The Latest from Rita Liao
Influencers peddling medical, financial advice now need certification, China says
China has taken another step to regulate how online influencers impart information to their followers. The government has put a great deal of effort into moderating digital content over the years. The
Cloudflare outage hit crypto exchanges FTX, Bitfinex and more
A Cloudflare outage on Tuesday knocked out numerous popular web services, including major crypto exchanges FTX, Bitfinex and OKX, raising questions about the security of centralized crypto platforms.
Iran to cut electricity to authorized crypto miners
Iran’s relationship with the crypto mining sector is a love-hate one. The government is again restricting crypto mining activity as it tries to ease the strain on the country’s power suppl
Alibaba extends logistics arm to Pakistan for e-commerce unit Daraz
Cainiao, the logistics service operated by Alibaba, is launching two automated distribution centers in Karachi and Lahore as its first entry into Pakistan, it announced on Friday. Alibaba’s over
Crypto exchange Huobi Thailand closing down in July after license revoked
Huobi Thailand will shut down its exchange permanently on July 1, according to an announcement posted on its website. This marks the exchange’s short-lived ambition in the Southeast Asian countr
Amid market turmoil, crypto exchange Kraken says it’s filling 500+ roles
While several major crypto trading platforms are making large-scale layoffs and freezing hiring, some of their rivals have rushed to reassure their staff and the public that they are sticking to their
In Southeast Asia, a booming crypto scene
Southeast Asia, a diverse region with an expanding population and rising income, is emerging as a popular destination for crypto entrepreneurs and investors hunting down high-growth startups in the sp
Meta Pharmaceuticals lands $15M to make autoimmune drugs with AI, new immuno-metabolism tech
Biotech startup Meta Pharmaceuticals sets itself an ambitious goal as it secures its initial investment. The Shenzhen-based company, which sets out to develop treatments for autoimmune diseases with t
Duolingo back in China app stores after 1 year, with a local twist
Duolingo, the Nasdaq-listed language learning app, is back in China’s Apple App Store and Android stores nearly a year after it disappeared from the country’s app stores. Users in China fo
Thousands of Mobike users’ passports and IDs exposed online
A massive trove of more than 120,000 passports, drivers licenses and identity documents uploaded by users of bike-sharing service Mobike have been found online. Security researcher Bob Diachenko foun
Tencent once more seeks to expand its mobile hit Honor of Kings globally
Honor of Kings, the world’s largest mobile game made by China’s internet behemoth Tencent, is rolling out a global version by the end of this year. That’s according to a tweet by Lev
Three-quarters of Asia’s wealthy investors will own digital assets by 2022
Seventy-three percent of “affluent” investors in Asia intend to hold some form of digital assets by the end of 2022, according to a new report from consulting firm Accenture. It’s un
Hong Kong’s AI drug discovery firm Insilico closes $60M Series D
Insilico Medicine, a Hong Kong-based company that has been using artificial intelligence to discover new drugs since 2014, has completed a fresh round of funding. It’s a sign that certain invest
New York-based Digital Asset to help Japan’s financial giant SBI develop ‘smart yen’
SBI Holdings, a Japanese securities and banking giant that launched a crypto-asset fund for retail investors last year, has been actively investing in the infrastructure that will allow it to roll out
Indonesia’s Astro raises $60M to work on 15-minute grocery delivery
Indonesia’s sprawling archipelago has long been a headache for logistics companies, but there’s no lack of brave challengers. Jarkata-based Astro, which provides 15-minute grocery delivery
FlexID gets Algorand funding to offer self-sovereign IDs to Africa’s unbanked
Much of the world’s attention around blockchain is on the highs and lows of cryptocurrency values. Startups like FlexID remind us that distributed ledger technology has the potential to play oth
Crypto asset manager Babel Finance reaches $2B valuation
Despite recent swings in cryptocurrency values, many institutional investors appear undeterred. The growth of Babel Finance, which offers a suite of institution-facing crypto financial products, could
Airbnb China closes domestic unit to cut costs as it bets on border reopening
Airbnb will terminate its domestic business in China, marking the partial retreat of another Western tech giant from the country. Like most of its peers, the home sharing titan is shifting its focus t
Metaverse app BUD raises another $37M, plans to launch NFTs
BUD, a nascent app taking a shot at creating a metaverse for Gen Z to play and interact with each other, has raised another round of funding in three months. The Singapore-based startup told TechCrunc
‘Move-to-earn’ Solana app StepN is latest crypto gaming craze
Since its launch in December, StepN, an app that lets users walk and run to earn tokens, has quickly become a household name in the play-to-earn blockchain gaming, or GameFi, world. Two to three milli