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Circle has obtained a Major Payment Institution license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore — allowing the USDC stablecoin issuer’s affiliate, Circle Internet Singapore, to offer digital payment token services and cross-border and domestic money transfer services in the city-state.

“This milestone signifies a huge step forward for the future of regulated, transparent, and trusted dollar digital currencies in Singapore and the greater Asia region,” Circle said in a press release.

‘Singapore is integral to Circle’s global expansion’

Circle officially opened its office in Singapore last month after collaborating with the country’s first government-supported blockchain ecosystem builder, Tribe, in February. Late last year, Circle Singapore received In-Principle Approval as a Major Payment Institution License holder from the country’s monetary authority.

“Singapore is integral to Circle’s global expansion and mission in raising global economic prosperity and through the frictionless exchange of value,” Jeremy Allaire, the co-founder and CEO of Circle, said.

“We are honored to receive the MPI license from MAS, and we remain committed to being a part of Singapore’s dynamic economy by advancing the future of financial technology innovations in the city-state, uplifting its emerging technology and fintech sector, and creating business and career opportunities for its technology and financial industry talent,” Allaire added.

Circle’s chief strategy officer and head of global policy, Dante Disparte, said that “this is a significant step forward for Circle and the future of financial infrastructure and dollar digital currencies in the region,” adding: “The receipt of the MPI license represents our continued commitment to work with forward-thinking leaders and stakeholders at a global level and contribution to Singapore’s position as a hub for responsible financial services innovation.”

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Optimism, a Layer 2 network built on top of the Ethereum network, completed a scheduled upgrade on Tuesday.

According to an explainer post, the Bedrock upgrade advances a series of improvements, including reduced transaction costs. 

The upgrade process began shortly after 12 p.m. ET, according to the network’s status page, and was declared complete around 3 p.m. ET. According to a status page run by OP Labs, most of the core functions have already returned to the network.

Just before 6 p.m. ET, the upgrade status page said that the network’s public endpoint was back online.

Some of the update process has taken longer than expected, according to the Optimism team.

“Due to the size of the archival data disk, it is taking longer than anticipated for the legacy-geth archival datadir to be available,” the Optimism Foundation said in a tweet. 

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Bitcoin is up about 5% in late-afternoon market trading, hours after the SEC announced a lawsuit against U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase.

It’s a notable market shift and largely retraces the value lost when the SEC filed a lawsuit against Binance and its American arm, BinanceUS. 

Bitcoin is trading at around $27,015 as of press time, according to TradingView data. 

BTCUSD chart via TradingView

Most major digital assets are in the green over the last 24 hours, according to CoinGecko. Ether is up 4.3% while DOGE and SOL are up 6.8% and 2.2%, respectively.

Binance’s BNB, which plunged sharply on the SEC lawsuit news and the disclosure that the SEC considers it a security under U.S. law, has gained 2.5% in the past 24 hours. 

Coinbase closes down

As The Block reported this morning, Coinbase’s stock price fell sharply at the open, falling by as much as 15% during the morning’s trade.

By the end of the trading day, Coinbase had pared some of those losses, closing at $51.61 and down 12.09% on the day, according to Yahoo! Finance. The Nasdaq index rose 0.36% today.

MicroStrategy gained 8.13% to close at $298.82 and Block rose 3.84%, ending the day at $65.98. 

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.