Blockchain Press Releases
Chambers and Partners Recognize Global Consulting Firm J.S. Held and Experts

Chambers and Partners recognizes global consulting firm J.S. Held as a global leader in Asset Tracing & Recovery, Political Risk, Investigative Due Diligence, and Business Intelligence & Investigations.
JERICHO, N.Y., July 11, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Global consulting firm J.S. Held announces recognition in Chambers and Partners’ Annual Ranking of Crisis & Risk Management and Litigation Support firms.
The J.S. Held Global Investigations team receives a global leadership ranking in Asset Tracing & Recovery, Political Risk, and Investigative Due Diligence. Further, the Global Investigations teams in the United Kingdom and in Asia Pacific were recognized in Business Intelligence & Investigations.
J.S. Held is proud to share the recognition of our Global Investigations team and individual experts who received top Chambers and Partners rankings in the areas of:
Global Asset Tracing & Recovery – Global | Band 1
Peter Pender-Cudlip, Global Investigations & Intelligence Expert; Senior Managing Director within the J.S. Held Global Investigations Practice and Co-Founder of GPW Group. Peter advises clients on commercial and sovereign asset tracing, complex fraud investigations and a wide range of cross-border litigation and arbitration matters.
“Peter is extremely experienced as well as easy-going. He understands what is important for blue-chip clients and is able to get useful and usable information with his team. Peter is great to deal with, and he gets results.”
Ashley Messick, Global Asset Tracing & Recovery Expert; Managing Director within the J.S. Held Global Investigations Practice. Ashley leads J.S. Held’s Sovereign Debt Advisory Practice and has extensive experience advising on sovereign and commercial disputes, asset recovery & enforcement.
“She is someone in this space who is very well respected, particularly on the distressed debt side. She is a true asset for J.S. Held.”
Political Risk – Global | Band 1
Livia Paggi, Political Risk, ESG, and Business Intelligence Expert; Managing Director within the J.S. Held Global Investigations Practice
“I worked with Livia and she is brilliant. She is dynamic and responsive.”
Philip Worman, Global Political Risk, Business Intelligence, and Investigations Expert; Senior Managing Director within the J.S. Held Global Investigations Practice and previously a Partner in GPW Group
“Philip Worman has on-the-ground- experience and has a real international coverage.”
Global Investigative Due Diligence – Global | Band 3
Business Intelligence & Investigations – Asia Pacific | Band 2
Bruno Vickers, Managing Director within the J.S. Held Global Investigations Practice, is a global business intelligence & investigations expert.
“He quickly understands what is required, asks good questions and anticipates further steps. The word product is excellent, structured, and easy to read.”
Business Intelligence & Investigations – United Kingdom | Band 3
Sebastian Neave, Senior Director within the J.S. Held Global Investigations Practice, advises clients on complex disputes, cross-border litigation, and arbitration claims.
“He brought a level of professionalism, expertise and dedication that was truly impressive. At every step of the way, Neave went the extra mile to ensure that I was satisfied with the results, and I was stuck by his attention to detail and commitment to delivering the highest quality work.”
Equally important to the overall and individual expert rankings is the specific feedback from clients and peers acknowledging the work of J.S. Held:
“They are my first choice for investigations.”
“They understand what is appropriate for high-quality clients and understand how to service them.”
“They are responsive and collaborative and provide clear solutions.”
“They consistently deliver high-quality results and their attention to detail is unparalleled.”
Chambers and Partners is the world’s leading legal ranking and insights intelligence company.
About J.S. Held
J.S. Held is a global consulting firm providing technical, scientific, and financial expertise across all assets and value at risk. Our professionals serve as trusted advisors to organizations facing high-stakes events demanding urgent attention, staunch integrity, clear-cut analysis, and an understanding of both tangible and intangible assets. The firm provides a comprehensive suite of services, products, and data that enable clients to navigate complex, contentious, and often catastrophic situations.
J.S. Held, its affiliates and subsidiaries are not certified public accounting firm(s) and do not provide audit, attest, or any other public accounting services. J.S. Held, its affiliates and subsidiaries are not law firms and do not provide legal advice. Securities offered through our affiliate, Ocean Tomo Investment Group, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC. All rights reserved.
Media Contact:
Kristi Stathis
J.S. Held
[email protected]
+1 773 294 4360
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Blockchain Press Releases
Fintica AI and Mima Wallet Announce Strategic Partnership and Launch Joint Venture, Fintica Crypto Ltd

HONG KONG, May 15, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Fintica AI Ltd, a pioneer in next-generation artificial intelligence technologies for capital markets, and Mima Wallet, a Hong Kong-based firm specializing in secure crypto wallet infrastructure with a strategic focus on Mainland China and the Greater China region, today announced a strategic partnership and the launch of their joint venture: Fintica Crypto Ltd.
This collaboration marks a pivotal milestone in both companies’ efforts to accelerate innovation across digital asset markets. Fintica Crypto Ltd will combine Fintica AI’s proprietary unsupervised AI platform with Mima Wallet’s cutting-edge security solutions to develop next-generation crypto trading products tailored to the evolving needs of the Greater China region.
The joint venture aims to serve as a launchpad for AI-driven trading and security solutions—bringing together Fintica AI’s advanced analytics and Mima Wallet’s quantum-resistant infrastructure to address growing demand for secure, intelligent, and accessible crypto investment tools.
Julien Gall, CEO of Mima Wallet, commented:
“We are excited to collaborate with Fintica AI and its world-class AI technology team. Fintica’s academic depth and R&D expertise in quantitative modeling, combined with Mima’s proven high-security infrastructure, creates a powerful foundation for delivering transformative innovation in digital asset protection and trading.”
He added: “At Mima Wallet, our mission is to maximize simplification and deliver an intuitive, user-friendly experience. With an ageing population and the next wave of crypto users expected to be 40 and above, accessibility is critical. Our AI-powered prompts will guide users through secure transactions, making crypto easy and intuitive for everyone.”
Thomas Zeeb, Chairman of Fintica AI Advisory board, stated:
“Our partnership with Mima Wallet is a strategic leap forward in realizing our vision to redefine financial markets through advanced AI. Together, we will explore the vast potential of Hong Kong and Greater China’s financial ecosystems and deliver impactful, AI-powered solutions for the crypto economy.”
About Fintica AI Ltd
Headquartered in Tel Aviv, Fintica AI delivers advanced AI-powered solutions for global capital markets. Its flagship platform, Spectrum MRI, provides predictive analytics and real-time risk management across equities, fixed income, commodities, and digital assets.
About Mima Wallet
Mima Wallet is a Hong Kong-based security infrastructure firm focused on the crypto market. Its core innovation, the “Double Face” neurometric and biometric authentication technology, is a certified quantum-resistant system that ensures privacy and universal device compatibility—enabling secure crypto access for all, regardless of device sophistication.
For more information:
Visit www.fintica-ai.com and www.mimawallet.com
Contact: [email protected] and [email protected]
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Blockchain Press Releases
HTX DeepThink: U.S. Inflation Falls, Liquidity Rises–How Long Can the Rally Last?

SINGAPORE, May 15, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Since the start of May, macro tailwinds have gained momentum—U.S. inflation cooled, trade tensions began to ease, and the Fed has injected fresh liquidity. Bitcoin has surged back above $100,000, with ETH and SOL also posting strong gains. Yet beneath the surface of this rally, volatility risks remain. In this edition of HTX DeepThink, Chloe (@ChloeTalk1) from HTX Research unpacks the macro catalysts, institutional activity, and market structure to assess whether this rally can truly last.
Expectations for Rate Cuts Strengthened, Fed Liquidity Improves
The U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) data released on May 13, 2025, showed further cooling of inflation, reinforcing market expectations for Fed rate cuts later this year. Headline CPI rose 2.3% year-over-year (vs. 2.4% expected, 2.6% previous), marking the lowest level since March 2021; core CPI was 2.8% (in line with expectations, 3.0% previous). However, it is important to note that the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, core PCE, stood at 2.3% in March, still above the 2% target.
Market support also stemmed from a phase of expanding macro liquidity. The Fed’s total assets rose slightly from $6.70 trillion on April 30 to $6.73 trillion in early May. FED Net Liquidity (balance sheet + TGA – RRP) increased from $4.89 trillion to $4.94 trillion over the same period, injecting about $50 billion of net liquidity. Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury General Account (TGA) balance rose to $583 billion, while the Reverse Repo Facility (RRP) balance dropped to a record low of $78 billion. This improvement in liquidity was mainly driven by the Fed slowing the pace of QT (reducing Treasury redemptions to $5 billion), the post-tax season Treasury cash inflows, and money market funds reallocating capital out of the RRP.
A significant risk remains, however: should a debt ceiling agreement be reached in July or August, substantial Treasury issuance to replenish the TGA, coupled with an almost depleted RRP buffer, could lead to a tightening of system liquidity once again, potentially exerting downward pressure on risk assets.
Institutional Inflows Power Crypto Rally
Boosted by the improving macro backdrop, crypto market flows rebounded significantly. Bitcoin (BTC) futures open interest (OI) remained at elevated levels, with CME data showing about 660,000 BTC, representing 3.4% of circulating supply, highlighting strong institutional positioning. BTC OI on crypto-native exchanges also rose by 12%, with positions largely concentrated around the $100,000 level. Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL) derivatives markets also saw a strong recovery, with ETH OI rising 15% since the first week of May and SOL rebounding 18% from late April lows. On-chain data showed ETH short-term holder (STH) profit addresses rising to approximately 90% and SOL to 88%, approaching historically high thresholds (>90% usually signals local top risk), raising concerns over near-term profit-taking pressures.
Data from Deribit showed that the near-term implied volatility of Bitcoin options decreased from 65% prior to the CPI release to 58%, reflecting expectations of short-term price stability and encouraging some institutions to sell options to capture premium yields. The ETH options market displayed a longer-dated bullish structure, with strong demand for $4,000–$5,000 call options expiring in December, suggesting institutional investors are positioning early for the next potential rally.
Macro Tailwinds Drive Bullish Bias, But Volatility Risks Linger
In summary, the combination of macro liquidity expansion, cooling CPI strengthening rate-cut expectations, sustained institutional allocation, and a rebound in derivatives market risk appetite has driven the strong May rally in BTC, ETH, and SOL.
However, in the short term, the high percentage of short-term holders in profit and the concentration of leveraged positions imply that any breakout or breakdown of key technical levels could trigger concentrated profit-taking and liquidation cascades, leading to heightened volatility. The overall market structure remains defined by a medium-term structural bull trend combined with a short-term consolidation phase.
*The above content is not an investment advice and does not constitute any offer or solicitation to offer or recommendation of any investment product.
About HTX DeepThink:
HTX DeepThink is a flagship market insights column created by HTX, dedicated to exploring global macro trends, key economic indicators, and major developments across the crypto industry. In a world where volatility is the norm, HTX DeepThink aims to help readers “Find Order in Chaos.”
About HTX Research
HTX Research is the dedicated research arm of HTX Group, responsible for conducting in-depth analyses, producing comprehensive reports, and delivering expert evaluations across a broad spectrum of topics, including cryptocurrency, blockchain technology, and emerging market trends.

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Blockchain
Blocks & Headlines: Today in Blockchain – May 14, 2025

Blockchain’s evolution continues at breakneck speed, shifting from niche applications into mainstream finance, supply-chain integrity, and social impact initiatives. Today’s briefing spotlights five stories that illustrate this maturation: Cardano’s seamless asset integration in the privacy-focused Brave browser; a strategic partnership between Cokeeps and Maybank Trustees to bring tokenized wealth management to institutional clients; Ripple’s leadership framing blockchain as the dismantler of traditional banking silos; the UNDP’s pilot using distributed ledgers to improve HIV treatment tracking across Eurasia; and a novel IoT-blockchain collaboration to authenticate fine wines end-to-end. In this op-ed–style roundup, we analyze not only the mechanics of each announcement but also their broader implications for Web3’s scaling, DeFi’s credibility, and blockchain’s social-good potential.
1. Cardano Integrates Native Blockchain Assets into Brave Browser
What Happened
On May 13, Cardano foundation engineers unveiled a collaboration with Brave Software to natively support Cardano blockchain assets—ADA tokens and native tokens—within Brave’s wallet panel. Users can now view balances, send ADA, stake directly, and interact with back-end metadata for Cardano NFTs, all without leaving the Brave interface. This move follows Brave’s earlier Ethereum and Solana integrations, signaling a multi-chain future for privacy-centric browsers.
Analysis & Implications
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User Experience Leap: By embedding Cardano functionality at the browser level, Brave eliminates friction for onboarding new users who would otherwise juggle external wallets or browser extensions. Easier access to staking and NFT markets could drive stronger engagement for Cardano’s ecosystem.
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Multi-Chain Convergence: Brave’s strategy underscores the shift from siloed blockchain apps toward unified, chain-agnostic user experiences. As Web3 users demand seamless access across protocols, wallets and browsers will compete to offer the most inclusive multi-chain dashboards.
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Cardano’s Market Position: For Cardano, this integration is a validation of its low-fee, high-throughput value proposition. While Ethereum remains dominant in DeFi and NFTs, Cardano’s energy efficiency and growing dApp roster may attract users seeking alternatives—especially if wallet UX barriers continue to fall.
Opinion
Brave’s embrace of Cardano assets exemplifies the coming era of “wallet-agnostic” access, where the browser becomes the front door to multiple blockchains. For Cardano, it’s a critical trust signal that boosts on-ramps and could accelerate liquidity in its DeFi protocols. Yet success hinges on robust in-browser security and responsive UI design—any wallet bugs or performance lags will erode the trust this collaboration seeks to build.
Source: CoinDesk
2. Cokeeps & Maybank Trustees Develop Blockchain Asset-Management Solutions
What Happened
Malaysia’s Cokeeps, a digital-asset custody pioneer, has partnered with Maybank Trustees to design and deploy tokenized asset-management platforms for institutional investors. The joint solution leverages a permissioned blockchain to record ownership of tokenized bonds, real-estate funds, and alternative-assets, while integrating smart-contract–driven compliance checks and real-time audit trails.
Analysis & Implications
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Institutional Adoption: By combining Cokeeps’s custody technology with Maybank’s regulatory expertise and trustee services, the duo addresses two perennial barriers to institutional crypto investment: custody risk and compliance certainty. This model could serve as a blueprint for other Asia-Pacific custodians.
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Tokenization Benefits: Tokenized securities on a shared ledger can reduce settlement times from days to seconds, lower transaction costs, and open fractional-ownership models—broadening access to asset classes historically reserved for high-net-worth individuals.
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Regulatory Alignment: Embedding KYC/AML logic into smart contracts ensures that every token transfer automatically enforces jurisdictional rules. As regulators worldwide demand transparent on-chain auditability, such integrated controls will become table stakes for institutional offerings.
Opinion
This collaboration exemplifies how established financial institutions can embrace blockchain without ceding control. Rather than disrupting Maybank’s trustee role, tokenization enhances it—transforming trustees from manual record-keepers into guardians of programmable assets. The real test will be scale: can the platform handle high-volume trading with uncompromised security and consistency? If so, we may see a wave of legacy banks repackaging their services through blockchain rails.
Source: The Star
3. Ripple Board Member: “Blockchain Is Unbundling Banks”
What Happened
On May 14, Stuart Alderoty, a board member at Ripple Labs, declared in an industry webcast that blockchain technology is fundamentally “unbundling” traditional banking services—payments, settlements, custody, and compliance are each evolving into modular, chain-native offerings. He argued that banks will increasingly source best-of-breed infrastructure from fintech and blockchain providers rather than maintain monolithic, in-house systems.
Analysis & Implications
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Modular Finance: Alderoty’s vision anticipates a composable finance ecosystem: banks orchestrate various on-chain services—liquidity pools, cross-border rails, automated KYC—via APIs, akin to how e-commerce platforms integrate third-party payment gateways and fraud-prevention tools today.
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Competitive Pressure: Incumbent banks face competition not only from neobanks but also from protocol-level service providers (e.g., on-chain oracles, decentralized exchanges). To retain clients, banks must either build or partner to offer seamless, blockchain-enhanced products.
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Industry Collaboration: Ripple itself underscores this shift: its On-Demand Liquidity service unbundles foreign-exchange and settlement from legacy correspondent banking, delivering real-time cross-border payments at reduced cost.
Opinion
The unbundling thesis places a premium on interoperability and standards. Without common protocols, financial services risk siloed “rails” that mimic today’s fragmented SWIFT-based processes. Collaborative industry consortia—like the U.K.’s Project Rosalind or Japan’s mHUB—will be crucial to define shared messaging formats and governance frameworks. For blockchain to truly disaggregate banking, ecosystem players must coalesce around open, secure standards.
Source: U.Today
4. UNDP’s Big Ideas: Using Blockchain to Fight HIV in Eurasia
What Happened
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) launched its “Big Ideas” pilot in Eurasia, deploying a blockchain-enabled platform to manage HIV treatment data across multiple countries. The solution uses a hybrid public-private ledger to ensure patient anonymity while providing authorized clinics and NGOs with secure, immutable access to treatment adherence records and drug-dispensation logs.
Analysis & Implications
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Data Privacy & Integrity: The hybrid architecture combines zero-knowledge proofs on a public chain—verifying treatment events without exposing personal health information—with a consortium chain that controls participant permissions. This dual model balances transparency and confidentiality.
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Cross-Border Collaboration: HIV programs often span regions with varying healthcare regulations. A shared blockchain registry simplifies data exchange, reducing duplication and ensuring each patient’s history is up to date, even when they move between clinics or countries.
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Scalability & Sustainability: Running on energy-efficient proof-of-stake networks and leveraging off-chain data storage for sensitive medical records, the platform minimizes transaction costs while maintaining high throughput—essential for scaling across thousands of patients.
Opinion
UNDP’s blockchain pilot represents a maturation of social-impact use cases—from proof-of-concepts to production-grade systems. By prioritizing patient privacy and regulatory alignment, this model could extend to other health-data challenges, such as vaccine distribution or epidemic tracking. The key will be forging long-term partnerships between multilateral organizations, local health authorities, and blockchain providers to sustain and expand the network beyond the pilot phase.
Source: UNDP
5. Identiv, ZaTap & Genuine Analytics Digitally Authenticate Fine Wines
What Happened
Identiv, ZaTap, and Genuine Analytics have unveiled a joint solution that employs specialized IoT tags and blockchain to verify the provenance of fine wines. Each bottle is fitted with a tamper-evident sensor that records temperature, humidity, and location data onto a permissioned ledger. Consumers can scan an NFC-enabled label to view the wine’s end-to-end history—from vineyard pressing to cellar aging and global shipping.
Analysis & Implications
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Counterfeit Mitigation: The fine-wine market suffers from widespread fraud, with counterfeit bottles estimated to comprise up to 20% of high-end sales. Immutable provenance records and sensor-backed condition reports significantly raise the bar for authenticity verification.
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Consumer Trust & Engagement: Beyond security, the solution enhances the collector experience—buyers gain confidence in their purchase and a richer narrative around each vintage’s journey, potentially commanding higher resale values on secondary markets.
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Cross-Industry Potential: This IoT-blockchain fusion can be adapted for other luxury goods—artworks, haute horlogerie, or premium spirits—where provenance and condition are paramount.
Opinion
By blending real-world data streams with ledger immutability, this collaboration exemplifies blockchain’s most compelling value proposition: trusted digital twins of physical assets. However, the system’s integrity depends on robust IoT security—if sensors are spoofed or tampered with, the chain of trust breaks. Stakeholders must therefore enforce secure tag provisioning, periodic audits, and tamper detection measures to uphold the solution’s credibility.
Source: PR Newswire
Conclusion
Today’s blockchain dispatch underscores a pivotal shift: decentralized ledgers are weaving into the fabric of finance, social impact, and supply-chain integrity. From Brave’s browser-level Cardano support to tokenized asset platforms, from the unbundling of banking services to health-data pilots and luxury-goods authentication, blockchain is proving its versatility and maturing beyond speculative markets. As on-chain and off-chain worlds converge, interoperability, security, and standards will determine which projects scale and which falter. For stakeholders across Web3, DeFi, and enterprise IT, the imperative is clear: embrace modular architectures, uphold rigorous governance, and focus on real-world value—only then will blockchain realize its promise of trust, transparency, and transformative efficiency.
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