Ripple, Visa join HK CBDC pilot, Huobi alleges, GameFi token up 300%: Asia Express

Hong Kong partners with 16 companies to build CBDC

On May 18, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced Launch of Cyber ​​Hong Kong Dollar Pilot Project. According to officials, 16 companies from the financial payments and technology sectors will conduct the first round of tests on the feasibility of the Hong Kong Dollar Central Bank Digital Currency (e-HKD) this year. Companies involved in the pilot include Alibaba Group’s Alipay Financial, Mastercard Asia, Ripple Labs, Visa and HSBC.

The digital Hong Kong dollar will start with six possible use cases; Universal Payments, Programmable Payments, Offline Payments, Tokenized Deposits, Web3 Transaction Settlement and Tokenized Asset Settlement. The CBDC is set for a three-phase approach, with the novel pilot program being a key aspect of the second phase.

However, the HKMA has not yet decided whether to officially launch the CBDC. It expects to share the results of the trials at Hong Kong Fintech Week 2023 in Q4. Yu Wai-man, CEO of HKMA, commented:

“While the HKMA has not yet decided whether a CBDC will be launched, we are pleased to launch the Cyber ​​Hong Kong Dollar Pilot Scheme to explore innovative use cases for the HKMA and prepare for a possible CBDC launch in the future.” This is a good opportunity to join hands with the industry.

Back in October 2021, Mastercard said it would be readying its payments infrastructure for integration with a CBDC. Similarly, Visa believes that stablecoins and CBDCs will play a meaningful role in payments, and a blockchain interoperability project is underway regarding the matter.

BitGate’s comfortable first quarter performance

As per its Q1 update published On May 17, cryptocurrency exchange BitGate reached $59 billion and $658 billion in spot and futures trading volumes, respectively, representing growth rates of 8% and 27% from the fourth quarter of 2022. In other metrics, the book value of the Exchange’s Protection Fund increased by $380 million. aided by a rapid rally in the price of major cryptocurrencies, by $300 million during the same period.

The exchange says its proof-of-reserve grew from 223% on December 20, 2022, to 246% on April 3, 2023, as it completed listings for 105 coins, bringing the total to over 500 listings. The exchange’s native token, BGB, was up 120% during the quarter to $0.47 at the time of publication.

BIGGATE is committing $10 million over five years to a novel Blockchain4Youth initiative to provide blockchain courses and certification through the BIGATE Academy and will host on-campus lectures in partnership with universities around the world. In April, the exchange received its regulatory license in Lithuania, allowing it to provide crypto services to and from the Baltic nation.

Huobi’s latest play

On May 16, Tron blockchain founder and relatively new de facto owner of cryptocurrency exchange Huobi Global, Justin Sun, published a series of allegations against Wei Li, brother of Huobi Global co-founder Leon Li. In his statement, Sun accused Wei Li of obtaining “millions of Huobi (HT) tokens at zero cost” through “unusual methods” and “constantly selling and cashing out these HT tokens.”

“We plan to negotiate a refund with Li Wei and arrange for the destruction of his remaining HT tokens. This action is not only a matter of justice, but also in the best interests of everyone in the HT DAO community.”

Sun claims that “Li Wei has made no significant contribution to our community.” And so we will seek to recover any profits related to the sale of the tokens by Lee and send them to a null address for token burn. In response, Wei’s brother Leon Lee wrote,

“I hope Huobi can provide proof. If it is confirmed that this zero-fee HT was obtained through illegal means, I will personally pay 10 times the HT (amount) to Huobi Company.

Leon Li followed up, saying, “I hope Huobi will return the user’s legal assets,” if the allegations are found to be false. In October 2022, Leon Li and fellow co-founder Du Jun reportedly sold a 100% stake in the exchange to an investment firm controlled by Justin Sun. Since changing owners, the exchange has seen its fair share, although Sun claims that Huobi has returned to profit and things have settled down. In case you’re curious, this was not the first “unusual” action surrounding the Huobi token…

No news is good news as GameFi Token surges over 300%

On May 17, the token of the NFT multiplayer online battle arena game Superpower Squad (SQUAD) surged over 300% in a day to a high of $0.017 before pulling back. There was no material news associated with the development, and the coin’s price has mostly been on a losing streak since March.

The developers of Superpower Squad told Asia Express that it has two game modes in development. The first one is a “Zombie Crisis” survival mode where the top surviving players will receive NFT props (items used to kill enemies) upon completion of the round. In the second game mode, players will receive unique buffs (temporary powers) based on the NFT heroes’ clan composition, with each clan requiring one NFT hero of Legendary rarity.

The devs say things are still going, following community speculation that development on the game has stopped as SQUAD has also dropped in price. The game had previously crossed 100,000 downloads in January.

Superpower Squad is by no means the first blockchain project with high price variance for no particular reason. On April 14, shares of Singapore-based bitcoin (BTC) mining operator SAI.TECH surged more than 360% in one day to a high of $7.42, before giving back most of their gains. Like Superpower Squad, SAI.TECH had no physical announcements before or after the wildly price action.

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jiyuan sun

Zhiyuan Sun is a reporter at Cointelegraph focusing 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.