ChainCatcher

News from Asia, for the World🌏

🇰🇷 South Korea reportedly plans an 11% capital gains tax from 2027 on profits from U.S. stock perpetual futures traded on overseas crypto exchanges. Maeil Business Newspaper says authorities would classify the contracts as foreign equity derivatives, taxing annual gains above a KRW 2.5 million deduction. The reported rate is half the 22% charged on overseas spot stocks. The report cites government sources; official confirmation is pending.

🇨🇳 Elon Musk’s AI service Grok now offers Alipay and UnionPay at subscription checkout, IT Home reports. Billing-region options include mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao. Grok, Cursor and X Premium are bundled under The X Subscription. Available payment methods vary by country and plan, with checkout showing the options each user can access.

🇨🇳 China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning responds, “We are not aware of the situation,” when asked about U.S. allegations linking North Korea to the Binance hack and Trump’s comments. At the Nov. 2 briefing, a reporter cited the FBI’s Oct. 31 attribution of the roughly $6.3 billion theft to North Korea. Trump has said he would raise the issue with Pyongyang if the link is confirmed.

🇯🇵 Claude developer Anthropic plans to sell up to $3.5 billion (¥552.9 billion) in new shares to investors in Japan as part of its U.S. IPO. Proceeds will fund working capital, operating expenses and capital expenditure, according to a filing. The document did not disclose the IPO’s overall size or valuation.

🇨🇳 China’s top prosecutor highlights two personal-data trafficking cases involving crypto payments, with combined case values exceeding RMB 9.44 million. In one case involving over RMB 1.98 million, a group paid overseas data sellers in crypto and resold the information in China. In another involving over RMB 7.46 million, defendants illegally obtained and sold more than 870,000 jobseeker records overseas, accepting crypto before converting it to yuan. Both judgments are final.

🇰🇷Brookfield leads $8 billion GPU financing in South Korea Global investment company Brookfield has appointed KB Kookmin Bank as the lead arranger for the largest syndicated loan in South Korea's history. The loan amounts to 10.7 trillion Korean won (approximately 8 billion USD) and aims to provide funding support for South Korean tech giant NAVER to procure artificial intelligence chips.

🇰🇷 South Korea’s central bank is surveying 18 banks and 13 securities firms on their crypto businesses and related risks. The questionnaire covers business development, investments in crypto companies and risk controls. It assesses how scenarios including a hack halting the country’s largest crypto exchange, sharp price falls and shrinking trading activity could affect financial firms. It was sent Oct. 23, with responses due Nov. 4.

🇰🇷 LATEST: South Korea’s October exports jump 93.7% year on year to $115.28 billion, the fastest growth since January 1974. Chip exports rise 259.4% to $56.44 billion, supported by AI infrastructure demand. Extra working days compared with last October also boosted growth. January–October exports reached $930 billion, with the government expecting the cumulative total to exceed $1 trillion in November.

🇰🇷🇯🇵 South Korea’s KOSPI closes down 3.53%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 falls 2.12% on Oct. 30. Memory chipmakers SK hynix and Samsung Electronics drop about 7% and 3%, respectively. Electronics stocks weigh on Japan’s market.

🇰🇷 Crypto platform Backpack partners with South Korean brokerage SK Securities to develop Korean stock trading services for eligible foreign investors based outside South Korea. The service is planned for Backpack’s app, building on its existing U.S. securities business. The firms will also explore tokenized securities and real-world assets.

🇰🇷 South Korea’s ruling Democratic Party will meet five major crypto exchanges on Oct. 30 to discuss postponing a tax on crypto gains. The levy is scheduled for January 2027. A proposal seeks a 2029 start, citing gaps in tax infrastructure and access to overseas trading data. No postponement has been approved.

🇰🇷 South Korean crypto exchange Prabang suspends services after reporting about KRW 100 million in losses from a hack. The platform detected unusual hot-wallet outflows on Oct. 24 and pledged to fully reimburse affected users using company assets. The cause and final losses remain under investigation.

🇭🇰 The Hong Kong arm of South Korean brokerage Mirae Asset Securities completes a tokenized funding note issuance on Solana. The six-month USD floating-rate notes were privately placed with eligible institutional investors under its $3 billion Guaranteed Structured Note Programme. Marketnode served as distributor.

🇨🇳 LATEST: Li Liang, VP at ByteDance’s Douyin Group, rejects claims of a “ByteDance era” in China’s internet sector. Commentator Qin Shuo cited August estimates showing ByteDance apps captured 41.8% of time spent across China’s 50 most-used mobile apps, versus Tencent’s 28.6%. Li said the sample excluded other apps and PC usage.

🇰🇷 LATEST: South Korean memory chipmaker SK hynix expects memory shortages to persist through 2030. The company says AI investment is expanding to more businesses and governments. Increasing manufacturing complexity and long lead times for new factories are keeping supply growth behind demand.

🇰🇷 South Korean memory chipmaker SK hynix plans about KRW 100 trillion in shareholder returns for 2026. Q3 revenue reached KRW 104.62 trillion, while operating profit rose 632% year on year to a record KRW 83.33 trillion. Net profit was KRW 39.78 trillion, down 58% quarter on quarter. Returns include dividends, buybacks and share cancellations.