🚓Do Kwon Remains Behind Bars, 🛑China’s Crypto Censorship, 💡Green Bitcoin Mining in Africa

May 27, 2023

Your 5 minute emerging markets web3 weekly update

In This Issue

Eastern Europe
🔸Do Kwon Denied Bail, Montenegrin Court Keeps Him Behind Bars
🔸Ukraine Considers Partial Adoption of EU’s Mica Rules to Accelerate Crypto Market Launch

Asia
🔸China’s State Media Coverage of Cryptocurrency Censored
🔸China Launches Metaverse Innovation Platform to Drive Research and Development

Latin America and the Caribbean
🔸Central Bank of Brazil Unveils Participants for Digital Real Pilot
🔸Num Finance Raises $1.5 Million for Latin America Stablecoin Expansion

Africa
🔸Green Bitcoin Mining Offers Solutions for Africa's Electricity Challenges
🔸Bank of Ghana's eCedi To Boost Financial Inclusion in Rural Areas

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Eastern Europe

Image Credit: Risto Bozovic via AP

A Montenegrin court has denied the bail application of Do Kwon, former co-founder of Terraform Labs, and kept him in jail. The decision was made by the High Court in Podgorica after overturning the lower court's ruling to release Kwon and his former CFO, Han Chong-joon, based on an appeal from the prosecutors. The court found that there was insufficient evidence to establish the value of their assets and scheduled the next hearing for June 16th.

Ukraine's Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation, Alexander Bornyakov, believes that adopting the basic norms of the EU's MiCA regulations would be sufficient for a full-fledged launch of the cryptocurrency industry in the country. While Ukraine is obliged to adapt its cryptocurrency legislation to European market regulation due to its status as an EU membership candidate, Bornyakov suggests a gradual introduction of new regulatory mechanisms to facilitate business adaptation and avoid excessive regulation. The ministry plans to launch the legal crypto market in Ukraine as quickly as possible, taking into account the new European rules.

Asia

Image Credit: Markus Spiske via Unsplash

China's state-affiliated media company CCTV's coverage of cryptocurrency this week garnered attention in the crypto community, with Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao calling the coverage a "big deal" and claimed that historical coverage like this were associated with bull runs. However, the video featuring discussions on cryptocurrency compliance in Hong Kong and a Solana-based memecoin scam was subsequently censored and removed by CCTV. Despite China's strict crypto stance, recent positive developments in Hong Kong have sparked speculation and influenced the Chinese market, with Greenland, a state-owned company, planning to apply for a virtual asset trading license in Hong Kong, while China focuses on developing its central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital yuan.

China's Nanjing city has launched the China Metaverse Technology and Application Innovation Platform, led by the Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, to promote metaverse research and development across the country. The platform aims to bring together academic institutions and enterprises in China to strengthen research efforts in the metaverse field. Chinese cities like Nanjing and Shanghai are actively competing to lead in metaverse development, with Shanghai presenting a collection of 20 metaverse use cases and predicting significant industry revenue growth by 2025.

Latin America and the Caribbean

Image Credit: Senado Federal via Senado.Leg.Br

The Central Bank of Brazil has announced the 14 groups and institutions selected to participate in the Digital Real Pilot, including Bradesco, Nubank, Banco Inter, Microsoft, Santander, Itaú Unibanco, and others. These companies will be incorporated into the Digital Real Pilot platform for testing privacy and programmability features, with a focus on a delivery against payment use case and assessing interoperability. Participants will be responsible for their own costs, and intellectual property protection will be ensured during the pilot phase.

Decentralized finance protocol Num Finance secures $1.5 million in funding to expand its stablecoin offerings in Latin America. Investors in the funding round include Reserve, H2O Scouter Fund, Ripio's venture arm, VC3 DAO, and Auth0's CTO. Num Finance plans to launch stablecoins pegged to the Brazilian real, Colombian peso, and Mexican peso, while also focusing on tokenizing real-world assets like money market financial instruments.

Africa

Image Credit: Kanchanara via Unsplash

Africa's underdeveloped electrical infrastructure presents a profitable opportunity for bitcoin miners utilizing renewable energy and off-grid technologies to scale energy storage and demand. Despite concerns about bitcoin mining's environmental impact, industry studies show that it may be one of the world's most sustainable tech sectors, with a significant portion of energy consumption coming from renewables. Africa's bitcoin mining strategies involve building microgrids powered by renewable sources in rural communities, addressing the region's lack of reliable electricity access and driving growth in the bitcoin industry across the continent.

The Bank of Ghana is optimistic about the potential of its digital currency, the eCedi, in promoting financial inclusion in rural areas, according to First Deputy Governor Dr. Maxwell Opoku-Afari. He emphasized that the eCedi can facilitate transaction history creation for commercial players to offer financial products and services with user consent. The Bank of Ghana conducted pilots in Accra, Tarkwa, and Sefwi Asafo, exploring various online and offline use cases to test the applicability and functionality of the eCedi in different settings and connectivity conditions.

Thanks for reading and have a great week ahead!

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Written by Jon Lira. Connect with him on LinkedIn.

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