In December 2023, the Cambodia technology snapshot briefly captured items spanning cryptocurrency-based crime, the recent wide-angle CamTech Summit, a look at 4 of the Kingdom’s tech startups, and the successes claimed by Cambodia’s Bakong digital currency.
Other editions: Asia’s tech news, daily (via LinkedIn, Facebook & Twitter/X); and Indo-Pacific technology newsletters, weekly.
Also available:
Critical technologies in December 2023
Coinbase Institutional: 2024 Crypto Market Outlook
- Cambodia: A brief overview of the recent CamTech Summit 2023, an attempt to bring together policymakers, regulators, businesses and tech industry figures
- Cambodia: An overview of the recent Pitch Perfect 2 event, and an introduction to 4 of the Kingdom’s tech startups, working on AI-backed HR-tech, coffee industry agri-tech and more
- Cambodia: Central bank head claims Bakong CBDC now has 10M user accounts; looks to grow payments, adding China to Thailand, Laos, Vietnam; and inks MOUs including with Solomon Islands
- Cambodia: “Tether is banned in Cambodia but is frequently used to move money in and out of China… for gambling, and laundering money… also appeals to crime groups running online gaming and cyber scams in Southeast Asia…” >>>
Like all cryptocurrencies, Tether (or USDT) – a so-called stablecoin because its value is tied to the US dollar – is officially banned for trade in Cambodia.
Yet security experts say it has fast become an integral part of the country’s shadow economy; with a low fee and no restrictions to move, hide and launder money at speed.
Even those running Phnom Penh’s ecosystem of bricks-and-mortar crypto exchanges and online USDT exchanges admit they are running a parallel financial service in the developing economy.
One Cambodia-registered financial platform, Huione Pay, has a branch which looks like any other bank, except the tellers discuss USDT exchange options with customers. But its main activities occur online.
“In a sense, the perfect operating conditions for criminals have been created in border areas and special economic zones of the region,” said Jeremy Douglas, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s regional representative. He explained that cryptocurrency – particularly USDT traded on the TRON exchange platform – was heavily used by cyber criminals and the region’s governments were not able to keep up.
Cambodia Data Exchange Platform
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