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The name Wong Thean Soon rang a bell.
I had learned only last week that his company, Malaysian tech giant MyEG, entered the NFT world via a marketplace called Pangolin. Wong said MyEG will pioneer NFTs “pegged to ownership of mainstream assets” such as a vehicle registration number, for starters.
A Google search showed that in 2021, Wong landed on the 50 richest list of Forbes Malaysia, which had pegged his net worth at US$470 million. According to the magazine, he also designed the e-government portal that led the country’s push into the digital economy.
Cryptocurrency is a natural extension of the digital economy. And thanks to MX Global, which runs a licensed digital asset exchange in Malaysia, one of the world’s biggest crypto trading platforms is now in the country. Binance had recently taken a strategic stake in MX Global while Cuscapi, a Bursa Malaysia-listed tech company, is also investing US$955,000 in exchange for preference shares.
At the center of all these developments sits one person: Wong.
In this week’s Big Story, my colleague Emmanuel discusses the tech mogul behind Binance’s foray into Malaysia. Read on to get the detailed picture.
THE BIG STORY
The tech mogul backing Binance’s Malaysia breakthrough
Image credit: Timmy Loen
The tight network of industry veterans pushing to collaborate with one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges is linked to a Malaysian govtech tycoon.
THE HOT TAKE
StashAway breaks new ground
Photo credit: Max Pixel
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