Sugar Jumps From 4-Year Low on Pakistan's Plans to Import

Raw sugar futures rebounded from a four-year low in New York after Pakistan initiated plans to import the sweetener to tame high domestic prices.
The most-active contract rose as much as 2.6% to 16.73 cents a pound. Pakistan's government will seek cabinet approval to import 250,000 tons of raw sugar, according to a statement issued by the deputy prime minister's office.

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Forbes

24 minutes ago

• Forbes

Where Do Sustainability, Affordability Sit In Pursuit Of Smart Cities?

Conceptual Image of a Smart City getty The concept of smart cities has risen in the estimation of urban planners of all descriptions around the world. Many believe or are led to believe a future smart city or an existing one that's so remodelled would enhance affordability and sustainability. But will it? To answer that, grasping the concept first should be the right starting point. In that respect, if assertions by the likes of Microsoft and IBM are taken at face value, a smart city is one that utilizes digital information and communication technology to enhance various aspects of urban life, from infrastructure to public services, citizen engagement to city tax receipts. This may involve using artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, and more, to improve operational efficiency, sustainability, and the overall quality of life for city dwellers. But will it? There are legitimate fears that AI is, might be, redesigning our cities by stealth from real-team adjustable traffic lights to computer generated digital twins mimicking what whole neighborhoods would potentially look like before even a single brick has been laid. Furthermore, all that kit and its deployment can't be cheap and someone has to pay for it, cue the taxpayer. The concept of smart cities came to fore at the Abu Dhabi Infrastructure Summit, held in the Emirate from June 17 to 18, 2025, and evoked mixed emotions from attendees albeit with numerous examples of successes. For instance, Singapore's holistic balance of economic growth and social inclusivity, or Copenhagen's Nordhavn district's 5-minute city model, or for that matter Abu Dhabi's own Masdar City which balances heritage, innovation and sustainability, given it is backed by the Emirate's global renewable energy champion Masdar. Such innovative cities claim to promote a strong sense of place and identity for their residents and community. But their affluence in many ways sets them apart too. Can their experience and inexorable march to 'smarter' ways be replicated elsewhere? The answer is a complex one, according to Daniel Liu, executive director of MORROW Intelligence, a Singapore-based urban advisory firm. Daniel Liu, executive director, MORROW Intelligence speaks at the Abu Dhabi Infrastructure Summit in ... More the UAE on June 18, 2025. ADIS 'Smart technologies that bring efficiencies are of immense importance and they are all very important evolutions of city management. But smart cities don't come before cities," Liu said at summit panel. "These are cities with their individual socioeconomic and investment parameters and critical municipal issues that need to be resolved. So, not all urban planners enjoy some of the advantages that say Singapore or Copenhagen would.' Liu added that if the ultimate goal of planners and developers was urban excellence, it is something that doesn't exist in a vacuum. 'Issues of economic and social development cannot be sidestepped. This will likely be a journey of over 30 to 50 years marked by evolving challenges for many cities in the world.' Smart Decisions Needed Too Discovering urban excellence, and a smarter future, might in many cases bottle down to making smart decisions and not just smart technology, said Emre Arolat, founding partner and principal, Emre Arolat Architecture. 'The best cities are those with a sense of community and harmony where there's access to housing, and perhaps the ability to reach life's essentials within a 15 minute walk or a bicycle ride, if not 5 minutes as noted in Danish city. That's a reasonable metric already at play in many urban centers, (e.g. some suburbs in Paris) and its down to smart thinking and building.' Affordable housing needs to be at the heart of it all and its something that can never be ignored. 'But building affordable housing doesn't mean you have to sacrifice building high value real estate or vice versa if planners work on concepts strategically,' he added. And local, provincial or Federal governments around the world can be the arbiters of where future demand may or may not be, so that the challenge can be met in a systematic way, even if the planning and decision making stage is aided by the deployment of digital tools. Asma Aljassmi, executive director of projects control and operations, Aldar Projects, speaks at the ... More Abu Dhabi Infrastructure Summit on June 18, 2025. ADIS Even desirable affluent places like Abu Dhabi think of affordable housing, according to Asma Aljassmi, executive director of projects control and operations, at Aldar Projects, a developer owned by the government of Abu Dhabi. 'At Aldar we have a clear roadmap for development. From the get-go we incorporate affordability in what we do, what we design and what be build. Its included in our masterplan for specific projects. Being desirable places to live and work in should not be the sole preserve of luxury developments.' Powering Up Smart Cities With there being rising clamor for sustainability, the carbon footprint of the smart cities will also be called into sharp focus. The more digital and connected they are, the more electricity they'll consume, and the bigger the call might be on the power grids servicing them. Quite like the data center conundrum of powering new age technology and consumer needs with fossil fuels has already reared its head. For, just like hyperscale data centers will be increasingly serviced by power generated from natural gas for decades, so will smart cities for a considerable amount of time. Therefore, any lowering of the carbon footprint achieve via digital connectivity and efficiency might well be negated by carbon emissions from the chosen power source. Abu Dhabi's renewables-powered Masdar City offers a rare example to the contrary, alongside many European, especially Scandinavian and German mid-sized townships. But renewables-powered smart cities largely remain a pipe dream. This matters, because cities represent nearly 80% of the world's consumption, and by that argument nearly 80% of the world's carbon emissions. It is also indicative of the fact that urbanization is proliferating and is unlikely to be reversed. So, the fight against climate change as well as improving living standards probably would be won or lost in the cities, whether they are smart cities or not. The significance of the task ahead cannot be understated.

Yahoo

32 minutes ago

• Yahoo

LegalBison Establishes Southeast Asia Presence with New Malaysian Office

New Kuala Lumpur office strengthens LegalBison's regional reach and enhances regulatory support across Asia. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 20, 2025) - LegalBison, a global regulatory advisory firm specializing in the FinTech and crypto sectors, has officially opened its new office in Kuala Lumpur, marking the company's first physical expansion into Asia and reinforcing its long-term growth strategy in emerging financial markets. LegalBison To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: This milestone follows the success of LegalBison's European headquarters in Tallinn, Estonia, and represents a strategic effort to better serve clients throughout Southeast Asia-including Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and beyond. "Availability for international clients has always been one of LegalBison's key strengths," said Sabir Alijev, Chief Product Officer at LegalBison. "With our new presence in Malaysia, we now have a bird's-eye view of the local regulatory landscape and are ready to deliver timely, regionally tailored solutions." Kuala Lumpur was selected for its robust regulatory institutions, economic stability, and position as a rising hub for digital finance in Asia. Establishing operations in Malaysia allows LegalBison to deepen relationships with local partners and clients while offering more agile support in licensing, AML/KYC compliance, cross-border banking, and corporate structuring. LegalBison's move reflects the growing demand for localized compliance expertise in Asia's fast-evolving financial landscape. The Malaysian team will collaborate closely with LegalBison's Estonia office to provide seamless advisory services across time zones, ensuring clients benefit from both global perspective and local insight. By anchoring its Asia-Pacific strategy in Kuala Lumpur, LegalBison positions itself as a trusted partner to startups, growth-stage firms, and enterprises navigating complex cross-border regulatory environments. LegalBison is now actively onboarding clients across Southeast Asia and is open to strategic partnerships throughout the region and globally. For media inquiries or more information, please visit or contact pr@ About LegalBison Founded in 2020, LegalBison is a regulatory and legal advisory firm headquartered in Tallinn, Estonia. The firm supports companies in the FinTech, crypto, and high-compliance sectors with services including licensing, compliance, banking solutions, and international corporate structuring. LegalBison provides tailored, cross-border support to help businesses navigate complex regulatory environments worldwide. Media Contact LegalBison PR Teampr@ 20 4577 To view the source version of this press release, please visit

Forbes

32 minutes ago

• Forbes

Real-World Asset Tokenization Hits $24 Billion As Wall Street Bets Big

TOPSHOT - A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) during afternoon trading ... More on April 9, 2025 in New York. Wall Street stocks rocketed to close solidly higher Wednesday, with dramatic advances on all three major indexes as US President Donald Trump delayed steep new tariffs hours after they took effect. The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 7.9 percent to 40,608.45, the broad-based S&P 500 Index rallied 9.5 percent to 5,456.90, and the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite Index jumped more than 12.2 percent to 17,124.97. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP) (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images) AFP via Getty Images Major financial institutions are racing to tokenize everything from U.S. Treasuries to real estate, but how long will it last? The tokenization revolution is accelerating at breakneck speed with the Senate just passing the GENIUS Act, providing the first federal framework for digital assets that Wall Street had been waiting for. Over 185 crypto tokens are classified as Real-World Assets (RWAs) with their market capitalization over $10.62 billion, a 61% increase from the previous month, according to Tangem. On top of that, the total market value of tokenized RWAs on public blockchains had surged to nearly $18 billion by early 2025, up from about $10 billion just a year before. This unprecedented growth has been driven by institutional adoption that's finally materializing. BlackRock's BUIDL fund now holds $2.9 billion in tokenized U.S. Treasuries, making it the world's largest tokenized asset fund. Franklin Templeton's BENJI follows at $776 million, while VanEck launched its tokenized RWA fund called VBILL, offering exposure to US Treasury bills across multiple blockchains in partnership with Securitize. 'BlackRock tokenized a money market fund on Ethereum. Franklin Templeton is running US government bond funds on public blockchains. JPMorgan just ran a cross chain Delivery versus Payment pilot with Chainlink and Ondo. These are not retail projects. These are the most conservative institutions in finance validating a new model,' Mitchell DiRaimondo, founder at Steelwave Digital, told me in a written response. The current market shows $24 billion in total tokenized assets across 194 issuers, with over 205,000 asset holders, indicating steady growth despite market volatility. Why Traditional Finance Is Going On-Chain Tokenization strips away the friction that has plagued traditional asset management for decades. Settlement times drop from days to minutes, previously illiquid assets like real estate can be traded 24/7, and compliance becomes programmable rather than paper-based. 'The biggest risk today is assuming that a legal wrapper and a blockchain alone create value,' Ian Balina, CEO of Token Metrics, told me. "Without real composability, reliable secondary markets, and trusted custody, tokenized assets remain stuck in marketing decks rather than investment portfolios." The Infrastructure Play Ethereum still dominates the tokenized asset landscape, hosting the majority of Real-World Asset value. But emerging Layer 2 solutions are gaining ground as institutions seek faster, cheaper transactions. The infrastructure buildout extends beyond blockchain networks. Zero-knowledge proofs are enabling privacy-preserving compliance, allowing banks to prove asset backing without revealing sensitive financial information. Cross-chain interoperability solutions are connecting fragmented tokenized asset markets. "The introduction of zero-knowledge proofs—which make it possible to securely verify that RWAs are backed by real world assets, without revealing sensitive information—has been a huge catalyst for RWAs," Maxim Legg, CEO of The Pangea Foundation, told me in a written response. "Banks are able to prove that their tokenized funds are backed by real assets, without disclosing sensitive financial information." Real Yield In A Digital World 'It's a structural evolution in how private credit and fixed income funds operate,' David Robnett, Managing Director of Asset Token Ventures, told me in a written response. 'Tokenization solves real-world inefficiencies, such as post-trade friction, tax drag, and illiquidity. That makes growth not just sustainable, but inevitable.' Unlike the speculative crypto cycles of previous years, RWA tokens offer something fundamentally different: real yield backed by real assets. Tokenized Treasury bills currently yield 4-5%, while private credit tokens can offer 8-10% returns—comparable to traditional alternatives but with blockchain's added benefits. 'Unlike the NFT bubble, where speculative JPEGs dominated and predictably lost value, NFT 2.0, AKA Tokenized RWAs, are grounded in utility,' Dan Silverman, CEO at Balcony Technology, told me in an interview. "The RWA is worth what the underlying asset is worth, eliminating the volatility of speculative hype." While stablecoins, tokenized fiat currencies representing over $240 billion of the RWA market, have paved the way, the focus is now shifting to higher-yielding tokenized assets. The GENIUS Act's framework creates the regulatory foundation for the broader RWA expansion. Here is the sector breakdown: U.S. Treasuries: $6.2 billion (led by BlackRock's BUIDL at $2.5 billion and Franklin Templeton's BENJI at $776 million) Private Credit: $12.9 billion (platforms like Centrifuge, Maple, and Apollo's new tokenized fund) Commodities: $1.4 billion (primarily tokenized gold through Tether Gold and Paxos Gold) Real Estate: Growing rapidly, with about $3.8 billion in tokenized properties What's Next For RWA Tokenization "Real-World Asset is real and sustainable. It's likely to go in waves," Paul Brody, Global Blockchain Leader at Ernst & Young, told me in an interview. "We are going to move towards a second wave of real-world assets like real estate, physical infrastructure, intellectual property, and more that exist off-chain but could benefit from the automation possible with smart contracts and in the efficiency of on-chain settlement." Regulatory clarity and guidelines for tokenized assets remain critical for their future development. Infrastructure scaling with cross-chain interoperability solutions and institutional-grade custody services are also maturing rapidly. The RWA market is projected to hit a $50 billion market cap by the end of this year. For investors, this represents both opportunity and risk, but the institutional validation is real—BlackRock doesn't deploy billions into experimental technologies. "The promise of RWAs is to deliver the efficiency and immediacy of crypto markets to a wider investor pool," Stuart Popejoy, CEO of Kadena, wrote to me in a response. "We're not trying to tear down the financial system. We're upgrading it." The smart money is actively participating, with careful due diligence and risk management. Whether this marks the dawn of a new financial era will depend on execution.