Our weekly roundup of East Asia news includes the most important developments in the industry. You won’t get up

Our weekly roundup of East Asia news includes the most important developments in the industry.

Mt.Gox will not sell Bitcoin immediately

Mark Karpeles, former CEO of Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Mt.Gox, said the company would not give up its stake in Bitcoin to repay creditors at this time: “As far as I know, everything is fine with Mt. .Gox. The custodian moves the coins to another wallet in preparation for distribution which will likely take place this year; “No Bitcoin sales are imminent,” Karpeles wrote.

In a statement to Cointelegraph, Neil Rorty, an analyst at investment platform Stocklytics, said any potential Mt.Gox flash sales could disrupt the current supply and demand dynamics:

“The more than 100,000 previously dormant Bitcoins that Mt.Gox custodians may soon bring to market could tip the scales.”

“Remember, there are fewer than 20 million bitcoins in existence today, but almost a third of them haven’t been in circulation for more than five years. Another part is thought to be lost forever; This could be between two and six million bitcoins. Suddenly, 100,000 people became more than just a drop in the ocean.

Mt.Gox was the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange when it filed for bankruptcy in 2014 after discovering that 850,000 of its customers’ Bitcoins (BTC) had been stolen after years of careful misappropriation. Since then, the exchange has recovered around 200,000 bitcoins.

The funds were held in trust for creditors, with 162,106 bitcoins ($11.38 billion) stored in various wallet addresses tracked by TokenUnlock. Creditors are expected to be paid later this year in a decade-long bankruptcy proceeding.

Hong Kong regulators will begin delisting all unlicensed exchanges by June 1.

Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) will order all unlicensed virtual asset trading platforms (VATPs) to leave the city starting next month:

“All VATP companies operating in Hong Kong must either be licensed by the SFC or VATP applicants are considered to be licensed under the AMLO Act.”

“It is a criminal offense to operate a VATP in Hong Kong in violation of the Anti-Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism Act (AMLO), and the SEC will take all appropriate action against any violation of the law.”

During the one-year registration grace period, more than 22 cryptocurrency exchanges applied for licenses to maintain a presence in the region, including Gate.io and OKX. However, many of these scholarships ultimately decided to withdraw their applications just before the deadline.

Although the VATP licensing regime has been active since last June, the only cryptocurrency exchanges approved by Hong Kong regulators remain Hashkey and OSL Group. Among the many requirements, exchange applicants must submit audited financial reports, use certified custodians for user deposits, and obtain insurance. Some stock exchanges have collapsed in the past due to regulatory pressures.

Hong Kong a ‘major contributor’ to China’s digital economy

Despite the country’s current ban on Bitcoin, Chen Chun, a professor at the School of Computer Science and Technology at the Chinese National Academy of Engineering, hailed Hong Kong as a “sandbox” for the development of Bitcoin. Web3 and the digital economy in mainland China.

“Hong Kong needs to take advantage of the technical characteristics of Web 3.0 and clarify the boundaries of the space to create clarity, further develop productivity and advance risk prevention,” said Chun, who also stressed the importance symbolic assets in this area. Quest:

“Based on the immutability of blockchain technology, it can extend the rights of internal participants beyond the platform, for example by preventing multiple uses of data, making the data itself generate a higher value and building a fair, equitable and credible information network.”

Chun also stressed the importance of creating a digital currency that can handle the complexities of the Web3 network and recommended that Hong Kong regulators target an initial monetary offering of between $26 million and $260 million for a central bank digital currency.

In February, Hong Kong allocated $383 million for its Cyberport initiative, which aims to attract Web3, blockchain and artificial intelligence companies to the East Asian city. Paul Chan, Hong Kong’s financial secretary, also revealed that the city’s AI supercomputing center would start operating this year. By early 2026, it is expected to have computing power of 3,000 petaflops, capable of processing around 10 billion images per hour.

Huobi co-founder’s investment firm recovers 108% of deposits following FTX collapse

Hong Kong cryptocurrency investment firm Sinohope, founded by Leon Li, co-founder of cryptocurrency exchange Huobi Global (now HTX), has recovered more than 100% of deposits blocked on the exchange bankrupt cryptocurrency FTX.

Through its subsidiary Hbit Limited, Sinohope was able to sell $18 million worth of its FTX digital asset receivables to Delaware-based debt investment firm Ceratosaurus Investors LLC for $19.5 million, which indicates a 108% recovery on his initial deposit.

Currently, FTX’s receivables trade between $1.29 and $1.43 per dollar, largely due to the significant rise in digital asset prices since November 2022, when FTX filed for bankruptcy.

Obviously, this step is a happy ending to SinoHub’s problems. Following the FTX infection, Leon Lee was forced to extend a $14 million personal credit line to bail out affected customers. On December 13, 2023, the company revealed that it expected a loss of HK$280 million ($35.86 million) for the first nine months of the year, including HK$86 million of Hong Kong ($11 million) of frozen corporate deposits.

Binance would sell creditors’ Gopax claims at a significant discount

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance, which last year bought a majority stake in Jobax, one of the five largest Korean cryptocurrency exchanges by market share, reportedly sold asset claims to Jobax users against bankrupt cryptocurrency investment firm Genesis Global for less than half of their fair value in August 2023.

According to a report from Korean Economic Daily, Gopax initially owed 70 billion won ($50.9 million) to its users, who deposited their crypto assets with GoFi, an exchange staking service, with Genesis acting as depositary. However, after paying 35 billion won ($25.5 million) to users through the sale of creditors’ claims, the remaining balance of 35 billion won ($25.5 million) amounted to to over 100 billion won ($72.7 million) due to the rise in the value of cryptocurrency assets since Genesis. It declared bankruptcy in 2022.

In March, The Korea Times reported that Gopax was currently in a “total capital reduction mode” due to an increase in debts. Earlier this month, Genesis received $3 billion in approval from U.S. bankruptcy courts to return cash and cryptocurrencies to its remaining creditors.

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Quan Sun

Ziyuan Sun is a journalist at Cointelegraph who focuses on technology-related news. He has many years of experience writing for major financial media outlets such as The Motley Fool, Nasdaq.com and Seeking Alpha.