Top Asia Crypto News from Oct 7–10th

Singapore help crypto firms w/ local bank accounts; 74% hashrt controlled by Chinese pools; Japan corp launches stablecoin

What Crypto insiders are reading on Asia.

Top News in Asia from Monday to Wednesday

An interesting whitepaper published by Princeton/Florida researchers points that 74% of the hashrate on the Bitcoin network is in Chinese-managed mining pools. http://bit.ly/2yt8bMx

China’s government-backed organization is working to release three blockchain standards on smart contracts, privacy and deposits, in order to better guide the development of the blockchain industry in China: http://bit.ly/2ytrxBk

Japan’s GMO Internet Group to launch yen-pegged stablecoin in 2019 to target international remittances: http://bit.ly/2C7msC7

Korea messaging giant Kakao Corp releases blockchain platform testnet ahead of Q1 2019 launch: http://bit.ly/2ywTZ56

Binance to delist Bytecoin, CHAT, Iconomi and TRIG, sending all of them crashing: http://bit.ly/2yvHdDZ

Singapore’s financial regulator is willing to lend a hand to cryptocurrency firms having problems setting up local bank accounts, but doesn’t plan to loosen its rules to lure more crypto startups to the country: http://bit.ly/2yt5EC1

India government- “we are evaluating the government-backed cryptocurrency and crypto-token”. http://bit.ly/2yvKseD

Deals and Funds

Dragonfly Capital Partners is a new $100 million VC fund looking to help crypto start-up’s bridge China and Silicon Valley: http://bit.ly/2ybPYUy

Binance Labs invests millions in blockchain auditing platform CertiK, specific amount not disclosed: http://bit.ly/2yxsDvB

a16zcrypto, Accel, Binance Labs, Pantera Capital and Polychain Capital join Oasis in launching the Oasis Startup Hub to advance developers building privacy-first applications: http://bit.ly/2yt8W8k

Coin and Token News

Terra aims to push for greater use of stablecoins through e-commerce by forming a partnership with leading e-commerce platforms in Asia to leverage on the platforms’ large and ever-growing transaction volume: http://bit.ly/2ypOkOi

XRP could be the first in the cryptocurrency history being adopted as the official currency of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. http://bit.ly/2yqZeU0

Republic Protocol held a $34m ICO. How its 22yo CEO runs it: http://bit.ly/2yrYJZZ

DAG-based distributed ledger Perlin has made its testnet alpha available for private testing: http://bit.ly/2yt3xOB

Pundi X, which develops blockchain-based payment devices, have created the world’s first blockchain-based mobile phone called ‘XPhone’. http://bit.ly/2ywYBbq

Exchange News

Digibyte founder Jared Tate lashes out at Binance’s listing fees: http://bit.ly/2OUajae

Bitfinex now has the second-richest tether wallet: http://bit.ly/2ydPOvQ

First fiat-to-cryptocurrency exchange called EurekaPro is set to launch in Singapore:http://bit.ly/2ILhgoI

South Korean National Police Agency has produced a report of all hacking incidents in last 3 years; a total of 7 crypto exchanges and 158 wallets hacked: http://bit.ly/2yqKkgD

Regulation News

Taiwan lawmaker has proposed an amendment to the nation’s Money Laundering Control Act to cover cryptocurrencies: http://bit.ly/2C6nj5W

Thailand to study blockchain for applications in intellectual property and trade finance:http://bit.ly/2IOne8j

China man gets 3.5 years in jail for stealing train power to mine Bitcoin: http://bit.ly/2ywK53o

Business News

China’s Hainan Province became the host of the country’s “first” officially licensed “‘blockchain pilot zone”: http://bit.ly/2QFdTSX

Number of compromised routers in India doubled, reaching almost 30,000: http://bit.ly/2OfdsCj

Korean food giant Nongshim’s subsidiary taps block chain for end-to-end traceability of beef:http://bit.ly/2C9hp4d

In case you missed it

Our New Podcast with Jason Fang from Sora Ventures is Out!

In this new episode, Joyce Yang from Global Coin Research is joined by Jason Fang, Managing Partner at Sora Ventures, an Asia-based venture capital firm focused on blockchain and crypto investments. The mission of the fund to invest in entrepreneurs who can make positive changes in our world using blockchain technology. Their investments include Thunder, Urbit, Mithril, Alphaslot and more.

Additionally, the Sora Summit will be taken place in Macau on Nov 13–14th. Listen to Jason in the podcast at 28:41on why the Summit will be taken place in Macau and checkout the great line-up of speakers and attendees.

Use Discount Code SORAMEDIA2018 to get 80% off

Jason was one of the earliest employees at Fenbushi Capital and started Sora Ventures when Mainland China banned ICOs in 2017. When I initially spoke to Jason, I’ve found him to be very thoughtful and his investing approach to be very unique amongst crypto investors that I’ve met. In our conversation, we talk about how Sora invests in crypto projects, Jason’s outlook for the crypto space, and his perspectives on crypto developments in the East and the West.

Time and Topics discussed in Our Interview

1:24- Introduction to Jason, Sora Venture, and his background3:59- how did Sora Ventures get started after China banned ICOs6:09- why Sora doesn’t invest in Chinese projects despite being headquartered in Shanghai, China7:55- how Sora think about investing in the blockchain and crypto space19:46- why do you like the reverse-ICOs model?21:34- metrics to benchmark the success of reverse-ICOs22:54- is the blockchain space between Asia and the West going to merge?28:41- Checkout the upcoming Sora Summit on Nov 13–14th, use SORAMEDIA2018 to get 80% off to tickets33:06- Current fund environment in Asia and how many funds have stopped investing in crypto34:47- Where do you see the winners coming out of in Crypto?35:20- Practical approaches to thoughtful investing

You can also read Jason’s thoughts on his medium articles here, in where he lays out Sora’s investment thesis and his outlook on Asia:Sora Ventures’ Philosophy to Blockchain InvestmentsUnderstanding Chinese Crypto Investors

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