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The Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Russia, Vladimir Chistyukhin, stated that the country's cryptocurrency industry may have the necessary conditions to operate legally by the end of the year, with relevant regulations progressing as planned. According to the International News Agency, Chistyukhin mentioned that significant and large-scale secondary regulatory rules are currently being formulated, and the "fine-tuning" of internal rules is expected to be completed by the end of 2026.This year, Russia has continued to advance cryptocurrency legislation. President Putin signed a law in August that establishes a regulatory framework for digital currencies and digital rights, but the use of Bitcoin for payments remains prohibited. The central bank has approved the public to trade Bitcoin on the country's cryptocurrency exchanges, and non-qualified investors can purchase Bitcoin and other assets worth 300,000 rubles (approximately $3,582) through a single intermediary, while qualified investors face no restrictions.Russia's largest bank, Sberbank, plans to launch Bitcoin and cryptocurrency wallets and digital asset custody services in December. The bank expects that the trading volume of its new cryptocurrency business could reach 40 trillion rubles (approximately $4.7 billion) in its first year. Since 2022, Russia has prohibited the use of digital assets as a means of payment or legal tender, but lawmakers have made exceptions for international payments, likely aimed at circumventing Western sanctions. After the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022, the U.S. and Europe excluded Russia from the SWIFT system, and the Russian Finance Minister stated that the country's enterprises have been using Bitcoin to bypass related restrictions.

According to Reuters, the European Central Bank has launched the Pontes service, connecting its payment system with blockchain-based financial markets, allowing banks and investors to complete on-chain transaction settlements using euros supported by the European Central Bank, rather than relying on stablecoins or other private currencies.The first batch of participating institutions includes Deutsche Bank, Santander Bank, and the clearing institution Clearstream Bank, with the service operating during weekdays from 8:00 to 16:00 Central European Time.

The Bank of Korea (BOK) has launched the first 24-hour Korean won settlement network pilot, aimed at allowing foreign investors to settle won transactions outside of normal banking hours in South Korea. The central bank announced on Monday that its international wire transfer network has begun trial operations with four domestic banks: KB Kookmin Bank, Woori Bank, Hana Bank, and Shinhan Bank. Full operations are expected to start in January 2027, at which point participation will expand to other institutions and foreign banks.The network operates 24 hours a day on weekdays, excluding weekends and public holidays. Foreign investors can settle won transactions during their domestic business hours by registering a Foreign Institution (RFI-K) account for won services, without the need to open an account directly with a South Korean financial institution. The Bank of Korea stated that the network is expected to enhance the international status of the won by improving foreign investors' access to won settlement infrastructure.In addition, the Bank of Korea is also experimenting with tokenized settlement infrastructure through the Agorá project led by the Bank for International Settlements, which completed a cross-border payment trial using tokenized central bank reserves and commercial bank deposits, including the won, in July. The Bank of Korea is simultaneously advancing the Hangang project, a blockchain-based pilot that utilizes wholesale central bank digital currency to settle tokenized commercial bank deposits.

Korean Air Bank issued a 100 million USD foreign currency digital bond with a term of 5 years, directly utilizing the digital financial market infrastructure of Euroclear. This is the first digital bond in Korea issued directly using Euroclear's blockchain infrastructure.The issuance, registration, and settlement of the bond are all processed on a distributed ledger network, shortening the bond allocation and payment settlement from 3 to 5 working days to the same day. Investors can trade the bond through the Euroclear global settlement network using their existing accounts and trading systems.

According to the Financial Times, the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England are strengthening their scrutiny of banks and trading companies' risk exposures.

Crypto KOL Kuai Dong (@_FORAB) posted that Fox has released the list of American entrepreneurs for the China-U.S. banquet, which is scheduled to be held this Thursday at the White House.The list includes Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Dell Technologies founder Michael Dell, Apple Executive Chairman Tim Cook, Citigroup Chair Jane Fraser, and Qualcomm President Cristiano Amon.

SoftBank Group issued $10 billion and $1 billion European bonds for investment in OpenAI.

On September 18, the Central Bank of Russia released a draft proposal, intending to measure related exposures through ratios N31 and N32, based on the own funds of individual credit institutions and the consolidated capital of banking groups. The scope includes direct investments, derivatives linked to the prices of crypto assets, as well as loans, bonds, and repurchase agreements whose settlement or value depends on crypto assets.Client custody assets for which the digital custodial institution within the bank or group bears the losses will be included, while assets that do not bear losses will not be included but will still be subject to a 50% risk weight. Own accounts and client positions for which the bank bears responsibility will be subject to a 1250% risk weight. The draft is planned to be officially released in the fourth quarter of 2026, taking effect 10 days after publication, with banks expected to report N31 and N32 values starting from January 2027.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced sanctions against the Tehran-based cryptocurrency exchange BitBank, stating that the platform transferred hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of Iran. OFAC stated that BitBank is controlled by Iranian financier Babak Zanjani, who was designated in January of this year, and that he used the platform to complete transfers between June and July, with this designation made under Executive Order 13902.The sanctions also cover three executives from BitBank's software developer Pishtaz Simorgh and its parent company Dot One. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stated that using cryptocurrency to finance the Iranian regime is well within OFAC's jurisdiction. OFAC also mentioned that Hormuz Safe, an entity selling passage security in the Strait of Hormuz, has been receiving payments through BitBank since June; this entity was sanctioned in July. OFAC did not disclose the relevant wallet addresses.

According to Dealroom.co citing Bloomberg News, a consortium of 10 banks has provided Crux AI with a $22 billion loan secured by chips. Crux AI is the AI cloud service joint venture launched by Blackstone and Alphabet in May, which officially started last week.The loan will be used to purchase Google-customized TPUs. Crux AI has received a $5 billion equity investment from Blackstone, with Google providing TPUs, software, and services, planning to produce the first batch of 500 megawatts by 2027. Named lending institutions include Goldman Sachs, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Barclays, BNP Paribas, and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.

According to CoinDesk, while Wall Street giants like JPMorgan and Citi have processed huge amounts of money through blockchain, tokenized payment services are still primarily aimed at institutional clients and licensed networks. JPMorgan's Kinexys blockchain platform has processed over $3 trillion, and Citi Token Services handles billions of dollars in cross-border payments daily, neither of which is open to regular savings users.The UK challenger bank Monument Bank is attempting to fill this gap. The bank has a balance sheet size of approximately $2.4 billion and plans to tokenize up to £250 million (about $335 million) of retail customer deposits on the privacy public chain Midnight. These deposits will still earn interest, be fully backed by the bank, can be exchanged 1:1 for pounds, and are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. The project utilizes zero-knowledge proofs to protect customer data and meet regulatory requirements, allowing users to engage without needing to understand or directly use cryptocurrencies.Mintoo Bhandari, founder of Monument Bank, stated that most tokenization projects are currently internal bank projects and have not yet truly allowed retail users to participate directly in tokenization. In the long term, the bank plans to offer fractional private equity, tokenized structured products, and Lombard loans to customers through regular banking applications under compliance, and is considering licensing related infrastructure to other banks through its subsidiary Monument Technology.

A former bank executive was recently sentenced for forging documents to fraudulently obtain over 1.6 billion Hong Kong dollars in illegal loans, and using the funds to purchase Bitcoin and conduct cryptocurrency bribery.

Stablecoin infrastructure company Bastion announced that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has granted it preliminary conditional approval for a national trust bank charter. This charter allows Bastion to incorporate stablecoin issuance, custody, and exchange products under the same federal regulatory entity, adding OCC federal oversight on top of its existing state licenses. The company will operate under the name Bastion Platforms National Trust Company, providing stablecoin custody and wallets, payment infrastructure, and white-label issuance services.Bastion previously obtained a New York trust license in February 2025. Under the new charter, the company will offer custodial services for USDC and other digital assets compliant with the GENIUS Act, as well as white-label stablecoin wallet and issuance services (minting, redemption, and exchange), and continue to provide technology and operational infrastructure to other regulated issuers. Bastion itself does not issue stablecoins but primarily provides technology, operations, and compliance stacks for enterprise stablecoin projects.Bastion also appointed four new advisors: Colleen Taylor (Board, former President of American Express U.S. Merchant Services), Michael Patterson (Board, former Chief Compliance Officer of Genesis), Stuart Breslow (Advisor, former Chief Compliance Officer of Morgan Stanley), and Gabriella Fitzgerald (Advisor, former CEO of Optum Financial Medical Payments).

Bankless co-founder David Hoffman posted on the X platform, stating, "We have now entered the altcoin season, and the real market moment has arrived earlier than expected." David Hoffman announced on May 21 that he had liquidated his ETH holdings and subsequently bought VVV, NEAR, ZEC, HYPE, and LIT, all of which have significantly outperformed ETH.

According to an analysis by Cointelegraph of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) MiCA registration data, the number of banks on the EU MiCA crypto service provider list has doubled from about 40 on June 26 to about 80 on September 16, with the proportion rising from about 17% to nearly 23%, approaching one-quarter. During the same period, the total number of registered Crypto Asset Service Providers (CASP) increased from 243 to 349, but the proportion of non-bank service providers decreased from about 84% to 77%, reflecting a relative shrinkage.Germany is the main driving force behind this round of bank expansion, with several cooperative banks and commercial banks recently appearing on ESMA's MiCA registration list, including Volksbank, Raiffeisenbank, and VR Bank. Germany's largest bank, Deutsche Bank, also announced on Wednesday plans to launch digital asset custody services for institutional and corporate clients in Europe. A spokesperson for the bank told Cointelegraph that regulatory approval under MiCA is expected in October.Unlike crypto companies that need to apply for CASP authorization, banks can provide crypto asset services through the notification procedure stipulated in Article 60 of MiCA, allowing them to bypass the standard CASP authorization process by simply submitting the required information to their national regulatory authority at least 40 working days before offering the service for the first time.

Bitcoin News posted on the X platform that Deutsche Bank plans to offer Bitcoin and digital asset custody services for European institutions and enterprises by the end of 2026, pending regulatory review approval.Corporate Bank Co-Head Gerald Podobnik stated that this service will run parallel to the existing system, with specific configurations determined by client needs, regulatory requirements, and the bank's risk appetite.

SoftBank Group has expanded its credit line to $6.5 billion, increasing it by $450 million to provide greater financial flexibility for its investments in the field of artificial intelligence.The original $6.05 billion credit line is set to expire this month and has now been extended for another year. More than 20 banks participated in the expansion, with the new agreement's interest rate 210 basis points above the benchmark.

According to Binance spot market data, the market has experienced significant fluctuations. SYN has increased by 9.47% in the last 24 hours, while BAND, KNC, MASK, NEO, YFI, and GMT have reached new highs today, with increases of 7.62%, 5.46%, 5.82%, 6.61%, 6.02%, and 5.2% respectively.On the other hand, DASH is in a "high and then low" state, with a decrease of 5.01% in the last 24 hours. BANK has slightly risen by 3.15% within 5 minutes.