A crypto scheme that’s too good to be true?

Dear readers,

I’ve learned the hard way that if something sounds too good to be true, it often is. As journalists, our antennas spring up when we come across what seems like a juicy scoop, but we proceed with caution to make sure that the story checks out.

It’s the same in the world of investments. Last week, we reported on an Indonesian crypto scheme that promises almost 3x returns within a year, exceeding what top venture capitalists make in the same span of time.

The scheme basically pools money from investors to mine blockchain tokens minted by Vidy, a blockchain startup.

The problem? The startup’s co-founder has dismissed the scheme, despite openly associating with it in the past. But the group offering the investment product is pressing on with recruiting by doing tours in various cities. Want to know more? Read this intriguing story..

Packages sold by VidyCoin Community Indonesia. It promises 2x to 3.5x returns for users. / Image credit: RewardCity marketing collateral

We’ve also published the second edition of our ecommerce newsletter, The Checkout. In the companion premium story, we discussed why Indonesia’s unicorns have avoided community group buying, an ecommerce model that’s taking root in China’s Tier 2 cities and beyond.

To help you keep track of listed companies in our region, we’ve released this calendar of earnings releases by Asian tech players. With the number of initial public offerings happening this year, we think you’ll find this useful.

Moving upstream, we’ve also debuted this list of fundraising startups from the region. We’ve already listed dozens of entries there, and we’ll be adding more every week. I hope that startups and investors will find it handy.

To round off the week, we looked at how Southeast Asia’s spacetech industry can truly take off, profiled a startup that wants to help users write adult fiction via AI, and updated our landscape map of the key players in Vietnam’s fintech battleground.

You can expect more premium content from us in the coming weeks. We’ve been beefing up our team of journalists and copyeditors, and we’re also making more graphics like this Grab visual timeline.

We’re working to take things up another notch, so do subscribe to Tech in Asia so that we can deliver better coverage.

Best regards,

Terence Lee
Editor-in-Chief