China and crypto ETFs, Thailand’s NFT party, KuCoin’s 1.3M new bots: Asia Express

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

Hong Kong's new Bitcoin and Ether ETFs

The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission has approved Bitcoin and Ether ETFs.

But will investors from Asia unleash a river of gold or become a blip on the financial world's radar?

Hong Kong-based Chinese asset managers Harvest Fund Management, Bosera Asset Management and China Asset Management (China AMC) are among the first to launch their crypto asset ETFs, social media has noticed.

Bosera will launch its crypto ETFs space in partnership with Hong Kong-based HashKey Capital. OSL Digital Securities, a licensed digital asset platform in Hong Kong, acts as a subsidiary custodian for both ChinaAMC and Harvest. Unlike their US counterparts, Hong Kong crypto ETFs can be settled both in fiat currency and in kind, allowing users to directly purchase their ETF holdings for Bitcoin and Ether.

“This mechanism improves market flow by allowing direct exchange of assets for ETF shares, reducing reliance on cash settlements and facilitating uninterrupted trading,” said OSL CEO and Chairman Patrick Pan.

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange needs about two weeks to complete listing procedures and other arrangements after SFC approval.

On April 18, local fintech firm ADD Financial became the third approved securities firm for crypto ETF trading services. Specifically, ADD Financial provides virtual asset trading and product distribution services to general retail investors and facilitates the creation and redemption of crypto ETF units.

Despite wild predictions that the new ETFs could unlock as much as $25 billion in revenue, not everyone is bullish.

“Mainland Chinese investors are probably not eligible to buy Hong Kong-listed Bitcoin and Ether ETFs because they are probably banned from buying virtual assets,” Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas opined.

Currently, there is an annual cap of $50,000 for Chinese people to transfer money from mainland China to Hong Kong.

Thus, due to the lack of access to Chinese investors, Balchunas predicts that Hong Kong crypto ETFs may only attract “$1 billion” in two years, compared to more than $50 billion currently managed by US spot Bitcoin ETFs. The U.S. has yet to approve the Ether ETF, a position facing bleak regulatory prospects.

The KuCoin Roller Coaster Q1

Crypto exchange KuCoin had a wild first quarter.

In the exchange's latest Q1 2024 report, the company announced that its registered users are over 32 million, a 4.32% increase from Q4 2023, and that the volume of spot transactions has increased by 122% over the same period. Users created 1.3 million custom trading bots in Q1, generating over $5 billion in trades.

Earlier this week, the exchange announced the first part of a $20 million airdrop to its users to compensate for temporary withdrawal delays after the company filed a criminal complaint by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York and a civil lawsuit filed by U.S. Commodity Futures Trading. Commission (CFTC). The KuCoin airdrop has also increased to $20 million from an initial pledge of $10 million.

“There will be 10 rounds of airdrops worth $20 million for 3 million users in 5 days,” Kukon staff wrote. Airdrop prices range from 1 to 2,000 in Tether (USDT) equivalents.

Web3's backer protocol is set to launch at a Thai music festival after a $10M raise.

Music idol protocol Fanland will host the Web3 Music Festival in Thailand after receiving $10 million in funding.

The round was led by IME, Linear Capital and Falablock. The organization will host a novel music festival in the Thai capital of Bangkok on May 4 and 5, with an estimated 40,000 people in attendance.

“Join and interact with PSY (Creator of Gangnam Style), Edison Chen, Henry Lau, Chuang Asia, Dice & BUS, Dreamnote & Pretzelle, Sistar19. Taemin, 24kGoldn and more,” Fansland “Meet, celebrate and immerse yourself in the Web3 music festival that brings together tens of thousands of music lovers from around the world.”

Tickets are sold at Trips.com for 6,000 Thai baht ($167.25). It features an NFT ticketing system, alternative music products, and AI-generated music idols to perform at the event.

Once purchased, tickets can be made into NFTs on Fansland and can then be traded on secondary markets or used as an access point to connect to Fansland DeFi. According to Fanland Devs, the AI ​​Virtual Idol Launch Pad is managed by FANS tokenholders to decide the future of idols.

“Token holders will benefit from dividends related to the idol's business activities, such as endorsements and performances, and from the idol's training, career strategy voting and special interactions, including personal meet and greets.”

Thailand has become a growing crypto hub thanks to its welcoming climate (and people), ready infrastructure, and friendly regulators. Thailand's Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has pledged to provide a national airdrop to all residents worth 10,000 baht to cover the cost of losses.

Tencent confirms infrastructure partnership with MultiverseX

Chinese internet conglomerate Tencent will provide blockchain infrastructure services to Romania-based MultiverseX.

MultiverseX devs can create applications from scratch without the need to learn coding or infrastructure technologies using the node hosting service provided by Tencent Cloud.

Tencent RPC supports major blockchains such as Ethereum, BNB Chain, Polygon, Solana and others. On March 28, the company expanded its Tencent Cloud service to layer-1 blockchain Sui.

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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.