🇨🇳 Chinese Crypto Boom

GM! Chinese Cryptocurrencies have witnessed a recent surge in value, linked to fresh proposed regulations in Hong Kong, but in mainland China, most crypto restrictions remain. Also, Polygon Labs', the company behind the coin MATIC announced a 20% reduction in headcount, causing MATIC to drop 6%.

Over in the US, Paxos, the issuer of BUSD revealed positive discussions with the SEC are underway after receiving a Wells notice.

Markets

‘I’m talking about China.’ As the ‘Chinese coins’ crypto narrative heats up, here are five tokens to watch (7 minute read)Chinese altcoins have witnessed a significant surge in their value over the past week. The reason for this rise is linked to China and Hong Kong. China's economy has slowly started reopening to the world since late last year after the nation's long and challenging "zero Covid" pandemic policy. It is important to note that, even though China has lifted some restrictions, crypto trading, mining, and usage are still banned for citizens. However, individuals who already possess crypto assets are allowed to keep them. Therefore, Chinese-based crypto projects have largely been ignored and pushed to the side, until now.

Hong Kong shows desire to be crypto hub with new regulation (3 minute read)As the US government tightens regulations on the crypto industry, other locations are emerging as new centers for the virtual asset industry. Hong Kong recently proposed new regulations that would enable retail investors to trade specific "large-cap tokens" on licensed exchanges, in stark contrast to mainland China where crypto transactions are outright banned. The Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong did not specify which large tokens would be permitted, but indicated that it would probably include Bitcoin and Ether, the two largest digital assets by market value.

MATIC Drops 6% as Polygon Labs Slashes Headcount by 20% (2 minute read)Polygon Labs, the group of companies behind the Polygon blockchain network, has announced a 20% reduction in its headcount, according to a blog post. Around 100 employees have been laid off and will receive three months of severance pay. The post mentioned that Polygon Labs had recently consolidated multiple business units under its umbrella, which led to the workforce reduction affecting multiple teams. The news has coincided with a 6% drop in the value of Polygon's native MATIC token, which is currently trading at around $1.40. The token has plummeted by more than 50% from its all-time high of $2.92, which was set in December 2021.

Tech

Ordinals Litecoin fork took one week and was ‘quite simple,’ says creator (3 minute read)According to an interview with Cointelegraph, a software engineer named Anthony Guerrera created a fork of the Ordinals protocol to Litecoin with just a small monetary bounty and coding skills earlier this week. On Feb. 18, Guerrera uploaded a repository to GitHub, which forked the Ordinals protocol from Bitcoin to Litecoin, enabling non-fungible token (NFT)-like assets on the Litecoin network, just as it had been done earlier in the year for Bitcoin. Guerrera revealed that he was motivated to create a Litecoin Ordinal fork because of a bounty posted by a pseudonymous Twitter user, Indigo Nakamoto, on Feb. 11. The reward, which started at 5 LTC, rose to 22 LTC (approximately $2,000) for the first person to successfully create a fork.

Crypto Protocol Fetch.ai Partners With Bosch to Develop Web3 and AI Tech (2 minute read)Bosch, the electronics company, is partnering with Fetch.ai, an AI-focused crypto protocol, to create a new foundation called the Fetch.ai Foundation. This foundation will be dedicated to researching and developing Web3 technology, the blockchain-powered third generation of the internet, for practical applications in areas such as industry, mobility, and consumer use. The Fetch.ai Foundation will have a three-tier governance structure that is inspired by the decentralized innovation model used by the Linux Foundation. Bosch and Fetch.ai will head the foundation's management board and aim to broaden it with other industry participants, which have not yet been announced.

Misc

Bitcoin ‘fixes democracy’ and fights corruption: Human Rights Foundation (4 minute read)Bitcoin advocate and Chief Strategy Officer of the Human Rights Foundation, Alex Gladstein, claims that Bitcoin can address corruption and limit the government's control over its people by fixing broken democracies. He explained in a recent interview that Bitcoin's decentralized nature can act as a barrier against corruption and tyranny. Gladstein has been serving the non-profit organization since 2007, and its focus is on promoting and protecting human rights worldwide, particularly in countries where people live under authoritarian rule.

Paxos in 'constructive discussions with the SEC,' ends relationship with Binance (2 minute read)Paxos, a stablecoin issuer, has informed its employees that it is engaged in positive discussions with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after receiving a Wells notice regarding the Binance USD stablecoin. CEO Charles Cascarilla said that the company would defend its position in court if necessary, but is hopeful that they can come to an agreement with the SEC. Additionally, Paxos has decided to end its relationship with Binance, which is a separate decision from the SEC Wells notice and the New York Department of Financial Services' directive. Last week, the company stated that it disagreed with the SEC's classification of BUSD as a security.

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