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According to South Korean media Edaily, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of South Korea has determined that the cryptocurrency exchange Coinone violated obligations related to the Specific Financial Information Act after completing an on-site inspection. It decided to impose a partial business suspension for 3 months and a fine of approximately $3.56 million (5.2 billion won), with the suspension period from April 29 to July 28. During the suspension, new customers are restricted from external transfers of virtual assets (deposits and withdrawals), while existing customers can continue trading normally. In addition, the FIU issued a "warning reprimand" to Coinone's CEO, Cha Myung-hoon.The FIU stated that Coinone assisted 16 unregistered overseas virtual asset businesses in completing 10,113 asset transfer transactions in violation of regulations and failed to cooperate after regulatory authorities repeatedly requested to stop related transactions; there were approximately 40,000 violations in customer identity verification, including accepting documents that could not be verified for authenticity and reviewing customer address information that was incomplete; there were about 30,000 violations of trading restriction obligations, involving allowing transactions for users whose identity verification had not yet been completed. Coinone stated that it takes this sanction seriously and is advancing rectification, and whether to file an administrative lawsuit will be decided after careful consideration by the board of directors.

Polymarket has delisted a prediction market involving the fate of a missing American pilot, stating that the content violates the platform's "integrity standards" and should not have been launched, and is reviewing its internal auditing processes. The incident has sparked widespread controversy, as the market had bets on "whether they will be rescued," with over 60% of users betting that they would not be rescued in the short term.It is reported that U.S. Congressman Seth Moulton has publicly criticized such trades as "disgusting," questioning the speculation on the fate of potential casualties. He stated, "American soldiers could be your neighbors, friends, or family, yet some are betting on whether they will be rescued."Additionally, the Polymarket platform has not specified the exact terms of the violations, raising questions about the transparency of the rules. Meanwhile, the prediction market is also facing heightened concerns over "insider trading," with reports that some traders had made precise bets for profit before sensitive military events. On the regulatory side, several U.S. lawmakers have called for stronger restrictions on trading in prediction markets using non-public information.

According to CNN, citing multiple sources, federal prosecutors in Manhattan, New York, are investigating whether some high-yield bets in prediction markets violate insider trading and other laws.According to insiders, the head of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Unit of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York recently met with representatives from Polymarket to discuss how existing laws might apply to potential misconduct in this rapidly evolving industry. The U.S. Department of Justice is focusing on those high-profile high-yield bets, marking an escalation in regulatory scrutiny of the industry. Over the past year, the prediction market industry has rapidly expanded with relatively limited federal oversight.

The Federal Court of Australia ordered Binance's Australian derivatives division (i.e., Oztures Trading Pty Ltd) to pay a fine of AUD 10 million (approximately USD 6.9 million).During the period from 2022 to 2023, the entity incorrectly classified over 85% of local customers as wholesale investors, resulting in 524 retail customers being exposed to high-risk crypto derivatives without statutory consumer protections, leading to trading losses of approximately AUD 8,660,000 (about USD 5.9 million) and fee losses of AUD 3,900,000 (about USD 2.7 million). Joe Longo, Chairman of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), stated that Binance failed to establish basic compliance review mechanisms and incorrectly approved hundreds of wholesale investor applications. According to the fact statement submitted to the court, Binance acknowledged flaws in its customer onboarding process, allowing applicants to repeatedly take the eligibility test until they passed, and that senior compliance personnel inadequately reviewed application materials. Binance admitted to six violations, including failing to provide product disclosure statements to retail customers, not conducting target market assessments, and not maintaining a compliant internal dispute resolution system. This fine is in addition to approximately AUD 13.1 million (about USD 9 million) in customer compensation previously supervised by ASIC. The entity's Australian financial services license was revoked in April 2023.

The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of South Korea has initiated sanctions against the cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb, as the exchange was found to allow users to transfer funds to unregistered overseas trading platforms and failed to implement customer identity verification (KYC) procedures. According to Seoul News, the sanctions may include a suspension of new customer services for up to six months, while existing users' deposits and withdrawals will not be affected.This penalty adds insult to injury for Bithumb, which had previously mistakenly sent out $40 billion worth of Bitcoin due to operational errors and is currently facing an investigation by advertising regulators.The exchanges GOPAX and Coinone are also under investigation by the FIU. Competitor Upbit faced a three-month ban on new customers last year for similar violations and is currently challenging this through legal means, with a court ruling expected in April.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) stated that it has "full enforcement authority" over illegal trading activities in prediction markets. Previously, the prediction market platform Kalshi reported two insider trading incidents to the CFTC and froze the accounts of the related traders.Recently, concerns about insider trading in prediction markets have been rising. A senior official from the U.S. Department of Justice has marked prediction markets as an area suitable for enforcement, and state gaming regulators are also seeking to regulate such markets.Last week, the CFTC stated in a court filing that it has exclusive jurisdiction over prediction markets, further intensifying jurisdictional disputes with the states. Under current regulations, companies registered with the CFTC (such as Kalshi) typically have the obligation to assist in regulating violations within their markets and report them to the agency.

The founder of OpenClaw, Peter Steinberger, responded on social media regarding "a user being banned after mentioning Bitcoin in OpenClaw's Discord," stating, "We have strict server rules, and users agree to comply with them upon entering the server. One of these rules is a complete ban on mentioning cryptocurrencies."Afterward, Peter Steinberger inquired about the user's account name, indicating that he would manually re-add them to OpenClaw's Discord group.

X product lead and Solana advisor Nikita Bier revealed in a post on the X platform that the platform will launch a disclosure feature next week. This move aims to warn that there are undisclosed advertising contents on the platform, and it also means that X may require users to explicitly disclose paid promotional posts and take measures such as suspending accounts that do not comply with relevant regulations.Nikita Bier pointed out that there are currently some promotional contents on the platform that are not marked as commercial collaborations or advertisements, which may mislead users. If the new regulations are implemented, X may strengthen the management of transparency in commercial promotional content and enhance compliance review mechanisms. It is reported that Nikita Bier has already requested further disclosure of relevant advertising information in replies to paid promotional tweets on the prediction market platform Kalshi, warning that accounts will be banned if not complied with.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced that the cryptocurrency trading platform Paxful Holdings Inc. has been fined $4 million for failing to establish effective anti-money laundering controls.Prosecutors alleged that the platform has long allowed illegal funds related to fraud, prostitution, and human trafficking to flow through it, profiting from these activities. The Department of Justice stated that Paxful was aware that some customer funds were derived from criminal activities but continued to provide services, using lax anti-money laundering regulations as a selling point to attract users. The investigation also pointed out that the platform processed cryptocurrency transactions for websites including Backpage, which is believed to have been used to post advertisements related to prostitution, involving minors. Data shows that from 2015 to 2022, approximately $17 million worth of Bitcoin flowed through Paxful wallets to related websites, with the platform earning at least $2.7 million in profits from this. The Department of Justice stated that Paxful's founder even referred to the resulting business growth as the "Backpage Effect."

According to Yonhap News Agency, the first case of violation of the "Virtual Asset User Protection Act" in South Korea has been sentenced. The Seoul Southern District Court sentenced the CEO of a cryptocurrency trading company to 3 years in prison for manipulating coin prices, along with a fine of 500 million won (approximately 385,000 USD) and the recovery of about 846 million won (approximately 650,000 USD). However, considering Mr. Lee's active cooperation during the trial and his prior detention, the court decided not to revoke his bail and did not detain him.The court found that between July and October 2024, he used an automated trading program to inflate trading volume and repeatedly placed false buy orders to manipulate prices, with improper gains amounting to about 7.1 billion won (approximately 5.46 million USD). This case is the first to be transferred by the prosecution through the financial regulatory "fast track" since the law took effect in July 2024.

According to CoinDesk, India's federal budget for the fiscal year 2026-27 maintains the existing 30% cryptocurrency capital gains tax and 1% withholding tax, disappointing industry groups that had sought tax reductions. The government did not adjust the tax rates but proposed new penalties for entities that fail to properly report cryptocurrency transactions under Section 509 of the Income Tax Act starting from April 1, 2026.Failure to submit the required reports will incur a daily fine of 200 rupees (approximately $2.2) until the non-compliance ends. If the submitted information is incorrect, or if errors are not corrected after being discovered, a fixed penalty of 50,000 rupees (approximately $545) will be imposed. Officials stated that this move aims to strengthen compliance, but market participants warn that it will continue to create friction for traders.

The Federal Court of Australia ruled that BPS Financial was fined AUD 14 million (approximately USD 9.7 million) for operating the Qoin wallet project without obtaining the necessary licenses and for making misleading statements to consumers.

According to PRNewswire, Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin mining company Canaan Inc. disclosed that it received a written notice from Nasdaq on January 14, indicating that the company violated Nasdaq listing rule 5550(a)(2), as its American Depositary Shares (ADS) closed below $1.00 per share for 30 consecutive trading days. According to the notice, Canaan Inc. must raise the closing price of its ADS above $1.00 and maintain it for 10 consecutive trading days before July 13, 2026, to avoid delisting.

Huobi HTX has released a statement regarding the unilateral asset transfer by the Flow (FLOW) project team.Huobi HTX stated that on December 27, 2025, a protocol layer vulnerability in the Flow network led to a large amount of FLOW being illegally minted. After the incident, the platform proactively verified the situation with the project team to confirm whether there were any anomalies, and actively cooperated with risk management and on-chain tracking efforts. At the same time, the risk control and monitoring systems continuously tracked suspicious fund flows and took restrictive measures on identifiable hacker-related assets, making every effort to prevent further inflow into the market and protect the overall interests of token holders.However, the Flow project team unilaterally initiated the "Isolated Recovery" plan without fully communicating with the exchange and users, forcibly transferring FLOW assets from centralized exchange addresses, including Huobi HTX, through protocol layer permissions, and plans to destroy them on January 30, 2026.Huobi HTX emphasizes that the forcibly transferred and intended-to-be-destroyed assets include a large amount of FLOW obtained by ordinary users through legitimate market transactions. The actions of the Flow project team seriously deviate from the principles of decentralization and clear property rights, setting a bad precedent for the security boundaries of industry assets, and severely damaging the legitimate asset rights and interests of the platform and its users. Huobi HTX calls on the Flow project team to adhere to the spirit of decentralization, respect the legitimate rights and interests of users and exchanges, clearly distinguish between illegal minting and legal holdings, publish a complete and auditable post-event analysis, and resolve outstanding issues through active negotiation rather than unilateral technical means.

The American law firm Burwick Law has announced a litigation update stating that the plaintiffs have submitted a revised complaint to the federal court, accusing multiple cryptocurrency entities of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).Defendants include: Baton Corp (operator of PumpFun), Solana Foundation, Solana Labs, and related executives. The complaint alleges that the defendants are involved in extortion activities.

The American law firm Burwick Law announced a litigation update stating that the plaintiffs have submitted a revised complaint today in federal court, accusing the operator of pump.fun, Baton Corp, as well as the Solana Foundation, Solana Labs, and several executives of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).

Although Executive Order 14233 stipulates that confiscated BTC must be stored in the U.S. strategic BTC reserves, the U.S. Department of Justice appears to have sold the BTC paid by the Samourai developers as part of a plea agreement. Furthermore, this is not the first time the SDNY has acted in disregard of federal guidelines in the Samourai case.

According to CoinDesk, South Korea's Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) has imposed a $25 million fine on Upbit operator Dunamu and suspended new customer registrations for three months. The regulator found approximately 5.3 million instances of customer verification violations at the exchange and failed to report 15 suspicious transactions. Dunamu is considering an appeal, stating that the FIU has had previous rulings overturned by the courts.At the same time, the FIU also conducted compliance checks on other South Korean exchanges such as Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and GOPAX, discovering multiple violations. Upbit has pledged to strengthen investor protection measures to ensure a safe trading environment for its customers.

According to Cointelegraph, the UAE's newly implemented Federal Decree No. 6 brings decentralized finance (DeFi) and Web3 projects under regulatory oversight, requiring platforms that provide payment, trading, lending, custody, or investment services to obtain a license from the Central Bank of the UAE.The law will take effect on September 16, 2025, ending the "code-only" regulatory exemption defense, with violators facing fines of up to 1 billion dirhams (approximately $272 million) and potential criminal sanctions. Legal experts clarify that the regulation does not prohibit individuals from using self-custody wallets but expands the regulatory scope for businesses. Project teams must complete compliance adjustments before the transition period deadline in September 2026.