Asia

January 19, 2019 @ 10:35 am By Cali Haan  |  

Seven individuals have been arrested in Taiwan and charged with operating a crypto investment scheme police believe defrauded 1000 investors out of $51 million USD, Focus Taiwan reports. The seven are charged with “violating multiple banking and business…laws” covered by Taiwan’s Banking and Multi-Level Marketing Supervision acts. Among… Read More

January 18, 2019 @ 4:13 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42 “global threat intelligence team” has identified a new exploit illegally mining Monero cryptocurrency on Chinese public cloud networks: “Palo Alto networks recently captured and investigated new samples of the Linux coin mining malware used by the Rocke group…. Read More

January 18, 2019 @ 9:22 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Chinese peer-to-peer lending platform Hexindai (NASDAQ: HX) announced on Friday it signed a cooperation agreement with Shanxi Zhengxuan Finance Guarantee Co., Ltd., which reportedly is controlled by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC), to provide investors on its platform with insurance coverage that… Read More

January 18, 2019 @ 8:21 am By JD Alois  |  

Huobi Derivative Market (Huobi DM) reports that trading volume recently surpassed USD $20 billion. Huobi DM says that trading volume topped $10 billion during the first full month of operations. The company notes that trading growth comes at a time of slowing crypto activity. Huobi… Read More

January 17, 2019 @ 10:49 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Institute for Fintech Research, Tsinghua University (THUIFR) has partnered with Ripple to launch the Blockchain Technology Research Scholarship Program (BRSP) for graduate students in China. Based on the academic and industrial research achievement accomplished by Fintech Lab since 2012,THUIFR  is jointly established by PBC… Read More

January 17, 2019 @ 3:02 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Coin Asset, a Thai cryptocurrency exchange is “seeking a way to remain open” after being denied a license by the Thai Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Bangkok Post reports: “Coin Asset chief executive Sivanus Yamdee said the company will meet the SEC on Friday to discuss continuing its… Read More

January 17, 2019 @ 1:41 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Singapore-based cryptocurrency services platform Ethos announced earlier this week it has released a new update for its Universal Wallet, v1.6. According to Ethos, the update significantly builds on the existing ability to store, send and receive more than 140 coins/tokens, now enabling users to buy crypto with… Read More

January 17, 2019 @ 7:24 am By Erin Hobey  |  

The Indian media platform Inc42 just released its Indian Tech Startup Funding Report 2018. According to the report, during 2018 Indian startups received $11 B total funding across 743 deals. While in 2017, 4 startups took away a little more than half the funding $6.9 Bn, in 2018… Read More

January 15, 2019 @ 8:50 pm By JD Alois  |  

ZhongAn Online P&C Insurance Co., Ltd. (HKEX stock code: 6060), the first internet-based insurer in China, has partnered with Grab Holdings – an “online to offline” mobile platform serving Southeast Asia. The two firms have formed a joint venture to create and launch a “digital… Read More

January 15, 2019 @ 4:28 pm By Cali Haan  |  

“The business environment is increasingly harsh, but we can still produce a profit.” Two large Japanese IT companies, DMM and GMO, recently closed or considerably shrank their cryptomining operations citing millions in 2018 losses. That hasn’t stopped the Japanese firm Ginco Mongol, whose CEO furnished the… Read More

January 15, 2019 @ 12:18 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Bitmex, a Hong Kong-based Bitcoin derivatives exchange popular for allowing 100X leveraged bets, has deactivated the trading accounts of clients from the US and the Canadian province of Quebec, The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reports. The move has likely been made in response to increased regulatory pressure… Read More

January 15, 2019 @ 12:04 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Appian (NASDAQ: APPN), a firm that provides a software development platform that combines intelligent automation and enterprise low-code development to rapidly deliver powerful business applications announces that UnionBank of the Philippines used the Appian Platform to launch its first fully digital branch. The branch, which… Read More

January 14, 2019 @ 8:16 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Chinese fintech Pintec Technology Holdings Limited (PINTEC) announced on Monday it has formed a partnership with Best Wonder Co., Ltd., a SaaS platform for business E-tax and digital invoice services, to develop digital lending solutions to support small and micro-sized enterprises.  According to PINTEC, the collaboration… Read More

January 14, 2019 @ 8:12 am By JD Alois  |  

Seeking to boost their prominence as an equity financing hub in Asia, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has announced a grant of S$75 million to help businesses raise funding via the Singapore equity market. Singapore is one of the most business-friendly jurisdictions in the… Read More

January 13, 2019 @ 8:34 pm By JD Alois  |  

The global leader in equity crowdfunding, OurCrowd, has signed a new investment partnership agreement with South Korea’s KEB Hana Bank. The move by OurCrowd is further indication of its growing relationship with institutional investors and its significant foothold in Asia. In a release, OurCrowd said… Read More

January 12, 2019 @ 9:02 pm By Xu Gao  |  

Tsinghua PBCSF Releases “2018 Global Insurtech Report by Subsector” Early this month, the China Insurance and Pension Research Center of the National Finance Research Institute of Tsinghua University released the “2018 Global Insurtech Report by Subsector“. The report provides case studies of Insurtech companies in… Read More

January 12, 2019 @ 8:11 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Investigators from the Korean Ministry of Science, Technology and Information and the Korea Internet Development Agency (KISA) have found “weak” security at 31 0f approximately 38 crypto exchanges studied, ZDNet reports. Investigators deployed an 85-point security checklist to participating exchanges and found that, “14 exchanges… Read More

January 11, 2019 @ 12:52 pm By Cali Haan  |  

The Chinese National Internet Information Office (CNIIO) issued rules to govern the country’s “Blockchain Information Services” sector yesterday. The rules will go into force February 15th, 2019. The rules, which include ID requirements and development of channels to provide information to China’s “social credit” system (used for… Read More

January 11, 2019 @ 10:31 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), one of the largest financial institutions in the world, announced on Friday the establishment of MUFG Innovation Partners Co., Ltd. (MUIP), which will manage corporate venture capital funds of MUFG to accelerate open innovation and strengthening partnerships with fintech related… Read More

January 11, 2019 @ 9:23 am By JD Alois  |  

US Marketplace HBUS Rebrands to Huobi Matching Asian Platform HBUS, the US strategic partner of digital asset platform Huobi Group, has rebranded its retail trading marketplace to Huobi thus matching the Asian platform. The flagship operation Huobi Global will continue to operate under the same… Read More