Hong Kong, that recently topped the list of the world’s most crypto-ready nation on the Worldwide Crypto Readiness Report, is riddled with scammers eyeing the sector. In the first six months of 2022, Hong Kong saw an alarming 105 percent hike in crypto scams as compared to the same period in 2021. As per a South China Morning Post report, the crypto community of Hong Kong has collectively lost $50 million (roughly Rs. 400 crore) to conmen this year so far.

Out of the 10,613 cybercrimes that have been reported in Hong Kong so far this year, 798 made for crypto-related ones, the South China Morning Post said in its report.

The hike in crypto scams in Hong Kong is being linked to the popularity that the digital assets sector is garnering in the nation.

As per Triple-A statistics, Hong Kong contained over 245,000 cryptocurrency owners in 2021.

The government there is trying to frame the sensitive sector in laws so that investors are safeguarded against financial hazards.

In July this year, a new legislation came into existence in Hong Kong that mandated a licensing regime for crypto service providers operating in the country.

As per the Worldwide Crypto Readiness Report, Hong Kong scored 8.6 out of 10 in-terms of being lucrative for the crypto sector.

The study, that has rated nations out of ten in crypto-readiness, analysed several aspects before declaring Hong Kong as the most crypto-friendly country. These aspects included the number of crypto ATMs, the legislation and taxes surrounding cryptocurrencies as well as the number of blockchain start-ups flourishing in the ecosystems.

Hong Kong also emerged to be among the most nurturing countries in-terms of blockchain-related start-ups.

The US, that secured the second position on this index with a 7.7 score has also witnessed a rise in crypto scams as a by-product of the increasing number of activities around crypto that are penetrating in the daily activities of US citizens.

A recent report by BanklessTimes has claimed that Americans crypto investors lost $185 million (roughly Rs. 1,500 crore) between January 2021 and March 2022 to romance scams and over $1 billion (roughly Rs. 8,000 crore) in total to other fraudulent activities.

Americans are also losing money to investment scams, and imposters pretending to be business consultants and government officials.

Bitcoin held its footing above $23,000 (roughly Rs. 18.4 lakh) throughout the weekend after a fairly strong showing over the past couple of weeks. The value of Bitcoin witnessed a 1.77 percent rise in the last 24 hours with its price now closer to the $23,500 (roughly Rs. 18.7 lakh) mark across global exchanges while Indian exchange CoinSwitch Kuber values BTC at $24,317 (roughly Rs. 19.34 lakh), 0.41 percent lower in the past 24 hours. On global exchanges like CoinMarketCap, Coinbase, and Binance the price of Bitcoin stands at $23,341 (roughly Rs. 18.57 lakh) while CoinGecko data shows that BTC’s value is currently exactly where it was last Monday.

Ether has also been doing well over the weekend. At the time of publishing, Ether is valued at $1,784 (roughly Rs. 1.42 lakh) on CoinSwitch Kuber while values on global exchanges see the crypto’s value at $1,712 (roughly Rs. 1.36 lakh), where the cryptocurrency has risen by 2.11 percent over the past 24 hours.

Ether’s positive showing over the weekend sees the cryptocurrency’s value switch to green by close to 2.5 percent when compared to its value last Monday, as per CoinGecko data.

Gadgets 360’s cryptocurrency price tracker reveals that most major altcoins held firm over the weekend with a positive showing over the last 24 hours — as the global crypto market capitalisation witnessed a 2.73 percent rise through Sunday and early Monday.

Uniswap, Solana, Polkadot, Cardano, Cosmos, Avalanche, and BNB saw minor upsides while TRON, and Litecoin all saw minor dips in value in the last 24 hours.

Memecoins Shiba Inu and Dogecoin also followed the altcoin mix with some dips to show for. Dogecoin is currently valued at $0.07 (roughly Rs. 5.84) after gaining some 1.07 percent in value over the last 24 hours, while, Shiba Inu is valued at $0.000012 (roughly Rs. 0.00095), up by 1.28 percent over the past day.

The wider market has seen encouragement by the latest initiatives involving large institutional investors. Asset manager Brevan Howard completed the largest crypto hedge fund launch ever, with more than $1 billion (roughly Rs. 7,961 crore) in assets under management, and BlackRock formed a partnership with crypto exchange Coinbase to make crypto directly available to institutional investors.

“Block, a fintech company co-founded by Jack Dorsey, faced a 6.5 percent decline in its share price in the after-hours trade due to its recent financial results. Its Q2 revenues related to Bitcoin stood at 1.79 billion, 34 percent less than last quarterly earnings (Q2 2021). Also, the gross profit comes to be only $41 million (roughly Rs. 326 crore), 2 percent of Bitcoin revenue. In the shareholder letter, Block says there’s been declining consumer demand for Bitcoin in recent months. Since October 2020, the company has invested almost $500 million (roughly Rs. 3,981 crore) in Bitcoin (approximately 8,027 Bitcoins) due to its future potential. However, the recent volatility in the crypto market is forcing Block to re-evaluate its investment strategy,” says Edul Patel, CEO and co-founder of crypto investment firm Mudrex speaking to Gadgets 360.

Cryptocurrency is an unregulated digital currency, not a legal tender and subject to market risks. The information provided in the article is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, trading advice or any other advice or recommendation of any sort offered or endorsed by NDTV. NDTV shall not be responsible for any loss arising from any investment based on any perceived recommendation, forecast or any other information contained in the article.

Tech firms in China, that have had to restrict their work in the crypto sector under strict government oversight, have found a new interest in the metaverse sector. In a new development, China’s Taiyi Group has acquired Huobi’s ‘Huoxun’ communication tool in order to add more technical details in its metaverse exploration journey. While the Taiyi Group is a blockchain-focussed tech player in China, the Huoxun tool is an instant messaging social platform launched in 2018 by the Huobi crypto exchange.

With Huoxin’s acquisition, the Taiyi Group will use the tool to build optimised and upgraded metaverse communities, a report by CryptoPotato said.

The Chinese blockchain player has developed a metaverse platform called the ‘Taiyi Lingjing’. On this virtual world platform, the Taiyi Group has reportedly developed a bunch of metaverse IPs like Lingjing Temple of Heaven, Lingjing Forbidden City, and Datang Lingjing to name a few. Most of these projects are focussed on driving cultural tourism in China.

With Huoxin, the Taiyi Group aims to create the most memorable social stage. The acquired platform will be used to reflect enhancements and redesigns that the Taiyi Group plans to introduce in the metaverse, the report added.

Huoxin’s acquisition by the Taiyi Group comes a month after Li Lin, the founder of Huobi, was reportedly exploring the possibility of selling his stakes in the company.

After China imposed a blanket ban on all crypto-related activities in September 2021, Huobi was one of many crypto firms that had to forcefully draw curtains on their operations in the nation.

Headquartered in Seychelles now, Huobi was originally founded in China back in 2013. It now has offices in other nations including South Korea, Japan, and the US.

It’s only a matter of time before the global metaverse community witnesses what the Taiyi Group eventually unfolds with the Huoxin tool, especially in the backdrop of China’s lack of crypto infrastructure, which should have made for the economic backbone of the metaverse sector.

In recent times, several Chinese tech mammoths like Baidu, Tencent, and Bytedance have poured-in investments into the metaverse sector.

On December 27, Baidu had launched the first domestically produced metaverse called XiRang, also known as Land of Hope.

As per a Reuters report, Tencent has announced the formation of its ‘extended reality’ (XR) team for metaverse development.