Author: NBTC

South Korean actress Hwang Jung-eum walked out of Jeju District Court in tears Thursday after receiving a two-year suspended prison sentence for embezzling $3 million from her own agency to invest in crypto. The court handed Hwang the suspended sentence, meaning she will serve no jail time unless she commits another crime within four years, for violating Korea’s Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes, according to a Korea JoongAng Daily report. Prosecutors had sought a three-year jail sentence in August, but judges cited her repayment of the full amount and her status as a first-time offender who…

Tokyo-listed automotive parts maker Ikuyo announced plans to establish the Stablecoin Settlement Association to modernize Japan’s trade finance system. The initiative seeks to cut payment costs, reduce settlement delays, and streamline complex procedures that hamper the nation’s export competitiveness. Ikuyo aims to foster collaboration among financial institutions, trading companies, and fintech firms to promote standardized, blockchain-based settlement infrastructure. Ikuyo Targets Trade Finance Inefficiencies The Tokyo-listed firm unveiled plans on September 24 to create the Stablecoin Settlement Association. This initiative addresses persistent inefficiencies in Japan’s trade finance sector, including high transaction costs and delayed settlements that undermine export performance. The planned…

Last week, Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) executives were tapping the company’s at-the-market (ATM) to sell MSTR and dilute shareholders ahead of its highly anticipated and ultimately disappointing S&P 500 decision. On Friday — after the company had sold over $200 million worth of MSTR in a week — S&P Dow Jones Indices’ US Index Committee declined to add Strategy to its prestigious S&P 500 Index. Despite satisfying over a half dozen qualifying metrics, the committee decided to award inclusion to Robinhood, AppLovin, and Emcor, instead. Then this morning, Strategy Chairman Michael Saylor went on to brag about how his company’s sales…

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI filed a federal lawsuit on Wednesday against OpenAI, accusing its rival of orchestrating a “coordinated, unfair, and unlawful campaign” to steal proprietary technology through targeted employee poaching. The complaint, filed in California, alleges OpenAI “by hook or by crook” induced former xAI employees to misappropriate the company’s entire source code, training methods, and data center deployment strategies. Musk, a co-founder of OpenAI alongside Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, Illya Sutskever, and others in 2015, stepped down from the board in 2018, citing conflicts of interest with his company, Tesla, and its self-driving cars. Since then,…

A new Web3 streaming protocol promises to give creators full ownership of their content—and a greater share of revenues. AIOZ Stream is a decentralized protocol that aims to deliver a more open and equitable social media ecosystem, blending high-quality and low-latency streaming with fair and on‑chain monetization. Based on the AIOZ Network, the platform blends shorter clips and longer-form videos in one place—and in a unique twist, content is distributed to users in a peer-to-peer environment through a global DePIN infrastructure. “AIOZ Stream is about creating alignment end-to-end,” said Erman Tjiputra, Founder & CEO of AIOZ Network, in a statement…

Key Takeaways A Putin advisor alleges the US is using crypto markets to address its $35 trillion debt. He frames gold and crypto as alternatives to the US dollar, which are gaining traction globally. A senior advisor to Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed that the US is attempting to use crypto, in particular stablecoins, to devalue its massive national debt and reset the global financial order in its favor. Speaking at the Eastern Economic Forum, Anton Kobyakov, special advisor to President Putin, said the US is trying to alter regulations in both the gold and crypto markets to combat…

Hong Kong’s stablecoin regulatory framework limits their use for derivatives trading on blockchain networks, according to Sebastian Paredes, CEO of DBS Hong Kong. According to a Friday report by local news outlet The Standard, Paredes said that Hong Kong regulations on stablecoin Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements will significantly restrict their use for onchain derivatives trading. He said the bank would monitor developments, but focus instead on building broader stablecoin capabilities in Hong Kong. His comments followed the rollout of Hong Kong’s new stablecoin rules on Aug. 1. The rules immediately criminalized the promotion of unlicensed…

Securitize, a platform for tokenizing real-world assets, is expanding to the Sei blockchain with the tokenized Apollo Diversified Credit Fund (ACRED) the first to debut on the network. The move introduces tokenized private credit to Sei for the first time, the firm said. ACRED, which has $112 million in total value according to RWA.xyz, acts as a feeder into Apollo’s private credit strategy, which includes corporate lending, asset-backed deals and dislocated credit. Only qualified investors can participate, and the tokens are interoperable across blockchains via Wormhole, a cross-chain messaging protocol, allowing easier movement between networks and improving liquidity. Tokenized private…

This is a segment from the Forward Guidance newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe. A Monday Nasdaq filing seems to affirm what many of you may have read previously: Tokenization could transform finance sooner than many think. In a proposal to the SEC, the exchange seeks to let firms and investors tokenize the equity securities and ETPs they currently trade on the Nasdaq. More specifically, the approach would allow participants the choice (upon entering an order) to have the Depository Trust Corporation (DTC) clear and settle trades in tokenized form. Nasdaq noted that tokenized securities are “technologically distinct” from those…

Authorities in Kazakhstan are seizing millions of U.S. dollars’ worth of cryptocurrency as part of an investigation into a Ponzi scheme that lured investors across the region. The financial pyramid scheme has been active for several years in Central Asia and parts of Eastern Europe, offering victims high returns on investments in various crypto projects. Kazakhstan brings down massive crypto pyramid Amir Capital, an entity posing as an international investment fund, is under investigation in Kazakhstan for allegedly running a crypto Ponzi scheme. The company actively solicited funds from citizens of Kazakhstan and several other former Soviet states, including Kyrgyzstan,…