1

Catalogue。 Overview

3。 Executive Summary

4。 Regulatory Landscape5。 Market Size and Demographics

11。 Infrastructure20。 Talent

28。 Investors

33。 Developers and Operators

38。 Future Development and Challenges

50

A PRIMER OF ASIA’SCRYPTO LANDSCAPE
2

Overview
This report was a collaborative effort between Foresight News, Coinness, and Blocktempo, three of the top crypto media platforms in theregions covering China, Korea, and Taiwan respectively. A brief overview of the platforms and authors is listed below.
Foresight News
Foresight News is the largest multilingual Web3 media platform in the Asia-Pacific region. Since its establishment in January 2022, it has rapidly
grown into one of the most influential Chinese Web3 integrated platforms for media, events &data. Currently, the monthly PV of its Chinese
platform has exceeded 2 million. Based on fast and high-quality content, Foresight News has launched nine products, including Foresight Wiki,the most comprehensive Web3 companies/projects database in Chinese; Foresight Calendar, the most widely subscribed Web3 calendar
among practitioners; and Foresight Job, a Web3 job aggregation platform, among others. It has become the largest content-driven platform in
the Web3 Chinese world.
In December 2022, Foresight News launched Foresight News EN, an independent English website that is aiming to bridge the East and West
with Web3 insights of excellence. The content is produced by an overseas team and with new UI/UX to be better suited for Western reading
habits. Foresight News EN provides high-quality content in various formats, including ForeCast podcast series, Foresight Interviews, andForesight Daily. Furthermore, in March of 2023, we launched our Korean official Twitter account (Foresight News KR), and an independent
Korean site is on its way to further enhance our cross-lingual, cross-time zone global layout and strive to realize our vision of “Rooted in theEast, Connecting the West.”
Report Contributors: Vincent Yu (Founder and CEO of Foresight News), Solomon Sheng (Designer of Foresight News), Tony Cheng (Investor at
Foresight Ventures), Chelsa Jiang (Investor at Foresight Ventures), Ian Xu (Investor at Foresight Ventures) and special thanks to our interns
Jeffrey Chen and Will Zhang.
CoinNess
CoinNess is a distinguished investment information platform focused on the cryptocurrency market, serving as a leading source for breaking
news in Asia. Unlike traditional media outlets that offer one-way articles or investment information, CoinNess provides a comprehensive andpersonalized experience for investors. The platform features diverse content, ranging from news updates to on-chain data, all accessible
through a single portal. By utilizing CoinNess, investors can easily design unique combinations of investment information that suit theirpreferences, enabling them to invest in smart virtual assets.
CoinNess leverages its cutting-edge algorithmic content generation system to scan over 5000 content sources daily, ensuring that investors
receive the fastest and most precise information. This system also enables CoinNess to expand its coverage of global information and data,
enabling it a go-to platform for investors seeking accurate and up-to-date investment information. With a user base of over 300,000 and over
50,000 daily users on the application, CoinNess is a reputable cryptocurrency media outlet in Asia, providing investors with an indispensable
resource for their investment endeavors.
Report Contributors: Seunghwan Lee (CEO and Founder of CoinNess), Soomin Kim (Global BD Lead at CoinNess), Taewan Yu (Content team at
CoinNess), Jay Han (Alphanonce Investment Lead), Victor Cha (Alphanonce Investment Analyst).
BlockTempo
BlockTempo provides real-time global industry and market information, conducts in-depth interviews with international blockchain pioneers,and creates exclusive content and news intelligence networks, and promotes local community voices. It manages various blockchain andcryptocurrency communities and promotes Chinese cryptocurrency communities' innovation in the new era.
BlockTempo has been deeply involved in the blockchain industry since its inception and grown rapidly in 2021. With monthly website traffic
exceeding 3 million, at least 500,000 active users in its community each month, and online community traffic exceeding 30 million per month, it
is now the world's largest Chinese blockchain media.
As an important promoter of industry development, BlockTempo has hosted two international summits, Blockcity and Asia Blockchain Summit,
attracting 4,000 guests from 50 different countries. These events were major turning points in the development of blockchain in Asia.
Report Contributors: Ian Yeh (BD at Blocktempo), 0xJigglypuff (Chief Editor at Blocktempo), Natalie Wu (Editor at Blocktempo), Will Huang (BDat Blocktempo).

3

Executive Summary
The purpose of this report is to provide both a qualitative and quantitative view of the Asia crypto ecosystem.
With this report, we hope to help readers understand the importance of this region and the future impact that
Asia is expected to have in the crypto industry.
We kick off the report with the regulatory landscape of the region. We go into depth on the history ofcrypto-related regulations in China, South Korea, and Taiwan. Hong Kong is opening up, Taiwan is making clearer
rules on crypto regulations and South Korea is still world-leading in regulating the crypto industry. As regulations
become an ever more important factor in the growth of the industry, this section lays the groundwork forunderstanding the future direction of Asia crypto.
The next section deep dives into the market size and demographics of users in the region. We conducted a 5,000
sample survey of China's general population to better understand the current penetration rate of crypto users in
China and another 1,000 sample survey of crypto users in China to better understand their behavior andpreferences. Insights are also provided on the alt-coin-dominated Korea market and the DeFi-driven Taiwan
market.
The infrastructure section talks about the core companies and technologies laying the foundation for the growthof the industry. Korea as a whole has a much larger ecosystem of infrastructure players given its regulated status
and the massive trading market. Whereas China has banned its exchanges from doing business in the region.
In the talent section, we list the core schools and institutions that currently train crypto talent. Schools currently
are the major sources of talent in all regions while South Korea even has established crypto boot camps that help
developers onboard quickly into the space.
Investors section talks about the leading VCs in the region and lists some of the portfolios and core value add they
provide to their investments.
Developers and Operators section goes into detail about the developer scene and other types of operating roles in
the crypto space. It articulates the detail about all the types of projects in each region and lists the top protocols
and application builders.
Finally, we summarize with a view of the outlook of the region. The Asia region is poised to drive the next chapterof growth given its large population, strong spending power, and its affinity towards building large-scale
applications. The future of crypto is bright in Asia and will be a core pillar in the next chapter of industry growth.

4Regulatory
Landscape●●●

China Regulations
Korea Regulations
Taiwan Regulations

A PRIMER OF ASIA’SCRYPTO LANDSCAPE
5China Regulations

Regulatory Landscape- China

Regulation has always been a hot topic in China, and historically China has had a much tougher stance on crypto
than other superpowers. Below is a quick refresher of the path that China regulators have taken.
● In December 2013, the Securities Regulatory Commission of China began restricting financial institutions fromhandling bitcoin transactions, with the main arguments being that bitcoin lacked the legal backing to function
as a currency and its use for money laundering. The announcement sent Bitcoin down almost 50% from $1100
to $600 the following week.
● Following the ICO summer of 2017, the central bank declared initial coin offerings as illegal fundraising
activities. One week after the announcement, local exchanges such as BTC China received instructions tovoluntarily wind down their operations.
● The official mining ban came in May 2021, as the State Council of China reaffirmed its stance further to restrict
mining and trading activities within the country. The statements also deemed all crypto transactions, conducted
via both local and foreign exchanges, illegal for Chinese nationals. China's share of the global bitcoin hash rate
dropped from 70% to 0% in the following two months but shot back to 21% by the end of 2021, remaining as
the second largest hash rate contributor after the U.S.

Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index● In late September 2021, PBOC banned all crypto transactions. This was the nail in the coffin for China crypto.

The PBOC cited the role of cryptocurrencies in facilitating financial crime as well as posing a growing risk to
China's financial system owing to their highly speculative nature. However, the cryptocurrency ban was also an
attempt to combat capital flight from China. Given the decentralized nature of crypto tokens, managing capitalflight at scale was near impossible.

6Regulatory Landscape- China

However, despite the rocky history between the Chinese government and cryptocurrencies, participation from China
has been irreplaceable in propelling the industry to what it is today.
Today, we are witnessing a landmark shift in regulations. After seeing Singapore embrace crypto in 2019/2020 thento denounce the sector after a series of industry mishaps in 2022, Hong Kong is looking to make a comeback as thepremier crypto hub in Asia. In 2023 Hong Kong has carried out multiple cryptocurrency-related regulatory actions, ofwhich two major policies stand out.

Exchange policy

Stablecoin policy

In February 2023, The Hong Kong Securities andFutures Commission (SFC) released a consultation
paper detailing the proposed guidelines forexchange licenses (Virtual Asset Trading Platforms).
All centralized exchanges businesses marketing toHong Kong investors are required licenses tooperate. The guidelines are focused on thefollowing categories:

Hong Kong's proposed stablecoin regulations requireissuers to have a locally incorporated entity andrestrict algorithmic and arbitrage coins. The HKMA's
current stance is that stablecoins must be fully backed
by high-quality liquid assets and be redeemable totheir referenced fiat currencies at par. The proposed
regime would cover entities actively marketing or
operating in Hong Kong and increase the number oflicenses an issuer needs. A major stablecoin in Hong
Kong could significantly improve the fiat on-ramp and
off-ramp experience in the region and allow more
entrepreneurs to build innovative products in theregion.

● Custody: Companies must have appropriate
measures to ensure that client holdings are safe
from theft and separated from the company's own
assets.
● KYC: Companies must obtain sufficient client
information to access risk profiles and comply
with anti-money laundering (AML) andcounter-terrorist financing (CTF) requirements.
● Record Keeping: Companies must maintaintransaction details and customer information for
at least seven years.
● Risk Management: Companies must provide a risk
management framework to identify, assess, andmanage risks associated with product offerings
and liquidity provision.
The official regime will come into effect on June 1,
2023. While the proposed requirements are still
subject to change before then, the above guidelines
serve as a good starting point for existing businesses
targeting Hong Kong to follow.

In addition, the Hong Kong government also proposed
a $6.4 million (HK$50 million) budget plan toaccelerate Web3 development in the region. This
includes organizing international seminars, facilitating
cross-sectoral co-operations, and setting up
educational workshops. Trading rules are also being
discussed, allowing retail users to trade major tokens
which is a significant breakthrough versus theprevious ban. As a major financial trading center, all
the local securities firms are thinking about how tocapture the crypto opportunity in the region.
The bigger narrative is that Hong Kong is a potential
sandbox for future regulations in mainland China. As
China is looking for avenues of growth to drive
economic growth, crypto could be one of the coreengines that drive the future. The size of the crypto
market in China is just impossible to ignore, eventhough stringent regulations are being applied today,
the future outlook is a bright one. Hong Kong will thebridge for Chinese talent to expand globally, the time
to build that future is today.

7Regulatory Landscape- Korea

Korea Regulations
Regulation against the Korean Crypto market started to be strengthened in 2021 September when ENFORCEMENTDECREE OF THE ACT ON REPORTING AND USING SPECIFIED FINANCIAL TRANSACTION INFORMATION act was
implemented. Under the law, crypto exchanges are obligated to report suspicious transactions to FIU (Financial
Intelligence Unit), comply with AML, and avoid conflict of interest between exchanges and crypto issuers, etc.
The act also dictates exchanges to file at FIU with specified requirements. The most important and critical part ofexchange is the real-name bank account for fiat pairs (KRW pairs). KRW fiat pairs make most of the trading fees
revenue for exchanges. To do business, the exchanges are required to have official bank relationships, but like a lotof other countries, the banking industry in Korea is heavily regulated by the government.
Korea is the leading regulator that has applied a broad travel rule for AML purposes to crypto exchanges. This has
been a landmark precedent and studied by many regulators across the world for implementation, but one of thecore reasons why this is possible is because the number of exchanges to manage is limited and the travel rule canbe managed through the top exchanges. Given the current status quo, the government has not been favorable toreal-name bank account approval for new exchanges. As a result, the majority of trading volume in Korea occurs on
5 exchanges [Upbit, Bithumb, CoinOne, Korbit, and Gopax] which are authorized to have bank accounts.
These banks allow the conversion of KRW fiat into crypto and make onboarding significantly easier in the space.
Korea is a wasteland for stablecoins. There`s no KRW fiat-backed stablecoin. Stablecoin pair trading at CEX is very
limited. USDT accounts for less than 1% of Upbit trading volume. Other stablecoins are unlisted except for USDC at
Gopax (the 4-5th largest CEX in terms of the trading volume. Binance recently acquired Gopax). The absence ofclear regulations hampers Web3 native and financial institution‘s ability to develop & adopt stablecoins in Korea.
Rather, BoK (Bank of Korea, Central Bank) is experimenting with CBDC that might be able to fill the gap.
Another main aspect of Korean crypto regulation is the STO (Security Token Offering). STO is one of the primarytasks driven by the new administration for financial innovation. So far, there has been no legal framework for STO,
but with the new framework suggested in Jan 2023, the business related to STO can operate to a certain extent
abiding by the law.
Points of STO can be summarized into 3 bullet points.
● STO transactions must not require specific crypto tokens;● STO transactions must occur on government-regulated exchanges;● STO is for entities that need outside capital but find it difficult to meet traditional IPO requirements.
STO discussions are ongoing, and ultimate rules are still to be determined. Even though STO never effectively
worked in other jurisdictions, Korea could be an exception to the rule given its broad crypto regulatory framework.

8Regulatory Landscape- Taiwan

Taiwan Regulations
Compared to China, Hong Kong, and Korea, which have developed clear regulation, Taiwan has had no regulation
or taxation on cryptocurrencies in the past, with regulatory authorities like the Financial Supervisory Commission(FSC) taking a conservative approach and classifying cryptocurrencies as non-currency but rather speculative
commodities. A brief timeline of Taiwan regulations is listed below.
● In June 2019, Taiwan's Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) declared that Security Token Offerings (STOs)
will be subject to securities law.
● In January 2020, Taipei Exchange published regulations for administering virtual currencies.
● In April 2021, the Anti-Money Laundering Act added regulations for virtual currency platforms.
● In June 2021, the FSC announced that cryptocurrencies are not currency but rather highly speculative
commodities.
● In November 2021, foreign investment was permitted, and regulations for security token offers (STOs) wereloosened.
● In January 2022, the FSC issued warnings to all Bitcoin ATMs in Taiwan about potential money laundering risks,
and they will be expected to rectify all potential issues within a certain period of time.
● In November 2022, overseas exchanges were deemed to be unregulated by the FSC, and it will only focus on
preventing money laundering and not retail customer protection.
● In January 2023, the FSC prioritized the development of investor protection and asset separation.
● In March 2023, the FSC called for the full-on regulation of cryptocurrencies, and Huang Tien-Mu became themain regulatory figure.
The FTX accident has raised serious concerns in Taiwan, forcing the government to take it seriously. Taiwan was
the fifth most affected area in the world after the FTX accident. According to BlockTempo's research, theanticipated loss to Taiwan ranges between 1.7 and 2.1 billion US dollars, with over 231,000 Taiwanese users
affected. The accident also led to the collapse of asset platforms Steaker and XY Finance, which had a significant
impact on the regional markets and caused the Financial Supervisory Commission and Central Bank to raise theirconcerns. This event has led to the ushering in of a new era of crypto regulations in Taiwan.
The Executive Branch declared on March 19 that the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) will be the principal
regulating agency for virtual assets, with Huang Tien-mu acting as the key regulator. The FSC was selected to
manage virtual assets after an agreement with government entities. However, the government and legal experts
feel that virtual assets, such as non-fungible tokens (NFT), cover a wide range of forms, making it hard for the FSC
to evaluate their values and unsuitable for a single agency to handle.

9

Regulatory Landscape- Taiwan

According to BlockTempo's latest research, the current division of labor among Taiwan's three major virtual asset
regulatory organizations (the Financial Supervisory Commission, the Central Bank, and the Department of Digital
Development) is as follows:● The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) is in charge of overseeing investment and payment platforms,
centralized exchanges, and asset management platforms.
● Central Bank: Managing stablecoin transactions involving fiat currency exchange.
● Department of Digital Development: In charge of crypto-related projects that aren't covered by the other two
regulators such as NFT and Web3 on-chain projects.
Taiwan's new regulatory direction clearly has a narrow scope, focused mostly on infrastructure associated withparticular CeFi companies. It mainly affects centralized exchanges and asset management platforms. Other areas
such as DeFi, Web3 infrastructure, and decentralized projects, are not well defined yet.
After the FTX incident, numerous local exchanges are asking for the government to regulate overseas exchanges,
and new future licenses could become much more scarce as well. In the current environment of competition
between overseas and domestic exchanges, BlockTempo believes that the current landscape of centralizedexchanges will experience a significant change as a result of the FTX incident under the new rules. The present
centralized service providers in Taiwan will change, since overseas exchanges will no longer provide new Taiwan
dollar deposit/withdrawal services and domestic exchanges will no longer provide derivative services.
Clearer regulations are always a good thing if they don't try to kill off the industry completely. Clearer rules
allow for innovation and investment and when competition increases, the market will eventually be left betterwith superior products.

10Market SizeandDemographics
●
●
●

China
Korea
TaiwanA PRIMER OF ASIA’SCRYPTO LANDSCAPE
11

Market Size and Demographics

To better understand the opportunity, we must understand the size of the Asia market. For this section, we
conducted two surveys, a 5,000+ sample survey spanning many cities and age groups in Mainland China and a
1,000+ sample survey of crypto owners. We have found that for the population over 15 years old, only 2.6% of
people owned cryptocurrency. Of these crypto owners we wanted to better understand what motivated themand how they invested in crypto. In the following sections of this report, we present these survey results andshow how important of a market China is and how much potential there is. This quantitative analysis is somethingthat no other report to date has covered in-depth.

District

Population

Internet
Users

Internet
Penetration

Securities
Accounts

CryptoUsers

CryptoPenetration

China

1,412,000,000

1,067,000,000

70.40%

178,560,000

30,000,000

2.12%South Korea

51,829,023

46,524,678

89.70%

14,000,000

6,900,000

13.31%

Taiwan23,632,003

21,854,720

92.40%

12,110,000

2,600,000

11.00%

US332,915,073

317,273,637

95.30%

150,000,000

40,000,000

12.02%The APAC region is expected to be a significant driver of growth in the next 3-5 years.

Spot and derivative trading volume projection by region

2021

2026E

Key assumptions: As crypto market cap increase, assume emerging markets spot volume
grew faster than more matured markets due to higher retail adoption.

Key assumptions: Crypto future trading value will rise as derivative to spot trading ratio
continue to increase due to increased institutional adoption benchmarked against
traditional equity derivative tospot ratio.

Key assumptions: Option as % of total derivative trading value will increase as market
becoming more mature benchmarking against equity future to option ratio globally.

12

Market Size and Demographics

The Korea market is one of the most retail-driven markets in the world. Nearly every stock trader in South Korea
has a crypto trading account. Upbit is the second largest spot trading platform in the world, and it is only open to
Korean traders. Upbit has no derivatives trading given that derivatives trading is banned in Korea.

The trading volume on Korean CEX is primarily on 3
exchanges which are Upbit, Bithumb, and Coinone.
Among them, Upbit is the leading industry with
82.24% market share in Korean exchange. Bithumband Coinone are following Upbit with 11.07% and6.69%, respectively.

The total number of listed tokens supported by the Top 5 Korean exchanges is around 200, fewer than the global
exchanges such as Binance (500 tokens) and Huobi Global (400 tokens). This is caused by strict regulation of
Korean financial authorities and the exchanges are constantly delisting the tokens issued by problematic projects.
Korea as a whole is very altcoin-centric[i.e. crypto excluding BTC and ETH]. Even though ICO is not allowed, thereis tremendous demand for altcoin trading such as APT and STX in recent months. Alts volume composition is highin Korea.
After the LUNA collapse, Upbit has listed APT and SHIB on its KRW market. Also Upbit listed APE, RAY, APT,
CHZ-related Fan Tokens, GAL, ASTR, and BLUR on its BTC market. Upbit is cautious to avoid regulatory scrutiny
given its history with Luna.

13

Market Size and Demographics

Top 5 traded coins on Upbit have been APT, BTC, XRP, SOL, and T among
114 coins listed on Upbit with KRW pair since the beginning of 2023. As
we stated above, the Korean crypto market is tilting to altcoin and therecent price appreciation of APT and STX can be highly contributed by
Koreans. Here is the specific Upbit volume data of TOP 10 pairs in 2023.

BTC and ETH trading volume represent 5.5% and 1.6%, respectively out of total Upbit trading volume in 2023
YTD. In other words, altcoins takes the majority (92.9%) of total trading volume in Korea.
Korean CEX has listed lots of altcoins which are only listed on a Korean CEX (aka Kimchi coin) and these coins also
get significant trading traction. In 1H22, 638 coins were listed on Korean CEX and 391 (61%) were listed on only
single Korean CEX among them.
Chainalysis "2022 Cryptocurrency Geo Report" shows that from July 2021 to June 2022, China, Korea and Taiwan
respectively received nearly $220bn, $220bn, and $90bn USD worth of cryptocurrency. The annual growth rate of
trading volume in Taiwan reached 31.5%, while Korea was only 13.2% and China saw negative growth due toregulations. Taiwan is one of the fastest growing regions in East Asia only behind Japan and Mongolia.

Taiwan's centralized exchanges have received
nearly $60 billion in value of cryptocurrencies,of which nearly half, nearly $30 billion, is in
DeFi, indicating a high acceptance of DeFi in
Taiwan compared to China and South Korea.

14

Market Size and Demographics- China

China
Asia has always been a hotbed for crypto activity and in this section, we wanted to deep dive into the users. We
conducted a macro survey of 5,000 samples in China to better assess crypto penetration and then conducted aseparate 1,000 sample survey to better understand crypto holders.
From a macro perspective of Chinese crypto-demographics survey of 5,000 sample:
One of the most interesting findings of this survey is that the penetration of crypto holders aged 15 and abovein China is only 2.6% of the total population. Compared to more developed countries and regions like the US,
Korea and Taiwan which are all around 10%, China still has significant room to grow the total amount of crypto
users.

Below are the distributions of cryptocurrency holders by city tier, education level and income. As we can see,most holders are well-educated and live in larger cities that have access to more liberal information. Income inthese areas is also on the higher end of the spectrum.

15

Market Size and Demographics- China

Zooming in the group with crypto investment experience, surveying of 1,000 sample:● 86.0% of respondents have experience in crypto derivative trading like futures and options. The portion ofpeople with over 30% of their portfolio in cryptocurrency is up to 63.6%. This shows that in China, a large
portion of crypto users are intense crypto traders and peoples’ conviction in crypto investment is quite strong.

● Aside from pure crypto trading and investing,people are very active in crypto-native
applications. DeFi, NFTs and Gaming are all
major applications being used by Chinese
crypto users.

● The top-2 popular chains among crypto users
are Ethereum (93.8%) and BNB Chain (89.5%),
while the rest of the following public chains are
Solana (64.60%), other L2s(53.8%), Cosmos
Chain (40.5%), and Tron (38.4%). This
engagement distribution shows a good
adoption trend that increasing crypto users
start to interact with newer and more diverse
chains in addition to the ‘blue chip' ones.

16

Market Size and Demographics- China

Below you can find the rest of the survey which shows some interesting data points on Chinese crypto users on
NFT platform usage, DeFi activity, digital identity, media preference and time in the industry.

Web3-native communities are also burgeoning on the ground of China, and one of the most famous ones is Dali
Hub:
● Founded in Nov 2020, Dali Hub is a community for digital nomads located in the city of Dali, Yunnan Province,
in southwestern China. The hub provides a collaborative workspace and a community of like-minded individuals
who work remotely and embrace the digital nomad lifestyle.
● Till 2022, Dali Hub has gradually become the place for holding high-quality Web3 events and established a close
partnership with well-known domestic DAOs like SeeDAO, PlanckerDAO, and other Web3 communities.
● One of the big events back in 2022 at Dali Hub is the Summer of Wamo, where inclusive events ranging frompanels (topics including tokenomics, ETH 2.0, DAO), decentralized tribes of digital nomads, and electronic musicparties were held. More than 500+ people minted POAP.

17

Market Size and Demographics- Korea

Korea
The data below is based on the survey of Korean crypto exchanges executed by the Korean Financial Services
Commission. Total eligible unique crypto users were 6.3M, which is 13% of the total Korean population, 52.1M,
in 1H22.
Detailed demographic composition is as below:

Among them, users who have more than $100K is 91K (0.4%), users who have more than $10K is 470K (7%),
users who have more than $1K is (27%), and users who have less than $1K is 5M (73%).
More detailed demographic composition by age and account balance is as below.

18

Market Size and Demographics- Taiwan

TaiwanAccording to an internal statistical report by BlockTempo, there are approximately 2.07 million cryptocurrency
exchange and platform users in Taiwan, with the majority of sources coming from centralized institutions. The
penetration rate of cryptocurrencies is slightly lower than 10%.
However, considering the rapid rise of NFTs and digital art, as well as DeFi products in Taiwan, the roughWeb3 penetration rate may reach about 11-12%.
From a demographics perspective, Taiwan has all the characteristics of a high crypto penetration country.
With a majority of the population situated in first-tier cities that account for nearly 70% of the population,
innovation hubs are more likely to arise.
High internet penetration and high education levels are also very significant drivers of high crypto penetration
given the affinity of these users to try new things.

19

Infrastructure
●
●
●

China
Korea
TaiwanA PRIMER OF ASIA’SCRYPTO LANDSCAPE

20

Infrastructure- China

China
From a crypto perspective, given regulations, there is practically no infrastructure in China for crypto. But digital
payments and CBDC has been a strong local initiative that has been put forth by the government.
Digital payment has been the major driving force behind fintech innovations in China over the last decade.
China's push into digital currency has been motivated by its global trade settlement inspirations for Chinese Yuan.
Unlike mainstream stablecoins that currently exist on the blockchains such as USDT or USDC, CBDCs are directly
issued by the central banks and counted towards the monetary base instead of pegging to another currency orcommodities. In fact, PBOC had started testing e-CNY since 2019, specifically focusing on brick-and-mortar
businesses in four major cities, and officially launched public testing in April 2021. In June 2021, the government
distributed 40 million e-CNY through a lottery in Beijing to incentivize user adoption.
After making a huge wave in the 2022 Winter Olympics, there were roughly 13.61 billion e-CNY in circulation by
the end of the year, which amounts to about 0.13% of China's M0 outstanding monetary supply. Once again,
during the holiday season of early 2023, the government distributed 180 million yuan($26.6 million) in the formof e-CNY to stimulate spending during the spring festival season. The program included subsidies, consumption
coupons, and other activities.
However, e-CNY has not gained significant mainstream adoption apart from users using it for subsidies. Digital
payment penetration historically has been high in China making any other type of digital currency less attractive
as an option. Trade settlement applications are still in development and are only accepted by very limited
partners.
Even though a lot of CeFi exchanges have Chinese roots, given their unregulated nature we don't count them ascore China infrastructure. CeFi as a product has been very mature in China given the emphasis on UI/UX by
Chinese developers. As crypto grows as a market, we expect to see continued innovation at the application layer,
especially super-app wallets like Bitkeep.

21

Infrastructure- Korea

Korea
The Korean Crypto market is very developed from a regulatory standpoint thus we see a very establishedecosystem of players providing crypto-related infrastructure services.
1. In South Korea, major commercial banks provide bank accounts to crypto trading platforms to allow deposits
and withdrawals of virtual assets. This practice makes the country one of the world's easiest places to transfer
virtual assets.
2. South Korea is introducing various licensing systems such as the information security management system(ISMS) and virtual asset service provider (VASP) to crypto enterprises. These systems led to the development ofbusiness-to-business (B2B) services such as custody and anti-money laundering (AML) solutions, which helps
crypto companies run their businesses legally.
3. Traditional banks, venture capitals, and internet service providers are actively investing in crypto services. Moreand more crypto service providers in South Korea are going global.
4. South Korea has one of the highest proportions of retail investors in the crypto industry compared to othermarkets. However, a strong focus on large platforms and initial coin offering (ICO) projects left crypto-related
services relatively unattended. Given its trading volume, the Korean market has significant potential to become
one of fastest-growing countries in the crypto service industry.
Korean Banks That Provide Accounts to Crypto Exchanges

NH Bank
It is one of the major banks whose asset size is more than 450 trillion KRW. It is providing bank accounts to crypto
exchange Bithumb. NH Bank is ranked second among state-designated banks.

KBank
Established in 2016, KBank is an online bank with an asset size of more than 13 trillion KRW. Since July 2020, it's
been providing accounts to Upbit, the country's largest crypto exchange.

KakaoBank
It is an online bank established by Kakao, one of Korea's top mobile service developers. With an asset size of morethan 50 trillion KRW, KakaoBank has been providing its accounts to crypto exchange Coinone since 2022.

Jeonbuk Bank
It is the largest bank in Jeonbuk Province, a region located about 200 km south of Seoul. With an asset size ofmore than 20 trillion KRW, Jeonbuk Bank signed a contract to provide bank accounts to Gopax, a Korean crypto
exchange that was acquired by Binance.

22

Crypto Asset Service Providers

Infrastructure- Korea

Delio
Since 2019, Delio has been providing storage, trading, and management services of digital assets such as Bitcoin,
Ethereum, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). In 2021, Delio developed STO Swap, a decentralized platform forsecurity token trading, and completed its test operation. Its accumulated staking and lending of digital assets
amounts to 2.4 trillion KRW.
KLAYSwap
KLAYSwap is a decentralized exchange that is responsible for more than half of the Klayton network's token value
locked (TVL). It uses an interchain bridge called Orbit Bridge to attract external assets into the Klayton ecosystem.
KLEVA
KLEVA is a DeFi protocol launched in January 2022 by Wemade, a famous game developer and an issuer of the
WEMIX token. Recently, KLEVA revealed Kurrency, a service that mints crypto dollars through collateralized debt
positions.
HeybitHeybit is a crypto asset management service provided by Uprise. It provides customized investment instruments
through quant algorithms. Heybit offers digital asset staking and DeFi investment intermediary services.

Crypto Asset Payments Solutions
PayCoin
Created by Korean payments solution provider Danal, PayCoin is a digital asset that facilitates payments. PayCoin
has accumulated users of 3.2 million and is accepted by around 150,000 retailers. Its token is listed on exchanges
such as Upbit, Bithumb, and Coinone. To further expand its business, PayCoin has offered discounts to users whomake transactions at well-known retail chains. Meanwhile, its recent inability to secure real-name bank accounts
from domestic banks has prompted PayCoin to shift its business model to focus on overseas transactions.

Crypto Asset Custody
KODA
KODA is a crypto asset custody service provider co-founded by KB Kookmin Bank, Haechi Labs, and Hashed. It alsooffers other services such as circulating supply monitoring.
Cardo
Cardo is a crypto asset custody service firm jointly funded by NH Bank, Hexlant, Korea Information andCommunications Corp. (KICC), Galaxia Moneytree, and Aton.
KDAC is a crypto asset custody provider co-established in March 2020 by crypto exchange Korbit, blockchain techcompany Blocko, and research firm Fair Square Lab. In January of this year, KDAC received a strategic investment
from Shinhan Bank.

23

Infrastructure- KoreaTravel Rule Solutions
CODE
CODE is a travel rule solution built by crypto exchanges Bithumb, Coinone, and Korbit. On R3's Corda blockchain
platform, the system enables member companies to comply with travel rules.
VerifyVASP (VV)VerifyVASP is a travel rule solution developed by Lambda 256, a subsidiary of Dunamu, which is the operator of
Korea's largest crypto exchange Upbit.

Investment Information Providers
XangleLaunched by CrossAngle in 2018, Xangle provides various crypto-related information, including disclosures,assessments, and blockchain analytics data. Xangle cooperates with major exchanges and crypto asset issuers topublish disclosures.
CryptoQuant
CryptoQuant is a global on-chain data and analysis provider with users of more than 1 million across some 200
countries.
CoinNess
CoinNess is an instant crypto news provider. It provides live crypto news to about 30 different platforms, includingSouth Korea's largest search engine Naver.
NFTBank
NFTBank provides prices of more than 5,000 NFT collections. The platform developed its own machinelearning-based statistical algorithms to estimate NFT prices based on bottom prices, rarity, and trade demand
request distributions.

24Infrastructure- Korea

Crypto exchanges
In order to conduct a crypto business in South Korea, operators must register as a VASP (Virtual Asset Service
Provider) with the government. As of February 28, 2023, there are 36 VASPs in South Korea, including 27 crypto
exchanges. In Korea, there are only five exchanges that allow users to trade using KRW, these trades are called theFiat Market, while the other crypto trades based in USDT, USDC or WETH are called the Coin Market. Retailtrading in KRW dominates in Korea on the five fiat-enabled exchanges with Upbit being the main leader.

In the second half of 2022, crypto exchanges totaled $409.8B in trading volume, with an average daily volume of$2.3B. In November 2022, there was a temporary rebound in trading volume due to the bankruptcy of crypto
exchange FTX, followed by a decline due to US.
Federal Reserve tightening, the war in Ukraine, and the Luna event.

According to CoinMarketCap's data on March 10, 2023, the five KRW exchanges account for 99.92% of the total
market, while Coinmarket's share is 0.08%. Among South Korean exchanges, Upbit dominates with 74.5% of the
trading volume. This is followed by Bithumb with 20.1% and Coinone with 4.8%.

25

Infrastructure- Korea

Unlike the US, the Korean crypto market is heavily driven by retail. According to Coinbase 4Q22 shareholder
letter, institutional trading volume was $663B and consumer (retail) trading volume was $167B. In other words,
institutional took 80% of total volume on Coinbase. In terms of revenue, institutional and consumer generated$119M and $2.2B, respectively. In Korea, institutions are not allowed to open accounts on centralized exchanges
at the moment. Only retail can open accounts, so all the volume on Korean exchanges is generated by retail.
Korean retail investors tend to prefer risky assets and crypto fulfills speculative investors' demand.
In terms of other infrastructure, institutional adoption in Korea is still immature. Bitcoin future ETF which isapproved in the US and HK is not approved in Korea yet. Instruments for institutions which require custody andcompliance such as CME Bitcoin Future and GBTC are also not allowed in Korea.
Below are some of the leading exchanges in the region.
Upbit
Upbit launched its beta service on October 24, 2017, and opened a marketplace for trading KRW, Bitcoin,
Ethereum, and Tether as fiat currencies. Although it started a little later than other exchanges, it has absorbed
the majority of the trading volume due to its convenient UI and service provision linked to KakaoTalk, South
Korea's representative SNS. As of March 20, 2023, it lists more than 190 cryptocurrencies and has more than 300
markets.
Bithumb
Bithumb was founded in January 2014 and opened its Bitcoin exchange in 2015, rebranded as Bithumb andbegan offering cryptocurrency exchange services. Since its opening, the exchange has developed with the goal oflisting various types of cryptocurrencies and has focused on expanding its infrastructure. For customer service
and investor protection, the company has been operating an offline customer center since 2017, and has been
making continuous efforts to secure customer information by obtaining ISMS certification. It currently offers 227
trading pairs.

26

Infrastructure- Taiwan

TaiwanTaiwan's own CBDC is now being evaluated by Taiwan's Central Bank. According to Governor Yang Chin-lung,Taiwan CBDC experiment will be completed by September 2022. Former Premier Chen Chun claimed in Marchof this year that Taiwan's CBDC was strategic. However, governor Yang Chin-lung said on March 20th that
Taiwan's CBDC would not be ready for at least three years, and that it could not be introduced until 2026.
In terms of Taiwan's cryptocurrency infrastructure, most users trade on international exchanges, such as
Binance and FTX. In contrast, the local exchange is mostly used for exchanging fiat currency. As a result, after
depositing funds in local markets, people immediately transfer funds to overseas exchanges for trading.
The main reason for this is because local exchanges cannot trade derivative financial products such asperpetual contracts due to regulations. Therefore, many users just use it as a channel for depositing andwithdrawing funds.

Cryptocurrency Exchanges

27

Talent
●
●
●

China
Korea
TaiwanA PRIMER OF ASIA’SCRYPTO LANDSCAPE
28

Talent- China

China
Like all other markets, talent in crypto is largely coming from the top universities.
A total of 6 universities in mainland China are ranked on Coindesk's Best 100 Universities For Blockchain in 2022,
of which crypto atmosphere is cementing and burgeoning, in the form of DAO, papers, patents, and education:
PKU Blockchain
PKU Blockchain is a student-led organization at Peking University, one of the top universities in China, dedicatedto promoting blockchain technology and education.
The organization was founded in 2016 and has since grown to become one of the largest and most active
blockchain communities in China. PKU Blockchain aims to bridge the gap between academia and industry, and toprovide a platform for students to learn about and participate in the development of blockchain technology.
PKU Blockchain hosts regular events, workshops, and hackathons to promote blockchain education anddevelopment. They also collaborate with industry partners and academic institutions to provide opportunities
for students to engage with real-world blockchain projects and applications.
・Tsinghua University Blockchain Association (THUBA)
Tsinghua University Blockchain Association (THUBA) is a student-led organization at Tsinghua University, one of
the top universities in China, dedicated to promoting blockchain technology and education.
THUBA DAO is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that was created by THUBA members as a way tofurther explore the potential of blockchain technology and decentralized governance. The DAO is designed to be
a community-driven platform where members can propose, discuss, and vote on initiatives related to blockchain
technology, such as research projects, hackathons, and education programs.
THUBA DAO is built on top of the Ethereum blockchain and utilizes smart contracts to govern its operations. The
DAO is governed by its members, who hold THUBA tokens that give them voting rights in the decision-making
process.
Tsinghua University Blockchain Association (THUBA) is a student-led organization at Tsinghua University, one of
the top universities in China, dedicated to promoting blockchain technology and education.
・Shanghai Jiao Tong University
In 2021, SJTU partnered with Hainan province to establish Shanghai Jiao Tong University (Hainan) Blockchain
Research Institute. Earlier this year, it worked with Wuxi, a city in eastern China, to build a new research
institute, covering research topics including blockchain architecture, blockchain system construction andcommon key technologies, and application demonstrations in key areas of blockchain. SJTU scholars havepublished 191 blockchain-related papers, more than from any other institution in mainland China.

29

KoreaTalent- Korea

In Korea, most blockchain talent enters the industry after studying blockchain in university/grad school. Others
enter the industry through boot camps. In recent years, there has also been a significant movement of high-levelbureaucrats going into the crypto sector. Coding education will be mandatory in Korea from the age of 14 in
2025, which is expected to help lay the foundation for the development of future blockchain talent. Below aresome of the leading schools and boot camps in the region.
Graduate Schools
・Computer Security Engineer, Department of Computer Science, College of Information,
Korea University
The Graduate School of General Studies at Korea University, a top-tier university in South Korea, provides basic
and advanced education to foster blockchain talent. The Department of Computer Science aims to foster
advanced manpower in the field of SW research and development of basic and applied technologies, andeducation for the 21st century. The computer security major aims to provide education and research to foster
advanced security experts to creatively solve security problems in the emerging Information and Communication
Technology (ICT) convergence industry.
・Major in Technology Finance, Graduate School of Management of Technology, Korea
University
It is a field-oriented specialized graduate school that combines management and engineering with the goal of
fostering the best technology management professionals in Korea. It trains experts in developing new businesses
and new types of technology, as well as experts in technology commercialization. Company-participatory lectures
are provided, and a specialized education system in the blockchain field is established to enable students tocomplete the blockchain strategy expert course. It aims to foster experts who will lead the development of
Korea's financial and blockchain industries and stand at the center of new growth industries.
・Sogang University Graduate School of Information and Communication Major in
Blockchain
The curriculum, which consists of a blockchain engineering track and a blockchain business track, aims to train
blockchain experts to lead Korea.
・Blockchain Engineering Track
This major track covers how blockchain works and its main technologies. Students develop the ability tocreatively utilize blockchain and learn how to model real-world environments and solve vulnerabilities inblockchain-based systems in relation to blockchain security.
・Blockchain Business Track
To create financial services based on ICT technology, students learn financial theory and technologies specialized
in the fintech field such as blockchain and digital currency.

30

Talent- Korea・Hanyang University Graduate School of Engineering, Department of Blockchain
Convergence
The Department of Blockchain Convergence at Hanyang University aims to foster talented individuals who canserve as top leaders in the field of blockchain and crypto tokens in this era of transition.
More than 20 faculty members from various majors such as the College of Engineering, College of Business
Administration, MOT, Law School, College of Natural Sciences, College of Medicine, and the Department ofIndustrial Convergence have gathered to prepare the best curriculum consisting of a technical track and abusiness track.
・The Department of Computer Science at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science andTechnology (KAIST) 'Web3 @ KAIST'KAIST announced that it will open a 'Web3 @ KAIST' class to develop web 3 applications in the spring semester of2023. It is the first course opened by KAIST, and it is conducted as an online lecture so that not only KAIST
Computer Science students but also students from other departments and external auditors can take the course.
Classes are conducted in English. The training content introduces the basics of blockchain technology andbusiness, and covers technology, planning, and overall business for developing Web3 apps.

Boot Camps
・Codestates
CodeStates is Korea's leading blockchain bootcamp, making a significant contribution to the development of
talent. It operates on a batch system and currently has nine batches of members. Each class provides 24 weeks oftraining. After graduation, they are offered 'The Code', a job application program exclusively for graduates. It
provides the fastest access to job postings from CodeStates' partners. There is also a networking support programfor graduates called 'Code Island'. Code Island is a community where graduates can collaborate on side projects
with other graduates from various fields other than blockchain, as well as various programs, lectures, andnetworking events.
・Learnfree
Founded in July 2022, Learnfree is a platform that shares IT/SW education information such as free coding
bootcamps and conferences fully supported by the government and companies. It handles only IT training
information supported by 11 government ministries and local governments, and uses the K-Digital Training publicdata API of the Korea Employment Information Agency of the Ministry of Employment and Labor to provide
information. All registered trainings are free, and only free trainings can be registered. The training program isdesigned to help you learn the Solidity language for developing smart contracts and dapps in the Ethereum
ecosystem and the SDK for developing bapps in the Klaytn ecosystem. In addition, Hashed, a venture capital firm
specializing in blockchain, will provide seminars and special lectures on the latest trends in blockchain
technology.

31

TaiwanTalent- Taiwan

Taiwan has an abundance of technical talents, mainly focused on semiconductor and software development tosupport its massive semiconductor and hardware-software integration industry. In terms of non-technical talents,
Taiwan has significant experience in marketing and sales. However, due to a lack of significant funds anddominant international brands, local niche brands have struggled to break cultural barriers (unique cultures inthe surrounding major markets such as China, Korea, and Japan) in Web2. As a result, there have been rare
successes in bringing products or services into the international market.
Currently, there is a lack of specialized education in blockchain in most Taiwanese schools, with only a few
universities offering relevant programs, courses, and student groups focused on blockchain. However, academic
communication is increasing, and efforts to organize activities in higher education continue. Here are a few
examples:● National Taiwan University develops Taiwan's public blockchain - OurChain.
● Blockchain Law and Policy Research Center established by National Tsing Hua University.
● "Technology Management and Blockchain Research Center" set up by National Yang Ming Chiao Tung
University.
● Success University establishes the "Blockchain Distributed Ledger Laboratory" (IOTA).
● National Development Council (NDC) leads the establishment of the Blockchain Alliance.

The blockchain talent pool in Taiwan mainly comes from the top universities in Taiwan. In addition to blockchain
courses offered by universities, many well-known universities have research teams of scholars studying different
blockchain technology and applications:
For example, National Taiwan University (NTU) is developing Taiwan's public blockchain - OurChain, aiming tosolve efficiency, security, and decentralization issues.
National Chengchi University (NCCU) is a research powerhouse for Ethereum in Taiwan. Previously, Dr. Chen
Chang-woo, the first official researcher of the Ethereum Foundation in Taiwan, served as a part-time professor,
teaching blockchain technology. Vitalik Buterin has been invited to speak at NCCU several times. The NCCU
Business School has set up a Financial Technology Experimental Center that has established related laboratories
for blockchain innovation, blockchain applications, and smart contract applications to engage in innovative
research, industry-academia cooperation, and to cultivate interdisciplinary financial technology talent.
National Tsing Hua University founded Asia's first professional blockchain law and policy research center, andNational Chiao Tung University established the "Technology Management and Blockchain Research Center."National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) has opened a Blockchain Distributed Ledger Laboratory that uses the
distributed ledger technology - IOTA, and has developed its own identity verification system - TangleID, to record
students' learning history.

32

Investors
●

China
○
○
○

●

Hashkey Capital
Dragonfly
Foresight Ventures

Korea
○
○
○

Alphanonce
Hashed100&100 Venture Capital

A PRIMER OF ASIA’SCRYPTO LANDSCAPE
33

Investors- China

Investment is the accelerator for Web3 builders and a significant indicator of the prospective direction of
Web3's future. In this article, we introduce the investing landscape of the current Web3 industry, drawing fromthe portfolios of leading crypto venture capital firms.

China
Hashkey Capital

Hashkey Capital is among the earliest institutional players in the blockchain space since 2015, particularly in
the Ethereum ecosystem.
Over the past years, Hashkey has executed a significant number of deals, with their most successful bets
stemming from Layer 1s during the ICO boom of 2017.
In addition to investing in related projects like Cosmos, Polkadot, and CoinList, Hashkey is also active in othersectors of the industry, such as CeFi and general Web3 infrastructure. As one of the earliest investors in
Ethereum, Hashkey has played a vital role in promoting crypto in Asia.

34

Dragonfly

Investors- ChinaFounded in 2018 by Bo Feng and Haseeb Qureshi, Dragonfly has since grown into a global crypto investment firmwith a strong Asian background.
The firm currently operates through three divisions: Dragonfly Ventures (VC), Dragonfly Liquid (LP), and therecently acquired Metastable (Hedge Fund), one of the longest-running crypto hedge funds in the space, foundedby Naval Ravikant in 2014.
Dragonfly gained recognition through early investments in projects such as MakerDAO, dYdX, and ConsenSys, andhas since expanded its portfolio to various sectors within Web3, including DeFi, CeFi, infrastructure, NFTs, andL1/L2s.

Foresight Ventures

Foresight Ventures is a rising star in the investment industry.
Founded in 2021, it has quickly gained attention due to its unique approach to research and fresh perspectives. Its
comprehensive ecosystem, which includes Bitget, Bitkeep, Foresight News, and Foresight X, has helped establish it
as one of the leading funds in the region.
Foresight Venture's all-encompassing thesis covers both infrastructure and applications at all stages of innovation,
allowing Foresight to invest in early trends like data infrastructure and social applications, as well as late-stage
projects like WalletConnect and Matrixport.
With strong roots and resources in the Asian market, Foresight excels at bridging the gap between Asian andWestern projects, assisting them in understanding, participating in, and engaging with local communities.

35

KoreaInvestors- Korea

Alphanonce
Founded in 2018, Alphanonce is a crypto-native trading and investment firm. Alphanonce provides full-stacksolutions, including acceleration, investment, liquidity provision, and trading, to a diverse range of clients andcounterparties. Alphanonce believes crypto innovates the process of value creation and value transfer.
HashedFocusing on the primary market and accelerating early-stage projects, Hashed is a team of blockchain experts
and builders based in Seoul and Silicon Valley. Hashed believes that decentralization holds the power totransform not only the global economy but also the very fabric of the internet. As one of the largest players incrypto in Korea, Hashed boasts an extensive portfolio that includes some of the biggest projects in the space.
100&100 Venture Capital
100&100 Venture Capital is an investment firm dedicated exclusively to venture projects involving blockchain
technology, cryptocurrency, and related assets.
The firm manages its own $38 million Web3 game investment fund. Since 2017, it has been investing inpromising blockchain projects. Notable investments include PlayDapp, Tokamak Network, IOST, ICON, Wemix,
Content Protocol, BitTorrent, and CosmoChain.

36

Developers
andOperators●●●

Core Developers in China
Core Developers in Korea
Core Developers in Taiwan

A PRIMER OF ASIA’SCRYPTO LANDSCAPE
37

Developers and Operators- ChinaCore Developers in China
China has a large developer base. According to the Chinese Developer Status Survey, by the end of 2021, there
were over 73 million developers in China, ranking second only to the U.S. The number of developers in China is
growing rapidly, with a growth rate of over 40% in 2020 and 30% in 2021. According to statistics from CSDN,
developers under the age of 30 account for 78% of all Chinese programmers, while 19% are aged between 30
and 40 years old. Developers above 40 years old make up only 3% of all programmers.
From the programming language perspective, Java remains the most widespread language in China. In 2022,
Java developers accounted for 50% of all Chinese programmers. However, the number of Java developers has
been decreasing in recent years. Python is the most popular language in China, with the number of Python
programmers ranking in the top 3. As for IDE, VS Code is the most popular choice.
In general, developers' annual income has increased year by year. In 2022, 76% of programmers earned morethan $1,200 per month, while 20.5% of developers' monthly salaries ranged between $2,500 and $4,500.
Developers working for internet giants receive even higher salaries. The average monthly pay in Alibaba and
ByteDance is over $4,800, and the average salary in Tencent, Kuaishou, Meituan, and Baidu is above $4,400.
According to the CSDN report, 57.23% of programmers began writing their first line of code during high schoolor college, marking the start of their careers. Additionally, more developers are targeting management roles. In
2022, over 51.9% of developers indicated that they want to become managers, and in fact, 20% of developers
aged above 40 work as technical managers.
From a technical perspective, 75% of programmers say they are interested in new technology concepts and arewilling to actively learn during their careers. Attending online courses is one of the most popular ways forcoders to learn new knowledge, with 57% of developers choosing to learn new languages or technologies
online, and 48% of programmers willing to spend 1 to 5 hours per week studying independently for new
infrastructures or tools.
One reason that prevents Web2 developers from entering the Web3 industry is that blockchain is not
well-regarded in China, and most programmers lack a basic understanding of crypto. Developers lack asystematic approach to the Web3 industry. At the same time, many Web2 programmers worry that working in
the Web3 industry is unstable or illegal in China. Open-source software is widely used among Chinese
developers, with more than 90% of developers using it, yet less than 30% of programmers contribute.
Companies tend to protect their achievements and ensure code security by not publishing their code, whichruns counter to the idea of blockchain. A core initiative moving forward is to improve education for crypto
knowledge in the developer ecosystem. Only with a better understanding of the space can we encourage moredevelopers to enter the industry.

38

Developers and Operators- China

Despite these challenges, the Web3 industry continues to grow organically, with many operators making
long-term commitments to the space.

Among these crypto workers, 82.9% consider working in the crypto industry long-term. Such a strong
commitment from builders showcases the conviction of people who have jumped into this space.
This is a trend we are seeing across Asia, as the younger generation strongly resonates with the ideals thatcrypto stands for: decentralization, freedom, and hope.

39Developers and Operators- KoreaCore Developers in Korea
In the current Korean market, several development teams are actively engaged in the implementation of
next-generation blockchain technology. These efforts can be broadly categorized into mainnet development,
technology advancement, and wallet development.
Mainnet● XPLA Chain is a Layer 1 blockchain that focuses on digital entertainment content, developed by a teamwith over 20 years of experience in gaming and entertainment. XPLA currently offers a variety of DApps
and protocols that make Web2-based content easy to access in Web3, including 'XPLA GAMES', a
blockchain gaming platform that comes with an SDK to help connect Web2 games to Web3. XPLA Chain
utilizes the Tendermint blockchain engine based on Byzantine fault-tolerant consensus, which provides
robustness against double-spend attacks and is tolerant against up to one-third of nodes failing. XPLA
Chain is built with Golang and Rust, and it will also be compatible with smart contracts coded in Solidity
due to EVM compatibility. The XPLA Chain and the foundation team behind it are fully committed totransparency and fairness.
● Superblock is developing a new blockchain called Over, which provides lightweight nodes, enablinganyone to run their own node. With Over, people no longer have to rely on other full node services. The
founders created blockchain clubs in South Korea, including Decipher. Developers worked in various fields
such as AI, web, and commerce, but were attracted to blockchain to create a new world. Superblock isinterested in building the most decentralized blockchain with high security and stability. Furthermore, by
having nodes host applications, they aim to decentralize web servers and create a new web, known as
Web3.
● Ground X is a blockchain subsidiary of Kakao, Korea's largest mobile platform, and is a blockchain
developer that develops Klaytn, a scalable blockchain platform with practical blockchain services. Various
DApps can be operated on the Klaytn platform. Ground X was created by deriving the alphabet X from thewords ``ground," experimental, and experience. Ground X believes in the possibility of blockchain and thedecentralized future, and aims to research and develop blockchain technology and apply it to the realworld to industrialize it.
● Sigma Chain has a development team of blockchain experts, led by CEO Kwak Do-young, who developed
Cyworld as a software engineer at Max Automation, and Hwang Jung-kyu, a 20-year development directorof blockchain engine development. The Sigma Chain uses graphene toolkit technology, the mainnet codeis C++ using boost library, and the web api communicating with the mainnet is nodejs express withexcellent scalability. In addition to the language used for development, Sigma Chain's blockchain
technology provides 150 APIs already developed by applying DAPI, enabling developers to connect directly
to decentralized networks with development languages they are familiar with.

40

Developers and Operators- Korea

Tech Development● Lambda256 is a blockchain technology development and service provider of Dunamu, the operator of UPbit,
Korea's largest virtual asset exchange. It is concentrating on commercializing blockchain technology through its
own blockchain infrastructure and web3 development platform 'Luniverse'. It provides development solutions
to companies that want to provide services such as NFT, WEB, and STO.
● Onther is an Ethereum blockchain focused research and development tech company, providing a decentralized,
scalable, and UX/DX improved Plasma sidechain. It could be a next-generation BaaS which is a Plasma-basedsidechain platform for the mass adoption of decentralized applications and cryptocurrency.
● Blocko is a blockchain managed service company that launched Aergo Mainnet in 2018 to develop blockchain
solutions that help the public to use blockchain in various ways from enterprises to the general public. Blocko
was founded in 2014 by database experts who were looking for technology beyond the limits of existing
databases, fascinated by blockchain. Blocko is a blockchain MSP company that focuses on the use of blockchain
technology and is launching and testing various functions and services one after another.
● Ozys proposes standardized specifications for fragmented blockchain systems through cross-chain technology
while establishing a transparent and decentralized trust-based autonomous financial system.
● DSRV builds multi-purpose blockchain infrastructure with a user-friendly interface to enable anyone toparticipate in the crypto economy and successfully onboard their ideas into the blockchain. DSRV's main
products are ‘All That Node' and ‘Data Analytics.' All That Node is an all-in-one multi-chain development
platform that supports over 20 protocols from a single platform, providing users with a one-stop solution. Data
Analytics is the tool to access on-chain data which extracts and analyzes the entire history of a blockchain.
Wallet● D'Cent is a cryptocurrency wallet developed by IOTrust. Its services are divided into a fingerprint-recognition
cold wallet and a card wallet. Development company IOTrust's Wallet Key hardware safe storage technology
and its underlying operating system (OS) development technology used for it are their core competitiveness.
● Haechi Labs, a South Korean blockchain security and wallet company, has raised approximately $100 million ina Series A funding round at a $2 billion valuation, with participation from investors such as Anaplan,
SpringCamp, and Wemade. Haechi Labs offers security audit, wallet, custodial, and brokerage services, andrecently launched a B2C wallet for general users called "Face Wallet."41Developers and Operators- TaiwanCore Developers in Taiwan
Taipei Ethereum Meetup(TEM) is Taiwan's largest developer community, boasting over 6,000 members. They
hold weekly study groups, hundreds of meetups, seminars, and conference events, with attendance ranging
from 50 to over 100 people per event. All gatherings are broadcasted live. This is a group dedicated to
discussing the theory, practical application, and implementation of Ethereum technology.
In addition to the Ethereum community, there are also public chain developers in Taiwan such as TON (TheOpen Network), Solana, ThunderCore, and IOTA.
In terms of DeFi ecology, there is Perpetual Protocol; for wallets, there are imToken, Blocto, and others; NFT
platform developers include Oursong, Lootex, and some entrepreneurial communities such as Bu Zhi DAO
and government-participated organizations like g0v:
TonX StudioTonX Studio is a technology research and development company for Layer 1 "The Open Network (TON)"
based in Taiwan. Founded by early contributors to The Open Network, the company is dedicated to building
significant infrastructure for the TON blockchain, including network, validation, storage, DNS, and lightning
network systems.
Perpetual Protocol
The world's largest DeFi derivative protocol, V2 version, has been released on Optimism, featuring thefirst-ever automated market maker (AMM) smart contract tailored for perpetual contracts.
LootexOne of the largest NFT auction markets in Taiwan, expanding the GameFi ecosystem with over 80,000 active
users per month.
Oursong
American music icon John Legend is one of the co-founders who completed a $7.5 million seed round of
financing in the first half of last year, with lead investments from Infinity Ventures and Animoca Brands.
Bu Zhi DAO
Bu Zhi DAO (BZD), a group of Taiwanese and overseas Chinese entrepreneurs in the Web3 space, includes
top industry professionals from Coinbase, Avalanche, Solana, Opensea, and others. Centered in Taiwan andnot concerned with politics, we are passionate about promoting the Web3 ecosystem and culture in Taiwan.
g0v(gov-zero)"Gov 0" (g0v) is centered on "information transparency, open outcomes, and open collaboration," aiming to
use grassroots power to care for and participate in public affairs, and is committed to developing information
platforms and Web3 tools for civil participation in society. It is one of the world's largest citizen technology
communities.

42

Developers and Operators- ChinaCore Sectors and Projects
In this section, we hope to present the core narratives and projects in each region. Mainly to highlight what
has been driving growth and speculate what the future could look like.
China Operators
In terms of startup communities in China, we can broadly split them into 2 categories.
Infrastructure developers who are passionate about the underlying tech and are interested to solve underlying
scalability issues and improve performance. They closely follow the latest developments in the crypto space,starting from Ethereum, Polkadot, Cosmos, and so on. Within this group, developers tend to belong todifferent tribes depending on their preferences, such as those who prefer Rust going into Polkadot, and others
who stick with Ethereum. They keep a close eye on the latest advancements in technology and continuously
explore ways to improve TPS, cross-chain capabilities, storage, and other related areas.
As a result, many developers started building new layer ones trying to tackle scalability and performance issue
with their own solutions or architecture. Some notable examples of successful blockchain projects that weredeveloped by Chinese developers and have gained market traction include Ontology, a DID focused publicblockchain project that conducted a $40 million airdrop to its community members in 2018, VeChain, ablockchain platform for supply chain management with partnerships with several major companies in China,
TRON, a blockchain platform for decentralized applications and smart contracts that raised over $70 million in
its ICO in 2017, QTUM, a hybrid blockchain platform that combines elements of Bitcoin and Ethereum andraised over $15 million in its ICO in 2017, and Bytom, a blockchain platform for asset digitization andmanagement that raised over $20 million in its ICO in 2017.
Application developers is another group trying to build the decentralized versions of existing consumers apps
or experiment with new types of possible applications. This group has a lot of experience in developinguser-facing technology, optimizing user experience, and presenting products in appealing ways. This isparticularly evident in the success of consumer applications such as Tencent, Alipay, Baidu, and Meituan.
These developers have transferable skills that make it easier for them to develop applications in the blockchain
space, as they do not need to have a deep understanding of the underlying technology of blockchain design,peer-to-peer systems, etc. In particular, Ethereum's smart contract feature and expansive tools and libraries
has freed developers from needing to understand the technical details of the Ethereum blockchain and allows
them to focus on creating gambling, casual games, and other consumer-focused applications on theblockchain.
Given the progress of underlying blockchain development and consolidation across different chains, manylayers ones have gradually died down and blockchains like Ethereum grow to dominant positions with
developers joining the ecosystem rather than competing against existing developer communities. Therefore,
more developers choose to spend time creating applications for consumers because it's seen as easier toonboard users than to tackle fundamental problems in blockchains.

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Developers and Operators- China

There can be many types of use cases for consumers and here we will highlight the most popular sectors
chosen by developers:
Infrastructure
During the ICO phase in 2017, infrastructure like trading platforms and wallets were much needed by themarket. Entrepreneurs and developers alike saw this huge demand and started creating infrastructure like CEX
and wallet to support and facilitate both trading and on-chain activities.
Tours in China from founders like Vitalik and Gavin Wood has sparked much interest from developers to look
into blockchain and the underlying infrastructure. Numerous talented developers have been captivated by thechallenges of improving blockchain's scalability, performance, and security. With a large number of developers
coming from esteemed universities such as Tsinghua University, Beijing University, and Zhejiang University, as
well as technology companies like Tencent, Baidu, and Alipay, the community has grown significantly. Thesedevelopers and early traders closely follow the advancements in blockchain technology, including plasma, zk,
and rollups, in their journey of learning and developing new solutions. Through this process, they have founda way to leverage their talents and technology to create innovative blockchain projects

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Developers and Operators- China

DeFi

Gaming

The reason why DeFi is a popular area is mainly due
to its easy-to-implement product/market fit and thelarge market demand. Additionally, China has a large
number of smart contract developers and companies
with strong technical capabilities, which makes it easy
to develop low-threshold DeFi projects.

China has a large number of casual and large gamedevelopers who can quickly understand the core ofplay-to-earn and NFTs as a new revenue model. Thesedevelopers quickly enter the market to develop newgames and assets, utilizing NFTs as a profitablemonetization channel.

Furthermore, DeFi is a model that is easy to findproduct/market fit, making it easier to achieve
profitability. The main DeFi products include
decentralized exchanges, lending, and yieldaggregators. For example:

As Stepn has demonstrated with its paradigm-shifting
move-to-earn business model, many builders withexperience in gaming or application development haveseen the potential of on-chain gaming and have quickly
pivoted to blockchain gaming with their transferable
skills in game design and user acquisition experience intheir previous projects. However, there is still a certain
gap between these companies and as a result, there are
tooling project being developed by those who saw thedemand in the market to help traditional developers
create on-chain games.

NFT
NFTs were a phenomenon that gained popularity,especially among young university students andyounger generations. They were fascinated by thememe-like culture and community building aspects,
which made them feel connected through NFTs andhelped them find their community. Additionally, there
were many opportunities for seemingly
unsophisticated trading, leading to many stories and
PFP NFTs spreading like crazy during the NFT summer.
Given the huge market, many tools and projects werecreated to help illuminate and facilitate the discovery,
analysis, and trading aspects of NFTs. Moreover, many
didn't stop there and went on to explore theunderlying technology, pushing frontiers in NFTFi andexploring potential new use cases, business models,and asset types possible in NFTs.

SocialFrom a Web2 development standpoint, Chinese
technology companies such as Tencent, Tiktok, andAlipay have demonstrated their ability to capture user
attention through social activities and monetize thetraffic and attention they have generated on theirplatforms. Many engineers who have worked with thesecompanies or have experience building social platforms
understand the immense opportunities within this field.
Additionally, Chinese companies and their engineers
have adapted more effectively to the mobile version of
the internet in modern society and have accumulated
experience in attracting and retaining users on mobile
platforms.

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Developers and Operators- China

Emerging highly impactful projects indicate the fastly-growing pace of the whole Web3 industry.
Here, we introduced typical core projects in different key sectors:

Conflux
Conflux is a public, high-capacity layer one blockchain developed by the Shanghai Tree-Graph Blockchain ResearchInstitute, which was founded under the support of the Shanghai municipal government in 2018. The team comprises
top scholars and researchers from the mainland including chief scientist Andrew Chi-Chih Yao, the only Chinese
Turing Award winner to date for his study on randomized algorithms.
The Conflux Network leverages its Tree-Graph consensus to allow the parallel processing of multiple blocks andmaintain a TPS of 3000-6000 without compromising ownership, openness, or security.
● Competitive Advantage - Conflux is so far seen as the only regulatory-compliant L1 that has come out of China,
and it has certainly taken on a different business strategy compared to public blockchain ecosystems of the Westalongside the government's rising interest and loosening regulatory landscape.
● Instead of self-subsidizing developments on the mobile front, Conflux was able to capture the first-moveradvantage in its own territory.
● Recently partnered with China Telecom (BSIM) to tap further into the mobile population of China (390 million
subscribers EOY 2022)
Alchemy Pay
Founded in 2018, Alchemy Pay is an off-and-on ramp service provider that is gradually moving into NFTs and thegeneral mobile payment sector. Alchemy Pay currently supports crypto purchases in more than 170 countries andrecently added support for Google pay on-ramp.
The platform's native token, ACH, is used for transaction fees, rewards for network use, lowering transaction costs,
and staked by business partners during the onboarding process based on projected volume. ACH currently has acirculating market cap of over $177 million and a fully diluted market cap around $350 million.
Animoca Brands
Founded by Yat Siu in 2014 and headquartered in Hong Kong, Animoca Brands has been deemed as a pioneer ofdigital ownership in the metaverse narrative. The company currently has over 390 holdings that specialize indeveloping and publishing a wide range of products relating to both blockchain and traditional games, as well as
infrastructures for digital ownership development.
Besides some of the well-known holdings of Animoca Brands, including Axie Infinity, OpenSea, and Dapper Labs (NBATopshot and Flow), the company is perhaps best known for Sandbox, the decentralized metaverse that has attracted
over 200,000 monthly active users at its peak. Sandbox allows users to invest in virtual lands and items that can beturned into game scenarios through its VoxEdit tool and game maker.
CertikFounded by Prof. Ronghui Gu and Prof. Zhong Shao, two graduates of Tsinghua and the University of Science andTechnology of China, Certik has been the leading firm in blockchain security and smart contract audits.
As of the time of writing, Certik has supported over 3600 clients in discovering more than 60,000 vulnerabilities intheir smart contracts, which totaled a cumulative market cap of $364 Billion. In addition, Certik provides real-timemonitoring for on-chain activities using AI and formal verification methods, and security consultation with Web3
projects.
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KoreaDevelopers and Operators- Korea

Korean crypto projects are primarily driven by 2 Big Tech and large Web2 game corporations. In Korea, large
corporations have aggressively entered into Web3 space via utility tokens (fungible tokens) and NFT. Almost every
Web2 based company in Korea has been exploring the Web3 market.
KlaytnKakao, the largest messenger company in Korea, launched Klaytn, a blockchain project, in 2019. The Klaytn
Foundation, which split from the founding team to create a more decentralized and transparent governancestructure, has decided to burn a significant portion of $KLAY, the native cryptocurrency of the platform, tto
increase its scarcity and value. This move may help to reinvigorate interest in Klaytn.
LINE
Line, a subsidiary of Naver, has launched a project targeting L1 to become the center of the digital value chain. Its
recent announcement of a zero-reserve policy and the launch of its own mainnet Fishcha indicate a strong
commitment to fostering mass adoption of its platform. Overall, Line's efforts to position itself as a central hub inthe digital economy and its proactive approach to building out its platform suggest that it is taking steps toestablish a strong foothold in the market.
OthersAlongside the two L1s, the Web2 gaming sector is also a major player in the Korean Web3 ecosystem. WEMIX(Wemade), MBX (Netmarble), BORA (Kakao Games), and XPLA (Com2us) are trying to enter the Web3 gamemarket based on solid track records in the Web2 game market. Web2 companies are extremely adept atmonetization and adding a token to the mix could create interesting models of monetization driving future
growth.
Web2 Internet Platform● Klaytn of Kakao, L1● LINK of LINE, L1

Finance● Neopin of Neowiz (DeFi)

Game● Wemix of Wemade, L1 / L2
(initially gaming platform on Klaytn but pivoted to L1/ L2)● Marblex of Netmarble, Gaming platform

Kakao
Naver

SymbolKLAY
LN

WemadeNetmarble
Com2usNeowizNexon

Symbol
WEMIX
MBX
XPLA
NPT
NA

Shinsegae
Lotte

NFT
PuuvillaSociety
BellyGom

Big TechMC$746,581,720$264,107,529
GameMC$400,529,932$70,963,768$110,774,597$31,200,276
NA
Retailers
Floor
$84
$155

Retail● PuuvillaSociety of Shinsegae, NFT community● BellyGom of Lotte, NFT community● Xpla of Com2us, L1● Nexon, Gaming platform

FDV$746,581,720$264,107,529

Equity Market Cap$20,299,511,521$23,186,175,115

FDV$1,572,698,516$1,652,698,649$1,515,725,855$1,150,867,284
NA

Equity Market Cap$1,300,460,829$3,690,322,581$679,870,968$715,861,751$20,019,944,700

SupplyEquity Market Cap$2,016,801,843$1,777,235,023

10,00010,00047

Developers and Operators- Taiwan

TaiwanLayer 1 Chain Community

Bitcoin core developers, AwesomeDoge (Chinese Bitcoin Community), Ethereum Native Community,
Taipei Ethereum Meetup, IOTA Chinese Community, TonX Studio, TonStake, TonRun, TonDaddy,
Ton.How, TonFura, Solana, SolMeet, Dappio, ThunderCore.

48

FutureDevelopment
andChallenges

A PRIMER OF ASIA’SCRYPTO LANDSCAPE
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Future Development and Challenges

The future of crypto in Asia is a bright one. Regulations in Hong Kong are becoming much clearer to accept
crypto as a regulated asset and users are upbeat about the future of crypto. Moving forward we continue tobe bullish on the strength of developers in this region and the innovative projects that they will come up with,especially as we move into the application layer. Our survey results also align with this as most of the crypto
users are more looking forward to applications than infra.

Asia developers are getting better educated and moving into the space en mass, it will only be a matter oftime before we see a lot of Chinese developers move into the space and contribute to the growth of thebroader ecosystem.
US is in a bad place right now from a regulatory perspective, while Asia is marginally opening up theregulations on the crypto market. South Korea and Taiwan have an established framework and Hong Kongis in the process of setting one up. Mainland China is a bit further away but Hong Kong at least gives us
hope for the future.

Asia users are some of the most hard-working players in the game, they will be the ones testing, advocating
and using new innovative protocols. We strongly believe that Asia will be a driving force for crypto in the
future.

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Long Crypto,Long Asia.

A PRIMER OF ASIA’SCRYPTO LANDSCAPE
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