Breaking

Digital assets

Anchorpoint ships HKDAP as HSBC’s twin licence stays idle

Anchorpoint's HKDAP stablecoin went live on 12 August, four months after the HKMA licensed it and HSBC on the same day. It is not a bearer instrument.

Qualified custodian gap: 13 NY charters, 15 OCC applications

The SEC withdrew its qualified custodian overhaul in 2025. Institutional crypto custody now rests on 13 New York trust charters and a staff no-action letter.

Coinbase’s ADGM tokenisation licence stops short of a trading venue

Coinbase's ADGM permission covers arranging deals and custody, but not operating a trading venue. What the Abu Dhabi tokenisation hub can and cannot do.

Bit2Me engine, Cecabank licence: Spain’s rented crypto stack

Cecabank's crypto custody runs on Bit2Me's engine, and Cecabank owns equity in its own vendor. Why Europe's banks now rent the digital-asset stack, not build it.

Google Play blocks 29 offshore crypto apps in Korea, FIU flagged 14

Google Play has blocked 29 offshore crypto exchange apps in Korea, but the FIU formally referred only 14 - the app store is now the market-access gate.

Circle’s 11 Arc validators are the settlement establishment

Circle named 11 founding Arc validators including DTCC, ICE, Visa and BlackRock. A permissioned set of incumbents is not a decentralised network at all.

OFAC sanctions Shelbit and Aban Tether over IRGC crypto flows

OFAC sanctioned Shelbit and Aban Tether on August 7, blocking 14 wallets across five chains and closing the gap that June's Iran exchange sweep left open.

Yellow Card takes $40m from the bank its rails disintermediate

SC Ventures led Yellow Card's $40m round. Its CEO says the endgame is banks settling onchain with no payments companies in the flow — including his own.

Tether takes Hadron to Saudi Arabia, nine rivals already live

Tether's Hadron enters Saudi real-estate tokenisation with First Data and BKN301 — but REGA's sandbox closed in April and nine platforms are already live.

ICE bids for the ETF custody mandate Coinbase already holds

Coinbase custodies 84% of US spot Bitcoin ETF assets. ICE Digital Trust is pitching issuers a second name on the prospectus for a $184bn market.

BNY Mellon adds staking to custody as Galaxy runs validators

BNY adds staking to its digital asset custody platform with Galaxy running validators. The open question is who absorbs slashing loss on a bank balance sheet.

Robinhood agentic trading nears 100,000 accounts, crypto next

Robinhood's agentic trading hit nearly 100,000 accounts and $100m in assets in one quarter. Crypto support is next - and it changes the order-flow race.

Partior PoC settles stablecoins against tokenised deposits

Partior and OpenAssets prove atomic DvP with tokenised bank deposits as the settlement asset — an inversion of the stablecoin narrative, on rails JP Morgan already uses.

Uniswap’s Launches tab bets on Robinhood Chain’s 340k tokens

Uniswap ships a beta Launches tab aggregating Bankr, Pons and Long — as Robinhood Chain mints 340,000 tokens and $12.8bn in monthly Uniswap volume.

Solana Pay heads to 330,000 Korean merchants via KSNET

KSNET, Korea's $4bn-a-month processor, signs a Solana Foundation MOU to test Solana Pay and x402 AI-agent payments across 330,000 merchants.

BitMart to wind down after nine years; BMX crashes 58%

BitMart will end trading on August 26 and cease operations by January 31, 2027 — reporting $1.6bn daily volume as it dies, with BMX down 58% and its CEO cut out of the decision.

A third of all ETH is staked as the exit queue hits zero

33.33% of ETH supply is now staked and the exit queue is empty - but 12% of the staked base sits with one leveraged treasury. The risk inside the record.

Revolut shuts USDT deposits as August 31 delisting nears

Revolut closed new USDT deposits July 30 ahead of its August 31 delisting. Why Tether's MiCA exit is a shelf change, not a retreat, and what moves next.

Vanguard’s first digital assets role sits in wealth, not funds

Vanguard is hiring its first head of digital assets. The role sits in Personal Wealth, not asset management - which tells you it is building rails, not a bitcoin ETF.

Korea’s reverse kimchi premium hits -1.79% as KOSPI sheds 23%

Bitcoin's reverse kimchi premium hit -1.79% as the KOSPI fell 23% in July. Korean crypto volume is down 88% - but Upbit spiked 1,400% on a 4% equity dip.

Most Read

Imdustry insights

Stay Ahead

Get the latest news, insights, and market updates delivered to your inbox every day.

Enter your email address