Korean Crypto Wallet Joins Forces with Kick Scooter Sharing Platform

Bithumb to Launch Entrepreneurship Support ProgramSouth Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb announced on Wednesday (local time) the launch of an entrepreneurship support program to commemorate its upcoming 10th anniversary. The initiative aims to discover and nurture promising young entrepreneurs with innovative ideas to grow the industry and drive business augmentation. It is divided into two parts: an entrepreneurship competition and an investment of KRW 30 billion (approximately $22 million) to support early-stage startups.“It is time for us to support startups and bring them one step closer to success,” said the exchange’s CEO Lee Jae-won.Photo by Hunters Race on UnsplashProgram detailsThe entrepreneurship competition is open to individuals, groups, and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) based in Korea that are planning to start a business or have been in operation for less than three years. Participants in any and all fields of business are eligible to enter. It offers startup grants of KRW 100 million ($74,000) for one first-place winner, KRW 70 million for three second-place winners, and KRW 30 million for six third-place winners. Winners will also receive investor relations (IR) consultations and marketing opportunities to attract future investments.Meanwhile, the KRW 30 billion investment project is open to local startups in any field that have been in operation for less than three years. Evaluators will place emphasis on how innovative or profitable the businesses are deemed, Bithumb said.“Our entrepreneurship support program is not limited to one-time support. We will strive to contribute to society by supporting entrepreneurship in various fields — not just the crypto industry — for sustained mutual growth,” Lee added.Application process datesThe application period is from November 1 to 30, and the results of the first round of applications will be announced on January 4. Those who pass the first round will be called in for an on-site evaluation. The final pool of applicants chosen for participation and investment will be announced in February.

With the general election just over a month away, South Korea’s ruling People Power Party (PPP) has retracted its campaign pledges to allow trading of spot bitcoin ETFs, local media outlet Chosun Biz reported. The PPP has previously drawn substantial attention from the crypto industry, as the party showed its intention to ease a range of crypto regulations in hopes of gaining more votes in the general election.  A political insider familiar with the issue said yesterday that the PPP has recently removed crypto-related agendas from its priority list. The crypto pledges, initially planned to be announced last week, have been permanently suspended, the person said. “The leaders of the PPP are currently focusing on nomination for local constituencies and its satellite People’s Future Party, rather than coming up with additional crypto agendas. As the PPP appears to be embarking on the election campaign starting in March, the likelihood of the ruling party releasing crypto pledges is very slim,” another political circle insider mentioned.Photo by Traxer on UnsplashTalks between PPP and FSC go in vainThe PPP’s decision to retract crypto-related pledges comes after its attempt to approve the introduction and trading of spot bitcoin ETFs met with opposition from the Financial Services Commission (FSC).  Unlike the PPP or its opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) that scrambled to ease crypto regulations ahead of the general election, the FSC’s stance on viewing crypto assets as risky hasn’t changed much. Despite last month’s approval of spot bitcoin ETFs by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the FSC continues to ban the issuance of crypto-based financial products or investments in them, stating that crypto assets are not defined as underlying assets under the current Capital Markets Act. This has gotten in the way of the PPP’s plan to delay taxation on crypto gains for as long as two years and allow institutional investments in virtual assets.  The PPP also had to verify all the party members to see if any of them had a record of wrongdoings related to crypto transactions, which further delayed the pledges. This shows politicians’ heightened awareness of crypto-related issues. Last year, the DPK lawmaker Kim Nam-guk made headlines for a scandal, as he was accused of failing to report a considerable amount of crypto assets transactions to the financial authority. PPP lags a step behind its opposition DPKThe DPK has also strived to come up with crypto pledges alongside the PPP. The crypto-related pledges released by the DPK so far largely overlap with those of the PPP, meaning there’s no particular merit to the PPP’s campaign vows leading up to the general election. Many see this as another reason for the PPP’s decision to withdraw crypto pledges. The DPK unveiled its plan on Feb. 21 to legalize spot bitcoin ETFs, and pledged to deduct taxes on crypto gains worth less than KRW 50 million ($37,400). Under the current law, only crypto gains that are worth less than KRW 2.5 million qualify for the tax deduction. Most of these pledges largely align with those of the PPP.  With the PPP’s withdrawal of its plan to ease crypto regulations, the excitement among crypto industry insiders for the upcoming general election appears to have subsided. “Despite the DPK’s promise to allow spot bitcoin ETFs, it is unlikely that we’ll see crypto assets being incorporated into the conventional financial system without the ruling party’s approval, let alone fostering the blockchain industry,” said one crypto insider. 

The Hashgraph Association, a non-profit organization that focuses on building an ecosystem of startups and enterprises relative to the use of the Hedera Hashgraph public ledger, has announced that it intends to explore use cases for the technology in Qatar. Hedera Hashgraph was first created in 2015 by Leemon Baird and Mance Harmon. The network is designed such that anyone can transact using it and deploy applications on it. However, governance is separated from consensus, with a group of businesses overseeing the network protocol.Photo by Hongbin on UnsplashFive key use casesIn a LinkedIn post published on September 19, the Hashgraph Association outlined that within the next 12 months, it would explore the implementation of five key use cases relative to the Hashgraph network in Qatar, collaborating with stakeholders within the Middle Eastern country in order to do so. First on its list is the tokenization of equities. During the TOKEN2049 event in Singapore earlier this week, the HBAR Foundation, another entity which supports the creation of Web3 communities on the Hedera network, launched the Hedera Asset Tokenization Studio.  According to the HBAR Foundation, the initiative “enables the seamless issuance and management of tokenized bonds and equities on the Hedera network.” The move, when considered in the context of the Hashgraph Association’s intentions relative to the pursuit of the tokenization of equities as a use case in Qatar, demonstrates that the distributed ledger technology (DLT) network’s most prominent stakeholders are homing in on this particular use case in furthering the use of the network.  Dr. Sabrina Tachdjian, the HBAR Foundation’s head of fintech and payments, stated that the  Asset Tokenization Studio will lower technical barriers to the tokenization of bonds and equities, along with the recording of their underlying data on the ledger. Sukuk tokenizationOther use cases up for exploration in Qatar are real estate tokenization and sukuk tokenization. A sukuk is an Islamic financial certificate. It’s a bond-like financial instrument which is sharia-compliant. The world’s first tokenized sukuk, linked to a sovereign instrument, was created in Malaysia in 2023.  Fusang Exchange listed the product, as a digitized version of a sukuk issued by the International Islamic Liquidity Management Corporation (IILM), represented via an ERC-20 token. Shariah-compliant finance represents a $4 trillion opportunity. Additionally, the Hashgraph Association is looking to exploit the carbon credit sector as a use case, while also looking towards the use of the Hedera Hashgraph ledger for the purpose of consumer engagement and loyalty programs. Digital assets frameworkOn September 1, the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) announced that the Qatar Financial Centre Authority (QFCA) and the Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Authority (QFCRA) had launched the QFC digital assets framework. The Hashgraph Association believes that the regulations strengthen its role in “fostering innovation and trust within the digital assets ecosystem, further solidifying the region’s position as a global leader in fintech.” In May, the Hashgraph Association announced at the Qatar Economic Forum a $50 million partnership with the QFC, with the goal of creating a digital assets venture studio in Qatar to support solutions built on the Hedera network.