Asia Express – Cointelegraph Magazine

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

Rumors of fake altcoin cancellations have caused panic in Korean markets.

Upbit, about half of the altcoins listed on major Korean exchanges, fell 10 percent to 20 percent last week amid rumors it was coming, but not yet, a regulatory grab.

According to ebn.co.kr, they sold in panic after seeing the spread of fake news that “financial authorities will review 600 domestic virtual assets every three months starting next month and stop trading of coins that do not meet maintenance standards.”

However, the country's Financial Supervisory Service has stated that it does not directly monitor any altcoin listing reviews.

“Financial authorities do not evaluate the goods directly, but examine virtual asset businesses. We have participated in creating best practices by receiving requests for support, but the announcement is made by exchanges and DAXA (Digital Asset eXchange Alliance).

Korea's new virtual asset laws will go into effect next month, requiring in part the country's 29 registered crypto exchanges, including Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax, to regularly review and continue to support tokens listed on their exchanges. their business.

Experts in the field explained that things in the new guidelines, such as “transfusion plan violations or unknown abduction events,” are “not much different from what they were before.”

Binance introduces loyalty rewards for BNB holders

Crypto exchange Binance is set to reward the most loyal BNB token holders with airdrops, holding on for dear life amid the company's ups and downs.

“Users who hold BNB for a long time will get benefits and hodler projects will be distributed to BNB holders,” Yi He, co-founder of the exchange, wrote on June 19. But how long have you held BNB in ​​retrospect? We work for BNB Holders!”

The exchange staff said that Binance HODLer Airdrops are designed to benefit users who invest their BNB holdings in simple income products. “This program will launch tokens from projects with high token supply that are set to list on Binance in the near future,” the developers explained.

The program includes small to medium-sized projects with strong fundamentals, high circulation and vibrant, organic communities.

To participate, users must register for the flexible and locked-in Easy Income products using their BNB holdings and ensure that their account is KYC verified with the appropriate authority. Air-settled tokens are sent to users' spot wallets immediately before tokens on the exchange.

In the early days of Binance, when it was still outside of China, the exchange paid $15 million for the BNB Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in July 2017. The token has recovered up to 402,159% since then and is currently trading at $601.74 per session. Printing.

Hong Kong has zero tolerance for unauthorized crypto exchanges

Hong Kong regulators are getting tougher on crypto entities operating in the East Asian city after two unlicensed JPEX and Hounax forced investors out of pocket for hundreds of millions of dollars last year.

In the Securities and Futures Commission's annual report, regulators announced that only two out of 23 virtual crypto exchange license applications were approved – HashKey and OSL. In addition, the two approved exchanges have had 234 in-person visits from SFC staff over the past year to ensure compliance.

On May 31, Hong Kong officially removed all unauthorized crypto exchanges, requiring all platforms that did not apply for an operating license with the SFC to immediately cease operations in the region.

It is a crime to operate VATP in Hong Kong in violation of AMLO. [Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance]And the SFC will take appropriate action against any violation of the law,” regulators warned.

Spot Bitcoin ETF's momentum is waning.

Investors' enthusiasm for Bitcoin ETFs around the world seems to have stalled.

On June 20, the Australian Securities Exchange, the first Bitcoinexchange-traded fund (ETF) approved for Australia's leading stock exchange, closed its first day of trading with $1.3 million in trading volume.

Australia has about one-tenth the population of the US, so hard change equates to about $10 million in income. However, Australia has two Bitcoin ETFs listed on the options exchange CBOE and such products will be available from 2022.

“Although the Australian market is much smaller than the US and most of our flows are retail rather than institutional, there is an opportunity for us to follow a similar path,” VanEck's vice head of investment and capital markets Jamie Hanna told Cointelegraph.

Back in April, the first Bitcoin and Ether ETFs listed in Hong Kong made around $12 million in trading volume on their first day.

All eyes are now on Ethereum ETFs in the US, which are scheduled to launch on July 2, after receiving a surprise approval from the US SEC. Eric Balchunas, a senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, said SEC staff comments on the spot called for Ether ETF applicants' S-1 filings to be “very easy, nothing big” to be returned within the week.

The future of crypto in Hong Kong looks bright

David Wu, of Hong Kong crypto exchange OSL, said Hong Kong could experiment with innovative crypto asset products as a global financial center. Wu said:

“Various investment projects can raise funds in Hong Kong through debt issuance or equity offerings. In addition to these traditional methods, companies can also issue security token offerings (STO) in Hong Kong, which provide an alternative to mainstream fundraising methods.

Wu contrasted the East Asian city's “low tax rates, clear legal systems and comprehensive investor protection” with other Asian countries. “Institutional investors in virtual assets are facing difficulties in opening accounts. For example, many large banks in Japan refuse to open accounts for such funds, Wu explained. But Hong Kong banks are open to it, while many Chinese banks welcome specialized institutions to open accounts for virtual property investments.

Currently, Hong Kong's crypto exchange licenses allow both crypto and tokenized asset trading features that are not available in other financial centers such as Singapore and the US. Exploring the policy formulation to further enhance Hong Kong's leverage in the virtual property market.

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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.