Hong Kong crypto frenzy, DeFi token surges 550%, NBA China NFTs – Asia Express – Cointelegraph Magazine
Our weekly roundup of news from East Asia curates the industry’s most important developments.
Hong Kong is moving bullishly
On February 20, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) in Hong Kong launched a consultation on its proposed regulatory requirements for digital asset trading platforms.
The SFC requires the licensing of all cryptocurrency exchanges operating in Hong Kong, or soliciting services from Hong Kong investors, by June 2023.
In addition, the SFC said it will seek feedback on whether licensed platform operators should be allowed to offer services to retail investors and what measures should be implemented to ensure suitability and token inclusion when establishing business relationships with clients.
Currently, retail cryptocurrency trading is prohibited in Hong Kong. The announcement that the Special Administrative Region of China was dipping its toes back into crypto immediately set off bullish reactions from everyday users and executives alike. Brian Armstrong, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase,wrote:
“America risks losing its status as a financial hub in the long term, without clear rules for crypto, and a hostile environment from regulators. Congress should act soon to pass clear legislation. Crypto is open to everyone in the world and others are leading. The E.U. , UK and now HK.”
To be fair, he wrote that in response to a tweet that suggested retail would be allowed from June 1, which is not the case, but the sentiment remains. At the same time, Cameron Winklevoss, co-founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, said in a chirping:
“My job atm is that the next bull run is going to start in the East. It will be a humbling reminder that crypto is a global asset class and that the West, essentially the US, always had only two options: embrace it or get left behind. It can can’t be stopped. We know that.”
Shortly after, cryptocurrency exchanges Gate.io and Huobi Global announced that they would apply for crypto exchange licenses in Hong Kong. Both exchanges said they will comply with the relevant regulations in order to offer services to Hong Kong clients. Both crypto users and stakeholders have until March 31 to participate in the SFC consultation.
FTX Japan customers withdraw $49M
On February 21, FTX Japan, the Japanese subsidiary of troubled cryptocurrency exchange FTX, resumed withdrawals for its customers after assets were frozen for about three months as part of international bankruptcy.
Clients’ funds, which were managed separately in accordance with Japanese laws and regulations, were revealed to be worth 5.6 billion JPY ($41.58 million) in digital currencies and 1 billion JPY ($7.43 million) in fiat currencies as of February 20.
The company also reported that its own net assets were around 10 billion JPY ($74.3 million) in September 2022, which increased to 17.8 billion JPY ($132.2 million) in the last update dated November 21, 2022.
Since the reopening of withdrawals, over JPY 6.6 billion ($49 million) in crypto and fiat has left the exchange. To withdraw, users were required to verify their account balance and transfer their assets to Liquid Japan, another cryptocurrency exchange previously acquired by FTX.
As tabulated by FTX Japan, 3,453 individual and 94 corporate accounts were eligible to withdraw their balances. There were 1,947 fiat withdrawals and 5,697 total crypto withdrawals. A total of 7,026 accounts were transferred from FTX Japan to Liquid Japan. They were the lucky ones, as due to bankruptcy proceedings, the vast majority of FTX customers, including users of FTX US, are still unable to withdraw their assets.
NBA China wants to mint more NFTs
On February 21, the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Chinese subsidiary announced a partnership with Alibaba-owned Ant Financial. Among many elements, the two entities will carry out a comprehensive collaboration on NBA video content, program broadcasting, joint membership and the creation of a miniseries.
In addition, both NBA China and Ant Financial wish to continue the joint development of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and to launch “multi-media NFT drops to fans.” Since last year, NBA China has minted a series of Chinese New Year basketball-themed NFTs using the latter’s Ant Chain.
Tencent Cloud’s great leap forward to Web 3
According to an announcement on February 22, Tencent Cloud, the cloud business brand of Chinese Internet giant Tencent, announced that it will support the development of the Web 3.0 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 says will act as a one-stop solution that integrates infrastructure, products, software development kits and low-code solutions. mainly used in games and media entertainment.
In addition, the firm signed a collaboration agreement with Ankr, Avalanche, Scroll and Sui to advance these goals. For Ankr, this means joint deployment of a series of blockchain API services for external procedure call nodes on Tencent Cloud. As for Avalanche, it will team up with Tencent Cloud to provide developers with efficient and fast node settings. Finally, Tencent Cloud will help developers build practical projects on Scroll 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 get better real-time interactive experience, larger-scale communication and more secure access services, and quickly build online and video virtualized and virtualized metaverse scene applications .”
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DeFi token rises 550% after Huawei shill
In a 30 second video posted by Chinese telecoms conglomerate Huawei on February 21, the firm showcased the DeFi protocol Defactor by its co-founder Alejandro Gutierrez. During the video, Gutierrez said that the project is about creating a bridge between traditional finance with DeFi, exploring the tokenization of real-world assets and building partnerships with startups and large companies such as.
In the eyes of crypto investors, the statements Gutierrez made were anything but ordinary. Immediately after the video was published, Defactor (FACTR) tokens recorded a gain of over 550% in less than three days to trade at $0.14 apiece at the time of publication. Defactor is currently part of the Huawei International Scale-Up Program in Ireland.
