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Xapo Bank Expands its Stablecoin Payment Rails, Becoming The First Licensed Bank To Enable Both USDC and USDT Deposits and Withdrawals

Xapo Bank highlights a strong appetite since enabling USDC deposits in November, receiving $48 Million in USDC deposits and enabling $4.5M in USDC withdrawals since the function went live in March*

BANGKOK, THAILAND – Media OutReach – 18 May 2023 – Xapo Bank, a fully licensed private bank that combines traditional banking with access to Bitcoin and stablecoins, has become the first bank in the world to integrate Tether (USDT) payment rails. Beginning with a phased rollout, the payment rails will be fully available to all members by the end of May. Building on its existing USDC rails that were launched in March, the bank is now enabling members to leverage the world’s most widely adopted stablecoin for payments as an alternative to time-consuming and costly SWIFT rails.

With a market cap of $82 billion**, USDT is the world’s most used stablecoin and one of the most traded cryptocurrencies by volume, having pioneered the digital dollar concept. It empowers growing ventures and innovation throughout the blockchain space, providing a quicker and more efficient way for millions of people across the globe to send and receive money for remittances and other payments. It is also particularly popular in emerging markets suffering from hyperinflation and economic uncertainty.

Xapo Bank has seen a strong appetite for the efficiency of stablecoin deposits and withdrawals amongst its members, many of whom are based in emerging markets. Since enabling USDC deposits in November, it has received $48 Million in USDC deposits and enabled $4.5M in USDC withdrawals since the function went live in March. It has also experienced a 19%*** increase in member onboarding requests since the USDC withdrawal function went live in March. Xapo Bank offers a 1:1 conversion rate from USDC to USD. All USDC and USDT deposits received by Xapo Bank are automatically converted to USD, meaning members can benefit from a 4.1% annual interest rate on daily USD deposits.

By allowing members to deposit and withdraw using USDC and USDT with no fees charged by Xapo, Xapo Bank is bringing its attractive 4.1% annual interest rate return on deposits to the attention of a new cohort of potential members looking for an alternative to SWIFT payments.

Xapo Bank increased the interest rate on US Dollar deposits to 4.1% earlier this year and also introduced an annual 1% interest on member Bitcoin deposits, divided over the year and paid out daily. This interest rate increase on US Dollar deposits doubles the rate the bank previously offered and is significantly higher than the industry average. The raise is part of the bank’s interest rates restructuring, which is based on market conditions and aims to ensure that Xapo Bank members can continue to earn sustainable returns on their deposits. By allowing members to deposit and withdraw using USDC and USDT with no fees charged by Xapo, Xapo Bank is bringing its attractive 4.1% annual interest rate return on deposits to the attention of a new cohort of potential members looking for an alternative to SWIFT payments.

A fully licensed and regulated bank, Xapo Bank is a member of the Gibraltar Deposit Guarantee Scheme, meaning that Xapo Bank guarantees its members’ USD deposits up to the US dollar equivalent of €100,000. Unlike traditional banks, Xapo Bank does not lend and therefore does not rely on fractional reserve banking to make money as its core business model. Instead, it has all its customers’ fiat funds in reserve and invested in short-term liquid assets to pass the benefit of that interest earned to its customers. Xapo Bank’s member deposits in Bitcoin are fully segregated and are never lent or leveraged. Xapo Bank is held to the same legal standards of law as any EU or UK bank and is audited by one of the big four, KMPG, ensuring that members can feel safe that their assets are protected.

Seamus Rocca, CEO of Xapo Bank, said: “Xapo Bank is the only regulated bank offering a USD account with stablecoin rails. This unique offering combines the compliance and safety of a traditional bank with speed, efficiency, and breadth of use of USDC and USDT. We are growing our payment rail options to eliminate the timely and often expensive deposit and withdrawal processes.”

Xapo Bank is constantly striving to grow its payment rails options, offering members additional currency choices managed with the security of a fully-regulated Bank. Reflecting this, in addition to the USDC and USDT payment rails, Xapo Bank previously integrated with the Faster Payment System (FPS) to activate support for GBP settlement for account deposits and withdrawals. This means members can make payments directly to UK Banks and participating territories and wallets like Wise, Revolut or many exchanges.

Xapo Bank also recently announced that it had become the world’s only fully licensed private bank to partner with Lightspark and integrate with the Lightning Network to enable lightning-fast Bitcoin payments for its members. The integration enables Xapo Bank members to pay for small purchases of up to $100 instantly to any vendor who accepts Lightning payments without suffering high transaction fees and long blockchain confirmation waiting times. Since launching this in March 2023, Xapo Bank has seen consistent daily use of the payment network by its members. During the recent period of high Bitcoin fees, Xapo experienced a spike in Lightning transactions amongst its members, highlighting that the Lightning network is a great alternative to the traditional Layer 1 Bitcoin network.

To learn more about Xapo Bank, visit: https://www.xapo.com/

Editor’s Notes
* Data collated w/c 25th April
** As of 9th May
*** Comparing the 45 days before the USDC launch and 45 days after the launch

Hashtag: #XapoBank



The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

About Xapo Bank

o Bank is a fully licensed private bank that combines traditional banking with access to Bitcoin and stablecoins. Founded in 2013, Xapo became one of the most trusted Bitcoin custodians in the industry, providing users with a secure platform to store and transact with their cryptocurrency. Coinbase‘s custody arm purchased Xapo’s institutional custody business in 2019. Pivoting to service solely retail customers, it evolved into Xapo Bank, the first crypto company in the world to obtain a banking license issued and regulated by the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission. It has since expanded its offerings to include a full suite of private banking services. With this expansion, Xapo Bank is poised to become one of the leading private banks in the world, offering clients a level of security, privacy, and flexibility that is unmatched in the traditional banking industry.

Epicor Puts AI-Enabled Insights to Work for the Make, Move, and Sell Economy

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 17 May 2023 – Epicor, a global leader of industry-specific enterprise software to promote business growth, will today demonstrate its vision at the company’s annual Insights 2023 user conference for the connected Data Supply Chain, helping Makers, Movers, and Sellers action indispensable insights to strengthen and optimize their own operations, as well as more closely collaborate with trusted partners and industry ecosystems for a dynamic and responsive supply chain.

“To be successful in today’s marketplace, Makers, Movers, and Sellers must make data-driven decisions faster and with greater accuracy. It’s all about the right insights, in the right place, at the right time,” said Epicor CEO Steve Murphy. “Epicor is delivering the digital foundation to help give our customers an insight advantage, supported by our deep industry expertise, powerful data analytics, and emerging AI capabilities that will help pave the road to a more resilient and predictable global supply chain.”

Business leaders know that operational insight is key to unlocking business value. But getting to those insights – whether it’s within their own enterprise or across their supply chains – is a pervasive challenge. Many contend with managing overwhelming amounts of data, proliferation of data siloes across their organizations, as well as disconnected processes and lack of data transparency with trading partners and suppliers.

In fact, according to the most recent Epicor Industry Insights Report, nearly 70 percent of enterprises surveyed said they are looking to their ERP provider as an expert partner and resource to help them navigate a variety of data management and integration needs. In addition, more than 80 percent of respondents indicated they are interested in exploring and investing in the latest technologies to help them optimize and grow their businesses.

Through the company’s leading Industry ERP Cloud platforms grounded in contextual business intelligence, Epicor is positioned to help organizations across manufacturing, distribution, retail, building supply, and auto environments adopt a data-first strategy that lets them integrate internal and external data sources and interpret signals and indicators both within their business and across supply chains. In doing so, they can gain actionable insights to optimize and automate business flows and drive time-to-value.

During Insights 2023, attendees will see first-hand several use case demonstrations that showcase the company’s Data Supply Chain approach in action, including:

  • Grow, the Epicor Data Platform – At the core of the connected Data Supply Chain is Epicor Grow, the company’s full-stack, no code / lo code BI platform that combines data integration, warehousing, and visualization into one easy to use solution. This allows users across the business to quickly build the visualizations they need to make fast, informed decisions based on data from Epicor platforms and thousands of external data sources and apps.
  • Predictive Analytics Powered by ChatGPT – Through its collaboration with OpenAI, Epicor is combining the power of ChatGPT with its industry expertise to deliver predictive analytics and contextual recommendations via the intuitive Epicor Virtual Agent (EVA). Epicor users can save valuable time analyzing information across both internal and external data sources by simply querying EVA to quickly uncover the answers they need to make informed decisions.
  • Supplier Integration Across Industry Ecosystems – By integrating internal and external data sources using Epicor Prophet 21 and Grow, companies can gain key insights across their supply chains, such as access to real-time inventory levels and pricing data within a supplier community, as well as automatically generated supplier performance scores to help select the best vendor to meet quality, delivery, and timing needs.
  • People-Centric Automation and Experiences – Epicor is bringing together the entire Make, Move, and Sell value chain by showcasing how its technologies are helping optimize and improve the worker experience using automation and intelligent recommendation, from customer part configuration and ordering, digital work instructions on the shop floor, delivery, and field service.

“This is an era in which cloud computing, business intelligence, and AI can be applied at scale to transform the way we solve some of our biggest challenges,” said Epicor Chief Product Officer Vaibhav Vohra. “We’re empowering our customers’ workforces – from the top floor to the shop floor – to tap into a world of innovative possibilities for how workstreams and collaboration across the essential industries get done.”

Epicor Insights 2023 in Las Vegas brings together more than 3,000 customers, partners, and influencers to connect, learn, and explore possibilities in using Epicor solutions to create a world of better business. For more information, please visit www.epicor.com.

Hashtag: #Epicor

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

Epicor

Epicor Software Corporation equips hard-working businesses with enterprise solutions that keep the world turning. For nearly 50 years, Epicor customers in the automotive, building supply, distribution, manufacturing, and retail industries have trusted Epicor to help them do business better. Innovative Epicor solution sets are carefully curated to fit customer needs and built to flexibly respond to their fast-changing reality. With deep industry knowledge and experience, Epicor accelerates its customers’ ambitions, whether to grow and transform, or simply become more productive and effective. Visit for more information.

Health Officials Raise Alarm as Dengue Fever Cases Soar in Laos

Health Officials Raise Alarm as Dengue Fever Cases Soar in Laos
A mosquito sucking off blood from a man's arm (photo: Freepik)

Health authorities have warned residents to urged precautions after Laos recorded over 2,000 cases of dengue fever until Tuesday.

Authorities Destroy Fake MSG in Luang Namtha Province

Authorities Destroy Illegally Transported MSG in Luang Namtha Province
Officers getting rid of the fake MSG (photo: Lao Phatthana)

The Department of Industry and Commerce in Luang Namtha province confiscated and destroyed a large pile of Monosodium glutamate (MSG) last week, after finding them to be fake products.

DHL Global Forwarding expands its green footprint with the deployment of four electric vehicles in Shanghai

SHANGHAI, CHINA – Media OutReach – 17 May 2023 – DHL Global Forwarding, the freight specialist arm of Deutsche Post DHL Group, has expanded its electric vehicles fleet with two new electric trucks and two electric tractors at its facility in Shanghai. The four vehicles will operate for a total monthly mileage of more than 20,000 km, which is expected to reduce carbon emissions by more than 300 tons per year. This is part of the company’s commitment to reducing its carbon footprint and providing sustainable logistics solutions.

Ready, set, go electric! Executives at DHL Global Forwarding and honored guests inaugurates the new EVs with a celebratory ribbon cutting in Shanghai Left to right: Allen Chen, President of DHL Global Forwarding China Shanghai; Frank Zhu, General Manager of Wing Logistics; Piak Hwee Tan, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales, DHL Global Forwarding Asia Pacific; Kelvin Leung, CEO of DHL Global Forwarding Asia Pacific ; Steve Huang, CEO of DHL Global Forwarding Greater China; John Liu, Chairman of Global Express; Johnson Wong, President of DHL Global Forwarding East China

Ready, set, go electric! Executives at DHL Global Forwarding and honored guests inaugurates the new EVs with a celebratory ribbon cutting in Shanghai

Left to right: Allen Chen, President of DHL Global Forwarding China Shanghai; Frank Zhu, General Manager of Wing Logistics; Piak Hwee Tan, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales, DHL Global Forwarding Asia Pacific; Kelvin Leung, CEO of DHL Global Forwarding Asia Pacific ; Steve Huang, CEO of DHL Global Forwarding Greater China; John Liu, Chairman of Global Express; Johnson Wong, President of DHL Global Forwarding East China

Steve Huang, CEO of DHL Global Forwarding China, said, “The climate crisis is top of mind today. We can no longer neglect the impact of our business operations on the environment. The transportation sector emits about 30 percent of CO2 generated by truck traffic. However, new technology and the development of sustainable fuels are providing us with more options to reduce and eliminate emissions. Deploying electric vehicles is an important step in expanding our green footprint.”

The successful deployment of the electric vehicles is made possible by the strong support from Worldex Logistics and Reach-Wing Logistics, DHL’s strategic partners in China responding to last-mile pickup and delivery, sharing the vision of making logistics and transportation greener.

The DPDHL Group will invest Euro 7 billion until 2030 in clean operations to reduce our emissions to under 29 million tons by 2030 as part of the Science Based Targets Initiative. That includes increasing the usage of sustainable fuels in both air and ocean freight for our shipments, and electrifying 60% of last-mile delivery vehicles.

Hashtag: #DHL #DHLGlobalForwarding #EV #electricvehicle #sustainability



The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

DHL – The logistics company for the world

DHL is the leading global brand in the logistics industry. Our DHL divisions offer an unrivalled portfolio of logistics services ranging from national and international parcel delivery, e-commerce shipping and fulfillment solutions, international express, road, air and ocean transport to industrial supply chain management. With about 395,000 employees in more than 220 countries and territories worldwide, DHL connects people and businesses securely and reliably, enabling global sustainable trade flows. With specialized solutions for growth markets and industries including technology, life sciences and healthcare, engineering, manufacturing & energy, auto-mobility and retail, DHL is decisively positioned as “The logistics company for the world”.

DHL is part of Deutsche Post DHL Group. The Group generated revenues of more than 94 billion euros in 2022. With sustainable business practices and a commitment to society and the environment, the Group makes a positive contribution to the world. Deutsche Post DHL Group aims to achieve net-zero emissions logistics by 2050.

HKU Researchers Receive Prestigious Awards in the Field of Chemistry

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 17 May 2023 – The University of Hong Kong (HKU) is pleased to announce that two of the University’s esteemed researchers, Professor Vivian Yam and Professor Xuechen Li, have been recognised for their exceptional contributions to the field of chemistry.

Professor Xuechen Li (left) and Professor Vivian Yam (right) have been recognised for their exceptional contributions to the field of chemistry.
Professor Xuechen Li (left) and Professor Vivian Yam (right) have been recognised for their exceptional contributions to the field of chemistry.

Professor Vivian Yam, who holds the Philip Wong Wilson Wong Professorship in Chemistry and Energy at The University of Hong Kong (HKU), has been named the recipient of the 2023-24 Bailar Medal by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Professor Yam received the award for her outstanding contributions to the rational design and synthesis of new luminescent metal complexes, as well as her achievements in fundamental research in inorganic and coordination chemistry. She is the first Asian and Chinese scientist to receive the Bailar Medal, which recognises excellence in the field of inorganic chemistry.

“I am humbled and honoured to be the first Asian inorganic chemist to be awarded the Bailar Medal that has a long history of over 50 years, and to be following the footsteps of giants in the field of inorganic and coordination chemistry. I wish to thank the University of Hong Kong for the support and encouragement throughout the years,” said Professor Yam.

Established in 1972, the Bailar Medal, named in honour of Professor John Christian Bailar, Jr., known as the father of American coordination chemistry and former faculty member at the University of Illinois, is a highly prestigious award that recognises outstanding contributions to inorganic chemistry research. For over half a century, this prestigious award has been presented to chemists who have made outstanding contributions to the fields of inorganic and coordination chemistry globally. In the past, all 48 recipients of the Bailar Medal have been mainly from Europe and the United States, including four Nobel laureates in Chemistry.

Professor Xuechen Li of the Department of Chemistry has been honoured with the Contribution Award in Carbohydrate Chemistry by the Chinese Chemical Society (CCS). The prestigious award recognises his pioneering contribution in precision chemical synthesis, chemical biology, and the development of therapeutic glycoconjugates of glycoproteins and bacterial complex carbohydrates. Professor Li pioneered the development of Serine/Threonine ligation, which has been widely used for generating homogeneous glycopeptides and glycoproteins. They have also broken the bottleneck of the synthesis and glycosylation of bacterial pseudaminic acid, which was previously unsolved for 20 years.

The Contribution Award in Carbohydrate Chemistry is a prestigious honour that rewards outstanding achievements in the field and promotes its development. It aims to recognise scholars who have made systematic and innovative research contributions in carbohydrate chemistry and have made outstanding contributions to the development of the discipline. The award is presented every two years, with one to two recipients each time, and candidates are recommended and nominated by professional committee members.

Professor Li expresses his deep appreciation to the CCS for this prestigious award. ‘I am both humbled and honored to receive the Contribution Award,’ says Professor Li. ‘The field of carbohydrate chemistry is incredibly fascinating, with numerous challenges and opportunities. I am grateful for the chance to contribute to its advancement and will continue to work tirelessly to make significant breakthroughs in this area.’

More information about Professor Vivian Yam’s Lab:
https://chemistry.hku.hk/wwyam/

More information about the research group of Professor Xuechen Li:
https://chemistry.hku.hk/staff/xcli/XCLiGroup/index.html

Hashtag: #HKU

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

UN Roadmap Outlines Solutions to Cut Global Plastic Pollution

UN Roadmap Outlines Solutions to Cut Global Plastic Pollution
A fruit-shake vendor in Vientiane, Laos (photo: Vannaphone Sitthirath)

Plastic pollution could reduce by 80 percent by 2040 if countries and companies make deep policy and market shifts using existing technologies, according to a new report by UN Environment Program (UNEP).

Thailand, Indonesia Engage in Violent Brawl at SEA Games Football Final

Coaches and football players from Thailand and Indonesia opened a fist flight after the second half of final football math at SEA Games in Cambodia. ( Photo : VNExpress).

Coaches and players from Thailand and Indonesia started fighting during the final football match at the Southeast Asian Games in Cambodia on Tuesday.