This weekly roundup of reports from Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong makes an attempt to curate the trade’s most necessary information, together with influential tasks, adjustments within the regulatory panorama and enterprise blockchain integrations.
Olympic battle
After months of writing in regards to the relentless actions of the Chinese language authorities, this week we lead with a narrative from the US authorities. On July 19, three U.S. senators signed a letter addressed to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, requesting that U.S. athletes not use the digital yuan in February’s Winter Olympic Video games in Beijing. The logic was that the digital forex could be traceable after the athletes returned to the U.S., in case China was serious about monitoring international biathletes and bobsledders of their offseason coaching regimens.
China’s Overseas Ministry spokesperson, Zhao Lijian, snapped back that the senators “ought to cease making troubles” and “work out what a digital forex actually is.” Zhao apparently believes that the U.S. lawmakers won’t be up-to-date on the most recent in expertise, one thing the crypto fans on Twitter have been bemoaning for years.
All sarcasm apart, this factors to a rising development of customers being caught in geopolitical struggles round expertise, which may grow to be a a lot bigger challenge as central financial institution digital currencies, or CBDCs, grow to be extra prevalent. Customers can select to keep away from sure {hardware} or apps that present an information safety danger, however avoiding the native forex can be a way more troublesome option to make. Money use has dropped to a negligible quantity in China, with the majority of every day transactions being digital by way of Alipay and WeChat. Touring or residing in China with out touching the digital forex can be an enormous inconvenience, and one more likely to not go over nicely with future generations.
Main the pack
On July 19, Cointelegraph reported that Chinese language Bitcoin miners had earned close to $7 billion dollars in the past year, 10 occasions greater than miners within the second-highest nation, the US. This development is likely to be damaged up barely by the regulatory crackdown this yr however nonetheless reveals the affect China has on the trade, particularly if giant Chinese language firms can proceed to arrange operations in neighboring international locations.
Chinese language volumes bounce again
Volumes on Chinese exchanges Huobi and OKEx rebounded barely in contrast with the identical time final week, together with on the derivatives aspect the place the 2 exchanges made up round 44% of Binance’s quantity, in contrast with solely 38.7% on the similar time the week earlier than. Gaming token Axie Infinity’s AXS remained a sizzling token for buying and selling and was the fourth-most traded token on Huobi on Thursday behind BTC, ETH and DOGE. Precise gameplay hasn’t actually taken off in China, and despite the fact that the positioning stays unblocked by the Nice Firewall to date, visits to the web site are nonetheless scarce. Customers from the Philippines make up 40% of web site guests, whereas China accounted for lower than 3%. China boasts the biggest gaming neighborhood on this planet, however tight restrictions on cryptocurrencies are more likely to restrict the expansion of public blockchain-based gaming in the intervening time. Speculating on gaming-related tokens, nonetheless, will possible stay a powerful development.
It’s price noting that within the quick time period, the laws looming on the horizon make betting on exchanges a dangerous proposition. Many rumors have swirled about upcoming motion to be taken by Chinese language regulators, notably for repeat offenders within the space. Regulators in smaller international locations appear to be ready to see who will throw the primary punch.
Nonfungible fossils
Hong Kong’s most distinguished newspaper South China Morning Submit is launching an NFT platform geared toward historic information and objects. This platform will let verified issuers mint and commerce NFTs in an open market. This could enchantment to a broader viewers of collectors and non-crypto-native customers in Southeast Asia, in addition to a authorities serious about exporting mushy energy to the world.
