1. Korean Financial, Securities & IT Firms Rush to Acquire Crypto Exchange Stakes link
As South Korea advances the institutionalization of the Korean won stablecoin, domestic financial, securities, bank card, IT and foreign institutions are stepping up efforts to acquire equity stakes in local cryptocurrency exchanges. Hana Bank has announced plans to purchase a 6.55% stake in Dunamu, the operator of Upbit, for approximately 665 million US dollars. Samsung Securities, Samsung SDS and Samsung Card intend to jointly acquire a 4% stake in Dunamu, while Hanwha Investment & Securities plans an additional 3.90% stake purchase. Separately, Mirae Asset Consulting has decided to acquire a 92.06% stake in Korbit for around 88.5 million US dollars, and Korea Investment Securities and OKX Ventures each plan to obtain roughly a 20% equity interest in Coinone.
2. South Korea Crypto Trading Volume Slumps to One-Tenth of KOSPI Turnover link
Following the crash of the digital asset market in October 2025 and the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) repeatedly hitting new all-time highs, trading activity in South Korea’s domestic cryptocurrency market dropped to one-tenth of that of the stock market. Data shows that in May this year (as of the 26th), the total cryptocurrency trading volume of South Korea’s five compliant exchanges (Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, Gopax) only accounted for 8% of the concurrent stock trading volume of the KOSPI. In December 2024, when Donald Trump’s election as US President triggered a crypto bull run, this proportion once surged to 323%.
3. China’s State Council Boosts Blockchain for Urban Governance & Digital Housing Transactions link
According to the circular issued by the State Council on printing and distributing the 15th Five-Year Plan for Urban Renewal, authorities will enhance urban governance capacity, advance the comprehensive digital transformation of cities, develop a basic platform for City Information Modeling (CIM), and build an intensive, unified, data-integrated and highly coordinated urban digital infrastructure. Authorities will improve the basic CIM database and standard system, and expand the application scenarios of “CIM+” in urban renewal. Unique codes will be assigned to housing buildings and municipal facilities, and a national basic information database for housing buildings and municipal facilities will be constructed. Blockchain technology will be leveraged to empower housing transactions and property right registration. A three-tier national, provincial and municipal platform system for urban operation, management and services will be refined to realize integrated online management of urban operations.
4. Supreme People’s Court to Deepen Research on Judging Rules for Virtual Currency Cases link
At the press conference themed “Kicking Off the 15th Five-Year Plan” held by the State Council Information Office, Liu Guixiang, Member of the Judicial Committee of the Supreme People’s Court at the Vice Ministerial level and Second-Class Grand Justice, stated that people’s courts will conduct in-depth research on judgment rules for new types of cases involving virtual currencies and cross-border finance, and formulate judicial interpretations on civil compensation related to insider trading and market manipulation as soon as possible, so as to safeguard the steady operation of the capital market and effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of small and medium-sized investors.
5. HKMA Rolls Out Three New Supervision Rules for Mainland Investors, Retrospective Account Checks Back to Jan 2023 link
According to CLS.cn, in response to reports that some banks in Hong Kong require customers to sign declarations when opening investment accounts, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) issued a response today stating that the relevant regulatory requirements were issued to all authorized institutions on May 22. Documents provided by the HKMA show that registered institutions are required to implement three additional measures when opening and managing investment accounts for mainland investors: first, close investment accounts opened with suspicious or forged documents, and identify customer investment accounts opened with suspicious or forged documents including identity documents from January 2023 or any other period specified by the HKMA; second, close dormant zero-balance investment accounts, referring to investment accounts held by mainland investors that carry no asset balances as of May 22, 2026 and record no customer-initiated activities within the 12 months preceding the reference date; third, obtain written declarations from mainland investors upon opening new investment accounts to confirm that all funds supporting investment activities and relevant settlements stem from legal sources outside mainland China.
Relevant documents indicate that the newly added additional regulatory measures apply solely to investment accounts, including investment sub-accounts within integrated bank accounts, and exclude accounts with non-investment functions such as ordinary savings, current and time deposits, payment services, loans and credit cards. Meanwhile, these extra measures target individual customers and do not extend to corporate or institutional clients.
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6. Central Bank of Russia Proposes 1% Capital Cap on Banks’ Crypto Asset Exposure link
The Central Bank of Russia plans to cap banks’ investment risks related to crypto assets at 1% of a single banking group’s capital. This restriction only applies to a bank’s own crypto asset positions, excluding crypto assets invested in or custodied by bank customers through the bank. For customers’ crypto assets, the Central Bank of Russia intends to categorize them separately under operational risk, which mainly covers risks such as hacker attacks and information security incidents, and plans to impose a 50% risk weight on customer positions. The Central Bank of Russia stated that these requirements are formulated mainly in light of the extreme price volatility of crypto assets and the risk of asset seizure.
7. Abu Dhabi Investment Firm Completes $30M Settlement via DDSC Stablecoin link
International Holding Company (IHC) of Abu Dhabi completed a $30 million transaction on ADI Chain using DDSC, a stablecoin backed by UAE dirhams. This transaction ranks among the largest single stablecoin transactions in the region. DDSC was jointly launched by IHC, First Abu Dhabi Bank and Sirius International Holding, with ADI Foundation supplying blockchain infrastructure support. The project is intended to facilitate compliant digital transactions, cross-border payments and trade settlements.
8. Binance Set to Re-Enter Philippines Market with Local Regulatory Licenses link
Binance has partnered with Philippine local firm BlockShoals Technologies to expand its footprint in the Philippine market. BlockShoals stated it has registered as a Crypto Asset Intermediary in compliance with the crypto asset service provider rules set by the Philippine SEC and will act as Binance’s local service provider. Both parties noted that they have maintained regulatory communications with the Philippine SEC regarding the partnership for over two years and secured an in-principle approval to enter the regulatory sandbox in November 2025.
9. Nine Enterprises Including Hitachi Complete Automated Inter-Corporate DCJPY Transaction Tests link
Hitachi, Ltd. announced that it has completed an inter-enterprise transaction test based on the Japanese yen tokenized deposit DCJPY together with nine companies including Decalete DCP, Fujitsu, Kao Group Customer Marketing and Tsurui Holdings. The test leveraged the Invoice Chain platform co-developed by Hitachi to link inter-enterprise order and delivery data with DCJPY settlement procedures, and automatically generated reconciliation documents for writing off accounts receivable, realizing automation covering order processing, payment settlement, account write-off and accounting procedures.
10. Trend Research Under Yi Lihua Liquidates All UNI & COMP Holdings, Suffering Over $40M Losses link
Trend Research, a secondary investment institution under Yi Lihua, transferred 2.705 million UNI tokens (approximately 8.71 million US dollars) and 114,000 COMP tokens (approximately 2.13 million US dollars) to Binance, which is suspected to be a full liquidation. The institution purchased 5.41 million UNI tokens at an average cost of about 9.5 US dollars and 228,700 COMP tokens at an average cost of about 49.3 US dollars during the market rebound last July. In May this year, it sold UNI at an average price of about 3.3 US dollars and COMP at an average price of about 19.4 US dollars, with an estimated total loss of around 40.29 million US dollars.
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