Binance bans derivatives in Hong Kong: Ethereum fork boosts trading

Transcript

Welcome to The Daily Forkast, August 6th, 2021. I’m Angie Lau, Editor-in-Chief of Forkast.

Coming up, Binance announces a ban on new derivatives products accounts in Hong Kong. Ethereum fork provides huge trading boost;
and India’s Olympic winners get more than just medals.

Let’s get you up to speed from Asia to the world.

First up, crypto exchange Binance has announced an immediate ban on new derivatives products accounts in Hong Kong.

It’s the first major cryptocurrency and digital assets exchange to bar access to such products in Hong Kong the company said.

All derivatives products related to futures, options, margin products and leverage tokens will be restricted.

In a statement, Binance said it will also be announcing a 90 day grace period for users from Hong Kong to close their open positions at a later date. No new positions will be able to be opened within those 90 days.

In a tweet, Binance’s CEO said, this is one of many proactive measures Binance is taking to help establish crypto compliance best practices worldwide.

Just last week, Binance announced users in Germany, Italy and the Netherlands would no longer be able to open new futures or derivatives product accounts.

Binance’s move comes as it continues to limit its product range and step up compliance amid growing scrutiny from regulators around the world.

Meanwhile, Ethereum’s highly anticipated London upgrade has gone live on the network.

The hard fork finally happened at Block 12,965,000 at 8.33 p.m. Hong Kong time on Thursday.

It saw the rollout of five Ethereum improvement proposals, or EIPs.

EIP 1559 is seen as the most significant of these, as it alters the way transactions are processed and how miners are compensated. It will also reduce the supply of ether tokens on the Ethereum blockchain.

Crypto Exchange AAX told Forkast.News the upgrade captured the attention of the cryptocurrency market.

“The trading volume and trader numbers started to pick up at around 4 pm yesterday as the Ethereum London upgrade approaches. And it reached its peak at around 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. Hong Kong time. The trader numbers and the trading volume nearly doubled the day before.”

Ether’s price peaked at US$2,840 at the start of the Asian trading day on Friday.

Other blockchain layer 2 tokens have also seen positive effects from the upgrade, with PolkaDot, Chainlink and Uniswap all gaining over 20% in the last seven days.

That market boost also saw Bitcoin up 5% at almost US$ 41,000 as of 4 p.m. Hong Kong time on the final day of the Asian Trading Week.

And in the top 10 for cryptocurrencies, Uniswap up 7.5% and Ethereum up 3.5% compared to the same time 24 hours prior as the fork continues to make its mark.

And finally, India’s Olympic medalists now have even more to celebrate.

Indian crypto exchange BitBNS has tweeted that they will all be awarded cryptocurrencies in the form of a systemic investment plan or SIP – to kick off a savings plan, if you will, post medal life.

The investments made in Bitcoin and Ethereum are worth almost US$ 2,700 for gold, just over US$ 1,300 silver and US$675 for bronze.

Athletes just need to complete the ‘know-your-customer’ process in order to access the plans, which will be structured over a three to five period.

You know, crypto isn’t the only additional reward those medalists will receive.

They also get fiat cash from state governments and one athlete was offered free Domino’s Pizza for life after she said all she wanted to do after gaining her medal was to eat a slice.

At the time of recording, India was 65th in the medal table with two silver and three bronze. The games are set to conclude in Tokyo on Sunday.

Not bad for amateurs.

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.