China's Nanjing launches $1.5 billion blockchain fund

Nanjing City has launched a 10 billion yuan blockchain investment fund to foster the token economy and public blockchain projects in China.

The capital of Jiangsu province, China, together with Zhongguancun Blockchain Industry Alliance, a Beijing-based alliance formed by blockchain companies and government research institutes, announced the $1.48 billion fund at the inaugural Industrial Public Chain Summit (IPCS) attended by Luo Qun, deputy secretary of the Communist Party of China in Nanjing, among other high-level local government officials.

Among the fund's first beneficiaries will be the UDAP Foundation and TokenX Community.The aim is to see new blockchain technologies in cross-border platforms, content, healthcare, energy, intellectual property, and environmental protection.

Yuandao, chairman of Zhongguancun Blockchain Industry Alliance, said industries adopting blockchain technology will bring about countless more chains, which in turn will bring more technological breakthroughs.

Nanjing will also help blockchain companies move their base to the city. At the summit, Wang Xiaohui, deputy chairman of Tsinghua University's Internet Industry Research Center, said global cooperation, convergence with industries, consensus, and autonomy will be the key to the token economy's success going forward.

Oh Kap-soo, chairman of South Korea's government-backed finance research institute Global Finance Society who also attended the summit, said blockchain had wide applicability in education, science, and finance, and that the two countries working together can speed up technological development.

China is currently the world's leader in terms of a number of blockchain patents filed, while South Korea has one of the most vibrant cryptocurrency exchanges in the world.