Reddit NFT owners close to 10 million; Beijing publishes report to promote Web3 innovation; Binance will launch in Japan on June 1.
Since its launch in July 2022, the US-based social news platform Reddit, Reddit NFTs have reached almost 10 million users.
According to Dune Analytics data, there are currently a total of 9,909,465 million Reddit collection avatar owners.
Reddit launched a collectible NFT avatar marketplace on the Ethereum scaling network Polygon in July 2022. NFTs in the customizable collection were designed by independent artists and Reddit creators.
After the launch of the collection, there was a noticeable increase in avatar owners. In November, it reached a figure of around 3 million. However, in 2023 there was huge growth and the number of wallets has tripled in the last six months.
Now, Reddit Collectible Avatars has a market cap of $38.4 million and has 13.7 million NFT avatars in the collection.
Also, according to the published data, a total of 303,033 sales were made with a cumulative sales volume of $32.6 million.
On the other hand, Reddit continues to pursue its initiatives in the NFT space. Recently, the platform announced that it supports the game giant Ubisoft’s Rabbids NFT collection. With this development, Reddit users can now request free Rabbids NFT avatars for their profiles on the platform.
Beijing publishes report to promote Web3 innovation
Beijing municipality has released a report to develop the Web3 industry and promote innovation.
Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission presented the Web3 Innovation and Development Report at the Zhongguancun Forum. According to a local news source, the document acknowledges that Web3 technology is an inevitable trend for future internet industry development.
The Commission plans to allocate at least 100 million yuan ($14 million) per year by 2025, with the goal of making Beijing an important global innovation hub for the digital economy. Yang Hongfu, director of the Zhongguancun Chaoyang Park management committee, announced this funding at the forum, noting that Zhongguancun is often considered China’s Silicon Valley.
According to reports, the published white paper highlights Beijing’s intention to increase policy support and accelerate technological advancements to fuel the growth of the Web3 industry.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao found the time of publication of the report remarkable. Binance CEO stated that Hong Kong’s cryptocurrency regulations will begin on June 1st.
While the US currently restricts cryptocurrencies, Hong Kong’s efforts to attract crypto companies are in stark contrast to the US approach. China banned the use of cryptocurrencies in 2021, but with the release of its Web3 white paper, it is showing signs of a more open stance to the industry.
Binance will launch in Japan on June 1
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has started the process of establishing a fully regulated subsidiary in the country. The company had also purchased Sakura Exchange Bitcoin (SEBC), a regulated exchange, in November 2022.
As part of the deal, SEBC will cease its services until May 31 and will relaunch as Binance Japan next week. Users in the country will need to register on the platform. There will also be a KYC process for this.
According to Binance’s previous statement, all funds on the SEBC exchange will be automatically converted to Japanese yen and transferred to users’ bank accounts from June.
The exchange began acquiring already regulated entities as part of its global expansion strategy. Binance has made similar moves in Singapore in 2021 and in Malaysia and Thailand in 2022.
According to the announcement, the exchange will not offer derivative services in Japan. The global version of Binance will also not accept new derivative accounts from users in the country.
However, Binance users residing in Japan will not be able to increase or open new option positions after June 9. The exchange said that pending orders will be canceled and existing positions must be closed before June 23.
“In the future, we plan to continue to enrich our service offerings in Japan and will likely work closely with regulators to provide derivatives services in a fully compliant manner.”
Japan was one of the first countries to implement crypto regulations. Local laws contributed to users getting their funds from FTX Japan, a subsidiary of FTX.
