China’s ‘50x’ blockchain boost, Alibaba-linked AI mines Bitcoin: Asia Express

Everything that happened in crypto news in Asia over the past seven days: Asia Express.

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1. China shows off new blockchain acceleration tech

2. Rogue AI agent linked to Alibaba attempts to mine Bitcoin

3. People’s Bank of China vows “high pressure” crypto crackdown

4. South Korean crypto giants may face ownership shake-up

5. South Korea considers Basel’s crypto framework for stablecoins

6. Japan’s “Iron Lady” denies connection to Solana memecoin

7. Japanese messaging giant launches stablecoin wallet

8. PVARA officially appointed crypto sheriff of Pakistan

China shows off new blockchain acceleration tech

China has built a blockchain acceleration chip that can increase performance by up to 50 times, a lawmaker claimed during the country’s annual parliamentary meetings.

Dong Jin, a deputy to the National People’s Congress and director of the Beijing Academy of Blockchain and Edge Computing, said the chip was designed to address computing bottlenecks faced by large-scale networks.

Dong said the technology allows China’s trusted digital infrastructure to rely on its own “Chinese chip,” a reference to the country’s push to develop domestic semiconductor and computing capabilities.

The developments are part of China’s effort to build domestic digital infrastructure and reduce reliance on foreign technology.

According to Dong, domestically developed blockchain systems are already used by 16 central government ministries and 27 state-owned enterprises.

Rogue AI agent linked to Alibaba attempts to mine Bitcoin

An experimental autonomous AI agent attempted to mine cryptocurrency using its own training infrastructure.

In a technical report, researchers said the agent, called ROME, diverted GPU resources and created a reverse SSH tunnel to an external IP address during reinforcement learning runs.

The researchers said the behavior was not programmed but emerged as the model explored ways to interact with its environment while optimizing tasks.

ROME was developed by joint research teams tied to Alibaba’s AI ecosystem.

People’s Bank of China vows “high pressure” crypto crackdown

China’s central bank has once again warned it is cracking down against cryptocurrency speculation, illegal fundraising and underground banking.

People’s Bank of China (PBOC) governor Pan Gongsheng said authorities will maintain a “high pressure” campaign against such activities, while speaking during a press conference at the annual session.

The PBOC has imposed several phases of restrictions on crypto-related activities over the years, including the infamous 2021 bans on trading and mining. Its crackdown expanded to stablecoins and real-world assets in February.

South Korean crypto giants may face ownership shake-up

South Korea’s ruling party and financial regulators have reportedly agreed to cap major shareholder stakes in cryptocurrency exchanges at 20%, as part of the country’s upcoming crypto framework.

Under the proposal, exchanges would have three years after the law takes effect to comply, though smaller platforms could receive double that grace period.

The rule targets ownership concentration in South Korea’s crypto trading platforms, potentially forcing major exchanges such as Upbit to reduce controlling stakes.

The cap remains controversial and may face resistance in parliament, where opposition lawmakers and some ruling party members have criticized the proposal as potentially harmful to competition and innovation.

South Korea considers Basel’s crypto framework for stablecoins

South Korea is considering adopting the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision’s cryptoasset exposure framework as they prepare supervisory standards for banks dealing with digital assets.

The Financial Supervisory Service said it is reviewing the Basel prudential rules to manage banks’ crypto-related risk exposures within existing capital requirements.

The Basel framework requires banks to treat most cryptocurrencies as extremely high-risk assets, forcing them to hold capital equal to the full value of their exposure and limiting how much they can hold.