Report | Crypto

Hong Kong's monetary authority said only a small number of stablecoin issuers will be approved initially, as application reviews near completion. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), Hong Kong's financial regulator, is preparing to grant its first stablecoin issuer licenses in March, according to a Reuters report.  During a Legislative Council meeting on Monday, HKMA Chief Executive Eddie Yue reportedly said the regulator’s review of stablecoin license applications was nearing completion. Yue added that the initial approvals will be limited, with only a “very small number” of licenses expected to be issued in the first batch.  At a subsequent media briefing, the regulator said the assessments were focused on use cases, risk management, anti-money laundering (AML) controls and the quality of backing assets. Licensed issuers are also expected to comply with Hong Kong’s cross-border activity rules.  Read more

Brian Armstrong made the media rounds before and after he announced Coinbase was pulling its support for a major US crypto bill, reportedly facing off with Jamie Dimon in Davos. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon reportedly confronted Brian Armstrong during a coffee chat at Davos last week, telling the Coinbase CEO to stop lying about banks trying to sabotage the digital asset market structure bill under consideration in the US Congress. According to a Thursday report from The Wall Street Journal, the confrontation between Dimon and Armstrong occurred at the World Economic Forum last week when the Coinbase CEO was having coffee with former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. Dimon reportedly interrupted Armstrong, saying the CEO was “full of s—,” referring to TV interviews in which the Coinbase CEO accused banks of interfering with the US market structure bill.  Banking industry advocates have opposed allowing stablecoin rewards under the legislation. However, many in the crypto industry, including Armstrong, have push...

A potential listing would further legitimize digital asset custody as core market infrastructure rather than a niche service following BitGo's public launch. Digital asset custodian Copper is reportedly weighing an initial public offering (IPO) shortly after rival BitGo debuted on the New York Stock Exchange, underscoring growing institutional appetite for cryptocurrency infrastructure companies.  Citing sources close to the discussions, CoinDesk reported Thursday that Copper is exploring its public listing options, with Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup among the banks involved. A Copper spokesperson said the company is not currently planning a public listing, but declined to comment on whether the custodian is in early-stage talks about going public. Read more

US President Donald Trump's administration is seeking to break a deadlock over crypto market structure legislation as lawmakers remain divided on stablecoin yield. Officials in the administration of US President Donald Trump are reportedly set to sit down with executives from the banking and cryptocurrency industries on Monday as lawmakers attempt to revive the stalled CLARITY Act. People familiar with the matter told Reuters the meeting will be hosted by the White House’s crypto council and will bring together industry trade groups to discuss how the bill treats interest and other rewards offered on dollar-pegged stablecoins. The legislation has been held up in the Senate for months, with a scheduled Banking Committee vote postponed earlier this month amid concerns from lawmakers and industry groups over the stablecoin interest provision. Read more

Nomura-backed Laser Digital has filed for a US national trust bank charter with the OCC to bring its crypto business under federal regulation, the FT reported. The post Nomura’s Crypto Arm Laser Digital Eyes US Bank Charter: Report appeared first on Cryptonews.

If approved, the move would let the company bypass state-by-state licensing and offer federally regulated crypto trading without taking deposits. Laser Digital, a full-service digital asset company backed by Japanese financial group Nomura, has reportedly filed for a US national bank trust charter, signaling that crypto-focused companies are seeking deeper integration into the US financial system amid a more permissive regulatory environment. Citing sources familiar with the matter, the Financial Times reported Tuesday that Laser Digital had submitted its application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The charter would allow the company to operate at the federal level without applying for state-by-state custody licenses. The company plans to offer spot trading for digital assets but does not intend to take customer deposits, the report said. Read more

Winter storm Fern is currently sweeping across the United States and has already left 1 million residents without electrical power. The hashrate of Foundry USA, a digital asset advisory firm with the world’s largest Bitcoin (BTC) mining pool, has curtailed its hashrate by about 60% since Friday in response to the severe winter storm impacting large swaths of the United States. “Bitcoin hashrate on Foundry USA alone is down by nearly 200 exahashes per second (EH/s), or 60%, since Friday amid continued curtailment. Temporary block production has slowed down to 12 minutes,” according to TheMinerMag.  FoundryUSA still commands about 198 (EH/s) of hashing power, accounting for about 23% of the global mining pool hashrate, data from Hashrate Index shows.  Read more

The plan would give ultra-high net worth clients an in-house crypto on-ramp at one of the world's biggest private banks. The world’s biggest global wealth manager, UBS, is reportedly exploring a move to open crypto trading to its wealthiest clients.  Bloomberg reported Friday, citing a person familiar with the matter, that the Swiss banking giant aims to let select private banking clients in Switzerland trade Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) first, with a possible rollout to the Asia‑Pacific region and the United States later. The person also reportedly said that UBS was currently selecting partners for its crypto offering, although the bank has not publicly confirmed the details. Read more

Revolut is planning to apply for a US banking license through the OCC after previously considering a bank acquisition that could have required branch commitments. Crypto-friendly fintech unicorn Revolut plans to apply for a banking license in the United States, abandoning earlier plans to acquire a local lender as it seeks to expand its global presence, the Financial Times reported Friday. The United Kingdom-based fintech has been in discussions with US officials about applying for a bank license through the Office for the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the newspaper reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. The move, if confirmed, would be a milestone in strategy for Revolut, which said in September 2025 that it was exploring the purchase of a US bank to accelerate its global expansion. Read more

The lawsuit was filed days after the president threatened on social media to sue the banking giant for debanking him weeks after his supporters attacked the US Capitol in 2021. US President Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit in Florida state court against JPMorgan, claiming that the banking giant terminated accounts connected to the president and his businesses “without warning or provocation.” According to a Thursday Bloomberg report, Trump filed a complaint in the Miami-Dade County state court, seeking $5 billion in damages from JPMorgan and its CEO, Jamie Dimon. The complaint was not available on the court’s public docket at the time of publication. The lawsuit accused JPMorgan of trade libel and breach of implied covenant of good faith, and Dimon of violating Florida’s deceptive trade practices law. A spokesperson for the bank said the lawsuit had no merit and JPMorgan “does not close accounts for political or religious reasons.” Read more

The preliminary injunction against the prediction markets platform reportedly came at the request of Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell. Prediction markets platform Kalshi could face legal complications operating in the US state of Massachusetts after a judge reportedly ruled that residents could not use the website for sports betting. According to a Tuesday Reuters report, Suffolk County Superior Court Judge Christopher Barry-Smith said he would issue a preliminary injunction against Kalshi prohibiting the platform from offering sports betting for residents without the required gaming license.  The ruling followed Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell filing a lawsuit against Kalshi in September, alleging that the platform offered “illegal and unsafe sports wagering.” According to Reuters, Tuesday’s injunction came at Campbell’s request. Read more

South Korea is reportedly reviewing exclusive bank partnerships for crypto exchanges as regulators assess competition and prepare the Digital Asset Basic Act. South Korea’s financial regulators are reviewing a long-standing practice that effectively ties each cryptocurrency exchange to a single banking partner, as part of a broader examination of competition in the country’s crypto market, according to local media. Business media outlet the Herald Economy, citing government officials familiar with inter-agency discussions, said a review effort is being coordinated between the Financial Services Commission (FSC) and the Fair Trade Commission as policymakers evaluate whether existing practices contribute to market concentration.  Although the “one exchange–one bank” model is not explicitly codified in South Korean laws, it emerged in practice due to Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and customer due diligence requirements.  Read more

The London-based financial technology company is pushing deeper into Latin America as regional competition among digital banks heats up. Revolut, a London-based digital banking and payments company, has applied for a full banking license in Peru as part of its expansion across Latin America, Bloomberg reported on Monday. If approved, the license will allow the company to operate as a regulated bank in the country, adding Peru to a list of regional markets alongside Mexico, Colombia and Brazil. Bloomberg said Revolut plans to compete primarily with incumbent banks rather than newer fintech rivals. Revolut has identified remittances and cross-border payments as key parts of its local strategy, noting that about 1 million people in Peru rely on money sent from abroad. Read more

South Korea’s customs agency charged three suspects over a more than $100 million crypto-linked remittance scheme using WeChat Pay and Alipay, per Yonhap. South Korean authorities have uncovered an underground remittance operation that moved roughly 150 billion won (about $100 million to $110 million) through digital assets, according to local media reports. The Korea Customs Service has referred three suspects for prosecution, including a Chinese man in his 30s, on charges of violating the Foreign Exchange Transaction Act, Yonhap News reported Monday. Over the past four years, the illicit operation has allegedly laundered more than $100 million collected through WeChat Pay and Alipay, which was converted into cryptocurrencies through overseas exchanges and transferred into South Korean wallets before being converted back to fiat currency. Read more

Coinbase withdrew support for the CLARITY Act, warning the draft would restrict DeFi, ban tokenized equities and eliminate stablecoin rewards. The White House is considering withdrawing its support for crypto market structure bill following a similar move from crypto exchange Coinbase, according to Fox Business reporter Eleanor Terrett, citing a source close to the Trump administration. In a Sunday post on X, Terrett reported that the White House is furious over Coinbase’s decision to pull its backing for the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, describing the move as a “unilateral” action that blindsided administration officials. “The White House is said to be furious with Coinbase’s “unilateral” action on Wednesday, which it apparently was not notified of in advance, calling it a “rug pull” against the White House and the rest of the industry,” she wrote. Read more

Being the first federally chartered bank, Anchorage is looking to become a leading stablecoin issuer in 2026, with plans to double the size of its stablecoin team this year. Institutional crypto platform Anchorage Digital is looking to raise hundreds of millions of dollars of fresh capital as it eyes a potential Initial Public Offering. The raise would be in the $200 million to $400 million range, while a possible IPO is slated for sometime next year, according to a Bloomberg report on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter who asked to remain anonymous. Anchorage’s affiliate, Anchorage Digital Bank National Association, became the first federally chartered crypto bank in 2021 and is now well-positioned to lead stablecoin issuance and related services following the passage of the GENIUS Act in July. Read more

Coinbase began rolling out stock trading through traditional rails as CEO Brian Armstrong advances plans for an "everything exchange" combining equities, crypto, and tokenized assets, though fully blockchain-native shares remain years away pending SEC coordination. The post Coinbase Rolls Out Stock Trading to Select Users in ‘All-in-One’ Platform Push: Report appeared first on Cryptonews.

The Vienna-based crypto platform is weighing a potential 2026 listing in Germany as more digital asset companies position for public markets. Austria-based Crypto trading platform Bitpanda is moving forward with plans for a public listing in Frankfurt, targeting a debut in the first half of 2026 with a valuation of 4 billion euros ($4.7 billion) to 5 billion euros. The IPO could take place as early as the first quarter, with the company working alongside Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the offering. No final decisions have been made and the listing timeline may change. Founded in 2014, Bitpanda is a European fintech and crypto trading platform offering digital-asset services and investment products to more than 7 million users in the region, according to the company. Read more

The Nasdaq-listed company is rolling out an onchain equity system that allows real shares to be issued and lent directly on blockchain infrastructure. Figure Technology Solutions, a blockchain-focused financial technology company, is pushing stock lending on-chain with a new system that allows investors to lend shares directly to one another without relying on traditional securities intermediaries. Bloomberg reported Wednesday that the company has launched the On-Chain Public Equity Network, known as OPEN, which allows companies to issue real equity directly on Figure’s Provenance blockchain. Unlike other tokenized stock offerings, which typically mirror existing shares through synthetic instruments, the equity issued on OPEN represents actual ownership. Those shares can be lent or pledged directly on the blockchain, bypassing intermediaries such as custodians, exchanges and brokers, according to Figure CEO Mike Cagney. Read more

Lithuania-licensed crypto payments app Brighty brokered over 100 property deals worth $500,000 to $2.5 million across UK, France, and Malta for wealthy clients spending $50,000 monthly, with euro-backed stablecoin transaction sizes jumping from €15,785 in Q3 to €59,894 in Q4 as buyers favor EURC over USDC to eliminate conversion costs for European purchases. The post Stablecoins Power $500K-$2.5M Property Deals Across UK, France, and Malta: Report appeared first on Cryptonews.