Asia Express – Cointelegraph Magazine

East Asia's weekly news roundup reviews the industry's most important developments.

GBA Capital, a Shenzhen-based Chinese venture capital fund, has committed $10 billion to its inaugural Web3 fund focused on virtual reality.

At the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area Digital Economy Development Conference on December 26, Haolong Li, chairman of GBA Capital, said the new Web3 Fund will help the region become the “world's meta-asset capital”.

GBA Capital is backed by China's state-owned National Engineering Laboratory and financial institutions including Asia Pacific Investment Bank and China Europe International Financial Group. The organization provides educational training, industry capital and investment incubators to Web3 and AI startups.

Tencent's new blockchain fleet management patent

Chinese technology conglomerate Tencent has been granted a patent for using blockchain technology to manage vehicle fleets. On December 27, local news reported that the patent approved by China's Intellectual Property Office involves converting vehicle license plates into a hash value and then verifying the hash against vehicle data stored on a public blockchain.

The system allows service providers such as car rental companies and parking attendants to track the real-time movements of their vehicles with greater accuracy. Tencent first filed its patent application on November 29, 2019.

In recent years, the Chinese internet company has been very interested in Web3 and blockchain technology research and development. On September 7, the company revealed “the largest AI language-learning model ever” with more than 2 trillion data training parameters.

Starbucks' NFT experience in Korea

Starbucks will begin issuing NFTs in South Korea in January 2024. Local news outlets reported on December 21 that the coffee chain's upcoming NFT drop is designed to encourage people to bring their own mugs to purchase Starbucks coffee drinks, and is part of a new “tumble coupon policy.” Any customer who orders coffee with a reusable tumbler or cup can exchange the coupon for a larger drink and receive NFT rewards.

The number of Starbucks customers using personal coffee cups has grown from 17.4 million in 2019 to 25.3 million in 2022. Last September, the coffee giant unveiled a new experience for members, allowing US customers to purchase digital collectible stamp NFTs. NFTs can be exchanged for perks ranging from receiving special merchandise from a virtual espresso martini-making room to special events at Starbucks Reserve Roasteries and perhaps a trip to the Starbucks Hacienda Alsace coffee farm in Costa Rica.

E-CNY wallet was seized by Chinese courts for the first time

The Digital Yuan Central Bank Digital Currency (e-CNY CBDC) wallet was first hosted on December 25. According to the Beijing Dongcheng People's Court, a CNY 5 million ($700,000) joint venture company in Beijing has filed a civil lawsuit against a known defendant. Just like Mr. Ding on the investment debate.

The defendant subsequently applied to enforce the judgment. During an investigation, authorities discovered that while Mr. Ding did not have enough physical assets to cover the judgment, he did have an e-CNY wallet with enough money to pay the plaintiff.

Liang Dong, the bail judge of Beijing Dongcheng People's Court, said that he did not have the technical capacity to directly seize the wallet at the time of the execution. So Dong contacted the China Construction Bank and the defendant had a fiat bank account linked to the e-CNI wallet. After negotiations, the bank modified its system to allow the seizure of the bank assets and e-CNI wallets of the accused as per the court order. The seized money was transferred to a secret account for the plaintiff in the Beijing Dongcheng People's Court.

“After contacting the relevant departments to enforce the legal rights and interests of the person concerned. […]The bank completed the system upgrade and successfully transferred the balance of the digital RMB wallet to the court account in the name of the executive Ding.

Matt Gox's creditors have been paid, finally

Creditors of bankrupt Japanese crypto-exchange Mt Gox are finally starting to see payments after 10 years of legal proceedings.

The Mt. Gox creditors have reportedly begun accepting payments in part though fiat Japanese yen through the company's bankruptcy trustee. However, not everything went as planned, with some users reporting their claims being double-billed, but sending the money via PayPal to Mt. Gox trustees realized they couldn't change. The lenders' registration deadline finally closed in April after being extended for several years.

Matt Gox was the world's largest bitcoin exchange when it filed for bankruptcy in 2014 after discovering that 850,000 of its customers' bitcoins (BTC) had been stolen after years of undercover phone calls. The exchange has since recovered 200,000 bitcoins that were held by bankruptcy trustees. At the time of the hack, the price of bitcoin was around $580 each, and since then the price has risen to over $42,000. About $6 billion in claims must be paid.

$100M Web3 funding announced by Wemade and Whampoa Digital

South Korean gaming company Wemade and Singaporean venture capital fund Whampoa Digital will provide $100 million in funding for Web 3 projects. The Wemade Web3 Fund, announced on December 22, will provide a boost to digital assets in the Middle East, he said. As part of the collaboration, Whampoa Digital will be an ecosystem partner of Wemade's WEMIX PLAY Center at the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC) Innovation Hub.

Whampoa Digital is the technology investment arm of Whampoa Group, a privately held investment company owned by several established families in Asia. Wemade makes the WEMIX PLAY platform for Web3 gaming.

“This partnership will allow us to expand beyond established sectors into new horizons in the digital asset industry and drive innovation in the Middle East,” commented Aureol Fung, senior partner at Whampoa Group.

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Zhiyuan Sun

Zhyuan Sun is a reporter at Cointelegraph, focusing on technology-related news. He has several years of experience writing for major financial media outlets such as The Motley Fool, Nasdaq.com and Seeking Alpha.