Market Analysis
US senators tell athletes to avoid digital yuan, Chinese exchange volumes rebound … and more – Cointelegraph Magazine
This weekly roundup of reports from Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong makes an attempt to curate the business’s most essential information, together with influential tasks, adjustments within the regulatory panorama, and enterprise blockchain integrations.
Olympic battle
After months of writing concerning the relentless actions of the Chinese authorities, this week we lead with a narrative from the US Authorities. On July 19, three US senators signed a letter addressed to the to U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, requesting US athletes not use the e-CNY in February’s Winter Olympic video games in Beijing. The logic was that the digital foreign money can be traceable after the athletes returned to the US, in case China was desirous about monitoring overseas bi-athletes and bobsledders of their offseason coaching regiments.
China’s Overseas Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian snapped again that the senators “should stop making troubles” and “figure out what a digital currency really is.” Zhao apparently believes that the US lawmakers won’t be up-to-date on the most recent in expertise, one thing the crypto-enthusiasts on Twitter have been bemoaning for years.
All sarcasm apart, this factors to a rising pattern of customers being caught in geo-political struggles round expertise, which might change into a a lot bigger challenge as CBDCs change into more prevalent. Customers can select to avoid sure {hardware} or apps that present a knowledge safety threat, however avoiding the native foreign money shall be a a lot more tough selection to make. Money use has dropped to a negligible quantity in China, with the majority of each day transactions being digital by means of Alipay and WeChat. Touring or dwelling in China with out touching the digital foreign money shall be an enormous inconvenience, and one probably to not go over properly with future generations.
Main the pack
On July 19, Cointelegraph reported that Chinese Bitcoin miners had earned shut to $7 billion {dollars} previously yr, ten occasions increased than miners within the second highest nation, the US. This pattern is likely to be damaged up barely by the regulatory crackdown this yr, however nonetheless reveals the affect China has on the business, particularly if massive Chinese corporations can proceed to arrange operations in neighboring international locations.
Axie Infinity’s token is taking off sooner than the sport in China (Supply: Axie Infinity).
Chinese volumes bounce again
Volumes on Chinese exchanges Huobi and OKEx rebounded barely in contrast to the identical time final week, together with on the derivatives facet the place the 2 exchanges made up round 44% of Binance’s quantity, in contrast to solely 38.7% on the identical time the week earlier than. Gaming token Axie Infinity remained a scorching token for buying and selling, and was the fourth-most traded token on Huobi on Thursday behind BTC, ETH, and DOGE. Precise gameplay hasn’t actually taken off in China, and despite the fact that the location stays unblocked by the Nice Firewall up to now, visits to the web site are nonetheless scarce. Customers from the Philippines make up 40% of web site guests, whereas China accounted for lower than 3%. China boasts the biggest gaming neighborhood on this planet, however tight restrictions on cryptocurrencies is probably going to restrict the expansion of public blockchain-based gaming in the meanwhile. Speculating on gaming-related tokens, nevertheless, will probably stay a powerful pattern.
It’s price noting that within the brief time period, the rules looming on the horizon makes betting on exchanges a dangerous proposition. Many rumors have swirled about upcoming motion to be taken by Chinese regulators, significantly for repeat offenders within the space. Regulators in smaller international locations appear to be ready to see who will throw the primary punch.
Non-fungible fossils
Hong Kong’s most outstanding newspaper South China Morning Publish is launching an NFT platform aimed toward historic information and objects. This platform will let verified issuers mint and commerce NFTs in an open market. This could enchantment to a broader viewers of collectors and non-crypto native customers in Southeast Asia, in addition to a authorities desirous about exporting smooth energy to the world.
