No civil protection for crypto in China, $300K to list coins in Hong Kong? Asia Express – Cointelegraph Magazine

Our weekly roundup of East Asia news features a selection of the most important developments in the industry.

A hot week for Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing

Hashkey Exchange – one of the first regulated cryptocurrency exchanges in Hong Kong – declare Provides insurance for client assets stored in hot and cold wallets. account. The policy will cover 50% of Hashkey’s cold wallet digital assets and 100% of its hot wallet digital assets. In the event of a claim, the compensation amount will be between US$50 million and US$400 million.

Hashkey’s partnership with fintech OneDegree will also jointly develop novel cryptographic security solutions for the exchange to manage server outages, data backup and load control. Livio Wang, Chief Operating Officer of Hashkey Group, said: “Obtaining OneInfinity’s insurance through OneDegree not only meets the requirements of the Securities and Futures Commission, we believe this cooperation can also enhance our financial, technical and service infrastructure to provide comprehensive protection for our customers. .”

Wang also revealed that the exchange plans to submit four major altcoins to the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission for listing approval. Since obtaining its license in August, Hashkey has had more than 120,000 customers and a cumulative transaction volume of more than $10 billion.

BC Technology Group, owner of another licensed exchange called OSL, announced a $91 million strategic investment from BGX Cryptocurrency Group. BGX CEO Patrick Pan called the investment “a strategic move that reflects our belief in the huge potential of the digital asset market.” Last month, Bloomberg reported that BC Technology Group was seeking to spin off OSL Exchange for $128 million. , but the company denied it at the time.

Despite the growing popularity of Hong Kong cryptocurrency exchanges, the barriers to entry for users and token developers appear to be high.in a announcement On November 15, Hashkey said that token developers must pay a non-refundable application fee of $10,000 to list their tokens or tokens on the exchange.

Hashkey also warned that if the listing process is approved, plus due diligence or consulting fees, the developer’s expected total cost will be $50,000 to $300,000.

The neighborhood has a new beginning.

Crypto media publication The Block has received a US$60 million investment from Singapore-based venture capital firm Foresight Ventures, accounting for 80% of its equity, but will still operate as an independent company.

as Tell CEO Larry Cermak said on November 13 that the deal “gives The Block a fresh start ahead of the bull market and provides us with additional capital to develop exciting new products and expand our The footprint has expanded to Asia and the Middle East.”

Foresight Ventures CEO Forrest Bai told Cointelegraph, “The acquisition of The Block marks an important milestone and significantly strengthens Foresight Ventures’ position in the cryptocurrency space.”

Last year, The Block became embroiled when current CEO Mike McCaffrey took out a multimillion-dollar loan from FTX founder and convicted felon Sam Bankman-Fried FTX Scandal. Most of the money was used to buy out his shares. The Block reportedly laid off 33% of its employees due to the overall market downturn and the fallout from the incident.

China has no civil protections for cryptocurrencies

A third Chinese court has declared a cryptocurrency investment contract invalid, arguing that cryptocurrencies violate the spirit of the cryptocurrency ban and are therefore not protected by the law, at least in civil disputes.

as narrative On November 14, the People’s Court of Zhuanhe City, Liaoning Province found that the plaintiff Wang Ping lent Tether (USDT) equivalent to US$552,300 to his friend Zhao Bin for investment in altcoins in 2022. This transaction caused heavy losses to Wang Ping. , leading them to subsequently file a lawsuit seeking the return of their principal. The defendant Zhao refused to accept the decision.

At trial, the presiding judge ruled that the plaintiff was not entitled to judicial relief because trading between cryptocurrencies was classified as an “illegal activity.” Therefore, all “virtual currencies and related derivatives violate public order and good customs, and the relevant civil legal actions are invalid, and the resulting losses shall be borne by them themselves.”

“Virtual currency does not have the same legal status as legal currency. Virtual currency-related business activities are illegal financial activities. Overseas virtual currency exchanges provide services to Chinese residents through the Internet, which is also an illegal financial activity.”

The ruling follows other precedents set by Chinese civil courts earlier this year. Recently, however, the Chinese government clarified that certain crimes related to virtual currencies, such as theft of non-fungible tokens, can be prosecuted under criminal law. China has implemented a cryptocurrency ban since 2021.

Philippines to issue tokenized bonds

The Philippine Department of Finance (BTr) is seeking to raise the equivalent of US$180 million from domestic capital markets through the issuance of tokenized bonds.

as declare On November 16, the tokenized bonds are one-year, fixed-rate government securities that pay semi-annual coupons to institutional investors starting next week. The bonds will be issued in the form of digital tokens and held on BTr’s decentralized ledger technology (DLT) registry. “As part of the national government’s roadmap for the digitization of government securities, TTB’s initial issuance aims to provide a proof of concept for the wider use of DLT in the government bond market,” the agency said.

In July, Cointelegraph reported that the non-profit Philippine Blockchain Council partnered with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to promote the adoption of Web3 in the Southeast Asian country. These organizations will work to educate and collaborate with local stakeholders within the Philippine blockchain ecosystem, including government agencies, Web3 developers, and civil society.

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Zhiyuan Sun

Sun Zhiyuan is a reporter at Cointelegraph, focusing on technology-related news. He has many years of experience writing for major financial media including The Motley Fool, Nasdaq.com and Seeking Alpha.