The Monetary Authority of Singapore, or MAS, has granted SBI Digital Markets, a subsidiary of the digital asset arm of Japan-based financial giant SBI Holdings, a license to conduct certain regulated activities in the country. In a Thursday announcement, MAS said it had awarded SBI Digital Markets a Capital Markets Services license following the firm receiving in-principle approval in May. The firm, whose parent company offers digital asset custody and trading, will be providing custodial services, capital markets products, and corporate finance advisory services in Singapore as a regulated business, and also planned to launch a digital asset securities platform. …

Cryptocurrency companies have been moving to improve compliance worldwide amid the bear market of 2022, with many platforms increasingly securing licenses and approvals. As one may find it difficult to track all global regulatory milestones in crypto, Cointelegraph has picked up some of the latest compliance developments over the past couple of weeks. Global crypto firms have recently been active in growing presence and compliance in North America, with exchanges like China-founded Huobi Tech entering Canada. Huobi Technology Holdings announced on Aug. 23 that its subsidiary Hbit Technologies has successfully obtained a Money Services Business (MSB) license from the Financial …

Japanese financial giant SBI Holdings has partly terminated cryptocurrency mining in Russia due to geopolitical uncertainty and the crypto winter. SBI Holdings suspended mining operations in Russia’s crypto mining-rich region of Siberia, citing reasons like Russia-Ukraine conflict and the ongoing bear market, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. The Japanese online brokerage shut down the Siberian mining operations shortly after Russia started a military intervention in Ukraine on Feb. 24, a spokesperson for the firm reportedly said. The termination contributed to SBI’s crypto asset business reporting a pretax loss of 9.7 billion yen ($71 million) in Q2 202. As a result, the …

The United States subsidiary of electronic trading platform developer Clear Markets has reportedly received approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, to offer over-the-counter crypto derivatives products with physical settlement. In a Tuesday notice, SBI Holdings — a stakeholder of Clear Markets — said the CFTC had approved the U.S. subsidiary operating a Swap Execution Facility, in which it plans to offer derivatives trading for U.S. dollar and Bitcoin (BTC) pairs. The Japan-based financial services company said its market maker planned to expand its trading partners in the United States following pilot transactions on Clear Markets. SBI Holdings …

SBI Motor Japan, a subsidiary of SBI Africa Co. Ltd., has announced that its customers can now make payments for used cars using Bitcoin (BTC) and Ripple (XRP). According to the announcement by SBI on Monday, the development marks the first time XRP cryptocurrency will be deployed on a cross-border e-commerce website in Japan. The BTC and XRP transactions will be settled on the SBI VC Trade Co. Ltd, a cryptocurrency exchange owned by the SBI Group. The platform, according to SBI, will use appropriate security methods in order to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing through crypto transactions. Furthermore, …

Tokyo’s biggest finserv firm, SBI Group, will now allow general Japanese investors to purchase cryptocurrencies via its newly launched ‘crypto asset fund’. The fund is composed of seven cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), XRP, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Chainlink (LINK) and Polkadot (DOT). The crypto-asset fund, to be traded and operated by the SBI Alternative Fund, was established on Dec. 02 with a dedicated capital of 5 million yen, worth approximately $45,000 at the time of writing. However, the company may choose to release the capital in smaller break-ups of 1 million yen each. According to the official …

Tokyo-based financial services giant SBI Holdings announced a joint investment in Coinhako, Singapore’s first licensed crypto exchange approved by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). The Coinhako investment was made via a fund jointly set up by SBI and Swiss-based Sygnum Bank, namely, the SBI-Sygnum-Azimut Digital Asset Opportunity (DAO) Fund, according to the notice. Speaking to Cointelegraph, a MAS spokesperson highlighted the importance of seeking licensing approvals for crypto businesses: “MAS' approach to regulation under the Payment Services Act seeks to facilitate innovation while ensuring that adequate controls are in place to address key risks such as money laundering and …

SBI Digital Asset Holdings, a fully owned subsidiary of Japanese banking giant SBI Holdings, announced a joint crypto venture with Switzerland’s SIX digital exchange (SDX). The joint venture would be set up in Singapore through a crypto issuance company and aims to become a regional liquidity hub for institutions. SBI Holdings CEO Yoshitaka Kitao said: “This is an important step in building the necessary global infrastructure for widespread institutional adoption of digital assets. Together with SDX‘s strength in Switzerland and our planned digital exchange in Osaka, this venture will establish a powerful institutional corridor between Europe and Asia.” The partnership …

Ripple's (XRP) rallied 72% from Aug. 7 to Aug. 14 but since then, every attempt to break out of the descending channel has been quickly suppressed. The past ten days have been no different, with the XRP price correcting by 15%. The platform was first launched in 2012 and Ripple is a distributed open-source protocol and remittance system created by United States-based Ripple Labs. The company provides cross-border payment solutions through domestic partnerships or by offering RippleNet services. At one point, XRP price was trading above $2, but the ongoing multi-year lawsuit between Ripple and the U.S. Securities and Exchange …

Japanese financial conglomerate SBI Holdings is reportedly planning to set up one of the first funds in the country that will give investors exposure to crypto. According to a Bloomberg report on Thursday, SBI, aiming to have a crypto fund available by the end of November, will offer residents of Japan the opportunity to invest in Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC), XRP and others. Tomoya Asakura, a director and senior managing executive officer at SBI, said the company could see the fund growing to several hundred million dollars, with investors likely being required to deposit a …

Showcasing the use of cryptocurrency in monetary transfers, Ripple has become a known partner for traditional institutions that wish to revamp their cross-border remittance services. Taking this vision further, Ripple announced a new partnership with Japan’s SBI Remit to transform remittance payments from Japan to the Philippines. Ripple’s latest partnership will see the involvement of mobile payments service Coins.ph and digital asset exchange platform SBI VC Trade to provide a cheaper remittance option to its customers. This will be made possible by using XRP to eliminate the pre-funding costs. According to the official statement, Japan’s first On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) service …

Major cryptocurrency company Ripple has not given up on its plans to go public despite its ongoing legal battle with United States regulators, according to SBI Group’s CEO. Yoshitaka Kitao, CEO of Japanese financial giant SBI Group, claimed that Ripple plans to become a public company after the firm settles a legal action brought against it by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Speaking on a Wednesday earnings presentation call, Kitao said that both Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and executive chairman Chris Larsen are planning to take Ripple public: “After the current lawsuit, Ripple will go public. The current …