Binance Pockets goes from underdog to overlord in simply months
Cryptocurrency alternate Binance’s pockets has surged out of nowhere in 2025 to change into the dominant within the trade.
It closed the week beginning on Might 5 with an 86% share of the swap market, and thus far, within the week beginning on Might 12, it’s at 93%, based on Dune Analytics information.
On the first full week of the yr, Binance Pockets managed a measly 3.4% whereas OKX led the trade with 44.6% of the market, with MetaMask and imToken every at round 18.5%.
Dovey Wan, founding father of Primitive Ventures, attributes Binance Pockets’s exercise explosion to the launch of the alternate’s Binance Alpha program.
Binance Alpha is a type of token launchpad that incentivizes customers to have interaction within the platform by way of a reward system often known as Alpha factors, which measures a consumer’s eligibility for early entry to new token initiatives. Binance states that sure tokens featured on Binance Alpha could also be thought-about for alternate itemizing.
Some customers are blaming the Binance Alpha program for ruining airdrops and “killing early communities.”
Well-liked airdrops regularly have their eligibility tied to blockchain exercise. Binance Alpha determines rewards instantly by way of centralized engagement, and it’s working. Inside months, Binance Pockets has absorbed the lion’s share of swap exercise, pushing once-dominant gamers like OKX, MetaMask, and imToken into the margins.
Binance Alpha contributors get publicity to hyped early-stage tokens with much less friction, and initiatives launching by way of this system achieve entry to hundreds of thousands of energetic customers and near-instant liquidity.
However airdrop followers argue it centralizes discovery and erodes the permissionless enchantment of crypto.
China largest securities dealer launches tokenization enterprise
Guotai Junan Worldwide (GTJAI), the Hong Kong arm of China’s largest securities dealer, has entered the real-world asset (RWA) market with the launch of its tokenized securities enterprise.
In a Might 13 press launch, GTJAI stated it acquired approval from Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Fee (SFC) to supply tokenized securities distribution and digital bond issuance providers.
The platform will use distributed ledger know-how (DLT) to handle the total lifecycle of conventional monetary devices from issuance to custody.
GTJAI is a subsidiary of Guotai Haitong Group, a state-backed $230 billion securities powerhouse shaped in September final yr when Shanghai’s Guotai Junan Securities acquired Haitong Securities.
World asset managers are more and more leaping into tokenization, with Commonplace Chartered projecting the sector may attain $30 trillion by 2034.
In late April, Ant Digital, a subsidiary of Chinese language web titan Alibaba, launched its personal Ethereum layer-2 community, signaling its entry into the RWA race.
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MapleStory enters Web3 with NXPC on Avalanche
South Korean gaming heavyweight Nexon has formally entered the Web3 gaming market by way of the launch of its NXPC (Nexpace Coin) and MapleStoryN, a brand new model of its cult basic role-playing sport.
The MapleStory franchise is deeply entrenched within the reminiscences of millennial teenagers throughout South Korea, Taiwan and Southeast Asia. Within the 2000s and early 2010s, it functioned as a proto-metaverse the place gamers made buddies, met lovers and constructed communities.
Nexon additionally pioneered microtransactions in on-line gaming with profitable titles like Loopy Arcade, a Bomberman-style multiplayer sport with water balloons, and KartRider, a Mario Kart-style character racing sport.
The Tokyo-listed firm can also be one of many largest company Bitcoin holders in Asia. In April 2021, it positioned a $100 million guess in Bitcoin, which is now value $174.5 million.
NXPC debuted on main native exchanges Bithumb and Upbit, whereas Binance Alpha received the primary trades on the worldwide buying and selling scene. Within the first six hours of NXPC’s debut, it recorded over $300 million in international buying and selling quantity, which was among the many 30-most traded cryptocurrencies, based on CoinGecko information.
NXPC is issued by Nexpace, Nexon’s blockchain subsidiary. It runs on Avalanche and the foreign money is used within the gaming ecosystem for MapleStory Universe, the place MapleStory N is the primary sport.
In October, the breakout success of Off The Grid on Avalanche’s GUNZ subnet confirmed each mainstream players and crypto-native customers why Avalanche is changing into a severe contender in blockchain gaming.
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Korean actress admits to embezzling $3 million to ape in crypto
Okay-drama actress Hwang Jung-eum has admitted in court docket to embezzling 4.2 billion Korean received ($3 million) from her family-run firm to spend money on cryptocurrency, Yonhap Information Company reported.
The primary trial was held on Might 15, the place prosecutors charged the previous Okay-pop idol Hwang with misappropriating funds from a family-owned leisure company in 2022.
In keeping with prosecutors, Hwang invested the embezzled funds into cryptocurrencies utilizing her private title. Whereas she owns 100% of the company in query, the funding was allegedly made with out formal authorization or company oversight.
Hwang’s authorized group admitted to all costs, stating that she had hoped to develop the corporate by way of crypto investments.
The protection additionally requested the court docket to contemplate mitigating elements, noting that the corporate’s earnings had been derived totally from Hwang’s personal actions.
Her authorized group additionally claimed partial restitution had already been made by way of crypto liquidation and said that extra compensation will come from the sale of actual property property.
A second listening to is scheduled for August.
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Yohan Yun
Yohan Yun is a multimedia journalist protecting blockchain since 2017. He has contributed to crypto media outlet Forkast as an editor and has coated Asian tech tales as an assistant reporter for Bloomberg BNA and Forbes. He spends his free time cooking, and experimenting with new recipes.