Vietnam launches five-year pilot to regulate crypto asset trading

IOTA accelerates Middle East expansion with $100M foundation launchIn a move aimed at catalyzing the adoption of its distributed ledger technology (DLT) in the Middle East, the Berlin-headquartered IOTA Foundation, the developmental force behind the IOTA-directed acyclic graph-based ledger network, unveiled a $100 million foundation in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.Photo by Imtiyaz Ali on UnsplashTokenizing real-world assetsThe IOTA Foundation announced details of the initiative, known as the IOTA Ecosystem DLT Foundation, via a blog post published on its website on Wednesday. The new foundation is designed to facilitate the transformation of tangible assets into digital entities, marking a significant stride in the convergence of real-world assets with the digital realm, according to IOTA Co-founder and Chairman Dominik Schiener.Taking to the X platform, Schiener wrote:”We will double down on our efforts to bring the real world to Web3. We will pave the way to tokenize RWA [Real World Assets] assets on #IOTA and work with the governments in the UAE, across the Middle East and Africa to digitize their trade infrastructure and tokenize assets. We will make Blockchain real, with real use cases, real adoption, real yield and real assets.”IOTA is not a blockchain, but a related distributed ledger technology. DLT has garnered attention for its diverse applications over the past decade. IOTA’s digital tokens will serve as the financial backbone for this substantial investment, signaling a strategic move amidst recent setbacks in the cryptocurrency sector.Regulatory first in Abu DhabiThe IOTA Ecosystem DLT Foundation stands out as the first blockchain-focused foundation sanctioned by the regulatory authorities of the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), a key financial hub within the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The ADGM solidified its blockchain regulations in early November, creating a conducive environment for innovative blockchain-focused entities. The regulatory framework was crafted to offer a comprehensive structure specifically for DLT foundations and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).Schiener expanded further on plans for the DLT Foundation:”With a new headquarter in the UAE, we are positioning IOTA from being an Enterprise Blockchain in Europe, to becoming one of the largest, global Crypto ecosystems. We will fully support Web3 and DeFi use cases on IOTA with the #EVM launch in Q1.”Endowed with over $100 million in IOTA tokens, the foundation’s funds will be gradually vested over the next four years.The financial infusion is earmarked for the development and expansion of the IOTA network. Additionally, IOTA will embark on asset “tokenization,” a process involving the representation of ownership rights for land or buildings as digital tokens stored on a blockchain. These tokens, akin to digital certificates of ownership, extend to virtually any valuable object.IOTA launched in 2015, and within its first two years, it rose to be a top-ten crypto project on the basis of market capitalization. Over the course of the last six years, the project has struggled to make the network less centralized. There have also been internal conflicts, which resulted in a number of the project’s co-founders stepping away from the project. With this latest development, Schiener suggested that IOTA could work its way back to being a top-ten project once again.

Recently, the top five Korean banks have seen a significant outflow of funds in their demand deposits – worth about KRW 2 trillion ($1.52 billion) – to crypto markets as local investors are rushing to withdraw their money from banks to invest in the crypto and stock markets. The recent surge of Bitcoin to KRW 100 million prompted the funds’ outflow, local media Etoday reported. This is a substantial turn from just a week ago, when these banks saw a KRW 23.5 trillion increase in their demand deposits just in a month.  The previous rise in demand deposits at banks, however, was also driven by local investors who used these accounts as a “station” to temporarily store their money for future crypto investments. These accounts are highly liquid, since users can deposit or withdraw funds at any time without incurring penalties from banks.Photo by Emile-Victor Portenart on UnsplashBank deposits flowing into crypto Data from the five banks –  KB Kookmin Bank, Shinhan Bank, Hana Bank, Woori Bank and NH Nonghyup Bank – show that their combined demand deposits totaled KRW 612.4 trillion on Friday, down KRW 2.2 trillion from late last month.  The crypto investing trend has prompted investors to withdraw their funds not only from demand deposit accounts, but also from fixed deposit and installment savings accounts. During the same period, the five banks’ fixed deposits saw a KRW 5.1 trillion decline from KRW 886.2 trillion to KRW 881 trillion, with installment savings decreasing by KRW 2.5 trillion, from KRW 33.2 trillion to KRW 30.6 trillion.  In particular, NH Nonghyup Bank, which offers real-name accounts to the crypto exchange Bithumb, has witnessed a decline of over KRW 2 trillion in its demand deposits over the past week. Shinhan Bank also reported an increase in dealing with more crypto assets.  Bullish crypto and stock market With Bitcoin prices hitting a new high, the U.K. bank Standard Chartered forecasts that Bitcoin could eventually reach $200,000 by 2025. The excitement around crypto has boosted the amount of cryptocurrencies traded against the Korean won across the top five crypto exchanges in Korea, reaching KRW 78 trillion.  Korean stock markets are also signaling a bullish sentiment, with the amount of investor deposits exceeding KRW 53 trillion this month. Investor deposits refer to customer deposits at securities companies saved for investment purposes or those left unclaimed after selling stocks.  Declining interest rates Meanwhile, local savings products with over 4% interest rates are no longer to be seen. According to the Korea Federation of Banks, a one-year savings product with the highest interest rate among the top five local banks offers an annual rate of 3.55%.  Online-only banks, which typically offer relatively higher rates than other traditional banks, are rapidly lowering rates on their saving products. The highest annual rate for Kakao Bank’s fixed deposits products stands at 3.5%, down by 0.1 to 0.2 percentage points depending on their maturity.  Kbank has also decreased rates for fixed deposits by 0.05 percentage points, lowering the rate for its flagship fixed deposits product from 3.7% to 3.65%. 

Report by Xangle and Tiger Research Explores Indonesia’s Web3 PotentialIn partnership with South Korean crypto data platform Xangle, Web3 consulting firm Tiger Research has released a report focusing on the Web3 market in Indonesia. This collaborative project also featured contributions from Jakarta-based blockchain game provider Avarik Saga and Hong Kong-headquartered metaverse company Animoca Brands.In the process of crafting this paper, teams from Tiger Research, Xangle, Avarik Saga, and Animoca Brands spent a week in Indonesia, conducting interviews with local experts.Photo by Nick Agus Arya on UnsplashPositive factorsThe report assesses Indonesia’s Web3 market as having significant potential. It highlights factors such as the country’s status as the world’s fourth-largest population, a youthful demographic with a median age of 30, political stability, and favorable policies towards Web3 technologies. The Indonesian government has adopted a favorable approach to the Web3 industry, providing a range of incentives to boost the growth of the Web3 gaming sector. Additionally, they have taken the initiative to establish a dedicated committee for the blockchain sector within the Indonesia Financial Services Authority (OJK).Crypto exchanges driving growthAs per the report, the Indonesian market is primarily propelled by cryptocurrency exchanges, with over 30 exchanges currently in operation. These exchanges serve a customer base of approximately 10 million individuals, which accounts for around 4% of the country’s population. This is comparable to the number of investors on the Indonesia stock exchange.Several challengesMeanwhile, the paper also highlighted several areas where the world’s largest archipelagic state faces challenges. One of these challenges is its non-fungible token (NFT) market, which has seen a consistent decline in recent months, hitting an all-time low. It was found that most individuals prefer global NFT marketplaces over local ones. Furthermore, concerning the development of the Web3 ecosystem, the shortage of blockchain developers has prompted startups to seek development services overseas.