5 news from the crypto world - May 4

Three of Japan's largest exchanges have gained official recognition as trading operators of financial instruments, under the terms of the recently amended Financial Instruments and Exchanges Act. According to official announcements from Rakuten Wallet, GMO Coin, and DMM Bitcoin, all three are now officially licensed to provide cryptocurrency trading related leveraged and derivatives services to Japanese clients.

Analysts in South Korea say the famous North Korean hacker group Larazus is now using "fake blockchain software" to distribute malware and ransomware. Cybersecurity experts reported that trial versions of legitimate-looking blockchain applications are being sent to unsuspecting companies.

Ethereum owns 63% of total daily activity and 99% of total transaction volume in the high-risk dapp (decentralized application) category in the first quarter of 2020, reported data aggregator dapp and analytics firm DappRadar . According to their report, year-over-year, high-risk category volume on Ethereum grew by 2,852.75% from $ 0.85 million to $ 25 million, and by 948.37% over average daily active wallets. In April, HEX generated $ 15 million, representing 63% of Ethereum's total high-risk volume in the first quarter. Lastly, 14% of 724 high-risk dapps listed on DappRadar show almost zero daily activity in the past 7 days.

Exchanges in India have asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for clarification on their status in the country, as lenders still deny them banking services due to the regulator's lack of clarity. The companies also asked the RBI to determine the category to which they belong as this will affect how they will be taxed nationally. This request comes after the Supreme Court of India reversed the crypto ban in the country in early March.

The German platform offering security tokens (STO) Black Manta Capital Partners has teamed up with local firm of custody of digital assets Finoa to develop institutional custody of security tokens . The cooperation aims to develop a regulated security token custody solution explicitly aimed at institutional investors, individuals and high-net-worth corporations.