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Mastercard and Visa join Hong Kong’s CBDC pilot, new installment in Justin Sun’s Huobi soap opera, and a GameFi token pumps on no news.

Hong Kong partners with 16 companies to build CBDCs

On May 18, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced the launch of the cyber Hong Kong dollar pilot project. According to officials, 16 companies from the financial payment and technology sectors will conduct the first round of trials this year on the feasibility of a Hong Kong dollar central bank digital currency (e-HKD). Companies included in the pilot include Alibaba Groups Alipay Financial, Mastercard Asia, Ripple Labs, Visa and HSBC.

The digital Hong Kong dollar will start off with six potential use cases; comprehensive payments, programmable payments, offline payments, tokenized deposits, Web3 transaction settlements and tokenized asset settlements. The CBDC is scheduled for a three-stage approach, with the novel pilot program being an important aspect of the second stage.

However, the HKMA has not yet decided whether to officially launch the CBDC. It expects to share the results of the trials at Hong Kong Fintech Week 2023 in Q4. HKMA CEO Yue Wai-man commented:

“Although the HKMA has not decided whether or when the CBDC will be launched, we are pleased to launch the Cyber Hong Kong Dollar Pilot Scheme. This is a good opportunity for the HKMA to join hands with the industry to explore innovative use cases and prepare for the possible launch of the CBDC in the future”

Back in October 2021, Mastercard said that it would be preparing its payment infrastructure for integration with CBDCs. Likewise, Visa believes that stablecoins and CBDCs will play meaningful roles in payments and has an ongoing blockchain interoperability project related to the matter.

Bitgets comfy run in Q1

According to its first quarter update published on May 17, cryptocurrency exchange Bitget reached $59 billion and $658 billion in spot and futures traded, respectively, representing growth rates of 8% and 27% from Q4 2022. In other metrics, the book value of the exchanges Protection Fund surged to $380 million from $300 million during the same period, aided by a bullish rally in the price of major cryptocurrencies.

The exchange says that its proof-of-reserves increased from 223% on December 20, 2022, to 246% on April 3, 2023, as it completed listings for 105 coins, bringing the total to over 500 listings. The exchanges native token, BGB, rallied by 120% during the quarter, to $0.47 at the time of publication.

Biget is committing $10 million over five years in a novel Blockchain4Youth initiative to offer blockchain courses and certifications through Bitget Academy and will host campus lectures in partnership with universities worldwide. In April, the exchange received its regulatory license in Lithuania, allowing it to provide crypto services both in and from the Baltic nation.

Huobis latest drama

On May 16, Justin Sun, the founder of Tron blockchain and relatively new de-facto owner of cryptocurrency exchange Huobi Global, published a series of allegations against Wei Li, the brother of Huobi Global co-founder Leon Li. In his statement, Sun accused Wei Li of receiving millions of Huobi (HT) tokens through abnormal means at zero cost and of consistently selling off these HT tokens and cashing out.”

“We plan to engage with Li Wei to negotiate a refund and arrange for the destruction of his remaining HT tokens. This action is not only a matter of justice but also serves the best interests of everyone in the HT DAO community.”

Sun claims that Li Wei has not made any substantial contributions to our community.” and would therefore seek disgorgement of any profits related to Wei Lis sale of the tokens and send them to a null address for a token burn. In response, Wei’s brother Leon Li wrote:

“I hope Huobi can provide evidence. If it is confirmed that it is zero-cost HT was obtained through illegal means, I will personally pay 10 times the HT [amount] to Huobi company.”

Leon Li followed up by saying, “I hope that Huobi will return the users legal assets,” if the allegations are found to be false. In October 2022, Leon Li and fellow co-founder Du Jun reportedly sold 100% of the exchanges stake to an investment firm controlled by Justin Sun. Since changing owners, the exchange has seen its fair share of woes, although Sun claims that Huobi has returned to profit and things have settled. If youre curious, this wasnt the first abnormal action surrounding the Huobi token either…

No news is good news as GameFi token surges over 300%

On May 17, the token of NFT multiplayer online battle arena game Superpower Squad (SQUAD) surged by over 300% to a high of $0.017 apiece within a single day before its pullback. No material news was associated with the development, and the tokens price has mostly been on a losing streak since March.

Superpower Squads developers tell Asia Express it has two game modes in development. The first is a Zombie Crisis survival mode where the top surviving players would receive NFT props (items used to kill enemies) upon round completion. In the second game mode, players would receive unique buffs (temporary powers) depending on the clan composition of NFT heroes, with each clan requiring one NFT hero of legendary rarity.

The devs stating things are still moving comes after community speculation that the game had ceased development as the price of SQUAD dropped on also seemingly no news. The game previously surpassed 100,000 downloads in January.

Superpower Squad is by no means the first blockchain project to have high price variance for no particular reason. On April 14, shares of Singaporean Bitcoin (BTC) mining operator SAI.TECH surged by over 360% in one day to a high of $7.42 before giving back much of its gains. Like Superpower Squad, SAI.TECH had no material announcements either before or after the wild price action.

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IRS wants $38B in unpaid taxes from Alameda, Milady token surges 3,000%, restraining order for Arthur Hayes over 3AC “threatening” words.

IRS wants $38 billion tax from Alameda

According to recent flings posted by the claims agent of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS), is claiming a total of $44 billion from the exchange’s bankruptcy and related firms, including $38 billion against its sister quantitative trading firm Alameda Research. In one single claim, the IRS assessed $20.4 billion in unpaid partnership and payroll taxes against Alameda Research LLC.

Founded in Sept. 2017 by Sam Bankman-Fried and Tara Mac Aulay, with Caroline Ellison serving as CEO, Alameda was headquartered in Hong Kong and conducted up to $5 billion worth of trades per day at its peak. Hong Kong does not levy taxes on capital gains. However, being U.S. nationals, its founders and key executives are obligated to pay taxes on their worldwide income irrespective of where they reside and how many days they actually spend in the U.S. each year, as per the highly unusual U.S. taxation by citizenship regimen.

The partnership taxes assessed by the IRS suggests it believes the entity operated on a partnership regime, where, unlike corporations, profits are not taxed at the entity level but are instead “passed through” to its partners and subsequently taxed at the individual level.

If the IRS prevails, it could mean bad news for the creditors. According to the filing, the IRS is claiming the total unpaid taxes of $44 billion from FTX and related companies under Admin Priority. The IRS claims would take precedence over that of unsecured creditors, such as FTX’s one million users, during bankruptcy proceedings. Despite their best efforts, bankruptcy trustees and law firms have only managed to locate $7.3 billion in assets from FTX and related entities.

Milady NFTs and token frenzy

On May 8, seeing the traction surrounding meme tokens, a group of self-organized developers created the Milady (LADYS) token on Ethereum (ETH), basing their design on the popular anime nonfungible tokens (NFT) collection of the same name. The token has no association with Milady Mixer nor Charlotte Fang, the creators of the Milady collection.

Developers stated that “94% of the tokens were sent to the liquidity pool (LP). LP tokens were burnt, and the contract is renounced,” while the remaining 1% airdropped to Milady NFT holders and 5% reserved in multisig wallets for future milestones. In addition, developers warned: 

“$LADYS is a meme coin with no intrinsic value or expectation of financial return. There is no formal team or roadmap. The coin is completely useless and for entertainment purposes only.”

However, it appears that investors thought otherwise. At the time of publication, each LADYS token is worth $0.0000001285 apiece, an increase of 3,254% in one day’s time. On May 10, American business magnate Elon Musk tweeted a meme containing the image of a Milady NFT, causing the collection’s average sale price to spike:

On May 11, Asia-Pacific focused exchanges such as Gate.io Bybit, Bitget, MEXC Global, and Huobi all began listing the meme token. At the time of publication, LADYS’ market cap has surpassed $100 million, with $245 million in volume traded within the past 24 hours.

Do Kwon’s prospects: Bad to worse

Last May, Terraform Labs’ co-founder Do Kwon was a bourgeoning South-Korean billionaire at the helm of the $40 billion Terra Luna and TerraUSD dual-token ecosystem. One year later, Kwon is behind bars in the Baltic nation of Montenegro, awaiting trial on charges of falsifying documents. Luna, his life’s work, now sits in the ruins, while Kwon faces extradition on fraud charges from both South Korean and U.S. prosecutors related to the collapse of Terra Luna, on top of his Montenegrin legal woes. 

Kwon’s actions have truly upset a lot of people. The disgraced South Korean entrepreneur faced yet another setback on May 10, when South Korea Chief Judge Yun Chan-Young froze 233.3 billion Korean won ($176 million) worth of Kwon’s personal assets.

The prohibition extends to the sales of Do Kwon’s Galleria Foret apartment complex in Seoul, a novel officetel, and a series of imported cars. The order also bans the disposition of Kwon’s financial assets, such as securities, bank deposits and cryptocurrency stored in personal accounts on virtual currency exchanges. Multiple criminal proceedings across jurisdictions against Kwon are currently ongoing.

Meanwhile his attorneys have proposed he be let out on bail at 400,000 Euros or $437,000, which the court is yet to decide on.

3AC co-founder scores victory

Once upon a time, a wise Chinese sage said something to the effect of, “If you can’t solve a problem, then the least you can do is to solve the person who raised it.” 

On May 5, Singaporean judge Sandra Looi Ai Lin of the Protection from Harassment Court issued a restraining order against BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes. The judgment came at the request of attornies representing co-founder Su Zhu of Three Arrows Capital (3AC), a Singaporean hedge fund undergoing bankruptcy proceedings with total claims of $3.5 billion. Among other items, the restraining order prohibits Hayes, under the penalty of fines and or imprisonment by Singaporean authorities, of:

“By any means, using any threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, or making any threatening, abusive or insulting communication, that would cause the Applicant [Su Zhu] harassment, alarm or distress.”

Hayes is one of 3AC’s many creditors, with an alleged personal claim of $6 million. But unlike his colleagues, who prefer to stick with official British Virgin Island bankruptcy court communications in reclaiming funds (to mixed results), Hayes regularly calls out the 3AC co-founders’ behavior on Twitter, writing in one instance, “be warned. I want my fucking money,” in response to a purported Bahrain sovereign wealth fundraise by Zhu and his colleague Kyle Davies.

Despite their financial woes it appears that Zhu and Davies have largely bounced back from the unpleasant experience. Nowadays, Davies frequently boasts his culinary skills on social media while Zhu shares his take on world philosophy as it ties into 3AC’s downfall.

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CZ calls out Justin Sun for farming SUI at the expense of the little guys, “useless” PEPE up 20x, new 3AC venture in hot water in Dubai.

Our weekly roundup of news from East Asia curates the industrys most important developments.

SUI rises to glory as Sun sets sights on it

On Apr. 30, cryptocurrency exchange Binance unveiled two LaunchPools for the then-up-and-coming listing of Sui tokens. As a Layer-1 blockchain created by Mysten Labs, which in turn was founded by former Meta executives, the Sui project was eagerly anticipated and raised $300 million from venture capitalists such as FTX Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Jump Crypto, a16z, and Circle Ventures. On Binance, users could either stake BNB or TrueUSD (TUSD) to farm a share of 40 million Sui tokens.

To say that the LaunchPools were oversubscribed is an understatement. Despite having just 0.4% of 10 billion Sui up for grabs, the retail frenzy saw the BNB-Sui farm pool surpass 8.895 million BNB staked and the TUSD-Sui farm pool top 892.6 million TUSD staked, totaling a combined $3.8 billion at the time of publication.

The thirst for Sui was so great that on May 1, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), co-founder and CEO of Binance, publicly rebuked Tron Founder Justin Sun for a deposit of 56.1 million TUSD on the exchange.

“Our team told Justin, if he uses any of these to grab the LaunchPool Sui token, we will ‘take action against it’. SMH. Binance LaunchPool are meant as air drops for our retail users, not just for a few whales,” CZ wrote.

Interestingly, it appears as if the publicity has raised questions over the extent of Sun’s involvement in TUSD. On May 4, TrueUSD developers stated that “TrueUSD was never owned by Justin Sun” in response to allegations.

Anyways, Sun quickly apologized with regards to the deposit, claiming that the funds were intended for “market making,” but nevertheless, “some of our team members were not fully aware of the intended purpose for these funds,” and used them to “participate in exchange campaigns.” The blockchain personality wrote that the Tron DAO has contacted Binance and “arranged for a full refund.” The same day, 278,752 SUI in farmed rewards were returned to the TUSD LaunchPool.

Three days after the Binance LaunchPool event, the Sui token was listed after its mainnet finally came online, with network transactions averaging a rate of five per second. The relatively low utility metric has not stopped Sui from having a fully diluted market capitalization of $13.65 billion, and that’s despite a 70% plunge from its opening price in a matter of hours, according to CoinMarketCap. At the time of publication, each Sui was worth $1.36 apiece, representing a 1,260% gain from its offering price of 0.1 USDT last month.

All the wild trading was apparently too much for some exchanges to handle. On May 4, Mingxing Xu, founder of OKX, issued anapologyto customers who “cant cancel order” and purchased Sui at a higher price than intended.

“We are so sorry for the inconvenience and will fix the trading system bug asap to prevent it happening again in the future.”

Even the Sui team seemed concerned about the rampant levels of speculation, as they reportedly asked “cooperative exchanges” not to launch Sui perpetual contracts. Some ignored the request and immediately listed them anyway. The same day, Sui developers also launched the Sui Token Bridge, which connects 22 blockchains to Sui through Wormhole.

APAC exchanges love PEPE

On May 1, meme cryptocurrency PEPE surged by over 60% in a single day after cryptocurrency exchange OKX announced the listing of PEPE tokens. OKX staff wrote in the announcement the underlying cartoon character, Pepe the Frog, that “this is one of the most popular memes in the world.” Well, they weren’t going to highlight the use cases, with Pepe’s own website calling it “completely useless.”

OKX isn’t the only exchange active in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region with a liking for PEPE. Around the week starting Apr. 17, cryptocurrency exchanges, including BingX, Huobi, Gate.io, MEXC Global, and Bitget, all listed PEPE within days of one another. The move sparked a major bull run that saw the token return over 2,000% since then to trade at $0.00000133 apiece at the time of publication.

Despite its popularity, it’s unclear if PEPE has any association with Matt Furie, the cartoonist who created Pepe the Frog (seems unlikely however). The token’s creators have remained anonymous. It appears that investors don’t seem to mind at all, as PEPE’s total market cap has since surpassed $550 million. If you want to support Furie’s work, you can pick up a genuine Pepe NFT for under $30.

3AC founders’ philosophy is a pearl

Recently, Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority published a written reprimand of the OPNX Exchange, which was created by Singaporean hedge fund Three Arrows Capital’s (3AC) co-founders Kyle Davies and Su Zhu. In the letter, regulators warned that OPNX was operating in the Emirate of Dubai on an “unregulated basis,” and marketing and advertising the exchange as well as its native FLEX token “without the necessary permits.”

“Following the launch, and with the continued lack of satisfactory remedial action by the responsible parties, VARA is continuing to actively monitor the situation and investigate OPNX’s activity to assess further corrective measures that may be required to protect the market.”

Last June, the Monetary Authority of Singapore reprimanded 3AC for exceeding its $188 million cap on assets under management and allegedly providing false information to investors. The defunct hedge fund owed approximately $3.5 billion to creditors when it filed for bankruptcy at approximately the same time.

But just like with 3AC, it appears that resolving regulatory scrutiny is neither a key priority for Davies nor Zhu. Shortly after the announcement, Davies, who now works as a professional chef, divulged his appetite for oysters whilst explaining their spiritual relationship to entrepreneurship in terms of Hellenistic and Classic Chinese philosophy. “They are a potent reminder of the power of turning harsh conditions into something beautiful.” Aw, shucks.

Meanwhile, Zhu, who is also a philosophy enthusiast, seems to have followed the Buddhist school by explaining to his audience the “nonduality” of political ideologies such as communism and capitalism.

3AC creditor and BitMex co-founder Arthur Hayes, discovered an even deeper meaning behind the two’s messages. He pointed out that there were exactly six oysters on Davies’ dinner plate, and theorized that each oyster symbolized one piece of his $6 million claim from 3AC’s bankruptcy proceedings. Court procedures are currently ongoing.

Huawei unveils latest in wave of Chinese ChatGPT rivals, Alibaba’s multichain bridge, Hong Kong crypto exchange regulations imminent.

Our weekly roundup of news from East Asia curates the industrys most important developments.

Hong Kong inching close on a clear crypto regulatory pathway

A few months after prominent industry players lamented the lack of registration pathways for cryptocurrency exchanges in Hong Kong, some respite may finally be on the horizon. On Apr. 27, Julia Leung, chief executive officer of the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) of Hong Kong, revealed that regulation of virtual asset trading platforms (VATP) remains one of the commission’s key priorities, stating:

“The SFC has received more than 150 responses to the consultation on the proposed regulatory requirements for licensed VATP operators and will issue the conclusions and final guidelines in May before the new regime takes effect on Jun. 1 2023.”

Leung also said that Web3 and blockchain technology will bring “enormous benefits to the financial industry in terms of efficiency” and reiterated the commission’s support for “underlying distributed ledger technology and responsible innovation in relation.” Nevertheless, the SFC also issued the following warning: 

“The regulator takes firm and prompt enforcement action, against market manipulation activities, social media ramp and dump schemes, abusive behavior in listings, intermediary misconduct and virtual-asset-related misconduct. The amended Anti-Money Laundering Ordinance (AMLO) will give the SFC new power to combat these scams.”

In February, the SFC stirred up a crypto frenzy when it launched a consultation on its proposed regulatory requirements for digital asset trading platforms. On Apr. 20, a report published by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange daily trading volume of all Hong Kong crypto ETFs averaged about $1.19 million between December 2022 and early February.

Alibaba takes an interest in multichain

On Apr. 26, Ant Financial, an affiliate of Chinese e-commerce conglomerate Alibaba, announced during its annual Digital Technologies Developer Conference that it would officially open source its cross-chain protocol AntChain Bridge to developers worldwide.

The AntChain Bridge was designed based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Standard for Blockchain Interoperability, one of the first standardized communications protocols in this category.Yan Ying, technical director of AntChain, said that cross-chain technology “is essential to unlocking the full potential of Web3” and would allow for “large-scale transferring of digital assets.”

During a live demonstration, AntChain Bridge developers several commemorative NFTs to different blockchains. Developers can access its cross-chain systems or business smart contracts by downloading the cross-chain plug-in on the AntChain Openlab Github repository page. Two months prior, the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Chinese subsidiary announced that it would expand its partnership with Ant Financial to mint more NFTs on its native AntChain. The blockchain was launched in 2017 with a focus on fintech. 

Huawei and the GPT craze

On Apr. 27, local news outlet IThome reported that Chinese telecommunications conglomerate Huawei has filed for a national trademark application labeled “Huawei NetGPT” under the classification “scientific instruments.” Earlier this month, Huawei developers shared further insight into its other ChatGPT clone, “PanguGPT,” claiming that:

“It has entered the field of intelligent document search, intelligent enterprise resource planning, and has implemented scenarios such as enterprise financial anomaly detection, large-scale models in Arabic, etc.”

Similar to Huawei, Chinese tech giant Baidu unveiled its answer to ChatGPT, Ernie Bot, on Mar. 16. One month later, Alibaba also began testing its ChatGPT rival dubbed “Tongyi Qianwen.” Around the same day, American business magnate Elon Musk also revealed that he would create his own ChatGPT equivalent, TruthGPT, for seemingly political reasons. Chat-based large language models can have major applications in blockchain, such as auditing smart contract code orguiding its audience on crypto trading.

Chinese city public servants to receive digital yuan salaries

Earlier this week, government officials from the City of Changshu (population 1.56 million) announced that the city’s public servants would be paid in digital yuan (e-CNY) effective starting next month.

The move follows a successful pilot test beginning last October that saw select public officials receive public transport reimbursements through the digital yuan. While means of spending the e-CNY directly are currently somewhat limited on a national level, the City of Changshu has begun allowing e-CNY payments for utility bills, cell phone bills, cable TV, and public transportation.

WeChat, too, expands digital yuan adoption

On Apr. 26, Chinese social media app WeChat, which boasts over 1 billion monthly active users, expanded digital yuan adoption to its video content creation platform and “Mini Programs” platform for vendors.

According to local reports, services payable on WeChat via e-CNY now include ride-sharing, online shopping, or ordering takeaway from restaurants. To use the feature, users must first pass through know-your-customer checks. Despite its increased presence, e-CNY accounted for just 0.13% of the total Chinese Yuan in circulation at the beginning of the year.

3AC’s Kyle Davies becomes a connoisseur of white poultry, meanwhile SAI.TECH’s stock more than doubles on no news as Bruce Lee NFTs flunk.

Our weekly roundup of news from East Asia curates the industrys most important developments.

Three Arrows Capital (3AC), a once bourgeoning Singaporean hedge fund worth an estimated $10 billion at is peak, was utterly obliterated by the bear market last year. However, the carnival it has created since the initial blowup still lives on, and its main characters appear to be doing quite well, too.

One of 3AC co-founders, Kyle Davies, appears to have finally found some solace from the experience. After much turmoil, the former hedge fund manager has now transitioned into an aspiring restauranteur fixated on one task perfecting the art of cooking chicken.

Any seasoned chef would know that cooking a tender, well-seasoned, juicy, and crispy-skinned chicken is a rather exquisite skill. To perfect it, one needs to maintain a razor-sharp focus on the meat while techniques are applied, which requires cutting out distractions such as focusing on negative feelings related to creditors trying to claim $3.5 billion from 3AC’s bankruptcy during the performance.

Generally speaking, chefs don’t like customers who are rude. Which is why when a user suggested on Apr. 14 to review-bomb Davies’ new Dubai restaurant, the now professional cook immediately threatened legal action against individuals who post “intentionally false reviews and defamation against my restaurant.”

Meanwhile Davies and fellow cofounder Su Zhu launched the OPNX exchange on April 5, launched to trade bankruptcy claims of fallen crypto entities such as FTX and Celsius. Although daily volume was only around $13 initially, by the time of publication, the exchange has reached nearly $1.8 million in daily trading volume.

It’s not pleasant being the one to disappoint the crowd, but these numbers are pretty impressive. Consider the fact that the sum of all regulated crypto products listed in Hong Kong only do about $1.19 million in volume per day.

Not that the exchange is playing up its 3AC ties. In an Apr. 14 interview with OPNX’s CEO Leslie Lamb, the blockchain executive reportedly said that “While Su Zhu and Kyle contributed much in terms of early-stage ideas and vision, they currently are no longer involved in OPNX’s everyday operations.”

In other 3AC news, on Apr. 19, Sotheby’s auction house announced it will sell a series of NFT collections recovered by liquidators, including Dmitri Cherniaks artwork “The Golden Goose” purchased by Davies and Zhu with $5.8 million in Ether in August 2021.

Zhu appears to have taken the new philosophically, quoting the famed English poet Alfred Tennyson: “[Tis] better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all,” while highlighting the NFT auction for his followers. 3AC’s bankruptcy proceedings are currently ongoing.

Singaporean Bitcoin miner’s wild week

On Apr. 14, shares of Singaporean Bitcoin (BTC) mining operator SAI.TECH listed on the NASDAQ exchange surged by over 360% in one day to a high of $7.42 apiece before giving back much of its gains. The stock is currently trading at $3.68 per share at the time of publication. There was no material news preceding the unusual price action and we certainly tried to identify some.

SAI.TECH develops Bitcoin mining infrastructure hardware, namely Saihub, Tankbox, and Rackbox, that utilizes liquid cooling and waste heat recovery solutions to improve efficiency for miners.

On Apr. 20, the company consolidated its product lines into three categories; Ultiaas, Boltbit, and Heatnuc. Boltbit will focus on providing decentralized transaction system services and technical support, while Heatnuc focuses on the “research and promotion of small modular reactors.” Ultiaas puts the emphasis on hardware and software products that convert mining chip heat to reusable energy.

The company terminated its Phase II 90 megawatts (MW) crypto mining and hosting expansion plan in Kazakhstan last year following a “force majeure,” and will continue to execute its Phase I 15 MW agreement for the same purpose. In January 2022, the Kazakh government resigned following protests and shut down access to the internet, disrupting the operations of Bitcoin miners in the country. The company is currently emphasizing operations at its testing and distribution facility in Ohio.

Bruce Lee NFTs fizzle…

Not even the late Hong Kong film legend could defeat the economic laws of supply and demand with his martial arts dexterity. Between Apr. 12 to Apr. 14, the Bruce Lee Foundation, directed by his daughter Shannon, partnered with NFT video platform Shibuya to The House of Lee collection celebrate the life and work of the namesake Kung Fu legend. A total of 48,691 NFTs were minted at a price of 0.008 Ether (ETH) each with 6,452 owners (13% unique).

There was one slight issue, only one NFT was unique in the collection, that of the House of Lee Genesis NFT. With an abundance of supply, the floor price of the collection quickly dropped to around 0.003 ETH apiece on OpenSea at the time of publication. The sale still grossed approximately $730,000, minus the cost of placing a mega billboard advertisement for the NFT drop on Broadway.

While the initial sale may have been somewhat lukewarm, the NFTs are billed as Your ticket to the House of Lee, and there are reports that this is a mere first stage of an ongoing Web 3.0 collaboration. It seems the martial arts legend may continue to fight on in the realm of blockchain after all.