🌳 With $100M Tether Investment Bitdeer Acquired an ASIC Chip Designer

[BlockchainAsia #56] 🌵Yat Siu's $9M violin tokenized as collateral, Ripple Launched Japan & Korea Fund, Tether invested $100M in Bitdeer, Australia & Thailand launched spot BTC ETF

Coco Kee

Jun 13, 2024

This is Coco. I hope you are enjoying the late spring. In this issue, I am going to cover the following:

Hong Kong BTC ETH ETFs
Developments
Deals
Recommended Reads

Hong Kong’s BTC & ETH ETFs’ snapshot of June 13, 2024

Transaction value: $3.76M, about 75% from BTC, 25% from ETH
#of BTC: 4,007
Total Net Assets: $275.13M
BTC inflow/(outflow): 0

source: sosovalue.xyz

Tracking Hong Kong's ETFs is more complex than in the U.S. It takes time to create a more accurate mechanism. Right now I use SOSOValue.xyz.

Unlike U.S. ETFs, Hong Kong ETFs use an in-kind subscription and redemption model, allowing subscribers to exchange BTC or ETH for ETFs and redeem ETFs for BTC, ETH, or cash.

Hong Kong's in-kind ETFs offer two unique advantages to subscribers:

BTC and ETH ETFs can be used as proof of assets and accepted as collateral by traditional finance, unlike proof of ownership of physical cryptocurrencies. In contrast, the U.S. DTC under DTCC does not accept BTC ETFs as collateral.
Most Hong Kong banks are reluctant to handle crypto transactions directly. ETFs provide a legitimate and convenient way for crypto holders to convert their holdings into ETFs and then redeem them for cash, which banks accept.

Additionally, Hong Kong might allow spot ETH ETF issuers to stake ETH in the background, a practice the U.S. SEC has ruled out. The industry is discussing this potential with Hong Kong's regulator.

Developments

Australia’s first spot BTC ETF that directly holds BTC started trading on June 3. Thai SEC has approved a spot BTC ETF, which is limited to high net worth and institutional investors for the time being. Trading was scheduled to start between May 31 and June 6.
Galaxy Digital tokenized the 1708 Stradivarius violin "Empress Caterina" owned by Animoca Brands’ founder Yat Siu. The violin is worth about $9M. Yat Siu is utilizing the tokenized violin as collateral for financing facilitated by Galaxy Global. Yahoo Finance
MacDonald’s Singapore launched the “My Happy Place” metaverse. Microsoft Start In August 2023, McDonald’s gave away Grimace NFTs. NFT Horizon

Paxos offers yield-bearing stablecoin Lift Dollar (USDL) in UAE and Argentina. Press Release
Ripple launched a new fund, The XRP Ledger Japan and Korea Fund. CNBC. Earlier in April, XRP partnered with HashKey DEX, the consulting arm of HashKey Group in Japan, to utilize XRP Ledger-powered solutions for supply chain finance. Ripple’s Press Release
Hong Kong’s SFC lists 11 crypto exchanges as “deemed to be licensed”. They are HKbitEX, PantherTrade, Accumulus, DFX Labs, Bixin Group, xWhale, bullish, Yax, Crypto.com, WhaleFin, and Matrixport. In addition to the previously approved 2 exchanges, HashKey Exchange and OSL, how can Hong Kong support so many exchanges? SCMP
Hex Trust received a second VASP license from Dubai’s VARA, which allows it to conduct broker-dealer and investment management. Announcement
Singapore-headquartered options desk QCP Capital received in-principle approval from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Abu Dhabi Global Market to operate in the country. Bloomberg
Crypto.com received approval from Ireland’s central bank to operate in the country. The Paypers Crypto.com is facing regulatory hurdles in South Korea. The Chosun Daily
South Korea regulator provides guidelines when NFTs are not considered as “virtual assets” which will be regulated by " the Virtual Asset User Protection Act”, effective July 19, 2024. Bitcoin.com News
Taiwan has officially launched the Taiwan VASP Association (temporary name). Legislators believe the best way to regulate the industry is by establishing self-regulatory standards and forming industry associations. This practice will resonate with their neighbor Japan, whose industry association plays an important role in the industry’s development.

Deals

Nasdaq-listed Singapore company Bitdeer acquired Desweminer, an ASIC chip designer for $140M in an all-stock deal. Announcement In May, Tether invested $100M in Bitdeer through a private placement. CoinDesk
ZK hardware acceleration startup Cysic raised $12M pre-A led by HashKey Capital and OKX Ventures, followed by ABCDE, Polychain Capital, SNZ and others. Medium
Hong Kong-headquartered SocialFi infrastructure OpenSocial Protocol raised a $5M seed round led by Portal Ventures and SNZ. The investors of the project are from Asia, Europe and the U.S. The founding team EVG of OpenSocial set up a $15M ecosystem fund. Medium
Tether invested $18.75M in XREX, a Taiwanese company with services ranging from digital asset custody, wallets, asset management to cross-border payment. Announcement
Singapore-headquartered Chainstack, a Web3 infrastructure company, received a strategic investment from SBI Ven Capital, Sygnum, Azimut Group, Unicorn Factory Ventures, and Ventech Venture. Announcement
Singapore MAS licensed tokenization SaaS platform for RWA and STO InvestaX closed Series A round with investors including Coinbase Ventures, Gate Ventures, Token Bay Capital, Sustainability Exchange Group (SEG), Global Blockchain Ventures and others. Announcement
Fhenix, a Tel Aviv-based startup that enables onchain confidentiality (computation of encrypted data without ever needing to decrypt it) through FHE, a cutting-edge encryption scheme, raised $15M Series A led by Hack VC, Amber Group, Collider, Primitive Ventures, GSR, Stake Capital, and others. Announcement