Industry Weekly Report: Strengthened Regulations, Exchange Shutdowns, Accelerated Blockchain Applications

Regulatory Dynamics

• Multiple departments in Beijing have issued risk alerts, warning about the investment risks in the virtual currency market.
• Sichuan Ganzi convened a meeting with Bitmain and 10 other companies to discuss the cleanup of Bitcoin mining sites.
• The Bank of Korea will establish a special task force to study central bank digital currency.
• The European Central Bank will launch the EUROchain distributed ledger project based on the R3 Corda platform.
• Uzbekistan revises cryptocurrency regulations, citizens can only sell and cannot purchase tokens.
• Paraguay launches an investigation into the domestic cryptocurrency industry, and will introduce relevant regulations next year.
• The Central Bank of Russia is testing stablecoins in a regulatory sandbox.
• The French Financial Markets Authority has issued new regulations regarding the licensing of digital asset service providers.
• Germany will require digital asset custodians to apply for a license.
• The Supreme People's Procuratorate elaborated on ten types of illegal activities involving Blockchain.

Industry News

• Three exchanges have successively shut down, with at least 12 going out of business or under investigation in two months.
• The Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission encourages banking and insurance institutions to explore the application of technologies such as Blockchain in foreign trade financial services.
• The Shenzhen Stock Exchange has compiled the Shenzhen Blockchain 50 Index, which rose 1.15% on its first day.
• Shanghai Customs will utilize Blockchain and other means to achieve comprehensive and all-round supervision.
• Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten allows users to exchange points for cryptocurrency
• YouTube removed videos from multiple industry influencers, categorizing cryptocurrency-related content as "harmful information"
• Tencent has released an internal notice to establish a digital currency research project team and designate relevant personnel.
• The American heavyweight risk management organization COSO will release blockchain security guidelines next year.
• Major virtual currency pyramid scheme "U Coin" busted, raising 1.17 billion yuan in less than two years.
• Baidu Research Institute's predictions for the top ten technology trends in 2020: Blockchain will be integrated into more application scenarios.
• Beijing Chaoyang Procuratorate: In 2019, illegal fundraising crimes remain a major disaster area, and virtual currency scams continue unabated.
• The first national "Blockchain Technology Ability Test ( Level 1 )" has been launched.
• The construction of the insurance risk control Blockchain platform has officially started, with 14 insurance companies announcing their participation.

Investment and Financing Progress

• Cryptocurrency broker BitOoda completes $7 million seed round funding.
• Venture capital fund Dragonfly invests in the public blockchain Nervos, with specific amount undisclosed.
• Yunxiang has raised tens of millions in A++ round financing, with multiple rounds of financing securing over 200 million in funding support.
• The founding team of Maskbook, Dimension.im, has received strategic investment from HashKey Capital.
• The foundation under China Ocean Industry Group invests in the blockchain streaming platform NewStar
• Fan Chain FANS received strategic investment of tens of millions from Malta's GODFUND fund.
• Huobi Japan completed a strategic investment financing of 4.6 million USD.
• BigONE announced the completion of the acquisition of the domain name and BaseFEX exchange.