Top News from Friday to Today

China has reportedly ordered all foreign PC hardware and operating systems to be replaced in the next three years, intensifying an ongoing tech war. The goal is reportedly to replace 30% of the computers and software by the end of 2020, an additional 50% in 2021 and the remaining 20% in 2022. https://on.ft.com/357URw2

Huobi US Is Abruptly Halting Exchange Operations After Multiple Leadership Changes. http://bit.ly/351rmfv

BREAKING: Justin Sun and TRON to Acquire Steemit. http://bit.ly/36iTkDB

3 Reasons Why You Should Hold BACK from Investing in Binance and BnB: A Examination of What Investors Ought to Known. http://bit.ly/38pkwlW

China’s central bank-backed digital currency will be piloted in the country’s tech hub Shenzhen and Shanghai’s neighboring city Suzhou,  partnering with state-backed commercial banks and telecom giants. The DCEP pilot this time will go out of the PBOC system and enter into real service scenarios in fields such as transportation, education and medical treatment, etc. It will reach the C-terminal users and generate frequently used applications via the joined banks that could choose scenarios based on their own advantages. http://bit.ly/2RyhJAW

Investments

Hong Kong-based asset management firm IDEG Investment has launched two new bitcoin trust products with total size of $200 million. http://bit.ly/2RJXFeW

Hashed Playbook Quarterly. http://bit.ly/2RFKv2z

China’s Hainan’s dedicated economic pilot zone has pledged to boost the role blockchain tech plays in the local economy. The new measures announced this week include a fund worth 1 billion yuan ($142 million). http://bit.ly/2RD4Khv

  Exchange News

Interview with Tokenlon– ImToken’s Mobile Relayer; Exciting 2020 Year Ahead. http://bit.ly/2LFyypV

Binance’s fiat gateway partner Simplex adds support for two new currencies – JPY and CAD. http://bit.ly/38n60Lw

OKEx is launching bitcoin options trading later this month. http://bit.ly/2LTbSCX

A research analyzing the headlines of 2,500 media outlets to see which exchanges are forming the cryptographic industry news agenda and in which countries the specialized media market is the most well-developed. Binance, Coinbase, Bitfinex, Huobi, and Bittrex accounting for 70% of all mentionings. http://bit.ly/2Rz9MeY

On 27 December 2019 12:00:05 UTC, BitMEX will update its index weights. Additionally, Bitmex listed Q1 2020 Quarterly Futures Listings. http://bit.ly/36kuUKa

Coins

At annual customer appreciation meeting, Jihan Wu, co-founder of Bitmain tries to teach crypto miners to hedge risks and turn other mining farms into Bitmain’s franchisees. Co-founder Micree seems to be out of the game. http://bit.ly/36hRHpL

Bitcoin mining farms in China have been phasing out their machines with the latest high-powered ones, mostly from Whatsminer instead of Bitmain, according to local miners: “70% of rigs in mining farms are new and high-powered, among which Whatsminer accounts for nearly 50%, Antminer takes up about 16.7%, and the remaining 33.3% is split by Innosilicon, Avalon and Ebit miners.” . http://bit.ly/2LBP0aG

Monero loses ‘quarter of miners’ as network sees successful shift to RandomX. http://bit.ly/2LEhpgx

Binance-listed Matic claims a misleading tweet drove its token to tank by ~70% – but that’s not the case.

🧳 Business
 

In a big event last week, the island of Hainan in China opened its doors to foreign investment and crypto exchanges. But is its offshore “digital-asset exchange lab” a safe harbor, or a curious experiment? http://bit.ly/2LBMLUI

November sales for Taiwan’s HTC down 16% month-on-month. The company has launched Blockchain smartphones, but those efforts are not yet showing satisfactory results, analysts said. http://bit.ly/36gOc2W

China’s Central Bank Uses Blockchain to Issue $2.8B Worth of Financial Bonds. http://bit.ly/2qDhrxR

Block Kong Breakfast: Yat Siu, Animoca. http://bit.ly/2rwENW7

New developments seem to support the view that China’s vision to globalize its currency in a digital form is taking shape while an ecosystem builds around the Chinese agenda to make blockchain its present and its future, according to a report. http://bit.ly/2RDpPbE

More than 80 banks in Japan have shown interest in joining JPMorgan’s blockchain payments platform, the Interbank Information Network (IIN). https://bloom.bg/2PJFXGb

Japan’s 2nd-Largest Utility Trials Blockchain for Renewable Energy Credits. http://bit.ly/3579P5I

⚖️ Regulations

South Korea plans to tax crypto gains. http://bit.ly/2RwJWs5