China continues e-CNY pilot; Google allows crypto advertising

Transcript

Welcome to the Daily Forkast, August 5th, 2021. I’m Justin Solomon of Forkast.News, covering all things blockchain filling in for Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau.

Coming up, China’s E-CNY trials continue.
Google opens up to crypto advertising; and Oscar Mayer rolls out a “hot doge” sale.

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

First up, China’s E-CNY pilots continue at a rapid pace.

This time around the central coastal city of Shanghai and Suzhou, which lies just 50 miles away, are both involved.

Half a million virtual gift packages containing a total of 20 million digital yuan will be given away in a lottery by Bank of Communication Shanghai and e-commerce giant JD.com.

The lucky winners will receive 20 digital yuan. That’s little over US$3 in a red packet, traditionally a cash gift given out on special occasions, plus a 20 digital yuan coupon to be used for purchases with JD.com.

The company began offering purchases using the CNY back in December 2020 and now has almost one million digital yuan sub-wallets active.

It’s often seen as the Amazon of China, as you can buy anything from a piano to power tools or even a pool.

Meng Liu, an analyst at Forrester, told Forkast.News that the People’s Bank of China is relying on the tech giants existing massive customer base to quickly expand the scale of the digital yuan.

He says laws and regulations on anti-fraud and data related responsibilities should be next on the agenda for the digital currency’s development.

Meanwhile, Google has allowed crypto ads to return.

The search giant had banned all crypto related ads in 2018, and that ban was reversed earlier this week, but only for crypto exchanges and wallets targeting the United States and only for certain products. One expert told Forkast.News it’s a step in the right direction.

“It definitely sends a signal, which is there is an interest, whether it’s from retail or more corporate participants for crypto. And so Google wants to get a part of that and at least enabled some of the participants to advertise for it.”

Google says all advertisers must be certified with them and comply with their rules.

No advertising will be allowed for initial coin offerings, DeFi trading protocols or any using celebrity crypto endorsements.

But D’Anethan says he doesn’t think the news is behind an upward crypto market trend.

“It’s more about crypto having been range bound in that 30K region for quite an extended period of time. While most of the other markets, and I’m talking about traditional markets, were gaining. And so at some point, with all the positive news, news that’s being accumulated in the crypto space, it was bound to kind of pop up.”

He expects the Ethereum London upgrade to be the key market driver for at least the next few days.

And that upward trend on the markets continues – Bitcoin up almost 3% at just under US$ 39,000 as of 4 p.m. Hong Kong time at the end of the Asian trading day.

And in the top 10 for cryptocurrencies, Uniswap up 10.5% and PolkaDot up 9%.

And finally feeling hungry for a snack and maybe a crypto investment?

If so, Oscar Meyer might have the answer to your prayers with its “hot doge” sale.

Yep, you heard me right, a “hot doge” sale.

The American hot dog brand, famous for its Wienermobile, is selling a single limited edition pack of “hot doge” wieners along with a cash amount, allowing the purchase of 10,000 doge coins.

And it seems like there are a lot of hungry investors out there with the company tweeting that the eBay auction link had gone down shortly after it opened.

The lucky winner will not only be able to stuff their stomachs and their crypto wallet, they’ll also be doing some good with all net proceeds going to “Feeding America”, which supports 200 food banks across the country.

Now, that’s a good dog or doge?

And that’s The Daily Forkast from our vantage point right here in Asia. For more, visit Forkast.News. I’m Justin Solomon. Until next time.