Tag: Temasek

Temasek invests in algorithmic currency system

by Blockchain News

Temasek, the government-owned investment firm of Singapore, has recently invested $10 million in Array, a developer of an algorithmic currency system based on smart contracts and artificial intelligence. Array has announced that the funding round marks its second, raising its valuation to over $100 million.

The new Temasek-backed algorithmic currency system is aimed at providing a more stable, efficient, and scalable asset than traditional cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. The system is expected to have a variety of use cases, including payments, remittances, and investments.

Array’s smart contract platform, ArrayFi, is designed to enable decentralized applications built on top of its network and driven by its proprietary AI algorithm ArrayGo. ArrayGo operates independently, without any human or institutional control, and is triggered solely by market actions. According to a Medium blog post by the Array team, a traditional bonding curve is implemented manually to ensure the value of the token remains stable and predictable for investors and traders indefinitely. The bonding curve is implemented into a smart contract that governs the issuance and trading of the native token Ara (ARA). The smart contract platform also aims to protect Array users against “pump and dump” schemes.

Temasek’s investment in Array comes several months after the Singapore government admitted that the company suffered reputational damage due to investing in the collapsed crypto exchange FTX. In November 2022, Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong argued that Temasek suffered more than just financial losses due to investing in FTX.

Despite suffering significant losses, Temasek continues to invest in cryptocurrency projects. In April, Temasek also participated in a $10 million series A round for the United States-based impact-verification and intelligence firm BlueMark.

Temasek is fully owned by the Ministry of Finance but operates independently. The company was forced to write down its entire $275 million FTX investment, which accounted for just 0.09% of Temasek’s $403 billion portfolio as of March 2022. Despite this loss, Temasek continues to be a major investor in various industries, including technology, healthcare, and financial services.

In conclusion, Temasek’s investment in Array highlights the company’s continued interest in cryptocurrency projects despite significant losses in the past. The new algorithmic currency system developed by Array aims to provide a more stable and efficient asset than traditional cryptocurrencies, with a variety of use cases such as payments, remittances, and investments. With the backing of Temasek, Array’s valuation is set to exceed $100 million, indicating significant potential for growth and development in the future.

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NFT Layer-2 Protocol ImmutableX Raises $200M in New Funding

by Blockchain News

Immutable X, an Ethereum-based layer-2 Non-Fungible Token (NFT) token platform, has announced the completion of its Series C funding round. It raised the sum of $200 million from leading investors in the space.

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As announced by the startup, the funding round was led by Temasek, with participation from leading blockchain game juggernaut Animoca Brands and technology company Tencent. Other investors include ParaFi Capital, Princeville Capital, Arrington Capital, Mirae Asset, Liberty Global etc.

The Series C round effectively brings the valuation of Immutable X to $2.5 billion. The funding raised will bolster the ongoing growth on the Immutable X platform while also scaling the Immutable Gaming Studio. Amongst the direct products, the startup will be building on more is its Gods Unchained game, one of the largest blockchain games by the number of active players.

“Immutable is locked in on developing a leading, ambitious, and dependable web3 ecosystem for a new era of creators that desire scalable results in the world’s fastest-growing industry,” said James Ferguson, CEO, Immutable. “Our investment partners understand the power and potential of the Immutable X platform and will play an integral role in this next phase of our growth. We are also excited to welcome new executive team members who will help execute on our aggressive business and growth plans.” 

The funding will also be diverted into hiring more talent globally as it looks to register its presence on the global scene. Immutable X is building out its ecosystem as it recently inked a partnership with Gamestop, as reported earlier by Blockchain.News. In its bid to advance its role in the gaming world and the broader Web3.0 ecosystem, the platform will ride on its growing network of partners to ink more related deals soon.

Image source: Shutterstock

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JPMorgan Partners with DBS Group and Temasek to Develop Blockchain-Powered Trade Platform

by Blockchain News

Leading American bank JPMorgan has joined hands with Singapore-based investment company Temasek and DBS Group Holdings to create a blockchain-enabled foreign exchange settlement, trade, and payment platform for seamless cross-border transactions. 

Leveraging blockchain technology to curb trade frictions

The company behind the new blockchain-powered platform will be called Partior. It will utilize blockchain technology to streamline cross-border currency settlements, trade, and payments by minimizing current latency and frictions. 

As per the announcement:

“Partior is expected to develop wholesale payment rails based on digitized commercial bank money to enable “atomic” — or instantaneous — settlement of payments for various types of financial transactions, according to the statement. That would help banks overcome challenges presented by the current standard sequential method of processing global payments.”

Even in the digital era, cross-border payments are at times cumbersome and slow, which is a challenge the blockchain-enabled platform intends to solve.

According to Sopnendu Mohanty, the chief fintech officer at the Monetary Authority of Singapore:

“The launch of Partior is a global watershed moment for digital currencies, marking a move from pilots and experimentations toward commercialization and live adoption.”

In the future, the blockchain-powered platform is expected to be designed to complement the ongoing central bank digital currency (CBDC) initiatives. 

JPMorgan is continuously being involved in the crypto/blockchain space. For instance, the top American bank established an investment “basket” linked to eleven crypto-focused companies like Nvidia, Square, and MicroStrategy last month.

The debt instrument will enable investors to have direct exposure to a basket of more firms, such as PayPal, Advanced Micro Devices, Taiwan Semiconductor Company, Intercontinental Exchange, CME Group, Overstock.com, and Silvergate Capital.

This new financial product is expected to allow institutional investors to gain exposure to the cryptocurrency market without actually holding digital assets directly. 

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JP Morgan, DBS, Temasek to Develop Blockchain Cross-Border Payment Platform

by Btcmanager

Sensing the upcoming tectonic shift in the architecture of global payments, DBS, JPMorgan, and Temasek have joined forces to develop a new blockchain-based interbank payments mechanism.

Blockchain-Powered Mechanism the Need of the Hour

In an official announcement made on April 27, major financial institutions such as DBS Bank, JPMorgan, and Temasek stated that they are developing an open industry platform through a newly-established technology company called Partior.

According to the announcement, the aforementioned company aims to disrupt the traditional cross-border payments ‘hub and spoke’ model that has resulted in several pain points such as multiple validations on payment details by banks resulting in costly post transaction exception handling and reconciliation activities.

Partior is geared toward developing efficient digital clearing and settlement solutions across the banking industry via blockchain technology.

In addition, the platform also has its eyes set on developing wholesale payments rails based on digitized commercial bank money to allow “atomic” or rapid settlement of payments for several types of financial transactions.

Commenting on the development, Piyush Gupta, CEO, DBS Bank, noted:

“By harnessing the benefits of blockchain and smart contracts technology, the Partior platform will address current points of friction. The open platform will enable banks around the world to provide real-time cross-border multi-currency payments, trade finance, foreign exchange and DVP securities settlements on a world-class platform, with programmability, immutability, traceability built into its suite of services.”

Similar sentiments were echoed by Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief Fintech Officer, Monetary Authority of Singapore. Mohanty said:

“The launch of Partior is a global watershed moment for digital currencies, marking a move from pilots and experimentations towards commercialisation and live adoption. With its genesis from Project Ubin, a public-private partnership on blockchain and CBDC experimentation, Partior is a pioneering step towards providing foundational global infrastructure for transacting with digital currencies in a trusted environment, spurring a wide range of use-cases in the blockchain ecosystem.”

Aim to Provide 24/7 Services

It is worthy of note that akin to any blockchain-based payments mechanism, Partior aims to provide 24/7 infrastructure that will enable financial institutions and developers to co-create applications that support use cases such as FX Payment Versus Payment, Delivery Versus Payment, and Peer-to-Peer escrows.

In similar news, BTCManager reported that the European Investment Bank (EIB) is using blockchain technology for bond sales.

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Singapore Stock Exchange Taps Blockchain for Settlement Layer Infrastructure

by Btcmanager

The Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX) has partnered with investment firm Temasek to explore the use of blockchain technology for the settling of asset trades. Temasek remains a prominent player in Singapore’s expanding utilization of decentralized ledger technology (DLT) with several collaborations with both public and private establishments in the city-state.

SGX and Temasek to Build Blockchain Settlement System

According to a Nikkei Asia report on Friday (Jan. 22, 2021), Temasek and SGX have announced a joint venture collaboration to utilize blockchain for finance purposes. As part of the partnerships, the two companies will create a JV company that will examine ways in which to leverage DLT for issuing and settling trades of SGX-listed assets including bonds and equities.

Commenting on the partnership, Lee Beng Hon, the SGX currencies, income, and commodities chief, remarked:

“We are very excited to take our digital asset business to the next level in partnership with Temasek. Together (with Temasek), we will capitalise on digitalisation trends that continue to shape global capital markets, and advance the development of capital markets infrastructure in Asia.”

For Temasek managing director Pradyumna Agrawal, the company is pleased to once again be partnering with SGX adding: “We have been tracking the evolution of financial market systems and the opportunities for the development of digital infrastructure that will transform how financial transactions are conducted.”

The move extends SGX’s blockchain participation. As previously reported by BTCManager, the stock exchange partnered with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) back in November 2018 to create a blockchain-based settlement infrastructure for tokenized assets.

In August 2020, SGX also collaborated with Temasek and HSBC Holdings to pilot the first-ever public syndicated blockchain bond in Asia. At the time, the partnership issued the digital bond on behalf of Olam, an agro-based business enterprise. SGX also holds a 10 percent stake in the digital asset exchange recently launched by DBS, the largest lender in the whole of Southeast Asia.

SGX’s continued blockchain foray is also representative of the growing DLT utilization in the city-state as well as Southeast Asia as a whole. In December 2020, Singapore’s government even announced plans for a $9 million blockchain investment package. The city-state is also exploring a DLT-based system for bilateral trade with Australia.

This growing focus on DLT and blockchain has also come with authorities moving to formalize the existing legal framework for the burgeoning industry. Earlier in January, the MAS was given the mandate the oversee the operations of cryptocurrency and digital payment providers in Singapore.


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