GCR

Top News in Asia from this Week

This week, I wrote a piece for TechCrunch highlighting Bitmain IPO concerns and how it recorded a big loss in Q2 2018.

Chinese search engine and web services company Baidu has released the Baidu Blockchain White Paper V1.0, which describes the development of a “Super Chain” network system. It is supposedly more efficient than a traditional blockchain in that performs with a higher degree of hardware utilization. http://bit.ly/2NaQruy

China Securities Times, the mouthpiece of Chinese financial regulators, reported that the Bank of Communications issued a total of $1.3 billion worth of RMBSs via its proprietary blockchain network, Jucai Chain. http://bit.ly/2NcCNYd

Shanghai Hongkou District Court: Ether as a property in the general legal sense is under the protection of the laws. http://bit.ly/2N9YoQM

Japan financial services company SBI Holdings announced it had secured a license from Japanese regulators for its joint money transfer operation with Ripple. http://bit.ly/2N90noz

Cryptocurrency prices highly correlated to regulatory action: Central Banks Report. http://bit.ly/2Nb68BZ

Japanese social messaging giant LINE has unveiled 5 new decentralized applications(DApps) and a new Japan-focused digital coin. http://bit.ly/2NaR47o

Investments

Datapoint- General sentiment from China is that most local funds headquartered in China have stopped their Crypto investments entirely. The Asian funds that are based in the US are still active, albeit transaction volume is light, similar to the rest of the crypto investors in the US.

*China Media* Binance Labs to invest in Contentos, a blockchain protocol that aims to form the foundation for a decentralized digital content ecosystem for an undisclosed sum. http://bit.ly/2Na3b4I

Coin and Token News

Japanese internet services giant GMO Internet has launched a new mining software client designed for mining Zcash on graphic processing units. http://bit.ly/2N8RCLi

Four early employees and two contractors have resigned from the Hong Kong cryptocurrency company Block.one to start up StrongBlock, a new blockchain project that is currently under wraps. http://bit.ly/2N8mAD

TRON, which acquired BitTorrent in July for an undisclosed amount, is now seeking to use its TRX token within the platform’s user base to create a hybrid content sharing ecosystem which leverages cryptocurrency. http://bit.ly/2Nagi6b

Ontology is collaborating with 4Stop to perform identity authentication services on its distributed trust collaboration platform. http://bit.ly/2N7xs4l

Wanchain has joined Hyperledger, an open source collaborative effort created to advance cross-industry blockchain technologies hosted by The Linux Foundation. https://on.mktw.net/2N49iaR

NEM cofounder compared his own company to Ethereum and insisted that the security found in NEM is unmatched while admitting that if what users are looking for is funds, then they should head to Ethereum. http://bit.ly/2NagBgY

Exchange News

Kraken listed two new cryptocurrencies on its platform- Cardano (ADA) and Quantum (QTUM). http://bit.ly/2N8S6B6

Superrich International Exchange, a popular foreign currency exchange chain in Thailand, has reportedly revealed a plan to begin offering travelers cryptocurrency exchange service in addition to 32 fiat currencies. http://bit.ly/2N9cUIz

Major Indian cryptocurrency exchange Zebpay announced it had stopped all trading due to the country’s banking ban. http://bit.ly/2N8tcBr

Huobi’s influencer collaboration program Global Elites has reopened to connect with international blockchain firms, individuals, brokerage houses and funds. http://bit.ly/2NawQL8

North Korea is reportedly ramping up the use of cryptocurrencies to evade US economic sanctions. It’s also alleged that the country is developing its own native crypto asset to further assist moving money across borders, according to a duo of financial intelligence analysts from Washington D.C. http://bit.ly/2N7yrl3

Regulation News

South Korea’s Crypto Market Overview: How Largest Banks and Conglomerates Back Exchanges. http://bit.ly/2Nbv6Be

The Malaysian government wants to integrate blockchain technology into its most significant industries, including Islamic finance, renewable energy, and agriculture. http://bit.ly/2NcEF3b

Taiwan’s financial regulator, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), is reportedly considering to allow convenience stores in the country to conduct cash transactions involving cryptocurrencies. http://bit.ly/2NaTanM

The National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) is testing a blockchain, which will entail tokenizing voting rights and using the blockchain platform to connect the firm, registrar and transfer agents (RTA), and the regulator. http://bit.ly/2N9ctxV

The Nanjing Arbitration Committee is testing a new blockchain platform designed to store and process data for legal disputes. http://bit.ly/2NbtxmQ

Business News

Japan`s financial services giant SBI Holdings is trialing a crypto token that can be used to make retail purchases with users’ smartphones. http://bit.ly/2N9HP7x

Ant Financial launches its BaaS Platform and predicts blockchain may surpass AI in 2 years. http://bit.ly/2NcTtyu

Squire, a Canada-based crypto mining firm, which raised $19.5 million in August to develop sophisticated mining equipment, has signed a deal with South Korea’s largest conglomerate Samsung to manufacture ASIC chips. http://bit.ly/2N90CQv

Technology giant Dell has outlined plans to invest in emerging tech like blockchain to retain its top position in India’s server market. http://bit.ly/2NeXaE8