South Korea is considered the fourth biggest gaming market and one of the biggest blockchain adopters. However, the country has banned play-to-earn (P2E) blockchain games due to the crypto integration. The new pro-crypto president Yoon Suk-yeol had hinted at lifting the ban, but the government yet to showed any significant effort. Anthony Yoon, managing partner of blockchain investment and accelerator firm ROK Capital, in an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph, said that GameFi is a natural fit for Korean game publishers. Yoon shed light on the current state of GameFi in the country and how game studios are approaching blockchain integration …

Crypto platform Bitcoin.com is looking to expand its ecosystem by introducing Bitcoin (BTC) holders to the world of decentralized finance (DeFi) and implementing new services such as a decentralized exchange (DEX) in its platform. Speaking with Cointelegraph’s Andrew Fenton at the Korea Blockchain Week (KBW) 2022, Bitcoin.com's head of financial services Corbin Fraser said that the company is moving from only being associated with Bitcoin Cash (BCH) to becoming a DeFi platform that caters to crypto users across multiple chains. Fraser explained that: “We've got a lot of BTC users and a lot of these people want to do more …

Mere hours after the Nomad token bridge published an Ethereum wallet address last week for the return of funds following a $190 million hack, whitehat hackers have since returned approximately $32.6 million worth of funds. The vast majority of funds consisted of stablecoins USD Coin (USDC), Tether (USDT) and Frax, along with altcoins. According to research published by Paul Hoffman of BestBrokers, the vulnerability of the Nomad protocol was highlighted in Nomad's recent audit by Quantstamp on June 6 and was deemed "Low Risk." As soon as the exploit was discovered, members of the public joined the attack by copy-pasting …

Singapore-based crypto lending platform Hodlnaut has become the latest firm to suspend withdrawals, and deposits blaming market conditions and lack of liquidity. The crypto lending firm made an official announcement on Aug. 8, claiming that market conditions have forced it to suspend its services and that it is actively working on recovery plans. Dear users, we regret to inform you that we will be halting withdrawals, token swaps and deposits immediately due to recent market conditions. We have also withdrawn our MAS licence application. Here is our full statement https://t.co/5KfHUBzWsn Our next update will be on 19 Aug. — Hodlnaut …

Decentralized-finance (DeFi) aggregator 1inch Network has revealed plans to expand within the Asian market, according to its co-founder Sergej Kunz. Speaking to Cointelegraph during Korean Blockchain Week (KBW) 2022 on Aug. 8, Kunz said that despite the DeFi market being relatively small in Korea and Asia, there are a number of Asia-based Web3 companies that 1inch is looking to partner with. However, Kunz also added that the biggest barrier to entry appears to be a lack of understanding about DeFi and how to use crypto wallets: “As soon as people understand that they can [yield] farm, they can swap, they …

Zero-knowledge (ZK) rollup tech company StarkWare founder Eli Ben-Sasson says its new Recursive validity proofs could theoretically roll up as many as 60 million transactions into one on the Ethereum blockchain. The zkSTARK co-inventor made the comments to Cointelegraph during ETH Seoul on Aug. 7 after announcing the start of production of StarkWare’s new Recursive validity proof technology during a presentation. Speaking to Cointelegraph, Ben-Sasson said that recursive validity proofs could further scale up transaction throughput to a factor of at least ten compared to standard Validium scaling, noting that they’ve already been rolling up 600,000 mints of nonfungible tokens …

Ethereum-based algorithmic stablecoin project Beanstalk Farms has relaunched its protocol just under four months after going offline after suffering a devastating $77 million governance exploit. The protocol and its governance have been paused since April following the governance exploit and flash loan attack, but were relaunched as of Aug. 6 in an event called the “Replant.” In an announcement shared with Cointelegraph, Beanstalk said it has come out of the ordeal stronger than ever, likely in reference to protocol's governance and security. “Beanstalk has come out on the other end of this ordeal stronger than ever. It is a testament …

Blockchain technology has spawned many applications over the past few years, the most popular being cryptocurrencies. It has also facilitated the creation of many decentralized, secure and transparent marketplaces in the digital economy. Offering far more trust since all transactions are immutably recorded on the blockchain, this technology has been well supplemented by the smart contract feature popularized by Ethereum. Decentralized applications (DApps) based on blockchains like Ethereum are disrupting traditional businesses such as retail banking and are even introducing use cases never deemed possible. Expanding the capability of smart contracts with oracles However, for the Ethereum blockchain to support …

It’s weird to think that anyone could look forward to downturns in the crypto market, but that is precisely the position held by many developers and project creators who enjoy the low-pressure environment that exists during a bear market. As the saying goes, bear markets are for building, and now is one of the best times to survey the landscape to see which sectors of the market are most active in designing the platforms that will soar to new heights in the next bull cycle. Here’s a look at five sectors of the blockchain ecosystem that may present some of …

Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly dose of key decentralized finance (DeFi) insights, a newsletter crafted to bring you some of the major developments over the last week. This past week, the DeFi ecosystem saw several new developments despite a bearish phase brought on by the lending crisis in the crypto market. Another crypto lender, Celsius, with high stakes in DeFi protocols, filed for bankruptcy. The overall DeFi market fell to new lows in the second quarter. However, a new report indicates users haven’t given up hope. BNB Chain launched a new decentralized application (DApp) platform with an alarm feature. …

At the moment, liquidity is hard to come by, but crypto traders and protocols still need inflow and revenue to remain functional. As the crypto winter drags on, savvy crypto investors have realized that one of the reliable sources of passive income that still exists can be found on protocols that generate revenue and share some of it with their respective communities. Platforms that earn real yield through useage fees are the obvious winner in the bear market, That mean perpetuals and options as they are profitable bear or bull. Thats why #GMX is hot, #snx fees up massively and …

Decentralized finance (DeFi) has massive potential to transform traditional financial services. Data from Emergen Research recently found that the global DeFi platform market size is expected to reach $507 billion by 2028. Moreover, the total value locked within DeFi currently exceeds $75 billion, demonstrating fast-paced growth compared to previous months this year. Yet, DeFi’s potential may still not be realized by business leaders unfamiliar with the blockchain ecosystem. This notion is highlighted in Alex Tapscott’s recent book, Digital Asset Revolution. Tapscott, co-founder of the Blockchain Research Institute and managing director at Ninepoint Digital Asset Group, told Cointelegraph that he believes …