Southeast Asia's Grab to offer mapping services to other firms in search for profit

 

Grab Holdings Ltd (GRAB) said on Wednesday it would offer its in-house mapping and location-based services to businesses, as Southeast Asia's No. 1 ride-hailing and food delivery firm chases profits.

GrabMaps, an internal mapping service used by the Singapore-based firm's drivers and delivery partners, is being pitched to businesses seeking hyper-local location solutions in the densely populated Southeast Asian countries.

Grab, which operates in eight countries in the region and had nearly 31 million active monthly users as of March 31, is looking to cash in on the mapping sector in Southeast Asia, expected to be worth $1 billion by 2025.

Indonesian ride-hailing and payments firm GoTo Gojek Tokopedia (GOTO) is Grab's biggest competitor, followed by Singapore-based e-commerce, gaming and digital payments firm Sea Ltd (SE).

The loss-making company, which has spent money on promotional offers and driver incentives, has said it expects reopening of offices and resumption in travel to drive a rebound in its rideshare and food delivery businesses. 

Jun 8, 2022, 18:23 - Reuters

 

U.S. could soon approve a futures-based bitcoin exchange fund.

 

One or a group of large bitcoin buyers, also called bitcoin whales, appeared to be behind Wednesday’s price pop, based on data that showed large bitcoin purchases on exchanges during early U.S. trading hours.

But why the whale – or whales – placed bitcoin buying orders of nearly $1.6 billion in a few minutes on a centralized exchange remains unclear.

At press time, bitcoin was changing hands at $54,938.47, up 7.89% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinDesk 20.

According to South Korea-based blockchain data firm CryptoQuant, someone or a group of people purchased the massive amount of bitcoin on the spot market on centralized exchanges between 13:11 and 13:16 UTC Wednesday.

The timing of the purchase came not long after U.S. Republicans shared favorable comments on cryptocurrencies and amid increased expectations from markets that the U.S. could soon approve a futures-based bitcoin exchange fund.

The purchase could have started on Coinbase, Ki Young Ju, co-founder and CEO of CryptoQuant told CoinDesk. He pointed out that “Coinbase premium” rose sharply around the same time before it dropped again.

One or a group of large bitcoin buyers, also called bitcoin whales, appeared to be behind Wednesday’s price pop, based on data that showed large bitcoin purchases on exchanges during early U.S. trading hours.

But why the whale – or whales – placed bitcoin buying orders of nearly $1.6 billion in a few minutes on a centralized exchange remains unclear.

At press time, bitcoin was changing hands at $54,938.47, up 7.89% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinDesk 20.

According to South Korea-based blockchain data firm CryptoQuant, someone or a group of people purchased the massive amount of bitcoin on the spot market on centralized exchanges between 13:11 and 13:16 UTC Wednesday.

The timing of the purchase came not long after U.S. Republicans shared favorable comments on cryptocurrencies and amid increased expectations from markets that the U.S. could soon approve a futures-based bitcoin exchange fund.

The purchase could have started on Coinbase, Ki Young Ju, co-founder and CEO of CryptoQuant told CoinDesk. He pointed out that “Coinbase premium” rose sharply around the same time before it dropped again.

The “Coinbase premium” is an indicator showing the gap between Coinbase’s BTC/U.S. dollar (USD) pair and Binance’s BTC/USDT pair involving the tether stablecoin. When the number increases, it usually reflects stronger buying power on Coinbase, the centralized exchange.

Sources: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-price-rally-fueled-whales-201820117.html