This article was first published here on Forkast Trying to move beyond XRP, Ripple hopes its customers will join RippleNet with a wallet that supports fiat and other cryptos like Bitcoin and Ether. Ripple, the San Francisco-based blockchain payments company currently embroiled in a lawsuit with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, this week announced that it would be launching Ripple Liquidity Hub, which will allow enterprises to access and source liquidity from the broader crypto market for a range of cryptocurrencies including XRP, Bitcoin and Ethereum at what Ripple says would be the best possible prices to their customers. Liquidity, or the ease that an asset can be bought or sold at a stable price on a given market, plays a critical role in trading, particularly in the cryptocurrency market. There are currently over 600 cryptocurrency exchanges — big and small — and traders sometimes experience large price spreads between different platforms, especially for altcoins. “Ripple Liquidity Hub is a game-changer for enterprises who want to offer their customers the ability to buy, sell or hold digital assets,” Asheesh Birla, general manager of RippleNet at Ripple told Forkast.News in an email. With Ripple Liquidity Hub — to be launched in 2022 — enterprise customers will be able to use an API connection to access digital assets from a variety of global sources, including market makers, exchanges, over-the-counter (OTC) desks and, in the future, decentralized venues. “To put things into perspective, you can think of Liquidity Hub as an aggregator for various liquidity venues and individual assets, the way that Google Flights is for airlines and flights,” Birla said. At launch, Ripple Liquidity Hub will support XRP, Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Ethereum Classic (ETC), with availability varying by jurisdiction. Ripple plans to add other tokenized assets like non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and capabilities like staking and yield generation in the future, Birla said. “The lack of liquidity is the biggest issue that the industry faces. Cryptocurrencies remain extremely volatile, holding back their widespread adoption. Moreover, the current crypto-liquidity landscape is not friendly towards traditional financial institutions,” Don Guo, co-founder and CEO of Singapore-based Broctagon Fintech Group told Forkast.News in an email. “This aspect has, for the most part, acted as a barrier-to-entry for mainstream institutions, and has kept crypto a ‘fringe’ investment.” “The liquidity hub by Ripple is geared towards enabling such enterprises to easily and efficiently source digital assets from the broader crypto market which is needed,” Guo added. Broctagon, for example, is also trying to provide the industry with greater liquidity by aggregating quotes from top-tier crypto exchanges and making them directly accessible to the smaller exchange, Guo said. “A concerted industry effort and cooperation are needed to take crypto to its next stage of evolution.” XRP, the native digital asset on the XRP Ledger, is currently the seventh-largest cryptocurrency with a market cap of US$56 billion. Whether or not XRP should be deemed a security is also the billion-dollar question in the lawsuit that SEC filed last December against Ripple, which is currently in the discovery phase in federal court in New York. Unprecedented growth of RippleNet ODL According to Ripple’s Q3 2021 XRP Markets Report, Ripple saw unprecedented growth of its On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) service, which facilitates cross-border payments by using XRP as a bridge between two currencies. ODL transactions increased 130% quarter over quarter and transaction volume on RippleNet more than doubled since 2020. The ODL service is available in over 20 markets including Japan and the Middle East that launched this year. “We have been using the Ripple Liquidity Hub technology internally as part of our On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) service for nearly two years, sourcing XRP on-demand to power millions of transactions, worth billions of dollars,” Birla said. “In fact, customers who have witnessed the benefits of ODL first hand asked if we could help them source other digital assets.” Enterprises will not be required, unlike many other offerings, to pre-fund accounts for Liquidity Hub and can receive access to working capital through Ripple. Ripple is partnering with Coinme, a licensed cryptocurrency cash network in the United States, as its first partner for the product. “We have seen strong demand for a product like this in the market after the massive year that crypto has had,” Birla said. “Banks, financial institutions, and SMEs realize the opportunity to integrate crypto into their business but they aren’t necessarily experts in this space and they need support offering their customers the ability to easily buy, sell, and hold crypto assets. Ripple’s latest announcement comes as it expands the use cases for the XRP Ledger technology beyond digital payments and remittances to central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), tokenization, decentralized finance (DeFi) and NFTs. “In the future, every customer will join RippleNet with the same base service and a wallet designed to support both crypto and fiat,” according to a Ripple media release. “Customers will be able to use their Ripple-enabled wallet to custody anything that’s tokenized.” Judge orders Ripple to produce audio and video recordings of company meetings For now, however, the company is battling the SEC in heated litigation. In a ruling this week, U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn ordered Ripple to search for and produce relevant audio and video recordings of its internal employee meetings, including “all-hands” meetings, town hall meetings and fireside chats, which the SEC contends “contain undisputedly relevant evidence.” “Ripple’s search of its recorded meetings has been inadequate under the circumstances,” said Netburn in a ruling this week. “While the Court recognizes that a human review of the recordings may be unreasonable, a reasonable search could include automated transcriptions of records (similar to the common technology used to transcribe voicemail messages) and the use of search terms.” Ripple earlier called the SEC’s request “disproportionate” and maintained that it had conducted a comprehensive and reasonable search for recordings. But the SEC challenged Ripple’s search, saying it was lacking and argued that the recordings “may reveal efforts Ripple took to increase or maintain XRP’s price or to create expectations of profits in potential XRP purchasers, both of which are relevant… to prove whether XRP was offered and sold as a security.” As Ripple has said that it has more than 4,000 recordings, the judge has ordered the parties to meet to narrow down the list to time periods  that are most likely to contain information relevant to the lawsuit. 

Instantly add popular altcoins like the SHIB/USDT pair to your exchange today and allow your users to ride this latest trading wave.

In this latest update, we have focused a lot more on quality-of-life updates to ensure greater efficiency, better user experience, and a clearer audit processes for our brokers. Reports [Comprehensive Account Report] now reflects total data in sheet in their respective columns. [Client Portal] now includes the option of advanced filtering. You can now sort your Client's Report based on parameters such as Transaction/Account Capital/Trade History/Open Positions/ Pending Orders/ Fixed Commissions/Flexible Commissions. Data Management KYC details such as place of residence, address, and zip code will now be synchronized with the MT4 and MT5 platforms. Flexible commission structures are now supported. Given this update, brokers will now be able to drag-and-drop modules onto individual users within the [Commissions] menu. Deposit & Withdrawal Your clients can now submit multiple withdrawal requests. You can now opt to send a notification email to your clients whenever you manually process a transaction. This function is set to off by default. Changes will be remembered and applied on future transactions. Fixed an issue where administrators were able to cancel notifications to pre-set backoffice users. The developers will continue to monitor and optimise this function - it may not be displayed in future updates. Trade Management Leverage can now be individually set for each server. General Rich Text entry boxes now supports the insertion of pictures. This applies to all modules that have Rich Text entry boxes, such as email templates and email sending. Learn More About AXIS CRM

Chainalysis, the blockchain analysis company, is the latest participant to join the inter-exchange liquidity network known as the WorldBook™. The NEXUS WorldBook is an initiative by Broctagon Fintech Group, under the licensed entity Broctagon Prime Markets Limited to create a universal liquidity standard for digital assets. Ulisse Dell’Orto, Managing Director, Asia Pacific & Japan, of Chainalysis, said: “Chainalysis’ mission is to build trust in blockchains. Through our data platform, we are actively working to create a safer cryptocurrency ecosystem for all users. Our team of experts helps organizations like Europol, UNODC, Barclays, and Upbit investigate and mitigate their risk to illicit actors. We have helped law enforcement investigate some of the most high-profile cybercriminal cases, such as the Silk Road dark market, child sex abuse material distributor Welcome to Video, and the Mt. Gox hack. All of us at Chainalysis are honoured to participate in WorldBook and continue contributing to the growth of the cryptocurrency industry globally.”   Don Guo, CEO of Broctagon Fintech Group, commented on Chainalysis’s participation on the WorldBook network, saying: “Analysis of data is important in financial markets to allow companies to make better decisions. Chainalysis provides data analysis services to institutions, government agencies, and cryptocurrency businesses. With their expertise in transaction monitoring and investigation software in the cryptocurrency industry, their participation in the WorldBook will allow other members to understand the expectations required to establish the next generation of compliance standards with respect to transparency and security. We are pleased to have them onboard as one of the members of the WorldBook.” About Chainalysis Chainalysis is the blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Our data powers investigation, compliance and market intelligence software that has been used to solve the world’s most high-profile criminal cases and grow safe access to cryptocurrency About NEXUS WorldBook The NEXUS WorldBook™ is the world’s first crypto liquidity ecosystem, committed to building a cohesive network for both makers and takers. The WorldBook leverages on the NEXUS 2.0 aggregator technology to offer its members global price discovery and direct STP capabilities on a universal liquidity standard. To find out more about Chainalysis, visit: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Chainalysis/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/chainalysis/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/chainalysis YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_liJHPLUjE63r4Cb43jurw To find out more about or to join the NEXUS WorldBook, visit: Website: https://nexusworldbook.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NEXUSWorldBook LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/74741847/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/NEXUSWorldBook Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nexusworldbook/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCT5_f3W2SEBDsWrJc8YGAEw  

Since our last attendance at their virtual summit last year where we were awarded “Best Tailored Blockchain Solutions Provider”, we are excited to meet again in person our clients and future partners.

Owing to the country’s friendly regulatory environment with respect to financial markets, and fintech and blockchain within it, various other global cryptocurrency groups are expanding their presence in Singapore.

Broctagon participated in Labuan IBFC's CoDE Asia 2021 on Thursday, 21 October 2021. Growing into its third edition, CoDE Asia 2021 is themed "Future Forward: Next Gen Digital Ecosystems”. Representing Broctagon was Cecilia Chan, our Head of Liquidity (Asia) and Executive Director. With 22 years in the financial industry, Cecilia was the former Vice President at Singapore Exchange and a Senior Manager in Exchange & Regulatory relations at Hang Seng Indexes. On Recent Trends  Cecilia pointed out that within the digitalisation space, the most interesting aspect of digitalisation in recent times would be digital currencies issued by the central bank. As Decentralised Finance (DeFi) continues to grow, central banks want to be more involved in the process. Cecilia explained that we are more familiar with central bank money because it’s safe, liquid, and has integrity - given that context, central banks have to evolve to suit the digitalisation aspect of the economy. The Advantages of Digital Currencies  Cecilia shared that digital currency allows for better cross-border payments at a lower cost. This improves efficiency across borders, leading to faster settlements, making payment less of a hassle for retail and consumers.  The Future and the Now Cecelia expresses that here at Broctagon, we stay ahead of the game by trying to foresee what the market needs before the problem arises. As a tech solutions provider the specialises in Fintech, we are actuely aware of the issues that plague it, such as the problem of fragmented liquidity that the crypto market faces as a whole. Liquidity in crypto, for example, is concentrated in the top 3% of crypto exchanges, accounting for less than 25% of trading volume - not including the OTC desk and P2P aspects In light of this, we want to create awareness and inclusion of digital assets for mainstream adoption. AUM growth in crypto has tripled from 2020 to 2021, so we want to create solutions to cater to the institutional crowd and address liquidity as it continues to be a big problem in the institutional space.  Staying Relevant Cecilia explained that the beauty of DeFi is its ability to skip through all the intermediaries, allowing their users to go straight to the source without any intervention. Regulators know that DeFi will continue to evolve given this, and they are now starting to establish regulations in the DeFi space. As regulators, they are bound to keep in check investor and consumer interests and are unable to sit out this process as the welfare of their citizens are at stake.  While they explore this space, they are trying to navigate and create guidelines. Yet because the industry is so borderless, it is very difficult for them to work with one another. The lack of a single framework makes it more difficult for regulators to transverse the crypto landscape.

Article first published here in The Straits Times SINGAPORE - When the pandemic hit last year and left Mr Ng Yu Jie stuck at home without a job, a seemingly improbable solution popped into his head - dabble in cryptocurrency to generate some income. Mr Ng's first step was to invest $350 in Ripple (XRP) on trading platform Torque when each unit cost about 20 US cents or 27 Singapore cents. The price rose steadily to 60 US cents: "My $350 became $1,000 so I cashed out," recalled 26-year-old Mr Ng, who has a diploma in mechanical engineering and used to work as a guide for pub crawlers. "I saw an opportunity for passive income. I felt that the prices were quite stable and I could get some money without having to work for it. The greed in me grew and I wanted to put in more to get more returns." Mr Ng, who spends eight hours a day reading news about cryptocurrencies and analysing the prices of digital coins, opened more trading accounts with Torque and increased his investments over time to about $10,000. Torque was then suddenly shut in February and he was unable to withdraw his crypto assets, which had appreciated to about $20,000. "I felt that I should really use crypto to recover what I lost in Torque," Mr Ng said. "So in June, I opened an account with Binance and started trading with $2,000." In three months, he made a profit of $10,000 from crypto trading. "I feel that my strategy works, unless there is a change to the regulation, like MAS (Monetary Authority of Singapore) banning more platforms for Singapore users. Then I may need to start looking for a job," said Mr Ng. "For now, crypto trading is my main source of income. If I stop, my income will stop too." Mr Don Guo, co-founder and chief executive of fintech solutions provider Broctagon Fintech Group, has a different take on cryptocurrencies. Mr Don Guo does not view cryptocurrency tokens as a viable short-term investment product.ST PHOTO: CHONG JUN LIANG; Mr Guo, 37, bought 300 Ether (ETH) at US$700 each in 2017 - an outlay of US$210,000. "Over time, I did liquidate some of them and bought into some other altcoins and Bitcoin as well," said Mr Guo, who still has about 10 ETH. "It wasn't actually meant to be an investment at that point in time, even though there was a lot of speculation about how it could rise." Mr Guo had bought Ether to use for payments and business purposes and, even now, he does not view cryptocurrency tokens as a viable short-term investment product despite having benefited from the rise in value. "As we all know, most cryptocurrencies are rather volatile, and if you were to just jump in and out of it on every piece of information you get, you would be so busy. "I don't think many people can (do that), unless they are really professional traders." Mr Guo said he is mentally prepared to lose whatever he has put into cryptocurrency trading: "It's not money that I need to use for more important purposes, like to pay for my house or (sustain) my livelihood."

Naijacrypto is a premier cryptocurrency exchange platform that offers digital asset trading services such as trading tools and leverage trading.