Crypto On LYO: The Blend — Taiwan Implements Digital Asset Regulations, India’s Central Bank Enhances Digital Currency Transactions, KSA Explores Blockchain Gaming and Web3 for Economic Diversification

What happened in the crypto world in the last week? Let’s see some interesting news together!

Taiwan Implements Digital Asset Regulations

Taiwan is entering the realm of digital asset regulation, with its Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) in the process of crafting new guidelines for the industry. The FSC’s primary aim is to strike a balance between fostering innovation and protecting investors.

These regulations will include stricter measures against offshore exchanges that have made themselves available to Taiwanese investors without proper FSC licenses, such as Binance, Bitfinex, and Kraken. Taiwan’s recent experience with the FTX collapse has prompted a closer look at the digital asset sector.

The guidelines also entail requirements for Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs), including advertising approvals, asset segregation, robust Anti-Money Laundering (AML) programs, and a ban on complex derivative products.

These regulations extend to token issuance, with VASPs mandated to disclose their white papers for regulatory oversight. It’s important to note that these regulations do not cover the Non-Fungible Token (NFT) market.

Taiwan’s FSC, designated as the official digital asset watchdog in March, primarily focuses on payment- and trading-related digital assets. Chairman Huang Tien-mu emphasized that NFTs, due to their complexity and diversity, require more intricate and specialized regulations.

India’s Central Bank Enhances Digital Currency Transactions

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is collaborating with financial institutions to enhance the adoption of its central bank digital currency (CBDC), known as the e-rupee, according to insights from six insiders familiar with the matter.

As of now, daily retail transactions involving the CBDC average around 18,000, falling significantly short of the RBI’s ambitious target of one million daily transactions by the end of 2023.

Among the proposed enhancements are enabling digital rupee transactions even in offline scenarios and establishing a linkage between the e-rupee and India’s widely used Unified Payments Interface (UPI). UPI is a real-time payment system that enables users to transfer funds across multiple banks without revealing their account details.

According to Reuters, these insiders, who wished to remain anonymous, as they lack authorization to speak to the media, also noted that the RBI has been urging banks to make the e-rupee interoperable with UPI through a QR code.

This interoperability would enable payments to flow through the already well-distributed UPI QR codes. Some large banks, including the State Bank of India, the nation’s largest lender, have already activated this facility.

In line with these efforts, experts like Sharat Chandra, co-founder of the India Blockchain Forum, suggest that incentivizing CBDC payments is crucial for driving adoption.

KSA Explores Blockchain Gaming and Web3 for Economic Diversification

Saudi Arabia is intensifying its drive for economic diversification, a cornerstone of its ambitious Vision 2030 initiative. To reduce its reliance on oil revenues, the country is actively embracing cutting-edge technologies like blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI), and tapping into rapidly growing sectors such as gaming.

While Saudi Arabia has yet to make a significant global impact in the gaming and AI realms, experts in the Web3 space believe that the nation’s investments in the gaming sector could have far-reaching effects.

Saudi Arabia’s interest in gaming is driven, in part, by its youthful and tech-savvy population. Alongside the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom is propelling the growth of the Middle East’s gaming market.

A Boston Consulting Group report revealed that the Kingdom accounts for 45% of the region’s gaming sector, with a market value exceeding $1.8 billion. It also ranks among the top in terms of game revenues within the region.

In 2017, Saudi Arabia established the Saudi Esports Federation to regulate and foster the country’s gaming industry. Bloomberg reported in April that the kingdom, through its Public Investment Fund, allocated a substantial $38 billion to the gaming sector, positioning itself to become a global gaming hub.

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