Asia Express | Crypto

DeepSeek banned from US federal civilian agencies over spying fears. Singapore firm behind Europe’s only spot Bitcoin ETF, as Switzerland partners with Vietnam on crypto tech. The US Treasury has proposed new rules that would block investment in artificial intelligence projects (sorry, ‘Super Intelligence’ projects) and certain high risk semiconductors in some foreign countries. The blocks have been mainly aimed at geopolitical rival China, but will now also encompass other adversaries including Russia, Iran, North Korea and Cuba. The rules would implement the COINS Act from December 2025 and expand the Outbound Investment Security Program that went into effect in January 2025. They rules build on previous restrictions on selling high powered AI chips to China. The US is backing up its threats too, having announced the first $200,000 penalty this month to Amidi, LLC. Treasury for failing to report an investment by its Chinese subsidiary into embodied AI and robotics company Shanghai Qiongche Intelligent Techn...

A scammer reportedly lost $4.8M of stolen money after storing the funds on tampered Ledgers. Bitcoin and Ether ETFs launch trading in Thailand and South Korea blocks 27 exchanges. Ledger was forced to suspend its reseller network across South East Asia this week, after thieves stole more than $103.4 million from 530 addresses via tampered Ledgers inserted into the supply chain. But in a small measure of poetic justice, one of the “victims” was a scammer themselves according to Chainalysis. The blockchain monitoring firm reports that the scammer lost 60 Bitcoin, worth about $4.8 million, from three newly purchased Ledgers containing spyware that records seed phrases. The Ledger thieves drained all three of their funds into the same wallet. In a further irony, the scammer had operated a “task scam” where people were paid to fake sales and reviews of real items. So depending on how much they knew, their victims in turn may not have been entirely honest either. “Then a ‘negative balance’ appeared, and they were t...

Despite ongoing bans, China has seen a big surge in peer-to-peer stablecoin use. New figures show South Korea’s $450B crypto economy is the largest in East Asia. The number of unique wallets sending peer-to-peer (P2P) stablecoin transactions in China grew 43-fold between the first quarter of 2024 and the second quarter of 2026, according to Chainalysis. The blockchain analytics company recorded $104.1 billion across 18.1 million transfers involving China’s self-custodied stablecoin holdings during the 2026 reporting period, which ran from July 2025 to June 2026. Stablecoin holdings turned over 33.2 times per year, more than three times the global average of 9.3, a pattern Chainalysis said was consistent with users treating stablecoins as working capital. Read more

Singapore’s crypto economy grows 55%, South Korea set to make crypto market makers legal, and Chinese spy ministry warns would-be foreign spies it’s watching the blockchain. CHINA China’s Ministry of State Security has toughened its rhetoric on the risks of cryptocurrencies, highlighting their role in crime and stressing transactions are not really anonymous. According to the South China Morning Post the spooks published an article on social media stating cryptocurrencies are used to facilitate money laundering and cyberattacks and serve as “accomplices” in espionage. Read more

The APAC region accounts for half of the Global Crypto Adoption Index. Bitget suffers massive $351M loss and OpenAI forgets to mention its agents hacked the Australian Government. Almost half of the top 20 nations in terms of grassroots crypto adoption are in the Asia Pacific region. According to Chainalysis’s newly released 2026 Global Crypto Adoption Index, Japan ranks at number 4, followed by South Korea (5), India (6), Thailand (8), China (12), Indonesia (14), Australia (15), Vietnam (18) and the Philippines (19), which totals nine countries out of 20 on the index. A big growth area in the APAC region is cross border stablecoin transfers. Tianwei Liu, co-founder and CEO of StraitsX, told Cointelegraph that in Asia, fragmented currencies and payment systems have created demand for stablecoin settlement.  Read more

North Korea and Iran account for the majority of onchain malware, while Malaysia has been named among the most crypto curious Islamic nations. North Korean and Iran linked hackers were responsible for the majority of the 420% increase this year in malware on public blockchains according to a Chainalysis report.  State-linked hackers accounted for roughly two-thirds of new activity whereby attackers stored malware instructions or infrastructure information on public blockchains. Chainalysis also identified UNC5342, a North Korea linked group, to previously unattributed activity spanning Tron, Aptos and BNB Smart Chain. Read more

Shareholders of Bitcoin treasury company Metaplanet are seething over equity allocations for insiders, while new figures cement Singapore’s role as the top Asian crypto hub. JAPAN Japanese Bitcoin treasury company Metaplanet’s executive stock pool continues to draw shareholder backlash over stock dilution concerns.  Multiple shareholders objected across social media to Metaplanet’s 10th Series executive option pool, which was designed as 20% of fully diluted shares and automatically expanded as the company issued new shares to fund its Bitcoin (BTC) accumulation. Read more

Thai businessmen sue Tether over $42M frozen USDT tied to pig butchering scam, Aussie crypto firms face big fines unless they meet licensing deadline. THAILAND Two Thai businessmen have sued stablecoin issuer Tether in a New York district court, claiming it illegally froze $42.4 million in Tether USDt (USDT) in October, as part of a broader case tied to a pig butchering scheme. The plaintiffs claimed that Tether illegally froze the $42 million without a warrant in October 2025, following an informal request from US Homeland Security Investigations. Read more

Asia’s biggest crypto hubs are locked in a tax-cut arms race, while Ripple will help Korea’s Jeonbuk Bank move money across borders. KOREA South Korea’s Jeonbuk Bank has partnered with blockchain payments company Ripple to deploy its cross-border payment system for business customers. The service targets businesses including import-export companies, technology startups and online content creators.  Read more

Binance’s bStocks are the second largest tokenized stock issuer just two months after launch, and BitMart’s internal feud erupts into the spotlight ahead of its closure BitMart’s official Chinese-language X account has publicly demanded that founder Sheldon Xia explain the whereabouts of user funds and produce a repayment plan. It said some users were unable to withdraw funds and some employees have not received their final salary or compensation and threatened Xia that if he does not provide a verifiable asset disclosure and repayment plan by the deadline, it would continue to submit evidence to regulators, law enforcement, lawyers and the media. Xia called the claims in the post “fabricated rumors” and promised a counter-attack. Read more

The Bitcoin Red Team has been forced to rely on open source Chinese AI, after OpenAI restricted access. Thailand sets crypto tax to 0% in bid to become crypto hub. THAILAND For the next few years crypto investors in Thailand won’t have to pay any capital gains taxes on sales made via platforms licensed by Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission. The exemption is for five years and covers the period of January 1 2025, through to December 31 2029. The scheme aims to boost Thailand’s attractiveness as a regional crypto hub, and it’s already home to a growing community of crypto digital nomads However trades on unlicensed or overseas exchanges will still face standard personal tax rates as high as 38%. The exemption aligns the tax treatment of crypto with capital gains from traditional securities in the country. Thailand previously waved 7% value added tax on crypto gains in early 2024. Read more

Fake romance crypto investment scams net $9 million in a single week in Hong Kong, as Malaysian authorities lose it over a crypto conference’s after-party. HONG KONG An insurance agent in Hong Kong was fleeced out of $3.3 million after her fake online boyfriend convinced her to invest in a fraudulent crypto application. There were 25 similar romance-linked fraud cases reported to Hong Kong police between July 24 and July 30, which collectively defrauded lonely hearts of $9 million. Scammers typically connect with victims through dating or messaging apps and sometimes spend months building a rapport before dropping the idea of investing in crypto. They direct victims to a site that appears to be a legitimate trading application. It displays fake profits to encourage victims to invest more and more funds. Victims typically realize they have been scammed when they are unable to withdraw funds. Hong Kong news in brief — Hong Kong-licensed cryptocurrency exchange HashKey Exchange received approval from JPMorgan Ch...

Binance has been phishing its own staff to get ahead of potential attacks. South Korean crypto volumes tank 89% — plus all of the week’s other crypto news from Asia. Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has been running simulated phishing attacks against its own employees for the past four years and can fire staff who repeatedly fail the tests, according to Binance chief security officer Jimmy Su. The fake attacks are conducted by Binance’s red team, an internal ethical hacking unit whose job is to break into systems to identify vulnerabilities. “We do phishing attacks on our own employees on a monthly basis just so we understand if our security hygiene is improving,” Su told Cointelegraph. “The ones that have failed it, we will do remediation training.”  Read more

Retail users in Vietnam who trade on offshore crypto exchanges like Binance or OKX face heavy penalties. Network School controversy in Malaysia over Israeli citizen ban. Vietnam will fine retail crypto users up to $1900 if they trade on unlicensed overseas platforms such as Binance, OKX and Bybit, instead of on licensed local exchanges. There’s just one problem: Vietnam’s Finance Ministry has yet to issue any exchange licenses for its regulated digital asset market which is due to start on September 1. Five exchanges have been approved in principle however. Domestic investors who trade crypto that’s been designated exclusively for foreign investors can be fined up to $3800. Crypto companies providing or advertising services without a license, those who fail to properly ID customers, or unlawfully deal with crypto account data, can be fined up to $7600. Balaji Srinivasan’s utopian Network School in Forest City, Malaysia is under fire over allegations it has been hosting Israeli citizens using second passports....

Bitcoin backed mortgages and stablecoin yield are hot topics in Japan right now, as Hyundai experiments with Avalanche for global stablecoin transfers. Asia Express A crypto wallet linked to a suspected romance-scam money launderer processed more than $122.5 million in 10 months, according to Interpol. Interpol said that Thai authorities arrested two suspects and uncovered a money-laundering network that funneled proceeds from romance scams into cryptocurrencies, using cross-chain token swaps to obscure the trail. The investigation was part of Operation First Light 2026, an Interpol-coordinated campaign targeting social engineering scams and the financial infrastructure used to launder their proceeds. Read more

Japan's SBI Crypto shuts down 12th largest Bitcoin mining pool in the world, Russia gears up to launch digital ruble despite EU sanctions, and more: Asia Express. The Indian central bank reportedly urged lawmakers to keep banks insulated from crypto and private stablecoins while preserving room for regulated tokenization. According to a report by The Economic Times, RBI Deputy Governor Rohit Jain and Executive Director P. Vasudevan presented the central bank’s position to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance on Thursday. In a background note submitted to the panel, the RBI reportedly said prohibition remained a recognized policy option and recommended preventing the use of crypto in payments and settlements while restricting banking-sector exposure. Read more

Hyperliquid follows Bybit onto Singapore's "naughty" list, Indonesia's new scheme to certify social media influencers promoting crypto: Asia Express. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the city-state's central bank and financial regulator, has added decentralized perpetuals exchange Hyperliquid to its Investor Alert List. The entry, added on Friday, includes the Hyper Foundation website and the Hyperliquid trading app. The Investor Alert List is a consumer protection measure that identifies entities that may be wrongly perceived as licensed or regulated by MAS. Inclusion on the list does not constitute a ban or enforcement action. Read more

50,000 crypto investors fight back against a new crypto tax in South Korea, and a funeral service company loses $33M on Bitmine. Asia Express

Crypto scammers face the death sentence in Myanmar. Australia’s new crypto taxes may push startups and investors to Asian hubs: Asia Express.

Kraken spends $600 million to acquire a stablecoin card issuer. Hun To admits to owning 30% of Huione Pay but denies operational role. Asia Express.