Guatemala's banking giant embeds blockchain for remittances
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
Banco Industrial, Guatemala's largest bank, has announced the integration of blockchain into its banking services to improve cross-border transactions for customers.
Banco Industrial is collaborating with digital asset service provider SukuPay to roll out the blockchain-based cross-border payment solution. SukuPay has been integrated into Banco Industrial's mobile payment app, Zigi, to support international remittances.
Following the collaboration, Zigi users can send and receive funds across borders using digital asset payment rails without additional integrations. Banco Industrial and SukuPay executives say customers do not need an International Bank Account Number (IBAN) or a digital asset wallet to receive international payments.
However, users will be charged a $0.99 flat fee for international transactions, with SukuPay CEO Yonathan Lapchik confirming instant settlement for Zigi users.
Lapchik notes that the 'invisible' integration of digital asset payment rails in the tradfi mobile app is the best route to onboard millions of users to Web3. He adds that eliminating technical barriers while offering the same perks of speed and low-cost settlements will enhance adoption metrics across the board.
'That's the only way we'll scale blockchain to billions of people – by building the rails, not by forcing people to learn how they work,' said Lapchik.
A key use case for the new cross-border offering will be for receiving international remittances, with Guatemala receiving up to $21 billion in remittances annually.
Banco Industrial's size of operations and customer base is considered a game-changer for SukuPay. The bank has extended its reach toward the rest of Latin America, with operations dotted across Panama, El Salvador, and Honduras, giving it an edge in the regional remittance markets.
Latin America drives up Web3 adoption metrics
According to a Chainalysis report, Latin America is the second-fastest-growing region for Web3 adoption. The spiking interest in digital assets stems from a growing appetite for stablecoins to preserve wealth from inflation and cross-border payments.
Brazil and Argentina are the region's leaders, with Web3 forming a key part of their financial digitization plans. Argentina's capital city, Buenos Aires, is rolling out blockchain-based digital IDs for 3.6 million residents.
While Guatemala lags, the partnership between the country's largest bank and SukuPay may jolt adoption metrics in the coming months.
WEF endorses a blockchain-based solution for digitizing trade documents
Meanwhile, the World Economic Forum (WEF) supports a novel solution to digitize trade documents using blockchain via a single platform. According to a report, the WEF will team up with blockchain service provider Iota Foundation to roll out a non-profit to spearhead digital trade documents. The Twin Foundation will govern the Trade Worldwide Information Network (Twin), a network leaning on blockchain, allowing the transfer of data between supply chain participants.
The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change and the Chartered Institute of Export and International Trade also support the Twin Foundation.
Twin Foundation will roll out minimum operating standards and industry best practices for exporters to exchange international trade documents. Under Twin, exporters can pivot from traditional paperwork exchanges to digital versions of documents, saving costs and processing times.
Parties can submit e-bills of lading and other trade documents, including commercial invoices, to other participants in the supply chain. While offering participants in the supply chain the perks of transparency, Twin allows users to select who they want to share documents with while specifying ownership rights.
However, Twin Foundation says it will attempt to onboard governments before extending the offering to enterprises and individuals. For starters, the Twin Foundation will bring Kenya and its customs and revenue agencies on board in what appears to be a pilot for the project.
The blockchain-based system will provide border officials with tamper-proof documents, allowing a global pivot from traditional 'paper and stamps' that have characterized international trade, according to Jens Munch Lund-Nielsen, head of global trade and supply chains at the Iota Foundation and an advisor to the WEF.
WEF champions emerging technologies to improve global economies
The WEF is leading the vanguard for blockchain applications across key sectors of the global economy. The Forum has highlighted the transformative potential of tokenization in global finance and investment while eyeing blockchain's benefits in the pivot to green energy.
The WEF has open discussions on the possibilities of blockchain-based digital IDs, making a case for an international framework. However, the organization is playing it safe by backing central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) over stablecoins.
Watch | Centi: Bridging digital money and traditional banking
title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen="">
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Coin Geek
2 days ago
- Coin Geek
$2.1 billion lost to ‘crypto' exploits in 2025: CertiK
Homepage > News > Business > $2.1 billion lost to 'crypto' exploits in 2025: CertiK Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... In the first five months of 2025, over $2.1 billion worth of digital assets have been lost to cyber criminals, says blockchain security audit firm CertiK. The New York-based firm revealed the figure two weeks ago, and in a recent podcast appearance, founder Ronghui Gu added that the majority of the funds had been lost to wallet compromises, private key mismanagement, and operational failures. #CertiKInsight 🚨 Thus far in 2025, on-chain incidents have led to ~$2.1B in losses. The majority of losses have come from wallet compromises and phishing, with an increase in data leaks its important to remain vigilant. — CertiK Alert (@CertiKAlert) May 23, 2025 'This is a shift in attack patterns. It also shows the evolution of the current infrastructure because attackers always target the weakest points. Previously, the weakest points were smart contracts and the blockchain code itself. Now, attackers feel like the weakest points come from human behavior, rather than the infrastructure,' Gu stated. The Bybit hack earlier this year remains the largest. Attackers supposedly accessed the exchange's cold wallet and made off with $1.5 billion worth of ETH, in what security researchers from Elliptic described as 'almost certainly the single largest known theft of any kind in all time.' Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN), America's largest exchange, also faced an attack in which criminals accessed the personal data of some of its users. The exchange told the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that the attack could cost it up to $400 million. At $2.1 billion in five months, this year's stolen assets are on course to dwarf last year's total of $2.2 billion. Chainalysis said the figure would have been much higher, but North Korean-linked hacking groups slowed down activity after July. These groups reportedly accounted for $1.3 billion in stolen 'crypto' last year, more than half the total figure. The record was set in 2022 when cybercriminals stole $3.7 billion worth of digital assets in 231 attacks. However, the record number of attacks was 303 in 2024. According to Gu, attackers are increasingly relying on social engineering, a tactic in which they manipulate victims to reveal confidential wallet information or grant them access to their accounts. This is mainly done through phishing, where they send fraudulent links that, once clicked, redirect the victims to illicit websites controlled by the attackers. This is what happened to a recent victim who lost a staggering $330 million to cybercriminals in an attack that now ranks as the largest on an individual and the fifth-largest overall. Blockchain sleuths revealed a month ago that the victim was an elderly American citizen who was tricked into giving the attackers access to her 3,520 BTC, which the victim had held since 2017. The funds were quickly laundered through multiple accounts on nearly two dozen centralized exchanges, including Binance. A large portion was first converted to Monero, a privacy-focused digital asset that makes it nearly impossible to trace the stash. Cisco: 96% of businesses not prepared for cybersecurity threats While 'crypto' attacks are on course for their biggest year, a report from Cisco says that only 4% of global firms have achieved the maturity required to withstand today's cyberattacks. The tech giant's Cybersecurity Readiness Index revealed that maturity had increased slightly from last year's 3% but still remains worryingly low as artificial intelligence (AI) and hyperconnectivity increase the complexities for security professionals. AI, in particular, has exacerbated the threat that enterprises face. Last year, 86% of global organizations faced AI-related security incidents, but only 49% were confident in their employees' ability to handle these threats. 'As AI transforms the enterprise, we are dealing with an entirely new class of risks at unprecedented scale – putting even more pressure on our infrastructure and those who defend it,' commented Jeetu Patel, Cisco's Chief Product Officer. 'This year's report continues to reveal alarming gaps in security readiness and a lack of urgency to address them. Organizations must rethink their strategies now or risk becoming irrelevant in the AI era.' But while AI is amplifying the threat, it has also become a critical tool for security professionals. Cisco found that 89% of organizations use AI to detect and understand the threats they face, while 7 in 10 use it for response and recovery. The talent shortage has also become a massive challenge. According to the report, 86% identified the lack of skilled professionals as a major challenge; more than half the respondents have over 10 positions in cybersecurity to fill. Watch | Certihash Sentinel Node: Improving cybersecurity with blockchain
Coin Geek
2 days ago
- Coin Geek
BTC miners hope May flowers make investors forget Q1 showers
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Block reward mining economics have slightly improved over the past month or so, but the financial report cards haven't caught up to this new golden age. Miners enjoyed a slightly more profitable May than other months this year, thanks to the BTC token shaking off its early-April funk, which saw the token's value sink below $76,000. But BTC crossed the $100,000 threshold in the first week of May and has held that six-figure status ever since, so happy days are here again. (For the moment, as Israel's latest attack on Iran has sent the token into a downward spiral.) That said, miners are still struggling with record-high network difficulty and increasingly cutthroat competition. Some miners like Core Scientific (NASDAQ: CORZ) have signaled their focus going forward will be on AI/HPC (high-performance computing) data center operations, which offer far more predictable revenue streams. Others have tried to focus investor attention on their new 'BTC treasury' gambit, issuing new debt and diluting existing shareholders' equity to raise billions of dollars to buy additional tokens in the belief that the number will go up in perpetuity. This has led to some interesting new PR strategies, including buying billboard space in urban centers despite these companies having no product or service to sell. That is, beyond their Nasdaq-listed shares. (Other firms that also don't do much beyond buying BTC are employing similar 'buy our stock' awareness campaigns.) Miners currently account for four of the top-10 'treasury' firms, led by MARA (NASDAQ: MARA), which ranks second only to Michael Saylor's Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) (NASDAQ: MSTR) in terms of the number of BTC under its control. But like Saylor, MARA has borrowed big time to fund its purchases. In the short-term, it needs to show investors that there's some tangible benefit beyond the elusive promise of the tokens hitting $1 million apiece at some undetermined future date. So last month, MARA announced that it was allocating 'an initial 500' of its nearly 50,000 BTC to investment adviser Two Prime to generate the kind of 'yield' that apparently giving an investment adviser actual cash cannot achieve. Two Prime was already providing MARA with BTC-backed loans and MARA will use the proceeds from this latest deal to—what else—buy more BTC. Expect more of this going forward because this is the very definition of 'pot committed.' Drawn and first-quartered Since our last report on this subject, a handful of laggard operators have filed their Q1 earnings report cards, which make for generally depressing reading. Bitdeer (NASDAQ: BTDR) generated revenue of $70 million in the three months ending March 31, a significant decline from the $119.5 million generated in the same period last year. While the cost of revenue fell 14% to $73.4 million, Bitdeer's gross margins slipped from 28.5% in Q124 to -4.6% in this most recent quarter. And while Bitdeer booked a net profit of $409.5 million, that was entirely due to $503 million in non-cash fair value changes of derivative liabilities. Bitfarms (NASDAQ: BITF) reported its Q1 revenue rising by one-third year-on-year to $67 million, but its expenses rose by nearly one-half, and its net loss rose sixfold to $36 million. CEO Ben Gagnon said the company's mining ops were now providing a 'stable, low-capex and free cash flow foundation' that will allow the company to focus on growing its AI/HPC data center expansion 'while still capitalizing on any potential Bitcoin upside in 2025 and 2026.' The Bitmain-affiliated BitFuFu (NASDAQ: FUFU) saw its Q1 revenue fall by nearly one-half to $78 million, resulting in a net loss of nearly $17 million compared to a $35.3 million profit in Q124. Around $1.4 million of this loss was due to the price of the BTC that BitFuFu sold in Q1 being below its carrying value. (BitD'ohD'oh!) BitFuFu CEO Leo Lu said the company had endured 'a more challenging operating environment' thanks to the April 2024 block reward halving and the company's hash rate falling more than one-quarter year-on-year. But Lu claimed the company had 'broadened our network, added new partners, expanded our global footprint and added new customers across key growth markets.' So this is all just a phase, apparently. Canaan Inc (NASDAQ: CAN) had a slightly more positive Q1, with revenue rising 136% year-on-year to $82.8 million. Mining revenue more than doubled to $24.3 million, while revenue from sales of its HPC hardware shot up 250% to $58.3 million. Meanwhile, Canaan's cost of revenue rose a comparatively modest 25% year-on-year, allowing Q1's operating loss to nearly halve to $37.6 million. However, the company's net loss more than doubled to $86.4 million due to significant changes in the fair value of its various debt obligations. On May 16, Canaan revealed that it had been notified by the Nasdaq exchange that it was in violation of the listing rules due to its share price averaging below $1 for more than 30 consecutive days. Canaan has been given until November 10 to improve its performance or face delisting. On May 27, Canaan announced a $30 million share repurchase program aimed at boosting its flagging stock. So far, the buyback has only enjoyed partial success, as the shares slipped from around $0.63 before the announcement to $0.58 a week ago. On June 9, Canaan's CEO and CFO engaged in some performative confidence-boosting by announcing their own share purchases, which nudged the shares up to $0.77, but that's still well off its $1+ target. Back to the top ↑ May the mining gods be with you As usual, the May 2025 production reports of publicly traded miners are listed below in descending order of magnitude. There are a few notable absences, including Core, TeraWulf (NASDAQ: WULF), and BIT Mining (NYSE: BTCM), all of which, for whatever reasons, no longer appear willing to share their monthly stats with their investors. Also, Bitfarms is two weeks overdue in releasing their May results, while Hut 8 (NASDAQ: HUT) hasn't issued any new numbers since shifting its mining operations to the Trump-linked American Bitcoin Corp, which has yet to issue any production updates following its early-April launch. Anyway… MARA produced 950 BTC in May, up from 705 in April, representing a new post-halving high for the company. MARA won 282 blocks last month, another personal best, despite hash rate rising only one point to 58.3 EH/s (although that's also a record). As befitting its exalted HODL'er status, MARA sold none of its BTC last month, pushing its total stack to 49,179 tokens. CleanSpark (NASDAQ: CLSK) mined 694 BTC in May, up from 633 in April, with month-end hash rate hitting 45.6 EH/s. The company sold 293.5 BTC last month, part of its 'broader strategic approach to capital management' that limits its need to raise additional capital to fund its operations. CleanSpark's BTC treasury nonetheless rose to 12,502 tokens, 'all from mining operations and without any equity issued.' Iris Energy (NASDAQ: IREN) produced 627 BTC in May, up from April's 579, as hash rate rose nearly two points to 38.4 EH/s. The company's nascent 'AI Cloud Services' revenue was up 10% month-on-month to $2.2 million, still tiny compared to the $64.7 million earned from mining, but forward progress all the same. On June 11, IREN announced that it had upsized its previous $450 million capital raise to $500 million, with most of the proceeds earmarked for general corporate purposes and working capital. Riot Platforms (NASDAQ: RIOT) mined 514 BTC in May, an 11% rise from April's 463, thanks to the average operating hash rate rising nearly two points to 35.4 EH/s. Riot sold 500 BTC in May, 25 more than it unloaded in April, leaving its treasury at 19,225 tokens. Riot's revenue from electricity credits—that's the money it earns from local governments for not mining and thus not overloading the local grid—rose 10% month-on-month to $2.2 million. mining and thus not overloading the local grid—rose 10% month-on-month to $2.2 million. The Shanghai-based Cango Inc (NYSE: CANG) produced 484.5 BTC in May, a slight improvement on April's 470, boosting its treasury to 3,429 tokens. Cango only began mining full-time this spring after selling its mainstay China-based automotive sales platform, a transaction it completed on May 29. As such, Cango has applied to the China Securities Regulatory Commission to terminate its status as a 'China Concept Stock.' BitFuFu self-mined 43 BTC in May, seven more than in April, while its cloud mining customers saw their production surge from 173 in April to 357 in May, for a total production of 400 BTC for the month. BitFuFu credited the 91.4% month-on-month rise to a full month's contribution from the flurry of new Bitmain rigs it's been deploying since late-April. Average hash rate improved more than one-fifth month-on-month to 34.1 EH/s. Bitdeer generated 196 BTC in May, 30 better than April's result, as hashrate improved 1.3 points to 13.7 EH/s. Bitdeer hopes to fully energize its Norway and Bhutan operations by the end of this month, which will boost its hash rate to over 40 EH/s by October. Bitdeer sold 1.6 EH/s worth of its Sealminer A2 rigs to external customers last month, and this month will see the release of its Sealminer A3 rigs for pre-order, so get 'em while they're hot. Cipher Mining (NASDAQ: CIFR) claimed 179 BTC in May, five more than in April. Cipher sold 64 BTC last month, a fraction of the 350 sold in April, allowing its treasury to improve to 966 tokens. Cipher finished May with a hash rate of 13.5 EH/s but aims to boost this to over 23 EH/s in July after the rest of the rigs it ordered are installed at its 'Black Pearl' site in Texas. Hive Digital (TSXV: HIVE) mined 139 BTC in May, a decided improvement on April's 102 tokens, as average hash rate hit 8.5 EH/s in May, two points better than April. The boost came courtesy of Hive's new 100 Mw hydro-powered Paraguay site and Hive hopes to boost hash rate to 18 EH/s by summer and to 25 EH/s by Q4. Finally, Canaan produced a record 109 BTC in May, up from 87 in April, as month-end operating hashrate rose 1.1 points to 7.3 EH/s. Canaan's BTC treasury improved by 42 tokens to 1,466 (another record high). Canaan CEO Nangeng Zhang said May's gains came despite the 10% tariffs imposed by the U.S. on its Malaysia-made rigs, which the company is doing its best to mitigate by emphasizing its Ethiopia-based operations. Back to the top ↑ Cloudy with a chance of unapproved mining Leaving the big boys aside for the moment, cloud-based mining has come a long way in recent years, allowing individuals who lack the basement space to host thousands of mining rigs to still participate in the network consensus mechanism. But other cloud customers who have zero interest in mining are nonetheless finding themselves participating in mining against their will. Earlier this month, cloud computing security outfit Wiz Threat Research reported that a threat actor identified as JINX-0132 had exploited misconfigurations in web servers used by multiple firms to covertly download software that hijacks computing resources to mine the privacy coin Monero. (This isn't the first instance of Monero-focused mining malware imposing its will on users.) In Ukraine, police arrested a man who reportedly hacked an unspecified 'international hosting company' to compromise over 5,000 customer accounts to mine cryptocurrency. The 35-year-old hacker earned over $4.4 million from his illicit activities before the hosting provider caught on and brought in the authorities. The suspect faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison if convicted. So next time you're driving downtown and you see a billboard promoting a mining stock and you wonder 'what the heck is that about,' remember that the answer might be 'you.' Back to the top ↑ Watch | Bitcoin mining in 2025: Is it still worth it? title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen="">
Reuters
2 days ago
- Reuters
SEC Regulation of Crypto and Digital Assets Under Trump 2.0 Practical Law The Journal
For the first time, crypto and digital assets played a meaningful role in a US election. The crypto community favored President Trump in the 2024 election because he promised crypto-friendly reforms throughout the campaign. As anticipated, the second Trump administration has acted swiftly and voluminously in addressing regulatory pain points for the crypto markets as part of a broader deregulatory initiative, as well as enacting other noteworthy pro-crypto measures. Because SEC commissioners serve at the discretion of the president, the agency's policies generally reflect the priorities of the current administration. Under Trump 2.0, the SEC has wasted no time in implementing the administration's game plan. This article highlights significant SEC crypto-related actions under the second Trump administration, including: Formation of the SEC crypto task force. Replacement of the SEC's crypto enforcement unit with the newly formed Cyber and Emerging Technologies Unit (CETU). Termination or delay of notable crypto enforcement matters. Rescission of Staff Accounting Bulletin 121 (SAB 121) on crypto custody accounting. Withdrawal of a 2019 statement and issuance of frequently asked questions (FAQs) on broker-dealer custody of digital assets. Withdrawal of an appeal of a district court ruling vacating expanded SEC definitions of the terms 'dealer' and 'government securities dealer' which captured crypto. Statements by the Division of Corporation Finance on: stablecoins; meme coins; and crypto mining activities. (For the complete version of this resource, which includes information on a variety of Trump administration crypto-related initiatives, including an executive order creating a presidential crypto working group and prudential bank crypto regulatory reforms, see Regulation of Crypto and Digital Assets Under Second Trump Administration: Overview on Practical Law.) Crypto Task Force On January 21, 2025, then-Acting SEC Chair Mark Uyeda announced the launch of an SEC crypto task force, headed by Commissioner Hester Peirce, dedicated to developing a comprehensive and clear regulatory framework for crypto assets in the US. The announcement marked a dramatic change in the SEC's approach to crypto regulation, which has in recent years relied on regulation by enforcement. The agency took a notoriously aggressive approach to crypto enforcement under prior SEC Chair Gary Gensler, placing the agency at odds with the crypto industry and certain proponents of fintech innovation (for more information, see Regulation of Crypto-Asset Securities in USA on Practical Law). These critics have often included Commissioners Uyeda and Peirce, who now find themselves in position to guide SEC crypto policy.
