Our weekly news roundup from East Asia selects the most important developments in the industry.
Bybit’s Open Day Notcoin Problem
Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit has been embroiled in controversy over the initial listing of Notcoin (NOT), a play-to-earn game and token built on an open network and integrated into a Telegram mini-app.
Essentially, not all users received the airdrop before the market opened, putting those who received the airdrop at a disadvantage. Subsequent trading prices were much lower than on other exchanges.
“The Bybit team is working hard to resolve the Notcoin airdrop balance reflection issue.” wrote CEO Ben Zhou said in an X post on May 16, hours before trading began:
“Our wallet received approximately 370,000 on-chain transactions from @thenotcoin. Only Bybit airdrops are sent using this method. It usually takes quite some time to identify and reflect all balances. I want to manually provide credits for all users before the market opens in an hour. Please stay tuned. All hands are on deck. We are doing our best to secure notcoins in your account before the markets open.”
Zhou also revealed that the exchange will establish a compensation plan for all 320,000 users who were affected beyond their Notcoin account balances on the day of its debut. He claimed that 70% of eligible users received credit before the market opened. “I’m sorry for disappointing everyone. “We will make sure something like this never happens again,” he said.
Not all users were satisfied.
“Binance and Bitget are listed (NOT) at 0.01, while Bybit is listed at 0.0007,” one user wrote. “That’s why we’re talking about rewards for silencing people,” they argued.
According to data from Binance and Bitget, Notcoin accounted for volatile trading activity after its debut with a daily low of $0.000779 and a daily high of $0.035. However, the same asset on Bybit only shows a high of $0.01.
On May 10, Cointelegraph reported that Bybit announced Notcoin trading and withdrawals for users.
Launched in January 2024 without coins as the name suggests, Notcoin is a free-to-play money-making game on Telegram that allows users to tap on the coin icon to get rewarded with Notcoin tokens. The token’s current fully diluted market capitalization is $818 million.
Is Hong Kong still a cryptocurrency hub?
In an interview with Hong Kong media, Davin Wu, chief financial officer of cryptocurrency exchange OSL, said Hong Kong is China’s “digital asset testing ground” and that “more innovative products” will be launched after the Bitcoin spot launch. He said. April 30 Ethereum ETF.
“Today, it’s still in a very early stage and just the starting point for this (crypto) industry,” Wu said.
“In the future (in Hong Kong) there may be margin trading linked to digital assets, or some derivatives, options, futures, etc.”
Last month, the East Asian city became the first in the world to offer both spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs. The city also has Cyberport plans to attract 150 Web3 and AI companies in 2023.
The hype does not match the reality of the influx.
Prior to launch, the Hong Kong cryptocurrency ETF had raised approximately $293 million in seed assets under management. Since then, net trading outflows for the six spot cryptocurrency ETFs have reached $29.9 million, which puts it on par with the massive size of the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs in relative terms. A few months after its release.
But there are still signs of hope for a turnaround.
A survey by KPMG Advisory and Aspen Digital found that 92% of respondents in Hong Kong are interested in digital assets, and 54% plan to expand digital assets to 5-30% of their investment assets.
“In recent years, some mainstream institutional investors have also joined the ranks of virtual asset investors, increasing the credibility of family offices and high-net-worth individuals,” the survey author wrote.
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China cracks down on cryptocurrency MLMs
Chinese police continue to crack down on cryptocurrency use, targeting those pursuing questionable or illegal cryptocurrency schemes.
Recently, the Anhui Province Party Committee’s Political and Legal Affairs Committee announced that it would arrest suspects involved in all forms of multi-level marketing (MLM) activities that promote “blockchain, metaverse, digital asset trading, Bitcoin mining, and foreign exchange trading.” activity.
“Considering the new characteristics and new trends of MLM activities, especially online MLM, we actively issue warnings to society, improve public awareness and ability to prevent MLM, and create a strong social atmosphere to combat MLM. “We will,” the law enforcement agency wrote. .
Last year, Kunming police uncovered a $39 million Bitcoin mining MLM scam that promised market-rate returns of “20 to 30 percent” to recruiters who lured victims into an alleged Ponzi scheme.
Interestingly, Kunming is the city where Zhaojun, the CEO of blockchain bridging protocol Multichain, was reportedly detained, and has not been heard from since July, when his arrest led to the collapse of the multibillion-dollar DeFi protocol. It is not working.
On May 16, Chinese police arrested a $1.9 billion underground banking company where perpetrators allegedly circumvented the country’s strict foreign exchange controls by using the Tether stablecoin to exchange Chinese yuan for foreign currencies. Chengdu city police issued a media release highlighting details of underground activities and said they had arrested 193 suspects in 26 provinces.
A Chinese gaming company made a 1,100% return after investing in cryptocurrency.
Hong Kong-listed Chinese online gaming company Boyaa Interactive expects its first quarter 2024 revenue to rise 1,125% compared to $3.98 million in the same quarter last year, driven by unrealized gains on its Bitcoin and Ethereum investments. .
Over the same period, revenue from its core gaming business grew by 10-15%, suggesting that including cryptocurrencies on its balance sheet could be a smart move in some circumstances.
Last December, Cointelegraph reported that Boyaa Interactive purchased $100 million in Bitcoin, Ethereum, USD Coin, and Tether to add to the company’s treasury. Boyaa said at the time:
“The Internet gaming business mainly operated by the group has a high level of logical fit with Web3 technology. This attaches great importance to the community and users, covers virtual asset properties and other characteristics, and makes Web3 technology easier and more widely used in the Internet gaming industry.”
Since then, the company’s stock price has tripled, and Boyaa plans to purchase an additional $100 million in cryptocurrency to increase his stake on his initial investment. In its March update, the company stated that it holds 1,110 Bitcoins with an average unit price of approximately $41,790, a total of 14,855 Ethereum with an average unit price of approximately $2,777, and approximately 8,000,000 USDT.
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Jyuyuan Line
Zhiyuan Sun is a journalist at Cointelegraph specializing in technology news. He has years of experience writing for major financial outlets such as The Motley Fool, Nasdaq.com, and Seeking Alpha.