Korean crypto faces retail slowdown while eyeing institutional future

Subreddit Token Price Slide Following SurgeReddit’s subreddit community tokens, Moon and Brick, having experienced a remarkable surge in prices last week fueled by a significant increase in trading volume, have taken a downward trajectory, plummeting in price.Photo by Mike Petrucci on UnsplashCrypto.com token listingThe Moon token, associated with Reddit’s r/CryptoCurrency community boasting over 6.5 million members, shot up from approximately $0.09 to nearly $0.58 on July 19, just after Singapore trading platform Crypto.com listed the token.Concurrently, trading volume spiked to around $3 million on Wednesday, marking an impressive boost.Similarly, the Fortnite subreddit community token, Brick, which Crypto.com distributes as a reward to contributors of r/Fortnite, also witnessed a substantial price surge. The token’s value surged from $0.01 on July 17 to approximately $0.10 on July 19, according to data from CoinGecko.Surge acknowledgedIn response to the sudden price surges, Crypto.com released a note early on Monday, acknowledging the surge both tokens had experienced recently. However, in a swift turn of events, both tokens experienced a significant downturn in the past 24 hours, with their prices plummeting by over 20%.As of midday (ET) on Monday, Moon was trading at $0.33, while Brick was valued just under $0.05, as reported by CoinGecko data. Moreover, trading volumes for both tokens have significantly contracted during this period of volatility. Moon’s volume shrank from over $1 million on July 23 to approximately $200,000 on Monday. On the other hand, Brick’s volume saw an even more drastic decrease, falling from approximately $210,000 on July 23 to a mere $26,000 on Monday.Terms of service changeMarket analysts speculate that the recent change in Reddit’s Terms of Service might have been the catalyst for the initial price increases. Reddit’s alteration of its Terms of Service on July 16 to permit users to trade community tokens and avatars potentially triggered the surge in token prices. It appears that Web2 centralized virtual goods such as coins and awards are making way for tradable Web3 community points.Speculating on the token price surge, Bobby Ong, the Co-Founder and COO of Malaysia-headquartered cryptocurrency data aggregator CoinGecko, wrote via Twitter last week: “Both tokens increased at the speculation of the changes coming at Reddit. No one knows exactly what is happening but Reddit deprecating Web2 Coins & Awards while allowing trading of their Web3 CPs could be something to monitor in the coming months.”Despite the recent downturn, the overall crypto space remains highly dynamic and unpredictable. Events such as the listing of tokens on prominent trading platforms can cause rapid price fluctuations. As always, that scenario makes it essential for investors to approach these assets with caution.While Moon and Brick may have encountered a sharp decline, the cryptocurrency market, in general, has proven its resilience and ability to rebound with Bitcoin currently holding a unit price of $29,125. As the market continues to evolve and gain wider acceptance, investors will need to continue to exercise caution and consider the volatility inherent in digital assets.

Komainu and Crypto Garage partner to bring about institutional crypto adoptionKomainu, the crypto custodian and portfolio company of Japanese financial services conglomerate Nomura, has partnered with Crypto Garage to work towards enabling institutional crypto adoption in Japan.The digital asset custodian made the announcement of the partnership in a press release published to its website on Wednesday. The collaboration builds upon the investment by Crypto Garage's parent company, Digital Garage, in Komainu, aimed at fortifying Komainu’s market presence in Japan. The investment also unites Digital Garage with other prominent Japanese stakeholders in Komainu, including Laser Digital, the digital asset subsidiary of Nomura, alongside the Nomura Research Institute.Photo by Agathe on UnsplashCapitalizing on growing institutional interestCrypto Garage, a company that provides custody, over-the-counter (OTC) trading and settlement services in both the Japanese and international markets, has seen a growing interest from Japanese institutions in digital assets. This has spurred Komainu and Crypto Garage to develop advanced digital asset custody solutions tailored specifically to meet institutional demands, with a strong focus on security and compliance.The partnership harnesses the diverse expertise of both entities, laying the foundation for what both firms hope will be a robust and dependable digital asset management platform throughout the lifecycle of these assets. Speaking to that notion, Crypto Garage CEO Masahito Okuma suggested that the firms share a common vision, adding:“By combining forces, we will leverage our collective expertise to deliver solutions that satisfy the unique needs of Japanese institutions.”Nicolas Bertrand, CEO of Komainu, expressed his optimism regarding the collaboration and the Japanese market, stating:“Japan is a key jurisdiction for digital assets and continues to be an important part of our plans to be the most coveted institutional-grade custodian globally.”This partnership represents a significant leap forward in advancing the institutional crypto landscape in Japan. With the support of established financial entities such as Nomura Holdings Inc. and Digital Garage Inc., this venture is poised to instill confidence among Japanese institutions by demonstrating a strong commitment from the traditional financial sector.This collaboration not only demonstrates the evolving dynamics of institutional crypto services in Japan but also underscores the broader acceptance and integration of digital asset management solutions within traditional financial frameworks. It signifies a matured understanding and approach to digital asset custody and management.Komainu, established as a joint venture between Nomura, CoinShares and Ledger, operates in full compliance with regulatory standards, offering a fusion of traditional financial services with state-of-the-art security measures for institutional custody in the digital age. Earlier this year, the firm entered into a partnership with crypto exchange platform OKX, providing the company with digital asset custody services.In August, Komainu secured a trading license from the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) in Dubai. Meanwhile, Crypto Garage extends its services to crypto asset businesses, both within Japan and internationally, covering custody, over-the-counter (OTC) trading and settlement services for digital assets.

Audius Achieves Token Listing On India’s CoinSwitchAudius, a decentralized music streaming platform which is attempting to cut intermediaries out of the music business, took a major leap forward in the Asian market on Wednesday, scoring a listing of its native $AUDIO token on Indian crypto exchange, CoinSwitch.Photo by Studio Art Smile on PexelsIn announcing the token going live on the platform CoinSwitch encouraged platform users to “trade $AUDIO today and support independent artists worldwide.” Founded in the United States in 2018 by Stanford University graduates Forrest Browning and Roneil Rumberg, the project launched its $AUDIO token in 2020.The token commenced trading on top tier global crypto exchanges shortly afterwards. In terms of listings on Asian exchanges, $AUDIO can be traded on DigitFinex Global, Bitrue and BingX in Singapore, HitBTC and Hotbit in Hong Kong and Tokocrypto and INDODAX in Indonesia. While it is already listed on WazirX, India’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume, the project will welcome another Indian listing via CoinSwitch given a market that ranks sixth in the world in terms of crypto ownership, with a backdrop of a population of 1.4 billion.Web3 with a Web2 UXAudius has taken a different approach than most other crypto projects. From the outset, its founders have focused on giving the platform the look and feel of a Web2 streaming service. Audius decided to embed its non-custodial wallet Hedgehog into the user login process.The strategy has been to make the UX as customer friendly and intuitive as possible in order to aid user on-boarding. There have been trade-offs in taking this approach and with that, the project advises users to keep only a small amount of the $AUDIO token within the Hedgehog wallet. When Hedgehog was launched in 2019, a project blog post proclaimed that “decentralization doesn’t have to come at the expense of user experience.”TikTok integrationEarlier this year, the Web3 streaming service integrated TikTok, allowing platform users to create accounts simply by linking their TikTok profiles. Additionally, the integration meant that users could share their Audius songs in the TikTok videos they produced.In late January, the $AUDIO token jumped 70% in a matter of hours once it became known that Coinbase planned to list the token on January 26. While a CoinSwitch listing is a significant milestone for the project in the Indian market, naturally it doesn’t compare with the volume that a global exchange listing on Coinbase can bring. At the time of publication, the $AUDIO token was trading at $0.29.For its part, CoinSwitch has experienced many of the ups and downs that this nascent industry could possibly deliver. In August 2022, five properties associated with the crypto exchange were searched by India’s Enforcement Directorate on the grounds of suspected contravention of India’s Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).Founded in 2017 by Ashish Singhal, Govind Soni and Vimal Sagar Tiwari, the firm has attracted investment and backing from Andreessen Horowitz, Coinbase Ventures, Tiger Global Management and Paradigm.