Our weekly roundup of East Asian news highlights the most important developments in the industry.
Thailand’s cryptocurrency UBI
Thailand may soon conduct a nationwide airdrop, with every citizen aged 16 and over receiving 10,000 baht ($285).
According to local news reports Report On August 30, Thailand’s ruling party, the Pheu Thai Party, will negotiate with the Bank of Thailand to develop the “Utility 1” tokens required for airdrops. The solution will be a blockchain-based know-your-customer (KYC) infrastructure, which sources say will take at least six months to roll out. There will also be a fee of THB 100 per user for the KYC process. In addition, the solution needs approval from the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission.
Real estate developer and cryptocurrency investor Sretha Thavisin was elected the current prime minister of Thailand on Aug. 22.During the campaign, Taveshin promised If elected, a basic income stimulus of 10,000 baht per person will be provided through “digital currency”. In 2021, Thavisin’s company Sansiri bought a 15% stake in Thai asset tokenization provider X Spring for 1.6 billion baht ($45.7 million).
The Thai Development Institute stated that the Thavisin airdrop will be funded from taxes in fiscal year 2024. The total budget for the project is estimated at 560 billion baht (US$16 billion).
However, airdrops are not equivalent to fiat baht funding. According to reports, users can only spend digital tokens within four kilometers of their residences. The tokens are only valid for six months and cannot be exchanged for cash or used to pay off debts. Tawishin’s government is expected to take office at the end of September.
Delio user assets are halved
More bad news is on the horizon for users of struggling South Korean bitcoin lender Delio.
According to local news reports Report On Aug. 30, the South Korean crypto lending giant, which holds more than $1.2 billion in bitcoin and ether, expected a return on assets of only 50% to 70%. On June 14, Delio suspended deposits and withdrawals after disclosing significant counterparty risk at South Korean bitcoin lender Haru Invest.
Haru Invest also suspended deposits and withdrawals on June 13 after its operator, B&S Holdings, was accused of fraudulent activity. Haru Invest is currently in bankruptcy proceedings. Likewise, Delio is currently under investigation by the country’s regulator over allegations of fraud, embezzlement and breach of trust. The platform previously announced that withdrawals would resume, but has since provided no update on the timeline.
Vietnam’s booming cryptocurrency market
Vietnam currently ranks first in the world in terms of cryptocurrency adoption, with a whopping 19% of its adult population aged 18-64 using digital assets.
This is according to a post on August 30 Report Created by Vietnamese venture capital firm Kyros Ventures and Coin 68 and Animoca Brands. Currently, the Southeast Asian country has about 200 blockchain projects and is expected to generate $109.4 million in revenue from cryptocurrency exchanges this year. Cryptocurrency users in the country are expected to grow to 12.37 million by 2027.
One of the bright spots was that 76 percent of Vietnamese cryptocurrency users said they invested in digital assets based on the advice of their friends, which is 2.5 times the number of respondents in the United States. Nearly 70% of respondents said the cryptocurrency bear market will last less than a year or is over. Nearly half of the respondents said that centralized exchanges provide as much utility as decentralized exchanges, yet 90% of cryptocurrency owners use decentralized exchanges.
Binance Japan to List 100 Tokens
On Aug. 30, Binance Japan CEO Tsuyoshi Chino held an online business presentation to discuss the exchange’s domestic expansion strategy. Chino said during the meeting that Binance Japan will seek to list 100 coins and tokens “as soon as possible.”
local news Report Note that Binance Japan currently offers cryptocurrency spot trading as well as a staking “Easy Yield” program. Margin trading is currently not available unless the exchange has a regulatory license. The presentation also revealed that its parent exchange, Binance, has more than 150 million users and an average daily trading volume of $65 billion. Earlier this year, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase ceased operations in Japan, citing difficult market conditions.
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Airdrop of 15 million yuan in Shenzhen
Officials in the city of Shenzhen pledged to airdrop $15 million ($2.1 million) over the next three years for the municipal e-renminbi at a government-sponsored conference on the promotion of the yuan central bank digital currency (e-CNY CBDC). Wei Binquan, vice-president of the Shenzhen branch of the Agricultural Bank of China, noted that during trials, the e-renminbi has proven to be an efficient way to obtain consumer transaction receipts through its immutable distributed ledger technology:
“The platform (our e-CNY CBDC) currently has more than 200 merchants, covering 11 key industries such as education and training, catering, pet services, elderly care, and sports.”
China’s central government has been heavily promoting an e-renminbi CBDC as a means of stimulating the country’s struggling economy amid a looming recession. The latest figures show that the value of CBDC has exceeded $123 billion. cumulative transaction From 2021, the test centers will cover 17 provinces and 26 districts.
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