Visa And FTX Partnership, Houbi Acquired By About Capital, BNB Chain Hack

Visa And FTX Partnership

FTX, a popular cryptocurrency exchange, is partnering with Visa to release debit cards to 40 countries. FTX branded Visa cards will first launch in Latin America, and rollout will follow in Europe and Asia. 

"At Visa, we believe that digital currencies will have a lasting impact on the future of financial services and money movement. We're excited to partner with leading crypto exchanges like FTX to bring more flexibility and ease-of-use for people to use their crypto" said Cuy Sheffield, Head of Crypto at Visa. "

The new FTX debit cards unlocks users’ ability to use a crypto balance to fund purchases anywhere Visa is accepted. The cards will also link directly to a user’s FTX account and will function 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with no administrative or processing fees. FTX users can register here and join the waiting list.

Houbi Acquired By About Capital

Houbi Global, a Chinese cryptocurrency exchange, announced its acquisition by About Capital, a Hong Kong fund management firm. When China banned cryptocurrency in 2021, Houbi set out an exit strategy from the mainland.  

“Following Huobi’s exit from the Chinese mainland market in 2021, we have accelerated our globalization push amidst a challenging market environment, which adds to the impetus for Huobi to seek a new shareholding structure with a global vision and international resources,” said Leon Li, the founder of Houbi.

 The acquisition of Houbi by About Capital vehicle will contribute to the company’s global expansion. Huobi Global stopped servicing China-based customers after the ban. The company suffered from the regulatory change as most of its users were still in China. The trading platform allegedly laid off 30% of its workers after its exit from China reduced revenue.

BNB Chain Hack

Binance Chain, Binance's official decentralized blockchain, confirmed that hackers stole at least $100 million during a hacking attack last week. After detecting a vulnerability impacting the BSC Token Hub cross-chain bridge, the Binance blockchain halted transactions for a few hours. All funds are safe. The hacking attack did not impact users’ wallets.

“There was an exploit affecting the native cross-chain bridge between BNB Beacon Chain (BEP2) and BNB Smart Chain (BEP20 or BSC), known as “BSC Token Hub.” A total of 2 million BNB was withdrawn. The exploit was through a sophisticated forging of the low-level proof into one common library,” said BNB Chain in an official update.