Mr Chao joins Binance to oversee its global strategy, ranging from the company’s venture capital (VC) arm, Binance Labs, to its strategic fiat-to-crypto gateways, including the creation of new partnerships and banking relationships.

“We are thrilled to welcome Gin as our latest leadership hire to strengthen our business ventures and strategy across our global ecosystem,” said CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao (CZ). “He will play a key role in driving our strategic business goals that span across the globe, and we are confident that he will help realize new avenues of opportunities alongside the core executive team.”

Mr Chao brings an extensive background of developing and managing strategic investment opportunities as well as overseeing cross-regional business growth opportunities in Asia and the US.

As former Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development at the National Basketball Association (NBA), Chao led new asset and investment opportunities, including scalable business models, and will leverage his previous experience for Binance.

“I am honoured to be joining CZ and the team during this incredibly exciting time for the industry,” said Gin Chao, Strategy Officer at Binance. “I’ve followed the growth of the senior executives at Binance over the years and it’s a testament to CZ’s vision and leadership to have formed such a talented and accomplished group. I’m looking forward to working with the team on building and providing sustainable blockchain-based services that accelerate cryptocurrency adoption and support our overall mission.”

The post Binance names new strategy officer first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

ALLIVE is an “intelligent healthcare ecosystem based on blockchain technology”, which aims to provide standardised formats for health data integration, to support high user concurrency, to protect data privacy via decentralised and encrypted storage, and to support extension compatibility, the press statement describes.

The ALLIVE team has been in partnership with Ontology since August 2018 to facilitate inter-business collaboration and data sharing. Such partnership aims to develop a decentralized healthcare ecosystem and a smart blockchain network, according to the company.

“As always, OK Jumpstart weighs the potential of each supporting projects and ALLIVE simply captures the essences of blockchain technology by applying it to new use cases. It sets a good example in demonstrating how the technology can transform healthcare procedures and improve our lives, such as making electronic medical records more readily available for doctors to access without sacrificing the security of our personal data,” said Andy Cheung, Head of Operations of OKEx.

“We have experienced tremendous growth that the blockchain technology brings to our financial system, but the power of blockchain is limitless. We can also use it to establish a sustainable smart health community to enhance the healthcare ecosystem so it can be more accessible and more affordable for everyone,” the OKEx chief added.

The companies say that the ageing population faces a greater prevalence of chronic diseases or new diseases, and costly medical solutions or targeted treatments might not be an affordable option for everyone. With the ever-rising healthcare cost, the companies hope that by adopting blockchain technology can effectively minimise the struggle of managing medical and financial challenges.

The post OKEX teams with ALLIVE for 2nd OK Jumpstart project first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

The IEO will officially start at 14:00 GMT on Tuesday, 21 May, and end at 14:00 GMT on May 22, 2019 unless sale supply is reached. Vodi X will be listed on Bittrex International on May 22, 2019 at 17:00 GMT, according to the press release.

Authorised Bittrex International users will be able to purchase VDX tokens using bitcoin (BTC) directly on Bittrex International, a digital asset platform based in Malta. In preparation for the IEO, Vodi X completed an evaluation process that included technical, compliance and regulatory reviews, the press statement says.

“We are excited to partner with Vodi X on their IEO on Bittrex International. The funds raised will help them build out their smart contract technology and operations for a series of innovative use cases,” said Bill Shihara of Bittrex International. “Incubating projects like Vodi X is why we started Bittrex International in the first place and why the IEO platform is such a promising development in the blockchain industry. We look forward to this partnership and introducing our user base to Vodi X along with other exciting projects driving the blockchain revolution to the next level,” he added.

The mentioned improvements will be built around their existing infrastructure of over five million existing Vodi users in over 200 countries worldwide.

Vodi X says it is seeking to overhaul the micro-work industry by positioning their project on the blockchain. Job creation is particularly important for Vodi X, the firm says. Strategically positioned on the blockchain, with the leveraging of smart contacts, Vodi X hopes to foster equal wealth distribution.

Bittrex International operates a digital asset platform built on own technology. Their mission is to be “a driving force in the blockchain revolution, increasing adoption of this innovative technology around the world”. Their international trading platform operates within the regulatory framework established by the European Union and Maltese Government, including the Malta Virtual Financial Assets Act. The company will apply to the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) to become a regulated Virtual Financial Asset exchange.


The post Bittrex International partners with Vodi X on IEO first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

The breach was discovered May 7, 2019 at 17:15:24 (UTC), caused by hackers using a variety of techniques, including phishing, viruses and other attacks.

Binance says all the 7,000+ bitcoin was compromised in one transaction, being the only affected transaction. “It impacted our BTC hot wallet only (which contained about 2% of our total BTC holdings). All of our other wallets are secure and unharmed,” the press statement says.

“The hackers had the patience to wait, and execute well-orchestrated actions through multiple seemingly independent accounts at the most opportune time. The transaction is structured in a way that passed our existing security checks. It was unfortunate that we were not able to block this withdrawal before it was executed. Once executed, the withdrawal triggered various alarms in our system. We stopped all withdrawals immediately after that,” the press statement adds.

Binance said after the incident that they will conduct a thorough security review, which will include all parts of their systems and data. The review should take a week, according to Binance’s estimates. During this period, deposits and withdrawals will need to remain suspended. “We beg for your understanding in this difficult situation,” Binance says. Trading remains enabled, though.

“Please also understand that the hackers may still control certain user accounts and may use those to influence prices in the meantime. We will monitor the situation closely. But we believe with withdrawals disabled, there isn’t much incentive for hackers to influence markets. In this difficult time, we strive to maintain transparency and would be appreciative of your support,” the Binance press release says.

The post Hackers steal BTC 7,000+ from Binance, exchange promises to recover lost funds first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

“Poor regulation enables corruption to flourish,” the Nauticus chief says, directing special attention to Pyramid and Ponzi schemes. “Unregulated exchanges are often hacked or shut down without returning the funds of users,” the chief warns.

Nauticus, however, mentions in its press statement that a handful of countries, including Switzerland, Malta and Australia, have embraced “well-designed regulations” for encouraging innovation while also protecting users.

“Verifying every user helps to fight corruption and criminality, and not only protects the business but protects our users themselves from fraudulent practices,” says Jonathan Chang, Chief Operating Officer of Nauticus, underscoring the gravity of know-your-customer (KYC) protocols.

Melbourne’s Nauticus Exchange is a digital financial marketplace offering 17 currencies and the Australian dollar. Nauticus is registered with the Australian Government’s AUSTRAC as a Digital Currency Exchange and an Independent Remittance Dealer. Headquartered in Melbourne, the company is a registered representative of an Australian Financial Services Licensee enabling it to tokenise assets in the form of security token offerings.

The post Nauticus CEO says good legislation can protect users from scams first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

“Despite the uncertainty around Brexit, we are still optimistic about the crypto market as this could be a new economic opportunity to both the euro and British pound,” said Andy Cheung, Head of Operations of OKEx. The OKEx chief addressed the issue yesterday in London, during an event dubbed “mindxchange”, discussing blockchain progress in the United Kingdom.

Attendants of the event agreed that as the adoption of blockchain technology is broadening in the United Kingdom, and across the world, prompt action is needed to speed up publishing a regulatory framework in place, the press statement says.

“It has always been delightful to see the crypto community growing. The United Kingdom owns one of the fastest-growing crypto communities in the world. Having observed such great potential, we wanted to support the needs here, and therefore, we launched GBP on our C2C platform,” Mr Cheung concluded.

OKEx is a digital asset exchange headquartered in Malta, offering digital assets trading services including token trading, futures trading, perpetual swap trading and index tracker to global traders with blockchain technology. Currently, the exchange offers over 400 token and futures trading pairs enabling users to optimise their strategies. The company says their platform serves “millions of customers from over 200 countries and regions”.

OKEx recently launched the British pound (GBP) and the Thai baht (THB) as two new currencies available for trade on its over-the-counter (OTC) platform, which is often tagged as a fiat-to-cryptocurrency platform. “Thailand and the UK own the fastest-growing crypto communities in the world. We see great potential in these two markets and want to support the needs there,” Mr Chueng said at the time of launching GBP and THB.

The post Maltese DA exchange OKEx believes in UK despite Brexit doubt first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.