stablecoins

The Financial Services Agency of Japan announced personnel appointments. As part of an organizational restructuring, the agency has established a new "Department of Crypto Assets and Stablecoins," specifically responsible for regulating crypto assets and stablecoins. Toshiaki Adomi has been appointed as the first section chief.Toshiaki Adomi graduated from Osaka University Faculty of Law in 2002 and then joined the Financial Services Agency. He later obtained a Master of Business Administration from the University of Birmingham in the UK and a Master of Laws from the London School of Economics. He has held positions in bank supervision and policy coordination, and from July 2025, he will serve as a councilor in the Comprehensive Policy Bureau. Until August 1, 2026, he served as the councilor overseeing postal savings and insurance supervision.

Circle's Senior Director of Strategy and Policy, Patrick Hansen, stated that after the comprehensive implementation of the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), licenses have been issued for 35 electronic currency tokens from 21 issuers, and local issuers are making good progress. Patrick Hansen pointed out that the strict regulations of MiCA have made it impossible for most major stablecoin issuers, including Tether, to meet operational requirements. Currently, only USDG, USDC, and EURC comply with the framework requirements, while other stablecoins fall outside the regulatory scope of MiCA, leaving EU users unprotected or unable to access services.He believes that the upcoming review of MiCA should address this issue and provide a more pragmatic operational pathway for foreign issuers. The EU's Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services, and Capital Markets Union launched a public consultation on May 20 to assess whether the current framework is still applicable, with the consultation continuing until September 30.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury issued a joint statement outlining the discussions from the U.S.-UK Financial Regulatory Working Group meeting held on July 8 in London. The regulatory agencies from both sides expanded their collaboration in areas such as digital assets, stablecoins, payment modernization, AI, financial stability, capital markets, and cross-border financial cooperation. Participants included the finance departments of both countries, the Bank of England, the Federal Reserve, the UK's Financial Conduct Authority, and several U.S. financial regulatory agencies.The U.S. side introduced the implementation progress of the stablecoin GENIUS Act and the market structure for digital assets, while the UK side presented the digital strategy for wholesale financial markets. Both sides support comparable regulatory standards for stablecoins, including cross-border use, comparable treatment of similar risks, and that stablecoins used as currency should be backed by high-quality liquid assets at least on a one-to-one basis. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has proposed implementation standards for the GENIUS Act, covering reserves, redemption, capital, liquidity, risk management, custody, and safekeeping.The Bank of England has released a draft rule for stablecoins that could achieve systemic scale in the UK economy, including a temporary issuance cap of £40 billion for each systemic stablecoin, unrestricted use by individuals and businesses, and reserve requirements. The Financial Regulatory Working Group is expected to hold another meeting in early 2027.

According to Cointelegraph, at the 13th U.S.-U.K. Financial Regulatory Working Group (FRWG) meeting held in London on July 8, both the U.S. and U.K. reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening financial regulatory cooperation and discussed topics such as stablecoin regulation, digital asset market structure, tokenization, and the U.K. wholesale financial market digitalization strategy.The joint statement indicated that the U.S. informed the U.K. about the implementation progress of the GENIUS Act and related work on digital asset market structure, expressing support for "responsible" digital asset innovation while emphasizing financial stability and international regulatory cooperation. On July 14, the "Transatlantic Taskforce on Future Markets" (TTMF) further released preliminary recommendations on stablecoins and a joint statement, laying the foundation for continued U.S.-U.K. leadership in the digital asset and capital markets sectors.

According to NADA NEWS, the Financial Services Agency of Japan announced the establishment of a new "Cryptocurrency and Stablecoin Division," specifically responsible for the regulation of cryptocurrencies and stablecoins. The organizational restructuring took effect on August 7. Previously, cryptocurrency-related business was managed by the "Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Innovation Office" and the "Cryptocurrency Monitoring Office," which were under the Risk Analysis Division of the Comprehensive Policy Bureau.After the restructuring, the new Cryptocurrency and Stablecoin Division was established under the Asset Utilization and Insurance Supervision Bureau, upgrading from an office-level to an independent division-level department. This division includes the "Cryptocurrency Monitoring Office," responsible for exchange regulation, as well as the "Innovation Promotion Office" and the "Digital Payment Planning Office." The Financial Services Agency stated that the restructuring is aimed at addressing new challenges such as financial digitalization and regulatory demands.

According to the Korea Herald, in June this year, the five major cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea (Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, Gopax) had a stablecoin outflow to overseas exchanges amounting to 27.625 trillion won, while inflows from overseas reached 22.022 trillion won during the same period, resulting in a net outflow of 5.603 trillion won, which is equivalent to 77.6% of the net overseas stock purchases by South Korean investors (approximately 7.22 trillion won) during the same period. At the beginning of last year, this ratio was only around 20%.The report states that stablecoins have been in a net outflow state for 18 consecutive months from the beginning of last year to June this year, contrasting with some months of net selling in overseas stocks. In the second quarter of this year alone, the net outflow of stablecoins was 16.872 trillion won, while overseas stocks experienced a net selling of 16.185 trillion won. These outflowing stablecoins are believed to be primarily used for derivatives trading not offered by domestic exchanges. Recently, overseas exchanges have launched spot and futures products for major South Korean stocks such as Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Hyundai Motor, in addition to cryptocurrency futures, with some high-leverage products allowing for tens of times leverage on indices or individual stocks.

CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost stated that Binance recorded a net outflow of approximately $2.2 billion in stablecoins in July, with Binance currently holding 70% of the exchange's stablecoin supply. Since the beginning of the year, Binance has accumulated a net outflow of $7 billion in stablecoins, confirming a trend of sharply shrinking demand that has never truly reversed.The analyst pointed out that the continuous outflow of stablecoins indicates that liquidity is fleeing the crypto market, with investors more inclined to withdraw funds rather than wait for redeployment, reflecting ongoing risk aversion rather than simple capital rotation between platforms. Despite the ongoing liquidity drain, Bitcoin remains stable above $60,000, demonstrating price resilience amid geopolitical and macroeconomic tensions. The analyst warned that the market needs to see a recovery in demand soon, or the pullback may continue.

The Central Bank of Brazil disclosed that the purchase volume of cryptocurrency assets in Brazil reached $14.68 billion in the first half of 2026, an increase of 135% compared to $6.24 billion in the first half of 2025. The statistical scope includes transactions involving Bitcoin, Ethereum, and stablecoins processed by registered Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP).In June, the purchase volume of cryptocurrency assets in Brazil was $2.54 billion, higher than $1.48 billion in June 2025; in May, the purchase volume of stablecoins was nearly $2.632 billion, an increase of 158% compared to May 2025. Fernando Rocha, head of the statistics department at the Central Bank of Brazil, stated that the country's cryptocurrency asset market has moved past the initial stage and is expanding while exploring application scenarios. Fernando Rocha indicated that the demand for dollar-pegged stablecoins is driving growth, with its demand share exceeding 90%, and it can be used for payments and cross-border settlements. The Central Bank of Brazil classifies VASP as Class 3, and after it takes effect in January 2027, relevant institutions will need to comply with the same requirements as securities brokers, securities distributors, and foreign exchange brokerage firms.

Rob Nichols, the President of the American Bankers Association, stated in an interview that the banking industry's lobbying group hopes for the passage of the CLARITY Act, but issues surrounding stablecoins still need to be resolved.The bill is about 600 pages long, and the banking industry only suggests making minor and precise modifications to two sections to prevent stablecoins from replacing bank deposits. They are referred to as payment stablecoins for a reason, not deposit stablecoins. However, he does believe that the cryptocurrency industry and the banking industry can coexist.

Circle's Senior Director of Strategy and Policy for the EU, Patrick Hansen, pointed out that since the implementation of the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), approximately 35 electronic money tokens (EMT) from 21 institutions have obtained compliance certification, with banks and electronic money institutions entering the market, showing a good momentum for local issuance.However, among the top 50 stablecoins globally, currently only USDC, USDG, and EURC meet MiCA requirements, while the rest remain outside the regulatory framework, leaving EU users facing a dual dilemma of lack of protection or being forced to cut off access. Hansen believes that for MiCA to truly become a global regulatory blueprint, it must achieve two goals simultaneously: first, to promote local EMTs to go global with competitive systems; second, to establish a recognition mechanism for compliant stablecoins from abroad, attracting global issuers into the MiCA regulatory framework, rather than making local issuance the only entry path.

According to Cointelegraph, the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has released a policy research report titled "Stablecoin Sprint," gathering opinions from industry participants such as banks, payment companies, and stablecoin issuers.The report points out that stablecoins have recently shown significant advantages in the field of cross-border payments, especially providing substantial assistance to emerging markets with limited access to US dollar channels; however, in the domestic retail payment scenario in the UK, the existing payment systems are already relatively fast and inexpensive, leading to a lack of motivation for consumers to switch, and the adoption speed is expected to lag behind. The findings of the above research have been incorporated into the final regulatory rules released by the FCA on June 30, which require that stablecoins issued in the UK must be fully backed by reserve assets and redeemable at face value.

According to Edaily, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) of South Korea plans to jointly draft a unified government bill for the "Basic Law on Digital Assets" with the ruling Democratic Party, covering the issuance and circulation of stablecoins, business rules for digital assets, exchange admission requirements, information disclosure, internal control, and system resilience standards. Currently, there are 10 related bills pending review in the National Assembly, but there has not yet been consensus on core disputes such as whether the issuers of won-pegged stablecoins must be bank holding companies and whether to impose shareholding restrictions on major exchanges. The FSC has not yet determined the submission date for the bill.Meanwhile, the opposition party's People Power Party lawmaker Song Yeon-sik submitted a proposal to abolish the cryptocurrency income tax amendment to the National Assembly's Finance and Economy Planning Committee for review on Wednesday. Additionally, a tax abolition petition supported by over 50,000 people is also expected to be submitted to the petition subcommittee. According to the current plan, starting from January 1, 2027, cryptocurrency transfers or lending income exceeding 2.5 million won per year will face a 20% income tax plus a 2% local tax. The government and the ruling party support the timely implementation, while the opposition party believes it is unfair to tax cryptocurrencies when most ordinary stock investors remain tax-exempt.