NYSE parent ICE and OKX form joint venture to bridge traditional and digital asset markets

DITTO (Thailand) Public Company Limited, or DITTO, has taken carbon credits from roughly 10% of the mangrove reforestation project area it manages, spanning more than 170,000 rai, through a tokenization process to make carbon credits easier for investors and businesses to access. At present, trading of carbon credits in Thailand remains limited because buyers and sellers must match with each other directly and there is still no public market. Thakorn Rattanakamonporn, Chief Executive Officer of DITTO, said at the seminar "Opening the World of Alternative Assets: Filling Out Investment Opportunities" that the Blue Green Token has been verified by the relevant agencies in both carbon credits and digital assets, and that the ICMA standard used for green bonds has been applied. Holders who hold the token for the full seven-year term will receive a principal guarantee, a return of 3% per year, and the chance of additional gains if the value of carbon credits rises in the future. Thakorn said mangroves have the potential to absorb about 9.4 tonnes of carbon per rai per year, and that if Thailand moves from a voluntary carbon market to a mandatory one, it would help raise the standards of Thai products to align with global rules. Wanphat Phasayawan, Assistant Manager of the Investment Banking and Tokenization Division at Token X, said at the same event that Token X, which is part of SCBX, helps those seeking to raise funds to develop projects by using blockchain technology in the process of issuing and distributing tokens. She said the Blue Green Token took about three to four years to develop before the product could be issued.

Sansiri succeeded in offering a total of 1 billion baht in digital bonds through the wallet on the Paotang application, selling out completely in just 67 seconds amid challenging fundraising conditions in the real estate sector. Wichan Wiriyaphusit, Chief Financial Officer of Sansiri Public Company Limited, said the partnership with Krungthai Bank helped cut the minimum investment from 100,000 baht to just 1,000 baht. This digital bond series has a five-year term and drew more than 2,000 buyers. Retail buyers with purchases under 100,000 baht accounted for 39% of all transactions, or 831 out of 2,145 transactions. Those buying under 300,000 baht made up 40%, and purchases were spread across the provinces, including Chonburi, Chiang Mai, Ratchaburi, Nakhon Ratchasima, Nakhon Pathom and Phuket. On the overall market, Wichan said real estate has already bottomed out. Housing priced below 3 million baht faces loan rejection rates as high as 40% to 50%, and at some companies as high as 60%, but Sansiri's rate is only 12% to 15%. Medium and small companies with credit ratings below investment grade must offer interest as high as 7% to 8% and still cannot sell out. As for factors to watch, Wichan said the US central bank's 0.25% rate hike has pushed Thailand's yield curve higher, and he estimated that private bond issuance may need to raise yields slightly by about 0.25% to 0.4%, even though the Bank of Thailand has not yet adjusted its policy rate. Sansiri will not offer bonds for the remainder of this year and will begin again in early 2027, while the digital bond is planned for another offering in the second half of next year.

Bitcoin surged above $81,000 on Saturday as a wave of short liquidations and renewed spot demand helped the cryptocurrency rebound from losses triggered by higher interest rates and a setback for U.S. crypto legislation. Bitcoin climbed as high as $81,702 on Sept. 18 after trading near $76,400 a day earlier, marking its first move above $80,000 since Sept. 7, and was trading at $81,309.4 as of 22:50 ET, up 5.62% for the day. The rebound followed a difficult week in which the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 25 basis points and the Bank of Japan followed with a quarter-point increase to 1.25%, its highest policy rate in 31 years, while U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded about $159 million of inflows on Sept. 17. A sharp short squeeze then accelerated Friday's rally, with roughly $192 million of leveraged crypto positions liquidated within one hour, including more than $183 million in shorts, of which Bitcoin shorts accounted for about $119 million. Regulatory uncertainty remains in focus after the U.S. Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act this week, though the CFTC has submitted a separate crypto market proposal to the White House Office of Management and Budget and the SEC introduced an innovation exemption giving qualifying platforms a five-year route to offer onchain trading in certain tokenized stocks without registering as securities exchanges.