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According to Caixin, Xiao Rui, the son of former Wuhan Municipal Supervisory Commission member Xiao Jun, is suspected of receiving approximately HKD 4.72 million in bribes from mainland construction contractors on behalf of his father, and has laundered over HKD 64 million through underground money houses. On June 23, the Hong Kong Regional Court found Xiao Rui guilty of four counts of "money laundering" and one count of "using a false document," with the judge set to announce the sentence on July 23.In 2014, Xiao Rui was approved to reside in Hong Kong. That same year, he used his HSBC account to purchase two funds from Sun Life Financial for HKD 10 million to meet the investment requirements of the aforementioned immigration plan. Between January 2016 and September 2017, Xiao Rui's Standard Chartered and DBS accounts received multiple remittances, totaling over HKD 54 million.Regarding the "money laundering" charges, Xiao Rui argued in court that the large sums involved were legitimate earnings from his mother's business, given to him for investment in Hong Kong, with some funds also coming from the sale of Bitcoin. Concerning the explanation about Bitcoin, the judge rejected his testimony as Xiao Rui could not provide any basic records such as transaction dates, numbers, or wallet addresses.

Cryptocurrency payment company Alchemy Pay announced that it has obtained a Money Transmitter License in the state of Illinois, USA. As a key state with Chicago, a global financial center, Illinois is regarded as an important market for the development of fintech and digital assets in the United States. With this approval, the number of state-level remittance licenses held by Alchemy Pay in the U.S. has increased to 18, further strengthening its compliance operational capabilities in the core U.S. market and supporting the development of its stablecoin payment public chain, Alchemy Chain.

The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission released the "2025-26 Annual Report," showing that Hong Kong's capital market achieved significant growth across various asset classes in the past year, including investment funds, digital assets, and the stock market. Among them, the growth of tokenized investment products accelerated. As of March, the managed assets of 13 retail products approved by the Securities and Futures Commission increased nearly sixfold year-on-year, reaching HKD 10.8 billion. At the same time, the total market value of 11 virtual asset spot ETFs reached HKD 4.3 billion, a substantial increase of 90% since their launch in 2024, recognizing Asia's first Solana spot ETF. The trading volume of 12 licensed virtual asset trading platforms increased significantly by 125% within a year.

The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission has announced that it has listed Aurum/Aurum Foundation as a suspicious virtual asset trading platform. The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission stated that the company claims to be registered in Hong Kong under the Companies Ordinance and provides virtual asset, futures contracts, and derivative trading services on its relevant website, but the company is not licensed by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission and is suspected of conducting unlicensed activities.

Members of the management team of the Ethereum Foundation (EF) and CSA Operator Aerugo published a systematic explanation of EF's mission. Aerugo stated that EF's core mission is to ensure that Ethereum becomes and continues to be a truly permissionless sovereign infrastructure: censorship-resistant, capture-resistant, open-source, private, and secure, capable of supporting large-scale trustless coordination.He emphasized that EF's focus is on eliminating extraction and capture risks that may arise at the protocol layer of Ethereum, particularly the two core challenges of MEV (Maximum Extractable Value) issues and the lack of default privacy. Aerugo described MEV as "the main battleground of the next cypherpunk war," and pointed out that "a public ledger without serious default privacy is a monitoring infrastructure with settlement guarantees."In addition, EF will move some of its work out of the foundation through spin-offs in the future, but will maintain strict standards for external funding. The recent departure of some personnel is part of normal organizational adjustments, and EF will handle it in a dignified manner without making personnel issues public.

According to Digital Asset, the Financial Services Commission of South Korea plans to expand the scope of the regulatory sandbox to include the Virtual Asset User Protection Act. This move is part of a broader plan aimed at preparing the future of the financial industry by expanding services to reflect changes in the financial environment and market demands.At a recent event hosted by Financial Services Commission Chairman Lee Ik-yeon, the Commission stated that it will continue to explore and incorporate laws related to emerging fields and services, such as the Internet Banking Act and the Virtual Asset User Protection Act, into the regulatory sandbox.

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Commissioner Hester Peirce expressed views on the future regulation of perpetual contracts, prediction markets, and digital assets, with an overall tone that is relatively positive and open.Hester Peirce reviewed the Rule 611 trading transparency proposal that has been in the works for about 20 years, pointing out that the so-called "innovation exemption" mechanism will be intentionally set to be strict and limited, in order to balance market innovation and investor protection.Hester Peirce stated that a clearer regulatory framework should be adopted for new financial products such as tokenized securities, perpetual contracts, and prediction markets, rather than simply imposing restrictions or vague regulations. She also emphasized two core principles: self-custody and financial privacy should become fundamental rights in the future regulatory system and should be incorporated into the subsequent design of digital asset regulations.

According to the Shanghai Securities Journal, Wu Qing, the Chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, stated at the 2026 Lujiazui Forum that the next step will be to timely release guidelines for the standardized development of artificial intelligence in the capital market.Wu Qing pointed out that the CSRC will strictly investigate and deal with illegal activities such as using technology to ride on trends, hype concepts, and even manipulate the market and insider trading; at the same time, it will legally and strictly crack down on illegal stock recommendations using artificial intelligence, as well as industry chaos such as spreading rumors and illegal trading using artificial intelligence.

According to The Block, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) stated that the widespread adoption of dollar-pegged stablecoins in Nigeria is challenging the country's existing monetary policy and regulatory framework.The IMF pointed out that the devaluation of the naira, high inflation, and limited access to official foreign exchange are driving local households and small to medium-sized enterprises to turn to stablecoins for cross-border payments and to hedge against exchange rate risks.

According to Crowdfund Insider, the Chairperson of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), Laura Liang, stated at the Caixin Summer Summit that Hong Kong will continue to expand its digital asset regulatory framework and promote the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in the financial services sector to consolidate its position as an international financial center.Laura Liang pointed out that regulatory agencies will improve the institutional framework around areas such as digital asset trading, custody, investment consulting, and asset management, while adhering to the regulatory principle of "same business, same risks, same rules," achieving a balance between innovation and investor protection.She stated that as the application of AI in the financial industry accelerates, regulatory focus will include potential risks such as model reliability, algorithm bias, data privacy, and cybersecurity, emphasizing that financial institutions need to strengthen risk management during the innovation process.In addition, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission and relevant regulatory agencies have expanded the regulatory sandbox mechanism, allowing financial institutions to test generative AI applications in a controlled environment to promote technological implementation and compliant development. Analysts believe that Hong Kong is further enhancing the openness and standardization of its financial markets through a dual regulatory framework for digital assets and AI, while also increasing its competitiveness in the global capital markets.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission announced that it has approved the initial public offering registration of Changxin Technology Group Co., Ltd.

The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission has listed three "exiovip" related websites as suspicious virtual asset trading platforms, according to a report from the licensed virtual asset trading platform EXIO Limited. One of the websites is a fraudulent site, and the other two websites have no connection to EXIO Limited.In addition, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission has also listed "chenguanginvestment" as a suspicious website, clarifying that this website has no connection to the licensed institution Capital International.

According to Fortune, Mastercard has announced a new protocol called Agent Pay for AI, allowing AI agents to make payments and conduct small transfers among themselves— for example, automatically paying when an AI agent retrieves data from a website in segments. The protocol stores the permissions granted to AI agents by humans on the blockchain, initially using the Polygon network to ensure transparency and verifiability, allowing multiple parties to verify whether the agents are acting as instructed.Companies like Adyen, Coinbase, and Cloudflare are collaborating with Mastercard to develop this protocol. Mastercard's Chief Product Officer Jorn Lambert stated that this protocol will not become a major source of revenue in the short term, but it is expected to develop into a significant new market over the next five years.Giants like Visa, Stripe, Coinbase, and Google are actively laying out AI payment protocols, jointly promoting the future of "machine-to-machine payments" and AI chatbots dominating e-commerce transactions; however, the current volume of agent-based payments remains relatively small.

The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission further interpreted the circular issued on May 22. The frequently asked questions (Question 9) in the circular mentioned that licensed companies in Hong Kong can continue to open new accounts for investors from mainland China (i.e., investors using Chinese resident identity cards and/or Chinese passports as identification documents), but must comply with all account opening regulations.The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission stated that licensed companies in Hong Kong can continue to provide services to existing clients from mainland China, provided that such services are not offered within mainland China and that they have complied with all relevant laws and regulatory requirements of Hong Kong and applicable jurisdictions. The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission also noted that it is aware of the notice jointly issued by the mainland authorities on May 22, 2026, and that the relevant requirements also apply to financial institutions in other jurisdictions (not limited to Hong Kong) when providing services to investors from mainland China.

On June 5, Grayscale submitted an S-1 registration statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), planning to launch the Grayscale Canton ETF.According to disclosures, the Grayscale Canton ETF is a spot ETF, with specific product details yet to be announced.

According to the official announcement, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority have published a joint consultation summary regarding the amendments to the over-the-counter derivatives trading regulations under the Clearing Rules. In light of the broad market support, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority will proceed with the legislative process to introduce the proposed amendments to the Clearing Rules, with plans to implement the relevant amendments starting from March 1, 2027 (the proposed start date for the new calculation period).

Aleo released the privacy stablecoin white paper "Stablecoin Privacy," stating that the privacy layer is the key infrastructure missing for blockchain payment rails to be adopted by mainstream institutions. Aleo indicated that as the GENIUS Act provides opportunities for the widespread adoption of stablecoins, the issue of permanently public transaction information on public blockchains may still hinder institutions from using stablecoins in scenarios such as payroll, fund management, and vendor payments.Aleo claims that existing solutions do not adequately meet the needs of institutions in terms of privacy protection and risk management. The white paper proposes a permissionless private stablecoin architecture based on Aleo, which introduces programmable risk mitigation mechanisms while protecting transaction privacy through zero-knowledge technology and programmable smart contracts, allowing institutions to conduct private transactions without sacrificing compliance and risk control.It is reported that the team members behind this white paper have long been dedicated to research at the intersection of cryptography, policy, and financial systems. Aleo's Global Policy Director Yaya J. Fanusie, member of the Crypto Innovation Council and former Global Financial Crimes Compliance Officer at Coinbase Valerie-Leila Jaber, and cryptographer and Johns Hopkins University Computer Science Professor Matthew Green possess rare practical experience in private payments, financial regulation, and zero-knowledge cryptography.

In a recent speech, the Chairman of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, Huang Tianyou, revealed that the trading volume of 12 licensed virtual asset trading platforms in Hong Kong has exceeded HKD 640 billion for 2025, with the trading volume in the first quarter of this year increasing nearly threefold year-on-year.In addition, brokers engaged in virtual asset-related businesses saw their commission income related to this sector grow by over 80% year-on-year last year.