Chinese traders made millions from TRUMP, Coinbase in Philippines? Asia Express

Outstanding Chinese language merchants earn hundreds of thousands from US president’s memecoin

Chinese language-language buying and selling accounts have raked in hundreds of thousands of {dollars} from the launch of US President Donald Trump’s memecoin.

Trump launched his token days earlier than his Jan. 20 presidential inauguration. The memecoin’s market capitalization shortly skyrocketed, briefly putting it among the many prime 15 cryptocurrencies earlier than a companion token, named after First Woman Melania Trump, made its debut.

The Mandarin-language blockchain media outlet Blockbeats analyzed buying and selling information to report that the TRUMP token’s worth spikes coincided with Asian buying and selling hours.

Chain Perception, a Chinese language-language key opinion chief pockets tracker, recognized 12 Solana addresses of distinguished Mandarin-speaking merchants as a few of the prime earners from the TRUMP token’s surge. In line with their rankings, 12 accounts every profited over $1 million, with a single dealer, generally known as 0xSun, amassing $27 million. In complete, these wallets earned an eye-popping $121 million, in response to Chain Perception’s Jan. 22 replace.

An in depth profit-and-loss evaluation revealed 28 addresses in complete netted income exceeding $10 million, a threshold met by 5 of the Chinese language-language merchants featured in Chain Perception’s rankings.

The token’s explosive debut has not been with out controversy. Critics from each the crypto world and political spheres have condemned it.

Congresswoman Maxine Waters accused the token of being a device for circumventing nationwide safety and anti-corruption legal guidelines. 

“Patrons may embrace giant firms, allied nations who’re pressed to point out their ‘respect’ for the President, and our adversaries, like Russia and China, which have a lot to achieve from influencing a Trump presidency,” she stated in an announcement.

“Anybody globally, even people who’ve been sanctioned by the US or banned from our capital markets, can now commerce and revenue off of $TRUMP by way of varied unregulated platforms.”

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin additionally thinks “politician cash” are “dangerous to democracy.”

Although the token was marketed on the president’s official X account, Trump stated in a Jan. 21 press convention that he doesn’t “know a lot about it aside from I launched it.”

Brian Armstrong goes SEA purchasing

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong seems to have his sights set on Southeast Asia because the US cryptocurrency big considers increasing its regional footprint.

Armstrong was lately noticed in Davos, Switzerland, in the course of the 2025 World Financial Discussion board, the place he met with Ralph Recto, the Filipino secretary of finance.

In line with the Division of Finance, Coinbase initiated the assembly to debate a possible entry into the Philippines. 

This transfer raises eyebrows, because it contradicts earlier indications that the change had little curiosity in a Southeast Asian growth. Nevertheless, there have been some hints.

At a crypto convention in December 2024, Coinbase revealed that its Coinbase Pockets and Base layer-2 community are actively supporting Southeast Asian builders constructing apps, together with these tied to future stablecoins linked to Thai and Philippine currencies. 

Moreover, a This fall Coinbase-commissioned report analyzed residents’ perceptions of their monetary techniques and the function crypto may play in enhancing them. The Philippines was one in all 4 nations studied, alongside Argentina, Kenya and Switzerland.

Coinbase already has a foothold in Southeast Asia by way of its subsidiary in Singapore. The subsidiary lately obtained a license to function its digital cost token enterprise with out transaction limits.

Line adopts Telegram’s blueprint with mini DApp portal launch

Line Subsequent, the Web3 arm of the Japanese messaging app Line, has unveiled its DApp portal that includes “mini decentralized purposes” powered by Kaia, a blockchain fashioned by way of the merger of South Korean messenger Kakao’s Klaytn and Line’s Finschia.

The DApp portal permits customers to entry Web3 companies inside the Line Messenger app. Mini DApps span classes resembling video games, social media, and digital content material. It additionally comes with an built-in pockets the place customers can earn rewards and commerce crypto belongings.

Line’s transfer mirrors a development popularized by Telegram, whose messaging platform claims almost a billion lively customers.

Telegram’s integration of Mini Apps into its ecosystem has already confirmed wildly profitable amongst crypto lovers.

Final yr, video games like Notcoin and Hamster Kombat reportedly attracted hundreds of thousands by way of airdrop incentives and easy gameplay. These Mini Apps usually built-in with The Open Community (TON), a blockchain conceived by Telegram, contributed to a surge in TON blockchain accounts.

At the beginning of 2024, TON had fewer than 4.5 million accounts, a determine that has since soared to over 137.8 million as of Jan. 23.

Indian enterprise faculty launches personal blockchain foreign money

Indian enterprise faculty Birla Institute of Administration Know-how (Bimtech) has unveiled its personal blockchain-based digital foreign money, “Bimcoin”.

Bimtech now stands alongside IIT Madras as a pioneer in blockchain adoption amongst Indian instructional establishments. Final yr, IIT Madras deployed blockchain know-how for its scholar elections, using in-house software program to allow clear and distant voting.

The enterprise faculty’s foreign money focuses on campus transactions amongst college students, distributors and directors. Its permissioned blockchain structure attracts inspiration from central financial institution digital foreign money (CBDC) fashions reasonably than cryptocurrencies based mostly on public blockchain networks like Bitcoin.

This aligns with India’s broader regulatory stance. The Reserve Financial institution of India, the nation’s central financial institution, has lengthy maintained a detrimental view of cryptocurrencies, with previous makes an attempt to impose bans. Just lately, Indian regulators reportedly consulted specialists advocating for a crypto ban to pave the best way for the nation’s CBDC, which has been in its pilot part since 2022.

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Yohan Yun

Yohan Yun is a multimedia journalist overlaying blockchain since 2017. He has contributed to crypto media outlet Forkast as an editor and has coated Asian tech tales as an assistant reporter for Bloomberg BNA and Forbes. He spends his free time cooking, and experimenting with new recipes.