Our Man in Shanghai has refused to let recent regulations slow down the news coming from China. Enterprise blockchain, central bank digital currencies and start up projects continue to make a positive impact in a region hoping to grow economic value through technology. Death march for El Salvador The debate around El Salvador continued this week as media and officials tried to digest the adoption of Bitcoin as a national currency. JPMorgan stated that there was little economic benefit, and John Hopkins University professor Steve Hanke warned that the move could “completely collapse the economy” of the small nation. The …

The chief executive of Pantera Capital, Dan Morehead, is confident that the big crypto selloff is slowing because he thinks “we’ve seen the most of this panic”. In the monthly newsletter published on June 14, the venture capitalist stated that the best time to buy is when markets are “well below trend”. A Bitcoin trend deviation chart backed up this claim as it showed that the asset has only been this “cheap” relative to its trend for a fifth of its lifecycle. For new investors, it’s best to buy when the market is well below trend. Now is one of …

Huobi, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, has reportedly restricted derivatives for new and existing users over concerns about China’s regulatory crackdowns. Chinese journalist Colin Wu reported on Twitter Thursday that Huobi had temporarily dropped the maximum allowable trading leverage from 125x to less than 5x for existing users. In addition, new users based in China were not allowed to engage in derivatives trading on the exchange. Exclusive: Due to concerns about regulatory policies, China's largest exchange Huobi recently restricted the leverage of existing users to less than 5x after stopping new users in China from using …

The recent crackdown on crypto mining in China has seen concerns expressed over the potential impact a hashrate migration could have on Texas’ unreliable electricity market, as an increasing number of dislocated miners eye the Lone Star State. Texas’ abundant sources of renewable energy and highly deregulated power grid make the state an obvious choice for migrating miners from China and elsewhere, with 20% of Texan electricity being generated by wind as of 2019. Speaking to CNBC, Brandon Arvanaghi, a former security engineer at crypto exchange Gemini, predicted Texas will see “a dramatic shift over the next few months” as …

The newly rebranded Rangers Protocol has a valuation of $63 million following its latest private equity round, as the high-performance blockchain protocol eyes further expansion into new corners of the digital asset market. The Asia-based Rangers Protocol describes itself as a provider of “virtual worlds blockchain infrastructure,” which allows entrepreneurs and creators to build on top of the platform in a permissionless environment. Rangers Protocol includes a cross-chain protocol, nonfungible token protocol and Ethereum Virtual Machine compatible system. An impressive list of venture funds participated in the investment round, including Pantera Capital, Huobi Ventures Blockchain Fund, Framework Ventures, Alameda Research, …

China is progressing with its central bank digital currency (CBDC) tests, debuting blockchain-enabled salary payments in the digital yuan. According to the official website of the Xiong’an New Area, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) has successfully completed the nation’s first on-chain wage payouts in the digital yuan. Announcing the news on Saturday, Xiong’an authorities said that the pilot involved guidance and support from the Shijiazhuang-based PBoC branch, the Bank of China Hebei Xiong’an branch, as well as the National Development and Reform Commission. The new CBDC pilot used a blockchain-based payment platform to distribute salaries to workers on spring …

This weekly roundup of news from Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong attempts to curate the industry’s most important news, including influential projects, changes in the regulatory landscape, and enterprise blockchain integrations. This week, following a tumultuous few weeks of regulation, the Bitcoin world’s focus shifted to Miami and Latin America. Searches for Bitcoin on China’s most popular social media app WeChat stabilized between 1 million and 3 million per day, a stark difference from the peaks of over 10 million that were seen in late May. Weibo and Baidu half pulls the plug Baidu, China’s dominant search engine, restricted …

China’s stance toward decentralized cryptocurrency trading appears to be getting even tougher. Chinese journalist Colin Wu and crypto news site 8BTCNews have both claimed that as of Wednesday, search results for some of the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchanges are pulling up zero results. Cointelegraph’s staff in China have themselves searched for cryptocurrency exchanges on the search engines and confirmed that results are inaccessible. However, a compound search such as “Binance Academy” or “Huobi Research Center” does still seem to be passing through the censors. If the situation continues, this appears to be the latest step in Beijing’s increasing censorship of …

China’s Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) have identified four essential application areas for blockchain adoption. The MIIT’s five-point agenda for blockchain adoption is part of a document issued on Monday detailing guiding opinions to accelerate the promotion of the emerging technology for industrial development. As previously reported by Cointelegraph, China’s President Xi Jinping previously called for rapid blockchain adoption back in October 2019. Presenting its argument for blockchain adoption, the MIIT document describes the novel technology as “an important part of the new generation of information technology.” According to …

China’s crackdown on cryptocurrencies has reportedly spread to social media. Weibo, China’s Twitter-like microblogging service with over 530 million monthly active users, has reportedly suspended several popular Bitcoin- (BTC) and crypto-related content creators on the platform. According to local reports, at least a dozen crypto influencers on Weibo were unable to use their accounts on Saturday. Weibo greeted other users who visited suspended accounts with a message saying the banned accounts violated Weibo guidelines and “relevant laws and regulations.” A Weibo user nicknamed "Woman Dr. bitcoin Mini," who saw her account was blocked on Saturday, called Weibo’s action a judgment …

Challenges stimulate progress. Technology, pretty much like life itself, cannot be static. Only dynamics stimulate positive changes. Amid the collapse of the cryptocurrency market in mid-May, many retail and institutional investors began to lose faith in the bright future of cryptocurrencies in general and Bitcoin (BTC) in particular. Corporations and institutions, whales, and early adopters converged in a single impulse — the internet was overwhelmed by a wave of mistrust towards “cryptocurrency number one” as the best defensive asset, superior to gold and everything else that had been invented prior. One needs to see the full picture here to realize …

When it comes to China, few things are crystal clear, and the nation’s recent crackdown on crypto mining is no exception. The State Council’s Financial Stability and Development Committee reported on May 21 that it is curtailing Bitcoin (BTC) mining amid financial risk concerns, which prompted the South China Morning Post to proclaim that “China’s place at the centre of global bitcoin mining is fading.” “We are seeing the cryptocurrency market enter a path to ‘de-China-isation’ — first on trading and now on computing power, based on a series of stronger steps taken against cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin mining last week …