asia

According to CoinDesk, Peter Hughes, founder and CEO of global financial services company Apex Group, stated that if the United States continues to delay cryptocurrency legislation or fails to establish a clear and definitive regulatory framework for digital assets, it may lead to related businesses shifting to Asia, the Middle East, and Bermuda.He believes that these jurisdictions are advancing more quickly and have the opportunity to fill the regulatory void left by the United States.Hughes also mentioned that Europe will not benefit from this, arguing that its Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) is evolving slowly and has many restrictions. The U.S. CLARITY Act did not receive the 60 votes needed to advance in the Senate in September due to controversies over ethical clauses and stablecoin rewards. The bill aims to clarify federal regulatory rules for digital assets and delineate the regulatory responsibilities of the SEC and CFTC.

Cailian Press reported on October 22 that a joint report released by Google, Temasek, and Bain & Company shows that the number of generative AI users in Southeast Asia reached approximately 243 million in less than three years, accounting for 58% of the local labor force, with a penetration rate about four times that of mobile internet. Only 1% to 2% of the local population pays for personal AI services.Florian Hoppe, a partner at Bain & Company, stated in an interview that businesses can achieve AI commercialization through e-commerce, digital advertising, and other operations without having to rely entirely on consumers paying directly. They can also use AI to improve e-commerce conversion rates and handle routine customer inquiries. The report noted that about 80% of customer inquiries on the e-commerce platform Shopee are handled by AI chatbots, with the cost per customer contact decreasing by 30% year-on-year. In early cases, companies that applied AI saw a year-on-year increase in conversion rates of 10%, with the average spending per order increasing by as much as 75%.The report also stated that the total value of goods traded in Southeast Asia's digital economy is expected to grow by 17% year-on-year to $368 billion by 2026, and is projected to exceed $1 trillion by 2035. Among these, the online travel market is expected to grow by 10% to $59 billion, online media revenue is expected to grow by 22% to $44 billion, and the ride-hailing and food delivery market is expected to grow by 15% to $40 billion. The total value of goods traded in Southeast Asia's e-commerce market is projected to be $226 billion in 2026, an 18% year-on-year increase.

According to EU-Startups, the Barcelona venture capital platform Masia has announced the completion of a €18 million first-phase fundraise, which will invest in early-stage AI and cutting-edge technology companies associated with Barcelona. The fund has the support of over 70 limited partners, including tech founders, corporate executives, and seasoned investors, with two institutional investors also participating.Masia has also opened Masia House in the Gràcia district of Barcelona, covering an area of 1,000 square meters, consisting of four floors, providing office space, meeting rooms, accommodation for visiting investors, and a terrace event space.

Ethereum Institutional official X platform has released a recruitment notice, currently hiring a head for the Asia-Pacific region in Tokyo. This role involves establishing partnerships with Japanese banks, financial market infrastructure institutions, asset management companies, and enterprises, as well as planning and organizing communication meetings and presentations aimed at financial institutions and institutional investors, promoting Ethereum as the infrastructure for next-generation financial services.Job requirements include 5 to 7 years of practical experience in banking, asset management, capital markets, payments, or financial infrastructure, proficiency in both Japanese and English at a business level, experience in the digital asset field, particularly in products or collaborative business with financial institutions and institutional investors, and a broad network with Japanese financial institutions and institutional investors.

Galaxy Research Research Director Alex Thorn stated that since the second half of October, Bitcoin returns have been primarily driven by the Asian trading session, while the European trading session has dragged down overall performance.The chart he shared shows that as of October 20, calculated from October 1, the cumulative return of Bitcoin during the Asian trading session was 3.9%, 1.1% during the U.S. trading session, and -5.5% during the European trading session; the return for buying and holding all day during the same period was -0.7%.

According to official news from Bitget, the platform announced the acquisition of the digital asset exchange and brokerage GMO-Z.com Cryptonomics (Thailand) Co., Ltd., headquartered in Bangkok. This acquisition involves the complete shares of the target company held by GMO Internet and its related subsidiaries.GMO-Z.com Cryptonomics (Thailand) holds licenses for digital asset exchange and brokerage business in Thailand. This acquisition will leverage its existing compliance foundation and local market experience to strengthen Bitget's localized operational capabilities in Thailand and further improve the strategic layout in the Southeast Asian market.Bitget CEO Gracy Chen stated that Thailand is an important digital asset market in Southeast Asia, and this acquisition will help Bitget establish a localized operational system, gradually expanding its global trading service capabilities in the Thai market while complying with local regulatory requirements.

According to Bloomberg, Asian semiconductor stocks continued to weaken on Monday. The Bloomberg Asia Chip Index fell more than 2%, reaching its lowest level since July, with TSMC, SK Hynix, and Advantest being the main drags. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index recorded its largest weekly decline since October 2008 last week, dropping more than 3% at one point on Monday before recovering some ground; the Nikkei 225 index fell 2.3% at one point, and the Taiwan Weighted Index dropped 2%.Market concerns stem from two aspects. First, the pressure on financing for AI infrastructure in the United States continues to ferment, with CoreWeave's financing capabilities being questioned and the IPO expectations for Anthropic and Nscale cooling. Second, Chinese AI company DeepSeek released a new model update over the weekend, claiming faster operation speeds and lower resource consumption, raising concerns about the potential decrease in storage capacity required for AI models and the possible impact on chip demand.Kang DaeKwun, CEO of Life Asset Management, stated that the market uncertainty is too high, making it difficult to determine when the Korean stock market will bottom out. Financing for U.S. corporate AI projects is one of the main risks, and the profitability of Korean chip companies still heavily relies on continuous investment in AI infrastructure by U.S. companies. This week, the earnings reports from tech giants like Meta and Tesla will be an important window to observe the growth momentum of AI capital expenditures.

According to Catcher Predict monitoring, in the market prediction on Polymarket for the event "Dota 2: Royal Bear vs Xipto Esports - DreamLeague Southeast Asia Closed Qualifier Playoffs," the "O/U 4.5 games" sub-market's "Over" option win rate has experienced significant fluctuations, dropping from 50% an hour ago to the current 31.5% (a fluctuation of 18.5%). Please note the impact of related breaking news.

According to Cointelegraph citing Reuters, Deutsche Bank plans to launch Bitcoin and Ethereum custody services within weeks and aims to expand its business in Asia by 2027.

Ledger announced the progress of the investigation into the hardware wallet implantation attack. According to its disclosure, an organized crime group spent months purchasing genuine Ledger devices, disassembling them to implant custom hardware specifically designed to steal mnemonic phrases, and then reintroducing them to the market through Southeast Asian distribution channels.The group also established a supporting system for collecting mnemonic phrases, asset theft, and money laundering, with Ledger stating that the scale of their investment reached several million dollars. Ledger emphasized that this incident is a localized distribution channel attack, and its chips, operating system, and servers were not compromised.The company has requested authorized distributors and resellers in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong to suspend sales and implement new security regulations, including prohibiting the display of devices on shelves or in display areas, as well as banning the resale of returned devices.

According to Gate market data, spot gold rose by 1% in the Asian session, currently priced at 4146 USD/ounce, essentially recovering all losses since the release of yesterday's U.S. CPI report.

According to a report by Cointelegraph, a recent report from Chainalysis indicates that remittances from Canada to India, China, and the Philippines have surged by 141% year-on-year, reaching $2.36 billion, with digital asset payments continuing to expand in these three major remittance corridors.In the 12 months ending June 2026, there were a total of 3.56 million related transactions, with an average amount of $663 per transaction. Chainalysis noted that these three countries accounted for an increase in the proportion of Canada's cross-border stablecoin outflows from 10.9% the previous year to 19.4%.Eric Jardine, research director at Chainalysis, cited additional data provided to Cointelegraph, stating that crypto remittances from Canada to the Philippines alone reached $61.02 million, involving 73,564 transactions, representing year-on-year growth of 28% and 34.7%, respectively.The analysis counted Bitcoin and stablecoins that circulated between personal wallets with amounts exceeding $10,000. Chainalysis listed Canada as the largest peer-to-peer (P2P) crypto economy among the G7 countries and believes that the large overseas-born population and the high costs of traditional remittance services are potential driving factors for its increasing adoption.Morva Rohani, executive director of the Canadian Web3 Council, stated in the report that about 23% of Canada's population is born overseas, the highest proportion among the G7, with frequent use of remittance corridors to India, the Philippines, Nigeria, Pakistan, and China.The report also found that in June, stablecoins accounted for 44% of the Canadian dollar-denominated order book trading volume, up from 30% a year ago.

According to an official post from Ledger, its security team Ledger Donjon is investigating Ledger signing devices sold by the Southeast Asian distributor CryptoBilis, which have been implanted with unauthorized hardware components. Ledger confirmed this matter on October 10 regarding a device belonging to an affected user. Donjon's analysis shows that the implant is located within the device's casing and can read the screen display content—decoding the 24-word recovery mnemonic during the initial setup and transmitting it externally via LTE through a built-in eSIM; this component does not alter the security chip, system, or transaction signature.Currently, all confirmed financial losses related to the incident disclosed on October 9 involve devices sold by CryptoBilis. CryptoBilis has stopped selling Ledger devices. The total number of affected users and the amount of losses have not yet been verified, and Ledger is investigating similar implant reports from other distributors and regions.

According to CoinGlass data, in the past 24 hours, 10 exchanges have liquidated approximately $803 million in leveraged positions, with long positions accounting for $694 million, representing 86%, affecting a total of 172,100 traders. About $595 million, nearly three-quarters of the total for the day, was liquidated in the last 12 hours, as the South Korean KOSPI index fell by more than 6%, and Bitcoin briefly dropped below $81,000. The largest single liquidation was a $9.65 million Bitcoin long position on Binance, which was forcibly closed at around $81,773, with Binance accounting for half of the total liquidation volume.Bitcoin topped the list with $181 million in liquidations, followed closely by Ethereum with $178 million, despite its market capitalization being much smaller than Bitcoin's; SOL positions lost $60 million, ZEC $24 million, and NEAR $22 million. Stock-related contracts then made the list, with perpetual contracts tracking U.S. storage chip manufacturer SanDisk liquidating $19.09 million, slightly above HYPE's $19.04 million and XRP's $18.78 million. These perpetual contracts allow traders to bet on stock prices without an expiration date on cryptocurrency exchanges, with contracts for SK Hynix, Micron, and the triple-leveraged U.S. semiconductor ETF SOXL also appearing on the heatmap, with SOXL liquidating $7.21 million.The aforementioned losses coincided with a sell-off in the Seoul market, where Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix each fell by about 8%, as the market worried about AI-related valuations and competition from Chinese storage chip manufacturers.

JPMorgan analysts stated that AI stocks are expected to drive a 70% profit growth in Asia by 2027. Analysts noted that Asia's AI exposure is primarily concentrated in the hardware sector, with supply constraints likely to persist until 2028, giving related companies significant pricing power.JPMorgan expects that by 2028, the net profit of the AI ecosystem will exceed $1 trillion, with free cash flow reaching $700 billion.

Recently, Bitget was awarded the "Best Multi-Asset Technology Platform" by iFX EXPO Asia. This award focuses on the comprehensive performance of trading platforms in terms of technical capabilities, multi-asset product layout, and user experience, further reflecting Bitget's ongoing investment in multi-asset trading infrastructure.Bitget CEO Gracy Chen stated that Bitget will continue to promote the Universal Exchange (UEX) strategy, breaking down barriers between different asset classes through technological and product innovation, allowing users to connect diverse assets and global market opportunities more efficiently within a unified trading system.