Welcome to the Asia Pacific Morning Brief—your essential digest of overnight crypto developments shaping regional markets and global sentiment. Grab a green tea and watch this space.
South Korea cracks down on crypto manipulation while Japanese firms pivot toward Bitcoin strategies. Meanwhile, Alibaba-linked entities make significant Ethereum investments, signaling broader institutional adoption across Asia-Pacific markets despite regulatory enforcement actions.
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Korea Cracks Down on Crypto Market Manipulation
South Korea’s Financial Services Commission announced criminal referrals for crypto market manipulation. Large-scale “whale” investors artificially used billions of won to inflate multiple cryptocurrency prices. These manipulators concentrated suspicious orders before selling entire holdings when buying interest surged.
Authorities also prosecuted cases involving false social media promotions of crypto assets. Fraudsters pre-purchased coins before posting fake positive news to attract buyers. This marks the first investigation into unfair trading through social platforms.
One sophisticated scheme manipulated Tether markets to inflate Bitcoin-linked coin prices artificially. Perpetrators exploited exchange pricing mechanisms that convert cryptocurrencies to Korean won automatically. Victims lost hundreds of thousands of dollars after being deceived into selling at artificially low prices.
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Regulators imposed the first monetary penalties under new crypto protection laws targeting unfair gains. Financial authorities now require exchanges to display average prices in the internal and domestic markets. Officials warn investors to avoid assets showing unexplained price spikes without clear reasons.
Japanese Textile Giant Eyes Bitcoin Transformation
Bakkt CEO Phillip Lord announced Hotta Marusho’s extraordinary shareholder meeting for October 16-24. The agenda includes renaming “Bitcoin Japan Corporation” and expanding business operations. Lord stated Japan will lead the Bitcoin era through this digital treasury transformation.
Alibaba Co-founder’s Firm Buys Major Ethereum Stake
Yunfeng Financial Group, linked to Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma, purchased 10,000 ETH worth approximately $44 million. The Hong Kong-listed fintech company will record cryptocurrency as investment assets in its financial statements. This move aligns with their July strategy to expand into Web3, tokenized real-world assets, and decentralized finance sectors.
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Ripple and Singapore’s Thunes expanded their partnership to streamline cross-border payments across 90+ markets.
Prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket emerge as new asset class despite manipulation and regulatory risks.
Hong Kong launches stablecoin licensing while mainland China tightens restrictions on digital yuan usage.
More Highlights
Argentina’s Congress summons Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson to testify in President Milei’s Libra scandal probe.
Polymarket receives CFTC approval to launch in US markets after acquiring regulated derivatives exchange QCX.
