This weekly roundup of stories from Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong makes an attempt to curate the trade’s most vital information, together with influential tasks, adjustments within the regulatory panorama, and enterprise blockchain integrations.
Olympic battle
After months of writing in regards to the relentless actions of the Chinese language authorities, this week we lead with a narrative from the US Authorities. On July 19, three US senators signed a letter addressed to the to U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, requesting US athletes not use the e-CNY in February’s Winter Olympic video games in Beijing. The logic was that the digital foreign money could be traceable after the athletes returned to the US, in case China was inquisitive about monitoring overseas bi-athletes and bobsledders of their offseason coaching regiments.
China’s International Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian snapped back that the senators “ought to cease making troubles” and “work out what a digital foreign money actually is.” Zhao apparently believes that the US lawmakers won’t be up-to-date on the most recent in know-how, one thing the crypto-enthusiasts on Twitter have been bemoaning for years.
All sarcasm apart, this factors to a rising development of customers being caught in geo-political struggles round know-how, which may turn out to be a a lot bigger subject as CBDCs turn out to be extra prevalent. Customers can select to keep away from sure {hardware} or apps that present a knowledge safety threat, however avoiding the native foreign money will likely be a way more tough option to make. Money use has dropped to a negligible quantity in China, with the majority of day by day transactions being digital via Alipay and WeChat. Touring or dwelling in China with out touching the digital foreign money will likely be an enormous inconvenience, and one more likely to not go over effectively with future generations.
Main the pack
On July 19, Cointelegraph reported that Chinese language Bitcoin miners had earned close to $7 billion dollars in the past year, ten occasions larger than miners within the second highest nation, the US. This development may be damaged up barely by the regulatory crackdown this 12 months, however nonetheless exhibits the affect China has on the trade, particularly if giant Chinese language firms can proceed to arrange operations in neighboring international locations.
Chinese language volumes bounce again
Volumes on Chinese exchanges Huobi and OKEx rebounded barely in comparison with the identical time final week, together with on the derivatives aspect the place the 2 exchanges made up round 44% of Binance’s quantity, in comparison with solely 38.7% on the similar time the week earlier than. Gaming token Axie Infinity remained a scorching token for buying and selling, and was the fourth-most traded token on Huobi on Thursday behind BTC, ETH, and DOGE. Precise gameplay hasn’t actually taken off in China, and though the positioning stays unblocked by the Nice Firewall to date, visits to the web site are nonetheless scarce. Customers from the Philippines make up 40% of web site guests, whereas China accounted for lower than 3%. China boasts the largest gaming community on the earth, however tight restrictions on cryptocurrencies is more likely to restrict the expansion of public blockchain-based gaming in the interim. Speculating on gaming-related tokens, nonetheless, will doubtless stay a powerful development.
It’s value noting that within the brief time period, the laws looming on the horizon makes betting on exchanges a dangerous proposition. Many rumors have swirled about upcoming motion to be taken by Chinese language regulators, notably for repeat offenders within the space. Regulators in smaller international locations appear to be ready to see who will throw the primary punch.
Non-fungible fossils
Hong Kong’s most outstanding newspaper South China Morning Publish is launching an NFT platform geared toward historic information and gadgets. This platform will let verified issuers mint and commerce NFTs in an open market. This could enchantment to a broader viewers of collectors and non-crypto native customers in Southeast Asia, in addition to a authorities inquisitive about exporting comfortable energy to the world.
