Spot BTC, ETH ETFs to commence trading on April 30 in Hong Kong

CJ ONE to Sell 3,000 NFTs for New Membership ServiceCJ ONE, a lifestyle membership service operated by digital service company CJ OliveNetworks of South Korean conglomerate CJ Group, announced on Tuesday that it will sell 3,000 digital membership NFTs for its new lifestyle service, PRISM ONE. This comes as part of efforts to enhance brand value and boost customer benefits.Photo by Choong Deng Xiang on Unsplash“The PRISM ONE Membership NFT is an important milestone that reflects changes within CJ ONE. As a lifestyle membership, our brand will strive to provide unique experiences in all aspects of our members’ lives,” said Ha Jae-young, Head of Data Marketing at CJ OliveNetworks.Tier benefitsThe NFTs are categorized into four tiers — Basic, Special, Premium, and Prestige — with higher tiers offering more benefits. Depending on the tier, which will be decided randomly, customers can receive up to 10,000 CJ ONE membership points per month and eight times the number of points that they accumulated the previous month over a period of half a year.CJ ONE points can be used like cash at various CJ Group subsidiaries that offer services in culture, dining, shopping, and entertainment, as well as over 30 brand partners such as cafe Mega MGC Coffee, convenience store CU, and refinery company Hyundai Oilbank.10 customers with the Prestige NFT will also be chosen to receive benefits worth KRW 1 million, including welcome packages from CJ The Market, CJ Group’s online grocery shopping mall, and accommodation vouchers to use at Starville, a luxury “glamping” — a portmanteau of “glam” and “camping” — site.Limited sales and resell opportunitiesMinted with a new brand identity design, the NFTs will be sold for KRW 45,000 each on the NFT trading platform Pala starting from 7 PM (Korea Standard Time) on September 13. Customers who participate in an event until September 3 can win a chance to purchase them at a discounted price of KRW 42,000 prior to the public sale. Payments can be made with Polygon tokens (MATIC) or Korean won, and digital wallets Klip and MetaMask are also supported, the company said. In particular, the NFTs can be resold on trading platforms like Pala.

Legislation geared towards regulating stablecoins has reached the Legislative Council stage in the Chinese autonomous territory of Hong Kong.  The bill, which extends to a 285 page document, has been formulated following “extensive consultations” with industry stakeholders, according to Eddie Yue, CEO of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA).  This latest development moves the Chinese autonomous territory one step closer to having a comprehensive regulatory framework in place for stablecoins. The bill’s arrival at the Legislative Council follows its publication on Dec. 6 in Hong Kong’s Gazette. Subsequently, on Dec. 18, it made its preliminary entry at the Legislative Council by way of a first reading. The legislation will deem a digital asset a stablecoin if it is operated on a distributed ledger, is expressed as a unit of account and maintains an equivalent value relative to another asset that it references. Digital assets issued by governments or central banks will be excluded from that stablecoin definition.Photo by Laurentiu Morariu on UnsplashThree readings requiredBefore the bill can be enacted into law, it is required to go through a series of three readings. Allied to that process is a requirement for a series of debates, with the bill coming under the scrutiny of lawmakers. Depending upon the issues raised, this process may also require the introduction of amendments to the proposed legislation. If passed following the third reading, it will then be forwarded to the autonomous territory’s chief executive, John Lee Ka-chiu, to be signed into law. Once signed into law, stablecoin issuers in Hong Kong will then be required to obtain a license from the city's central bank, HKMA. That licensing process would implicate the HKMA scrutinizing the applicant with an emphasis on the evaluation of the issuer, its resources, the use of reserve assets and the means through which the stablecoin’s value will be rendered stable. Stablecoin optimismThis latest milestone has provoked a cause for optimism among some commentators. Sean Lee, co-founder of Hong Kong-based Web3 firm IDA, told the South China Morning Post (SCMP) that “the applications of stablecoin will be numerous.” Lee outlined that stablecoins can be used for payments, settlements, payrolls and financing, while adding that “new products will spring up, and transactions will be faster, instant, 24/7 – and at a lower cost.” Dominic Maffei, Standard Chartered’s head of digital asset and fintech for Hong Kong, is similarly encouraged. Maffei stated: “As of today, we think that stablecoins are the best available tool for connecting traditional finance and Web3 markets and have proven use cases and business models to support that belief.” Once enacted, the bill is likely to have a significant impact on the stablecoin market in Hong Kong. In Europe, the application of the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation is having such an impact. It has led to a growth in Euro-denominated stablecoin trading while leading U.S. dollar stablecoin Tether (USDT) is being delisted by many platforms due to its non-compliance with these regulations.

In a move announced on Friday, OKX, the Seychelles-headquartered cryptocurrency exchange, declared its decision to delist 20 trading pairs by Jan. 5, triggering a notable price fall for major privacy coins such as Monero, Dash and ZCash. The exchange cited that the affected pairs did not align with its listing criteria, though specific details were not disclosed.Photo by Khara Woods on UnsplashPrivacy coin delisting trendWhile OKX did not explicitly articulate the rationale behind this move, industry observers are speculating that it could be part of the exchange’s broader efforts to comply with evolving regulatory measures. Privacy coins have increasingly drawn regulatory scrutiny due to concerns about potential illicit activities within the crypto space. Earlier in the year, Binance had also announced the delisting of several privacy coins to ensure compliance with local laws and regulations. The broader context of regulatory pressures on privacy-focused cryptocurrencies seems to be impacting major exchanges’ decisions. In 2022, Huobi cited regulatory pressures when it took the decision to delist Monero and other privacy coins. Kraken was further ahead of the curve still, delisting Monero for UK customers in November 2021. Downward price actionFollowing OKX’s announcement on Friday, the prices of privacy-focused cryptocurrencies, notably Zcash (ZEC) and Monero (XMR), experienced a decline. The entire sector of “privacy cryptos” has witnessed a 7.1% decrease in overall market capitalization, according to an index of such coins compiled by Malaysian crypto indexing firm CoinGecko. During this period, Monero and Zcash have seen unit price declines of 4.5% and 10.7%, respectively. Other tokens set for delisting, including Dash, Powerpool and Horizen, have recorded declines of up to 14%. OKX has provided guidance to users, advising them to cancel orders related to the affected trading pairs before the delisting date to avoid automatic cancellation, a process that may take 1–3 working days. Concurrently, the exchange has halted deposits for the impacted cryptocurrencies and plans to cease withdrawals by Mar. 5, 2024, affording holders sufficient time to withdraw their assets. However, once the delisting is complete, trading these digital assets on OKX will become impossible. Interestingly, certain privacy coins like MINA continue to be listed on the exchange, experiencing a 7.5% increase following the delisting announcement. It’s crucial to note that OKX’s delisting is not exclusive to privacy tokens, as it also includes other trading pairs associated with digital assets such as Kusama, Flow, Kyber Network and Aragon. The fight for privacySome crypto community members have voiced their concerns on social media, with many fearing that the innovation may be ‘captured’ by the various state authorities over time. However, ex-Monero developer Ricardo Spagni (AKA “Fluffypony”) was nonchalant about the whole thing, judging by his comments. In a post on social media platform X, he wrote: ”Monero users and contributors literally couldn’t care less about delistings at this point.” As the regulatory landscape evolves, cryptocurrency exchanges are navigating these challenges, impacting the availability and value of specific tokens on their platforms. Investors and privacy advocates alike will be closely watching how such regulatory compliance measures continue to shape the crypto market and crypto use.