HK game firm to buy $100M crypto for treasury, China/UAE CBDC deal: Asia Express
Our weekly roundup of reports from East Asia curates the trade’s most necessary developments.
Hong Kong gaming firm to make investments $100M in crypto
Boyaa Interactive International, a publicly traded Hong Kong holding firm specializing in on-line card and board video games, desires to safe the approval of its shareholders to make investments $100 million in crypto.
According to this week’s announcement, Boyaa Interactive administrators need to allocate $45 million of company funds to Bitcoin (BTC), $45 million to Ether (ETH), and $10 million to stablecoins similar to Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC). As for rationales for the funding, the administrators wrote:
“The Internet gaming business mainly operated by the Group has a high degree of logical fit with Web3 technology. It attaches great importance to communities and users, covers virtual asset attributes and other characteristics, making Web3 technology easier and more widely used in the Internet gaming industry.”
The firm’s model of 75 on-line video games, similar to its Texas Hold’em on line casino, has round 1.18 million day by day energetic gamers. In Q3 2023, Boyaa Interactive generated $14 million in income and $4.2 million in earnings, respectively.
China indicators $400M CBDC cope with United Arab Emirates
The People’s Bank of China — the nation’s central financial institution — has signed a $400 million cooperation memorandum on central financial institution digital currencies with the United Arab Emirates.
The China Council For The Promotion of International Trade said the memorandum was signed in Hong Kong and can final for 5 years, permitting for the interchange of one another’s CBDC throughout bilateral commerce.
“The renewal of the currency swap agreement reflects the depth of relations between the UAE and China and demonstrates the UAE Central Bank’s commitment to strengthening its partnership with China in the fields of finance, trade, and investment. China is the UAE’s largest global trading partner, with non-oil trade between the two countries exceeding Dh264.2 billion in 2022.”
Government officers say that the treaty “will facilitate the provision of liquidity to financial markets in local currencies to settle cross-border financial and trade transactions in a “more effective and efficient manner.”
Since its inception in 2020, digital yuan transactions have surpassed 1.8 trillion yuan ($253.6 billion), whereas the variety of wallets has surged to 120 million. Recently, 4 overseas banks — Standard Chartered, HSBC, Hang Seng Bank and Fubon Bank — have joined China’s digital yuan pilot tests.
Hong Kong director Stephen Chow teases NFT drop
Award-winning Hong Kong director Stephen Chow, recognized for his magnum opus 2004 movie Kung Fu Hustle, will soon launch his personal nonfungible tokens (NFT) assortment.
In a Dec. 6 Instagram publish, Chow said that the NFT undertaking, dubbed “Nobody,” might be designed in collaboration with Chinese-American rapped Jin Au-Yeung, who additionally goes by his stage identify, MC Jin.
“We often look up to great people simply because they never underestimate themselves. Ordinary individuals, on the other hand, often bring the greatest surprises to the world,” Chow wrote, describing the theme of the Nobody NFT assortment.
The NFTs might be launched on the Moonbox platform, a Hong Kong-based AI and Web3 startup that goals to launch AI-powered NFTs specializing in the humanities and movie trade. Chow will function the primary content material creator on the platform. In August, Moonbox closed a $2.5 million funding spherical at a $50 million valuation led by OKX Ventures.
Singapore joins China’s digital yuan pilot program
Singapore will quickly settle for the digital yuan as a way of fee for Chinese guests to the nation.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), in collaboration with the People’s Bank of China and the Digital Currency Institute, will embark on a pilot enabling vacationers from each nations to use digital yuan for tourism spending in Singapore and China. “This will enhance convenience for travelers when making purchases during their overseas travel,” authorities officers wrote.
In 2020, the 2 nations signed a memorandum of understanding for cooperation associated to digital finance. At the Singapore Fintech Festival final month, the MAS revealed that it’s going to draft a blueprint for the event of a digital Singaporean greenback.
Read additionally
Victory Securities accredited for new Bitcoin fund in Hong Kong
Victory Securities, the primary dealer to obtain a digital asset supplier license (VASP) in Hong Kong, has acquired regulatory approval from the nation’s Securities & Futures Commission for a brand new Bitcoin fund in partnership with EMC Labs.
The Victory EMC BTC Cycle Fund will permit investor subscriptions in U.S. {dollars} in addition to stablecoins similar to USDT and USDC.
On Nov. 27, Victory Securities acquired a VASP license together with Interactive Brokers. The license permits corporations to provide crypto providers to retail buyers, however solely for buying and selling of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and sure stablecoins. In addition, its new Bitcoin fund will solely be accessible to accredited buyers assembly a $1 million portfolio requirement for the time being.
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Zhiyuan Sun
Zhiyuan Sun is a journalist at Cointelegraph specializing in technology-related information. He has a number of years of expertise writing for main monetary media retailers similar to The Motley Fool, Nasdaq.com and Seeking Alpha.
