Chinese VC plans $10 billion Web3 fund launch

Ground X Teams Up with Oasys for Digital Wallet and SDK CollaborationGround X, the blockchain subsidiary of South Korean conglomerate Kakao, announced on Wednesday that it has entered a strategic partnership with Oasys, a Japanese blockchain gaming platform.Through this partnership, Ground X and Oasys aim to collaborate on multiple fronts and onboard each other’s respective Web3 ecosystems. Ground X said that it will participate as a partner company in Oasys’ Web3 ecosystem, collaborating with other Japanese blockchain and gaming firms.Photo by GuerrillaBuzz on UnsplashSDK sharingIn particular, Ground X also plans to provide a software development kit (SDK) that will enable game developers around the world to embed digital asset wallets into their services by leveraging the convenience and technical capabilities of Kakao’s digital wallet, Klip.“By providing the embedded SDK through this partnership, this will serve as an opportunity for Ground X to expand globally by attracting more Klip users,” said Kim Tae-geun, Head of the Business Group Division at Ground X.Dominic Jang, Head of Business Development at Oasys, expressed similar sentiments, stating, “This Klip wallet SDK will allow Oasys’ partners in the gaming industry to operate more smoothly, serving as valuable infrastructure.”NFT allianceOasys will also become a member of GRID — Ground X’s alliance of over 130 local companies aimed at popularizing and fostering non-fungible token (NFT) usage in Korea. Ground X will subsequently share with Oasys the expertise it has gained through success stories of various NFTs on Klip. Through a combination of all these efforts, the company’s goal is to expand the local NFT business ecosystem and increase opportunities for networking and joint marketing between Korean and Japanese companies.“Ground X is at the forefront of Kakao’s blockchain business and has accumulated a wealth of expertise in the blockchain field. Through our collaboration with them, the Oasys ecosystem gains a strong partner,” Jang emphasized.In addition, Ground X is participating as a partner company and panel judge in a blockchain hackathon organized by Oasys and XPLA.

Nomura’s Laser Ventures Invests in Singapore’s Solv ProtocolSolv Protocol, a Singapore-based DeFi startup, has revealed a significant stride forward with a $6 million funding round, drawing support from Laser Digital, the digital asset subsidiary of Japanese global financial services conglomerate Nomura.The project team provided details on the funding round via a blog post published to its website earlier this week. Accompanying Laser Digital in the funding round, Singapore’s UOB Venture Management also participated, alongside investors such as Matrix Partners, Bing Ventures, Mirana Ventures, Apollo Capital, Bytetrade Labs, and others.Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash$14 million cumulative fundingThis injection raises its cumulative funding to an impressive $14 million. The innovative Solv Protocol has been developed to facilitate on-chain fund management within the realm of public blockchains.Delving into the intricacies of the Solv asset management protocol, Olivier Dang, COO of Nomura Securities’ wholesale digital office, expanded on its transformative potential, stating: “Solv has built a trustless institutional DeFi platform integrating brokers, underwriters, market makers, and custodians to create the first fund infrastructure on the blockchain to bridge DeFi, CeFi, and TradFi liquidity.”$100 million in trading volumeSolv Protocol is a DeFi infrastructure project that enables users to create and trade financial NFTs. The protocol concerns itself largely with ERC-3525, an Ethereum standard for semi-fungible tokens, the characteristics of which lend themselves well for financial use cases.At the heart of Solv’s business model lies a unique mechanism. Any fund utilizing its solution inherently allocates a portion of its assets under management. Inaugurated in the second quarter of this year, Solv has already facilitated over $100 million in trading volume.Semi-fungible token innovationThe origins of Solv are rooted in the pursuit of an optimal Ethereum token standard for effective fund management. Dissatisfied with existing standards, the founders, primarily Chinese technologists, forged an innovative path. Traditional ERC-20 fungible tokens weren’t deemed suitable due to the need for a new smart contract token for every customization. Similarly, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) posed limitations, being intrinsically designed as individual units not readily divisible, which is essential for issuing shares in a fund. The security token standard, ERC-1400, didn’t quite align either.Thus, Solv birthed the semi-fungible token through the development of ERC-3525, a groundbreaking solution to its unique challenge.While larger asset managers like Franklin Templeton and Ondo Finance have adhered to fungible tokens, a growing trend is emerging in the traditional asset management sector — a movement toward blockchain integration. UK-based Abrdn recently introduced a fund on the Hedera DLT network, while industry giant Schroders is exploring blockchain tokenization under Singapore’s Project Guardian initiative.It’s been an eventful week for Nomura’s Laser Digital. Alongside news of this investment, the company also announced its recent acquisition of a license from Dubai’s Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA). This regulatory green light bolsters its presence in the global digital asset sector.Nomura’s Laser Digital is amplifying its presence within the blockchain and digital asset domain, marking its sixth such investment within this year alone. Meanwhile, projects like Solv Protocol are pushing the boundaries of innovation through the development of semi-fungible tokens, extending the use cases of blockchain technology as it does so.

Binance announced on its blog on Sept 9 that its Indonesian subsidiary company, Tokocrypto, had secured a Physical Crypto Asset Trader (PFAK) license from the Southeast Asian country’s regulator, Bappebti. Compliant global growthThe company put itself forward as a candidate for licensing in 2019, and with the licensing award, it became the third crypto entity to be licensed. In its post on Binance Square, Binance claimed that the “PFAK license strengthens Tokocrypto’s position as a regulated and trusted platform in Indonesia's Web3 ecosystem.”  It called the five-year process “rigorous,” indicating that the license acquisition was critical not just for Tokocrypto but also relative to the overall development on Indonesia’s crypto and Web3 industry. The licensing now enables the company to trade as a fully authorized physical crypto asset trader in Indonesia. The licensing award comes just days after it was reported that Binance is inching ever closer to obtaining a full trading license in Kazakhstan, indicating that the company is expanding its global presence in a compliant manner. This development is likely to be significant for Binance and its subsidiary in terms of global growth efforts, given that a 2023 Chainalysis report found that ranked in terms of the pace of crypto adoption, Indonesia was placed seventh, making it an important market for the company.Photo by Fahrul Razi on UnsplashBinance CEO Richard Teng commented on the development, stating:“Binance is committed to fully supporting Tokocrypto in its mission to drive the growth of the Web3 ecosystem in the region.” Tokocrypto CEO Yadhono Rawis classed the company becoming “the third exchange to receive [a] PFAK license in Indonesia” as an important achievement in a “market which has 35 prospective crypto exchanges registered with Bappebti.”  Growing user-baseIn its Binance Square post, Binance also highlighted that Tokocrypto’s user base has now grown to 4.5 million users. Additionally, Tokocrypto is responsible for 43% of crypto trading within the Indonesian market in 2023, according to CoinGecko data. It’s understood that Binance has held a majority stake in Tokocrypto since a very early stage in the firm’s development.  Crypto tax revenue surgeRecently published data revealed that tax revenue generated through Indonesia’s crypto sector has surged. It appears that tax revenues have increased despite calls for the authorities to implement crypto tax policy reform. Earlier this year CoinDesk Indonesia speculated that high crypto taxation rates were responsible for a slump in crypto-related tax revenues. In March reports emerged that crypto transactions had increased by over 200%, with Tokocrypto’s Rawis attributing the uptick to a recovery in the Bitcoin unit price across all markets. In early 2025, it’s expected that crypto industry oversight will be transferred from Bappebti to the Financial Services Authority (OJK). With that, it’s thought that some changes may be made to how crypto-related taxes are applied.