Blockchain Asia | #8

Predictions of China's blockchain sector, Huobi launches open-source DeFi chain, Ripple in Korea, LINE's U.S. exchange BitFront and more

March 1, 2020

In this issue, we cover a lot of ground, from Greater China, Japan, Korea to the Middle East.

International Data Corporation (IDC) releases predictions for China’s blockchain sector

IDC re­leased its “IDC Fu­tureScape: World­wide Blockchain 2020 Pre­dic­tions – China Im­pli­ca­tions”, out­lin­ing a to­tal of 10 pre­dic­tions for Chi­na’s blockchain sec­tor, such as Cross-bor­der pay­ments: by 2023, 40% of Chi­na’s first-tier fi­nan­cial in­sti­tu­tions will use blockchain net­works for node-to-node pro­cess­ing of cross-bor­der pay­ments, by­pass­ing SWIFT and cen­tral bank in­fra­struc­ture; Blockchain ser­vices: by 2023 Chi­nese en­ter­prises will in­vest USD$2.7 bil­lion in blockchain ser­vices (con­sult­ing, main­te­nance, sup­port, etc.), ac­count­ing for 29% of en­ter­prise man­age­ment ser­vice ex­pen­di­tures; Blockchain in­fra­struc­ture: by 2020 over 90% of or­gan­i­sa­tions in China will make use of Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) plat­forms as their first choice for blockchain in­fra­struc­ture dur­ing blockchain ac­tiv­i­ties. Read more here.

Huobi launches its own blockchain Huobi Chain

Huobi Chain, an open-source, decentralized DeFi chain, is live for beta testing. Most noteworthy is that it claims to be a regulator-friendly network, which supports regulatory nodes for regulators to contribute as validators. It is the world's first public blockchain with on-chain governance and regulatory framework. Read more here.

South Korea’s central bank is looking into developing a blockchain-based system for the bond market

Inspired by the World Bank’s blockchain bond platform, which completed two bond sales together with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the Bank of Korea, the central bank of Korea, is looking to develop a similar system using blockchain technology for Korea’s bond market, one of the largest in Asia. In addition to using a distributed ledger to record bond transactions, the Bank of Korea is exploring developing a real-time trading system. The project is in the proof-of-concept phase. Read more here.

Ripple inked partnerships with Korean startups

After Ripple’s partnerships with Korea University’s Blockchain Research Center and Korean telecom giant SK, which announced the launch of a blockchain-based donation system using Ripple’s technology, Ripple signed a partnership agreement with three Korean startups Sentbe, Hanpass and WireBarley, which specialize in overseas remittance solutions. Read more here.

Why prominent American VCs are investing in this Hong Kong-based Startup

Amber Group lately received $28 million in Series A from leading U.S. venture capital funds such as Pantera, Paradigm, and Coinbase Ventures. Starting out as a company trading Chinese stocks, Amber pivoted to trading crypto taking advantage of arbitrage opportunities presented by Asian exchanges. Later on, it started to develop technology to serve institutional investors, similar to Tagomi. In addition, it is developing services in line with a prime broker offering. Its fast-growing revenue, lucrative profit margin, and its location in Asia, home to 80% crypto trading of the world, are irresistible to U.S. VCs. Read more here.

Messaging Company LINE opens a global exchange in the U.S.

LINE has been opening and closing exchanges in the past couple of years. According to the latest news, LINE shut down its exchange BitBox in Singapore and launched BitFront in the U.S., targeting investors globally outside Japan. For Japan, LINE is going to launch BitMax for Japanese investors. BitFront is going to offer bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), bitcoin cash (BTC), Tether (USDT) and LINE's native token LINK. It is not clear how many states BitFront will be available, nor whether it has received BitLicense. Read more here.

6 Middle East banks form a KYC blockchain consortium

UAE-based banks Emirates NBD, Emirates Islamic, HSBC Bank Middle East, National Bank of Ras Al Khaimah, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank and Commercial Bank of Dubai have established a blockchain-based KYC platform to more effectively manage KYC. These six banks hold around 44% of UAE’s total banking assets. The consortium hopes to help the banks reduce operational costs, better manage customers’ data and improve compliance both locally and internationally. Read more here.

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Blockchain Asia covers exclusively blockchain developments in Asia, including regulations, investments, new deals and company highlights. It is owned by Kee Global Advisors. For previous posts, please visit here.