Hong Kong-listed contractor turned blockchain investor Grandshores Technology — backed by the Hangzhou municipal government — plans to enter the medicinal and industrial cannabis market in a bid to counter the adverse impact of crypto winter. The development was revealed in a report from local English-language newspaper the South China Morning Post on May 2. The firm’s co-chairman Yao Yongjie has reportedly stated that industrial cannabis cultivation will become the company’s new business focus, drawing on resources previously reserved for global blockchain investment. Yao — a founding partner of the local government-backed Hangzhou Grandshores Fund — spoke with SCMP shortly …

Bitfinex, a cryptocurrency exchange based out of Hong Kong, announced that it had removed the minimum equity for its users in a Medium post published on April 9. Per the announcement, the company reconsidered its requirement — which had been set at $10,000 — due to demand from traders. The exchange’s CEO, Jean-Louis van der Velde, is quoted in the post as stating: “We simply could not ignore the increasing level of requests for access to trade on Bitfinex from a wider cohort than our traditional customer base. For the last six months we have been working hard to ready …

The secretary of Hong Kong’s Financial Services and the Treasury has stated that crypto mining operations are regulated by local trading law. His written response to Hong Kong’s Legislative Council was published on Wednesday, April 3. The Council has solicited information about the risks and fraudulent activities related to cryptocurrencies and underlying activity, such as mining. Moreover, the officials are interested whether mining is regulated under the Trade Descriptions Ordinance (TDO) — a bill passed in 2012 that prescribes penalties for unfair trading practices in Hong Kong. Secretary James Lau has responded that the sale of mining equipment and any …

Hong Kong trading and asset management firm Branding China Group (BC Group) is launching an insured custody service for cryptocurrencies, the company confirmed in a press release shared with Cointelegraph on April 1. BC Group, which owns a portfolio of various blockchain companies, including cryptocurrency trading platform Anxone and digital asset brokerage OSL, said it decided to build the service to respond to the needs of institutional investors in Asia. Its release, it says, constitutes the first such insured custody solution for crypto assets available locally, but will use United Kingdom-based insurers. “BC Group’s custody service removes one of the …

Hong Kong's securities regulator, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has issued official guidance on security token offerings (STOs), in a statement published on March 28. The guidance aims to clarify the legal and regulatory requirements for parties engaging in STO-related activities. The document opens with a proposed working definition of a security token and sale, noting that: “STOs typically refer to specific offerings which are structured to have features of traditional securities offerings, and involve Security Tokens which are digital representations of ownership of assets (eg, gold or real estate) or economic rights (eg, a share of profits or …

A critic of cryptocurrency mining giant Bitmain, BTCKING555, said that a group investors are preparing a class action lawsuit against the company in a tweet on March 26. BTCKING555 said in the post that a number of Bitmain’s investors are going to file a class action lawsuit against the company in Hong Kong, seeking to recover their investments after the expiration of Bitmain’s initial public offering (IPO) bid. The post reads: “...already in august I warned many investors and prevented them from investing. Those that did not listen, good luck recovering your moneys. I hear there is class action in …

Chinese crypto mining titan Bitmain’s filing to list an initial public offering (IPO) on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx) has officially expired, according to an updated list of now-lapsed applications on the HKEx website on March 26. In a blog post published the same day, the company acknowledged that its IPO application was now inactive, and simultaneously revealed the appointment of a new CEO, Mr. Haichao Wang. As reported yesterday, Bitmain’s IPO filing — published in English and Chinese on Sept. 26, 2018 — was set to imminently reach the end of a six-month validity window, pursuant to HKEx …

Chinese crypto mining giant Bitmain’s filing to list its initial public offering (IPO) on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx) will seemingly reach the end of its six-month expiration window today, as a crypto community member has noted in a tweet posted on March 25. As the South China Morning Post has previously outlined, HKEx listing rules provide a six-month window for a given application to proceed to a closed-door hearing before its Listing Committee. The Committee is tasked with giving the final approval or disapproval of the offering; should an applicant fail to hear a response within this time …

Gatecoin, a crypto exchange that was hacked in May 2016, has announced on March 13 that it has received a winding up (compulsory liquidation) order from an unspecified court. The company wrote that Gatecoin will have to cease operation with immediate effect, noting that the exchange will assist in the liquidation process in order to distribute assets to the creditors. The Hong Kong-based exchange had suffered a major hack back in May 2016, with around $2 million in cryptocurrencies lost after the firm reported a security breach that gave hackers access to Gatecoin’s hot wallets. According to the team’s statement …

Tencent Financial Academy, a subsidiary of Chinese IT giant Tencent — signed a memorandum of cooperation with the University of Hong Kong on March 6 for joint research and development projects related to financial technology. Chinese media outlet QQ reported about the deal on March 7. The collaboration reportedly involves joint research and development of fintech projects between the financial technology and blockchain lab of the department of computer science at the University of Hong Kong in cooperation with Tencent. According to the article, the University of Hong Kong will also launch a fintech course in its bachelor program in …

A purported Bitcoin millionaire (BTC) who was previously involved in “making it rain cash” on the streets of Hong Kong, has reportedly been arrested for mining-related fraud, the South China Morning Post reports Thursday, Feb. 28. A 25-year old businessman named Wong Ching-kit and his 20-year-old colleague have purportedly been arrested by Commercial Crime Bureau officers at their office in Hong Kong. They are reportedly being held in custody for conspiracy to defraud investors by selling them cryptocurrency mining machines. Details on how or why these miner-related sales were considered fraudulent were not forthcoming. As Cointelegraph reported in early January, …

Big Four audit and consultancy firm PwC Hong Kong has published guidance for financially distressed or insolvent businesses in the crypto sector. The document, released February 2019, tackles the complexities specific to the nascent industry, in particular in regard to asset valuation and multi-jurisdictional operations. PwC notes that the two parameters used to determine a company’s financial viability — cash flow and balance sheet assessment — may be more difficult to ascertain in the case of crypto assets, whose volatility complicates a clear-cut valuation. The document continues: “Further, the lack of clarity on the accounting treatment of cryptoassets and as …