Samsung Plans to Expand Its Business Through NFTs

It has emerged in recent days that two London-headquartered crypto startups have taken steps towards expanding into the Asian market.  Funding to fuel Asian expansion Haruko, an investment platform that focuses on digital assets based in London, announced that it has raised $6 million in a Series A funding round, with the intention of using the funds to propel the company’s expansion into Southeast Asia. The round was led by White Star Capital and MMC Ventures. Combined with an initial seed round which was completed in March 2022, Haruko has raised a total of $16 million. The firm provided details of its latest funding earlier this week through a press release published via AccessWire.  Having been founded in 2021, the startup has established its operations in Europe and North America, adding in excess of 50 institutions to its client list. Those clients include hedge funds, family offices, market makers, over-the-counter (OTC) trading desks, digital asset custodians and prime brokerages. Haruko co-founder and CEO Shamyl Malik spoke to the firm’s global expansion plans, stating: "We're looking forward to continuing our global expansion, investing in exceptionally talented team members to support us in our goal of building out an industry-leading, end-to-end solution for digital assets and the future of the finance industry. We will continue to invest singularly in this mission, ensuring the quality of our products and services is at the forefront of all our activity." The company has already established a base in Singapore through which it can expand further into the Asian market. Asia is clearly becoming an attractive destination for crypto startups as alongside Haruko, a recent announcement from crypto custodian Copper outlined that it has acquired a trading license in Hong Kong.Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on UnsplashTCSP license in Hong Kong The London-headquartered digital assets custodian outlined on X that it has secured a Trust or Company Service Provider (TCSP) license in Hong Kong from the autonomous Chinese territory’s Companies Registry. Copper CEO Dmitry Tokarev commented on the milestone, stating: "Combining trust and efficiency is fundamental to our institution-first approach. This license approval in a key global hub only strengthens that unique offer, highlighting Copper’s compliance with Hong Kong’s regulatory frameworks and standards." The license enables the company in extending the offering of its digital asset custody services to clients in Hong Kong. Tokarev added that the license approval “is a key development in Copper’s expansion in the Asia Pacific market.” Back in 2020, the firm raised $8 million in funding in a Series A round that, as with Haruko, featured MMC Ventures, with a view towards expanding into Asia and North America. Towards the end of last year, the firm launched a settlement network for institutional crypto traders. Its ClearLoop network enables clients to manage collateral and settle trades across a number of exchanges while increasing capital efficiency and mitigating counterparty risk. Over the course of the month of June, the company claimed to have processed 13.1 million trades via ClearLoop, accounting for a notional traded volume of $109.9 billion. 17,500 individual risk clearing settlements were finalized, with 3,600 inter-exchange movements. The company had a number of significant announcements last month, including a collaboration with the Sui layer-1 blockchain and the integration of the ClearLoop system by global crypto exchange, Kraken.

Incheon Partners with Daehong to Implement Web3-Driven Urban Marketing StrategyIncheon Metropolitan City, renowned for its international airport in South Korea, has partnered with Daehong Communications, a marketing solutions subsidiary of the country’s retail giant Lotte Group, to leverage Web3 technology for the purpose of promoting the city.Daehong has established an extensive global network within the blockchain industry. Among its notable partners are layer 1 blockchain Aptos, Metaverse company Animoca Brands, and decentralized social protocol CyberConnect. One of Daehong’s primary initiatives is the NFT project associated with Bellygom, a pink bear character of Lotte Homeshopping, a media commerce affiliate of Lotte Group.Photo by Daesun Kim on UnsplashHarnessing blockchain for city promotionThrough this collaborative effort, Incheon aims to harness blockchain technology to explore innovative ways of promoting the city and building stronger connections with its residents.Incheon has recently been very dedicated to Web3 initiatives in promoting the city. Last month, it worked with The Sandbox, the virtual gaming platform of Animoca Brands, to create a metaverse representation of the Incheon Landing Operation to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Korean War Armistice Agreement. More recently, the city unveiled its NFT membership program named “Incheon Heroes,” demonstrating its commitment to pioneering its unique path in the era of Web3.Daehong’s role in Web3 adoptionIn the private sector, Daehong has been working towards the widespread adoption of Web3. The marketing firm introduced business models that integrate NFTs into areas that have significant public engagement, such as ticketing, memberships, and brand characters. Daehong has been actively working to facilitate many brands’ entry into the Web3 space.Lee Se-woong, Brand Manager of Incheon City, anticipates that the collaboration with Daehong will serve as a fresh catalyst for Incheon, expressing excitement about the potential synergies between Incheon’s public infrastructure and Daehong’s industrial expertise.Incheon is set to initiate a range of projects by leveraging the Incheon Heroes NFT membership program and the Incheon Universe, a virtual space that allows visitors to immerse themselves in various facets of the city. Furthermore, the city is in the process of establishing collaborations with enterprises, brands, and artists who share a common interest in promoting the sustainability of both the planet Earth and the city itself.

A number of reports published by local Russian media in recent days suggest that the Russian authorities are implementing taxation and regional controls on cryptocurrency mining.Photo by Michael Parulava on UnsplashRegional mining banA report published by the Moscow Times on Nov. 19 suggests that Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister, Alexander Novak, has led a government commission that plans to implement a ban on cryptocurrency mining in specific Russian regions.  The authorities have been motivated in enacting such a ban in order to combat power shortages. With that, a ban is being implemented on a temporary basis during the heating season. The restrictions will apply to miners located within six regions within the North Caucasus, as well as the Zabaikalsky region in Siberia and territories now controlled by Russia in Ukraine. The ban will apply from December through to mid-March 2025, with this seasonal restriction to be applied subsequently each winter until 2031. Back in August, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law legislation which legitimized cryptocurrency mining within the Russian Federation. That law recognized mining activities and the concepts of mining pools and mining infrastructure operators. The legislation requires mining operators to register with the government. Individual miners can mine without registering so long as they stay within specified energy-use limits. Earlier this month, the authorities set a power consumption limit of 6,000 kWh per month for those unregistered miners.  The legislation also recognized the ability of stakeholders to trade in foreign digital assets on Russian blockchain platforms, with Russia’s central bank, the Bank of Russia, retaining the ability to ban specific digital assets from being traded if such trading is deemed to be a threat to Russia’s financial stability. 15% tax proposalEarlier this week Russia’s Interfax news agency reported that the Russian government had approved draft amendments to a bill concerned with the purchase and sale of digital currencies relative to crypto mining activity.  According to those proposed legislative amendments, digital assets will be classified as property from a taxation perspective. Income derived from mining activities will be assessed in terms of taxation based on market value at the time of receipt of the asset. The legislative amendments propose a 15% tax rate for cryptocurrencies. Furthermore, crypto transactions will not be subjected to value-added tax (VAT). However, income derived from such transactions will be taxable in the same way as income from transactions involving securities. Crypto mining operators will be permitted to deduct operating expenses from their taxable income. Russia’s Finance Ministry is understood to have clarified that the taxation approach would strike a balance between Russian government interests and those of commercial operators. With the introduction of legislation to recognize cryptocurrency mining activity earlier this year, Ki Young Ju, CEO of on-chain and market data analytics firm CryptoQuant, noted the country’s growing involvement and national-level engagement with digital assets. The coming months will determine if these latest crypto mining restrictions will dampen the level of involvement of Russia-based crypto miners.