Asia's weekly TOP10 crypto news (Dec 19 to Dec 25)

Author：Lily

Editor：Colin Wu

1. Tokocrypto has been officially acquired by Binance link

The Indonesian exchange Tokocrypto has been officially acquired by Binance, and about 58% of its employees have been laid off. They will focus on the exchange business in the future, and business activities outside the exchange will be suspended.

2. Hong Kong’s weekly summary

2.1 Economic Daily: Hong Kong takes key steps toward development of virtual assets link

The Economic Daily published an article entitled “Prudent development of virtual assets takes key step”: The virtual assets ETF launched by CSOP is the first virtual assets ETF in the Asian market, marking a key step in the development of virtual assets in Hong Kong. This proactive stance has raised expectations for Hong Kong to consolidate and enhance its status as an international financial center.

2.2 The Office of the Chief Secretary for Administration of Hong Kong solemnly clarifies that it has never issued or authorized any relevant advertisement link

The Office of the Chief Secretary for Administration in Hong Kong said it has recently discovered fraudulent advertisements and web pages on online news platforms and social media containing the name and press images of Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr. Chan Kwok-kee, and luring clicks to connect to suspicious trading platforms claiming to be involved in the virtual currency “Bitcoin”. The Chief Secretary’s Office solemnly clarified that it has never issued or authorized any related advertisements.

2.3 Hong Kong accelerator looking to help 1,000 web3 startups in next 3 years link

A start-up accelerator co-founded by Legislative Council of Hong Kong member Johnny Ng Kit-chong is looking to help 1,000 web3 startups set up shop in the city within the next three years. 150 start-ups have signed up for the accelerator’s new program.

2.4 Cryptocurrency trading platform AAX suddenly closed down, 2 men arrested link

Hong Kong CEX AAX suddenly closed down in the middle of last month. The Hong Kong police announced that they have arrested two men involved in the case of the AAX exchange on suspicion of defrauding and misleading police officers, namely Liang Haoming, director, shareholder and CEO of Vigor Capital, and Thor Chan, founder and former CEO of AAX.

2.5 Hong Kong police conference revealed more information about AAX link

The AAX entity has fled Hong Kong on November 12 along with the private key, the wallet of about 30 million U.S. dollars; one of those arrested falsely claimed not to be involved in the operation of the company, but actually found to be involved in therefore charged with misleading police officers; etc.

2.6 New Huo Tech launches compliance virtual asset delegation dedicated account service link

New Huo Tech announced that its New Huo Capital Management has entered into a partnership with Coinbase, becoming the first licensed institution in Hong Kong to provide discretionary account management services for virtual assets to professional investors.

3. UBS Wealth issues $50 million blockchain digital debt to HNWI in Asia link

UBS Wealth Management announced it issued $50 million in blockchain-based debt securities to high net worth individuals (HNWI). Hong Kong and Singapore investors bought the six month, fixed-rate security tokens via a private placement. It used a permissioned version of Ethereum.

4. NIO car owners’ data stolen and extorted for $2.25 million in bitcoin link

NIO, the largest electric car brand in China, stated that some car owners’ basic information and vehicle sales information before August 2021 were stolen, and received an email extortion worth 2.25 million US dollars equivalent in bitcoin. NIO founder Li Bin says he opposes bitcoin and won’t compromise even if the company goes bankrupt.

5. North Korean hackers stole a total of $626 million this year link

South Korea’s main spy agency, the National Intelligence Service, revealed that state-sponsored North Korean hackers are estimated to have stolen $1.2 billion in crypto assets around the world since 2017, including about $626 million this year alone.

6. Google hires Rishi Ramchandani, BlockFI’s former vice president for Asia, as APAC Web3 lead link

BlockFi’s former vice president for Asia, Rishi Ramchandani, has joined Google to lead its Web3 efforts in APAC. Rishi will be based in Singapore. Google Cloud has been establishing its Web3 footprint since launching its new digital assets team in January.

7. Samsung to release the world’s first TV that can trade and display NFTs link

Samsung Electronics plans to release the world’s first TV that can trade and display NFTs in the first half of next year with three NFT apps developed by three companies — Nifty Gateway (US), La Collection (France) and Art Token (Korea). This comes after Samsung Electronics has announced the launch of Samsung Wallet.

8. OKX briefly down due to an error of its cloud provider link

Due to Alibaba Cloud HK Zone C equipment failure, OKX was down on December 18. OKX said that after about ten hours of downtime, it has recovered, mainly due to the OKX’s reliance on a single cloud service provider. It will implement multi-cloud deployment strategies. OKX Will bear the customer’s loss due to service interruption.

9. Guangdong People’s Court sentenced the main offender Chen to eight months in prison for illegal business operation link

In November 2021 Chen started a business of buying and selling crypto currencies. He acquired USDT from retail investors and then resold it to the acquirer, earning the difference in price. The court heard that Chen and Li used the way in disguise to buy and sell foreign currency, the circumstances are serious and constitute an illegal business crime.

10. Japanese securities giant SBI, gaming firm Square Enix seal crypto gaming deal link

The Japanese securities, banking, and crypto heavyweight SBI and the Tokyo Stock Exchange-listed gaming firm Square Enix have announced a crypto gaming M&A deal. The companies have signed a share purchase deal for Gumi, an up-and-coming crypto and blockchain gaming company. The deal is worth around $53 million. It will see SBI emerge as the largest shareholder, with 22.46% voting rights.