3AC founders Banned for Nine Years in Singapore

3AC founders Banned for Nine Years in Singapore

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the country’s central bank, has banned the founders of Three Arrows Capital from doing any market activity. The ban will last for nine years.

In a press release published earlier today, it was said that Su Zhu and Kyle Davies, known as the founders of the now-defunct cryptocurrency hedge fund, are not allowed to participate in any regulated activity such as management or directorship. Furthermore, they’re not allowed to become a substantial shareholder of a capital market services firm. 

Should they ignore the orders, they’ll be looking at a fine of up to $150,000, or two years in prison - or both. 

“MAS takes a serious view of Mr. Zhu’s and Mr. Davies’ flagrant disregard of MAS’ regulatory requirements and dereliction of their directors’ duties,” said Ms Loo Siew Yee, Assistant Managing Director (Policy, Payments & Financial Crime), of MAS. “MAS will take action to weed out senior managers who commit such misconduct.”

Zhu and Davies are involved in a new venture, together with the founders of another defunct business, the CoinFLEX crypto exchange. The new venture is called OPNX.

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Deutsche Bank offers institutional crypto custody 

One of Germany’s top banks, Deutsche Bank, is now able to hold crypto for its institutional clients, the company confirmed earlier today. Together with its partners from the crypto firm Taurus, Deutsche Bank will now be able to provide custodial services not just for crypto, but for tokenized assets, as well, it was said.

Crypto trading, a feature it allegedly announced back in 2020, ist not yet in the pipeline, it was added.

While this is great news for all of those who eagerly anticipate crypto going “mainstream” - this is hardly the first time a bank offered such services. As reported by Reuters, Standard Chartered, BNY Mellon and Societe Generale, all offer crypto custody services.

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Thai banking giant launches Web3 fund

Kasikornbank (KBank), Thailand’s biggest bank, just launched an Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Web3 fund as it looks to tap into the booming Asian technology vertical. 

In an announcement shared with the media earlier this week, KBank said the fund will be called KXVC, and will focus on promising firms in Israel, the US, Europe, and Asia-Pacific regions. Besides offering financial support to select organizations, the fund will also allow its users to access valuable resources from the bank’s numerous partners. 

For Web3, KXVC will be looking at Web3 infrastructure, zero-knowledge solutions, NFT firms, and more. 

KBank employs more than 18,000 people and operates more than 800 branches in Thailand. It expects the internet vertical in the Asia Pacific region to be worth more than $1 trillion by the end of the decade.

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Swift: Three banks piloting its CBDC interoperability solution

Three central banks are currently testing Swift’s CBDC connector solution, the company said in a press release published earlier this week.

According to the company, the solution will enable banks to use Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) for cross-border payments. Two of the three banks are the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Central Bank of Kazakhstan.

“Our focus is on interoperability, ensuring that new digital currencies can seamlessly coexist with each other and with today’s fiat-based currencies and payment systems," Swift Chief Innovation Officer Tom Zschach said.

These three aside, Swift also said 30 other commercial banks, central banks, and financial market infrastructures, are “exploring additional use cases”, which include trigger-based payments for digital trade platforms and foreign exchange models. Among these banks are The Reserve Bank of Australia, Deutsche Bundesbank, HKMA, Bank of Thailand, and CLS. These banks are testing out the solution in a sandbox environment, it was added. 

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Other breaking news

• New version of Geth finally released
• Synapse Interchain now live
• Legal refund claim contract for > ZachXBT is now live
• PubG devs venturing into Web3
• OnChainMonkey Ordinals project completes biggest sale ever

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Wrapping up

And there you have it. Today’s edition covered the 3AC founders' ban, Deutche Bank moving into crypto custody, as well as the Thai bank giant setting up a Web3 fund. Finally, we had Swift claiming central banks' increasing interest in its interoperability solution. Tune back in tomorrow for the latest and greatest in the crypto world.