GCR

What Crypto insiders are reading.

There have been a number of media news this week claiming that China’s ban on crypto has been circumvented by VPN and Stablecoins, while folks are going outside of mainland China to do crypto transactions. This is not a surprise to us, and is similar to what we predicted in our previous post when the bans were initially announced.

In fact, while we are speaking, the Shanghai Blockchain Week is going on with lots of activities happening. Bitmain CEO Jihan Wu spoke at the conference making predictions for the next decade of blockchain development. He predicts that within a decade, the global blockchain users may exceed 1 billion.

Even more interestingly, iQiyi, the Netflix equivalent of China, is airing a live series that follows a crypto enthusiast in China who is looking to survive 21 days in Beijing merely living on 0.21 bitcoin, without any help or donations. The story is also being covered by China Daily, a state-run media outlet.

You can see in the iQiyi video that the girl runs around asking all the vendors whether they accept bitcoin as her days are being filmed and streamed.

Do you think she’ll survive? 

Here is a clue: she is now up to day 15.

Top News in Asia from Monday to Wednesday

We have partnered with Hong-Kong based Blockcrunch and 500 startups to sponsor the launch of 500 Blockcrunch, a crypto educational miniseries. The team just released a 30 minute episode covering blockchain scaling, which you can on Apple, Spotify, Overcast and Stitcher. Be sure to check it out!

MaltaStock Exchange ?announces MOU with crypto giant ?Binance?, to set up a security token exchange. http://bit.ly/2p2Trzu

*China Media * Caijing, the Chinese financial news site, has acquired the official documents from the court. It ruled that Bitmain’s lawsuit claim on former director of design Yang Zuoxing for patent infringement was rejected. Google translated media | initial story covered by Coindesk

Dovey Wan, formerly investment partner at DHVC, and Eric Meltzer, formerly investment partner of INBlock, have just announced their new fund Primitive Ventures. http://bit.ly/2p1TxaH

WeChat has blocked the official sales channel of Bitmain. http://bit.ly/2p0jXK8

OKCoin’s founder Star Xu has been released from a police department in Shanghai after 24 hours assisting an investigation into investors’ accusations that OKEx manipulated bitcoin futures on its platform. http://bit.ly/2p2dNJq

Deals and Funds

Shanghai blockchain start-up bets on new crypto custody approach despite mainland ban post-funding by Matrix. http://bit.ly/2CI5SdZ

Bitmain Co-Lead $14.6M Series A Round In Chinese Video Technology Platform 1000video. http://bit.ly/2oVYQs6

500 Startups raising $5m more for Vietnam-focused fund. http://bit.ly/2p0YZKV

Coin and Token News

Former Credit Suisse Managing Director and Head of Corporate Communications Sheel Kohli to Join Block.one as Global Chief Marketing and Communications Officer. http://bit.ly/2oX59fa

Exchange News

*China Media* The former director of the Industrial Economic Research Institute of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will become the first president of Huobi University. China Media

Japan’s internet giant GMO rolls out live crypto trading platform. The group has also established more mining facilities and has mined almost 3,000 BTC and over 660 BCH so far. http://bit.ly/2oVu96C

A Crypto trader complained that he lost 20,000 ETH Due to OKEx Malfunction. http://bit.ly/2oZldgE

Singapore’s ABCC crypto exchange to actively tap into S. Korean market. http://bit.ly/2oWaovA

Japanese team Quoine has unveiled Liquid, a cryptocurrency one-stop trading portal, which will allow users to access a worldwide network of cryptocurrency exchanges. http://bit.ly/2oXxL8b

Huobi acquires Singaporean entrepreneur Eric Cheng’s crypto exchange Bit Trade. Bit Trade is a Japanese government-approved platform, which Cheng bought for US$49 million in May 2018. http://bit.ly/2p223Xu

Regulation News

City governments in China have invested $3.57 billion since 2016 to support blockchain startups and R&D. Here’s a guide on who’s doing what. http://bit.ly/2CBQfoe

Philippine Digital Asset Exchange is cleared to exchange crypto and the Philippine peso- coins include BTC, ETH, XRP, BCH, and LTC. http://bit.ly/2oYs2Pi

Chinese Government accepts blockchain records as evidence in court. http://bit.ly/2oYupl6

S.Korea’s Central Bank continues to sweat over ‘Kimchi Premium’ in cryptocurrency prices. http://bit.ly/2oVtCBE

The final court battle for India’s cryptocurrency exchanges begins. http://bit.ly/2p04zgK

Business News

Chinese holding company Wuhan General Group, Inc. has entered negotiations to transform a U.S. Defense Department facility into a crypto mining farm. http://bit.ly/2oYROCW

Australian Blockchain delegation heads to China to foster fintech ties. http://bit.ly/2p2aemw

Chinese Government to use blockchain for tracking charity donations by 2019. http://bit.ly/2p0WisN