It is one of the last big money managers you would expect to take an interest in cryptocurrencies.
However, Korea Post, which oversees US$112 billion and is run by the same South Korean government that warned virtual currencies might corrupt the nation’s youth, is trying to learn more about the nascent market.
Korea Post president Kang Seong-ju said in an interview that he discussed cryptocurrencies with David Solomon, the incoming CEO of Goldman Sachs Group Inc, at a recent meeting in New York.
Korea Post staff is to meet with Goldman’s crypto research team in Hong Kong at the end of this month to study digital assets, blockchain and related areas, such as artificial intelligence.
“I asked Goldman to pass on their know-how in the cryptocurrency area,” Kang said in an interview in Seoul. “Since cryptocurrencies are considered to have potential, and are something many people are watching, we’ll need to learn the strengths and weaknesses.”
While Korea Post has no plans to invest in virtual currencies, the research trip underscores how the once-fringe asset class is moving closer to the mainstream.
Goldman, one of the first Wall Street companies to clear regulated bitcoin futures, has hired a head of digital-asset markets and is said to be considering a plan to offer cryptocurrency custody services as more institutional investors express interest in the space.
The New York-based firm declined to comment on its arrangements with Korea Post.
In South Korea, one of the hot spots for last year’s global cryptomania, policymakers have generally taken a dim view of the market and the government banned initial public offerings in September last year.
Virtual currencies yesterday plunged for the second time in less than 24 hours, sinking toward a nine-month low amid concern that broader adoption of digital assets would take longer than anticipated.
Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, tumbled as much as 9.8 percent and was trading at US$6,422 as of 1:25pm in Hong Kong, according to Bloomberg composite pricing.
The Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index, a gauge of the largest digital assets, traded near its lowest level since November last year as rival coins Ripple, Ether and Litecoin also fell.
Business Insider on Wednesday reported that Goldman was pulling back on near-term plans to set up a crypto trading desk, while trading platform ShapeShift AG on Tuesday said that it would begin asking users for personal information — a policy that might drive away customers who value anonymity.
The moves follow last month’s decision by US regulators to reject another round of bitcoin exchange-traded fund proposals.
While many banks and institutional investors are dipping their toes into the world of cryptocurrencies, concerns about everything from money laundering to market manipulation and unclear regulations have prevented widespread adoption.
The market value of virtual currencies tracked by CoinMarketCap.com has slumped about 75 percent from its January peak to US$204 billion.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts