Top News in Asia from Aug 15

Top News in Asia from Wednesday through Friday

Binance LCX, a joint venture between Binance and Liechtenstein Cryptoassets Exchange is the launching of a fiat-to-crypto exchange. http://bit.ly/2vSS7mH

As of August 7, 2018, there are 274 legal cases related to cryptocurrency in China. Most recently, Chinese courts made its decision without directly discussing whether Bitcoin trading platform is illegal. http://bit.ly/2vPU3N4

How $1 billion line of credit from Chinese investors China Jiangsu International helped launch Akon the singer in Africa and subsequently now Akoin. http://bit.ly/2OKH6uC

A series of new tweets are fueling speculation that Binance is about to make a big move with XRP. http://bit.ly/2OKlEpO

Deals and Venture

SFOX, a cryptocurrency dealer for high-volume traders and institutional investors, has raised $22.7 million in a Series A funding round led by Tribe Capital and Social Capital. http://bit.ly/2MxagQE

Exchange Huobi has made a significant investment in the US-compliant security token trading platform OpenFinance Network. http://bit.ly/2ONqiUa

Krungsri Finnovate, a venture capital fund of Krungsri (Thailand Bank of Ayudhya) committed to invest in Japan’s SBI AI & Blockchain Fund, marking its fourth deal since inception. http://bit.ly/2vVqkSE

Dymon Asia Ventures has hit the final close for its maiden $50-million fintech-focused fund. http://bit.ly/2OHnpnF

Sino-US investment firms are targeting over $4 billion for new funds launched this year. GGV registered a $1.8bn fund with SEC. https://tcrn.ch/2vUfoVt

Japanese social messaging app LINE announced the creation of a $10 million blockchain venture fund. http://bit.ly/2vZN8kv

Coin and Token News

Official launch of ICX Station, a global accelerator program sponsored by the ICON Foundation. http://bit.ly/2MEJtSJ

Tron acquires blockchain.org domain name.

Ripple ‘definitely’ wants to target China with its blockchain-based payments tech, exec says. https://cnb.cx/2L1OQXd

Exchange News

Chinese exchange Huobi and its partners are launching cryptocurrency exchanges in five regions: the Philippines, Russia, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Canada. http://bit.ly/2vRWfUd

Huobi launches brand new HADAX 2.0 including Huobi Automated Listing Platform, Huobi Show Center for Blockchain Projects and HADAX Public Voting Platform. http://bit.ly/2KZ39f3

Regulation News

*China Media* Shanghai Municipal Government signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Alibaba and Ant Financial to upgrade the area with innovation and manufacturing upgrade, including blockchain initiatives. Google translated

Thai regulators have so far approved seven business entities to conduct cryptocurrency operations as part of the formalization of the country’s domestic market. http://bit.ly/2MAZwAL

Throughout the past two months, investors in the local crypto market of South Korea have continuously expressed their optimism towards a drastic change in the regulatory landscape of crypto. http://bit.ly/2MAAqSG

Cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea have condemned their exclusion by the country’s government from the classification of venture firms. http://bit.ly/2vUcj7L

Business News

Chinese retailer JD.com is launching a new blockchain technology platform to help enterprise customers build, host and use their own blockchain applications for operations management. http://bit.ly/2vRYl6x

State-backed Bank of China and financial services corporation ChinaUnionPay have entered into a partnership to explore blockchain for payments. http://bit.ly/2MAfNGb

CoinDrop, a service that helps anyone easily receive “airdrops” of cryptocurrency. http://bit.ly/2MxNrMx

Chinese miners exiled to Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, anywhere with cheap electricity. http://bit.ly/2vUlO74

American seed accelerator Y Combinator appointed Baidu’s former COO Lu Qi as its CEO. http://bit.ly/2MEKNoF

Chinese games are rapidly eroding the Korean market. It is happening while China blocked the distribution of new Korean games in China. http://bit.ly/2MAMkM8

What did you guys think of our Global Coin podcast thus far? What do you want to read or learn more about on Asia?

Check our past 7 weekly pieces on Southeast Asia Cryptocurrency Developments, A Guide to Asia Crypto funds/investors, Takeaways on Asia Crypto from Techcrunch Zug, Cryptokitties, Binance, Bitmain, and China’s Crypto winners