Go East, young man, and grow up with the industry
Blockchain & Crypto #30
The title of this issue is borrowed from an expression credited to Horrace Greeley: “Go West, young man, and grow up with the country”. We may not be able to find everything in the U.S. or agree with whatever is happening here. Once in a while at least we can look to the East. Blockchain & Crypto does not stop here. Recently I learned from some Asian OGs that, which I have not verified yet, Vitalik went to Asia in the early days of Ethereum, when his foundation had only a couple million dollars left in its bank account. Asian community was excited about his vision and united behind him.
Algorand Foundation recently picked a Singapore university as one of its research centers. Point 72 is quietly building up its Asia footprint. Sequoia’s investment in Asia in this sector surpassed its investment in other regions in terms of deal numbers.
This industry has no border, but markets are different. Asia moves faster in consumer-oriented and mobile apps, while the West is more focused on institutional solutions.
Market data
21% of Asian consumers stated that they have used DeFi services before, according to research by Visa.
Investments
FOMO Pay, a mobile digital payment and banking solution provider based in Singapore, closed its Series A round raise of $13M led by Jump Crypto. Other investors included HashKey Capital, Antalpha Ventures, Ab Initio Capital and Republic Capital.
FOMO will utilize Ripple’s crypto-enabled enterprise technology to improve its cross-border treasury flows.
NGC Ventures led an undisclosed round of investment in South Korea’s Web 3 Music startup MetaBeat.
Singapore-based LongHash Ventures Fund II targets $100M. Investors include HashKey Capital, NGC Ventures, among others. Fund II will finance Web3 startups from pre-seed to seed.
According to BlockData, Sequoia Capital invested in 24 blockchain & crypto companies from 2014 through June 2022; separately, its China and India investment arms have invested in 15 and 23 deals, respectively.
Hedge Fund
Point 72 appoints a new crypto lead in Singapore.
New York-based Digital asset mining company Bit Digital invests in Dubai-based hedge fund Nine Blocks.
SBI Group
SBI is looking to tap into U.S. crypto asset derivative markets through Clear Markets North America Inc., in which it has a stake. Clear Markets has obtained a license from CFTC.
SBI’s mining business suffers a big loss while winding down its mining operations in Siberia, Russia.
ETHW and ETC pre-Merge
EthPow vs. Eth2 by BitMex
Chandler Guo talks about why he is the man to hard fork ETH
An interview in Chinese by a Chinese crypto media MarsBit with one of the community leaders of ETHW. Some highlights are translated as follows:
In Ethereum’s early days, Wall Street’s capital showed no interest in it. Without Chinese miners, Ethereum would not have what it had achieved. Now it decides to move to PoS, which means cutting off its ties with miners, mine pools, and rig manufacturers which have contributed to its growth and development. 以太坊诞生初期，华尔街资本根本不关注。以太坊今日的发展离不开中国矿工，其选择转入PoS，无异于举刀盘剥对其有养恩的矿工、矿池及矿商。
We plan to start ETHW projects roadshow end of September. There could be dozens of projects to participate in the roadshow. By Christmas, new projects will increase to between 30-50, including DEX/Lending DeFi projects, and infrastructure projects e.g. multi-sig. By then the ecosystem will start to take shape. 我们预计于9月底举行以太坊PoW社区项目路演，参与项目大概有几十个。至今年圣诞节，新链上的项目会增加到三五十个，其中包括核心的DEX/借贷等DeFI协议，以及多签这些基础设施应用。年底前，新链上的生态应用会形成一个雏形
An ETC Ecosystem proposed by ETCDAO
Web3 in Asia
Singapore-based Metaschool is a platform where developers hang out to learn Web3, collaborate on projects, and earn NFTs for completing their work.
NTU Singapore becomes the only university in Asia thus far to house a blockchain research and education center funded by Algorand Foundation.
New Layer 1 Protocol in Vietnam
Aura network, a Layer-1 NFT-centric blockchain is going to launch its Mainnet Xstaxy in October.
Events in Asia
Token 2049, September 28-29, Singapore
International Symposium on Blockchain Advancement (ISBA), December 2, 2022, Singapore
New York Magazine’s Story about Three Arrows
Thank you for reading.
Coco
In the innovative blockchain/crypto & digital asset ecosystem, Asia is the other side of the coin. Blockchain & Crypto Asia, which covers exclusively blockchain and crypto & digital asset developments in Asia, including regulation, investments, and company highlights, helps you stay on top of what is going on in the Far East. The content is selective and curated and serves as information only, not investment advice.
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