Chinese EV start-up WM Motor reportedly cut employees’ salaries by up to 50%

Hong Kong and Singapore’s wealthy elite are growing more interested in crypto and digital assets investment, KMPG and Aspen Digital suggested. According to a Oct 24 report from KPMG China and Aspen Digital titled “Investing in Digital Assets, more than 90% of family offices and high-net-worth individuals (HNWI) are interested in investing in the digital assets sector or have already done so. The report focuses on surveying family offices and HNWIs in Hong Kong and Singapore that manage assets between $10 million and $500 million, it showed that 58% of family offices and HNWI of respondents are already investing in digital assets, and 34% “plan to do so.” The report indicated that institutions have increased engagement in digital asset financial products, including regulated products. Driven by institutional adoption and attention, super riches feel a lot more confident in crypto sector. DBS, Singapore’s largest bank, expected approximately 100,000 wealth clients using crypto services on its digital exchange (DDEx).  However, the allocations remain relatively small, with most allocating less than 5% of their portfolio to digital assets — mainly in Bitcoin and Ether. In July, KPMG highlighted in its report that Asia Pacific is in the midst of a major business shift as fast-growing companies tap the potential of new technologies particularly Web 3.  Based on a survey of 6,472 Asian Pacific technology startups with valuations up to USD500 million, KPMG and HSBC found that over 25 percent (1,780 out of 6472) emerging giants tied to blockchain sectors. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralized finance (Defi) took top two spot of the top 20 industry subsectors where Asian Pacific “emerging giants” were active, blockchain real estate and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO) were also present among the top 20 subsector, reflecting the current focus across the region on digital assets and Web3.0.