Agora · 65

Bank of Korea successfully tests global tokenized payment project

Comparative news, according to Korean media reports, the Bank of Korea participated in the actual transaction test of the “Agora Project”, a global payment settlement project led by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), and successfully completed the transaction using tokenized reserve funds. A total of 28 institutions participated in the test, including the Bank of Korea, central banks, and private financial institutions, covering six currencies: won, US dollar, euro, British pound, Swiss franc, and yen. Participating institutions in Korea include KB Kookmin Bank, Nonghyup Bank, Shinhan Bank, Woori Bank, and Hana Bank. Participating institutions conducted actual trading tests worth approximately CHF 800,000, covering multiple currencies, and tested a total of 17 trading scenarios. The Bank of Korea said, “In the future, the Agora project plans to conduct more real transaction tests by identifying transaction types and scenarios not covered by this test.”

23d ago

South Korea released a roadmap for the internationalization of the won, will issue a won denominated stablecoin, and plans to launch a pilot tokenization of government bonds next year

Comparatively, according to Korean media ETnews, the South Korean government released the “Korean Won Internationalization Roadmap,” which aims to promote the transformation of the won from a regulated currency to a freely exchangeable currency and establish an offshore Korean won settlement network. According to reports, the Bank of Korea will launch the “Offshore Korean Won Settlement Network” (tentative name), which is expected to be tested in September this year and officially launched in January next year. At the same time, it will also build a digital asset payment infrastructure to lay the foundation for the issuance, distribution, and trading of Korean won denominated stablecoins. It is planned to launch a pilot project next year to promote the tokenization of government bonds linked to the Bank of Korea's institutional digital currency (CBDC). Furthermore, South Korea will officially join the “Agora” cross-border digital payment project led by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and bringing together eight central banks. This article is sponsored by GENG, Build Your Fortune on GENG (https://geng.one)

34d agoburnking

BIS: Stablecoins do not yet have monetary attributes, warns of the risk of “stablecoin dollarization” in emerging markets

Comparatively, according to The Block, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) pointed out in its “2026 Economic Report” that currently stablecoins do not meet monetary standards in the four dimensions of unity, elasticity, interoperability, and integrity, and their operating model is closer to ETFs than payment instruments. The report estimates that even if the stablecoin market value expands to 1 trillion to 3 trillion US dollars, the net effect on economic output will still be slightly negative, while increasing banks' financing pressure and weakening credit capacity. The BIS also warned that emerging economies risk “dollarizing stablecoins” or eroding their monetary sovereignty. The report suggests using central bank currency as an anchor, constructing a “unified ledger” covering tokenized central bank reserves and commercial bank currency as an alternative, and using the Project Agora cross-border payment prototype as proof of feasibility.

54d ago

Robinhood Crypto's former COO Tanya Denisova joins stablecoin issuer Agora

Tanya Denisova, Robinhood Crypto's former chief operating officer, has joined stablecoin issuer Agora as Head of Operations (Head of Operations). Additionally, she will serve as the chief operating officer of the National Trust Bank proposed by Agora, but the appointment is still subject to approval by the US Monetary Commission (OCC) of her National Trust Bank license application. This article is sponsored by GENG, Build Your Fortune on GENG (https://geng.one)

60d agoburnking

World model startup Odyssey secures $310 million in Series B funding, AWS Trainium chips help general physics simulation

Comparative news, according to monitoring, the Universal World Model startup Odyssey announced the completion of Series B financing of US$310 million, with a post-investment valuation of US$1.45 billion. The funding round was led by Natural Capital, with Amazon (Amazon), Google Ventures (GV), AMD Ventures, EQT, and In-Q-Tel (IQT) participating. Additionally, individual investors such as Google's chief scientist Jeff Dean, Y Combinator president Garry Tan, and former Cruise co-founder Kyle Vogt have also stepped up. In addition to capital injections, Odyssey has also reached a deep strategic partnership with Amazon AWS. AWS will be Odyssey's cloud service provider of choice, and Odyssey will partner with Amazon Annapurna Labs to fully optimize its world model on the AWS Trainium AI accelerator. The Odyssey team pointed out that the development of the world model is currently at an inflection point similar to GPT-3, and the technology is moving from research to a disruptive foundation. Odyssey was founded in 2023 by Oliver Cameron and Jeff Hawke. Unlike traditional generative video or language models, Odyssey focuses on developing generic world models to perform accurate causal and dynamic simulations in virtual or real physical environments through self-developed Odyssey-2 Max, multi-modal world model Starchild-1, and multi-agent interaction system Agora-1. In the future, these technologies will be deeply applied to various fields such as robotics, science, medicine, education, game development, and national defense.

65d ago

Former US CFTC Chairman: The US is studying infrastructure related to the digital dollar behind closed doors

Comparatively, according to Coin Desk, Timothy Massad, the former chairman of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), said that although Trump has publicly promised to oppose central bank digital currencies (CBDC) and government-backed US dollar stablecoins, the US may eventually launch a government-supported on-chain digital dollar solution, driven by the development of global tokenized finance. Massad said that the White House is studying related infrastructure behind closed doors, and the US is already participating in the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Project Agora. Mark Gould, head of the Federal Reserve's payment business, said that the digital dollar is currently not within the scope of the Federal Reserve's responsibility, but if a government-supported digital dollar is introduced, the Federal Reserve will be responsible.

94d ago

The new governor of the Bank of Korea promised to promote CBDC and deposit tokens, and his attitude towards stablecoins is questionable

Comparatively, according to The Block, the Bank of Korea's new governor Shin Hyun-song (Shin Hyun-song) delivered an inaugural speech, promising to promote the development of central bank digital currency (CBDC) and deposit tokens, and will expand related applications through the second phase of the “Han River Project” and participate in global cooperation such as Project Agora to strengthen the won's position in the global payment system. Notably, Shin Hyun-sung did not mention the South Korean won stablecoin in his speech. Although South Korean legislators are actively promoting the Digital Asset Basic Law to establish a stablecoin legal framework, discussions are expected to resume after the June 3 regional elections. Shin Hyun-sung previously had a negative attitude towards stablecoins during his tenure at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), believing that stablecoins cannot replace currencies, but his position has reportedly changed, saying that Korean won stablecoins should coexist with CBDC.

123d ago

Agora announced that it will stop issuing the stablecoin AUSD in Injective, and the redemption window will last until September 28

According to Twitter, according to official sources, Agora announced that it will gradually stop issuing and supporting AUSD on the Injective Network starting April 3, 2026. According to the latest adjustments, no new AUSD will be minted on Injective from now on, and holding AUSD on the network will no longer be rewarded. However, users can still redeem AUSD at a 1:1 value, and the redemption window will last until September 28, 2026. This adjustment only applies to the Injective Network and does not affect AUSD operations on other chains. Regarding the redemption process, Agora stated that its customers can complete the operation by connecting to their account contacts. Users only need to send AUSD on Injective to the official channel, and the platform will assist in converting to AUSD on the user's designated chain, or into US dollars and other supported stablecoins. Officials emphasized that September 28, 2026 is the standard redemption deadline, after which remaining assets can still be processed, but additional KYC verification procedures and related fees may be required. Agora pointed out that the decision stemmed from its regular evaluation mechanism for multi-chain deployments. The main considerations included factors such as actual usage, ecosystem health, and infrastructure costs. Following a comprehensive evaluation, Agora decided to strategically shrink the AUSD business on the Injective Network to optimize resource allocation and improve overall operational efficiency.

141d ago

The Ethereum Journey: Where's the Next Stop?

Author: Kathy Original title: Where did Ethereum's Long March go? In October 1934, the Central Red Army set out from Jiangxi; no one called that departure the “Long March.” It was just a hasty retreat — the fifth anti-encirclement was defeated, the base could not be held, and more than 80,000 people headed west with guns, not knowing where the end was. It was just a hasty retreat — the fifth anti-encirclement was defeated, the base could not be held, and more than 80,000 people headed west with guns, not knowing where the end was. Yesterday I was watching @VitalikButerin news on ETH CC, and suddenly it reminded me of the Long March. It's not that Ethereum is “miserable,” but that kind of situation feels very similar. It used to be the strongest position, and I suddenly discovered that it was full of holes on all sides; once an unquestionable story, I suddenly discovered that even my own people didn't believe it. So the question is: Is the Ethereum Foundation out of trouble? The fifth anti-encirclement defeat must first be explained clearly before we can understand everything that came later. The past two years have been two years of Ethereum's “multi-faceted collapse”. The ETH/BTC ratio fell back to the 2021 level, and the ETH price was very tortuous. It barely broke through the previous high in 2025 and fell all the way down. The on-chain data is also hard to read. Solana's DEX trading volume has completely surpassed Ethereum. In February 2026, the monthly stablecoin transaction volume reached a record high of $650 billion. 98 million monthly active users is a number you can hardly pretend not to see. But these are all external problems. The Ethereum Foundation has dug a deeper hole for itself — called the “L2 parasitic effect.” In March 2024, Dencun was upgraded and launched, and L2 transaction fees were reduced by 99% overnight. This was originally good news: it's cheaper, the capacity has been expanded, and the user experience has improved. But then one thing became clear: the more L2 prospered, the more empty L1 became. Coinbase's base chain will generate $75 million in 2025. Ethereum L1 protocol revenue for the same period: $39.2 million. Ethereum L1's revenue is less than half of an L2 built on it. The blob fee that L2 paid to L1 was extremely low, and the EIP-1559 destruction mechanism almost failed. As a result, in the third quarter of 2025, Ethereum's annualized supply growth rate rebounded to +0.22% — the “Ultra Sound Money” deflation narrative, officially declared bankruptcy. Meanwhile, the EF treasury is also anxious. Treasury figures released in October 2024: $970.2 million, down 39% from the previous disclosure. EF has sold a total of 16,000 ETH in the past 6 months to lay down its blood. One sentence: There are strong enemies on the outside, there are parasites on the inside, the treasury shrinks, and the narrative falls apart. Isn't it very similar to the defeat of the fifth anti-encirclement? Zunyi Conference: We have to change the leadership and lose to this point; the leadership must act. In January 2025, EF Executive Director Aya Miyaguchi @AyaMiyagotchi announced her resignation. Vitalik personally announced: “I am the one who decided to lead the new EF team. “This statement is intriguing — both at the helm and at the same time acknowledging the accounts: EF's independent governance in the past was nothing. The new co-executive directors are Wang Xiaowei @hwwonx and Tomasz Stańczak @tkstanczak. The direction seemed clear. But just 11 months later, Stańczak left his job again. Within 13 months, the core executives changed three times. That's not the harshest part yet. In October 2025, a letter of resignation written in May 2024 was made public. The author is Péter Szilágyi @peter_szilagyi, the former head of the Geth client, the creator of the client that once supported more than 60% of Ethereum's nodes. He worked at EF for a full 9 years. The content of the letter shocked the entire community. Szilágyi said his total income for 6 years was $625,000 — before taxes, an average of about $100,000 a year. In the same period, the market value of the chain he helped build rose from zero to $450 billion. Unbeknownst to him, EF secretly funded a “second Geth team” within Nethermind — the equivalent of starting a new project behind him. When he found out and objected, 24 was younger...

142d agoLuxurytracy

Tria partners with Agora to integrate EarnaUSD into its Tria Earn earnings platform

In comparison, Tria announced a partnership with stablecoin project Agora to integrate Agora's yield stablecoin product earnaUSD into the Tria Earn platform. Through this integration, users can access AUSD, an institutional stablecoin issued by Agora, and related revenue strategies with one click on the Tria platform, and support cross-chain operations. AUSD is a stablecoin backed by a 1:1 dollar reserve, and its reserve funds are managed by State Street Bank.

212d ago