📝115: Hong Kong’s Crypto Flex
SEC approves yield-bearing stablecoins. SEC drops case against Coinbase. Animoca Brands launches stablecoin. Tether invests in Juventus. Coinbase sponsors Aston Martin. xAI releases Grok-3.
👋 Hey, it’s Marc.
We’re going to launch the beta of our AI x crypto intelligence platform soon. Join the waitlist for early access.
Then: Solana just took a hit—user activity is down nearly 40% as memecoin rug pulls drain trust and capital. Meanwhile, Ethereum and Arbitrum are laughing their way to the bank. The hype cycle strikes again.
On the other side of crypto, the SEC just approved the first yield-bearing stablecoin—big news for digital asset adoption in the US.
Meanwhile, corporations are loading up on Bitcoin, and Michael Saylor thinks the U.S. will do the same. Metaplanet Inc., the Japanese BTC treasury company, just upped its 2,100 BTC to its reserves, gunning for 10,000 BTC by 2025.
Memecoins rugged, Bitcoin hugged.
This week’s question:
📚 Our Top Reads This Week
Everything that happened in AI agents this week. Link
The Bitcoin Ecosystem. Epoch Management. Link
From Bees to Bytes. Maja Vujinovic. Link
State of Brands in Gaming & Virtual Worlds. GEEIQ. Link
RWA is the Gold Rush. Paul Veradittakit. Link
Beyond Digital Gold: Bitcoin's Evolution into a Full-Service Blockchain Platform. SBR. Link
AI-led token launches are the new fundraising hack. Marc Baumann. Link
Real World Assets. Our Network. Link
The Ultimate AI x Crypto Intelligence Platform
Compare, analyze, and track AI startups & vendors in real-time — powered by research and data, not hype. Join the waitlist for exclusive early access 👉
Animoca Brands Launches Stablecoin
Standard Chartered, Animoca Brands, and HKT are going to launch the one of the first HKD-backed stablecoin under Hong Kong’s regulatory framework. [Press Release]
The role of each partner:
Standard Chartered: Leverages its bank-grade governance, infrastructure, and global reach.
Animoca Brands: Focuses on exploring crypto-native opportunities.
HKT: Utilizes its mobile wallet expertise to enhance stablecoin payment use cases.
The State of Crypto in Hong Kong: By December 2024, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) had issued licenses to seven cryptocurrency exchanges.
The HKMA has approved three stablecoin issuers, including the Standard Chartered joint venture.
The government has proposed tax exemptions on alternative assets, benefiting private equity funds, hedge funds, family offices, and crypto investment gains.
Why it matters: Hong Kong has clear crypto rules, including stablecoin regulations and licensing for virtual asset firms. Standard Chartered’s HKD-backed stablecoin sets a precedent for banks to issue compliant digital money, making stablecoins more usable for businesses and payments. This move strengthens Hong Kong’s role as a global Web3 hub.
What they’re saying:
“Standard Chartered looks forward to becoming one of the first issuers launching an HKD-backed stablecoin together with our strategic partners, bringing an innovative medium of exchange to Hong Kong and charting a new chapter for Hong Kong’s digital asset market.“
— Mary Huen, CEO, Hong Kong & Greater China & North Asia, Standard Chartered
I’ll keep it short: 51 can help your Web3 & AI scale-ups to become the go-to name for enterprises & brands. We’ve built the highest-quality growth engine in Web3:
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Let’s talk.
xAI releases Grok-3
xAI, Elon Musk’s AI company, released Grok 3, its latest AI model, along with updates to the Grok app on iOS and web.
What’s special? It can analyze images, respond to complex questions, perform deep research, and is integrated into X.
What you should know: xAI used a data center in Memphis with 200,000 GPUs to train Grok 3.
It was developed using 10x more computing power than Grok 2.
The training data includes legal filings and other new sources.
Grok 3 Mini: Smaller version designed for faster responses but with lower accuracy.
Performance and Benchmarks
xAI claims Grok 3 outperforms OpenAI’s GPT-4o on multiple benchmarks.
It scored highly on:
AIME 2025 (math performance test)
GPQA (graduate-level reasoning test in science subjects)
Chatbot Arena (a competitive AI ranking system)
Zooming in: Grok-3 Reasoning models fact-check and refine their answers before responding. It can be accessed in multiple modes like “Think” mode and “Big Brain” mode.
X Premium+ ($50/month) gives early access to Grok 3 (Free access now)
A new SuperGrok plan ($30/month or $300/year) unlocks:
More reasoning queries
DeepSearch access
Unlimited AI-generated images
What’s next: Voice Mode will launch within a week, giving Grok models a synthesized voice. Also, Grok 3 will be available via an enterprise API within a few weeks.
🚨 Other Highlights You Can’t Miss
Kaiko’s strategy on token launch, airdrop and fundraising. Link
Animoca Brands is bringing Japan’s martial arts event to Web3. Link
Coinbase sponsors Aston Martin’s F1 team, with the entire deal paid in USDC. Link
Coinbase says the US SEC agreed “in principle” to drop its 2023 case against the company. Link
Tether’s investment in Juventus FC. Link
Yuga Labs has sold Meebits—the 3D avatar NFT collection. Link
👉 Keep up with all our signals for Web3 execs on our Telegram channel.
💰 Money Moves
Blockaid: Web3 security tool raised $50M Series B led by Ribbit Capital. Link
Hashkey Group: Web3 infrastructure company raised $30M led by Gaorong Capital. Link
Mango Network: Layer 1 public blockchain raised $13.5M led by Ainfra Ventures. Link
Mansa Finance: RWA fixed income protocol raised $10M led by Tether. Link
That’s all for now, folks.
Talk soon,
– Marc & Team
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