A Quick Update on China’s digital currency

A senior official from China’s central bank claims that China’s digital currency would strike a balance between allowing anonymous payments and preventing money-laundering; its design would be similar to Facebook’s proposed cryptocurrency Libra.

On the Digital Currency pitted against Wechat and Alipay
“Why is the central bank still doing such a digital currency today when electronic payment methods are so developed? It is to protect our monetary sovereignty and legal currency status. We need to plan ahead for a rainy day.”

The senior official also says that “the advantage a central bank-issued digital coin had over those issued by WeChat and Alipay was that commercial platforms could in theory go bankrupt which could cause users losses. Its ability to be used without an internet connection would also allow transactions to continue in situations in which communications have broken down, such as an earthquake.” (Source)

Meanwhile, it’s been reported that a dedicated team from the central bank’s Digital Currency Research Lab is now developing the system in a closed-door environment, away from the PBoC’s downtown Beijing headquarters. The work has been expedited as Facebook unveiled in June its vision for Libra. (Source)

On the U.S. side, Virginia Democratic Senator Mark Warner recently asked Facebook to commit to excluding the Chinese Yuan from the Libra basket. (Source) If you are interested in learning more, check out our take on the 7 things you probably didn’t know about China’s digital currency.

Top News

LINE, Japan’s largest messaging platform, announced that it is launching its own token (LN) for trading against multiple cryptocurrencies on its own exchange Bitbox. Relatedly, it has been reported that exchange tokens have been the latest well-performing token category. Over the past three months, exchange tokens from China have doubled in price, and we now see three major exchange tokens including LEO, HT, BNB all entering the Top 30 market cap crypto list. Source

GCR interviews with Xu Xin, CEO of Sparkpool- the largest Ethereum Mining Pool in China. Source

South Korean electronics manufacturer LG Corporation is said to be launching blockchain-friendly smartphones soon. Source

Tether announced the launch of a new stablecoin tied to the offshore Chinese yuan dubbed CNHT. Source

BitMEX Crypto Exchange COO Angelina Kwanhas reportedly stepped down. Source

An Overview of the Potential Growth Opportunities for Exchanges Going Overseas. Source

GCR’s written interview with Liquid CEO Mike Kayamori. Source

Investments

Vlad Zamfir’s affiliated CasperLabs raises $14.5 million in a Series A round, led by Terren Piezer, Arrington XRP Capital, Consensus Capital, Axiom Holdings Group, Digital Strategies, MW Partners, Blockchange Ventures, Hashkey Capital, and Distributed Global. Source

Chinese early-stage venture capital firm Sky9 Capital founded by former Lightspeed China partners has announced the close of two new VC funds with a combined $440 million in capital commitments with previous investments in Coinsuper and Deepchain. Source

Thai cryptocurrency exchange Bitkub raises $1.67 million in a pre-Series A round: Thai cryptocurrency exchange operator Bitkub Capital has raised 50 million baht ($1.67 million) in its pre-Series A funding round from an undisclosed investor. Source

dapp.com closed a $1 million Pre-A Investment round led by Hashed, a South Korean blockchain VC firm, and Du Capital. Source

Coins and Mining

Blackmoon, a blockchain-based fintech company, on Tuesday announced that it will be one of the first exchanges to list Telegram’s Gram token for trading. Source

Paxos CEO: Huobi, Stable Universal and Binance are the first of many that will build on its stablecoin platform. Source

Bitmain launched two new ASIC miners today. Shortly after the announcement, Northern Bitcoin, a Frankfurt-based technology company focused on Bitcoin announced it had successfully completed testing for its new air-cooled mobile mining container. Source

China’s mining machinery MKRMicroComputer has announced the success of research and development tests for Asic Miner G 1 PLUS and G 1 MINI. GRIN’s ASIC machines will be shipped for the first time in October. Source

Decentralized Brave Browser Tops Chrome in Google Play Rankings in Japan: Source

According to data from Longhash, the average return on investment (ROI) from IEOs, running this year on the top 11 IEO platforms, was minus 80 percent. Source

Exchange News

Binance U.S. is planning to launch in the “coming weeks” with stringent KYC requirements according to a blog post published by the firm. Source

OKCoin is pledging 1000 bitcoins to Bitcoin/Bitcoin Cash commmunity/Bitcoin SV. Source

Binance launching its own USD-pegged stablecoin ‘BUSD,’ with Paxos as custodian. The stablecoin received the blessing of the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). Source

Business

GCR interviews Wyre CEO Michael Dunworth on Supporting the Fiat to Crypto Ecosystem and Crypto’s Way to Mass Adoption. On Apple podcast, Soundcloud, Overcast

Finney, the world’s purportedly first blockchain-enabled smartphone, will soon be available for purchase in Bangladesh. Source

Jones Lang LaSalle Japan to build a real estate platform using blockchain technology. Source

Chinese oil giant Sinochem’s unit plans blockchain platform with Shell, Macquarie. Source

K-Pop Music Giant SM Entertainment Is Planning Its Own Cryptocurrency. Source

Regulations

Facebook’s proposed Libra cryptocurrency falls into a “big gap” in European Union financial regulation at a time when the bloc’s ability to tackle money laundering is already stretched. Source