UOB Venture Management is the investment arm of Singapore-based multinational United Overseas Bank, while Seven Bank is part of the group owning the 7-Eleven franchise in Japan.
Further adding to the notable roster of backers, Uni-President is a major food conglomerate in Taiwan and Hanwa is a large business group in South Korea. Hashkey Capital is the investment arm of China’s WanXiang Group.
Lightnet, the company behind the Velo Protocol, recently raised $31.2 million in a Series A round.
The funding was led by major financial and business groups including UOB Venture Management, Seven Bank, Uni-President Asset Holdings, HashKey Capital, Hopeshine Ventures, Signum Capital, Du Capital and Hanwha Investment and Securities, according to a press release on Monday.
Bangkok-based Lightnet aims to apply its protocol, based on Stellar’s blockchain tech, to the global remittance market, which is estimated to be worth hundreds of billions annually. The firm is initially focusing on the Southeast Asian market, saying that it plans to disrupt an industry so far in the hands of «slow» and «costly» traditional financial institutions.
“It’s vital that we build an ecosystem to provide Lightnet access to our partners’ vast user base and facilitate deeper penetration into local markets. We project that within three years, Lightnet will facilitate over $50 billion worth of annual transactions through our industry- leading partner network”, Tridbodi Arunanondchai, Lightnet’s vice-chairman, said in the report.
The firm’s chairman, Chatchaval Jiaravanon, is the son of Sumet Jiaravanon, executive chairman of Thailand’s biggest conglomerate, Charoen Pokphand Group. In 2018, he bought Fortune Magazine for $150 million.
The chairman said earlier this month that Lightnet would grow in part due to planned acquisitions. He also told Bloomberg that the firm is targeting more than $50 billion in transactions annually within three years.
Lightnet is building several solutions, with the first expected to carry out its inaugural transaction this quarter. The firm’s CEO, Suvicha Sudchai, told Business Insider that plans include adding up to 500,000 agents across Asia, as well as partnerships with remittance firms such as MoneyGram, Seven Bank, Yeahka, Ksher
American Citizen Arrested for Educating North Korea on Blockchain and Crypto
Today United States prosecutors announced the arrest of Virgil Griffith, who allegedly traveled to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) to deliver a presentation on how to use cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology to circumvent sanctions.
According to the November 29 announcement, the 36-year-old Griffith was arrested at the Los Angeles International Airport, and will be charged with conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The charges carry a maximum term of 20 years in prison. U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman stated:
“As alleged, Virgil Griffith provided highly technical information to North Korea, knowing that this information could be used to help North Korea launder money and evade sanctions. In allegedly doing so, Griffith jeopardized the sanctions that both Congress and the president have enacted to place maximum pressure on North Korea’s dangerous regime.”
The IEEPA prohibits any U.S. citizens from exporting any goods, services, or technology to the DPRK without a license from the Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control.
Griffith, a U.S. citizen living in Singapore, was previously denied permission to travel to the DPRK by the U.S. Department of State. Griffith went against the decision and presented at the DPRK Cryptocurrency Conference, violating the U.S. sanctions against the DPRK. FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William F. Sweeney Jr. said:
“There are deliberate reasons sanctions have been levied on North Korea. The country and its leader pose a literal threat to our national security and that of our allies. Mr. Griffith allegedly traveled to North Korea without permission from the federal government, and with the knowledge of what he was doing was against the law. We cannot allow anyone to evade sanctions, because the consequences of North Korea obtaining funding, technology, and information to further its desire to build nuclear weapons put the world at risk. It’s even more egregious that a U.S. citizen allegedly chose to aid our adversary.”
North Korea trying to evade sanctions
North Korea is reportedly in the early stages of developing a cryptocurrency to help the DPRK evade international sanctions and find a way around “the U.S.-dominated global financial system.”
Alejandro Cao de Benos, the official in charge of North Korea’s crypto conferences, said at the time that the digital currency will be similar to Bitcoin but that they are still in the very early stages in the creation of the token and that there are “no plans to digitize the North Korean won for now.”
