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Bank of Korea calls for stock-style circuit breakers on BTC exchanges

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Bank of Korea calls for stock-style circuit breakers on BTC exchanges

The Bank of Korea is pushing to install stock-market-style circuit breakers on the country’s cryptocurrency exchanges, a proposal that would bring crypto under the same trade-halting rules used by the Korea Exchange.

The recommendation appears in the central bank’s annual Payment and Settlement Systems Report, published April 13, and calls for automatic halts when crypto prices swing sharply or abnormal orders hit the book. The central bank said the rules should be folded into the pending Digital Asset Basic Act.

The catalyst for the policy suggestion comes from an incident at Bithumb in February when an employee running a promotion entered the reward unit as “BTC” instead of “KRW,” distributing roughly 60 trillion won ($43 billion) in phantom bitcoin before supervisors caught the error 20 minutes later. Panic selling crashed BTC on Bithumb by a 17% drop while the token continued to trade at market prices on other venues.

Upbit, Bithumb and Korea’s three other licensed exchanges already run high-speed matching engines with price collars and fat-finger checks built in. CME Group runs a similar system on bitcoin futures, halting trading for two minutes when prices move 10% inside a 60-minute window.

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The harder question is whether halts would work, given the global nature of BTC trading. If Upbit paused for 20 minutes, bitcoin would keep trading on Binance, Coinbase and dozens of others — and Upbit’s price would snap to wherever global markets moved when it reopened.

Circuit breakers are a familiar tool from traditional finance, a visible signal that markets are being brought under control. But crypto does not have a single venue to stop, and the problems regulators are trying to solve do not neatly map to price volatility.

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Crypto World

StarkWare Cuts Jobs, Restructures Around Revenue Push

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StarkWare Cuts Jobs, Restructures Around Revenue Push

Zero-knowledge scaling company StarkWare is cutting jobs and restructuring its operations as it shifts from infrastructure development toward revenue-generating products. 

CEO Eli Ben-Sasson said in internal remarks that the firm will split into two business units and cut headcount to move faster and operate more efficiently, with one unit focused on applications and the other on Starknet development.

Ben-Sasson said the company would adopt a “startup mode” mindset, prioritizing fewer initiatives with higher revenue potential, while warning that downsizing would affect employees across the organization. StarkWare did not disclose how many employees would be affected by the cuts.

The move reflects a wider retrenchment across crypto firms, which have been trimming headcount and narrowing priorities as they chase clearer product-market fit, stronger monetization and leaner operations. Messari, Algorand Foundation and Crypto.com all announced cuts in March.

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Source: Eli Ben-Sasson

StarkWare says technical edge must translate into revenue

Ben-Sasson said StarkWare’s next phase would center on turning its technology into “meaningful revenue” and “meaningful usage,” arguing that the company could no longer rely mainly on external blockchains or third-party teams to prove the value of its stack.

Ben-Sasson said the company would focus on “fewer things excellently” and prioritize products with revenue potential that can be built only on its technological stack. 

Related: Decentralized email platform Dmail to cease services on May 15

“We’re going to achieve this by innovating across not just infrastructure, as we’ve done so far, but across the whole stack of infrastructure and product,” he said. 

Crypto layoffs continue as firms tighten strategy

StarkWare’s cuts follow other recent layoffs across the crypto sector as firms narrow priorities and reshape operations. On March 17, Messari announced layoffs alongside a leadership change as the company moved deeper into artificial intelligence-powered research and data tools for institutions. 

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On March 19, the Algorand Foundation said it would cut 25% of its employees, citing macro uncertainty and the broader crypto downturn. The organization said the move was aimed at better aligning resources with its long-term business, technology and ecosystem priorities.

On the same day, Crypto.com also announced a 12% reduction of its workforce as part of a broader push into AI. The exchange said the layoffs were tied to company-wide AI integration and a decision to prioritize resources around key growth areas.

Magazine: Asia Express: Phantom Bitcoin checks, China tracks tax on blockchain

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