New 'MemeStrategy' Bitcoin agency by 9GAG, jailed CEO's $3.5M bonus: Asia Categorical

9GAG’s meme mogul goes Bitcoin

The creator of meme tradition pioneer 9GAG is diving headfirst into Bitcoin and blockchain, buying a publicly listed Hong Kong firm with plans to show it right into a crypto and AI enterprise.

Ray Chan, co-founder of 9GAG, has acquired a controlling stake in Howkingtech Worldwide Holdings Restricted and plans to transform the corporate right into a Web3 outfit.

Chan has proposed renaming the agency to MemeStrategy, a nod to MicroStrategy (now Technique), which popularized the company Bitcoin accumulation playbook. He’ll function chairman and CEO, pending shareholder approval, and several other members of the 9GAG group have joined the board.

MemeStrategy goals to include Bitcoin and different cryptocurrencies into its steadiness sheet whereas investing in promising Web3 and AI startups. Its technique leverages the worldwide affect of 9GAG’s on-line neighborhood to drive development.

Based in 2008, 9GAG is likely one of the web’s most recognizable meme and viral content material platforms. With over 200 million followers throughout Instagram, TikTok, X, and different social media channels, it provides MemeStrategy a built-in world viewers for advertising and person engagement.

The corporate additionally outlined initiatives beneath a so-called “Creator Economic system 4.0,” aimed toward serving to creators monetize their IP via Web3 instruments. It additionally plans to develop DePin (Decentralized Bodily Infrastructure Community) providers by merging its legacy IoT enterprise with decentralized infrastructure fashions.

MemeStrategy isn’t Chan’s first foray into Web3. He and the 9GAG group beforehand launched Memeland, a enterprise studio behind a number of NFT initiatives, together with The Captainz and The Potatoz.

Bithumb’s jailed ex-CEO baggage $3.5M bonus

A former Bithumb government presently serving time behind bars for accepting bribes tied to a token itemizing has acquired a multi-million greenback bonus from the corporate as a part of a broader surge in crypto trade payouts following a profitable 2024.

Lee Sang-jun, the previous CEO of Bithumb Holdings, was paid almost 4.7 billion Korean received (round $3.5 million) final 12 months, in keeping with Bithumb’s annual report, as reported by state-backed information outlet Yonhap. That features a 2 billion received ($1.4 million) bonus, 2.2 billion received ($1.5 million) in retirement pay, and near 470 million received ($320,000) in base wage, regardless of Lee being convicted and sentenced in December 2024. 

Lee shouldn’t be confused with Lee Jung-hoon, the previous Bithumb chairman acquitted of fraud fees, a choice just lately upheld by the Supreme Courtroom. The trade additionally paid a 1 billion received ($740,000) bonus to Lee Jung-hoon.

Lee Sang-jun was convicted in December 2024 and was discovered responsible of accepting luxurious items and favors in return for token listings. Whereas prosecutors alleged he took 30 billion received (round $20 million) in money, the courtroom cleared him of that cost however upheld a responsible verdict for different types of bribery. He was sentenced to 2 years in jail and fined round 50 million received ($37,000).

The native outlet cited a Bithumb spokesperson who defended the payout, saying Lee had performed a key position in professionalizing the corporate’s operations, like establishing Bithumb’s institutional foundations and enhancing buyer asset safety. 

Bithumb wasn’t the one crypto trade in South Korea handing out large checks within the wake of 2024’s restoration. Dunamu, the operator of Upbit, paid its chairman Tune Chi-hyung over ₩110 billion ($82 million) final 12 months, Yonhap reported.

Workers of South Korea’s high crypto exchanges earned salaries akin to main banks. Upbit workers earned a mean of almost 200 million received ($147,000) in 2024, up 71% from the 12 months earlier than. Bithumb staff noticed their common pay rise to 116 million received ($85,000) from 99 million received ($68,000).

34 jailed over $63.5 million WeChat rip-off

A Chinese language courtroom has sentenced 34 people to jail for orchestrating a large-scale cryptocurrency funding rip-off that defrauded almost 30,000 victims out of 460 million yuan (roughly $63.5 million). The ruling was issued by the Ezhou Intermediate Folks’s Courtroom in Hubei Province and shared through its official WeChat account.

Based on the courtroom, the rip-off ring constructed a fraudulent buying and selling platform referred to as OurBit (OURBIT), which claimed to be a Singapore-registered trade with monetary licenses from the US and the UK. The platform promoted options comparable to “zero slippage,” “modern stop-loss instruments,” and displayed faux buying and selling charts mimicking actual Bitcoin market knowledge. It listed 9 fictitious cryptocurrencies to create the phantasm of a legit, skilled buying and selling atmosphere.

To lure buyers, members of the group posed as funding “academics” in WeChat teams, the place they posted faux revenue screenshots and inspired customers to attempt the platform. Victims have been enticed into utilizing high-leverage merchandise, and in lots of instances, discovered their balances worn out as a consequence of manipulated buying and selling situations.

The platform was, in actuality, a closed system the place customers unknowingly wagered towards the platform itself with no connection to exterior markets. Knowledge was manipulated to set off margin calls and pretend volatility. For the few customers who made important earnings, the platform would freeze withdrawals or push them to reinvest till all funds have been misplaced.

Behind the operation was a structured group with departments for enterprise, product, and technical operations. First-level brokers have been recruited with guarantees of excessive commissions and supplied with demo accounts to lure sub-agents and victims. The rip-off operated with a transparent division of labor, and brokers used pre-scripted pitches and pretend credentials to take care of the phantasm of legitimacy.

The courtroom dominated that the defendants, led by a person with the surname of Cheng, engaged in fraud by fabricating details and concealing the character of the platform to acquire funds illegally. The case was break up into a number of trials as a consequence of its complexity and variety of defendants. All sentences have now taken impact, with jail phrases starting from three to 12 years, together with fines.

Extra Japanese corporations are shopping for Bitcoin

Japanese cell recreation developer Enish Inc. has grow to be the most recent publicly traded firm in Japan to undertake Bitcoin, asserting plans to buy ¥100 million (roughly $660,000) value of the cryptocurrency between April 1 and April 4 via a home crypto trade.

Enish, recognized for its Web3 recreation De:Lithe Final Recollections, stated the acquisition is a part of its broader push into Web3. The corporate framed the transfer as a technique to deepen its technical understanding of blockchain expertise and help future recreation growth via hands-on publicity.

The transfer follows a rising development amongst Japanese corporations. Metaplanet, a former lodge operator turned Web3 enterprise, has grow to be the continent’s most aggressive company Bitcoin consumers. Since adopting a Bitcoin-centric treasury technique, Metaplanet has amassed over 4,200 BTC, making it Asia’s largest publicly listed Bitcoin holder and the ninth-largest globally.

The wave of company Bitcoin adoption comes as Japanese regulators weigh doable updates to crypto oversight. On March 30, Nikkei reported that Japan’s Monetary Providers Company (FSA) was making ready a invoice to reclassify cryptocurrencies as monetary devices beneath the Monetary Devices and Trade Act, probably subjecting crypto to the identical insider buying and selling legal guidelines that govern inventory markets.

Nonetheless, the FSA has since pushed again on the report. In an announcement to Cointelegraph on April 1, an company spokesperson stated that no choice has been made relating to revisions to the regulation or the reclassification of crypto property as monetary devices.

Regardless of the uncertainty, Japan has just lately taken a notably pro-crypto stance. Regulators issued the nation’s first license for dealing with stablecoins to SBI VC Commerce, permitting it to help Circle’s USDC. The federal government can also be shifting forward with tax reforms that would cut back capital good points tax on crypto from 55% to twenty%, and the FSA is reviewing its ban on crypto-based exchange-traded funds.

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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 lined Asian tech tales as an assistant reporter for Bloomberg BNA and Forbes. He spends his free time cooking, and experimenting with new recipes.