Cryptocurrency markets were hit hard again on Thursday, after Binance walked away from a bailout deal for its smaller rival exchange FTX.

Market participants were stunned when Binance signed a non-binding agreement on Tuesday to buy FTX's non-US unit to help cover what it called a liquidity crunch.

Bitcoin, ether slipped and FTX token plunged by more than 15% after investors were unnerved by talk of pressure on FTX's financials

The government will also review property rights for tokenised assets and explore legalising so-called smart contracts

Blockchain.com becomes one of the 18 approved crypto services in Singapore, out of 180 who have applied for a licence since January

Binance said on Friday coins worth at least $100 million were taken in a hack that targeted a bridge between two Binance systems.

The group has been buying crypto with illicit funds and selling it in US dollars for a profit. Police have frozen $42 million in connection with the case, Pandaily said.

Kwon faces allegations of defrauding customers, having lost $40 billion of investors' money after his firm Terraform collapsed earlier this year, TechCrunch said.

Before the software upgrade one Ethereum transaction used as much power as an average US household uses in a week

Ethereum has surged 65% since June as it nears a software upgrade to reduce its power usage. Some bet that if the 'Merge' this week is successful it could even challenge bitcoin

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said his department would list the types of digital currencies within the country, as a first step to identify which crypto assets to regulate, and how.

The Singapore-based lender said the layoffs were to reduce the company's expenditure and leave it with only about 10 employees.