Hong Kong SFC opens door to global order book integration for digital assets

OSL Group, a Hong Kong-based publicly listed digital asset exchange platform, has raised $300 million to finance further expansion of the business.Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashLargest publicly disclosed crypto equity raise in AsiaIn a press release published on July 25, the company claimed that it has completed the largest publicly disclosed equity raise to date within Asia’s digital asset sector. It suggested the funding signaled market confidence in the digital asset business model that the firm is pursuing.  OSL intends to allocate the funding across three primary areas. Acquisition opportunities are one core area the company plans to home in on. It says that it will continue its “aggressive global expansion drive” through a combination of licensing, partnerships and acquisitions.  As part of its global expansion strategy, last month the company acquired a 90% stake in Evergreen Crest Holdings, an Indonesian crypto exchange operator. In February, it rebranded CoinBest, a Japanese crypto exchange, as OSL Japan after acquiring it late last year. Stablecoin initiativesOSL plans to pursue new global business initiatives, including initiatives related to stablecoins and payments. It stated that it will accelerate its “build-out of global business and payment networks, integrating fiat currencies, stablecoins, and major digital assets.” The company feels that investment in infrastructure of this nature will facilitate its institutional and enterprise clients, giving them access to “secure, efficient, and seamless cross-border payment solutions.” The third core area it will allocate funding to is working capital. OSL believes that enhancing the strength and depth of its working capital will give the firm a competitive advantage over its rivals in terms of reach, coverage, scale and volume. The company’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Ian Wong, commented on this latest development, stating: "This US$300 million equity raise marks a major milestone in our journey and reflects strong conviction in OSL's digital asset strategy and execution.” OSL is already well established as a key player in the digital assets space in Hong Kong. Founded in 2003 as BC Technology Group, it later rebranded and in 2018 the company expanded its services to cater to the digital assets sector. In 2023, OSL, alongside rival HashKey, became the first digital assets companies in the Chinese autonomous territory to be licensed by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC). Supporting spot crypto ETF issuersOSL supports asset management firms that have listed Bitcoin and Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX), through its staking and digital asset custody infrastructure. In April, the company was approved by the SFC to offer Ethereum staking services. In July 2024, the company claimed that 88% of spot digital asset ETF trading in Hong Kong had been carried out by firms that it has partnerships with. The timing of the announcement of this latest development is interesting, given that one of the focuses for the funds raised is to develop stablecoin-related business, against a backdrop of Hong Kong’s new Stablecoins Ordinance coming into effect in less than a week from now.Bloomberg reported last week that around fifty companies have expressed interest in obtaining stablecoin licensing in the city, with the local regulator and central banking institution, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), likely to issue ten licenses. 

NFTs to Enrich Reading Experience for Book Lovers in JapanBook lovers in Japan are soon going to be able to enjoy an enhanced reading experience with the introduction of electronic books based on non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Media Do, an ebook distributor based in Tokyo, has partnered with Hayakawa Books & Magazines to publish a series of five NFT-based ebooks. The first lineup is scheduled for release on June 20, 2023.Photo by Hiroshi Tsubono on UnsplashTraditional and digital publishingThis collaboration is noteworthy as it merges the world of physical paper books with digital editions, making it the first-ever initiative to create non-fungible token (NFT) copies of traditional books. By bridging the gap between traditional and digital publishing, readers can now enjoy the benefits of both formats.These NFT-based ebooks offer readers the convenience of accessing and reading them through smartphone apps, while also serving as proof of ownership for each book. Media Do’s NFT platform, FanTop, will facilitate the trading of these NFTs, creating a marketplace for enthusiasts to buy, sell, and collect these unique digital editions.Copyright owner supportWhat sets FanTop apart is its dedication to supporting authors. Each NFT transaction on FanTop will result in a fee paid to the copyright owners, ensuring they receive fair compensation for their valuable work. Connecting more than 2,200 publishers and 150 ebook stores, Media Do aims to develop FanTop into a platform that consistently provides fair and appropriate incentives to copyright owners, including authors and publishing houses.Enriched reading experienceMoreover, these NFT-based ebooks will elevate the reading experience by offering exclusive content such as alternative endings, commentaries, and guidelines. NFT ebooks possess a unique ability to incorporate videos and music, thereby enriching the reader’s understanding of the original text and immersing them in the world of the work. In the future, NFT ebooks may even include licensed works such as films or music that inspired the author during the writing process. This additional value will fuel demand in the secondary market, including trading on FanTop.Empowering creatorsFanTop aims to establish itself as a non-speculative platform that focuses on distributing valuable content. It is dedicated to empowering creators, allowing them to exercise autonomy in determining specific trading details for their works. This includes the ability to set royalties and other parameters that align with their preferences and goals.Higher books sales with NFTsSince October 2021, FanTop has been offering exclusive NFT materials to promote sales of paper books. This initiative has allowed readers to enjoy the digital versions of their books on FanTop. As of March 2023, the sales of about 100 works, which included NFT copies, were 32% higher than their original editions within 30 days of release. Their average sales price was also 31% higher than their original counterparts. Media Do has been collaborating with over 70 companies, including publishers, to plan and develop content with NFT-based books.

Symbiotic, a shared security protocol project that seeks to create a marketplace for blockchain network economic security, has raised $29 million in a Series A funding round.The funding round related to the Dubai-headquartered project was led by American venture capital and hedge fund firm Pantera Capital. Other funding round participants included Coinbase Ventures and a long list of angel investors, including Aave CEO Stani Kulechov, 1inch co-founder Anton Bukov, Conduit founder Andrew Huang and Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal.Photo by Markus Winkler on UnsplashBuilding out ‘universal staking’Announcing the Series A funding on social media, the project stated that it is building “universal staking” and with that, transforming “how blockchains implement security and economic alignment.”Symbiotic started out as an Ethereum-centric restaking project. It announced last August that its staking infrastructure had been deployed across 14 blockchain networks. Symbiotic co-founder Misha Putiatin told Blockworks that in now working towards building out a universal staking framework, it's going to double the number of supported blockchain networks. He stated: “This isn’t a pivot, it’s an expansion — a natural progression of the vision we started with.” In a press release publicizing the funding round, Pantera Capital Managing Partner Paul Veradittakit described universal staking as “the next step in blockchain infrastructure.” Describing Symbiotic’s business proposition, he said that the firm “unlocks economic coordination between assets and networks that were previously impossible,” allowing these assets “to easily serve as economic security while enabling entirely new use cases across DeFi.” Team & product expansionThe funding will also be used to expand the project’s current team. It will also expand its product offering beyond restaking, putting support in place for other staking activities. Symbiotic stated that beyond blockchain network security, the protocol supports other use cases, including insurance and other financial products.Putiatin told CoinDesk that the company is building infrastructure, and that its task going forward “is to improve on that by a huge margin.” The Symbiotic co-founder added that the company is catering to the needs of market participants who don’t want to share their security. He added: “They want to build their own security vertical and their own alignment, just using us.” Symbiotic emerged in June 2024 with backing from Konstantin Lomashuk and Vasiliy Shapovalov, co-founders of the Lido liquid staking protocol. At that time, the project attracted $5.8 million in seed funding, with the funding round having been led by crypto investment firm Paradigm and tech-oriented investment company cyber•Fund. It initially introduced a devnet on the Ethereum Holesky testnet. Following a considerable period of development, the project eventually launched on the Ethereum mainnet in January. The same month, the firm added customizable slashing capabilities to its restaking system. Slashing refers to a penalty system imposed on validators of proof-of-stake (PoS)-based networks.Symbiotic was introduced to the market as an alternative to EigenLayer, the restaking protocol with the largest share of total value locked (TVL). It differs from the market leader insofar as Symbiotic’s users can deposit any ERC-20 token into the protocol, whereas EigenLayer only facilitates ETH.