Ripple, Visa Join HK CBDC Pilot, Huobi Allegations, GameFi Token Up 300%: Asia Express

Hong Kong is collaborating with 16 companies to build CBDCs

On May 18, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced the launch of the cyber Hong Kong dollar pilot project. According to officials, 16 select companies from the financial payments and technology sector will conduct the first round of trials this year on the feasibility of a central bank digital currency in Hong Kong dollars (e-HKD). Companies participating in the pilot include Alibaba Group’s Alipay Financial, Mastercard Asia, Ripple Labs, Visa and HSBC.

The digital Hong Kong dollar starts with six possible use cases; enhanced payments, programmable payments, offline payments, tokenized deposits, Web 3.0 transaction settlements, and tokenized asset settlements. The CBDC is planned for a three-phase approach, with the new pilot program being an important part of the second phase.

However, the HKMA has not yet decided whether the CBDC will officially start. It expects to share the results of the trials during Hong Kong Fintech Week 2023 in the fourth quarter. Yue Wai-man, CEO of the HKMA, commented:

“While the HKMA has not yet decided if or when the CBDC will be launched, we are excited to launch the Cyber ​​Hong Kong Dollar Pilot Scheme. This is a good opportunity for the HKMA to join hands with the industry to explore innovative use cases and prepare for the potential launch of the CBDC in the future.”

In October 2021, Mastercard said it would prepare its payments infrastructure for integration with CBDCs. Similarly, Visa believes that stablecoins and CBDCs will play a meaningful role in payments and has an ongoing blockchain interoperability project related to this issue.

Bitget’s comfortable run in Q1

According to the first quarter update published on May 17, cryptocurrency exchange Bitget hit $59 billion and $658 billion in spot and futures trades, respectively, representing growth rates of 8% and 27% from the fourth quarter of 2022. In other metrics, the exchange Protection Fund’s book value rose from $300 million to $380 million over the same period, aided by a bullish rally in the price of major cryptocurrencies.

The exchange says Proof of Reserves increased from 223% on December 20, 2022 to 246% on April 3, 2023 as it completed listings for 105 coins, bringing the total to more than 500 listings. The exchange’s native token, BGB, was up 120% during the quarter to $0.47 each at the time of publication.

Biget is committing $10 million over five years to a new Blockchain4Youth initiative to offer blockchain courses and certifications through Bitget Academy and will host campus lectures in partnership with universities around the world. In April, the exchange received its regulatory license in Lithuania, allowing it to offer crypto services both in and out of the Baltic nation.

Huobi’s latest drama

On May 16, Justin Sun, founder of Tron blockchain and relatively new de facto owner of cryptocurrency exchange Huobi Global, published a series of allegations against Wei Li, the brother of Leon Li, co-founder of Huobi Global. In his statement, Sun Wei accuses Li of “receiving millions of Huobi (HT) tokens through “abnormal means” at no cost and of “consistently selling and cashing out these HT tokens.”

“We intend to engage with Li Wei to negotiate a refund and arrange for the destruction of his remaining HT tokens. This action is not only a matter of justice, but also serves the best interests of everyone in the HT DAO community.”

Sun claims that “Li Wei has made no substantial contribution to our community.” and would therefore seek payout of any profits associated with Wei Li’s sale of the tokens and send them to the null address for token burning. In response, Wei’s brother and Huobi’s co-founder Leon Li wrote:

“I hope Huobi can provide evidence. If it is confirmed that HT was obtained for free through illegal means, I will personally pay 10 times the HT [amount] to the company Huobi.”

Leon Li continued by saying, “I hope Huobi will return the user’s legal assets,” if the allegations are found to be false. In October 2022, Huobi co-founders Leon Li and Du Jun reportedly sold 100% of the exchange’s stake to an investment company controlled by Justin Sun. Since the change of ownership, the stock has been in quite a bit of turmoil, though Sun claims Huobi has returned to profit and things have been sorted out. If you’re curious, this wasn’t the first “abnormal” move around the Huobi token either…

No news is good news as GameFi token is up over 300%

On May 17, the token of NFT multiplayer online battle arena game Superpower Squad (SQUAD) surged more than 300% to a high of $0.017 each within a single day before being withdrawn. There was no material news related to the development and the price of the token has been mostly losing since March.

The developers of Superpower Squad inform Asia Express that two game modes are in development. The first is a ‘Zombie Crisis’ survival mode in which the top surviving players receive NFT props (items used to kill enemies) upon completion of the round. In the second game mode, players would receive unique buffs (temporary powers) depending on the clan composition of NFT heroes, requiring each clan to have one NFT hero of legendary rarity.

The developers claiming that things are still moving comes after community speculation that development of the game was halted due to SQUAD’s price drop, also apparently not news. The game previously surpassed 100,000 downloads in January.

Superpower Squad is certainly not the first blockchain project to see high price variation for no specific reason. On April 14, shares of Singaporean Bitcoin (BTC) mining operator SAI.TECH rose more than 360% in a single day to a high of $7.42 before returning much of its profits. Like Superpower Squad, SAI.TECH had no material announcements before or after the wild price action.

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Zhiyuan sun

Zhiyuan sun is a journalist at Cointelegraph who focuses on technology-related news. He has several years of experience writing for major financial media such as The Motley Fool, Nasdaq.com and Seeking Alpha.