Asia Express – Cointelegraph Magazine
Our weekly roundup of news from East Asia curates the industry’s most important developments.
Three Arrows Capital (3AC), a once-thriving Singaporean hedge fund worth an estimated $10 billion at its peak, was completely wiped out by the bear market last year. However, the carnival it created since the first explosion is still alive, and the main characters seem to be having a pretty good time too.
One of the 3AC co-founders, Kyle Davies, seems to have finally found some comfort from the experience. After much turmoil, the former hedge fund manager has now switched to an ambitious one restaurateur fixated on a task — perfect Art of cooking chicken.
Any seasoned cook will know that making a tender, well-seasoned, juicy and crispy chicken is quite an exquisite skill. To perfect it, one must maintain a razor-sharp focus on the meat while using techniques, which requires cutting out distractions — such as focusing on negative emotions associated with creditors trying to collect $3.5 billion from 3AC’s bankruptcy — during the performance.
In general, chefs don’t like customers who are rude. That’s why, when a user suggested on April 14 to review-bomb Davies’ new Dubai restaurant, the now-professional chef immediately threatened legal action against people who post “intentionally false reviews and defamation of my restaurant.”
Meanwhile, Davies and fellow co-founder Su Zhu launched the OPNX exchange on April 5, launched to trade bankruptcy claims from fallen crypto entities such as FTX and Celsius. Although the daily volume initially was only around $13, at the time of publication, the exchange has reached nearly $1.8 million in daily trading volume.
It’s not nice to be the one to disappoint the audience, but these numbers are pretty impressive. Consider the fact that the sum of all regulated crypto products listed in Hong Kong only has about $1.19 million in volume per day.
Not that the stock exchange plays up its 3AC tapes. In an April 14 interview with OPNX CEO Leslie Lamb, the blockchain boss reportedly so that “Although Su Zhu and Kyle contributed greatly in terms of early ideas and vision, they are currently no longer involved in OPNX’s day-to-day operations.”
In other 3AC news, Sotheby’s auction house announced on April 19 that it will sell a series of NFT collections recovered by liquidators, including Dmitri Cherniak’s artwork “The Golden Goose” purchased by Davies and Zhu for $5.8 million in Ether in August 2021 .
Zhu seems to have taken the new philosophically, quoting the famous English poet Alfred Tennyson: “[Tis] better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all,” while highlighting the NFT auction to his followers. 3AC’s bankruptcy proceedings are currently ongoing.
Singapore’s Bitcoin Miner’s Wild Week
On April 14, shares of NASDAQ-listed Singaporean Bitcoin (BTC) mining operator SAI.TECH surged over 360% in one day to a high of $7.42 apiece before giving back much of the gains. The stock is currently trading at $3.68 per share at the time of publication. There was no material news prior to the unusual price action – and we certainly tried to identify any.
SAI.TECH develops hardware for Bitcoin mining infrastructure, namely Saihub, Tankbox and Rackbox, which use liquid cooling and waste heat recovery solutions to improve efficiency for miners.
On April 20, the company consolidated its product lines into three categories; Ultiaas, Boltbit and Heatnuc. Boltbit will focus on providing decentralized transaction system services and technical support, while Heatnuc will focus on “research and promotion of small modular reactors.” Ultiaas focuses on hardware and software products that convert mining chip heat into renewable energy.
The company ended its Phase II 90 megawatt (MW) crypto mining and hosting expansion plan in Kazakhstan last year following a “force majeure” event, and will continue to execute its Phase I 15 MW deal for the same purpose. In January 2022, the Kazakh government resigned following protests and shut down access to the internet, disrupting the operations of Bitcoin miners in the country. The company is currently focusing on operations at its testing and distribution facility in Ohio.
Bruce Lee NFT’s whiz…
Not even the late Hong Kong film legend could defeat the economic laws of supply and demand with his martial arts prowess. Between April 12 and April 14, the Bruce Lee Foundation, directed by his daughter Shannon, teamed up with NFT video platform Shibuya for The House of Lee collection to celebrate the life and work of the namesake Kung Fu legend. A total of 48,691 NFTs were minted at a price of 0.008 Ether (ETH) each with 6,452 owners (13% unique).
There was one small problem, only one NFT was unique in the collection, the House of Lee Genesis NFT. With an abundance of supply, the floor price of the collection quickly fell to around 0.003 ETH apiece on OpenSea at the time of publication. The sale still grossed roughly $730,000, minus the cost of placing a mega billboard for the NFT release on Broadway.
While initial sales may have been somewhat tepid, the NFTs are being billed as “Your ticket to the House of Lee,” and there are reports that this is just the first phase of an ongoing Web 3.0 collaboration. It seems the martial arts legend may continue to fight on in the blockchain realm after all.
