Google Sues Crypto App Fraudster Crypto.com In Korea: Asia Express
9 months ago Benito Santiago
East Asia's weekly news roundup reviews the industry's most important developments.
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Alphabet's Google subsidiary has sued two Chinese nationals living in mainland China in federal court in New York for allegedly using Google Play to promote and distribute fraudulent crypto apps.
Fraudulent apps, including the TionRT exchange on Google Play, have been downloaded more than 100,000 times by individuals depositing money into the app and seeing refunds.
Google says it is the first tech company to take action against fraudsters and hopes to set a legal precedent. The lawsuit alleges that the defendants “made numerous misrepresentations in order to upload their fraudulent apps to Google Play, including but not limited to their identity, location, and the type and nature of the app being uploaded.”
It is also filing breach-of-contract claims under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act and Google Play against the group, which it claims has published at least 87 crypto scam apps.
It named Yunfeng Sun, aka Alphonse Sun, and Hongnam Cheung, aka Zhang Hongnim or Stanford Fischer as the perpetrators, who allegedly lured victims into downloading Google Voice text message campaigns, videos on YouTube and affiliate marketing schemes.
It remains to be seen whether Google will be able to impose sanctions on the individuals involved. Currently, there is no reciprocal law enforcement agreement between the US and China, which means that even if the prosecution is intensified, Chinese authorities are under no obligation to enforce it in their territory.
Crypto.com, a popular crypto exchange with more than 80 million users worldwide, will arrive in South Korea at the end of the month. According to The Korea Economic Daily, Crypto.com will launch on April 29 and will initially only feature coin-to-coin transactions and non-tethered tokens. As part of the app's launch and in compliance with regulations, Crypto.com has issued 30- Daily notice to users of the OK-BIT platform that the Crypto.com app is discontinuing its service when it goes live.
The company's ultimate goal is to expand the Korean won to crypto market for consumers through fiat. However, the country's regulators are very strict in implementing crypto laws. To conduct a fiat-to-crypto exchange in Korea, an entity must be on board with a local bank as a remittance partner, undergo regular financial audits, and comply with all customer and anti-money laundering requirements.
“Our goal is to review this and support winning transactions in accordance with the Virtual Asset User Protection Act, which will soon take effect in July,” said Patrick Yoon, CEO of Crypto.com Korea.
A Hong Kong gaming company has invested another 1 million dollars into crypto
Hong Kong gaming company Boyaa Interactive, which pledged to invest $200 million last year, will partner with Pacific Waterdrip Digital Asset Fund SPC for a $1 million investment into projects related to metaverse, imperishable tokens and blockchain infrastructure.
The board of directors believes that this investment and cooperation will further enhance the group's business growth and positioning in the Web3 field. It also suggests that the group will further strengthen and work in the Web3 field. Using the group's rich experience in the Internet gaming field and Hong Kong's new Web3 policy, the clean And take advantage of good opportunities to create a leading listed Web3 company.
Boya's partner in the initiative, Waterdrip Investments, has a portfolio of more than 150 Web3 projects, such as Canadian-licensed crypto exchange Virgok, digital assets custodian Safeheron, and Bitcoin Layer-2 solution Merlin Chain.
Bitcoin L2 solution confirms the partnership with the company listed in Hong Kong
Sinohope, a Hong Kong stock exchange-listed crypto watchdog founded by Huobi co-founder Jun Du, partnered with Bitcoin layer 2 solution Merlin Chain on April 4 to improve the security of Bitcoin scaling solutions.
Sinohope's Bitcoin Layer 2 shared management solution enables multilateral shared security for Bitcoin and BRC-20 tokens via Wallet-as-a-Service (WAS). Meanwhile, Merlin Chain will help Sinohope's Bitcoin and BRC-20 tokens to Sinohope's WaaS and improve the security of the fund.
Created by Bitcoin ecosystem developer Bitmap, Merlin Chain allows Bitcoin, BRC-20, Ordinals, Atomicals and BRC-420 Metaverse assets to be exchanged between volatile and volatile tokens and is also Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible. The protocol has attracted more than $3.5 billion in total locked-in value since its launch in January.
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Hokoku Bank launches Japan's first deposit-based stablecoin
Bank of Japan Hokoku launched the country's first deposit-enabled stablecoin on April 1. The token was named “Tochituka” based on customers' deposits in bank accounts registered with Hokoku at a 1:1 ratio against the Japanese yen. The Tochituka stablecoin can be used in Suzu City's Ishikawa Prefecture with a 0.5% bank-imposed processing fee and a monthly account fee of 110 yen ($0.73).
“Users can send Tochituka to each other,” Hokoku wrote. “Furthermore, we plan to implement the function of individual money transfer by the end of 2024. We will also promote services in cooperation with other financial institutions and create favorable conditions for using each other's services in areas across the country.”
The bank plans to expand the adoption of Statcoin to other municipalities and provinces.
Singaporean gaming company Web3 has raised $10 million
Web3 gaming firm Gamble has raised a total of $10 million in funding from Spartan, Hashed, IOSG Ventures, Foresight Ventures and Big Brain Holdings as it raises in a round led by Binance starting in 2023. Labs and Animoka Brands.
Gobble aims to establish a “self-sustaining economy” where players can generate revenue based on user participation and participate in game development through its decentralized, autonomous organization.
The company has developed a total of 12 games on Google Play and the App Store. One such game, Copy Runner, takes place in which users use a simple touch system to navigate a dynamic cityscape and earn rewards. After completing daily tasks from various games, players can convert their scores into token incentives after submitting their scores to the Gomble Games main site.
Hong Kong Asset Manager Visits Bitcoin ETF App
Value Partners, a Hong Kong investment firm with $5.6 billion in assets under management, is looking to launch a Bitcoin ETF space to meet investor demand. As stated in the annual report issued on April 2:
“We are also looking for new product ideas for our ETF brands. In January 2024, we signed a memorandum of understanding with a licensed Hong Kong digital asset management company to discuss launching a Bitcoin spot ETF in the city to provide investors with the world's largest portfolio of digital assets.”
The company did not say who the crypto custodian partner is or when it plans to file for a Bitcoin ETF. In a March 26 post by Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, the analyst explained that Hong Kong's financial regulators may offer some sort of creation models for where bitcoin is located. .
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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.
