KuCoin Desperate $10 Million Airdrop, 1 Tweet Paid $37 Million For Memecoin: Asia Express

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

KuCoin drops $10 million after US SDNY lawsuit

Cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin is shelling out $10 million in Bitcoin and its native KCS to convince users to follow the exchange after a criminal indictment by prosecutors in the US Southern District of New York, as well as a civil lawsuit filed by US products. Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

KuCoin CEO Johnny Liu said, “I want to express my gratitude to all KuCoin users for your support, trust and partnership over the past few days and over the past seven years. As always, follow the guidelines to fulfill our commitment.

The announcement comes a day after KuCoin users withdrew more than $1 billion after news of a lawsuit against the exchange delayed. Liu said:

“Recently, on March 26 and 27, some users experienced longer than expected delays in the checkout process. As ‘Public Exchange' we feel deeply responsible for this problem and would like to sincerely apologize.

The exchange currently has a total of $5 billion in assets, down from $6.3 billion earlier in the week. The exchange, which is primarily based in Singapore and China, has been accused by the US Department of Justice and the CFTC of operating as an unlicensed money transmitter in the US and failing to comply with the Know Your Customer system to prevent money laundering.

“KuCoin intentionally failed to maintain the required AML and KYC programs, and KuCoin served as a vehicle to disguise large amounts of criminal proceeds, including proceeds from the dark market and malware, ransomware, and fraud schemes,” prosecutors said. In the year Since its inception in 2017, KuCoin has received over $5 billion and remitted over $4 billion in suspicious and criminal proceeds.

Kucoin's co-founders, Chun Gan and Ke Tang, both Chinese, are still in power.

“We are aware of the related reports and are currently investigating the details through our lawyers,” the exchange wrote in response to the ongoing allegations.

Taiwanese celebrity raised $37M from Solana memecoin presale

Taiwanese musician and blockchain entrepreneur Jeffrey Huang, commonly known as “Machi Big Brother,” has raised $37.5 million from Solana's memecoin BobaPopa presale. As of March 28, investors have apparently sent more than 200,000 SOL to a pre-sale address based on a Twitter account from the Bobaoppa project, which does not have an official website at the time of publication.

“My son is taking his talent to Solana,” wrote Huang, who promoted the presale. “At least 1 SOL – don't send from an exchange,” he continued. The Solana memecoin craze continues to take the crypto world by storm, raising $149.2 million from 33 pre-sales in the past few weeks alone. Even Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko warned investors to stop participating in the ongoing meme phenomenon.

Tencent Cloud adds support for Sui

Chinese internet conglomerate Tencent As of March 28th, it has added support for the Layer-1 Sui blockchain remote calling system.

With the partnership, Sui developers can use Tencent Cloud RPC to help create decentralized applications within the Sui ecosystem. Launched in September, Tencent RPC is available for $10 per month and supports major blockchains such as Ethereum, BNB Chain, Polygon, Solana and others.

Another crypto exchange has been approved in Hong Kong

Hong Kong crypto exchange HKbitEX has received approval in principle from the city's Securities and Futures Commission to facilitate crypto transactions. As announced by HKbitEX on March 28, the scope of approved activities includes Bitcoin trading, Ethereum trading and securities tokens.

“Pioneer Asset Management Limited (Pioneer), a sister company of HKbitEX, was licensed to manage up to 100% virtual asset portfolios last year,” he wrote. “In September of the same year, it took the lead in issuing STO, Hong Kong's first tokenized retail real estate fund, and became the first company authorized by the Securities Regulatory Commission in Hong Kong.”

With the new approval, Taiji Capital, the parent company of HKbitEX, has launched five token projects, allowing it to offer secondary markets for secure tokens. Dr. Gao Han, CEO of HKbitEX, said, “In the future, users can use STO as a stable coin to trade on the platform to achieve faster settlement of silver and commodity certificates (T+0 DvP), improve transaction efficiency and reduce settlement risks. , added.

Upbit earned $751 million in revenue last year

South Korea's largest crypto exchange operator reported revenue of 1.0135 trillion won ($751 million) in 2023, down 19% from 2022, amid an ongoing cryptocurrency bear market that stretched well into Q3 2023.

However, Dunamu's net profit rose 515 percent to 805 billion won ($595 million).

News 1 Korea reported on March 28 that Dunamu is now required to conduct external audits, along with quarterly and half-yearly financial reports published on the country's cryptocurrency exchanges. On January 9, the exchange received a major payments institution license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, allowing it to offer crypto-fiat services to Singapore residents without daily or monthly transaction limits.

China reiterates zero civil law protections for crypto users

Chinese authorities have emphasized that crypto investors have no recourse in the country's civil law courts in the event of fraud or lost investment.

In a March 28 warning issued by the Shenzhen City Financial Regulatory Authority against derivatives exchange DDO Digital Options, the regulator warned that DDO's efforts to launch a native token and offer cryptocurrency derivatives would violate a series of anti-crypto laws published in September 2021. The country's “Bitcoin ban” also wrote the Financial Administration Authority of Shenzhen City.

“There are legal risks involved in virtual currency investment and business activities. If any legal person, unorganized organization or natural person invests in virtual currency and related derivatives and violates public order and good morals, the relevant civil legal actions will be invalid, resulting in the loss itself.” A person will be covered.

“We would like to remind the public that virtual currency does not have a clear value. Although China prohibits the circulation of digital assets through the country's fiat financial system, direct ownership of cryptocurrencies is still legal, although there is no legal protection in the event of a cause of action,” said a Shenzhen City Financial Administration official.

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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.