Our weekly roundup of news from East Asia curates the industry’s most important developments.
South Korean Web3 firm raises $140 million
South Korean nonfungible tokens (NFT) developer Line Next secured a $140 million investment on December 13 from a consortium led by Peter-Thiel-backed private equity firm Crescendo Equity Partners. It’s the largest blockchain series funding round in Asia this year.
The firm’s NFT platform, dubbed “DOSI,” is scheduled to premiere in January 2024, integrated with Japanese NFT marketplace Line NFT.
“With this investment, Line Next also plans to introduce new services to further accelerate Web3 popularization. These include introducing a social app that allows users to communicate based on the characters they made utilizing AI technology and launching new Web3 games utilizing BROWN & FRIENDS characters that anyone can enjoy.”
Line Next plans to create the new services on public blockchain Finschia, with Line and Crescendo participating in the Finschia Foundation as governance members. The firm claims it has achieved over 470,000 cumulative transactions through various decentralized applications operating under its DOSI brand. Its popular messaging app, Line, has over 5 million users.
The upcoming Dosi NFT platform.
China’s AI market reaches $1.42 trillion this year
The state-owned China Electronics Information Industry Development Academy (CEIIDA) estimated on December 14 that the country’s AI market grew to be worth 10 trillion yuan ($1.42 trillion) this year, aided by the use of generative AI in manufacturing, retail, information technology, and healthcare. And it said the industry is just getting started:
“In 2035, generative artificial intelligence is expected to contribute nearly 90 trillion yuan in economic value to the world, of which my country will exceed 30 trillion yuan, accounting for more than 40%.”
According to official statistics, over 1,800 AI firms are situated in Beijing alone. Advancements in Chinese AI have enabled firms to directly harness the power of AI computing via cloud technology, skipping requirements to develop their own in-house generative AI models. By 2025, CEIIDA researchers estimate that 35% of the country’s digital computing operations will be handled by AI. Meanwhile, the City of Beijing has begun to issue “vouchers” tied to government related generative-AI software. The AI vouchers promise data computation and delivery for tasks such as medical inquiries within “one millisecond” of initiation.
Earlier this year on June 5, Chinese AI startup Guangnian Zhiwai, or “Lightyears Away”, reached unicorn status less than 100 days after incorporation. The round was led by a notable Chinese venture capital firm along with Chinese internet conglomerate Tencent. According to media reports, Lightyears Away aims to become China’s OpenAI, mirroring its American counterpart’s success. The firm had no market-ready product at the time of the raise and only started hiring technical staff thereafter.
An AI-powered robotics research center in China (CCTV).
Sinohope Technology (also known as New Huo Tech), is a cryptocurrency exchange and custodian established by Huobi Global co-founder Leon Li. It disclosed on December 13 that the firm expects a loss of $280 million Hong Kong dollars ($35.86 million) for the first nine months of 2023, an increase from HKD$200 million ($25.61 million) during the same period last year. Part of the loss included HKD$86 million ($11 million) of enterprise deposits stuck on bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
At the time FTX went under last November, Leon extended a $14 million personal line of credit to bailout Sinhope customers affected by FTX’s collapse. A full financial report of the company’s operations during the first nine months of 2023 will be published this month, Sinohope said.
On December 11, X-Spot Global, another company owned by Leon Li, won an injunction against Huobi Global for the latter to cease its use of the Chinese-equivalent “Huobi” trademark in Hong Kong.
According to court filings, the Huobi trademark was registered in 2019 in Hong Kong. In September 2022, Huobi Global was sold by co-founders Leon Li and Du Jun to About Capital Management, an entity linked to Chinese blockchain personality Justin Sun. However, the rights to the Chinese-language Huobi trademark had been fully transferred to Leon Li’s X-Spot Global prior to the acquisition, making the entity its trademark owner. Huobi subsequently rebranded to HTX this September.
Huobi Founder Leon Li Meets With Vladamir Putin Advisor Sergey Glazyev (PRNewsfoto/Huobi)
OKX DEX exploited for $2.7 million
Crypto exchange OKX’s decentralized exchange (DEX) suffered a reported $2.7 million hack on December 13 after the private key of the proxy admin owner was allegedly leaked. In a statement, OKX developers said that “was caused by the theft of the management rights of an abandoned OKX DEX market maker contract that is no longer in use” Developers also estimate the loss to be lower than reported by blockchain analytics firms, at $370,000, over 18 addresses.
“Judicial procedures will be initiated to recover relevant losses. The platform will conduct a security self-examination in the future and reorganize all related abandoned contracts to avoid such incidents from happening again. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.”
Cryptocurrency Bitget’s spot trading volume increased by 82% in November as part of a wider industry recovery. In its monthly report, the exchange said that its Protection Fund, comprised of 6,500 Bitcoin (BTC) and 120 million Tether (USDT), had surged by $90 million in capital appreciation value compared to when the Fund launched on December 22, 2022. The exchange also onboarded 5,000 new traders last month.
“Additionally, the first week of December witnessed an increased demand for our copy trading in the spot market (launched in January 2023) compared to the first week of November, with a 23% rise in the number of users engaging in copy trading, which attracted 17% more users compared to the entire December of the previous year.”
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Zhiyuan Sun
Zhiyuan Sun is a journalist at Cointelegraph focusing on technology-related news. He has several years of experience writing for major financial media outlets such as The Motley Fool, Nasdaq.com and Seeking Alpha.
Nvidia boss Jensen Huang has told Sky News the AI sector is a “long, long way” from a Big Short-style collapse.
Speaking outside Downing Street following a roundtable with government and other industry figures, the head of the world’s first $5tn company defended his sector from criticism by investor Michael Burry.
Mr Burry and his firm, Scion Capital, gained notoriety for “shorting” – betting against – the US housing market ahead of the 2008 financial crash.
He was portrayed by Christian Bale in the 2015 film The Big Short, which also starred Steve Carell, Brad Pitt and Ryan Gosling.
Earlier this week, filings revealed Mr Burry has now bet against Nvidia and on social media, he has suggested there is a bubble in the sector.
Some $500bn was wiped off technology stocks overnight Tuesday into Wednesday, Bloomberg reported.
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Speaking to Sky News, Mr Huang said: “I would say that we’re in the beginning of a very long build out of artificial intelligence.”
Image: Christian Bale portrayed Michael Burry in the 2015 hit film. Pic: Reuters
Defending his company and investment, Mr Huang said AI is the first technology that requires “infrastructure to be built” and that Nvidia has seen “great returns” from AI, and that is why it is expanding.
Mr Huang said better training of AI has led to much “better” and “useful” answers, and that means “the AIs have become profitable”.
“When something is profitable, the suppliers want to make more of it, and that’s the reason the infrastructure build out is accelerating,” he added.
Pushed on whether he was worried about a situation like the Big Short, Mr Huang said: “We are long, long away from that.”
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The UK government is betting big on AI in the hopes that it can save money by using it and generate growth by building the infrastructure to back it up.
Asked if she was worried about the market, Technology Secretary Liz Kendall told Sky News: “I have no doubts that AI is going to transfer all parts of our economy and our public services.”
Mr Burry and his firm, Scion Capital’s bets against Nvidia and other companies were revealed by regulatory filings earlier this week.
The investor also posted on social media for the first time in more than two years, warning of a bubble.
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New York has followed London by choosing hope over fear in electing Democrat Zohran Mamdani as its new mayor, Sir Sadiq Khan said.
Mr Mamdani, 34, defeated former New York governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa to become the city’s first Muslim mayor and the first of South Asian heritage.
Sir Sadiq called it a “historic campaign”, adding on X: “New Yorkers faced a clear choice – between hope and fear – and just like we’ve seen in London – hope won.”
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson also congratulated Mr Mamdani, telling Sky News: “I wish him well.
“It’s a wonderful job to have secured.”
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Green Party leader Zack Polanski said Mr Mamdani’s success “will resonate throughout the world” as he called it a “story where no one is left behind”.
“It’s time to write that story across England and Wales too,” he added.
Image: Zohran Mamdani with his wife, Rama Duwaji. Pic Reuters
Mr Mamdani’s victory was a setback for Donald Trump, who had thrown his weight behind Andrew Cuomo, a former Democrat running as an independent.
The mayor-elect described himself as “Trump’s worst nightmare” and said New York had shown “a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him”.
The US president had threatened to cut federal funding to New York if Mr Mamdani won.
In his victory speech, Mr Mamdani said: “New York will remain a city of immigrants, a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants and as of tonight, led by an immigrant.
“If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him.”
Kemi Badenoch is calling for the government to “get Britain drilling again” – as Sir Keir Starmer heads to COP30.
The Tory leader has launched a joint campaign with the Scottish Conservatives to demand the moratorium on new oil and gas licences is lifted.
They are also calling on the chancellor to scrap the energy profits levy – an extra 38% tax on North Sea oil and gas profits – at the upcoming budget on 26 November.
The Conservatives want the government to recognise that it believes gas will be a key part of the future energy mix to secure energy and lower bills to “deliver a stronger economy”.
They have launched the call to “get Britain drilling again” as the prime minister flies to Brazil for the COP30 summit after he reiterated the government’s dedication to clean energy goals and the UK’s role as a global climate leader on Tuesday.
He admitted COP30 would present a “challenge” due to slow global progress in cutting emissions, but said: “I’ve thought climate change has been our biggest challenge as a species for a very long number of years now.”
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Trump’s ambassador tells UK to drill for oil
Speaking on a visit to Aberdeen, Ms Badenoch said the UK, in particular northeast Scotland, is facing an oil and gas “emergency due to the anti-growth policies of the Labour government in Westminster and the SNP in Holyrood”.
She warned the offshore oil and gas sector “risks disappearing altogether”, which she said would mean job losses in Scotland and the rest of the UK, and leave the country more reliant on overseas energy imports.
Ms Badenoch said: “Scotland, and the whole United Kingdom, faces a growing oil and gas emergency thanks to Labour’s inability to put our national interest first.
“By the end of Labour’s first term in office, it’s not inconceivable that Scotland’s oil and gas sector will be at serious risk, with domestic production currently set to half by 2030.
“That would be a shocking indictment of Labour’s energy policy, and a dangerous act of economic self-sabotage.
“Enough is enough. Keir Starmer must find the backbone to ditch Ed Miliband’s Net Zero fanaticism, which is forcing up bills and driving away industry.
“Instead, the prime minister should do what our economy needs, scrap the energy profits levy and end the moratorium on new licences in the North Sea.
“If the Labour government fails to act, we could be witness to the end of our domestic energy security as we know it.”
Image: North Sea oil exploration platforms lie in the Cromerty Firth in northern Scotland in 2003. Pic: AP
A Labour Party spokesperson accused Ms Badenoch of “doubling down on the same failed Tory energy policy that caused the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation”.
“The Conservatives’ anti-growth, anti-jobs, anti-investment position on clean energy would cost hundreds of thousands of jobs, leave Britain reliant on insecure expensive fossil fuels and lock families into higher bills for generations to come,” she added.
“It’s the same old Tories, with the same old policies. It didn’t work then and it won’t work now.”
There have been a series of oil and gas closures this year.
Grangemouth, Scotland’s only oil refinery, stopped processing crude oil after a century of operations in April, with 430 job losses.
The union Unite said political leaders had “utterly failed” the workers and would face “electoral wrath”, while the area’s Labour MP, Brian Leishman, said he was “disgusted” by the broken promises.
Harbour Energy, the UK’s largest oil and gas producer, cut 250 jobs in Aberdeen in May, blaming the government’s fiscal rules and regulations.
The Prax Lindsey Oil Refinery in Lincolnshire ended production in August, with 125 job losses, after the group went into administration and the government was unable to find a buyer.
In October, oil and gas contractor Petrofac, which employs about 2,000 people in Scotland, filed for administration, but its core operating subsidiaries and North Sea business have continued to trade as normal while it looks at restructuring or selling.