regulatory

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao stated that he attended the third official meeting of the National Crypto Committee chaired by Kyrgyzstan President Sadyr Japarov.The meeting focused on topics such as crypto regulation, compliance and anti-money laundering and anti-fraud measures, stablecoins, and tokenization pilots.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressed concerns about the plan to establish a national AI regulatory agency during a phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump last month. The proposal, advocated by Google DeepMind scientist Demis Hassabis and supported by some White House officials, aims to create an independent organization similar to FINRA to review and test potential risks before the broader deployment of advanced AI models. White House officials previewed the proposal to Trump and major tech companies, including Meta, in mid-August.Trump spoke with Zuckerberg during the week of August 17. According to senior White House officials familiar with the conversation, Zuckerberg opposed the proposal. Another informed source indicated that Zuckerberg did not ask Trump to change his position but told him that the personnel of the regulatory agency the White House might appoint should reflect Trump's light-touch approach to AI, noting that Trump made the call first. The conversation did not kill the idea, which is still under consideration. A Meta spokesperson declined to comment. A White House spokesperson stated that the Trump administration is committed to balancing innovation and safety in AI policymaking.In an article in August, Zuckerberg expressed skepticism about strict government regulation of new AI models, arguing that any policy that delays the release of models by even a month would pose significant risks to the U.S. leadership position relative to China. The government is considering a FINRA-like regulatory agency or a voluntary industry organization similar to the Motion Picture Association of America. Trump's former AI and crypto czar, David Sachs, opposed government regulatory agencies, calling them "the DMV of AI." Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark expressed support for the FINRA-like idea in a post in July.

The G20 finance ministers and central bank governors held a meeting in Asheville, USA, from August 31 to September 1, supporting the establishment of a clearer regulatory path for the growth of digital assets and including digital assets in the U.S. 2026 presidential agenda. The G20 stated that digital financial innovation can support broad economic growth, with the private sector playing an important role in driving relevant innovations.The meeting also highlighted global stablecoins, cross-border payments, and the extended operation of large payment systems as key topics, and supported the adoption of the ISO 20022 data standard. The G20 called on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to prioritize jurisdictions with significant virtual asset activities and to strengthen the enforcement of anti-money laundering standards. As of July, among the 149 jurisdictions assessed by the FATF, only 1 fully complied with the relevant standards, 34% were largely compliant, 43% partially compliant, and 22% non-compliant.

According to Euronews, Taiwan's stock market surged by 59% in the first half of this year due to a spike in demand for AI hardware, with chip giants like TSMC being the main drivers. Driven by high return expectations, a large number of ordinary people borrowed money to enter the market through bank loans and mortgage properties, with the scale of margin trading increasing by nearly 20% compared to the first half of the year.Some investors have made substantial profits, such as Mr. Chen, a real estate practitioner, who borrowed 5 million New Taiwan dollars and quadrupled his assets within six months; however, others have suffered significant losses, with one anonymous user claiming to have invested over 10 million New Taiwan dollars (including 6 million in mortgage loans) and lost nearly half, even experiencing mental health issues.Taiwan's Financial Supervisory Commission stated that the overall credit risk remains within a controllable range and has released videos on social media to warn young investors about the risks of loan defaults.

As the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) accelerate their rule-making efforts for the $2.5 trillion industry amid a legislative stalemate on cryptocurrency market structure during the summer recess, both agencies are advancing multiple crypto-related initiatives. These include re-evaluating the definitions of derivatives such as swaps and perpetual contracts, as well as rewriting the SEC's crypto custody rules.A bipartisan group composed of former CFTC Chairman Chris Giancarlo, former CFTC Commissioners Brian Quintenz and Sharon Brown-Hruska, former SEC Commissioner Steven Wallman, and former SEC Chief Economist Chester Spatt stated in a comment letter sponsored by Kalshi that similar risks should receive similar regulatory treatment, and overlapping rules should not impose additional compliance costs. Giancarlo noted that if federal regulation is calibrated based on actual risks rather than maximum burdens, liquidity will flow back to the U.S., and the longer we wait, the harder it will be to attract that liquidity back.Kalshi estimates that offshore perpetual contract trading volume will exceed $90 trillion by 2025, up from about $28 trillion two years ago. Additionally, the SEC last week submitted its plan to rewrite the custody rules for investment advisers and investment companies to the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for review, and its "Reg Crypto" proposal has officially entered the Federal Register, with a public comment period ending on October 20.

According to Bloomberg, billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries' digital and telecommunications business unit Jio Platforms has received regulatory approval, clearing a key hurdle for its long-awaited initial public offering (IPO). According to the official website of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the agency issued a letter of opinion to Jio Platforms within a week, indicating that it has been authorized to advance the IPO process.The listing plan for Jio Platforms has attracted significant market attention, as the company launched the reward token JioCoin, developed on the Polygon blockchain, last year. Community users have reported that the token has been integrated into Jio's web browser JioSphere.

Bilal Bin Saqib, the Minister of State for Pakistan and Chairman of the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA), revealed at the Bitcoin Asia conference that the country completed the establishment of its virtual asset regulatory system in less than six months, using only about 8% of the approved budget, which is approximately $200,000, with about 92% of the budget remaining unused. Saqib stated that the government should not measure success by how much money is spent, but rather by the actual delivery of results. The regulatory framework covers activities such as exchanges, custody, brokerage, asset management, lending, and settlement, and introduces requirements regarding governance, anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing, customer asset protection, cybersecurity, and market conduct. Saqib emphasized that Pakistan's regulatory ambitions extend beyond the current digital asset market, with future focus on the tokenization market, programmable payments, stablecoins, machine-to-machine transactions, and the AI agent economy, noting the need to establish corresponding regulatory rules for agent payments and the agent economy. Saqib stated that emerging markets do not need to spend a decade catching up; they can build on the frontier. With a population of over 240 million, Pakistan is a potentially significant market for emerging financial technologies. The rapid transition from legislation to licensing in the country is being used as a demonstration case for the government's response to next-generation financial infrastructure.

Fox Business crypto reporters posted on the X platform that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation are advancing the finalization of a rule to define "unsafe or unsound practices" in bank regulation. This term has not been clearly defined for years, primarily relying on the broad discretion of bank examiners.Under this rule, when regulators determine that a practice is "unsafe or unsound," they must link it to actual illegal conduct or significant financial risk, thereby reducing the likelihood of pressuring banks serving legitimate clients, including crypto companies, based on vague reputational or procedural issues. This rule marks another important step towards further dismantling "Operation Chokepoint 2."

The Hyperliquid Policy Council (HPC) and TradeXYZ jointly submitted a comment letter to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), calling for the inclusion of energy perpetual contracts in the regulated U.S. market.The article mentions that in February this year, due to the Middle East conflict causing disruptions in crude oil exports and the U.S. futures market being closed, overseas market participants were able to manage risk exposure through crude oil-linked perpetual contracts on Hyperliquid. Approximately two-thirds of the price changes were completed on-chain during the first weekend of the conflict.In May this year, the CFTC approved the first batch of cryptocurrency-based perpetual contracts to be traded as futures in the U.S., and in June, it publicly solicited opinions on energy perpetual contracts. The comment letter suggests that the CFTC establish a technology-neutral framework to evaluate energy perpetual contracts and 24/7 trading, confirm that exchanges can operate around the clock, recognize stablecoins and tokenized collateral as eligible margin, and allow regulated markets to use on-chain infrastructure for execution, clearing, and settlement.

According to The Block, South Korea's top financial regulator has stated that it will accelerate discussions on cryptocurrency-related legislation and plans to launch the country's version of the "Basic Law on Digital Assets" this fall.The bill is expected to establish corresponding rules regarding stablecoin issuance, licensing for virtual asset service providers (VASP), Bitcoin ETFs, and other matters.

The Responsible Fintech Institute (RFI) and the cryptocurrency asset custody infrastructure provider Safeheron announced the launch of a pilot program for quantum-resistant digital asset wallets and on-chain transfers, with participants from Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. The pilot operates on the quantum-resistant NEAR testnet and uses a multiparty computation protocol that supports the ML-DSA-65 standard.Participating regulatory bodies include the Abu Dhabi Global Market, Bhutan's Gelephu Financial Services Office, and Malta's Financial Services Authority, with Bison Bank and DK Bank participating as financial institutions. The banks will test wallet generation and transfers in a shared application environment, while regulatory bodies will observe in the initial phase and later participate in governance workflows. The organizers plan to release a white paper covering research, protocol design, and testing results, and gradually open-source the underlying technology. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority plans to prepare the Hong Kong banking sector to fully address quantum security risks by 2030, while a report from the Bank for International Settlements published in 2025 suggests that financial institutions should migrate to quantum-resistant systems in phases.

According to CryptoSlate, the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA) has required cryptocurrency exchanges and related service providers operating locally to enter a new licensing process by September 5, or they must cease relevant operations. PVARA opened the licensing application portal for virtual asset service providers on August 22 and released regulatory rules for virtual asset services.According to the regulations, service providers that have been conducting cryptocurrency business in Pakistan must submit a "No Objection Certificate" (NOC) application. During the application review period, as long as a complete application is submitted on time, they may continue to provide existing services. Businesses that do not submit applications by September 5 must stop relevant services within the regulatory scope, and continuing operations will be considered a violation. PVARA added that this policy does not constitute a comprehensive ban on cryptocurrency but establishes a "compliance or exit" regulatory mechanism applicable to exchanges, custodians, and other businesses providing virtual asset services to users in Pakistan.

According to Cointelegraph, the European Commission is assessing whether to include crypto lending (including DeFi vaults) in the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA). The relevant targeted consultation was launched on May 20, 2026, with a feedback deadline of September 30. MiCA originally excluded crypto lending and completely decentralized activities, but Brussels is currently reviewing these gaps.EU digital asset lawyer Yuriy Brisov stated that there is no category of "vault" in EU law, and lawyers need to define by function rather than label. Vaults decentralize economic functions such as lending across smart contracts and multiple participants (such as owners, curators, distributors, and sentinels in Morpho Vault V2), making it difficult to correspond to a single regulated entity. Cahill partner Jonathan Galea cautioned against treating "DeFi lending" as a single label, as products with different structures may be subject to a one-size-fits-all approach. Curve founder Michael Egorov noted that if included in regulation, they should be treated differently, as DeFi does not require all the protections of traditional lending and may need different rules.

CFTC Chairman Selig stated on social media that Congress has granted the CFTC exclusive regulatory authority over prediction markets. The CFTC will not only defend its jurisdiction against attempts by states to abolish federal laws and apply state anti-gambling laws to designated contract markets (DCM), but will also exercise that power by establishing clear rules for these markets.Selig indicated that the CFTC will actively maintain a unified regulatory framework at the federal level, ensuring that prediction markets operate under a clear compliance pathway, avoiding the impact of state-level anti-gambling rules on federally regulated DCM.

According to Decrypt, Michael Selig, the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), stated that if the Clarity Act continues to be stalled due to Democratic obstruction, the CFTC will use its existing authority to begin establishing a regulatory framework for the cryptocurrency market and has instructed staff to expedite the formal rule proposal.Selig has asked staff to explore incorporating the digital asset market structure into CFTC rules, which may include both existing CFTC-registered entities and currently unregistered cryptocurrency exchanges under its regulatory scope.Rules tailored for digital assets may allow for leveraged and margin trading. Bitcoin ETFs saw a net inflow of $606 million, marking a new single-day high since May 1; Ethereum ETFs had a net inflow of $219 million, reaching a new high since September 2025. In the past 24 hours, the amount of short liquidations in the cryptocurrency market exceeded $1.2 billion, approaching $5 billion over the past two days.

Multicoin Capital partner Tushar Jain stated that he spoke at the first meeting of the CFTC Innovation Advisory Committee and presented three recommendations to CFTC Chairman Selig. These include establishing safe harbors or innovation exemptions for new markets such as derivatives, allowing builders to test ideas for compliance; supporting compliance confidentiality tools in DeFi, which provide greater transparency for regulators in managing systemic risk while protecting the privacy of institutional traders.Jain also called for support for perpetual futures before IPOs, enabling ordinary Americans to share in AI wealth creation, rather than being excluded from private markets or forced into opaque SPVs. He mentioned that he also communicated with SEC Chairman Paul Atkins that day and expressed gratitude to forward-looking regulators concerned about the future of America.