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Korea using Blockchain in Democratic Process; China’s Ban; Bitmain KYC; Binance Labs Incubator; 95% ICOs Trading Below ICO price

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China’s Ban This Week

A number of government announcements came out from China this week banning various crypto activities in mainland. A quick take from me on each of these bans:

1. Beijing’s ban of commercial venues from hosting cryptocurrency events was targeted primarily to purge shillcoins. And there are lots of them in China
2. Blocking access to over 120 offshore exchanges’ websites in the mainland can easily be circumnavigated by VPN (And many people already use VPN to get around to access Facebook/Google)
3. A number of media Wechat accounts have been banned — lots of the accounts were originally just shilling coins, the good ones will have their bans lifted and the bad ones will figure out other ways to target citizens
4. Large Alipay and Wechat transactions for crypto purchases have also been banned, but I think this will merely create short-term impact to the market, create large spreads until the Chinese figures out another way

To understand my thoughts in more detail, check it the full writeup here

Top News in Asia from Wednesday through Friday

WSJ- China is tightening its clampdown on cryptocurrencies, nearly a year after the government imposed a wide-ranging ban on local exchanges and fundraising for digital currencies. https://on.wsj.com/2Lri9m2

Crackdown continues: Chinese authorities issue joint warning on ‘Illegal’ crypto fundraising. http://bit.ly/2P6bEHJ

Binance Labs to hand out $500,000 to each program participant in exchange for a 10 percent stake in the business. https://tcrn.ch/2LpbYPn

Bitmain introduces mandatory KYC. http://bit.ly/2P39sAz

Over 95% of ICO tokens which got listed on Chinese major crypto exchanges trade below the ICO price in the first half of 2018. http://bit.ly/2P45oAd

South Korean political parties are debating the idea of using blockchain technology as part of the democratic process, with advocates calling for the introduction of blockchain-powered voting systems. http://bit.ly/2P1Va3f

Singapore Central Bank partners with Deloitte, Nasdaq on blockchain asset settlement. http://bit.ly/2P3PXI1

Philippines, Thailand, and South Korea are moving towards creating the next crypto valley. http://bit.ly/2LpwvDi

Deals

Singapore-based fintech company X Infinity has raised $20.5 million in a private sale round.to create a cryptocurrency wallet for handling transactions globally. http://bit.ly/2MtukV1

Atlas Protocol, an open protocol for blockchain interactive advertising and marketing, has raised an undisclosed amount of investment for its seed round led by SoftBank China Venture Capital, Baidu Ventures, Danhua Capital, and Fenbushi Digital. http://bit.ly/2Mw1PWG

Aly, the parent company behind the stock and cryptocurrency tracking app Spiking, has closed its pre-series A round with US$880,000 in funding. http://bit.ly/2MwS4Hu

Coin and Token News

Blockchain Seoul 2018 — B7 CEO Summit to be held on Sept 17 — Kathryn Brightman, CEO of Tezos, and Don Song, CEO of Oasis Labs, will talk about the direction of blockchain development and technology trajectory. http://bit.ly/2MsRL0o

Jihan Wu from Bitmain: “I believe ICOs are kind of an unsustainable financial bubble. It will burst eventually.” http://bit.ly/2OXZhNN

Exchange News

South Korea’s biggest crypto exchanges Upbit recorded $100 million in Q3 revenue, Bithumb recorded $39mn in revenue in the Q3 2018 ( > 20% less than last year). http://bit.ly/2OYNy1k

Korea exchange Bithumb is offering new users a refund of 70% of the transaction fees as a token of appreciation and good will. http://bit.ly/2P16o7Y

Regulation News

North Korean hackers have infected a cryptocurrency exchange with malware for both Windows and macOS. http://bit.ly/2OXrnIX

World Bank offers world’s first public blockchain bond in Australia. http://bit.ly/2MwS4Hu

Newly appointed chief of Japan’s top financial regulator has stated his belief that there is no need for “excessive” regulation of the country’s cryptocurrency industry. http://bit.ly/2MrAFAd

Pyongyang will hold an international blockchain conference at the end of September.http://bit.ly/2P4VVsk

Shanghai Securities Times said that the China National Fintech Risk Rectification Office has so far identified 124 trading platforms with overseas IP addresses but that are still available in the country. http://bit.ly/2MyHG2k

Tencent’s super-app WeChat has shut down many official accounts that promoted initial coin offering (ICO) and cryptocurrency trading as China continues to clean up ICO activities. http://bit.ly/2MyaBn5 | Alibaba’s Alipay followed.

Chaoyang District of Beijing has released an official notice to ban office buildings, hotels and all other possible venues in the district from hosting activities related to cryptocurrencies. http://bit.ly/2MwoMck

Business News

Bitpay wallet users in Japan can turn Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash into gifts cards for Amazon. http://bit.ly/2LpvP10

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

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