Blockchain Week is still happening and Bitcoin searches on WeChat hit 26M in a day.
The what is one bitcoin worth is a question that has been asked many times. It’s also the most searched for phrase on WeChat in China and was 26M searches in a day.
This weekly collection of news from Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong aims to compile the most significant stories in the sector, such as prominent initiatives, legislative developments, and corporate blockchain integrations.
We preview the Wanxiang Shanghai Blockchain Week, an offline event that is usually the largest blockchain conference on the Chinese calendar, in this 30th edition of the Shanghai Man column. Despite the regulatory crackdowns, the event is still scheduled to take place next week, although with a one-month delay from its normal time slot in mid-September.
The highlight of the year
Wanxiang Blockchain Week has drawn large audiences of industry participants in the past, including traders, investors, developers, financial institutions, and conventional businesses. A busy program of side events, focused on topics such as DeFi or network-specific meetings, is typically complemented with the three-day event.
The event was considerably more somber last year, after the COVID-19 lockdowns, with a dearth of foreign speakers like as Vitalik Buterin and Gavin Wood physically present. Both of these thought-leaders have close connections to Shanghai and have long worked to enhance the event’s technical reputation.
This year’s Wanxiang Blockchain Summit advertising emphasizes digital transformation. Wanxiang Blockchain Labs is the source of this information.
Wanxiang Blockchain is a major investment firm that backs some of the most promising blockchain startups. It has funded more than 100 billion RMB in more than 200 projects, similar to the East’s Consensys. Its connections to the China Wanxiang Group put it in a better position in the corporate world, giving it access to more businesses and government resources.
The event will be held on October 26 and 27, and will include keynote talks from Vitalik Buterin of Ethereum, Sergey Nazarov of Chainlink, Yat Siu of Animoca Brands, and Anatoly Yakovenko of Solana. It’s unclear if any of them will attend the event in person, but given China’s stringent quarantine regulations and cryptocurrency laws, it’s more probable that they’ll make a video address.
Most previous lectures have concentrated on infrastructure and applications rather than cryptocurrency and trading-related activities. This has enabled the event to continue to draw government officials despite increasingly unfavorable measures.
The Metaverse and NFT art are two subjects that have escaped the regulators’ fury. As a result, a number of similar activities have been combined under Shanghai Metaverse Week, which may be a clever method for “Blockchain Week” events to escape official inspection. Litentry, Polygon, Harmony, Flow, Tezos, and Mask Network are among the partners hosting this Metaverse Week. In Decentraland, the event will feature unique live feeds.
Promotions and demotions
WeChat searches for the term “Bitcoin” increased to almost 26 million on October 15, driven by news of an ETF approval in the United States. This degree of interest hadn’t been witnessed since the regulatory crackdown in mid-summer, when the asset attracted a lot of attention.
According to FTX’s worldwide volume monitor, OKEx has lately gained traction, appearing as a clear second behind Binance with approximately 11% of the overall market share. Huobi, which stated that Chinese customers will be barred from using the platform by the end of 2021, has failed to keep up with OKEx and has now fallen below FTX, into fourth place, only a few billion dollars per day ahead of ByBit.
Between 2014 and 2016, Huobi dominated the CeFi landscape, with long periods as the largest volume exchange. Now, a new generation of CeFi exchanges headed by FTX and ByBit is threatening the established CeFi leaders Huobi, Binance, and OKEx, collectively known as HBO, by eroding their dominance.
Keeping up with the NFT craze
Several large companies, notably eCommerce behemoth JD.com, have recently released their own NFTs. Later this year, the store, which has its own blockchain, will launch a set of seven NFT models via its WeChat mini-program.
DHL, a logistics firm, also announced the deployment of an NFT on the VeChain mainnet last week. These NFTs are gaining popularity as a method to reward consumers, but due to the tight restrictions, it’s doubtful that these NFTs would wind up on open exchanges, exposing many people to the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
DHL created these NFTs for its retail customers using VeChain’s ToolChain. DHL is the source of this information.
Losing to the United States
According to a statement on the National Development Reform Commission’s website, the United States has now surpassed China as the world’s leading Bitcoin mining nation. The short piece claims that this change occurred just two months after Beijing declared bitcoin mining illegal.
It’s unclear if this piece is meant to be read literally or as a subtly satirical warning that recent political choices may not be in the country’s best interests.
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