Aussies look to crypto for retirement; Vietnam embracing crypto?

Transcript

Welcome to The Daily Forkast, July 5th, 2021. I’m Angie Lau, Editor-in-Chief of Forkast.News, covering all things blockchain.

Coming up, a look at changing attitudes towards crypto among financial advisers, why a Korean nonprofits evaluation report on 10 local crypto tokens is making waves and Vietnam is expanding its crypto ambitions with a new program. Let’s get you up to speed from Asia to the world.

More than a quarter of all financial advisers say they will be recommending crypto as an investment vehicle to their clients. That’s in the next year, at least. Those numbers are from a survey conducted by the U.S. Journal of Financial Planning and the Financial Planning Association.

The survey also found that over the past six months, nearly half of all advisers noted that their clients have asked about investing in crypto.

And it’s significant because that’s a nod to mainstream adoption, looking to put retirement dollars to work. And Australia is increasingly opening up its retirement dollars to crypto as well. Just take a look at how Australians can use self-managed superannuation funds — a vehicle that allows everyday Aussies to manage their own retirement portfolios.

“What an SMS Fund actually allows you to do is invest in both conventional and exotic asset classes. And when we’re talking about exotic asset classes, we’re talking about cryptocurrencies. Now, providing the trust deed and the strategy of the SMSF allows that investment, then it’s a natural progression. And I think we’re seeing the US is probably leading this charge, we’re certainly seeing it more in Australia as well, which is a good thing.”

The 2021 survey appears to show quite a jump in interest, at least when compared with the 2018 report, which found that only 2% of respondents saw crypto as, quote, viable investment option. Today, that number stands at 28%.

Speaking of cryptocurrencies, let’s take a quick look at the market for you. Bitcoin ending the day down over 3.5% to close the day at just over US$34,200 at 4 p.m. local Hong Kong time at the end of the Asian trading day. And in the top ten for cryptocurrencies, red across the board. Dogecoin down nearly 4% and Polkadot along with XRP, both down just over 2.5% At the end of Asian trading hours today.

In South Korea, public interest is seemingly taking over where private interest in crypto has failed. The Korea Institute of Virtual Asset Valuation — this is a nonprofit launched just last month — they’re releasing its first evaluation report on 10 crypto tokens and they’re issuing companies on July 15th.

The evaluation is done by professors at local institutions who have signed on by the dozens. And the report takes a look at the number of elements such as the company’s promotion strategy, its business management, and its development potential — just to name a few — and then grades the company on a 10-point system based on those elements. The report itself is meant to be a response to private disclosure company Xangle dominating the evaluation of virtual assets locally.

“[Xangle] does not focus on evaluating the tokens itself as it is. But rather, it rates the tokens according to the token issuers’ demands. In other words, when issuers pay more money, [Xangle] gives tokens better ratings — from what I’ve seen.”

Xangle has been under the microscope of late after it emerged that it had been acting as a de facto broker between altcoin providers and virtual asset platforms. According to leaked documents, it had been charging fees to help with listings.

And finally, before we go, Vietnam is looking to widen its embrace of crypto. According to local Vietnamese media, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chin has asked that the country’s central bank conduct a pilot program for cryptocurrencies from 2021 to 2023. That’s part of a broader shift towards a digital government with focus on elements like big data, virtual or augmented reality, and even artificial intelligence. The program itself is supposedly meant to help the government identify some of the advantages and disadvantages of crypto.

Now, Vietnam hasn’t officially licensed any crypto trading platform and doesn’t legally recognize cryptocurrencies, though authorities did set up a group last August to look into crypto and virtual assets. For a nation that has made the steady climb up the value chain from manufacturing to tech, the move into wider adoption of decentralized tech is a way to maintain its lead is one of the frontier markets of note for investors.

And that’s The Daily Forkast from our vantage point right here in Asia. For more, visit Forkast.News. I’m Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau. Until the next time.