Blockchain Unicorns Tokyo Bolsters China-Japan Blockchain Ecosystem
Following the success of China Roadshow in 2018, we took over Vacans Marunouchi in the heart of Tokyo for SwissBorg’s inaugural China-Japan themed blockchain conference Blockchain Unicorns Tokyo on January 14th, with an unparalleled lineup of industry giants and prominent influencers.
Special guest: Da Hongfei, founder of NEO & OnChain
In the evening of January 14th, more than 350 attendees showed up to Blockchain Unicorns Tokyo: Blockchain Disruptions in China & Japan. We were honoured to have Da Hongfei, Founder of NEO & OnChain, delivering a keynote speech on Blockchain and Smart Economy.
Amber Chook and Risa Suzuki, PR managers of SwissBorg Asia, supported the production of a documentary film, made by Da Hongfei, exploring the blockchain scene in Tokyo, inspired by Blockchain Unicorns and produced by Lian Guan Tian Xia (链观天下), which will be aired on March 2019.
SwissBorg Teaser App Launch Announcement
Following Da Hongfei, Ken Yagami, Head of Asia, and Alex Fazel, Head of Communications, announced the upcoming release of SwissBorg Mobile App and its pre-release teaser App to the China and Japan SwissBorg communities.
The SwissBorg Teaser App or V0 is a simulation game for predicting the daily price fluctuations in Bitcoin where users compete to reach the top ranks. The best players will receive crypto rewards and a priority access to the SwissBorg Mobile App, to be released in Q4 2019. Ken Yagami remarked that:
“We always want to innovate more. Because we are building an amazing mobile app, our objective was to take product pre-launch campaign to the next level with a teaser app rather than a simple mailing list.”
SwissBorg Mobile App is a crypto investment app, a cutting-edge, yet transparent crypto investment technology built to empower our community. App users will be able to deposit in fiat and crypto, execute trading on a single interface connected to multiple exchanges, invest in SwissBorg Crypto Indexes, manage their portfolios, all this without leaving the app.
Three top-notch projects showcasing exciting innovations
At Blockchain Unicorns Tokyo, we were proud to present three top-notch projects from China, Singapore, and South Korea:
AI Poker, the first project launched by the AIGame Foundation and the world’s first online poker platform that combines AI, big data and blockchain technology. The Singapore-based AIGame Foundation, which focuses on integrating cutting-edge technology, is committed to creating a decentralized intelligence game community based on AI artificial intelligence.
Rapidash, the first company to obtain an STO license from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Rapidash focuses on the IPFS infrastructure field to innovate and better the existing HTTP network ecosystem. With the ultimate goal of improving the investment efficiency of the blockchain industry, Rapidash is providing one-stop distributed storage and computing services, and infrastructure for all blockchain projects.
TrustVerse, a wealth management platform with an integrated digital estate planning protocol. The protocol will be able to handle crypto-assets as well as your entire online digital identity and ownership and work via a smart contract to ensure it is handed down to the designated party correctly. Their wealth management platform is powered by AI deep-neural and multi-data financial portfolio optimization engine.
‘Is Japan truly crypto “friendly”?
The mass media tends to over-generalize and portray China as a “crypto-unfriendly” nation and conversely Japan as a “crypto-friendly” nation. Yet every story has another side. As the highlight of the event, Blockchain Unicorns featured two fascinating panel discussions from several industry figures discussing the political, economic, social, and technological trends and what 2019 has in store for blockchain and digital assets.
Ken Yagami, Head of Asia discussed the topic, Is Japan truly crypto “friendly?”, with Yusuke Ito (Founder of Hakuhodo Blockchain Initiative), Takahito Kagami (Chief Editor of Coin Post), Ryuichi Tanaka (CEO of Finance & Gumi Cryptos Advisor), Yohei Fusayasu (COO of Ginco), Shingo Arai (Co-Founder of Crypto Times), and Shogo Ro (Blockchain Division Manager of Framgia). Ken Yagami was a little more reflective on the direction of the Japanese crypto market:
“There was a shared sense of concern in regards to crypto regulation that is seen as a potential hindrance to mass adoption, but hope comes in the form of Japanese blockchain engineers and entrepreneurs becoming increasingly creative in their application of the technology in fields such as gaming, marketing, and advertising.”
Is China truly Crypro “un-friendly”?
China, with its 1.4 billion population, is one of the most active markets in the blockchain and crypto industry, as well as in investments, in the world.
Wang Chao, SwissBorg China Ambassador and Amber Chook, PR/Business Development Manager explored ‘where crypto and blockchain is going next in China’, with a dynamic lineup of industry figures rarely seen in Japan, such as Hironao Kunimitsu (Chairman of Gumi), An Xinxin (Founder of Jinse), Chen Fei, (Co-Founder of 99EX under OKEx), Xiong Zhiqin (Co-Founder of Lianguantianxia), Terry Wang (Co-Founder & CTO of IOST), and Yu Wenhui (CEO of CoinVoice & Co-Founder of Binance).
Since the beginning of the crypto boom, the Chinese government seems to have been downplaying the significance of crypto assets and blockchain technology. The simple phrase “Blockchain, not Bitcoin” has become the country’s defining strategy. What is really going on in China? Our panellists provided insider perspectives to help the audience make sense of China’s mysterious yet flourishing blockchain industry.
- Chinese blockchain businesses are the most well-funded in the world.
As of October 2018, the US market has 933 blockchain start-ups that have raised $4,487 M, while China has only 61 companies that have raised $1,512 M. However, companies headquartered in China have a higher average valuation ($115.2 M) than companies in the US ($12.6 M). In terms of total raised funding, the Chinese companies also receive more money than companies in other countries. On average, the Chinese blockchain start-ups have raised $24.79 M, while the number is $4.81 M for US companies. - Highest average investment deals come from Chinese VCs despite the crypto winter.
As of October 2018, most of the deals happened in the US (1,330 deals) with an average size of $5.04 M, followed by UK (269 deals/Average $2.37 M) and Canada (224 deals/Average $20.09 M). Unexpectedly, China has recorded only 94 deals while with the highest average deal size ($70.31 M), which further proves the concentration. Almost 3/4 of the deals are early stage investments in the blockchain space. - 2019 will mark the year of blockchain application and adoption by traditional industries, starting with banking.
China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), is supporting the development of a blockchain-based trade finance platform that will streamline interbank payments and help SMBs get access to a wider range of financing tools. The Bank of China, not to be confused with the PBoC, revealed plans to aggressively invest in the development of fintech and blockchain technology - Which blockchain project to invest in 2019?
Experts suggest that generally, investors should pay attention to the projects that 1) put fewer efforts in marketing but more efforts in product development; 2) have raised enough capital to survive the bear market; 3) are creating products that solve real-life problems.
Concluding the panel discussion and Blockchain Unicorns, Wang Chao remarked:
“The evolution of any disruptive technologies is likely to grow in a period of gestation, however long this period might be, it will eventually erupt and break through. All we need is to remember why we began in the first place and have faith in it.”
