By ByungWoo Sohn, Poly and Daniel

Special thanks to our community managers for bringing us awesome regional news!

Korea

It’s been a mix of good and bad news for crypto in Korea these past few weeks. The country has continued to take steps towards the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies, with a new television show called “Coin Number One” set to air on August 11. The show will focus on blockchain / crypto related topics, and will air live on the Korean AsiaE channel as well as on YouTube.

To capitalize on the nation’s growing interest, the DAYLI Financial Group announced the second-ever ICO to take place in Korea. The project is called ICON, and will focus on Blockchain ID, Payment & Exchange, and Dapp services. The first Korea-based ICO, BOScoin, took place on May 10 and raised $15 million USD.

A bitcoin mining boom has taken place in Korea to accompany the growing market, but not everyone is happy about it. The Yongsan Electronics Market officially banned Bitcoin mining in its retail center, citing electrical costs and fire hazards as the main issue. Around 100 miners were using $300,000 worth of ASIC mining equipment around the clock to mine Bitcoin and Ethereum.

To the dismay of some, more regulation from the Korean government seems to be on the cards. The Bitcoin Regulation Act is set to be reviewed and discussed at the National Assembly in September. The regulation will require all digital currency handlers “to have 500 million won (around $450,000 USD) or more in capital and receive approval from the Financial Supervisory Commission.” The legislation also prohibits sale and brokering through door-to-door and multi-level marketing schemes. It remains to be seen how this increased regulation will affect the crypto market in Korea.

CIS Region

The SEC report and recent exchange hackings were the main topics of conversation for the Russian crypto community. Many people lost money in the BTC-e scam, and there was much interest on bitcointalk over who was responsible and how people could get their money back. Russian national Alexander Vinnik was indicted by a US jury as the operator of BTC-e, and was fined $12 million USD for allegedly concealing proceeds from several different crimes.

There were also reports of hacking attacks in other exchanges. People who hadn’t enabled 2FA protection reported hacking attempts, and the community as a whole discussed ways to reduce risks and prevent hacks. Due to the SEC report and possible new sanctions from the US government, the community was also concerned about having their funds blocked or frozen on different exchanges. Some people started withdrawing funds and reduced their overall balance on exchanges. The community is concerned that soon, only verified accounts will be able to trade and withdraw/deposit funds.

The ICO boom might be slowing down in Russia, with more and more people unwilling to participate after seeing numerous ICO token prices fall. Due to the increasing gap in BTC and ETH prices, it has become riskier to participate in ICOs, and so experienced members have started to simply observe projects and wait until the market becomes more stable.

One ICO project that has gotten a lot of attention in the Russian community is COMSA. The project is an ICO fundraising platform built on the NEM protocol. Tech Bureau, a Tokyo-based fintech and cryptopcurrency solutions company, announced the project and will be holding an ICO in the coming months. Tokens issued on COMSA will be able to integrate with both the NEM and Ethereum public blockchains.