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The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) released a new report titled "Combating the Full Chain of Illegal Fund Flows Related to Scam Hubs," calling on countries to take globally coordinated action to dismantle scam parks and their criminal networks.The report points out that criminals use channels such as cash, virtual assets, and instant payment platforms to launder money, and leverage AI, deep forgery, and automation technologies to scale up their operations. Among these, virtual assets have become the core channel for money laundering; in some cases, scam hubs even have dedicated over-the-counter trading counters for handling virtual asset exchanges and domestic fund transfers.In one case, blockchain analysis revealed that the total amount of funds sent in by victims exceeded $100 million, ultimately flowing into a cluster of virtual asset wallets associated with a particular scam hub.To address this, the FATF proposed six core principles, including focusing on a broader criminal ecosystem, end-to-end disruption of illegal fund flows, enhancing interdepartmental information sharing and cooperation, rapid cross-border action (especially within 24-72 hours after an incident), a victim-centered approach, and continuously adapting to changes in criminal methods.

The Acting Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury of Hong Kong, Chen Haolian, stated that international virtual asset trading platforms can apply for licenses from the Securities and Futures Commission as long as they meet the relevant statutory requirements and regulatory requirements of the Securities and Futures Commission. The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission and the Invest Hong Kong have also been in contact with these international platforms to introduce Hong Kong's regulatory requirements and market opportunities.Chen Haolian also mentioned that the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission will submit a bill to the Legislative Council by the end of this year to amend the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance.

According to a report by the Korean News Agency, Dunamu, which operates the virtual asset exchange Upbit, will participate in the "2026 National Assembly Legislative Expo" held at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, for two days starting from November 5.Dunamu is showcasing under the slogan "The value of digital assets, safely passed on to the next generation," proposing improvements to the system to protect virtual asset inheritance that is currently in a regulatory blind spot. Its core task is to quickly protect the virtual assets of the deceased and make it easier for heirs to locate them.A related person from Dunamu stated that virtual assets are still in a regulatory protection blind spot during the inheritance process and hopes that this policy proposal will serve as an opportunity to establish a foundational system.

According to Digital Asset, the Financial Services Commission of South Korea announced that it will formulate new guidelines requiring virtual asset service providers to immediately notify the Financial Supervisory Service and the Financial Security Institute upon discovering security incidents. Currently, these companies only need to report to the Korea Internet & Security Agency. Financial authorities believe that as virtual assets become increasingly intertwined with the financial industry, it is necessary to quickly convey incident information to financial regulatory bodies for investigation, information sharing, and consumer protection.Financial authorities also plan to establish the Digital Financial Security Act, which will apply security regulations comparable to the current Electronic Financial Transactions Act to virtual asset service providers, insurance agencies, and the lending industry, which hold a large amount of customer information or could cause significant asset losses. The legislation is planned to be completed and submitted in the first quarter of 2027. In addition, South Korea will conduct comprehensive security inspections of approximately 580 financial companies, including virtual asset service providers.

According to a Yellow Card announcement, the company completed the acquisition of the Brazilian virtual asset service provider GoMoney in October, with the transaction amount undisclosed. GoMoney was established in 2018 and is headquartered in São Paulo. After the acquisition, it will continue to be operated by the founding team as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Yellow Card.This acquisition allows Yellow Card to directly conduct business in Brazil for the first time, providing customers with local payment and receipt services in Brazilian Real, including Pix, and settling in stablecoins. GoMoney has applied to the Central Bank of Brazil for a virtual asset service provider license and will continue to operate under a transitional system during the approval period.

According to a case published by the People's Court of Fusui County, Guangxi, in 2020, a couple in their seventies, referred by an acquaintance, participated in an overseas virtual currency mining machine financial management project, initially investing 4,200 yuan and successfully recovering the principal, followed by additional investments of over 60,000 yuan.In December 2020, the involved platform was shut down, and the funds could not be withdrawn. In early 2026, the couple sued the investment introducer and the actual operator, demanding the return of all investment funds and interest.The court found that the virtual currency investment behavior involved violated relevant financial regulatory provisions and contravened public order and good morals, rendering the entrusted financial management contract invalid. The investment losses primarily stemmed from the illegality of virtual currency trading itself and platform risks, rather than being directly caused by the actions of the trustee. Based on this, the court dismissed the plaintiff's lawsuit, and the second instance upheld the original judgment, which has now taken effect.

According to the Hong Kong News Bulletin, the main forum of Hong Kong FinTech Week x StartmeupHK 2026 concluded on November 3 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. The Deputy Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Chan Ho Lam, stated: "Certainty plays a key role in innovative development. Under the direction of the 'Hong Kong Digital Asset Development Policy Declaration 2', we will establish a licensing system for virtual asset trading, custody, advisory, and management services, and submit a draft amendment to the Legislative Council in 2026 to clarify the compliance path for the market."In addition, during the panel discussion, the Chief Executive Officer of the Securities and Futures Commission, Ashley Alder, elaborated on the SFC's strategic vision, pointing out that artificial intelligence and tokenization will empower the development of Hong Kong's financial market, but it is essential to protect investors and maintain market integrity at the same time. Ashley Alder also noted that in the face of increasingly severe threats related to artificial intelligence, the industry must enhance cyber resilience. Regarding tokenization, she believes that achieving true scale effects hinges on integrating it into market operations, bringing substantial benefits through improved efficiency, accessibility, liquidity, and settlement speed. The Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Eddie Yue, stated that Hong Kong has the advantage to seize new growth opportunities brought by financial technology. With the good progress made under "FinTech 2030," banks and fintech companies will be able to utilize data, artificial intelligence, tokenization, and other emerging technologies more effectively.

According to a report by the Korean News Agency, members of the Democratic Party in the National Assembly's Finance and Economy Committee have decided to recommend to the party leadership to postpone the taxation of virtual assets originally scheduled to be implemented next year.After a party consultation meeting, the ruling party's secretary Woo Gi-hyung stated that the majority opinion among the committee members leans towards postponing it for about 2 years.

According to PR Newswire, the global payment and cash management platform Sunrate launched the Sunrate Agentic Card during Hong Kong FinTech Week. This is a programmable multi-currency corporate virtual card aimed at AI Agents, allowing AI Agents to autonomously create virtual cards, initiate payments, and query transaction results within preset authorizations and rules. It has currently obtained Mastercard Agent Pay certification.

The Supreme People's Procuratorate released typical cases of legally protecting citizens' personal information, two of which are related to the cryptocurrency industry. In Case One, Wang and 11 others established a chain of "finding downstream buyers domestically --- obtaining personal information from abroad --- reselling at a markup domestically," paying for purchases to foreign upstream sources with virtual currency, and reselling information such as citizens' household registration, property status, and tracking trajectories, with an amount involved exceeding 1.98 million yuan. The court sentenced each defendant to imprisonment ranging from three years and six months to eight months, and imposed fines.In Case Seven, Lin and 21 others illegally obtained over 870,000 pieces of personal information of job applicants under the guise of recruitment, through online recruitment platforms and by bribing corporate human resources personnel, selling it to foreign entities for profit. The illegal gains were settled in virtual currency and then exchanged for RMB, with an amount involved exceeding 7.46 million yuan. The court sentenced each defendant to imprisonment ranging from five years and three months to six months, and ordered them to bear civil liabilities such as public welfare damage compensation.

According to a report by the Korean News Agency, the Bank of Korea (central bank) has begun monitoring the market, requesting banks and securities companies to provide updates on their virtual asset-related businesses and assessments of related risks. On the 23rd of last month, the Bank of Korea sent relevant requests to 18 banks (including the five major banks: KB, Shinhan, Hana, Woori, and NH Nonghyup) and 13 securities companies, asking them to participate in the "Survey on the Current Status of Financial Institutions Entering the Virtual Asset Market."The survey covers the organizational structure and budget of each institution regarding virtual assets, the current status of market access, assessments of business-related risks, and risk management measures. The survey also addresses the potential impact on financial institutions if a major event occurs at the largest virtual asset exchange in the domestic market (such as a large-scale hacking attack leading to temporary operational disruption). Additionally, the survey focuses on other risk scenarios, such as significant price declines of virtual assets like Bitcoin, continuous shrinkage of trading volume, or other financial institutions suffering substantial losses due to virtual asset-related events.

According to a report from Xinhua News Agency, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China pointed out in its decision on several major issues regarding the persistent promotion of comprehensive and strict governance of the Party that it is necessary to unswervingly advance the integrated approach of not daring to be corrupt, being unable to be corrupt, and not wanting to be corrupt, and to resolutely combat corruption behaviors carried out through the use of the internet, virtual currency, cross-border funds, blockchain, and other means.

Hong Kong Interbank Clearing Limited disclosed the discovery of a fraudulent website that imitates its official website, luring users to recharge and withdraw through virtual wallets, and claiming to provide Fast Payment System (FPS) online transaction security support, including refunds, reporting unauthorized online transactions, and transaction support.Hong Kong Interbank Clearing Limited emphasizes that, under normal circumstances, it will not directly provide Fast Payment System services to individual members of the public, nor will it proactively contact individual members of the public. Do not provide personal or banking information to the related website.

According to the official account of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, a recent case involving U Coin fraud was heard in Xuzhou, Jiangsu, where Wang and others defrauded the victim, Xiao, of 1.2 million yuan under the pretense of purchasing U Coin. The case was initially transferred for prosecution on suspicion of robbery, but the procuratorial authority believed that Wang and others had meticulously set a trap, using false transactions as bait to essentially defraud the victim of U Coin, which constituted fraud. Therefore, they filed a public prosecution with the court.During the trial, the defense attorney presented arguments that the defendants constituted contract fraud. Whether the case is classified as fraud or contract fraud will result in significant differences in sentencing. The prosecutor pointed out that the criminal law stipulates that contract fraud is aimed at maintaining market order, and the contract content must reflect the attributes of a socialist market economy. Virtual currency transactions are illegal financial activities explicitly prohibited by the state and do not fall within the regulatory scope of contract fraud.

According to current laws, those who operate virtual asset businesses without declaration can be sentenced to a maximum of 5 years in prison or fined 50 million Korean Won. This law also applies to foreign operators targeting Korean residents. The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) stated that undeclared operators are in a regulatory blind spot and may be used for money laundering.In June of this year, DAXA and compliant operators jointly conducted an investigation and found that the average transaction fee of the operators under investigation was between 1.5% and 10%, which is up to 62 times the average level of the top five Korean exchanges (0.16%).

According to a report from the Beijing Daily client, the Market Supervision Administration of Haidian District, Beijing, investigated and handled the city's first illegal case of assisting pyramid schemes using blockchain and virtual currency technology, resulting in a technology company being fined and confiscated a total of over 930,000 yuan.The technology company involved is an outsourcing service provider for a certain public blockchain, offering support such as operations, market services, publicity and promotion, exchange docking, and maintenance. This public blockchain launched the "Atomic Plan" and "Hathaway Plan," which are centered around recruiting people for rebates, using the number of recruited individuals as the basis for rebates, and requiring participants to invest funds to obtain membership qualifications. Despite being aware of the pyramid scheme applications associated with this public blockchain, the involved company continued to provide technical operations, external publicity, and maintenance of virtual currency trading channels, facilitating the flow of funds and the spread of activities related to the pyramid scheme.Ultimately, the pyramid scheme activities of this public blockchain were investigated by public security authorities, the organizers were criminally detained, and the involved technology company was administratively punished with a total fine and confiscation of over 930,000 yuan for providing facilitative conditions.

Recently, the Qingshanqiao Police Station of the Xiangtan County Public Security Bureau in Xiangtan City, Hunan Province, with the support of the county bureau, went to Loudi and successfully dismantled a fraud den that used malicious links to steal virtual currency, arresting 3 criminal suspects.Upon investigation, on September 4, a local resident reported that after clicking on a strange link in a virtual currency QQ group, 6814 yuan worth of USDT was stolen from their account. Since August, three individuals, Zhou, Chen, and Liang, have been seeking illegal profits by obtaining malicious virus links through the Telegram app, specifically searching for virtual currency exchange groups in QQ and WeChat, sending malicious links in the groups, and waiting to steal the virtual currency from the accounts of those who clicked. Currently, all three suspects have been criminally detained in accordance with the law on suspicion of theft, and the case is under further investigation.

The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission has listed BTCC as a suspicious virtual asset trading platform. The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission stated that the relevant entity is a virtual asset trading platform operated by a Polish company, BTCC Poland Limited (which only has an English name), and it is not licensed by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, and is suspected of engaging in unlicensed activities in Hong Kong.

According to a report by the Korean News Agency, Lee Won-ik, Chairman of the Financial Services Commission, stated during a comprehensive inspection at the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee regarding the taxation of virtual assets to be implemented next year, "Various circumstances need to be fully considered." On the same day, People Power Party member Song Yeon-sik questioned whether to abolish or postpone the taxation, stating that the nature of digital assets and policy direction have not yet been determined, and that the "Basic Law on Digital Assets" should be prioritized. Lee Won-ik responded that the relevant legislation on digital assets is in the final negotiation stage and discussions will be promoted as soon as possible; regarding taxation, opinions from various parties are diverse, and collection of opinions is still ongoing.The taxation of virtual assets in South Korea was introduced in 2020 through amendments to the Income Tax Act, having been postponed three times previously. The government is currently advancing administrative procedures according to the timeline for implementation in January next year, but some in the industry and even within the ruling party believe that due to unclear standards and insufficient infrastructure, the timing for implementation is not yet mature.

According to a report by the Korean News Agency, the South Korean Ministry of Finance and Economy has convened a seminar on virtual asset taxation with five exchange operators: Dunamu, Bithumb, DigitalX, Coinone, and Streami, as well as institutions like the Financial Services Commission, to discuss current taxation regulations, market environment, tax preparation work, and the possibility of delaying or abolishing the tax, but no clear decisions have been made regarding related measures.South Korea's virtual asset taxation policy was established in 2020, originally scheduled for implementation in 2022, but has since been postponed to 2023, 2025, and 2027. The National Tax Service of South Korea is currently preparing relevant details, but matters such as staking still need to be negotiated with the Ministry of Finance and Economy; if the details are announced next month, there will be only about two months left until the planned implementation date.