Web 3.0 TokenBytes Newsletter
Syed Musheer Ahmed
FinTech Ballerina | ex-Regulator | Virtual Assets | FinTech | Web 3.0 | Former Trader
Web 3.0 TokenBytes - Web 3.0, FinTech and DeFi for Asia (Sixth Edition)
Welcome to the Sixth Edition of the FinStep Asia's Web 3.0 Newsletter covering Web 3.0, DeFi and FinTech in Asia.
////// NEWS ON METAVERSE, NFT AND WEB 3.0 ???????? //////
(Click on the headline to view the detailed article)
HSBC Holdings announced in a statement that its Metaverse Discretionary Strategy portfolio, managed by its asset management arm, will focus on capturing investment opportunities? in the metaverse for its rich clients in Hong Kong and Singapore. The fund will be used for investing in five segments in the metaverse ecosystem – infrastructure, computing, virtualisation, experience and discovery, and interface. Its discretionary portfolio is designed especially for high net worth and ultra-high net worth professional investors and accredited investor clients in Hong Kong and Singapore as financial services companies tap into Silicon Valley’s new virtual reality.
In working together, MVGX and Greenland Financial Technology will leverage blockchain-powered innovation and combine financial service capabilities from their respective licensed digital green exchange and licensed digital bank to serve clients' increasing demand for accessible crypto assets and digital carbon credits that combine with cross-border trading capabilities with the security and oversight of on regulated and licenced platforms. In addition, they will jointly promote tokenization, or digital securitization, of green infrastructure assets and green buildings, creating channels for international capital to finance green infrastructure projects in?China?and other developing countries with aspirations to achieve carbon neutrality.
India-based Signzy Technologies today announced that it has received a US patent for new customer signup and onboarding in metaverse, using Virtual and Augmented Reality. The patent number 11270509 has been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Signzy’s technology enables banking customers to interact with their bank in a virtual reality (VR) model that perfectly reproduces a physical bank branch or office. The technology would support a variety of banking transactions in the metaverse, including general enquiry services, car loan services, house loan services, education loan services, net banking services, commercial banking services, opening saving accounts, home equity, stock exchange investment, opening accounts, documents verification services, overdraft facility, credit card services, fixed deposit services, health insurance services, personal accident insurance, retirement plan services, and risk management services.
India’s Animation Visual Effects Gaming and Comics (AVGC), announced in the Union Budget, offers an opportunity to position the domestic tech ecosystem at the frontier of the metaverse. Indian tech majors like Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys are reportedly gearing up to participate in this ecosystem. However, the immersive characteristic of the metaverse may confound policymakers who struggle in governing the currency digital economy. The four related public interest concerns that the AVGC task force could examine to help policymakers include issue of user safety, user privacy protections, restructuring intellectual property (IP) rights like copyright and trademarks to suit the digital environment and overhauling of competition and trade policies. Laws and regulations that currently anchor India’s digital ecosystem should be modernised.?
Microsoft’s Executive Vice-President for Security, Compliance, Identity, and Management emphasises that despite metaverse being a great opportunity to boost production it is important to ensure that the security of the platform is not compromised. He said In the metaverse, fraud and phishing attacks targeting your identity could come from a familiar face like someone impersonating your coworker’s avatar instead of a misleading domain name or email address. So, it is important to have a solid cybersecurity foundation.
Visa launches the Visa Creator Program to help entrepreneurs like digital-first artists, musicians, fashion designers, and filmmakers who are willing to incorporate NFTs in their business model. Selected creators will join a cohort-driven programme designed to build and deepen their fluency in crypto commerce and traditional payments with technical and product mentorship with Visa’s team of crypto product and strategy leaders. The programme will also give creators access to thought leaders working across digital commerce, web3, crypto and payments as well as exposure to Visa’s clients and partners and a one time stipend.
Despite the ban on cryptocurrency, China’s NFT market continues to thrive. But this may not be the case for very long. Due to evolving and rising popularity of digital collectives in China, there has also been intense value speculations, shopper fraud, unlawful transactions and bot purchases. This has resulted in tech giants taking precautionary measures like many native social media platforms such as WeChat and web companies have continued to replace their insurance policies in order to limit or completely take away NFT platforms from their networks, claiming an absence of regulatory readability and fearing an authorities clampdown on their day-to-day operations.?
NFTs?offer?creators?a new way to earn a living online.?The technology, which has several?applications, allows creators to appeal?directly?to fans?for patronage —?without having to rely only on extractive, ad-based, centralized platforms as intermediaries. But it’s important that creators take special care when setting the initial parameters for their?NFT mints (the process that puts their work on a blockchain, allowing it to be sold and more). This is because these?early decisions can affect the viability, and vitality, of their projects.?
To share some early data that may offer creators some insights across projects besides their own, a16z's Daren Matsuoka analyzed minting data from the top 150 NFT collections on?OpenSea, the?popular NFT marketplace?[disclosure: an a16z crypto portfolio company]. Here are some benchmarks and quick takeaways from that data, based on a new?dashboard?that Daren created on Dune Analytics:
MORE HEADLINES ON METAVERSE, NFT AND WEB 3.0
/////////////////// NEWS ON DE-FI ???? ///////////////////
As the new cryptocurrency tax rules became applicable in India, the Indian cryptocurrency exchanges saw volume drop. From April 1 there is a 30% flat tax on crypto income or digital asset investments along with 1% TDS on all digital-asset transfers from July 1. Aditya Singh, co-founder of Crypto India tweeted about significant dip in volume of four leading exchanges. Crypto-exchange executives like Nischal Shetty (CEO of WazirX, India’s biggest crypto exchange), Manhar Garegrat, (executive director of policy at crypto exchange CoinDCX) along with lawyers and and tax analysts warn that the TDS will suck liquidity out of the market.
Ethereum plans to shift from its proof of work system to proof of stake system sometime later this year. Named “the Merge," it will replace miners with so-called stakers. Miners order transactions by solving complex calculations using millions of powerful servers. Stakers, by contrast, will order transactions by putting up their own Ether on a new system, which has been in testing since December 2020. After the Merge, the energy consumption of Ethereum’s network should drop more than 99%. Ethereum’s $415.3 billion market capitalization depends on the Merge going smoothly.?
Coinbase (COIN) announced at an event in India's tech hub Bengaluru that it has made its crypto trading services available to users in India. The onboarding on Coinbase would require setting up a UPI payment method, which would become the first step in buying crypto. Brian Armstrong, co-founder and CEO of Coinbase said that the company is making a long term investment in India and undertaking the regulatory challenge in promoting the technology to mass acceptance at a time when enthusiasm has dipped due to the new tax law.?
ConsenSys-owned MetaMask tweeted a thread of updates on Tuesday for iPhone and Apple Pay users. The main feature is the ability to buy cryptocurrency using a debit or credit card through the mobile application, eliminating the need to transfer Ether from a centralized exchange like Coinbase into the application.?MetaMask uses two payment gateways Wyre and Transak to support debit card and credit card transactions. Users can now use their Visas and Mastercards stored in Apple Pay to buy ETH and deposit a daily maximum of $400 into their wallets, thanks to the Wyre API. Gas fees are reportedly lower, and according to MetaMask‘s tweets, some transactions may even be gasless if done on a private blockchain or if a project pays for the gas on the user‘s behalf.?When completing an ETH purchase, MetaMask discloses that it does not profit from gas fess.
Blockchain project Ronin said Tuesday that hackers stole cryptocurrency worth almost $615 million from its systems, in what would be one of the largest cryptocurrency heists on record. The project said that unidentified hackers on March 23 stole some 173,600 ether tokens and 25.5 million USD Coin tokens. At current exchange rates, the stolen funds are worth $615 million, but they were worth some $540 million at the time of the attack. This makes it the second-largest crypto theft on record, according to blockchain analysis firm Elliptic. Ronin is used to power the popular online game Axie Infinity, which uses non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and is the biggest NFT collection by all-time sales volume, according to NFT market tracker CryptoSlam.
Due to dramatic increase in cyberattack cases in the highly volatile cryptocurrency market, it is important for crypto investors to track and manage cryptocurrencies and crypto-assets on a regular basis. A cryptocurrency portfolio tracker is emerging as a popular platform for crypto investors to monitor and track crypto holdings through an app, track the allocation of trades and digital assets, learn about comparative analysis of cryptocurrency performances, receive alerts of cyberattacks, as well as get access to substantial profit or loss.
Crypto is becoming more popular than traditional stock in Indonesia. According to the Ministry of Trade, transactions for currencies like Bitcoin (BTC) grew over 14 times from a total of 60 trillion rupiahs ($4.1 billion) in 2020 to a total of 859 trillion rupiahs ($59.83 billion) in 2021. Although crypto assets are still not permitted as payment instruments, companies are welcome to buy and sell crypto as trading commodities in Indonesia. Although crypto assets are still not permitted as payment instruments, companies are welcome to buy and sell crypto as trading commodities in Indonesia. As of March 2022, there have been 17 companies registered to exchange cryptocurrencies in Indonesia, with their userbases rapidly increasing. With the rising trend in transaction volume and the number of traders as well as exchanges in recent years in Indonesia, we can assume that crypto and blockchain will only get bigger in 2022 and beyond.
MORE HEADLINES ON DE-FI
/////////////////// REGULATORY NEWS & UPDATES ///////////////////
Singapore passed Financial Services and Markets Bill 2022 that extends its cryptocurrency regulations to digital token service providers created in Singapore but who provide their services elsewhere under the purview of domestic regulators. The law covers industry players who deal in Bitcoin, Ethereum and other digital currencies, facilitate their exchange or offer financial advice on the sale of these tokens, among other activities. The state’s reasoning behind this was to prevent being exposed to reputational risks brought by local companies providing their services related to virtual assets overseas.?
Stablecoins are a form of cryptoasset which aim to maintain a stable value relative to other assets. The government has confirmed its intention to legislate to bring certain stablecoins, where used as a means of payment, into the regulatory perimeter. This document summarises feedback to the consultation, and outlines further detail regarding how the government intends to regulate certain stablecoins. The document also outlines the feedback received to the call for evidence on the investment and wholesale uses of distributed ledger technology, and sets out the government response, including further thinking on the development of the Financial Market Infrastructure Sandbox.
You can read the response to the consultation here: >>
The European Union is advancing its Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) legislation but lawmakers and proposed rules around anonymous transactions may be a more pressing concern for the industry. These proposed rules would require exchanges to identify the recipients of crypto transfers. Before, only recipients of bank transfers worth more than 1,000 euros had to be identified, but now the minimum limit for crypto transactions is removed. However, separate from MiCA, another set of proposed rules that will be voted on this week promises to make using crypto a bit more difficult for companies and users
The US Securities and Exchange Commission today proposed new rules and amendments to enhance disclosure and investor protection in initial public offerings by special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) and in business combination transactions involving shell companies, such as SPACs, and private operating companies. The proposed new rules and amendments would require, among other things, additional disclosures about SPAC sponsors, conflicts of interest, and sources of dilution. They also would require additional disclosures regarding business combination transactions between SPACs and private operating companies, including disclosures relating to the fairness of these transactions. Further, the new rules would address issues relating to projections made by SPACs and their target companies, including the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act safe harbor for forward-looking statements and the use of projections in Commission filings and in business combination transactions. If adopted, the proposed rules would more closely align the required financial statements of private operating companies in transactions involving shell companies with those required in registration statements for an initial public offering.
?It is estimated that more than 80% of central banks are considering launching a central bank digital currency (CBDC) or have already done so. Overall, retail CBDC projects have reached greater maturity levels than wholesale projects, but the past year has seen progress on a number of successful wholesale pilots. Retail projects in the Index are led by the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) eNaira, the first CBDC in Africa, and the Sand Dollar, issued by the Central Bank of the Bahamas as legal tender in October 2020, making the Bahamas the first country to launch a CBDC. China became the first major economy to pilot a CBDC in 2020 with the digital yuan, and as of March 2022 pilot programs are running in 12 cities, including Beijing and Shanghai.
On the wholesale side, the leading project in the Index is the combined effort of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and the Bank of Thailand (BoT) to launch the mBridge project, focused on developing a proof-of-concept prototype to enable real-time, cross-border foreign exchange payments on distributed ledger technology. Also ranked highly is the work of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), with two new CBDC projects, as it continues the development of a wholesale CBDC for cross-currency payments
Stablecoins reached a market capitalization of around $190 billion in early 2022 and will continue to grow as the tokens offer many of the same benefits as a CBDC without the surveillance that comes with a government-issued currency, the report noted.?
领英推荐
During Phase 2, the technical tests have included investigating whether and how an e-krona might function off-line, whether the performance of the tested solution is adequate, and how banks and other payment service providers could be integrated into an e-krona network. The latter has been tested in collaboration with Handelsbanken and Tietoevry. The tests have shown, for instance, that it is possible to integrate a potential e-krona into the internal systems the banks have today, and this would make it possible for their customers to exchange money in their bank account for e-kronor, and vice versa. The tests of the technical solution have also shown that it would be possible to make transactions using e-krona, even off-line. However, off-line payments would entail some risks that need to be managed if a similar solution is to become a reality. The project has also investigated the legal questions surrounding a potential e-krona. For instance, it has examined what type of asset an e-krona would be. The conclusion is that it could be regarded as an electronic form of cash
/////////////////// NEWS ON FINTECH ///////////////////
The introduction of the digital currency in the Budget 2022 has led to contemplation about its impact on the fintech sector. PM Narendra Modi stated that the introduction of CBDC will transform this sector by minimizing cash printing and logistics management issues, securing and simplifying digital payments and online transfers of funds along with more effective and systematic currency management. The CBDC commencement will channel cost-effective globalization of payment set-ups.
The UK's technology ecosystem is now worth $1 trillion, with fintech dominating the list of most valuable firms. Its digital economy is worth more than double that of Germany’s and is almost five times larger than France and Sweden. Nine of the 13 tech decacorns are related to financial services and fintech: Markit, WorldPay, Checkout.com, Revolut, FNZ, Wise, Rapyd, Admiral Group, and eToro. UK tech companies have raised over ￡6 billion in the first quarter of 2022.
Google's payment platform?Google Pay?has announced the launch of 'Tap to Pay' feature for UPI-based transcations. The new functionality brings the convenience of 'Tap to Pay' feature offered by debit and credit cards to?UPI. So far, the 'Tap to Pay' feature has been available only for cards. Google Pay has launched the functionality in collaboration with?Pine Labs. This means that to complete a payment, all a user will need to do is tap their phone on the POS terminal and authenticate the payment from their phone, using their UPI PIN, making the process instantaneous, as compared to scanning a QR code or entering the UPI-linked mobile number.
Telecommunications giant China Mobile has launched its own fully owned fintech subsidiary, in a bid to expand its presence in the Chinese fintech sector. China Mobile announced on 28 March that it had made a 100% capital contribution to the establishment of China Mobile Fintech Share Controlled Co., Ltd. The company has registered capital of 500 million yuan, and its business scope encompasses Internet information services, basic telecommunications operations, ticket agency operations, real estate leasing and various forms of sales. China Mobile Fintech Co., Ltd has active payments users of more than 100 million in China, while the “Xinyong Gouji” (信用购机) platform it promotes with China Mobile has become the biggest offline instalments platform in the country.
A Deep Dive into the?buynowpaylater?(#BNPL) Ecosystem by team at?MEDICI Global. In recent years, innovative modes of?#payments?and lending have taken the?#FinTech?industry by storm. For the past 2–3 years, especially after the onset of COVID-19, Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL)—a new type of financial arrangement—has been catching up with retail consumers. Highlights from the report include from January 2018 to May 2021 (the period considered for analysis), the BNPL sector received more than $2.67 billion in investments. . Analysis suggests steady growth in FinTech funding between 2018 and 2019, Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, funding continued an upward trend in 2020, the industry saw 17 M&A deals during this period, and the number of deals has been increasing YoY
MORE HEADLINES ON FINTECH
/////////////////// WEB3.0 STARTUPS TO FOLLOW///////////////
Verisart, founded in 2015, utilises blockchain as a means of certification and authentication of digital assets. Provide information about your artwork or collectible to create your digital certificate. Your data is encrypted and securely recorded permanently on the blockchain. Edit, customise and transfer to new owners. Subsequent changes are recorded ensuring your certificate is always up to date.
Lumerin Protocol, founded by Titan- Complete, programmatic control over how and when data and communications are routed via smart contracts The Lumerin protocol decentralises the routing layer and makes Web3 and peer-to-peer communications truly peer-to-peer and fully programmable using smart contracts. Utility NFTs allow ownership and access rules for digital resources and data streams.
Polkally, founded in 2021, is a DAO that has developed a peer-to-peer marketplace for online assets. An essential feature that differentiates Polkally from its competitors is that it uses a decentralised KYC to verify artists and creators, ensuring total authenticity. They provide privacy-focused IPFS-based infrastructure to encrypt personal data, P2P auction platform for NFTs and open source smart contracts on the EVM-based blockchain.
CipherTrace, founded in 2015, delivers cryptocurrency AML compliance solutions for some of the largest banks, exchanges, and other financial institutions in the world. They provide Virtual Asset Risk Mitigation for financial institutions by protecting banks and financial institutions from virtual asset laundering risks, illicit money service businesses, and crypto-related threats. Their Crypto De-anonymization solution enables successful investigations and prosecutions.
Simplex, founded in 2014, a licensed financial institution, empowers its vast network of partners to accept the widest range of payment methods, including Visa, MasterCard, Apple Pay, SWIFT, SEPA, and more! Simplex works with its partners and provides them with secure solutions for payments between fiat currency and digital currencies to manage and trade digital assets.
/////////////////// INDUSTRY REPORTS & FEATURES ///////////////////
// REPORT 1 // Crypto-Assets Activity around the World Evolution and Macro-Financial Drivers - By the World Bank
The World Bank report on “Crypto-Assets Activity around the World Evolution and Macro-Financial Drivers”, authored by Erik Feyen, Yusaku Kawashima and Raunak Mittal. The main objective of this paper is to document the rapid rise in “on-chain” crypto-assets activity around the world -- transactions that are directly recorded on the distributed ledger that underpins a crypto-asset -- and empirically investigate key macroeconomic drivers of crypto assets volumes to better understand the drivers behind their use. In the context of rapid growth and evolution of this space, understanding these drivers is important for policy makers, end-users, and industry alike.
Read more and access the Report here>>
// REPORT 2 // India Venture Capital Report 2022 by Bain and IVCA
India Venture Capital Report 2022 by Bain & Company and Indian Venture and Alternate Capital Association (IVCA).? 2021 was a pivotal year for the Indian VC investment landscape—as funding reached $38.5B with several highlights like Investments in India grew 3.8x over 2020, faster than China’s (1.3x), Share of VC funding in India accounted for greater than 50% of overall private equity (PE) and VC investments in the country in 2021, 44 unicorns were minted in India, exceeding China’s 42 unicorns in the year (Total 73 privately held active unicorns, 3rd rank globally), etc.?
Read more and access the Report here>>
// REPORT 3 // Metaverse and Money by Citi GPS
When all things money meet the Metaverse: the magnum opus of reports on the Metaverse by team Citi GPS lead by Ronit Ghose and industry experts. Key takeaways:
?? Metaverse => next generation of the internet, combining physical and digital worlds in an immersive manner
?? 5 Billion & 10 Trillion => a device agnostic metaverse will have a TAM of 5bn users and $10 trillion GDP by 2030
??Money => digitally native tokens, Crypto, stablecoins, CBDC & Fiat Money to co-exist, a spectrum from Open to Centralsied MV
??Laws & Regulations => lots to work out on content moderation, privacy, crypto regs and more - remember culture > money
Read more and access the Report here>>
// REPORT 4 // Entering the Mainstream: Cryptocurrency Adoption in 2022 by Stellar and Wirex
Has crypto finally reached the mainstream? Stellar Development Foundation and Wirex worked on surveying nearly 10,000 respondents across 4 regions that represented different socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds – the UK, US, Singapore and Mexico. This was broken into 8,000 from a third-party research company, representing a sample from the general population, and 1,257 responses of mainly crypto users from the Wirex and Stellar userbases. The results from the report clearly highlighted a series of trends in crypto use and attitudes amongst particular types of users.
Read more and access the Report here>>
// REPORT 5 // Blockchain: Emerging Technology offers Benefits for Some Applications but Faces Challenges by US Govt. Accountability Office?
The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) was asked to conduct a technology assessment on the use of blockchain, with an emphasis on foresight and policy implications. This report discusses non-financial applications of blockchain, including potential benefits and challenges; financial applications of blockchain, including potential benefits and challenges; and policy options that could help enhance benefits or mitigate challenges of blockchain technologies.
Read more and access the Report here>>
// REPORT 6 // Targeted Consultation on a Digital Euro?by European Commission
European Commission's targeted consultation document on a digital euro. The introduction of a digital euro aims to preserve the role of public money in a digital economy. Preserving the accessibility and usability of central bank money in the digital era is key to protect monetary sovereignty and the well-tested two-layer monetary system based on convertibility of regulated/supervised forms of money into central bank money. Central bank digital money would thus complement cash in providing a monetary anchor to the payments system by ensuring that private money can always be converted into safe public money. This would support confidence in the singleness of money and financial stability in the digital age.
Read more and access the Report here>>
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Musheer Ahmed's Profile: Musheer is the Founder & Managing Director of FinStep Asia, which is building Asia’s next generation of Businesses. FinStep Asia enables Fintech and Blockchain firms in their innovation journey through venture building, growth advisory, bespoke research and curated content creation.?
With over 16 years of experience in Trading and FinTech, Musheer has been one of the key contributors in building the Fintech ecosystem in Hong Kong as the co-founder and inaugural General Manager of the Fintech Association of Hong Kong. He has worked closely with several regulators and government bodies on fintech and digital economy policy, providing advisory and delivering workshops on a range of topics.
He is on several advisory boards and a mentor/advisor to several startups, while a regular guest lecturer at many universities in Hong Kong and Singapore. He is cofounder of IndiaTech HK, a platform bridging Indian & Chinese tech ecosystem via Hong Kong and is also Board Member & Co-lead Islamic Fintech, Global Impact Fintech Forum (GIFT), a leading global body created by global Fintech champions from 60+ countries. He is a regular contributor and author of articles on Fintech, Digital Banking, Islamic Fintech and Investment Banking and has been quoted in various media channels, including CNBC, Bloomberg, SCMP, Financial Times, S&P, Asian Investor, Economic Times, etc.
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High tech Executive | Startups founder | CSMO @ TRASNA| Co-Founder & Board Member@Mext B2B Metaverse |
2 年Great NL , thankyou Syed Musheer Ahmed