Korea is working on market manipulation, Japan's Bakkt, and more.

Welcome to Asia Pacific Morning Brief. An essential digest of overnight cryptographic development that shapes regional markets and global sentiment. Grab some green tea and look at this space.

South Korea cracks down on cryptographic operations, and Japanese companies pivot towards a Bitcoin strategy. Meanwhile, Alibaba-related entities will make significant Ethereum investments, signaling broader institutional adoption across the Asia-Pacific market, despite regulatory enforcement measures.

South Korea cracks down on crypto market operations

The South Korean Financial Services Commission has announced a criminal introduction to the manipulation of the crypto market. Large “whale” investors artificially used billions of won to inflate multiple cryptocurrency prices. These manipulators concentrated suspicious orders before selling the entire shares they own when purchasing interest.

Authorities also charged cases involving false social media promotions of crypto assets. The scammers purchased pre-purchased coins before posting fake positive news to attract buyers. This shows the first investigation into unfair transactions through social platforms.

One sophisticated scheme manipulated the tether market to artificially inflate the coin prices of Bitcoin Links. The perpetrator automatically acquired an exchange pricing mechanism to convert cryptocurrency to Korea. The victim lost hundreds of thousands of dollars after being artificially deceived to sell at low prices.

Regulators have imposed the first financial penalty under a new crypto protection law targeting unfair interests. Financial authorities are currently requesting exchanges to display average prices on internal and domestic markets. Authorities warn investors to avoid assets that exhibit price spikes of unknown cause for obvious reasons.

Japanese Textile Giant Eye Bitcoin Conversion

Bakkt CEO Philip Lord announced the extraordinary shareholders meeting for Hotta Marusho from October 16-24. The agenda includes the renamed Bitcoin Japan Corporation and expanding its business operations. The Lord said that Japan will lead the Bitcoin era through this transformation of the Digital Treasury.

Alibaba co-founder company buys major Ethereum stocks

Linked to Alibaba co-founder Jack MA, Yunfeng Financial Group, has purchased 10,000 ETH, worth around $44 million. Fintech companies listed in Hong Kong are recorded in their financial statements as cryptocurrencies as investment assets. The move will expand to Web3, tokenized real-world assets and the decentralized financial sector, in line with its July strategy.

Asian coverage of Beincrypto

Ripple and Singapore Thunes expanded their partnership to streamline cross-border payments in more than 90 markets.

Despite operational and regulatory risks, forecast markets such as Kalshi and Polymarket appear as new asset classes.

Hong Kong has launched a stubbcoin license, while mainland China will tighten restrictions on digital yuan usage.

Other highlights

Argentine parliament summons Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson and testifies at President Miley's Libra scandal probe.

Polymarket will receive CFTC approval for launching in the US market after obtaining a regulated derivative exchange QCX.

Post Korea has been working on market manipulation, Japan's Bakkt, and others first appeared in Beincrypto.