Here’s a rundown of the most noteworthy industry events and project developments to look out for in the coming week
Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) announced that the “Guideline on the Regulation of Digital Asset Trading Platforms” will take effect on June 1. The SFC welcomes digital asset trading platform operators who are ready to comply with the SFC standards to apply for licenses. Operators who have no intention of applying for a license should take steps to orderly wind down their operations in Hong Kong. Keith Choy, the temporary head of the SFC’s Intermediaries Division, stated that currently there are no platforms that can provide retail investors with the ability to buy and sell crypto assets. Retail investors will be able to engage in trading on licensed platforms as early as the second half of this year. Keith Choy emphasized that local digital asset platforms that were not operating prior to the implementation of the regulations, as well as overseas platforms without licenses after the implementation of the guideline, cannot conduct digital asset trading business in Hong Kong or engage in promotional activities within the territory. Violators will be subject to criminal liability. Existing platforms can apply for licenses within a nine-month period after the guideline takes effect.
The Japanese Cabinet plans to implement stricter anti-money laundering measures starting from June 1. A key feature of the new framework is the implementation of Travel Rules to better track criminal proceeds. This rule requires financial institutions handling transfers of cryptocurrency assets to transmit customer information to the next institution, including the names and addresses of both the sender and recipient. Violators who fail to comply with corrective orders from authorities will face criminal penalties.
“Korea Blockchain Week 2023” will be held in Seoul from June 2 to June 7. The event will feature theme speeches, seminars, exhibitions, and social activities to explore blockchain trends. Korea Blockchain Week 2023 will take place in multiple locations throughout Seoul, with two core summits, “ETH Seoul 2023 Hackathon” and “BUIDL ASIA 2023,” organized by the Korean blockchain community KryptoSeoul and others. The “ETH Seoul 2023 Hackathon” summit will take place from June 2 to June 4, while “BUIDL ASIA 2023” will consist of a main summit and peripheral activities in multiple venues. The main summit of BUIDL ASIA 2023 will be held from June 6 to June 7, and peripheral activities in over ten venues will take place from June 1 to June 9.
May 29th
Project Update
- BitMEX launches BitMEX Hong Kong. Starting from May 29th, HK users will need to access the platform through the new application.
May 30th
Proposal Voting
- GnosisDAO proposes transferring at least 50% of the stETH holdings from the treasury to rETH to reduce reliance on stETH.
Event
- Muverse Asia Tour’s Beijing stop will take place on May 30th in China.
Token Unlocking
- Galxe token (GAL) will unlock 586,666.67 tokens (approximately $800,000) on May 30th at 20:00:00, accounting for 0.293% of the total supply.
May 31st
Project Update
- Neutron (NTRN), the token of the Cosmos ecosystem, undergoes a liquidity auction.
- Digital Currency Group (DCG) will close its institutional trading division, TradeBlock, on May 31st.
- Horizen node operators are required to update to Zen v4.0.0 before May 31st.
- OP’s one-year anniversary is approaching, and on May 31st, the circulating supply of OP tokens will increase.
- Sui Name Service auctions will begin on May 31st.
Token Unlocking
- Optimism token (OP) will unlock 154,618,822.65 tokens (approximately $249 million) on May 31st at 08:00:00, accounting for 3.6% of the total supply.
Event
- The U.S. National Futures Association approves regulations related to digital asset commodities, effective from May 31st, 2023.
Activity
- “The Sandbox Chinese Creators Community Meetup” offline event will be held in Shanghai on May 31st.
June 1st
Event
- Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) announces that applications for virtual asset trading platform licenses can be submitted starting from June 1st.
- Voyager plans to begin cash and cryptocurrency refunds to customers before June 1st.
- EF Next Billion, a team of the Ethereum Foundation, announces the launch of the Next Billion Fellowship cohort 3 grant program starting in June.
Project Update
- Circle will no longer hold U.S. Treasury bonds maturing after early June.
- COTI will airdrop 82 million native gCOTI tokens to participants of the gCOTI airdrop event on June 1st.
- ETH leveraged token protocol f(x) will issue tokens called FX on June 1st.
- Morphine’s Goerli 2 testnet on Starknet continues until June 1st.
- The Japanese Cabinet plans to implement stricter anti-money laundering measures starting from June 1st.
- BNB Chain plans to launch the ZkBNB mainnet on June 1st and complete the BEP-206 proposal.
- Binance will remove and delist spot trading pairs like ADA/AUD and AUD/BUSD on June 1st.
Token Unlocking
- Hedera token (HBAR) will unlock 1,273,353,491 tokens (approximately $66.96 million) on June 1st at 08:00:00, accounting for 2.547% of the total supply.
- Acala token (ACA) will unlock 27,433,334 tokens (approximately $1.24 million) on June 1st at 15:00:00, accounting for 2.743% of the total supply.
June 2nd
Activity
- “Korea Blockchain Week 2023” will be held in Seoul from June 2nd to June 7th.
Token Unlocking
- 1inch token (1INCH) will unlock 249,807,669.19 tokens (approximately $100 million) on June 2nd at 08:00:00, accounting for 16.654% of the total supply.
- Nym token (NYM) will unlock 25,000,000 tokens (approximately $4.78 million) on June 2nd at 08:00:00, accounting for 2.5% of the total supply.
June 3rd
Activity
Sui Builder House Seoul stop will take place from June 3rd to 4th.
Muverse Asia Tour’s Hangzhou stop will be held on June 3rd.
Token Unlocking
Sui token (SUI) will unlock 61,083,333.36 tokens (approximately $61.69 million) on June 3rd at 08:00:00, accounting for 0.611% of the total supply.