Our weekly roundup of news from East Asia curates the industry’s most important developments. Bitcoin’s day of glory on Chinese TikTok On Apr. 10, Douyin, the version of Tiktok exclusive to Chinese users, began publishing price quotes related to Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum (ETH), Dogecoin (DOGE), and Ripple (XRP). The move
Bitcoin
Chinese authorities have fined leading crypto mining hardware manufacturer Bitmain for tax-related violations, local media reported. The penalty comes amid increasing tax checks in the digital asset sector, according to information from the crypto community. Bitmain Fined for Failing to Pay Income Tax on Behalf of Employees One of the world’s largest producers of devices
On April 11, European cryptocurrency investment firm CoinShares published its latest “Digital Asset Fund Flows Report,” revealing that digital asset investment products experienced positive sentiment with inflows totaling $57 million last week, bringing inflows back to a net positive position year-to-date. However, despite this, “volumes were low at $970 million for the week,” and the
FTX Debtors said on April 9 that it had released a report that “identifies and discusses control failures” by Sam Bankman-Fried and his colleagues when they ran the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange. John Ray, the CEO of the FTX Debtors, said the FTX Group “was tightly controlled by a small group of individuals who falsely claimed
Bitcoin (BTC) layer 2 scaling solution Lightning may feature on the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase in some capacity, according to its chief Brian Armstrong. In a tweet on April 8, Armstrong said that “Lightning is great and something we’ll integrate” in response to a tweet criticizing him for “actively ignoring” the network. My tweets auto-delete after
Looksrare, the non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace, has launched version two, also known as v2, which reduces protocol fees by 75%. According to statistics from Dune Analytics, Looksrare was the tenth-largest NFT marketplace in terms of trader count during the past week. NFT Market Protocol Looksrare Launches v2 NFT marketplace Looksrare announced the launch of version
Despite regulatory pressure and worsening macroeconomic conditions, Bitcoin (BTC) demonstrated bullishness holding near $28,000 for the past week. Furthermore, professional traders have maintained leveraged long positions on margin and in futures markets, indicating strength. On the regulatory front, on April 4, the Texas Senate Committee on Business and Commerce agreed to move forward and remove
On April 6, 2023, Bitcoin’s difficulty rose 2.23% higher at block height 784,224, touching another all-time high. It’s the fourth consecutive difficulty increase on the Bitcoin network since Feb. 24, and the protocol’s current difficulty is 47.89 trillion, which is only 2.11 trillion away from reaching the 50 trillion range. Bitcoin Difficulty Jumps 2.23% Higher
Satoshi Nakamoto’s original white paper laying out the Bitcoin (BTC) network is seemingly hiding within every modern version of the operating system for Apple’s Mac computers. An April 5 blog post from technologist Andy Baio revealed that a PDF of the Bitcoin white paper has “apparently shipped with every copy of macOS since Mojave in
According to a message from Paxful Founder and CEO, Ray Youssef, the peer-to-peer bitcoin trading platform is suspending its marketplace, and the company is uncertain if it will return. Youssef cited challenges such as regulations and some key staff departures, but he also noted that he could not share the full story at this time.
Bitcoin (BTC) is “untouchable” despite ongoing regulatory pressures in the crypto sector and those who don’t have some crypto exposure are “seriously silly” according to Bloomberg’s senior commodity strategist Mike McGlone. During an April 3 stream with crypto podcaster Scott Melker, McGlone argued that unlike other cryptocurrencies such as Ether (ETH), Bitcoin couldn’t be killed
Sales of Donald Trump’s digital collectibles surged following the news of his indictment in New York on Thursday. Meanwhile, a report revealed that the market for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has seen its strongest quarter since early last year, reaching a trading volume of $4.7 billion, despite a weaker March. Trump NFTs Spike as Former President
Top Stories This Week FTX EU launches withdrawal website to pay back European users The European arm of FTX has launched a website to allow customers in Europe to submit withdrawal requests. It comes nearly five months after the global trading platform collapsed and went bankrupt in early November. Meanwhile, in the United States, lawyers
This week, 2,600 tech industry moguls and entrepreneurs, including Elon Musk, Gary Marcus, and Steve Wozniak, signed an open letter requesting artificial intelligence (AI) labs to pause research and development for six months. The signatories believe that safety programs and regulations need to be strengthened, as they assert that AI labs are currently in an
Our weekly roundup of news from East Asia curates the industry’s most important developments. Binance’s secret U.S. users On Mar. 27, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) charged Binance and its founder Changpeng Zhao with alleged willful evasion of federal law and operating an illegal digital assets exchange. In the 74 page complaint, the
EU lawmakers have voted in favor of imposing a €1,000 limit on crypto transactions where the customer cannot be identified. “Entities, such as banks, assets and crypto assets managers, real and virtual estate agents, and high-level professional football clubs, will be required to verify their customers’ identity, what they own and who controls the company,”
The price of Bitcoin (BTC) fell 3.6% to $26,900 after Binance and CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao were sued by the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on March 27. To date, Binance has been investigated by the CFTC, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Internal Revenue Service and federal prosecutors. The Bitcoin
Market strategist Jeremy Grantham, co-founder of asset management firm GMO, has warned of “super bubbles” bursting. He explained that the Federal Reserve has “created an environment conducive to a chain-linked series of super bubbles that break with outrageously consequential, painful effects.” Jeremy Grantham’s Warnings Investment strategist Jeremy Grantham shared his U.S. economic outlook with economist
The recent banking crisis in the United States seems to have shaken the belief of some customers in the legacy banking system. According to Federal Reserve data, customers pulled nearly $100 billion in deposits in the week ending March 15. American venture capital investor and entrepreneur Tim Draper said in a March 25 report that
Switzerland’s troubled Credit Suisse and its rescuer, USB, are subject to an investigation into whether bankers helped Russian oligarchs evade Western sanctions, according to a media report. Some major U.S. banking institutions are also under scrutiny within the probe initiated by the Justice Department, sources say. Credit Suisse, US Banks Investigated for Suspected Sanctions Violations