Asia key to cryptocurrency market growth
Despite the recent price retracement of cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin, it remains one of the best-performing assets. This is closely related to Asia’s demand for cryptocurrencies.
For example, Hong Kong has recently listed six cryptocurrency ETFs (index stock funds), and the Australian Stock Exchange is expected to approve the first batch of spot Bitcoin ETFs before the end of the year. In addition to financial products, many Asian countries have also developed blockchain technology through games and become the main force driving the growth of the encryption market.
Most investors in Asia are long-term cryptocurrency enthusiasts and have experienced many bull and bear market changes, while some have only joined the crypto market at a later stage, from South Korea to Australia, small traders and giant whales. All have established unique ecosystems. "Bloomberg" recently also analyzed the current status and trends of crypto industry investment in various Asian countries in response to this.
Hong Kong: Users prefer high-risk investments
Patrick Pan, CEO of digital asset platform OSL, said in an interview with Bloomberg that individual investors in Hong Kong like to use leverage in transactions and prefer high-risk investments and alternative investment (Alternative Investment, such as crypto-asset) products. In addition, Patrick Pan also pointed out that these investors are easily influenced by social media and cryptocurrency-related KOLs.
In fact, Hong Kong has only allowed individual traders to legally invest in cryptocurrencies since last year, and has actively established a system to supervise cryptocurrency exchanges and related companies. On April 30 this year, six cryptocurrency spot ETFs were officially listed for trading in Hong Kong. The turnover on the first day of listing reached approximately US$11 million. Among them, the Ethereum spot ETF was approved before the United States, writing a historical milestone.
South Korea: Altcoins and blockchain games are popular
"Bloomberg" pointed out that the South Korean won has just replaced the US dollar as the most commonly used currency in South Korea's crypto token transactions. According to data analysis platform CryptoQuant, altcoins are particularly popular among Korean investors, accounting for 80% of the trading volume on Korean exchanges.
In addition, many individual investors are also very enthusiastic about blockchain games that use cryptocurrencies or NFTs as asset representatives. Charles Pyo, founder of AI3, a Web3 product development company, said that this year, mainstream Korean game companies such as Nexon Games Co. and NCSoft Corp. , all plan to launch new "play and earn" games to attract more gaming customers into the crypto field.
Japan: Government gradually relaxes encryption industry regulations
The Japanese government is actively nurturing Web3 companies and is gradually relaxing regulations on cryptocurrency listings, taxes, and allowing venture capital firms and other investment funds to directly hold cryptocurrencies.
Japanese financial holding company Nomura Holdings and other financial institutions are also actively expanding the Japanese securities tokenization market, converting corporate bonds, securitized real estate and other financial products into tokens.
However, overall, Japanese regulations are still strict. For example, mutual funds (Mutual Funds) cannot be used to hold cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin ETFs. Nomura Holdings crypto-asset analysts also pointed out that Japanese financial companies are still relatively conservative about participating in activities such as “crypto-asset custody services” because they want to stay away from things that have not “clearly” received regulatory approval.
Jia Siyu, a blockchain analyst at the Japanese accounting firm Deloitte, is still optimistic about the development of Japan’s encryption field. He analyzed that gradually improving legal policies (such as Japan’s Stable Coin Act) and rich game and entertainment IP have provided Japan with The development of the encryption field has paved a clear path, and the Japanese blockchain industry is just around the corner.
Australia: Users love Ethereum more than Bitcoin
Australian individual investors have a soft spot for Ethereum, with Bloomberg pointing out that some people don’t even invest in Bitcoin at all, choosing Ethereum or other cryptocurrencies instead. According to a survey by the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, Australian users’ encrypted wallets hold an average of 59.4% Ethereum and 17.7% Bitcoin. Compared with the global proportion, the proportion of Australian users’ two currencies is significantly different. .
An Australian trader interviewed by "Bloomberg" explained that he is more optimistic about Ethereum because its price has not risen as much as Bitcoin and is relatively stable. Moreover, there are many altcoins based on the Ethereum blockchain and its ecology is relatively small. Rich.
This article is reproduced with permission from: "Web3+"
