Editor：Colin Wu
1. Kazakhstan’s weekly summary
1.1 Kazakhstan Parliament adopts law regulating crypto mining and exchange link
Lawmakers in Nur-Sultan have approved the final version of the law “On Digital Assets in the Republic of Kazakhstan.” The new legislation, including several other bills, regulates the circulation of cryptocurrencies in the country and introduces a licensing regime for crypto miners and exchanges.
1.2 Kazakhstan’s AFSA has issued a draft of a new crypto regulation link
The content includes liquidity risk checks, increased disclosure information, etc. It is expected that the implementation of the Policy Paper proposals by the AFSA will help protect and segregate client assets; address unclear provisions of the existing framework; etc. It will be available for public comment until February 25.
2. South Korea’s weekly summary
2.1 DAXA to develop an early warning system for virtual assets link
The Digital Asset Exchange Platform Association (DAXA), comprised of Korea’s five largest crypto exchanges (Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax), plans to develop a virtual asset alert system this year to provide users with early warning notifications when token prices, trading volumes and deposit volumes for specific projects move.
2.2 Korea’s FSC calls for the delisting of virtual assets with securities properties link
South Korea’s Financial Services Commission issued instructions to five major South Korean crypto exchanges to delist and classify virtual assets with securities properties. Exchanges will submit feedback by the 9th of this month.
2.3 The actual owner of Bithumb Kang Jonghyun was arrested link
Kang Jonghyun (강종현), the actual owner of Bithumb, was arrested on charges of malfeasance, embezzlement, and misappropriation of public funds. The Seoul court interrogated Kang Jong Hyun a day before his arrest and concluded that there was a possibility of his escape and destruction of evidence.
2.4 Binance has acquired a majority stake in the GOPAX link
Binance Holdings Ltd. has acquired a majority stake in the troubled South Korea-based cryptocurrency exchange GOPAX. The funding of the purchase came from a Binance-led co-investment project called the Industry Recovery Initiative, to which Binance pledged $1 billion.
2.5 Hashed co-founder Alex Shin: Aptos is a meme coin in Korea link
AlexShin, co-founder of Korean VC Hashed, tweeted: “Aptos is a meme coin in Korea. The #1 asset class in Korea is real estate — more specifically, Apartments. Retail is calling Aptos “apartment” claiming people can one day afford to purchase an actual apartment if they hold APT.”
3. India’s weekly summary
3.1 India reveals IMF is working with G-20 for crypto regulations link
For the first time since taking over the G-20 presidency, India has officially revealed details of the ongoing work around how to regulate crypto. IMF is working on a paper in consultation with India that will focus on “aspects of the monetary policy and the policy approach to crypto assets,” said Ajay Seth, secretary, Department of Economic Affairs.
3.2 Zanmai-run WazirX can no longer use Binance wallet services link
Binance has ceased providing wallet and related technical services to Zanmai Labs, the operator of Indian crypto exchange WazirX, and WazirX users can no longer use the Binance wallet services.
4. Russian FIU to spend 340M rubles to upgrade cryptocurrency surveillance systemlink
Russia’s financial intelligence unit will spend 340 million rubles to update its cryptocurrency surveillance system, bringing the total amount of development tenders to 1 billion rubles, as the agency believes that cryptocurrencies “should be equal to property in the legal sense” and that such surveillance can help identify criminal acts from a legal perspective.
5. Shuttered crypto exchange Bitzlato says it plans to resume operations link
The Hong Kong-based crypto exchange has been charged by U.S. and European authorities with laundering $700 million in funds tied to Russian criminals. The co-founder of the exchange said the company plans to resume operating and allow partial withdrawals of user funds.
6. New Huo Tech announced the launch of Sinohope Staking link
New Huo Tech announced the launch of its decentralized staking technical support service — Sinohope Staking, the first phase of which supports Cosmos chain and is planned to expand to other mainstream public chains such as Ether, EOS and LINK in the future. It aims to allow users to participate in the ecosystem quickly and efficiently.
7. Binance teams up with Hong Kong police to fight cybercrime link
Binance recently attended and supported a Virtual Asset Investigation Course (VAIC) conducted by the Cyber Security and Technology Crime Bureau (CSTCB) of the Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) to reinforce law enforcement efforts against cybercrimes in the city.
8. Indonesia’s Trade Ministry plans to launch crypto trading platform by June link
The Indonesian government has until June to launch an officially sanctioned crypto trading platform, and the government is currently reviewing which companies meet all the conditions to participate. There are 16 million crypto investors in Indonesia.
9. WeChat, Alipay, Binance and others participate in HKMA consultation on cryptocurrency and stablecoin regulation link
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority proposes to bring certain activities related to crypto stablecoins into regulation, including the need to apply for a license; not to accept algorithmic stablecoins; not to engage in lending business. China’s largest Internet company Alibaba Tencent and the world’s largest exchange Binance, as well as visa mastercard and Hong Kong’s largest metaverse company Animoca, have participated in the Hong Kong government’s consultation on cryptocurrency and stablecoin regulation.
10. Mainland China’s weekly summary
10.1 Zhidu Technology announces proposed impairment of BTC by ¥63.18M in FY2022 link
Zhidu Technology, a listed company in China, announced that in 2022, the company intends to make an impairment provision for Bitcoin, about $16 million, which is the Bitcoin generated by purchasing cloud mining from Bitmain. Zhidu is also a shareholder of Bitmain and BitDeer.
10.2 China Postal Savings Bank launched a mobile banking digital collection link
China Postal Savings Bank launched a mobile banking digital collection, with the blockchain service platform (not disclosed) providing the underlying technical support, mapping each to a unique serial number on the chain. 18,888 copies of the Smart Rabbit digital collection were issued on January 31 and are available to all Mobile Banking 8.0 customers.
10.3 Bitrace team helps police solve a case of cryptocurrency theft link
The victims were cryptocurrency OTC merchants. The theft gang contacted the victims through Telegram, pretending to “talk business”, and waited for an opportunity to send Trojan files to gain access to the victims’ telegram accounts. The stolen cryptocurrency in this case is worth tens of millions of RMB, and the case is still under further investigation.
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