Crypto news headlines in Q4 2021
• October, November & December of 2021
• Technology and startup news headlines
• Quick reference for time-poor readers
• One-click access to each article
The fourth quarter 2021 collection is drawn from
Startup News Asia’s daily updates.
October 2021 | November 2021 | December 2021
October 2021 headlines
Bloomberg Crypto Outlook, November 2021
- ICYMI: US City of Miami plans advance to allow city employees to be paid using Bitcoin, and to let residents pay fees and potentially taxes using the cryptocurrency
- Square payments giant’s next venture to be bitcoin mining, following hardware wallet moves, stepping into competition with China-based BTC mining giants Bitmain, Canaan
- Asia’s tech news, issue 098: Vietnam & blockchain gaming, Huawei & EVs, Philippines voting tech, Australia & Bitcoin mining…
- ICYMI: Greater financial instability, fraud and funding of terrorism likely unless governments toughen supervision of cryptocurrencies, says International Monetary Fund
- ICYMI: US city of Miami has so far generated over $8M from issuing local-use MiamiCoin cryptocurrency
- “…stablecoins, which act as a bridge between national currencies and the cryptocurrency market, should be regulated as financial market infrastructure alongside payment systems and clearing houses…”
Metaverse Market Map
- Available to download: Q3 Quarterly Review from CoinDesk – trends driving the digital asset markets, focusing on Bitcoin, Ethereum, DeFi and more (pdf)
- ICYMI: Andreessen Horowitz – a16z – raises $515M for second crypto fund, Crypto Fund II, targeting investments in next-gen payments, DeFi, new monetization models and Web3
- ICYMI: Genopets raises $8.3M with NFT-driven ‘move-to-earn’ game where players are rewarded for physical steps they take in real life, pulling data from phones and wearable devices
- Stablecoins: What are they for – and how stable are they?
- An overview of how Ethereum may be set to become “…the platform of choice for…Web 3.0, where a series of decentralised apps could one day challenge Big Tech’s offerings…”
- ICYMI: “Central & Southern Asia and Oceania is the 4th largest crypto market…$572.5BN in value between July 2020 and June 2021, 14% of global transactions…”
- Download: Bloomberg Crypto Outlook, October 2021 edition
Bloomberg Crypto Outlook October 2021 (pdf)
- Australia: Byron Bay to host Australia’s largest Bitcoin mining operation, running on green energy
- China: “Beijing has cracked down hard on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, but China still has a thriving ecosystem of startups and entrepreneurs working on decentralized finance…”
- Australia: Western Bulldogs AFL team ink two-year partnership extension with CoinSpot, the country’s largest cryptocurrency exchange
- Asia’s tech news snapshot: Korean metaverse moves, Final Pitch Philippines, Microsoft Code Without Barriers, University of Tokyo startups fund…
- New Zealand: Easy Crypto raises $17M, setting sights on overseas markets including Indonesia, the Philippines and other parts of Asia
- ICYMI: “Dolce & Gabbana’s NFT Experiment Is A Million-Dollar Success Story”
India: BollyCoin NFT marketplace
- India: Stader Labs raises $4M with crypto staking platform, allowing users to earn rewards for holding certain cryptocurrencies, similar to depositing money in a bank
- India: Chingari short-video platform to launch its own crypto token, aiming for the $GARI token to be tradeable on cryptocurrency exchanges
- India: “Blockchain…will also attract billions of dollars of investments…However, a regulatory grey zone around cryptocurrency is certainly blocking our opportunities…”
- “India’s cryptocurrency market expanded 641% in the past year, driving growth of digital currencies in central and Southern Asia…”
- South Korea: Opposition People Power Party preparing proposal for 12-month delay to implementation of crypto tax legislation in bid to soften impact
- BollyCoin: A decentralised community-owned marketplace for Bollywood NFT assets – download the whitepaper here
Asia’s Crypto Landscape – Messari (pdf)
- Crypto in Australia, from the Finder Cryptocurrency Adoption Index, ranking the most popular cryptocurrencies across 22 countries
- ICYMI: Mastercard partners Bakkt to allow all banks and merchants to offer cryptocurrency and related services including wallets, crypto rewards and more
- 93% of all Singaporeans had heard of crypto and 43% owned it, with adoption highest among 26-45 year-olds. 66% of respondents in that group said they owned some crypto’
- ICYMI: US City of Miami plans advance to allow city employees to be paid using Bitcoin, and to let residents pay fees and potentially taxes using the cryptocurrency
- ICYMI: UK’s Action Fraud centre for fraud and cyber crime finds £146M lost to crypto fraud since the start of 2021, near 30% more than reported lost in entirety of 2020
- MP in Kingdom of Tonga, Polynesia, to propose accepting Bitcoin as legal tender to improve remittances for disapora communities
pwc Crypto Hedge Fund Report 2021 (pdf)
- China: A look at Huobi cryptocurrency platform’s moves in response to the government’s banning of all crypto-related activities
- India: Biconomy blockchain-based transaction platform adds 12K new token holders via token listing, generating $11.5M
- China’s Powerbridge Technologies to deploy 2600 high-performance bitcoin and ether mining rigs in Hong Kong
- A brief look back at the recent world-first Crypto-Fashion Week
- China’s Binance cryptocurrency exchange launches $1BN accelerator fund in bid to boost adoption of Binance Smart Chain blockchain platform
- New Zealand: Christchurch Cryptocurrency & Blockchain Meetup set for October 27th, hosted by Axia Labs and Cryptocurrency NZ
Cryptocurrency Adoption Rates 2021 / Finder (pdf)
- ICYMI: Visa to launch Universal Payments Channel, platform enabling central bank digital currencies to transfer between blockchains, and also allowing stablecoins to operate on different blockchains
- Japan: A look at the growth of opportunities for NFTs in the Manga space, touching on projects including Shueisha Manga-Art Heritage, Startbahn and Shroom Chan
- Philippines: Axie Infinity blockchain-based play-to-earn gaming firm to launch a decentralized exchange, making it easier to move tokens off the platform to trade them
- Asia’s tech news, latest issue: Korea’s vertical farms, Australian agri-tech, Indonesian investing app, Huobi in China, NFTCon…
- Philippines: Yield Guild Games partners Merit Circle decentralized autonomous organization to expand play-to-earn scholarship model for developing countries
- New Zealand: Reserve Bank publishes ‘Future of Money – Central Bank Digital Currency’ issues paper, inviting public comment on whether a CBDC is right for the country
2021 Global Crypto Users Index: Binance (pdf)
November 2021 headlines
Wild Digital Crypto Conference / April 2022
- ICYMI: Square payments giant publishes White Paper outlining planned tbDEX protocol, aiming to make exchanging digital assets such as Bitcoin more accessible
- Australia: CoinSpot has grown to 2M users and to celebrate, they’re giving an Australian resident a Lamborghini
- “The key is that NFTs are not just digital collectibles, they are the ‘ownership layer’ of the Internet.”
- Asia’s tech news, issue 109: Australia’s sustainable fintechs, Bengaluru Tech Summit, Taiwan’s X-Pitch 2021 winners, Indonesia’s crypto ban…
- “The blockchain accounting tech that powers cryptocurrencies could be vulnerable to sophisticated attacks and forged transactions if quantum computing matures faster than efforts to future-proof digital money”
- Asia’s tech news, issue 110: Blockchain in India, Baidu’s metaverse moves, Bangladesh’s startups, entrepreneur wellness in Australia, crypto in Thailand…
- Asia’s tech scene: Taipei Startup Festival, upcoming Singapore blockchain summit, Entrepreneur First’s Web3 platform, Korean blockchain gaming & in-game crypto, Pakistan’s startup scene…
Cool Points Club / Re-imagining climate action with blockchain
- ICYMI: El Salvador to create ‘Bitcoin City’, issuing a $1BN ‘bitcoin bond’ tokenized financial instrument and powering the city – and crypto mining – with energy from nearby volcano
- ICYMI: Identity thieves believed to have exploited El Salvador’s Chivo Bitcoin wallet setup process using stolen ID numbers to claim $30 BTC incentive
- Mastercard partners Hong Kong’s Amber Group, Australia’s CoinJar and Thailand’s Bitkub with plans to launch cryptocurrency-linked payment cards in APAC
- Download: Bloomberg Crypto Outlook, November 2021 Edition (pdf)
- ICYMI: El Salvador to create ‘Bitcoin City’, issuing a $1BN ‘bitcoin bond’ tokenized financial instrument and powering the city – and crypto mining – with energy from nearby volcano
- Singapore: Central bank to launch ‘Project Orchid’ to explore the tech infrastructure and competencies needed to issue a digital Singapore dollar
- Online event: ‘China’s Fintech Future’ set for December 2nd, looking at the country’s central bank digital currency moves and more
Bloomberg Global Cryptocurrencies Outlook 2022 (pdf)
- Japan: New digital currency backed by bank deposits set for trials in Japan in effort involving the nation’s top banks and 70 or so other companies and organizations
- Central bank digital currencies: “If any, the only achievement of ‘CBDC initiatives’ will likely be to create copies of existing digital payment solutions, just worse.”
- Metaverse: “NFTs, like cryptocurrency at large, have been compared to Beanie Babies; both involve adults collecting childish objects without any genuine internet beyond financial speculation.”
- ICYMI: Valora peer-to-peer cryptocurrency app lands celebrity backing, allowing users to send and receive crypto payments via text messages without needing a bank account
- South Korea: K-pop group BTS joins non-fungible tokens stampede with management company Hybe partnering parent firm of Upbit crypto trading platform
- Indonesia: Religious leaders forbid country’s Muslims from using Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, ruling they break Shariah compliance in elements of uncertainty, wagering and harm
- Singapore: Coinhako platform the first local non-bank cryptocurrency exchange to receive in-principal approval from Monetary Authority to provide digital payment token services
AusPost: Australia’s Online Shopping 2021 report (pdf)
- India: Gov’t to ban the use of cryptocurrencies for making payments, and ban ‘active solicitation’ by crypto firms, but will allow and regulate trading of crypto as assets
- ICYMI: Second Annual NFT Awards applications close November 26th, running with the theme of ‘Celebrating the Metaverse’
- “The key thing to keep in mind is that NFTs do not inherently carry limited rights, but rather that NFTs have almost unlimited flexibility in unbundling and assigning property rights…”
- ICYMI: Square payments giant publishes White Paper outlining planned tbDEX protocol, aiming to make exchanging digital assets such as Bitcoin more accessible
- Singapore’s Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp considering establishing a cryptocurrency exchange in response to customer demand
- Thailand: Central Retail Corp, the country’s biggest shopping center developer, is piloting a digital currency with employees, aiming to expand to customers and the public
- “If MiamiCoin grows and coin-denominated contracts become a part of daily city life…Miami will have to decide whether to claim not only a share of MIA’s profits, but some measure of control…”
Deloitte: 2022 Tech, Media, Telecoms Predictions (pdf)
- Asia’s tech news, issue 112: Sri Lanka’s startup moves, Singapore’s CBDC research, Indonesia’s creator economy startup, UN Women Care Accelerator, Filipino venture funding, rural insurance-tech in India…
- Australia: Commonwealth Bank to become the country’s first main-street bank to offer a platform for retail customers to trade crypto, partnering NY’s Gemini Trust exchange
- Australia: Australian Securities and Investment Commission raises oversight of investment side of local cryptocurrency market with licences for crypto-asset holders
- Asia’s tech news, issue 102: China EV woes, CoinSpot’s Australia milestone, Korea & Google Pay, Vietnam’s potential…
- ICYMI: Quentin Tarantino to offer 7 uncut scenes from Pulp Fiction as NFTs for auction on OpenSea, delivered using privacy-focused Secret Network blockchain ecosystem
- India: Lysto NFT startup raises $3M in seed round with sights on enabling anyone in the e-commerce space, from individuals to brands, to raise funds and monetise their offerings
- Taiwan: Blocto NFT and cryptocurrency wallet backed by Mark Cuban, building on recent launch BloctoBay NFT marketplace
- Thailand: GuildFi, developer of ecosystem infrastructure to connect games, NFTs, and communities, raises $6M seed financing
- Online now: DappRadar Blockchain Behavior Report: ‘Interest in the metaverse and play-to-earn booming in Asia’
December 2021 headlines
Messari: Crypto Theses For 2022 (pdf)
- A quick 101 guide to stablecoins and how they act as a bridge to the cryptocurrency economy
- Download: Digital Asset Classification Standard, a glossary of terms used, from CoinDesk Indices (pdf)
- How secure are digital assets? “About $1.1BN in attacks have occurred in this [DeFi] area in the past 10 years, according to Crypto Head…”
- Asia’s tech news, issue 120: In this issue: Thai luxury yacht platform, Philippines as investment opportunity, India’s Reserve Bank and digital currency, Metaverse Seoul, Financial Times & UNSDGs…
- India: Reserve Bank proposes widening definition of ‘bank note’ to include currency in digital form in preparation to enable eventual launch of central bank digital currency
- Four Pacific Island nations – Solomon Islands, Fiji, Tonga and Vanuatu – exploring issuing their own digital currencies, partnering Japan’s Soramitsu, firm behind Cambodia’s Bakong CBDC
PwC: Global Crypt Tax Report 2021 (pdf)
- Video: The Financial Times looks at stablecoins – what are they, how they work and why they’re a concern for regulators
- Taiwan: An intro and 101 guide to XY Finance, cross-chain cryptocurrency swap aggregator
- Binance reportedly in talks with Indonesia’s wealthiest family and state-owned telco around establishing a cryptocurrency trading exchange
- Myanmar: A look at how the unofficial National Unity Government now accepts Tether cryptocurrency for “domestic use to…speed up the current trade, services and payment systems”
- ICYMI: Meta embeds Novi payments into WhatsApp in step towards cornering US P2P payments and crypto space
- Jefferies investment bank on the metaverse opportunity: “…all human activity that hasn’t moved online is about to move online in the next 5 to 10 years…”
- ICYMI: Nike acquires NFT startup RTFKT in major metaverse move
- Dancers – the next to take the leap into the Metaverse? “…the principal dancer at The Royal Ballet in London, transformed three performance pieces into NFTs…”
Bloomberg Crypto Outlook, January 2022 (pdf)
- Hong Kong: Monkey Kingdom NFT project hacked in phishing attack, losing $1.3M of the community’s crypto funds, and launches compensation fund in bid to make things right
- Philippines: XLD Finance launches xSpend, allowing users in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines to pay bills using GameFi tokens or stablecoins
- ICYMI: South China Morning Post unveils ARTIFACTs by SCMP, collectible NFTs from the SCMP’s 118 years of archives
- ICYMI: Palm NFT Studio, cofounded by ConsenSys and Ethereum execs, raise $27M led by Microsoft M12 venture fund to provide services for creators to build NFT marketplaces
- How secure are digital assets? “About $1.1BN in attacks have occurred in this [DeFi] area in the past 10 years, according to Crypto Head…”
- Download: Digital Asset Classification Standard, a glossary of terms used, from CoinDesk Indices (pdf)
India: BollyCoin NFT marketplace
- A quick 101 guide to stablecoins and how they act as a bridge to the cryptocurrency economy
- India: “Digital payments in India will more than double to $135.2 billion in 2023 from $64.8 billion…share of worldwide transaction value…to increase from 1.56% to 2.02% in 4 years.”
- Porsche Australia launches 3-item NFT series to celebrate 70th anniversary
- India: PM Modi calls on int’l community to jointly shape norms for tech including social media and crypto to ensure they are used to empower democracy, not undermine it
- Australia’s augmented reality treasure hunt company iHunt4 preps for US growth following selection for display at US National Retail Federation’s Big Show in New York
- India: Metamall raises $4.6M in pre-IDO funding round through token sales, in part allowing users to earn money by leasing, staking, advertising and developing virtual real estate
- Singapore’s Trovio digitisation, tokenisation and provenance services firm merges with Australia’s TCM Capital digital asset manager to form crypto entity valued at $200M
- Indonesia: Binance blockchain and crypto infrastructure firm inks JV with consortium led by MDI Ventures for new Indonesia-based digital asset exchange
The Block Research: 2022 Digital Asset Outlook (pdf)
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