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Chainlink Cross-Border Play Expands To Hong Kong–Australia Money Movement

Chainlink is set to play a major role as Hong Kong’s central bank takes a big step in its digital currency tests. Phase two of the e-HKD pilot will try moving tokenized Hong Kong dollars across borders. The plan is to swap e-HKD for A$DC, an Australian dollar stablecoin. This could cut settlement times from days to seconds. It may also show how central banks can work together with blockchain technology.

Hong Kong And Australia Test Digital Cash

According to reports, the project will use Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol, or CCIP, to handle transfers. The goal is simple. Move money in real time and make sure both sides get what they expect.

Phase two kicks off with Hong Kong authorities and their counterparts in Australia. They will swap e-HKD for A$DC and aim for instant settlement. Based on reports, this setup could serve as a model for other central banks.

Chainlink Tools In Use

Chainlink is not just a name in the mix. It brings two big pieces of tech to the table. CCIP handles the cross-chain messages, acting like a bridge between different blockchains.

The Digital Transfer Agent, or DTA, deals with compliance. It keeps track of who owns what token and makes sure rules in different countries are met. In May, World Liberty Financial tapped Chainlink for cross-chain stablecoin transfers covering USD1. That earlier deal hinted at what’s possible this time around.


Big Names Join The Pilot

Visa and ANZ are helping with payment processing for e-HKD and A$DC. Asset managers Fidelity International and ChinaAMC will also take part. Their job is to manage the tokenized funds on both sides.

This mix of banks, asset managers and tech firms shows the project is more than a small test. It has real money and real risks involved. Reports disclosed that those risks are managed by a Payment-versus-Payment model. This means funds are only released when both sides confirm they have received the other asset.

Market Moves And Reactions

LINK, the token for Chainlink, jumped by 6% after news of the pilot broke. It now trades at $14.70. That rise follows a wider market rally driven by hopes that Bitcoin may hit $110,000 before the week’s end.

According to market data, crypto traders often chase big targets. Short-term gains can be tempting. But they can also lead to quick sell-offs if the main story fades.

Despite the rally, Bitcoin still tracks the equity swings rather closely. There is a mix of bulls and bears in futures data that suggests some people are not yet convinced this run will last.

High volatility can shake out weaker hands at the first sign of trouble. A sudden change in risk sentiment or a fresh macro shock can quickly reverse gains.

Featured image from Imagen, chart from TradingView

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Dead On Arrival: 25% Of New Crypto Tokens Didn’t Survive Q1 ’25

A wave of failures on a previously unimaginable scale has swept over the crypto market at the start of 2025, with a record 1.8 million tokens collapsing during the first quarter. That is almost 25% of all crypto tokens issued since 2021, says a report by crypto information platform CoinGecko.

A Quarter Of All New Crypto Tokens Collapsed In First Three Months Of 2025

The meltdown hits a massive portion of the crypto market. According to CoinGecko research analyst Shaun Paul Lee, of the almost 7 million cryptocurrencies listed since 2021, over half (3.6 million) have ceased trading entirely. The mortality rate has surged significantly from earlier years.

The first three months of 2025 experienced more token failures than any calendar year on record, Lee wrote in his April 30 report. The figure is especially noteworthy compared to the whole span from 2021 through 2023, which represented only 12.6% of all cryptocurrency failures in the last five years.

Trump’s Presidency And Market Turbulence Linked To Crypto Demise

As the report states, the recent die-off of tokens coincides with wider market volatility since Donald Trump’s inauguration as US President in January. As Bitcoin hit an all-time high during this period, it was followed by a steep decline in crypto markets.

Things got worse in March, when both cryptocurrency and equity markets saw unprecedented volatility. This volatility followed Trump’s threat to apply sweeping tariffs, which caused shockwaves in multiple financial markets.

Easy Token Creation Tools Caused Market Flooding

The record surge in token failures begins back in January of 2024, when an easy token creation tool called Pump.fun emerged. The website allowed for it to be extremely easy to build new cryptocurrencies, causing a torrent of memecoins and lazy projects to flood the market.

More than 3 million new crypto tokens were released in 2024 alone – almost four times the amount of 2023, which had slightly more than 835,000 new additions. Prior to Pump.fun, cryptocurrency failures were not very common, with figures in the “low six digits,” Lee’s analysis said.


Almost All Pump.fun Tokens Fail To Graduate To Open Market

The statistics are such that approximately 98% of tokens minted on Pump.fun do not live past the site. Even at the platform’s most successful week in November of 2024, only 1.67% of memecoins managed to transition to the open market.

CoinGecko founder Bobby Ong noted in a March report that investor demand for memecoins seems to have dissipated following a string of failed launches. He specifically cited the aftermath of the Libra (LIBRA) token launch as part of the reason.

Although Pump.fun saw its all-time weekly trading volume after Trump’s memecoin launched on January 18, the volatility that followed in the markets seems to have subdued the excitement in the crypto sector.

The report indicates how the marriage of simple token creation software and volatile market conditions has formed a perfect storm for cryptocurrency collapse, with no indication that the trend will be slowing down as we progress further into 2025.

Featured image from Gemini Imagen, chart from TradingView