This weekly news aggregator from mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong seeks to curate the top industry news, including impactful projects, changes in the legal landscape and integration.

China’s crackdown: week 7

The summer of raids continues this week, spanning seven weeks from the initial announcement on May 18 that cryptocurrencies are a risky investment and financial institutions shouldn’t offer them any service. The crackdown appears to be having the desired effect as public interest in the asset class wanes. This is evident from the 90-day low in WeChat searches for the word “Bitcoin” over the weekend, although this is also a trend that is also reflected in Google searches worldwide.

The central bank is the aggressor this week, posting a notice on its website on July 6th stating that the central bank and other affiliated institutions are not allowed to directly or indirectly offer virtual currency services to their customers. The notice also mentions that organizations cannot provide virtual currency-related services such as business locations, trade shows, marketing campaigns and payment redirects to businesses. As usual, the comments on Weibo are very supportive of regulation as China’s social network still has a voice of traditional investors.

Jack Ma’s Foundation was established

On July 1, NFT’s gaming giant Animoca Brands announced that it had received a $ 50 million investment from Blue Pool Capital. Blue Pool Capital was founded in 2015 by tech entrepreneur Jack Ma and manages a portion of his net worth of $ 52.1 billion. Blue Pool Capital also manages a portion of the assets of Joe Tsai, who is currently Executive Vice President of Alibaba. Animoca Brands develops and publishes NFT games such as REVV Motorsport and The Sandbox.

Miners make money

The BTC mining hash rate is still down around 50% as Chinese miners sit on the sidelines or try to move. This resulted in a difficulty adjustment in the Bitcoin consensus algorithm, which made it around 28% easier to mine blocks. As a result, the remaining miners are estimated to be 50% more profitable, according to a report by Cointelegraph.

Many, including Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz, have spoken out about the positive effects of the current raid. Zap Finance’s Nick Spanos has stated that Bitcoin is an unstoppable machine as “the world’s second largest economy cannot crush, devalue or manipulate Bitcoin”. This Spanos conclusion ignores the fact that China is getting very little societal value from crushing or devaluing Bitcoin. Current policy is more concerned with eliminating inefficient energy use and risky, speculative trading behavior.

Cross the street

On July 6, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Internal Affairs banned the China Blockchain Applied Research Center. The specific reason for the ban was not given, although the official response suggested that the research center was conducting illegal social activities. It is likely that the center was involved in cryptocurrencies and was traded as illegal given the official nature of its name. It is very common for organizations to adopt official names in order to improve their standing in the industry.

The China Blockchain Application Research Center was founded in Beijing in November 2015 by the Internet Finance Museum and several other institutions in the blockchain industry. It claims to have regional centers in Hangzhou, Shanghai, Silicon Valley and Dubai. In retrospect, their contribution to the industry appears to have been minimal, which makes this lawsuit more ceremonial than anything else.