This weekly roundup of reports from Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong makes an attempt to curate the business’s most vital 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 US senators signed a letter addressed to the to U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, requesting US athletes not use the e-CNY in February’s Winter Olympic video games in Beijing. The logic was that the digital foreign money can be traceable after the athletes returned to the US, in case China was desirous about monitoring international bi-athletes and bobsledders of their offseason coaching regiments.
China’s International Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian snapped again that the senators “ought to cease making troubles” and “work out what a digital foreign money actually is.” Zhao apparently believes that the US lawmakers may not be up-to-date on the newest in expertise, one thing the crypto-enthusiasts on Twitter have been bemoaning for years.
All sarcasm apart, this factors to a rising pattern of shoppers being caught in geo-political struggles round expertise, which may develop into a a lot bigger difficulty as CBDCs develop into extra prevalent. Customers can select to keep away from sure {hardware} or apps that present an information safety threat, however avoiding the native foreign money will likely be a way more tough option to make. Money use has dropped to a negligible quantity in China, with the majority of every day transactions being digital by Alipay and WeChat. Touring or dwelling in China with out touching the digital foreign money will likely be an enormous inconvenience, and one prone to not go over effectively with future generations.
Main the pack
On July 19, Cointelegraph reported that Chinese language Bitcoin miners had earned near $7 billion {dollars} previously 12 months, ten instances greater than miners within the second highest nation, the US. This pattern could be damaged up barely by the regulatory crackdown this 12 months, however nonetheless reveals the affect China has on the business, particularly if massive Chinese language firms can proceed to arrange operations in neighboring international locations.
Chinese language volumes bounce again
Volumes on Chinese language exchanges Huobi and OKEx rebounded barely in comparison with the identical time final week, together with on the derivatives facet the place the 2 exchanges made up round 44% of Binance’s quantity, in comparison with solely 38.7% on the identical time the week earlier than. Gaming token Axie Infinity remained a scorching 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 although 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 most important gaming group on the earth, however tight restrictions on cryptocurrencies is prone to restrict the expansion of public blockchain-based gaming in the intervening time. Speculating on gaming-related tokens, nonetheless, will possible stay a robust pattern.
It’s value noting that within the brief time period, the rules looming on the horizon makes betting on exchanges a dangerous proposition. Many rumors have swirled about upcoming motion to be taken by Chinese language regulators, significantly for repeat offenders within the space. Regulators in smaller international locations appear to be ready to see who will throw the primary punch.
Non-fungible fossils
Hong Kong’s most outstanding 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 attraction to a broader viewers of collectors and non-crypto native customers in Southeast Asia, in addition to a authorities desirous about exporting comfortable energy to the world.
