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The Shanghai Branch of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has collaborated with ICBC Singapore Branch to successfully implement the country's first cross-border payment business between China and Singapore based on the digital renminbi cross-border settlement comprehensive service platform "Digital Currency Express" (CBETS). This transaction, involving nearly ten million yuan in import shipping fees, was fully paid using digital renminbi, with funds arriving in the Singapore recipient's account on the same day, achieving "zero time difference" and "high transparency" in cross-border fund transfers. The service targets subsidiaries of central enterprise group trade platforms that regularly need to procure iron ore from abroad and pay for shipping fees, with high frequency and large amounts of cross-border settlements."Digital Currency Express" is a cross-border settlement infrastructure built by the International Operation Center of Digital Renminbi under the guidance of the People's Bank of China's Digital Currency Research Institute. Overseas participants can access services through the Hong Kong access point "One Point Access", compatible with both centralized and blockchain systems, and the message standards comply with ISO20022. On June 16, 2026, the first batch of 26 financial institutions signed direct participant service agreements. This business marks a significant breakthrough for ICBC in leveraging the infrastructure of the International Operation Center of Digital Renminbi to establish an integrated cross-border clearing system for domestic and foreign branches, achieving comprehensive coverage of two-way digital renminbi payment and receipt services with Singapore and Laos.

According to The Block, the on-chain infrastructure layer SwarmBase, aimed at autonomous AI agents, has announced the completion of a $7 million financing round. This round was co-invested by Castrum Capital, M2M Capital, Notch Ventures, and Becker Ventures. Among them, Castrum Capital contributed an additional $4 million investment.It is reported that SwarmBase is a full-stack on-chain infrastructure protocol for autonomous AI agents. The platform provides core foundational modules such as identity, reputation, coordination, and transactions, enabling AI agents to operate independently through audited smart contracts.The funds raised in this round will primarily be used for the development of the SwarmBase protocol and ecological expansion, as well as preparations for the upcoming Token TGE. Castrum Capital stated that SwarmBase is well-positioned to lead the next wave of AI agents.

According to Bloomberg, private market investment management giant Hamilton Lane is preparing its first RMB-denominated fund, aiming to raise approximately 1 billion to 1.5 billion RMB (about 150 million to 220 million USD), with plans to complete the fundraising by the end of this year. Sources reveal that the fund will target domestic investors in China.Hamilton Lane has previously raised USD funds through the Qualified Foreign Limited Partner (QFLP) mechanism and converted them into RMB to invest in domestic assets. Its direct equity strategy fund, Hamilton Lane Equity Opportunities Fund VI (EO VI), has completed fundraising of 3.8 billion USD.Hamilton Lane has already made inroads into the crypto space, having strategically invested in the on-chain investment platform Republic this March. Its tokenized credit fund is already hosted on-chain, and the senior credit opportunity securitization fund HLSCOPE has total assets of approximately 9 million USD on the Polygon network, primarily investing in senior secured private credit and senior secured loans in North America and Europe.

Tiger Brokers announced that on May 22, the Beijing Regulatory Bureau of the China Securities Regulatory Commission imposed administrative penalties on some of the company's subsidiaries and ordered the confiscation of illegal gains, totaling approximately 411 million RMB (about 59.7 million USD).The related penalties stem from some subsidiaries conducting unlicensed cross-border securities business within China, as well as illegal activities involving funds and futures business. The company sincerely accepts the penalties and has confirmed them as a significant matter following the first quarter. Considering the company's overall profitability and cash flow situation, this one-time expenditure will not have a significant adverse impact on the company's operational activities or long-term development.

Recently, it has been reported that SK Hynix's average bonus for employees in South Korea will reach 6.1 million RMB. This news comes from a prediction by the international investment bank Macquarie Securities.The investment bank believes that if SK Hynix's operating profit reaches 447 trillion won by 2027, based on 10% of the operating profit and a simple calculation of the total number of employees, which is about 35,000 at the end of last year, the total dividend scale will reach approximately 44.7 trillion won, with an average bonus of about 1.29 billion won per person, close to 6.1 million RMB.In response, SK Hynix stated that since this year's and next year's annual performance has not yet been determined, the scale of the bonuses cannot be predicted. The company also mentioned that it has established a new system at the headquarters level, which uses 10% of the operating profit as the source of funds to distribute performance bonuses once a year. "As competition in AI semiconductors intensifies, talent has become a core competitive factor. Therefore, the company is committed to attracting outstanding talent through competitive compensation to maintain long-term competitive advantages."

After previously announcing the completion of a $200 million Series B financing, Shenzhen Zhongqing Robot Technology Co., Ltd. has now completed a Series B+ financing, with the specific scale and investors yet to be disclosed.According to official sources, after the completion of the Series B financing, Zhongqing Robot's valuation exceeded 10 billion yuan, placing it in the top tier of valuations in the domestic humanoid robot sector. Recently, the foreign investor representative of Zhongqing Robot, REDA NIDHAKOU, has resigned from the board of directors of Zhongqing Robot.

According to Jinshi News, the offshore RMB against the US dollar has fallen below 6.92, with a daily decline of 0.3%.

According to Jinshi News, the onshore RMB against the US dollar has broken through the 6.89 mark, reaching a high not seen since early May 2023.

According to reports from the WeChat public account "Singapore All-in-One," a Chinese suspect involved in fraud through a cryptocurrency platform was recently arrested in Nakhon Pathom, Thailand. The suspect, nicknamed "Duan Zong," is related to the BHE Exchange cryptocurrency fraud case.BHE Exchange had issued a token called DDO, promising investors an annual return of 6% and a 20-fold increase within ten years, attracting around 20,000 investors. The platform suddenly shut down, and investors were unable to withdraw their funds, resulting in a loss of approximately $128 million (about 900 million RMB). The suspect fled China in 2024 and settled in Thailand, frequently changing residences to evade capture. Currently, the Thai authorities have revoked his residence permit and will deport him back to China for further investigation and prosecution.

According to Gate market data, the offshore RMB against the US dollar has broken through the 6.9 mark, reaching a new high since April 2023, with a peak of 6.8953, an intraday increase of about 100 points.

According to Jinshi News, the onshore RMB has risen above the 6.93 mark against the US dollar.

According to Jinshi reports, the offshore RMB against the US dollar broke the 6.96 mark on Monday.

The Vice President of the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences and Executive Director of the China Finance Society, Fan Wenzhong, wrote an article in the Hong Kong Wen Wei Po titled "Steadily Promoting the Coordinated Innovation of Digital Renminbi and Hong Kong Stablecoins," in which he pointed out: Currently, the cross-border use of digital renminbi mainly relies on the internal regulations and pilot policies of the People's Bank of China, lacking clear legal authorization. It is suggested to add provisions in the revision of the "People's Bank of China Law" to clarify the cross-border payment functions of digital renminbi and the legality of its interconnection with compliant overseas digital currency systems, while striving to clarify the "special regulatory requirements and preferential policies for stablecoin issuing institutions that exchange with the mainland central bank's digital currency" in the implementation rules of Hong Kong's "Stablecoin Ordinance," forming a synergistic institutional force.

According to the Hong Kong Wen Wei Po, Fan Wenzhong, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing and Executive Director of the China Finance Society, wrote an article titled "Steadily Promoting the Coordinated Innovation of Digital Renminbi and Hong Kong Stablecoins," in which he pointed out: Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), represented by the digital renminbi (e-CNY), and new payment tools represented by compliant stablecoins from Hong Kong are reshaping the new paradigm of cross-border payments through different paths.Through the coordination of digital renminbi and Hong Kong stablecoins, the cross-border coverage of digital renminbi can be rapidly expanded, enhancing the stickiness of the renminbi in real trade and promoting the internationalization of the renminbi; strengthening Hong Kong's status as an international financial center and creating the world's first "CBDC + compliant stablecoin" integration hub. The cross-border payment solution for the dual currency does not pursue complete unification of the underlying ledgers of digital renminbi and stablecoins, but instead achieves secure exchange and circulation of both at the value level by establishing regulated and standardized interaction interfaces.

On the first trading day of 2026, the RMB against the USD continued its appreciation trend. Today, the RMB against the USD reached a maximum of 6.977 during the trading session, once again hitting a new high since mid-May 2023. At 16:30, the closing price of the RMB against the USD was reported at 6.9806, an increase of 84 basis points from the previous trading day, marking a new high since May 17, 2023.Wen Bin, chief economist of China Minsheng Bank, expects that in January, supported by seasonal demand for foreign exchange settlement, the RMB may still have room for appreciation. However, the RMB against the USD midpoint has deviated towards depreciation compared to the closing price of the spot exchange rate, which may indicate a certain pro-cyclical behavior in the foreign exchange market recently.Overall, under the policy tone of regulatory authorities to maintain the RMB exchange rate basically stable at a reasonable and balanced level and to prevent excessive fluctuations in the exchange rate, although the RMB exchange rate may still operate on the strong side in January, it is expected that there will not be a significant appreciation, and it may fluctuate bidirectionally in the range of 6.9-7 for most of the time, Wen Bin pointed out.

According to a report by 21 Finance, under the guidance of the People's Bank of China, MyBank has completed its first digital RMB scan payment at a merchant in Laos by connecting to the cross-border digital payment platform of the Digital RMB International Operation Center.This marks the latest progress in the bilateral cross-border digital payment cooperation project between the central banks of China and Laos. The opening of this pathway signifies that the digital RMB has achieved "internal use for external purposes" for the first time, providing a new payment method for Chinese residents spending abroad, and is another reflection of the deepening cooperation in digital currencies between the central banks of China and Laos.

"# The Differences Between Digital Renminbi and WeChat/Alipay" topped Baidu's trending search list.According to Baidu's trending search analysis, starting from January 1st, the balance in the digital renminbi wallet will earn interest like a demand deposit. The interpretation of the differences between digital renminbi and WeChat/Alipay is: digital renminbi is money, equivalent to directly paying merchants with a form of electronic cash; WeChat and Alipay are wallets, where money is taken from the wallet to pay merchants.