ZkPass protocol was selected from a list of more than 900 applicants and will now receive strategic funding from Binance Labs as well as four other finalists.

A decentralized open-source protocol that focuses on identity verification solutions zkPass has been crowned the winner of a metaverse show sponsored by the leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance. According to the announcement, the Binance metaverse show was seeking to crown the next big Web3 entrepreneur amongst a huge group of applicants. A panel of Judges in the Binance Web3 reality show had an easy time choosing the finalist winner as ZKPass received the highest votes throughout the seven episodes that featured 12 projects.
Nevertheless, Binance also chose four other finalists including Mind Network, Kryptoskatt, Bracket

Macy’s noted that Nike will return to its stores, starting from October this year.

Macy’s Inc (NYSE: M), an American conglomerate holding company that engages in consumer goods, released its first-quarter earnings results on June 01. According to the announcement, Macy’s reported net sales of $4.98 billion during the first three months of the year (Q1 2023), which represented a decline of approximately 7 percent YoY basis. However, analysts surveyed by REFINITIV expected the company to report revenue of about $5.04 billion during the first quarter.
Notably, the company noted that the first quarter’s net income was $155 million, representing 56 cents per share, having dropped from $286 million or 98 cents per share a year ago. As a result, M shares continued with this year’s bearish

China Telecom has noted that the establishment of a quantum tech hub is in line with President Xi Jinping’s long-term tech adoption.

China Telecom Corp Ltd (Hong Kong: 728), a Chinese telecommunications company, has announced plans to venture into the supercomputer quantum industry to streamline its services. According to the company’s announcement through WeChat, up to 3 billion Yuan, approximately $434 million, will be used to establish the China Telecom Quantum Information Technology Group. Reportedly, the company has chosen the eastern province of Anhui as the desired place to establish quantum technology.
The Chinese economy has experienced significant growth post Covid-19 fueled by the adoption of digital technology including artificial intelligence, blockchain, and distributed

The Qwan tokens have a total supply of 1 billion with about 455 million, representing 45.5 percent, being allocated to the ecosystem’s treasury.

The Qwan, a Web3 crypto token geared towards revolutionizing the gaming industry by involving users, has announced plans to launch on the Ethereum ecosystem on May 31. Backed by key Web3 investors including Horizen Labs Ventures – which has backed successful GamiFi projects like Yuga Labs, The Sandbox, and Animoca Brands – the Qwan token intends to enable a decentralized economy for all gamers globally through incentivizing their activities.
Closer Look at the Qwan Ecosystem
Several centralized exchanges including MEXC, AscendEX, and BTSE, among others, will list the Qwan token on Wednesday at a listing price of about $0.15.

“We are

China has agreed to work with Japan to promote practical cooperation in key economic and trade areas including advancements in the semiconductor industry.

The global geopolitical crisis has significantly impacted the overall development of technology. The ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia, which is estimated to take several years to resolve, has significantly increased the rift between global military superpowers. Moreover, the United States has significantly influenced other nations with high-tech capabilities in Europe and Asia to sideline Russia and China in regard to semiconductor cup developments.
China Fights Back through Japan
The People’s Republic of China has been at loggerheads with the United States over the control of global semiconductors for several years. Before the

The NFT tickets will be minted via the Ethereum scaling layer two blockchain Polygon (MATIC).

The sixth race of the 22-round season for the Formula One (F1) Grand Prix held in Monaco over the weekend has attracted the attention of crypto enthusiasts. Furthermore, as a country within the European market, which recently passed the Markets in Crypto-Assets Act (MiCA) legislative standards, it is bound to attract significantly higher crypto enthusiasts during the F1 event. As a result, Platinium Group, a global sports ticketing platform, has partnered with Elemint, a blockchain infrastructure focused on the NFT industry, and Web3 marketing and development agency, Bary, to help in the creation and distribution of the NFT tickets.
According to Elie Zerbib, Co-Founder of Bary, certain NFT

The growth of BNB and the underlying chain is largely connected with the ongoing regulatory scrutiny, especially in the United States

The BNB Smart Chain (BSC), a leading smart contract blockchain developed by the leading centralized exchange Binance with about $4.45 billion in total value locked, is expected to have a hard fork on its mainnet at block height 29,020,050. Through the current block generation speed, Binance Chain core developers expect the Luban hard fork to take place on June 12, 2023. As a result, the BNB Smart Chain validators and full node operators have been advised to switch their software version to v1.2.4 before the hard fork takes place in seventeen days.
According to GitHub documentation, the Luban hard fork on the BNB Smart Chain is expected to introduce three

The Malaysian SC has urged the local investors to immediately cease trading via Huobi Global, withdraw their investments, and close their accounts.

A leading centralized crypto firm Huobi Global Limited and its Chief Executive Officer Leon Li have been accused of operating a digital asset exchange in Malaysia without registration. As a result, the Securities Commission of Malaysia (SC) has ordered the cryptocurrency exchange to immediately cease operations within its jurisdiction. Notably, the SC has ordered Huobi Global to disable its official website and mobile applications in Malaysia henceforth.
Huobi in Malaysia
The Malaysian regulator has also ordered Li to ensure the exchange does not issue advertisements to local investors through any platform.

“This decision comes after

The integration helps Opera users navigate the Web3 industry through MultiversX with the help of EGLD coins.

The Opera browser, one of the leading internet browsers with more than 300 million users across its mobile and desktop platforms, has announced a successful integration with MultiversX (EGLD), a metaverse-centric blockchain formerly known as Elrond. Following the integration, Opera users can download the configuration via a dedicated link to enable the access of features like dedicated wallpapers, and speed dials for quick access to essential MultiversX sites. The integration of the Opera browser with MultiversX will enhance the future growth prospects of both platforms. Furthermore, it is a seamless mainstream adoption of Web3 by Web2 users.
With the integration, Opera users

The job cuts will happen despite an increase in its network connection, whereby BT Group reported a total of 8.6 million 5G connections, up 62% last year.

Shares of BT Group PLC (LSE: BT.A) dropped as much as 8 percent on Thursday to trade around £136.85. The sudden drop in the £14.91 billion valued British multinational telecommunications holding company was attributed to the announcement that between 40,000 to 55,000 of its workforce will be reduced by 2030. According to the company, the workforce reduction is set to begin in five years, which will represent between 31-42 percent of its total staff members. Notably, the company intends to cut down both third-party workers and its direct employees.
The company intends to digitize most of its services, which in return will help cut down

According to Chinese prosecutors, NFT creators hide in plain view through the use of airdrops, blind boxes, limited sales, and synthesis.

The Chinese government has pushed the country to digital economy adoption post-Covid-19 global pandemic. The country has significantly rolled out the digital yuan in anticipation to widen the adoption of its currency as a global reserve. The digital Yuan is expected to significantly help improve the overall liquidity of cryptocurrencies in the Asian continent. Moreover, Hong Kong is preparing to adopt crypto-friendly regulations next month, which has significantly attracted Chinese banks to invest in crypto startups.
China on NFT Market
According to a theoretical research work published by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate of the People’s Republic of

Zepz, however, noted that it is hiring more than 200 new roles including software developers, managerial positions and marketing roles, among many others.

In a bid to streamline its business structure for future growth prospects, Zepz,  a London-headquartered money transfer platform, has announced the reduction of its workforce by about 26 percent. In a report by CNBC, it is said that Zepz has sent home 420 of its employees but not due to macroeconomic pressure. As a result, Zepz has been left with a total headcount of 1,180.
Available in more than 5,000 global money transfer corridors, Zepz has challenged remittance giants like Western Union Co (NYSE: WU). Furthermore, Zepz has over 11 million users across 150 countries and a valuation of about $5 billion following the closure of a

Rakuten shares gained approximately 7.9 percent YTD despite dropping about 20 percent last year.

Shares of Rakuten Group Inc (Tokyo: 4745) closed Monday trading at ¥643, down 9.05 percent from the day’s opening price. The sudden drop in Rakuten shares was attributed to the announcement by Reuters that the company is in the final stages of issuing new shares in a bid to raise approximately $2.2 billion. According to the media outlet, Rakuten plans to issue shares to founder and CEO Hiroshi Mikitani and a fund controlled by the entrepreneur.
However, the company issued a press statement discrediting the announcement. According to Rakuten, although the company is planning to raise capital, there has been no official announcement to warrant the rumors.

“While the Company has been

The integration of Spotify with NFT projects including Moonbirds has helped its stock rally more than 80 percent YTD.

The Moonbirds (MOONBIRD), an Ethereum ERC-721 NFT token with a total supply of 10k units, has announced a strategic partnership with Spotify Technology S.A (NYSE: SPOT) to enable the NFT holders to unlock certain music creations on the online platform. According to the announcement, Moonbirds holders in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, another few selected geographic regions can access Moonbirds playlist dubbed Sounds of a Digital Renaissance on the Spotify platform.
However, only Android Moonbirds users will access the pilot program, according to the announcement.

Reportedly, the Moonbirds developers see the partnership with Spotify as an

Emirates Group announced global freight expansion to different destinations including Tanzania, Germany, Canada, and Brazil.

Emirates Group, a state-owned Dubai-based international aviation holding company, released its 2022-2023 financial results. According to the announcement, Emirates achieved a record annual profit of AED 10.9 billion, approximately $3 billion. The airline service company was impressed with the financial year 2022-2023, after posting a huge decline in operations during the prior year due to Covid-19-related constraints.
Emirates and Its Record Results
The Emirates Group announced its yearly revenue grew by approximately 81 percent to AED 119.8 billion or about $32.6 billion. As a result, the Emirates Group ended the financial year with the highest-ever cash balance

With a market capitalization of approximately $126 million, the Milady Meme Coin saw its trading volume rally above $199 million.

Tech billionaire and Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk, has once again proved his influence in the meme coin industry through a tweet of Milady NFT. As a result, the price value of Milady-related tokens skyrocketed in the past 24 hours with increased demand demonstrated by a sharp uptick in traded volume. For instance, the floor price of Milady NFTs jumped to a high of about 7.8 ETH  from 3.8 ether on Wednesday. According to market data provided by OpenSea, Milady’s NFT floor price had since dropped to 5 ETH on Thursday.
Notably, the NFT collection reported a total volume of more than 43,148 ETH from about 3,387 owners. Created in August 2021 via the

Binance noted that it will provide crucial information through Capital Connect including assets under management (AUM) of different funds, their performance records, and minimum investment amounts.

The leading centralized exchange with more than $38 billion in daily traded volume Binance has continued to re-invent the financial markets for the betterment of the globally unbanked population. The exchange takes pride in more than 120 million global registered users who actively trade more than 350 digital assets. With its huge global reach, the crypto exchange has worked to separate high-net-worth investors to get VIP services.
For instance, the exchange has four VIP sub-programs – including Trader VIP, Holder VIP, Investor VIP, and Borrower VIP – meant to bring together investors for the

The stablecoins market is expected to significantly grow amid the mainstream adoption of Bitcoin and other digital assets globally.

The rise of the Tether (USDT) stablecoin has been undisputed for several years. The Tether (USDT) stablecoin runs on more than 10 blockchains including Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Polygon, and Tron, among others. On the Ethereum network, Tether (USDT) has more than $36 billion in supply with about 4.3 million holders. The Tron network holds a vast amount of Tether (USDT) with about $46 billion. On the Solana blockchain, Tether (USDT) has a total supply of about $1.8 billion.
In total, the Tether (USDT) has a total supply of more than $82 billion, thus holding the top US dollar-backed stablecoins. Notably, Tether (USDT) has the highest daily traded volume

Garlinghouse expects the Judge to issue a summary ruling on the SEC vs Ripple case before the end of this year.

The SEC vs Ripple Labs lawsuit is slated to be one of the largest legal fights for blockchain and cryptocurrency development in the United States for the next decades. Already, hundreds of projects on Ethereum using the ERC-20 standard, and other Layer One blockchains that undertook initial coin offerings (ICO) in the United States are eagerly waiting for the final ruling by Manhattan District Judge Analisa Torres.
From the regulatory perspective, the US SEC has nothing to lose if the Judge sides with the blockchain payment company. Moreover, the SEC as a Federal agency depends on the United States taxpayers to file the motions in court.

On the other hand, Ripple will be

The growth of artificial intelligence technology is expected to increase the overall demand for fast-processing electronics.

Foxconn Technology Co Ltd (Taiwan: 2354), one of the largest global employers in the electronics manufacturing industry and a major supplier to Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) announced a sales decline of 11.77 percent in April, YoY basis. However, the company’s revenue was in line with prior estimates, which came in at T$429.2 billion, approximately $14 billion. As the smartphone shipment declines, the Taiwanese electronic company anticipates its sales to decline in the current quarter.
The company will, however, report first-quarter earnings results on May 11, when it is expected to issue full-year guidance. According to the company’s unaudited consolidated monthly

The officials claim FTX-affiliated Alameda Research had largely repaid the $8 billion borrowed from Genesis Trading, a few weeks before the former filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The bankrupt FTX and Alameda Research officials are stopping at nothing to recover lost funds by the former administration led by Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). The crypto exchange under John J. Ray III, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Restructuring Officer, has sued several entities including soliciting politicians from both isles to refund cash donated by SBF. Furthermore, Ray indicated the exchange may never recover all the lost funds but remains focused to get as much as possible.
FTX on Genesis Global
According to Wednesday’s court filings, FTX and Alameda Research current officials are seeking to

The company has promised its customers that it will be expanding its derivatives offering with additional perpetual contracts, dated futures, and options in the coming weeks.

One of the top traded centralized crypto exchanges, Gemini Trust Company LLC, has announced the launch of its non-United States entity to serve markets outside the European market and the United Kingdom. According to the announcement, Gemini Foundation will begin to offer individual and institutional investors a Bitcoin perpetual contract denominated in Gemini dollars (GUSD) with up to 100x leverage. Later, the company announced it will be unveiling aN ETH/GUSD perpetual contract for both retail and institutional investors.
Some of the jurisdictions that Gemini Foundation is available include Egypt, South Africa,

The European market recorded a gross domestic product (GDP) of 0.0 percent in the first quarter of 2023 compared with the fourth quarter of 2022.

The European economy displayed market resilience during the first quarter despite being cut off from the Russian oil and gas supply since the invasion of Ukraine. The EU market was, however, marred by rising inflation amid bank deposits flight similar to the United States banking crisis. Nonetheless, the European Central Bank has continued to raise interest rates, with the recent update pushing by 50 basis points, to fight the high core inflation.
Notably, some ECB policymakers are working on further raising interest rates next week by about 25 basis points, which could push the core interest rate above 3 percent. The Euro Zone is currently

With the SBI investment, Zodia Custody will increase its Japan presence amid increased demand for digital assets from institutional investors in the country.

Zodia Custody, an institutional-grade crypto asset custodial platform backed by Standard Chartered in association with Northern Trust, has announced that it raised approximately $36 million led by Japanese financial conglomerate SBI Holdings. The London-headquartered crypto startup announced that the funding round also saw participation from SC Ventures, Standard Chartered’s venture arm. As a result, SBI Holdings is now the second-largest shareholder in Zodia Custody after Standard Chartered which owns the majority.
According to the startup, the funds are expected to be channeled to help increase its crypto token coverage and

Bluesky allows users to use domain names as handles to help achieve decentralized verification and give users more control over their identity.

Bluesky, a social media platform created by former Twitter Inc boss Jack Dorsey, has gained significant traction even before its official launch. The official Bluesky Twitter account has more than 252k followers without a solid protocol to showcase to the users. Nevertheless, the Bluesky application has been downloaded more than 245k times by iPhone users according to data provided from Data.ai.
After Musk acquired Twitter late last year for a whopping $44 billion, Dorsey increased his focus on Bluesky which has since developed AT protocol, a social networking technology. The Bluesky began making headlines after hiring former Zcash blockchain

Do Kwon’s lawyers indicated that Coinbase does not list securities, and the SEC has not been granted the powers by Congress to regulate digital assets as securities or commodities.

The Terra Luna and Do Kwon case could be headed in a different direction after a South Korean court ruled that the rebranded LUNC project is not a security product. As a result, Do Kwon’s lawyers were motivated to ask the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to stop pushing with the legal pressure due to lack of jurisdiction. His lawyers noted in a court filing that Terra LUNA was a global currency that never participated in an initial coin offering (ICO).
Additionally, the lawyers argued that sales of LUNA coins were never directed to any of the United States persons. Thereby denying the

Abu Dhabi’s crypto and blockchain businesses are expected to grow exponentially and attract international investors, more so from the United States.

The registration authority of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) has issued a consultation paper seeking feedback on its proposed new framework for distributed ledger technology (DLT) market and token issuance. The regulatory authority has set Friday, May 12 as the deadline for providing feedback on the proposed legal framework. Afterward, the regulatory agency will review the feedback and later the ADGM Board of Directors will present the final form of the legal proposal.
The initiative comes amid the rise of the decentralized economy both in Abu Dhabi and at the international level. With the regulatory framework having jurisdictions in the

The Bluesky social media platform is hiring for software developers positions including React Native expert among others and supports full-time remote capabilities.

Bluesky, a social internet marketplace backed by former Twitter Inc boss Jack Dorsey, is now available on Android gadgets. The startup has provided a waitlist for users to join or access the beta version of the decentralized social marketplace via invite. Having begun as a Twitter Inc. project before a spin-off in 2021, Bluesky gained some traits similar to the Elon Musk-owned social media giant Twitter. Reportedly, Bluesky has a small community consisting of about 25k users.
Despite having most of its traits similar to Twitter, it is worth noting that Jack Dorsey-backed Bluesky has some limitations including the direct

The researchers at Project Meridian identified several benefits of synchronization including reduction of risk, time, and cost invoked in settling a range of transactions.

In a joint financial program dubbed Project Meridian, the Bank of England and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub London Centre investigated the use of modern technology to advance financial payments through real-time gross settlement (RTGS) systems. The Project Meridian used central bank money that is free of credit risk and held by commercial banks in RTGS accounts. Notably, the Bank of England published a report on Project Meridian detailing the findings and the importance of updating the financial payment infrastructure.
“Central banks can use the findings from the project to inform

Coinbase Global shares have gained more than 91 percent YTD to trade around $69.72 on Tuesday amid Bitcoin’s 2023 pump.

Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ: COIN) was served a Wells notice from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an undefined portion of its listed digital assets, Coinbase Earn, Coinbase Prime, and Coinbase Wallet. With several other top centralized exchanges including Bittrex and Binance under the SEC’s radar, Coinbase Global has begun exploring global options, particularly in the United Kingdom and the European market.
Coinbase Explore Operations Outside US
According to a series of tweets by Coinbase Global CEO Brian Armstrong, a meeting with the United Kingdom’s Economic Secretary and City Minister Andrew Griffith reassured the crypto market of sensible