Gaming firm’s stock triples after buying Bitcoin, Hong Kong-based BTC ETF: Asia Express

A Hong Kong gaming firm is about to double down on a $100 million crypto investment.

Shares of Hong Kong online gaming company Boya Interactive surged 318 percent last month after the company approved a $100 million initiative to allocate $45 million of corporate funds to Bitcoin (BTC), $45 million to Ether (ETH) and $10 million to Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) is a stable coin.

“Since the date of this announcement, the company has purchased a total of 1,110 Bitcoins at an average of $41,790, a total of 14,855 Ether at an average of $2,777 and approximately 8,000,000 units of Tether.” It said on March 8 that it plans to double its purchases with an additional $100 million investment into cryptocurrencies.

In addition to the massive acquisition, the company also has a strong gaming business, bringing in 100 million yuan ($13.90 million) in revenue and 32.05 million yuan ($4.46 million) in revenue, up 6 percent and 72 percent, respectively. Due to the ongoing bullish stock market in China, most firms have large cash balances with some firms trading below their nominal book value.

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

Stephen Cho says ‘No one is buying NFTs right now.

No one saw the floor price of a 10,000 profile picture collection created by renowned Hong Kong director Stephen Chow drop by more than 70% last month.

According to data from OpenSea, the lowest floor price of Nobody NFT is currently at 0.22 Ether (ETH), down from a high of 0.99 ETH on February 5th.

Despite continued promotions, including autobiographies from Chow himself, benefits for NFT holders in his upcoming new movie, and collaborations with famous artists, traction stalled after the initial launch boost saw that no one NFTs traded more than 10,000 Ether.

In the year On February 8th, Hong Kong entertainment platform 9GAG founder and CEO Ray Chan bought the rare “Monkey King” Nobody NFT for 19.52 Ether, or a 3,155% premium to the collector's floor price. Currently, the highest price for the property is 0.63 Ether.

No more Bruce Lee NFTs?

The underperforming NFT set after the bull run, which has been mainly speculative and exhilarating, is nobody. In April 2023, the Bruce Lee Foundation, led by the kung fu icon's daughter Shannon Lee, partnered with NFT Video Platform Shibuya to launch the Lee House Collection to celebrate the life and work of Bruce Lee. Despite the initial buzz, the set lost 87% of its highs measured in ether.

NFTs are billed as “your ticket home,” reportedly the first phase of an ongoing Web3 collaboration. However, there have been no other NFT initiatives launched by the Bruce Lee Foundation since the Genesis Collection.

The Platypus Rollercoaster for Wassies

Another example of a boost that subsequently reduced the reaction was Wassies By Wassies, a platypus-themed NFT profile praised by DeFi researcher ZachXBT. Last year, Wases launched a pop-up hotel in Singapore, followed by a meme-token climate announcement for NFT holders later this year. As a result, the price of WASI Avatars has increased from 0.33 ETH each to 2.5 ETH.

However, after the weather snapshots of Wasi NFT holders were taken, the price dropped to around 0.75 Ether (still a good return for those who bought it earlier).

From 2020 to 2021, NFTs reached a record $1 billion in total monthly trading volume. Although the pullback has recovered as part of an ongoing crypto bull market, they are not at their all-time highs.

Baybit was reprimanded in Hong Kong

It's been a busy week for Hong Kong crypto firms and regulators.

On March 14, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) placed crypto exchange Bybit and 11 of its investment products on its official investment warning list, including futures, options, leveraged tokens, stocks, loans and others.

“The SFC is concerned that these products are offered to Hong Kong investors and would like to clarify whether any entity within the Bybit Group is authorized by the SFC or registered to carry out any ‘regulated activity' in Hong Kong. The moderator wrote:

In Hong Kong, crypto-related products may be ‘futures contracts' or ‘securities' under the SFO and, if so, trading and/or marketing these products – whether in Hong Kong or targeting Hong Kong investors – constitutes a ‘regulated activity' and is exempt unless They require approval from the SFC. Carrying out controlled activities without a license is a criminal offence.

In February, Baybit's subsidiary Spark Fintech Limited applied for a retail crypto trading license with the SFC. However, the parent company is not currently registered to operate in Hong Kong. In the year

Hong Kong's ‘in-kind' Bitcoin ETFs

Meanwhile, Gary Tiu, an executive at the licensed Hong Kong crypto exchange OSL, explained that a Bitcoin ETF in Hong Kong may have a fundamentally different structure than their American counterparts.

In a March 14 Bloomberg interview, TU Hong Kong's operating model “allows the fund to receive BTC directly from subscribers” and pay Bitcoin “directly to investors in the case of redemption”, which reduces transaction execution costs. Tiu said:

“So I think we should expect the level of support that we've seen from Hong Kong product providers and the overall ecosystem to be a very competitive market maker in Hong Kong. The investors.

When asked about the prospects for an Ethereum spot ETF, the blockchain executive said the US has yet to approve any product in such an environment.

“I think there is more global competition as to who can come to market with the first product,” he added, “Being first to market will be critical for players investing now.” in that place. As of January 29, the Hong Kong SFC has accepted the first spot Bitcoin ETF application from Chinese asset manager Harvest.

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Zhiyuan Sun

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