Our weekly news from East Asia organizes the most important industry developments.
Hong Kong is moving bullishly
On February 20, Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) launched a consultation on proposed regulatory requirements for digital asset trading platforms.
The SFC will require a license in June of all cryptocurrency exchanges operating in Hong Kong or soliciting services from Hong Kong investors.
In addition, the SFC said it will seek feedback on whether licensed platform operators should be allowed to provide services to retail investors and what steps should be taken to ensure the appropriateness and inclusion of tokens when establishing business relationships with customers.
Currently, retail trading of cryptocurrencies is prohibited in Hong Kong. The announcement that China’s special administrative region has dipped its toe back into crypto immediately sparked a bullish reaction from everyday users and executives. Brian Armstrong, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase,write:
“America risks losing its status as a financial hub in the long term, without clear rules on crypto, and a hostile environment of regulators. Congress must act quickly to make clear laws. Crypto is open to everyone in the world and others who lead. EU, UK, and now HK.
To be fair, he wrote that in response to a tweet that indicated retail trade would be allowed from June 1, which did not happen, but the sentiment remained. At the same time, Cameron Winklevoss, co-founder of the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange, said in a tweet:
“Atm my thesis is that the next bull race will start in the East. This will serve as a humbling reminder that crypto is a global asset class and that the West, indeed the US, will always have two options: capture it or leave it alone. Unstoppable. Who knows.”
Soon, cryptocurrency exchanges Gate.io and Huobi Global announced that they would apply for a crypto exchange license in Hong Kong. Both exchanges said they will comply with the relevant regulations in order to provide services to Hong Kong clients. Crypto users and stakeholders have until March 31 to participate in the SFC consultation.
Japanese FTX customers withdraw $49M
On February 21, FTX Japan, the Japanese subsidiary of troubled cryptocurrency exchange FTX, resumed withdrawals for customers after assets were frozen for about three months as part of international bankruptcy proceedings.
Customer funds, which are managed separately under Japanese laws and regulations, were revealed to be worth 5.6 billion Japanese yen ($41.58 million) in digital currency and 1 billion yen ($7.43 million) in fiat currency as of February 20.
The company also reported its own net assets of around 10 billion yen ($74.3 million) in September 2022, which rose to 17.8 billion yen ($132.2 million) in its last update on November 21.
Since reopening withdrawals, more than 6.6 billion yen ($49 million) in crypto and fiat have left the exchange. To withdraw, users must verify account balances and transfer assets to Liquid Japan, another cryptocurrency exchange previously acquired by FTX.
As tabulated by FTX Japan, 3,453 individuals, and 94 corporate accounts are eligible to withdraw balances. There were 1,947 fiat withdrawals and a total of 5,697 crypto withdrawals. A total of 7,026 accounts were transferred from FTX Japan to Liquid Japan. They are lucky because of the bankruptcy process, the majority of FTX customers, including FTX US users, still cannot withdraw their assets.
NBA China wants to mint more NFTs
On February 21, a subsidiary of the China National Basketball Association announced a partnership with Alibaba-owned Ant Financial. Among many items, the two entities will carry out full cooperation on NBA video content, program broadcasts, joint memberships, and the creation of mini-series.
In addition, both NBA China and Ant Financial want to further develop the joint development of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and launch “multi-media NFT drops for fans.” Since last year, NBA China has created a series of Chinese New Year basketball-themed NFTs using Ant Chain.
Tencent Cloud is a big leap for Web3
Tencent Cloud, the cloud business brand of Chinese internet giant Tencent, announced on February 22 that it will support the development of the Web3 ecosystem and provide technical support to developers to promote digitalization.
First, Tencent Cloud unveiled a new product, called “Metaverse-in-a-Box,” which the internet giant said will act as a one-stop solution that combines infrastructure, products, software development kits and low-code solutions to be used. especially in games and entertainment media.
In addition, the company signed a memorandum of cooperation with Ankr, Avalanche, Scroll and Sui to achieve this goal. For Ankr, this means the joint deployment of a series of blockchain API services for remote procedure call nodes on Tencent Cloud. For Avalanche, it will join forces with Tencent Cloud to provide developers with an efficient and fast node setup. Finally, Tencent Cloud will help developers build practical projects on Gulu and create cloud game development tools with Sui. Tommy Li, vice president of Tencent Cloud said:
“Tencent Cloud Metaverse-in-a-Box meets the needs of customers and developers for various scenarios, helping them achieve a better real-time interactive experience, larger-scale communication and more secure access services, and quickly build online and video virtual and virtual. metaverse scene application.”
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DeFi token surges 550% after Huawei shill
In a 30 second video sent by Huawei on February 21, the Chinese telecommunications conglomerate presented Defactor DeFi protocol. During the video, the founder Alejandro Gutierrez said that the project is to create a bridge between traditional finance with DeFi, explore the tokenization of real-world assets, and build partnerships with startups and large companies like.
In the eyes of crypto investors, the statement made by Gutierrez is unusual. Immediately after the video was published, the Defactor token (FACTR) recorded a gain of more than 550% in less than three days, trading at $0.14 each at the time of publication. Defactor is now part of Huawei’s International Scale-Up Program in Ireland.
