Ray Chan

The Asia-Pacific (APAC) region has been a powerhouse in 2023 for Web3 innovation and adoption. From fostering capital inflow into Web3 media and investment and hosting some of the world&#8217;s largest blockchain events to spearheading the convergence of traditional finance and decentralized finance (DeFi), the APAC region has shown remarkable energy and momentum, and set the stage for the next bull market cycle in the crypto world.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Media and investment: The epicenter of APAC momentum</h2>



APAC investment has been accelerating in a year when global investment in Web3 seemed to be slowing down.&nbsp;



A prime example is Singapore-based Foresight Ventures’s acquisition of The Block — a top-tier crypto news and data provider — for a whopping $70 million. This investment firm, specializing in blockchain technology and crypto businesses, has portfolio holdings that include Galxe, SEI and Story Protocol. Moreover, they have previously invested in APAC-based crypto media companies like BlockTempo from Taiwan and CoinNess from Korea.



This trend in media investment extends to the rise of APAC media companies like Blockhead and Coinlive, both hailing from Singapore, and further emphasizing the region&#8217;s influence in shaping the global Web3 narrative.&nbsp;



The APAC region has also become a global stage for significant Web3 events.&nbsp;



TOKEN2049, held in Singapore, has emerged as the world&#8217;s largest Web3 event in 2023, attracting over 10,000 attendees, 5,000 companies, 300 exhibitors and 450 side events. Similarly, Korean Blockchain Week and Hong Kong Fintech Week have drawn significant attention, further reinforcing the region&#8217;s position as a global hub for blockchain and Web3 discourse. These events serve as a testament to APAC&#8217;s burgeoning influence in crypto space.



The importance of these developments cannot be overstated — these investments, acquisitions, events and the emergence of local media outlets signal strong institutional support for Web3 within APAC, bolstering the region&#8217;s position as a pivotal player in the next wave of crypto adoption.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Bridging the gap between TradFi and DeFi</h2>



Financial institutions in the APAC region have moved swiftly to bridge the gap between traditional finance and DeFi.&nbsp;



UBS has allowed wealthy clients to trade crypto ETFs in Hong Kong, marking a significant move in embracing DeFi. Meanwhile, HSBC has added fuel to the tokenization fire with a <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/hsbc-explores-gold-tokenization">gold-focused offering</a>, using distributed ledger technology to trade tokenized ownership of physical gold. In Asia, people love gold products as the symbol of prosperity and reserved fortune that can be passed to the next generation. As one of the most trusted brands in Hong Kong, HSBC’s decision to tokenize ownership of gold addresses Asian investors&#8217; culture preferences and investment needs. These moves signal the region&#8217;s forward-thinking approach in integrating digital assets into the traditional financial system.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Clear and consistent regulatory guidelines</h2>



Clear and consistent regulatory guidelines have complemented the APAC region&#8217;s growth in the crypto space.&nbsp;



Hong Kong, for instance, officially opened crypto trading to retail investors, granting its first licenses to HashKey and OSL. In Singapore, Ripple secured a crypto payments license to bolster its growth in the APAC region, and Coinbase obtained a Major Payment Institution license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore. These developments underscore the region&#8217;s commitment to fostering a regulatory environment that benefits consumers and crypto projects alike.



Read more from our opinion section: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-builders-eip-innovation">Crypto builders, please sweat the small stuff</a>



As we reflect on the past year, the lessons from the APAC region are clear. The future of Web3 is not just about technology; it&#8217;s also about fostering a supportive ecosystem that includes investment, events, regulatory clarity and integration with traditional finance. It&#8217;s about regions like APAC driving the next wave of crypto adoption and setting the stage for the next bull market cycle.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Looking ahead</h2>



As we look towards what 2024 can bring for crypto, SocialFi seems poised to play a crucial role in the next wave of crypto adoption, particularly in the APAC region.&nbsp;



Why? People in this region, many of whom have extensive experience with WeChat, already have a mental model and set of expectations about how social media, messenger services and value — natively digital value — can seamlessly integrate. And, according to <a href="https://www.bain.com/about/media-center/press-releases/sea/southeast-asias-digital-consumers-a-new-stage-of-evolution/">Bain &amp; Company</a>, almost 70% of people in Southeast Asia had used at least one metaverse-related tech in 2011.&nbsp;



This familiarity leads to faster adoption of SocialFi products in the APAC region. Consider this: Nearly everyone&#8217;s smartphone is a hub of social media apps, yet astonishingly, the top Web3 initiatives haven&#8217;t tapped into SocialFi yet. This, in my view, represents a colossal and untapped market opportunity for APAC in the coming years.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>


<div class="wp-block-post-author-biography">Ray Chan is the CEO and co-founder of 9GAG, a global entertainment network with a 200 million global audience, and the CEO and Founder of Memeland, the fastest and largest growing SocialFi ecosystem and web3 venture studio. An alumnus of Y Combinator and 500 Startups, Ray has a track record of fostering community-driven digital innovation. Prior to his success with 9GAG and Memeland, he contributed to Singboard and played a pivotal role at aNobii, an online reading community acquired by a consortium including HMV Group and major publishers in 2010.</div>


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The future of Web3 lies in the Asia-Pacific

Ben Strack

Derivatives marketplace CME Group is set to launch reference rates for bitcoin and ether catered toward Asian investors — a variant to existing rates focused on those in London and New York.



Developed with index provider CF Benchmarks, the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate APAC and CME CF Ether-Dollar Reference Rate APAC are set to be available on Sept. 11, the companies revealed Wednesday.



So far in 2023, 37% of CME Group’s total crypto volume has traded outside of US hours, according to Giovanni Vicioso, the company’s global head of cryptocurrency products. About 11% of trades come from the Asia Pacific (APAC) region.&nbsp;



CME launched its Bitcoin Reference Rate (BRR) — a daily reference rate of the US dollar price of one bitcoin as of 4 pm London time — in 2016. It followed that up with an Ether Reference Rate in 2018.



The BRR aggregates trade flow of major bitcoin spot exchanges during a one-hour window before taking the average of the volume-weighted medians across the 12 five-minute intervals of that span.&nbsp;



This calculation “ensures tradability and replicability in the underlying spot markets,” according to the company.



CME Group launched BTC and ETH reference rates to be published at 4 pm New York time in February 2022.&nbsp;



The upcoming rates will be published at 4 pm Hong Kong and Singapore time.&nbsp;



“As we continue to see more institutional clients use our bitcoin and ether futures products in active portfolios or structured products like ETFs, these APAC reference rates will allow market participants to more accurately and precisely hedge cryptocurrency price risk with timing more closely aligned to their portfolios,” Vicioso said in a statement.&nbsp;



The CME Group offering expansion came the same day Coinbase revealed it was cleared to offer eligible US customers <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/coinbase-regulated-crypto-futures-us">access to regulated crypto futures</a> directly from its platforms. The global crypto derivatives market represents roughly 75% of global crypto trading volume, the crypto exchange said.&nbsp;



The <a href="https://www.cmegroup.com/newsletters/quarterly-cryptocurrencies-report/2023-q3-cryptocurrency-recap.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">average</a> daily volume for CME Group’s crypto futures during the second quarter amounted to 38,600 contracts, while open interest averaged 79,200 contracts.



CME Group noted in a July report that the number of large open interest holders of bitcoin futures — defined as an entity that holds at least 25 futures contracts — averaged a record of 107 during the quarter.



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CME Group expands bitcoin, ether reference rates to Asia

Sebastian Sinclair

After years of beckoning policymakers to ply the regulatory guardrails that proponents argue are necessary for onboarding crypto’s next wave of adopters, calls are finally being answered, even if it’s not what industry participants had <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-regulation-policy-law">hoped for</a>.



While the US is criticized for its <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/regulation-by-enforcement-unsustainable">shoot first, ask questions</a> later policy, elsewhere abroad new financial rules are beginning to take shape.



The Asia Pacific (APAC) region, in particular, hailed as a hotbed of <a href="https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/central-southern-asia-oceania-cryptocurrency-geography-report-2022-preview/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">crypto activity</a>, is one such region attempting to strike a balance between innovation and regulatory clarity.



Hong Kong’s checkered past on digital asset regulation has been re-envisioned <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/hong-kong-cozy-crypto">this year</a> as it seeks to reverse policy put in place during the height of the industry’s previous bull run. Despite China’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/hong-kong-crypto-testing-ground">firm stance</a> against crypto, the special administrative region is attempting to <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-exchanges-hong-kong">court firms</a> and once again cement its image as a crypto hub.



Further south, Singapore, like Thailand, has also begun fleshing out <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/singapore-thailand-ban-crypto-staking">granular guidelines</a> surrounding DeFi in what can only be viewed as a more sophisticated understanding of the industry’s plumbing.&nbsp;



India, meanwhile, has begun strengthening <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/india-crypto-kyc-aml">Know-Your-Customer</a> requirements for crypto companies, in a move that’s been welcomed by some in the industry for navigating government concerns.



Blockworks caught up with Chengyi Ong, Chainalysis’ head of policy for APAC, to learn about how policy changes across the region are affecting business decision-making and innovation.



Ong previously spent 10 years at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) before making the jump to the New York-based blockchain analytics company seven months ago.



Blockworks: As the Head of Policy for Chainalysis in APAC and based on your time at MAS, what unique challenges have you encountered in the regulation and acceptance of crypto within this region?



Ong: If you think about where crypto regulation started, it really started in the anti-money laundering space. This was back when crypto was relatively niche and there wasn&#8217;t widespread adoption.&nbsp;



Things like, consumer protection financial soundness, market integrity — they weren&#8217;t really a big issue. The main concern was illicit activity, and that&#8217;s where we saw a lot of the early regulation come in.



I think what regulators have been trying to deal with in the region and around the globe, more recently, is things like consumer protection concerns. Obviously, <a href="https://blockworks.co/podcast/onthemargin/8c330f36-8bb7-11ed-8928-47ca095bb18e" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2022</a> and all the turbulence of that added a bit of urgency and momentum to the regulatory agenda because two things became clear.



Firstly, that adoption was widespread enough that challenges in the crypto sector could have a material impact on investors as well as potentially over time you would see increasing linkages with the traditional financial system, with the real economy.&nbsp;



The second thing is that the lack of comprehensive regulatory frameworks around crypto meant that there were no guardrails, so ordinary investors couldn&#8217;t interact with digital assets with the kinds of protections that they have in traditional finance.



Blockworks: Some argue that&#8217;s an appeal, by allowing trustless entities to facilitate how users conduct their finances, rather than relying on centralized authorities to steer the narrative.



Ong: I think crypto has an appeal particularly because it has the potential to address some of those inefficiencies and inequities that you see in traditional finance. But I don&#8217;t think that necessarily means people want to get into crypto without all the safeguards they enjoy in traditional finance.&nbsp;



So it&#8217;s really about this tension about how you harness the innovation and the efficiencies while still having a certain level of risk management and protection. That&#8217;s the problem and the challenge that I think policymakers are grappling with, it&#8217;s the same challenge that crypto players will have to wrap their heads around.&nbsp;



Blockworks: In your view, what are some best practices or lessons that other jurisdictions can learn from APAC countries in terms of crypto regulation?



Ong: So what we&#8217;ve seen in the past six months in the APAC region is a lot of work to put in place comprehensive regulatory frameworks. By that I mean credential safeguards, market integrity and consumer protections.&nbsp;



I think this has been really central to the regulatory agenda so far and we&#8217;ve seen this across various jurisdictions. So in Hong Kong, for instance, this is a very key plank of the new regulatory regime for virtual asset trading platforms and in Singapore, we&#8217;ve seen them take a staged approach.&nbsp;



What regulators have come out with recently to finalize policy positions is around the protection of customer assets. Likewise, this is very prominent in the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/south-korea-insider-trading-law">Virtual Asset Protection</a> bill in South Korea.



Even though each country is coming up with this regime independently, we&#8217;re starting to see some common elements…like customer suitability, custody and segregation of customer assets.&nbsp;



Blockworks: Recently, there was a landmark court ruling which found Ripple&#8217;s programmatic sales of XRP weren’t considered securities. How does this decision influence the policy and regulatory landscape of crypto across APAC?



Ong: If you look at APAC in general, jurisdictions have generally pushed ahead with putting in place crypto regulation even while events in the US have been unfolding. I think what you&#8217;re seeing in the US is very unique in that there are political challenges to passing legislation. A lot of the discussion rests around what exactly is a security.



In APAC jurisdictions, there has not been this gridlock and that&#8217;s even where you see legislation needing to be passed. So in South Korea, for instance, what policymakers have managed to do is get Parliament behind their Virtual Asset Protection Act and pass that legislation in a very efficient way.



Blockworks: What is your perspective on &#8220;<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-payments-blocked-aussie-bank">de-banking</a>&#8221; conversations, especially in the context of digital assets and Australia, where limiting customer access is often argued on the basis of shielding customers from scams?



Ong: There is no question that crypto-related scams are a big issue in Australia. It&#8217;s positive that banks are trying to get on the front foot to protect their customers. Wholesale de-banking of the sector is obviously not a good idea. Severing banking access for digital asset players is not in itself an endearing solution to the scams problem.



De-banking, as we&#8217;ve seen it in other jurisdictions, can also lead to either digital asset players being pushed offshore or a concentration of players in a small number of banking institutions, where you can then get financial stability or other consumer protection risks.



Blockworks: By limiting access on the retail level some argue that it speaks to the notion of how the banks are thinking customers should use their money. In your view, is there a clash of philosophies between traditional and decentralized finance at play here?



Ong: I think there is a recognition that banks have a risk management focus and they need to be able to manage their exposure to illicit finance. I would make two comments.&nbsp;



The first is that the transparency of the blockchain gives them potentially better insight into the risk profile of those crypto players that they&#8217;re interacting with — a means to manage the risks.



The second thing is we&#8217;ve seen other jurisdictions take a constructive and progressive approach toward the de-banking issue. In Singapore, the AML CFT industry partnership between public and private, which involves the banks, has just put out a set of <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/on-chain-monitoring-risk-management">industry best guide practices</a> around how to interact with customers, where digital assets are involved.&nbsp;



That really sets out in very practical terms with case studies in different situations. What are the things that you should be mindful of? And what are the steps that you can take? — One of which is blockchain analytics.



But the point is that things like that not only help the financial institutions in navigating the risk landscape but they also provide a clearer picture of the expectations that financial institutions have.



Whether that&#8217;s going to move the needle for other jurisdictions is an open question. But it&#8217;s certainly a step in the right direction. And it speaks to the need for engagement because Singapore’s guidance was created with the input of digital assets players for years.&nbsp;



This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.



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Crypto’s tug of war: APAC policy head at Chainalysis talks innovation vs regulation

Shalini Nagarajan

<div id="highlights-block_629f11fe2f9e6" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>52% of affluent Asians held crypto in Q1 2022, but 67% of wealth managers have no plans to offer related services, an Accenture survey found</li>
 <li>Investors in Indonesia and Thailand had the largest percentage of digital asset allocation compared to peers</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



As investors grapple with seismic economic shifts such as soaring inflation and rising cost of living, more are turning to investments aiming to insulate their wealth. According to new research <a href="https://newsroom.accenture.com/news/providing-advisory-services-is-increasingly-critical-for-wealth-management-firms-looking-to-seize-growth-opportunities-in-asia-accenture-report-finds.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">by Accenture</a>, 52% of well-to-do Asian investors held digital assets — including cryptocurrencies, tokenized assets and crypto funds — in the first quarter of 2022.



The study found digital assets make up 7% of these investors’ portfolios, making it the fifth-largest asset class in Asia. That means it receives a greater share of investments than foreign currencies, commodities or collectibles in the region.



Equities, fixed income, cash and real estate have a more hefty weighting compared to digital assets in their portfolios, the <a href="https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insights/capital-markets/wm-future-asia-digital-assets-unclaimed-territory" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">research</a> showed.



A further 21% are expected to enter the asset class by the end of 2022, suggesting that as much as 73% of affluent Asian investors would hold digital assets by then.&nbsp;


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="660" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/2022-06-07-Accenture-survey-1024x660.png" alt="" class="wp-image-22522" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/2022-06-07-Accenture-survey-1024x660.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/2022-06-07-Accenture-survey-1024x660.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/2022-06-07-Accenture-survey-1024x660.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/2022-06-07-Accenture-survey-1024x660.png?w=399 399w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/2022-06-07-Accenture-survey-1024x660.png?w=405 405w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/2022-06-07-Accenture-survey-1024x660.png?w=340 340w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/2022-06-07-Accenture-survey-1024x660.png?w=80 80w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/2022-06-07-Accenture-survey-1024x660.png?w=50 50w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/2022-06-07-Accenture-survey-1024x660.png?w=1305 1305w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption>Asia Affluent Investor Survey, Q1 2022; Source: <a href="https://www.accenture.com/_acnmedia/Accenture/Conversion-Assets/Secure/pdf-no-index-6/Accenture-Wealth-Management-Asia-Digital-Assets-Unclaimed-Territory" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Accenture</a></figcaption></figure></div>


Accenture said about 3,200 consumers responded to the survey, having investable assets ranging from at least $100,000 to over $5 million. They were from mainland China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. Investors in Indonesia and Thailand had the largest allocation to digital assets compared to their peers as of the first quarter of 2022.



Although the key statistic suggests a large chunk of Asian investors want services related to digital assets, the study found that 67% of wealth management firms aren’t planning to dive into it just yet.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Wealth managers remain cautious</h3>



Hesitancy due to unclear regulation is among the factors holding back wealth managers. They prefer to either maintain a wait-and-see approach, not fully believing in the potential of the asset class, or they anticipate complexities due to varying regulatory and operating models. 



“We would need to be able to provide an informed view on key crypto coins, which requires specialized research capabilities,” said Sacha Walker, head of strategy and business operations for the Asia-Pacific region at Julius Baer. 



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“In addition, we are currently exploring a compliant offering for suitable clients. This entails educating and training both relationship managers and clients on the risks, suitability and mechanics of digital assets.”</blockquote>



A downside to wealth management firms not offering digital asset services is it forces clients to seek advisory information online, which could provide far less reliable, according to Accenture.



The firm estimates that digital assets are a $54 billion market opportunity in Asia, of which $40 billion stem from transaction fees. The rest is split between advisory and custody fees.



A similar <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/gemini-report-crypto-reached-tipping-point-in-2021/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">survey</a> conducted by Gemini earlier this year shows about 40% of crypto owners around the world first bought digital assets in 2021. It found crypto ownership was the highest in Brazil and Indonesia.



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