HK game firm to buy $100M crypto for treasury, China/UAE CBDC deal: Asia Express
Our weekly roundup of news from East Asia curates the industry’s most important developments.
Hong Kong gaming firm to invest $100M in crypto
Boyaa Interactive International, a publicly-traded Hong Kong holding company specializing in online card and board games, wants to secure the approval of its shareholders to invest $100 million in crypto.
According to this week’s announcement, Boyaa Interactive directors want to allocate $45 million of corporate funds to Bitcoin (BTC), $45 million to Ethereum (ETH), and $10 million to stablecoins such as Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC). As for rationales for the investment, directors wrote:
“The Internet gaming business mainly operated by the Group has a high degree of logical fit with Web3 technology. It attaches great importance to communities and users, covers virtual asset attributes and other characteristics, making Web3 technology easier and more widely used in the Internet gaming industry.”
The company’s brand of 75 online games, such as its Texas Hold’em casino, has around 1.18 million daily active players. In Q3 2023, Boyaa Interactive generated $14 million in revenue and $4.2 million in earnings, respectively.
China signs $400M CBDC deal with United Arab Emirates
The People’s Bank of China — the country’s central bank — has signed a $400 million cooperation memorandum on central bank digital currencies with the United Arab Emirates.
The China Council For The Promotion of International Trade said the memorandum was signed in Hong Kong and will last for five years, allowing for the interchange of each other’s CBDC during bilateral trade.
“The renewal of the currency swap agreement reflects the depth of relations between the UAE and China and demonstrates the UAE Central Bank’s commitment to strengthening its partnership with China in the fields of finance, trade, and investment. China is the UAE’s largest global trading partner, with non-oil trade between the two countries exceeding Dh264.2 billion in 2022.”
Government officials say that the treaty “will facilitate the provision of liquidity to financial markets in local currencies to settle cross-border financial and trade transactions in a “more effective and efficient manner.”
Since its inception in 2020, digital yuan (e-CNY) transactions have surpassed 1.8 trillion yuan ($253.6 billion), while the number of wallets has surged to 120 million. Recently, four foreign banks, including Standard Chartered, HSBC, Hang Seng Bank, and Fubon Bank have joined China’s e-CNY pilot tests.
Hong Kong director Stephen Chow teases NFT drop
Award-winning Hong Kong director Stephen Chow, known for his magnum opus 2004 film Kung Fu Hustle, will soon launch his own nonfungible tokens (NFT) collection.
In a December 6 Instagram post, Chow stated that the NFT project, dubbed “Nobody,” will be designed in collaboration with Chinese-American rapped Jin Au-Yeung, who also goes by his stage name MC Jin.
“We often look up to great people simply because they never underestimate themselves. Ordinary individuals, on the other hand, often bring the greatest surprises to the world,” wrote Chow in describing the theme of the Nobody NFT collection.
The NFTs will be released on the Moonbox platform, a Hong Kong-based AI and Web3 startup that aims to launch AI-powered NFTs focusing on the arts and film industry. Chow will serve as the first content creator on the platform. In August, Moonbox closed a $2.5 million funding round at a $50 million valuation led by OKX Ventures.
Singapore joins China’s e-CNY pilot program
Singapore will soon accept the e-CNY as a means of payment by Chinese visitors to the country.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), in collaboration with the People’s Bank of China and the Digital Currency Institute, will embark on a pilot enabling travelers from both countries to use e-CNY for tourism spending in Singapore and China. “This will enhance convenience for travelers when making purchases during their overseas travel,” government officials wrote.
In 2020, the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding for cooperation related to digital finance. At the Singapore Fintech Festival last month, the MAS revealed that it will draft a blueprint for the development of a digital Singaporean dollar.
Read also
Victory Securities approved for new Bitcoin fund in Hong Kong
Victory Securities, the first broker to receive a virtual asset provider license (VASP) in Hong Kong, has received regulatory approval from the country’s Securities & Futures Commission (SFC) for a new Bitcoin fund in partnership with EMC Labs.
The Victory EMC BTC Cycle Fund will allow investor subscriptions in U.S. dollars as well as stablecoins such as USDT and USDC.
On November 27, Victory Securities received a VASP license along with Interactive Brokers. The license allows firms to offer crypto services to retail investors, but only for trading of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and certain stablecoins. In addition, its new Bitcoin fund will only be available to accredited investors meeting a $1 million portfolio requirement for the time being.
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The UK economy grew by 0.1% between July and September, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
However, despite the small positive GDP growth recorded in the third quarter, the economy shrank by 0.1% in September, dragging down overall growth for the three month period.
The growth was also slower than what had been expected by experts and a drop from the 0.5% growth between April and June, the ONS said.
Economists polled by Reuters and the Bank of England had forecast an expansion of 0.2%, slowing from the rapid growth seen over the first half of 2024 when the economy was rebounding from last year’s shallow recession.
And the metric that Labour has said it is most focused on – the GDP per capita, or the economic output divided by the number of people in the country – also fell by 0.1%.
Pic: Reuters
Reacting to the figures, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves said: “Am I satisfied with the numbers published today? Of course not. I want growth to be stronger, to come sooner, and also to be felt by families right across the country.”
“It’s why in my Mansion House speech last night, I announced some of the biggest reforms of our pension system in a generation to unlock long term patient capital, up to £80bn to help invest in small businesses and scale up businesses and in the infrastructure needs,” Ms Reeves later told Sky News in an interview.
“We’re four months into this government. There’s a lot more to do to turn around the growth performance of the last decade or so.”
New economy data tests chancellor’s growth plan
The sluggish services sector – which makes up the bulk of the British economy – was a particular drag on growth over the past three months. It expanded by 0.1%, cancelling out the 0.8% growth in the construction sector.
The UK’s GDP for the most recent quarter is lower than the 0.7% growth in the US and 0.4% in the Eurozone.
The figures have pushed the UK towards the bottom of the G7 growth table for the third quarter of the year.
It was expected to meet the same 0.2% growth figures reported in Germany and Japan – but fell below that after a slow September.
Read more from Sky News:
Chancellor vows to rip up financial red tape
Massive winter fuel payment ‘cut’ no one ever talks about
The pound remained stable following the news, hovering around $1.267. The FTSE 100, meanwhile, opened the day down by 0.4%.
The Bank of England last week predicted that Ms Reeves’s first budget as chancellor will increase inflation by up to half a percentage point over the next two years, contributing to a slower decline in interest rates than previously thought.
Announcing a widely anticipated 0.25 percentage point cut in the base rate to 4.75%, the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) forecast that inflation will return “sustainably” to its target of 2% in the first half of 2027, a year later than at its last meeting.
The Bank’s quarterly report found Ms Reeves’s £70bn package of tax and borrowing measures will place upward pressure on prices, as well as delivering a three-quarter point increase to GDP next year.
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