Blockchain Industry Weekly Report (12.23-12.29)

Regulatory Dynamics

1. Multiple departments in Beijing issued a risk warning, urging vigilance regarding investment risks in the virtual currency market. Recently, accompanied by the promotion of Blockchain technology, there are signs of a resurgence in virtual currency trading activities within the country. The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Financial Supervision and other departments jointly issued a risk warning, prohibiting the conduct of virtual currency business sales or trading activities.

2. Sichuan Ganzi convened a meeting with Bitmain and 10 other companies to discuss the cleanup of Bitcoin mining sites. The meeting affirmed the use of surplus electricity for Bitcoin mining, but also emphasized that mining should not be used as a pretext for illegal activities such as ICOs and fundraising.

3. The Bank of Korea will establish a special task force to study central bank digital currency in order to better understand crypto assets.

4. The European Central Bank will launch the EUROchain distributed ledger project based on the R3 Corda platform, aimed at developing a central bank digital currency payment system that protects user privacy and reduces transaction costs.

5. Germany will require digital asset custodians to apply for a license, and companies currently custodianing cryptocurrencies must submit their applications by November 1 of next year.

6. The Supreme People's Procuratorate elaborates on ten types of crimes involving Blockchain-related illegal activities, including theft, fraudulently obtaining digital currencies and digital assets.

Industry News

1. Three exchanges have successively shut down, with at least 12 going out of business or being investigated in the past two months. Exchanges such as CoinTiger, Biger, and Bithumb Global have taken measures to exit and dissolve their entities in a positive manner.

2. The Shenzhen Stock Exchange compiled the Shenzhen Blockchain 50 Index, which rose 1.15% on its first day. This index reflects the performance of companies related to the blockchain industry in the Shenzhen securities market.

3. Youtube deleted videos from multiple industry influencers, categorizing cryptocurrency-related content as "harmful information." Several top cryptocurrency content creators' channels were affected.

4. Tencent released an internal notice to establish a digital currency research project team and appoint relevant responsible personnel.

5. The major virtual currency pyramid scheme "U Coin" has been cracked, accumulating 1.17 billion yuan in less than two years. The main culprit Wang Yifan was sentenced to 7 years in prison and fined 20 million yuan.

6. Baidu Research's Top Ten Technology Trends Predictions for 2020: Blockchain will be integrated into more application scenarios.

7. The first national "Blockchain Technology Ability Test ( Level 1 )" was launched, with 30 candidates participating in the exam.

8. The construction of the insurance risk control Blockchain platform has officially started, with 14 insurance companies announcing their participation.

Investment and Financing Progress

1. Cryptocurrency broker BitOoda completes $7 million seed round financing.

2. Venture capital fund Dragonfly invests in the public blockchain Nervos, specific amount not disclosed.

3. Yunxiang has received hundreds of millions in A++ round financing, with multiple rounds of financing obtaining over 200 million in funding support.

4. The founding team of Maskbook, Dimension.im, has received strategic investment from HashKey Capital.

5. The foundation under China Ocean Industry Group invests in the blockchain streaming media platform NewStar.

6. The Fans Chain (FANS) received strategic investment of tens of millions from the Malta GODFUND fund.

7. Huobi Japan completed a strategic investment financing of $4.6 million.

8. BigONE announced the completion of its acquisition of the domain and BaseFEX exchange.