KuCoin leads $10M funding for Chinese yuan stablecoin issuer

cointelegraph.com:

The investment arm of major cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin is moving to support new stablecoin initiatives by backing a Chinese yuan-pegged stablecoin issuer.

KuCoin Ventures has led a $10 million investment into stablecoin issuer and blockchain-based payment service provider known as CNHC.

Announcing the news on March 16, KuCoin Ventures said that the funding round included some prominent industry investors, including KuCoin’s investor IDG Capital and Circle Ventures, the investment arm of the USD Coin (USDC) issuer, Circle.

KuCoin chief investment officer and KuCoin Ventures lead Justin Chou told Cointelegraph that the new investment in CNHC is the first time for KuCoin Ventures to invest in a stablecoin-related project.

“KuCoin is always interested in building a stronger infrastructure for the financial system,” Chou said, adding that the world is likely to see more real world asset-backed stablecoins in the near future. He added:

The investment​​ into CNHC reflects KuCoin Ventures' strategy of backing the Web3 infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific region, Chou said. According to the announcement, KuCoin Ventures also invested $10 million in China’s blockchain project Conflux in early 2022. Chou noted that Hong Kong has a well-established traditional finance ecosystem and has a “real opportunity at becoming the new crypto center of the world” with new regulations and policy for digital assets.

CNHC co-founder Joy Cham told Cointelegraph that the platform launched its offshore yuan-pegged stablecoin CNHC about two years ago. He described the stablecoin as a “more akin to a house settlement tool” referring to CNHC’s limited exposure. According to data from CoinMarketCap, the CNHC stablecoin is only listed on one centralized