Asia

April 18, 2019 @ 10:56 pm By Cali Haan  |  

A libertarian “seasteading” venture launched by a Bitcoin-rich American and his Thai wife off the coast of Phuket has induced a national security response from the Thai Navy, Bangkok Post reports. Chad Andrew Elwartowski and Supranee Thepdet (aka “Nadia Summergirl”) have reportedly established “a living… Read More

April 17, 2019 @ 2:34 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

MetLife Korea announced on Wednesday the seven finalists selected for its open innovation program, collab 5.0. The program is looking for insurtech companies globally to scale their business with MetLife while solving some of the insurer’s biggest innovation challenges across its Korean business. According to… Read More

April 17, 2019 @ 12:00 pm By JD Alois  |  

AlphaPoint, a blockchain company focused on enabling asset tokenization and trading in a compliant manner, has partnered with Elevated Returns to launch a “secondary market for $1 billion USD tokenized real estate shares.” The exchange will focus on the Southeast Asian property markets. Elevated Returns… Read More

April 17, 2019 @ 1:29 am By Cali Haan  |  

Ongoing regulatory uncertainty in India regarding the use and trading of cryptocurrencies has caused a number of related firms there to close or relocate. Most recently, reports Economic Times, Indian crypto trading platform Unocoin has made additional staff cuts, and it’s total workforce now sits… Read More

April 16, 2019 @ 11:00 pm By JD Alois  |  

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), via MUFG Innovation Partners (MUIP), has invested in Chainalysis – a provider of cryptocurrency compliance solutions. MUIP invested $6 million into Chainanalysis as part of a $36 million Series B funding round. The Series B was announced in February. Mitsubishi… Read More

April 16, 2019 @ 8:44 am By JD Alois  |  

Welendus (PTP Funding Limited), a peer to peer lending platform, has received an investment from the Unicorn Ascension Fund (UAF) for an undisclosed amount. The investment was said to be used for future expansion into India. Other early-stage investors in the company include Pontaq, a… Read More

April 13, 2019 @ 4:00 pm By Xu Gao  |  

China Implements First National Standard for Insurance Sector On April 11th, China has implemented its first national standard for the insurance industry. The national standard incorporates 817 entries of professional terms, serving as a fundamental standard for various terms in the insurance sector, according to… Read More

April 12, 2019 @ 12:27 pm By Cali Haan  |  

In the wake of increasing Chinese state reticence towards a once supported industry, the biggest Chinese crypto mining firms have been steadily expanding or relocating to Canada, the US and Iceland, Chinese crypto news outlet 8BTC reports. But small and mid-size Chinese crypto miners have… Read More

April 12, 2019 @ 7:59 am By JD Alois  |  

International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a United Nations’ specialized agency for information and communication technologies, has signed an agreement to work with South Korean blockchain firm ICONLOOP. According to a release, the goal is to establish a high-level framework of cooperation in the area of the… Read More

April 11, 2019 @ 9:06 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

gini, a Hong Kong-based fintech that specializes in smart spending-tracking, announced on Thursday it raised $1.6 million through its seed funding round, which involved participation from Mountain Partners, Treuenburg Group, Global Technology Alliance (GTA), Dr. Cornelius Boersch, the European Investment Fund (backed by EIB), and Hong Kong-based… Read More

April 11, 2019 @ 3:27 pm By Cali Haan  |  

China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has reportedly added cryptocurrency mining to, “a revised list of industries it wants to encourage, restrict or eliminate,” Reuters reports. Cryptocurrency mining appears on the list along with 450 other industrial activities the NDRC says should be, “phased out… Read More

April 11, 2019 @ 3:14 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Two unnamed individuals were charged with fraud April 10th for their involvement with OneCoin, a multibillion-dollar global cryptocurrency pyramid scheme of  started by a brother and sister team in Bulgaria. Business Times reports that an investigation by the Singapore Commercial Affairs Department and the Singapore Police… Read More

April 11, 2019 @ 6:41 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Singapore based online lender Validus announced this week that following its $15.2 million fundraise the lending platform has formally launched in Indonesia through its domestic business entity, Batumbu, in partnership with Indonesia’s Triputra Group. As previously reported, Validus was launched in 2015 and claims to… Read More

April 10, 2019 @ 10:40 am By JD Alois  |  

Welab Digital Limited (WDL) has been approved by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) to receive a virtual banking license. This is the 4th license for a virtual bank which is now approved to operate in Hong Kong since a consultation on digital banking took… Read More

April 9, 2019 @ 8:20 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Pintec Technology Holdings Ltd. (PINTEC; Nasdaq: PT), an independent platform enabling financial services in China, announced on Monday PT. Avatec Services Indonesia (Avatec Indonesia), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Avatec.ai (S) Pte. Ltd (Avatec), has been approved by the Indonesian regulator to be a credit scoring… Read More

April 9, 2019 @ 8:19 am By JD Alois  |  

OurCrowd portfolio company, Hong Kong-based Klook, has raised $425 million in funding in a Series D round led by Softbank Vision Fund. Klook is a travel activity and services booking platform. Klook said it raised $225 million in Series D+ funding increasing the company’s total… Read More

April 8, 2019 @ 11:02 pm By Cali Haan  |  

North Korea has added to its standard program of hacking banks in the developing world by launching computer-borne attacks against cryptocurrency exchanges, Wired reports. To further complicate matters, at least part of the billions of dollars so far garnered in these hacks is being used… Read More

April 8, 2019 @ 6:26 am By JD Alois  |  

Online lending company Robocash Group has moved into the Islamic finance sector via a partnership in Indonesia with Reliance Finance. Robocash has launched a new Fintech service providing personal financing in full compliance with the Shariah law. Robocash said the new service has been labeled… Read More

April 7, 2019 @ 8:13 pm By Cali Haan  |  

An on-the-ground investigation by London news outlet Financial Times has shown that several payment referral partnerships maintained by German payments giant Wirecard in the Philippines are either insubstantial or dubious. On Friday, it was revealed that a top accounting executive with the firm had departed…. Read More

April 6, 2019 @ 12:37 pm By JD Alois  |  

Late last month, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced the issuance of the very first virtual banking licenses. While many jurisdictions around the world are pursuing policies that encourage Fintech innovation and digital banking what was unique about the HKMA’s announcement was the rapidity… Read More