will just know that you can “buy stuff on Coinbase,” similar to how people view trading platform Robinhood. He thinks it will just be known as another financial instrument that investors can buy and gain yield from. “The reason I think that is there’s this adage where people overesti ..read more

Crypto-Sec is our bi-weekly round-up of crypto and cybersecurity stories and tips. Phish of the week: Turbo Toad enthusiast loses $3,600 Memecoin collector and X user Tech on Ivan lost over 1 million TURBO, worth over $3,600 at the time, when he became the victim of a phishing attack, according to a post he made on July 11. “I’m completely devastated,” Ivan stated. He lost the tokens after receiving a phishing email containing a link he subsequently clicked on. Ivan did not explain what happened after clicking the link, but he was most likely sent to a malicious web app connected to a drainer ..read more

Top Stories This Week VanEck and 21Shares send amended Ether ETF filings to SEC Asset managers VanEck and 21Shares amended their S-1 forms for their prospective Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on July 8. While a specific launch date was not given in either of the amended filings, experts suggested a July launch window for the Ethereum ETFs. Lionel Messi promotes Solana memecoin on Instagram Soccer sensation Lionel Messi made waves this week by promoting WaterCoin on his Instagram stories. The Solana-based memecoin claims to be a charity project ..read more

Our weekly roundup of news from East Asia curates the industry’s most important developments. SGX boss says Singapore ‘not ready’ for Bitcoin ETFs While several nations have approved the listing of cryptocurrency-based exchange-traded funds, Singapore, a key financial hub in Asia, is apparently not ready. SGX CEO Chye speaks at Reuter’s NEXT conference. (Reuters) Singapore Exchange (SGX) CEO Loh Boon Chye said so in a conference hosted by Reuters on July 9, stating that SGX is currently not open to crypto listings. “The ecosystem, I feel, at this point in time, is not ready for such products i ..read more