Verofax Winner of Bahrain Islamic Bank’s ‘BisB Innovation Challenge’

BAHRAIN, Jan 25, 2021 – (ACN Newswire) – Bahrain Islamic Bank (BisB), a leading Bank in the Arab Gulf region, has announced Verofax as winner of the 'BisB Innovation Challenge', a Fintech Competition run as part of the Bank's partnership with 'FinHub 973: CBB (Central Bank of Bahrain) Digital Lab', the Kingdom's open application programming interface (API) innovation platform. Verofax, a mature and enterprise-ready service provider, was selected after rigorous screening to ensure a solution with the requisite level of feasibility and security to maintain the confidentiality and security of customers' financial data.

Verofax, founded by Wassim Merheby, and technology partner Turnkey Lender proposed a unique approach in emerging as the Fintech with potential to build the most promising Proof of Concept (PoC) for the sought solution. Verofax offered a PoC for a credit scoring solution, incorporating alternative and unstructured datasets, to improve the Banks speed and breadth of its financial services to existing and new clients.

The credit scoring solution will constitute a platform that uses adaptive machine learning and sophisticated AI (Artificial Intelligence) to empower the Bank's financial advisory unit with advanced data insights to enable them to provide a more personalized banking experience for their clients, especially in the wake of a pandemic that is evolving the banking landscape.

14 challengers from around the globe participated in the BisB Innovation Challenge, which was powered as the FinHub 973: CBB Digital Lab by Fintech Galaxy. The appointed judging panel comprised of Osama Nasr, Chief Information Officer of BisB; Wesam Baqer, Chief Corporate & Institutional Banking of BisB; and Yasmeen Al Sharaf, Head of Fintech and Innovation Unit at the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB).

Panel judge Wesam Baqer, Chief Corporate & Institutional Banking of BisB reiterated support for Verofax as the winner, stating, "We are confident that the Credit Scoring solution will bring a level of innovation to the banking industry that is both convenient and safe. The sought solution will ultimately simplify money matters for our customers' securely, and it will streamline internal operations while providing them with data-backed intelligence, allowing us to deliver an exceptional level of service, which was ultimately the determining criteria in our selection of the winning participant, Verofax."

Chief Executive Officer of BisB, Hassan Jarrar, said, "The BisB Innovation Challenge and tech-focused Fintech Competitions of this nature are imperative for innovation, especially considering the upcoming challenges facing the financial industry, both in the wake of COVID-19 and in order to effectively bridge the existent gap we have in the market when it comes to innovative Fintech solutions. We want to create better synergies between FinTechs and Banks, and harness the power of technology and AI to solve real issues, and encourage cross-industry collaboration, in order to offer a transformed customer experience."

Wassim Merheby, CEO of Verofax Limited, added, "AI-based credit scoring solutions are innovative services that draw intelligence from non-linear relationships across a plethora of unstructured and alternative datasets. The service powers banks with unmatched visibility and speed while helping reduce the probability of default and increase financial inclusion. We partnered with Turnkey Lender to provide BisB with exclusive solutions to secure its financial services with simplicity."

Dmitry Voronenko, CEO and co-founder of TurnKey Lender congratulated Verofax, "We're extremely excited about helping larger audiences in the Middle East extend fully digital affordable credit to their clients locally and worldwide. We are happy and delighted to be selected by our partner Verofax. We look forward to continued and extended collaboration on new lending automation, credit scoring, and decisioning projects."

For details, please visit BisB at www.bisb.com or email callcentre@bisb.com.
For technical matters, visit Verofax at www.verofax.com or contact info@verofax.com

About BisB

Bahrain Islamic Bank (BisB) was established in 1979, the first Islamic commercial bank in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The Bank has maintained its leading position in the Islamic banking sector through adopting innovative Islamic investment and financing products, supported by superior retail and corporate banking services. The Bank is listed on the Bahrain Stock Exchange and operates under the supervision of the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB). Please visit www.bisb.com.

About Verofax

Verofax Limited is an automation, optimization and validation solutions provider for enterprises and financial institutions with a presence in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. The Verofax platform allows enterprises to share operational datasets with Banks to boost their credit scoring. Please visit www.verofax.com.

About TurnKey Lender

TurnKey Lender is an Award-winning AI-based Loan Origination and Management Software firm for Banks and Non-bank Lenders with offices and operations across 50 countries. Turnkey lender's Unified Lending Management platform delivers innovative and automated credit scoring solutions to minimize risk, increase efficiency and make lending easier for banks. See www.turnkey-lender.com.

About FinHub973

FinHub 973: CBB (Central Bank of Bahrain) Digital Lab, is the region's first cross-border, digital innovation platform that connects and facilitates collaboration between financial institutions and Fintechs. Powered by Fintech Galaxy, FinHub 973 enables Fintechs to connect seamlessly with Bahrain's financial institutions and to explore, test and prototype on a centralised digital sandbox. Visit www.finhub973.com and www.fintech-galaxy.com.

Copyright 2021 ACN Newswire. All rights reserved. http://www.acnnewswire.com

SGX-listed OIO Holdings names Rudy Lim as CEO of its Blockchain Subsidiary

SINGAPORE, Jan 25, 2021 – (ACN Newswire) – OIO Holdings Limited (SGX: OIO) announced the appointment of Rudy Lim, former Head of FinTech at DBS Bank, as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of its Blockchain Division, OIO Singapore Pte Ltd. The appointment of Rudy, a FinTech expert, is expected to further accelerate OIO's blockchain business.

Rudy has been a vocal advocate of the challenges traditional banks are facing and the need for significant transformation as the digital economy emerges. Driven by this foresight, he led Fintech innovation projects across various departments at DBS such as analytics, market research, and partnerships, which aligned with establishing a leading bank in Southeast Asia, and he played an active role within the Fintech ecosystem.

As the Head of FinTech at DBS, Rudy launched "Startup Xchange" to facilitate startups in co-creating solutions to DBS business challenges, enabling them to match and value-add the bank and also its potential corporate clients. Since its pilot in 2018, Startup Xchange has successfully conducted over 40 proofs-of-concept with startups across the bank and successfully rolled-out more than 20 emerging technology solutions.

Prior to his career at DBS, Rudy was a part of the venture investment and business innovation team at Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), where he was involved in supporting startups from conceptualization to funding their business models.

Rudy emphasizes his reasons for joining OIO as follows:

– Singapore has the best business environment for blockchain business, with a group of Singaporean government agencies launching a new research program for blockchain technology in the second half of 2020 with a funding of S$12 million.
– 2021 is a year of great progress in blockchain technology and that the growth of the blockchain and crypto-asset market will begin from here.
– As one of the first listed blockchain companies in Singapore, OIO is in a position to take full advantage of the market environment.
– OIO has officially announced that it has entered into negotiations to acquire Moonstake, one of the largest staking providers in Asia.

Proposed Acquisition of the Entire Share Capital in Moonstake Pte. Ltd. & Moonstake Limited

Moonstake's crypto asset transaction value exceeds USD200M as of January 19, 2021, making it the 16th largest staking pool out of 1692 providers according to Staking Rewards, a staking ranking site.

With the addition of Rudy to the team, OIO is looking to expand its business into the investment and incubation area and will actively acquire leading blockchain businesses such as Moonstake.

CEO Rudy's comments:

"I am very honored to be appointed as CEO of OIO Singapore Pte Ltd, a great company with talented people and great potential. Based on this strong foundation, we would like to continue to facilitate product performance and innovation, while we aim to be a trusted partner to our customers in today's rapidly changing environment.

"In order to do so, OIO must continue to innovate and lead our customers on their transformation journey. Blockchain and innovation are the two major driving forces for our customers' transformation, and we need to focus on them across the whole company. My goal is to ensure that we fully commit ourselves to our customers, employees and stakeholders through strong values, leading innovation and passion."

OIO Holdings – https://www.oio.sg
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/oioholdings/
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/66361073/
Twitter – https://twitter.com/holdingsoio

OIO Holdings Limited is a Singapore Exchange-listed company with its primary business in the provision of M&E engineering services, blockchain-related agency, and consulting solution services. Over the years, OIO has developed a wide range of expertise as a provider of M&E engineering services and solutions, as well as a strong network with clients, working on high-end resorts and high-profile projects in Singapore and surrounds.

OIO has also expanded into the blockchain areas, such as sales agency business, software development agency business, and blockchain-related consultancy business. OIO's blockchain business is conducted by its 100% subsidiary, OIO Singapore Pte Ltd. OIO's vision is to be the best service partner providing innovative technology solutions to drive the growth of companies in Asia.

Copyright 2021 ACN Newswire. All rights reserved. http://www.acnnewswire.com

OIO, Moonstake’s Partner and SGX listed company, appoints New CEO for its blockchain business subsidiary, Rudy Lim, former Head of FinTech at DBS Bank

SINGAPORE, Jan 22, 2021 – (ACN Newswire) – We are pleased to announce that our regional partner OIO Holdings Limited (SGX: OIO) has appointed Rudy Lim, former Head of FinTech at DBS Bank, as its new CEO at its blockchain business subsidiary, OIO Singapore Pte Ltd, effective 18th of Jan 2021 to accelerate blockchain business deployment and B2B (Business to Business) staking as a service solution.

In February 2020, Moonstake and OIO entered into a strategic business alliance to jointly own the Intellectual Property ("IP") for staking-related products that Moonstake developed and to collaborate together in various business activities. After inking a business strategy and IT consulting contract between Moonstake and OIO in August 2020, OIO focused on enterprise sales of B2B staking products developed by Moonstake. Staking market cap that was 12 billion USD value in January 2020 has drastically surged in one year and now it is 190 billion USD. Rudy's joining OIO Singapore Pte Ltd will enhance the business of Moonstake and its partners in this rapidly growing market.

Formerly the Head of Fintech in DBS Bank, Rudy was able to envision the need of striking modification in traditional banking from the rise of the digital economy. Driven by that foresight, he drove various business functions within the bank, analysis, market scans and partnerships to future-proof DBS's position as the leading bank in Southeast Asia, as well as within the Fintech ecosystem.

As a Head of Fintech, Rudy led DBS Innovation to launch Startup Xchange, a programme to enable match the bank and its enterprise clients with startups and their technologies so as to find solutions to business problems. Since its pilot launch in 2018, Startup Xchange has successfully matched 21 start-ups across the bank and resulted in the successful roll-out of more than 10 emerging technology solutions.

Prior to joining DBS, Rudy was part of Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) venture investment and business innovation team, where he worked with start-ups from conception to funding the business models, thereby expanding SPH's range of media and engagement platforms, Rudy also championed SPH's media innovation thrust ideology into the marketplace.

Rudy Lim, new CEO of OIO Singapore Pte Ltd said: "I am honoured to serve as the chief executive officer of OIO Singapore Pte Ltd, an extraordinary company with tremendous potential, having talented people and partners such as Moonstake at its core. We will build on this strong foundation to continue to drive performance and innovation across our products, while also serving as a trusted partner for our clients in today's rapidly changing environment.

For this to happen, we have to ensure that OIO continues to innovate and lead in our clients' transformational journeys. Blockchain and innovation are two dominant forces driving change for our clients and must have the entire company's undivided focus. My goal is to ensure that we meet these commitments to our customers, employees, shareholders and stakeholders through strong values, leading innovation and passion."

In welcoming Rudy's onboarding, Lawrence Lin, Moonstake CEO commented: "OIO is a key local partner, helping to accelerate B2B staking as a service and wallet solution for Moonstake in this fast-growing market. I look forward to the onboarding of Mr Rudy Lim, who with his previous experience and proven leadership capabilities, will make him an incredible asset to OIO and fasten the growth even further for Moonstake."

Moonstake strives to become the largest and best staking pool in Asia with the aim of being one of the global leading companies in the blockchain industry by providing the solutions for users and businesses. By collaborating with OIO, Moonstake will enable your blockchain business to succeed with the most efficient and security solutions throughout all stages and deliver value to businesses.

About Moonstake

Moonstake was recently established to develop a staking pool protocol to satisfy increasing demands in regional and global blockchain markets. Moonstake develops a staking pool protocol and provides business services through partners and companies.

Moonstake aims to be the largest staking pool network in Asia by providing an active environment for crypto asset holders. Establishing a clear partnership roadmap with Moonstake represents another significant milestone for continuing to strengthen ties with leading platforms across Asia's burgeoning Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) ecosystem. Partnership has been announced with Emurgo, Ontology and NEO to boost staking adoption, Binarystar, Japan's biggest blockchain hub, OIO Holdings Limited (SGX: OIO), a Singapore Catalist-Listed company. Industry's reputed advisors, such as Lisk and Lawrence Lim of RAMP DEFI support Moonstake's innovative journey.

With a full-scale operation launched in August 2020, we expanded our business and as of now, our total staking assets exceeded over USD 180 Million. https://www.moonstake.io/

About OIO

OIO Holdings Limited ("OIO") is a Singapore Exchange-listed firm whose core businesses are the provision of mechanical and electrical ("M&E") engineering services, and blockchain-related agency and consulting solution services.

Over the years, OIO has developed extensive expertise as an M&E engineering services and solution provider. It has built up a strong network with well-established customers who are often engaged in luxury resorts or well-known projects in Singapore and the region such as Sengkang General Hospital and Sheraton Towers Singapore Hotel.

OIO has recently expanded into blockchain-related businesses which include sales agency business, software development agency business and blockchain-related consultancy businesses. OIO's blockchain business is conducted by its 100% subsidiary, OIO Singapore Pte Ltd.

OIO's vision is to be the best service partner and provider of innovative technology solutions to power the growth of enterprises in Asia. https://oio.sg/

Copyright 2021 ACN Newswire. All rights reserved. http://www.acnnewswire.com

Rocket Vault Finance Partners with Blockpass before Tokensale

HONG KONG, Jan 21, 2021 – (ACN Newswire) – The latest in a series of partnerships to be announced, Blockpass is proud to reveal its collaboration with Rocket Vault Finance. Rocket Vaut is integrating Blockpass' unique KYC Connect solution to enable fast, simple and efficient KYC for users, not only to onboard new customers, but also to verify those wishing to be involved with their upcoming token sale. Starting in February, the Rocket Vault token sale promises to be both exciting and compliant thanks to this new partnership.

Rocket Vault Finance is a Smart Vault powered by advanced Artificial Intelligence predictive analytics and Machine Learning, adopting a data-driven approach to come up with vault strategies to minimize losses and maximize gains to provide the best APY in stable coins. Users deposit funds with Rocket Vault and the platform automatically invests it in the best pools, avoiding risky pools and achieving over 100% APY on average to date. Rocket Vault has two user plans in public beta – a 'free for retail' option and a 'paid for institutions' option.

Blockpass is a digital identity verification provider which provides a one-click compliance gateway to financial services and other regulated industries. Through Blockpass, users can create, store, and manage a data-secure digital identity that can be used for an entire ecosystem of services, token purchases and access to regulated industries. For businesses and merchants, Blockpass is a comprehensive KYC & AML SaaS that requires no integration and no setup cost. You can set up a service in minutes, test the service for free and start verifying and on-boarding users.

"It's always great to find others who value compliance as highly as we do," said Adam Vaziri, CEO of Blockpass. "The team at Rocket Valut have demonstrated their commitment to the highest standards of regulatory compliance and through this partnership we're excited to enable it. We're all looking forward to facilitating their successful tokensale next month and working with the team at Rocket Vault to onboard new customers for many years to come."

"We are excited to work with blockpass for our customer KYC & AML checks," said Founder and CEO of RVF, Kiran Mannam. "Blockpass addresses a very critical part of the customer onboarding process with ease. The APIs are user-friendly and save a lot of time and effort in automating the whole process."

Blockpass has grown significantly in size and use since its inception, both in the number and range of users and companies it has partnered with, and the scope of its work. Blockpass continues to develop its digital identity protocol with updates and additions to improve the compliance experience. Blockpass has seen rapidly increasing numbers of users in the past year as its identity verification solution is used for ICOs, STOs and IEOs, including supporting successful fundraisers in the past few months. The recent integration with Matic is already leading to conversations with other companies and businesses around the topic of KYC provision.

With a current 90%+ discount on its services, a fact made possible due to the unique reusable nature of its verification method, and put in place to help as many people as possible access KYC in the current pandemic, there has never been a better time to explore the potential of Blockpass. The Blockpass App is available from the App Store and Google Play.

About Blockpass

Blockpass is a fast, fully comprehensive KYC & AML screening software-as-a-service for blockchains, Crypto, Defi and other regulated industries. With Blockpass, you get an unmatched set of benefits for any compliance service that includes pay-as-you-go, no setup cost, no integration necessary, free testing, immediate launch and at the lowest cost. Blockpass' KYC Connect(TM) platform enables businesses to select requirements for customer onboarding that can include ID authentication, face-matching, address checking, AML ongoing monitoring and/or screening of sanctions lists, politically exposed persons (PEP), and adverse media. Through Blockpass, end-users easily create a verified portable identity that they can control and re-use to onboard with any service instantly. By integrating with Chainlink Network, a decentralized oracle solution, in early January, Blockpass introduced the first on-chain KYC solution that will service many blockchains in the years to come.

For more information and updates:
Promotional video: https://youtu.be/SvO2cw3e-SI
Website: http://www.blockpass.org
Email: sales@blockpass.org

About Rocket Vault Finance

Rocket Vault Finance in a nutshell is the "Intelligent Fund Manager" backed by AI & ML for Crypto Value Investing. Just deposit in the SmartVault, sit back & watch your funds grow! Why lose sleep over crypto investing? RocketVault works hard 24x7x365 days to maximise your gains while you are having a quality time with your family.

Rocket Vault Finance closed token preSale successfully in early January 2021 and the private and public sale are scheduled for February 2021. To participate in the upcoming token sale, please find below the project links:

Telegram channel: https://t.me/rVault
Telegram announcement channel: https://t.me/rVaultAnn
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RVF_SmartVault
Website: https://www.rocketvaults.io
Private beta: https://www.rocketvaults.io/app
Product Demo with LIVE orders: https://t.me/RVF_SmartVault_Bot
Email: contact@rocketvaults.io

Copyright 2021 ACN Newswire. All rights reserved. http://www.acnnewswire.com

Moonstake Officially Announces Entry Into DeFi

SINGAPORE, Jan 21, 2021 – (ACN Newswire) – Moonstake, currently the 16th largest staking asset in the world, announces today that it is officially entering the DeFi sector. As of now, Moonstake has reached over 200 million USD in total staking assets and achieved rapid growth in both product development and marketing in just a short period of time. The leading staking pool is also in partnership with more than 10 public blockchains as well as reputable DeFi projects on the market. Using its robust technological infrastructure, Moonstake plans to develop more innovative products and provide services related to DeFi's breakthrough in the blockchain industry in 2020. Moonstake is also accepting applications from DeFi products looking to connect to its powerful staking network.

Moonstake debuted its staking business last year with the aim to create the largest staking network in Asia. Since then, it has developed the most user-friendly staking wallets for both Web Wallet and Mobile Application Wallet (iOS / Android) that are compatible with over 2000 top cryptocurrencies. During this time, Moonstake has also collaborated with public blockchains who are active in the DeFi field, such as Emurgo (one of the Cardano's constituent organizations), NEO, Ontology, and Wanchain.

In August of last year, Moonstake partnered with RAMP DEFI that develops a DeFi solution to unlock liquid assets from staked digital assets to develop and popularize DeFi and connect DeFi products to the Moonstake platform. In December, Moonstake co-sponsored the Defi section in "Business Blockchain Expo" hosted by Binarystar, Japan's largest blockchain business hub. Moonstake introduced world leading DeFi projects such as MakerDAO, NEO Flamingo, Zilliqa and other players at the forefront of DeFi to strengthen collaboration and efforts to enter DeFi.

Currently, the total amount of crypto assets locked in DeFi surpasses USD 25 Billion, up 290% from the same period last year. The fast-growing DeFi ecosystem is largely built on the Ethereum blockchain and further growth in the future will require collaboration with other blockchains and access to Ethereum from other blockchains.

Major PoS (Proof-of-Stake) protocols often require a locked period during staking. The illiquidity of crypto assets during this locked period has been a challenge. As a staking service provider, Moonstake enters DeFi this time with plans to launch innovative products that facilitate and expand access to DeFi by working to resolve this illiquidity.

We have already completed PoC (Proof-of-Concept) and the upcoming completion of the staking liquidity protocol will enable access to DeFi products such as decentralized exchanges (DEX) and lending platforms. It will also allow for scalability of the service by linking it to the staking pool operated by Moonstake.

Moonstake is currently making a Litepaper on DeFi products and business models. It will be released within the first quarter of 2021. In addition to creating its own products, Moonstake will also be widely accepting applications from DeFi products that wish to connect to the Moonstake platform. With a total staking asset over USD 200 Million and wallet users around the world, Moonstake's connection with DeFi will support the development and dissemination of high-quality DeFi products with its powerful network.

About Moonstake

Moonstake was recently established to develop a staking pool protocol to satisfy increasing demands in regional and global blockchain markets. Moonstake develops a staking pool protocol and provides business services through partners and companies.

Moonstake aims to be the largest staking pool network in Asia by providing an active environment for crypto asset holders. Establishing a clear partnership roadmap with Moonstake represents another significant milestone for continuing to strengthen ties with leading platforms across Asia's burgeoning Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) ecosystem. Partnership has been announced with Emurgo, Ontology and NEO to boost staking adoption, Binarystar, Japan's biggest blockchain hub, OIO Holdings Limited (SGX: OIO), a Singapore Catalist-Listed company. Industry's reputed advisors, such as Lisk and Lawrence Lim of RAMP DEFI support Moonstake's innovative journey.

With a full-scale operation launched in August 2020, we expanded our business and as of now, our total staking assets exceeded over USD 220 Million. https://www.moonstake.io/

Copyright 2021 ACN Newswire. All rights reserved. http://www.acnnewswire.com

Moonstake Enters Into MOU to Commence Negotiations with SGX-listed OIO Holdings to Become a Subsidiary

SINGAPORE, Jan 21, 2021 – (ACN Newswire) – As of 20th of Jan, Moonstake announced that it signed an MOU with OIO Holdings Limited (OIO), a Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX) listed company, to begin negotiations for OIO to make Moonstake a wholly owned subsidiary.

Moonstake debuted its staking business last year with the aim to create the largest staking network in Asia. Since then, it has developed the most user-friendly staking wallets for both Web wallet and Mobile Application Wallet (iOS/Android) that are compatible with over 2,000 top cryptocurrencies. After a full-scale operation launched in August 2020, Moonstake's total staking assets grew rapidly to reach USD 50 Million. By December, staking assets grew to USD 100 Million and currently, over USD 200 Million. Within a year since its establishment, the company was ranked in the top 20 of the world's 1,692 providers of staking services, and it continues to expand its business strongly.

Moonstake has partnered with more than 10 public blockchains such as Emurgo (one of Cardano's constituent corporations), NEO, Ontology and QTUM, collaborated with reputable DeFi projects and added leading Blockchain experts as advisors. Moonstake's advanced products centered on staking wallets attracted a great deal of attention from the market and rapidly increased a number of users all over the world. Based on the continuous growth, Moonstake has successfully closed its seed round funding and has raised $1.04 Million in Oct 2020.

Moonstake announced its full-scale entry into DeFi, a notable breakthrough in the blockchain industry in 2020, and will use its strengths in staking to make DeFi more usable and accessible for users.

OIO is a company listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange whose main business is providing M&E engineering services, blockchain-related agencies and consulting solution services. OIO has recently expanded into blockchain-related businesses which include sales agency, software development agency and blockchain-related consultancy. In February 2020, Moonstake entered into a strategic business alliance with DLF Holdings Limited (later renamed to OIO) for marketing, software sales, and explore market needs for the staking pool business in Singapore and other Southeast Asian countries.

OIO's vision is to be the best service partner and provider of innovative technology solutions to power the growth of enterprises in Asia and is looking to expand its business not only in the traditional areas but also in the investment and incubation areas. Now, Moonstake and OIO, which have been business alliance partners and are growing rapidly together have started negotiations about acquisition.

About Moonstake

Moonstake was recently established to develop a staking pool protocol to satisfy increasing demands in regional and global blockchain markets. Moonstake develops a staking pool protocol and provides business services through partners and companies.

Moonstake aims to be the largest staking pool network in Asia by providing an active environment for crypto asset holders. Establishing a clear partnership roadmap with Moonstake represents another significant milestone for continuing to strengthen ties with leading platforms across Asia's burgeoning Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) ecosystem. Partnership has been announced with Emurgo, Ontology and NEO to boost staking adoption, Binarystar, Japan's biggest blockchain hub, OIO Holdings Limited (SGX: OIO), a Singapore Catalist-Listed company. Industry's reputed advisors, such as Lisk and Lawrence Lim of RAMP DEFI support Moonstake's innovative journey.

With a full-scale operation launched in August 2020, we expanded our business and as of now, our total staking assets exceeded over USD 200 Million. https://www.moonstake.io/

About OIO

OIO Holdings Limited ("OIO") is a Singapore Exchange-listed firm whose core businesses are the provision of mechanical and electrical ("M&E") engineering services, and blockchain-related agency and consulting solution services.

Over the years, OIO has developed extensive expertise as an M&E engineering services and solution provider. It has built up a strong network with well-established customers who are often engaged in luxury resorts or well-known projects in Singapore and the region such as Sengkang General Hospital and Sheraton Towers Singapore Hotel.

OIO has recently expanded into blockchain-related businesses which include sales agency business, software development agency business and blockchain-related consultancy businesses.

OIO's vision is to be the best service partner and provider of innovative technology solutions to power the growth of enterprises in Asia. https://oio.sg/

Copyright 2021 ACN Newswire. All rights reserved. http://www.acnnewswire.com

Bityard: Building Competitiveness Through Diverse Trading Services with High Market Data Accuracy and Stability

Recently, the Bitcoin price has been increasing significantly. On January 8th, 2021, it has reached $41,000 updating its all-time high, and even exceeded the market cap of Visa.

The rise of Bitcoin attracted a lot of investors in 2017. Right now, many financial analysts have predicted that, in the long run, the price of Bitcoin will still keep going up, and the market will grow much bigger, so will the investing needs from global investors. The needs include crypto spot trading and contract trading.

During the Christmas holidays in 2020, Bitcoin hit $27000. The value of Bitcoin didn’t decrease as many investors had expected, and it resulted in big loses of many crypto contract traders due to forcedly closed short positions. The total loses from global contract traders were over $500 million in one day, which also shows that there is an enormous number of investors in the crypto market.

The crypto contract trading has become popular since 2014 as BitMEX, one of the mainstream digital currency future exchange, was established and provided perpetual contract services with high range leverage, and eToro, a well-known social trading platform, started to offer cryptocurrency CFD (contract for difference) services. By 2018, the number of crypto contract trading service providers had risen rapidly. After more than two years of competition, the outstanding crypto exchanges managed to stay in the market, including Bityard, a relatively young exchange. Bityard, founded in November, 2019, started as a cryptocurrency CFD trading service provider.

Bityard offers diverse crypto trading services. The users of Bityard can trade mainstream digital currencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, as well as some new altcoins. Also, on Bityard, the leverage rang is up to 100x, which can help the users get more profit via successful trading.

For crypto beginners, they can start trading with low leverage and minimum required margin of $5, which is much lower among most crypto exchanges in the market, on Bityard. In this case, the loses from unsuccessful trading won’t cost these crypto beginners too much.

Providing advanced trading services is the basic requirement for all cryptocurrency exchanges to survive in the market. At the same time, the market data accuracy and financial compliance of an exchange are also essential to global crypto investors.

For CFD traders, a trading platform with accurate and real-time market price data is extremely critical. A CFD trader must open a position at the proper time and price point in order to increase profits. Since the profit of CFD trading is based on the change of asset price, any slight data inaccuracy can negatively affect a trading progress of an investor. In this regard, Bityard has integrated crypto asset market price data from three top exchanges, Okex, Huobi, and Binance, to maintain high data accuracy. At the same time, Bityard also has a highly professional development team to provide users with excellent trading service stability so that they can safely trade without any worries.

To keep improving its cryptocurrency trading services, Bityard also pays attention to the change of market needs. In November, 2020, Bityard launched its copy trading system for global crypto beginners, which can greatly lower the crypto investment threshold for them. At the same time, Bityard plans to bring different types of derivative trading services including forex and U.S. stock CFD to professional financial investors in the future, and will launch perpetual cryptocurrency contract trading services to meet the needs from different types of users. Bityard also stays highly compliant with financial regulations, and has obtained legal financial licenses issued by four national institutions which are the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) from Singapore, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (MSB) from the U.S., the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC), and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications (MTR) from Estonia so far.

About Bityard

Bityard is the world’s leading crypto exchange, providing global investors with safe, simple and fast digital currency trading services. With the service concept of “Complex Contract Simple Trade”, Bityard has developed a well-simplified, and also highly professional trading platform for its users. Bityard will keep improving its services to bring the users a better trading experience. Bityard official website: www.bityard.com

Media contact
Company Name: Bityard
Contact Person: Dan
Email: dan@bityard.com
Website: www.bityard.com

Bit.com to Launch Industry’s First BCH Options

SINGAPORE, Jan 20, 2021 – (ACN Newswire) – Bit.com, the secure and high-performance derivatives exchange by Matrixport, will be launching Bitcoin Cash (BCH) perpetual swaps and options. BCH options trading will go live on 01 Feb 2021, following the launch of BCH perpetual swaps on 20 Jan 2021.

Bit.com's offering of Bitcoin Cash options is the first of its kind in the industry. Bitcoin Cash has been in the limelight as one of the major cryptocurrencies recognized by institutions, and constantly ranks No. 6 or 7 on the Top 10 list. However, there has been no options market for BCH and the liquidity of the perpetual swaps also has room for improvement.

To put things into perspective, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) derivatives market grew tremendously during the past few years, and so did their relative shares of the underlying spot trading volume. Currently, the cryptocurrency perpetual swaps market is dominated by BTC, which accounts for ~53% of the market share, while ETH attributes to 20%. BCH takes only 1% of the crypto perpetual swap market share, which is disproportionate to the relative market share of the underlying asset. Similar for options market, market is hugely dominated by BTC (accounts for ~90%) while ETH takes up the rest, the options market for other major crypto and/or altcoins are close to non-existent. In short, the BCH derivative market is far from maturity compared to its size and underlying price volatility. With Bit.com's product launch, this gap in the market will soon be filled.

About Bit.com

Bit.com is an institutional-grade derivatives exchange launched by Matrixport, a one-stop financial services company based in Singapore. Since its inception in August 2020, Bit.com has launched BTC and ETH perpetual swap and options, which are greatly welcomed and actively traded by both institutional and individual users. In the first five months of its launch, Bit.com's total transaction volume exceeded USD 6 billion and is on the way to take a bigger market share. At the moment, the exchange records between USD 100-200 million trading volume on a daily basis.

With industry-leading technology, security and risk management, Bit.com aims to provide users with a superior trading experience and best-in-class liquidity. The platform has strategically positioned itself to serve both institutional and individual users around the world that includes miners/hedgers, prime brokers, proprietary traders and hedge funds. This diverse customer base enables Bit.com to provide more efficient and representative price discovery, which ensures the most competitive spreads. In terms of security, Bit.com's system is built by a world-class team of risk management and IT experts. Furthermore, funds of the platform are backed by a compliant institutional custodian–Cactus Custody, in pursuit of the highest grade of security.

With its first-in-class product offers and performances, Bit.com has been recognized as one of top cryptocurrency derivative exchanges. According to data from Skew, Bit.com is the second largest cryptocurrency option exchange in the world in terms of the turnover as well as the open interest.

Why did Bit.com decide to enter the BCH derivatives market?

As one of the major cryptocurrencies widely traded by institutions, Bitcoin Cash has good potential and huge market demands. Not only does BCH rank among top 10 cryptos in terms of market cap, the number of active addresses has also been growing overtime. More importantly, Bitcoin Cash is one of the major Proof-Of-Work coins that enjoys vast support from miners. Miners, on the other hand, are a key component of Bit.com's clientele. The launch of BCH derivatives by Bit.com enables miners to hedge against risks associated with BCH volatility, which helps make their operation more stable and efficient. More specifically, miners can lock in profits in advance while generating additional cash flow by selling covered calls; or can hedge against downward price moves by buying protective puts. Users can make use of comprehensive derivative trading strategies made possible by liquid perpetual swap and options market to construct various payoff profiles to best serve their interests.

Being the first to launch the product will help Bit.com take a vantage point in this blue ocean market. The current cryptocurrency derivatives market is far from saturated and has great potential to grow in following years, we will continue to see the new pairs listing and improved liquidity, which leads to further expansion of the market. While trading platforms are playing catch-up, Bit.com is providing unique value by building an active BCH derivatives marketplaces on top of the current BTC and ETH markets and adding real users to the game.

For more information,please contact: marketing@bit.com

Copyright 2021 ACN Newswire. All rights reserved. http://www.acnnewswire.com

Singapore online brokerage Tiger Brokers sees strong retail investor growth in Q4 2020 with 108% increase in new user sign ups

SINGAPORE, Jan 20, 2021 – (ACN Newswire) – Xiaomi-backed online brokerage Tiger Brokers Singapore (Tiger Brokers https://www.tigerbrokers.com.sg/) today announced that they saw 108 per cent growth in the number of new investors in Q4 2020 as compared to Q3 2020, with trading volume increased by 215 per cent also on a quarter on quarter basis. Since February 2020, Tiger Brokers also saw the increase in Gen Z investors on the platform, which made up 30 per cent of Singapore's customer base.

Tiger Brokers also announced four new strategic partnerships with financial technology provider, Iress, one of the largest and most active online trading communities, TradingView, Global financial market data and infrastructure provider, Refinitiv, and Asia's leading Financial Group, DBS. These partnerships are aimed at strengthening their online platform, by allowing investors to gain access to best-in-class and up-to-date financial information so that they will be well-informed before making their investing decisions in real time, as well as allowing investors instant fund transfer into the Tiger Trade platform respectively.

In addition, Tiger Brokers also announced the launch of their new product, Fund Mall, a one-stop-shop for investing in global mutual funds that allows investors access to more than 100 renowned funds such as money funds, bond funds and equity funds, based on their requirements – returns, cash liquidity and risk appetite – everything within one portal. This expands the type of investment products available to Tiger Trade users, beyond the six global exchanges that are already available on the platform and other product offerings such as Equities, Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs), Futures, Stock Options, Warrants, and Callable Bull/Bear Contract (CBBC).

Eng Thiam Choon, CEO of Tiger Brokers Singapore, shared, "The COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally changed the trading and investment landscape today. Investors of today are now fully comfortable with investing online – not just Gen Zs, but throughout the investor market. We at Tiger Brokers want to ensure that we offer a seamless investing experience to our investors while strengthening our offerings to keep them engaged. On the other hand, we are looking to be the go-to online brokerage for traditional investors to explore a hybrid investment portfolio."

"2020 showed us the importance of going digital. As the adoption of technology in everyday life becomes a norm, we need to ensure that we offer sustainable and reliable technology that value-adds to the new lifestyle of investors, providing them with great user experiences," added Thiam Choon.

"We are excited to expand our business in Asia by working with Tiger Brokers. Over the past few years we've seen significant growth in markets like Singapore and Hong Kong, so partnering with leading trading firms in the region like Tiger is the logical next step for us," said Pierce Crosby, General Manager of TradingView. "While focused on Singapore today, we think Tiger is a great fit for our various communities in the Asia region as well, and we look forward to further expansion in 2021."

Since last year, Tiger Brokers' investors have shown positive interests in companies such as APPLE, TESLA, NIO, companies from the Technology and Electronic Vehicles (EV) sectors.

The fintech also uses both traditional and digital communications methods to ensure that investors can contact them easily via landline and social media, respectively. In December last year, Tiger Brokers announced that they aim to increase their platform users by 50 per cent by Q1 of 2021.

The Tiger Trade mobile application is available for download on Apple App store and Google Play store. Those interested in Fund Mall can retrieve more details from here. https://www.tigerbrokers.com.sg/market/fund-publicity?_casValidated=true

Apple App store: https://apps.apple.com/sg/app/id1023600494
Google Play store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tigerbrokers.stock

About Tiger Brokers (Singapore) Pte Ltd.

Tiger Brokers Singapore Pte Ltd (Tiger Brokers Singapore) is a brokerage firm operating with a Capital Markets Services (CMS) Licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). Its trading platform, Tiger Trade, offers complimentary real-time stock quotes, dedicated multilingual customer service during trading hours and 24/7 finance news updates. The company launched the mobile version of Tiger Trade in February 2020 – accessible on Google Play Store and the Apple App Store – offering mobile-savvy generation of retail investors similar trading opportunities as their online users, such as Equities, Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs), Futures, Stock Options, Warrants, and Callable Bull/Bear Contract (CBBC) on their mobile phones. Both online and mobile app allow users to invest across multiple asset classes traded on Australian, U.S., Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia stock markets such as the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), NASDAQ, Shanghai/Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) and the Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX), Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).

Tiger Brokers Singapore is the Singapore entity of UP Fintech Holding Limited, known as "Tiger Brokers" in Asia, a leading online brokerage firm focusing on global investors. Founded in 2014, Tiger Brokers became #1 in the U.S. equity trading by volume among trading platforms catered to Global Chinese investors in less than two years. Tiger Brokers was awarded "2017 Fintech 250" by CB Insights and shortlisted for "China Leading Fintech 50" for two years in a row by KPMG China. The company was listed on NASDAQ under "TIGR" in 2019 and has offices in China, United States, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. Tiger Brokers has over 1 million customers worldwide currently, with a total trading volume of more than US$62.8 billion in Q3 2020. The company is backed by well-known investors such as Xiaomi, as well as investment guru Jim Rogers. For more information, please visit https://www.tigerbrokers.com.sg

For media enquiries, please contact:
PRecious Communications for Tiger Brokers (Singapore)
Email: Tiger@preciouscomms.com

This article has not been reviewed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

Any views shared with Prospective Clients ("Prospects") are suggestive in nature and on a sample basis only. This may also be predicated on assumptions that are made by Tiger Brokers (Singapore) Pte Ltd about the Prospects' investment objectives and risk profile. Our suggestive and sample views extended to Prospects are not to be considered as recommendations made by the Company. Suggestions provided are also based on information that may be shared by the Prospects, the accuracy and comprehensiveness of which Tiger Brokers in not in a position to verify.

Tiger Brokers (Singapore) Pte Ltd (herein "Tiger Brokers") may, to the extent permitted by law, participate or invest in other transactions with the issuer of the products referred to herein, perform services or solicit business from such issuers, and/or have a position or effect transactions in the securities or options thereof. The information herein is for recipient's information only and not an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy. Any date or price information is indicative only and may be changed without prior notice. All opinions expressed and facts referred to herein are subject to change without notice. The information herein was obtained and derived from sources that we believe are reliable, but while reasonable care has been taken to ensure that stated facts are accurate and opinions are fair and reasonable, Tiger Brokers does not represent that it is accurate or complete and it should not be relied upon as such. The information expressed herein is current and does not constitute an offer, recommendation or solicitation, nor does it constitute any prediction of likely future stock performance. Investment involves risk. The price of investment instruments can and do fluctuate, and any individual instrument may experience upward or downward movements, and under certain circumstances may even become valueless. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. In preparing this information, we did not take into account the investment objectives, financial situation or particular needs of any person or affiliated companies. Before making an investment decision, you should speak to a financial adviser to consider whether this information is appropriate to your needs, objectives and circumstances. Tiger Brokers assumes no fiduciary responsibility or liability for any consequences financial or otherwise arising from trading in securities if opinions and information in this document may be relied upon.

Copyright 2021 ACN Newswire. All rights reserved. http://www.acnnewswire.com

Moonstake Enters a Strategic Partnership with RockX to Support the Polkadot (DOT) Ecosystem

SINGAPORE, Jan 19, 2021 – (ACN Newswire) – Moonstake has entered into a strategic partnership with Singapore-based RockX to support the Polkadot ecosystem. RockX aims to develop the Polkadot ecosystem. It not only runs its own Polkadot's node, but in September, launched a USD 20 Million five-year investment program. Through this partnership, Moonstake and RockX will accelerate the spread of Polkadot in the blockchain industry through staking.

Moonstake started in the staking business last year with the aim to create the largest staking network in Asia. Moonstake has developed both Web wallets and Mobile wallets (iOS/Android) providing staking services. After a full-scale operation launched in August 2020, Moonstake's total staking assets grew rapidly to reach USD 50 Million. By December, staking assets grew to USD 100 Million. Currently, Moonstake has over USD 200 Million in staked assets.

In Jan of this year, Moonstake announced the support of staking Polkadot's cryptocurrency in Moonstake's Wallet. DOT is top 5 cryptocurrencies by market cap. After Cosmos, IRISnet, Ontology, Harmony, Tezos, Cardano and Qtum, DOT became the 9th available coin on Moonstake Web Wallet.

RockX is a digital assets platform that offers risk-adjusted crypto investment for the masses and allows users to compound their crypto holdings through mining, staking, and other DeFi products. Recently, RockX announced that they launched a USD20 Million investment program for the Polkadot ecosystem. The funding, capped at a maximum of USD 500,000 worth of DOT tokens per project, will be provided alongside technical support.

Polkadot is a next-generation blockchain protocol connecting multiple specialized blockchains into one unified network. Polkadot is the flagship project of Web3 Foundation, the world's leading blockchain foundation founded by Ethereum co-founder and former CTO Dr. Gavin Wood. In addition to Dr. Wood, other key members include Dr. Aeron Buchanan, former Head of European Operations at Ethereum, and Reto Trinkler, co-founder of Melonport.

As of January 2021, 63% of the total supply or $6 billion of DOTs have been staked since Polkadot's mainnet launched in May 2020. The price of DOT, the native token of Polkadot and a cross-chain protocol for data and asset interoperability has risen more than 40% in December 2020 after two confidence votes by Binance, the largest crypto exchange by spot trading volume and placing it at ranking 5 cryptocurrencies by the market cap.

Mitsuru Tezuka, Founder at Moonstake says: "We are very pleased to partner with RockX, one of Polkadot's world's leading node operators. Moving forward, we believe our partnership with RockX will enable us to mark a new page in the Asian staking industry. And we are confident that we can support the ever-growing Polkadot ecosystem together. Welcome RockX to our staking partnership family."

Alex Lam, CEO & Founder at RockX says: "We are pleased to be partnering with Moonstake who is fast becoming a world leader in staking technologies. Moonstake and RockX will continue to push the boundaries together to improve access to blockchain services and focus further on the growth of our Polkadot ecosystem."

The partnership also includes the appointment of RockX's CEO Alex Lam as an official advisor to Moonstake.

Profile of Alex Lim

PhD in financial engineering, founded RockMiner – a Bitcoin mining machine manufacturer, in 2013. RockMiner has been focusing on POW mining and one-stop mining investment services since its establishment, serving customers in Europe, Singapore, Dubai, India and other countries and regions. Alex is also one of the founders of RockX, a PoS service and development platform established in Singapore in early 2019. Currently, RockX mainly operates Polkadot, Terra, Solana, Oasis, IOTX and other nodes, and participates in the application development of Algorand, Oasis and other projects. In the past few years, Alex has invested in multiple projects in different sectors of the industry, maintaining his dual identity as entrepreneur and investor.

About Moonstake

Moonstake was recently established to develop a staking pool protocol to satisfy increasing demands in regional and global blockchain markets. Moonstake develops a staking pool protocol and provides business services through partners and companies.

Moonstake aims to be the largest staking pool network in Asia by providing an active environment for crypto asset holders. Establishing a clear partnership roadmap with Moonstake represents another significant milestone for continuing to strengthen ties with leading platforms across Asia's burgeoning Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) ecosystem. Partnership has been announced with Emurgo, Ontology and NEO to boost staking adoption, Binarystar, Japan's biggest blockchain hub, OIO Holdings Limited (SGX: OIO), a Singapore Catalist-Listed company. Industry's reputed advisors, such as Lisk and Lawrence Lim of RAMP DEFI support Moonstake's innovative journey.

With a full-scale operation launched in August 2020, we expanded our business and as of now, our total staking assets exceeded over USD 210 Million. https://www.moonstake.io/

About RockX

RockX is the smartest platform to participate in the growing digital asset economy by enabling anyone to capitalize on the emerging global asset class of digital assets and cryptocurrencies for the best risk-adjusted returns. RockX is a comprehensive digital asset platform where mainstream users can participate in the blockchain economy at a suitable risk-reward profile. RockX is the first of its kind in the market where users can diversify and be exposed to different digital assets in one simple interface. https://www.rockx.com/

Copyright 2021 ACN Newswire. All rights reserved. http://www.acnnewswire.com