Anchorpoint, a Hong Kong fintech led by Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), is preparing to introduce its regulated Hong Kong dollar stablecoin HKDAP as early as month-end, according to the Hong Kong Economic Journal. The stablecoin will be distributed through licensed virtual asset trading platforms including OSL Group and HashKey Exchange, giving it a compliant gateway into the local market. Anchorpoint says it is progressing toward a phased rollout of HKDAP, which is designed to be fully 1:1 backed by Hong Kong dollars. The move comes as Hong Kong pushes to establish itself as a digital asset hub with a new stablecoin licensing regime, positioning HKDAP as one of the first fiat-referenced stablecoins issued by a major traditional financial group in the region.

South Korea's government today launches a forum to formally discuss the second phase of its Digital Asset Basic Act legislation, with stablecoin oversight as a centerpiece. The forum is chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Choi Sang-mok and marks the first government-hosted stablecoin policy event in the country. The ruling Democratic Party aims to pass the bill this year, which would create a business conduct framework for the digital asset sector and establish a legal basis for stablecoin regulation. In its 2026 economic growth strategy unveiled last week, the government said it plans to advance the legislation later this year to bring stability and clarity to Korea's fast-evolving crypto market.

Bitcoin Japan, the media and platform subsidiary of Japan's publicly traded Metaplanet, has approved a convertible bond deal with the EVO fund to raise up to 96.6 billion yen (approximately $59.5 million) to acquire more bitcoin. An initial purchase of over $4 million worth of bitcoin is planned. Metaplanet, one of the world's largest corporate bitcoin treasuries, already holds 43,000 BTC (roughly $2.8 billion), though its stock has fallen more than 50% this year. The subsidiary focuses on news, data, and event promotion to foster Japanese retail understanding of crypto, and this move reinforces the firm's aggressive accumulation strategy despite market headwinds.

South Korean conglomerate Hanwha Group has acquired a 9.6% stake in Securitize, the real-world asset infrastructure company, becoming its largest single shareholder with 15,689,509 shares. The holding surpasses Blockchain Capital's 6.0% and co-founder Carlos Domingo's 5.4%. Securitize supports issuance and distribution of tokenized traditional assets like securities and funds, and notably helps operate BlackRock's tokenized BUIDL fund. Hanwha's investment, made through affiliates and managed funds, underscores the growing Asian institutional appetite for RWA tokenization infrastructure.

South Korea's Hana Financial Group and Dunamu, the operator of Upbit, are expanding their collaboration to co-design a digital finance architecture that includes a won-pegged stablecoin, security tokens, and RWA tokenization. This follows Hana Bank's 1 trillion won acquisition of a 6.6% stake in Dunamu in May, upgrading their relationship from simple banking partnerships to deep capital and technology integration. The plan is to unify bank deposits, securities, and virtual asset accounts into a single portfolio and ultimately offer comprehensive asset management. For cross-border payments, the combination of Hana's forex and global network with Dunamu's Web3 infrastructure could extend to trade settlement and corporate transfers. However, actual service launches still depend on regulatory clarity around stablecoin issuers, reserve management, and business boundary rules.

The Bank of Korea's first-phase CBDC pilot lacked thorough independent security checks, with only self-assessments by participating banks conducted before launch, according to documents from the Financial Supervisory Service. A vulnerability self-test was carried out by the Financial Security Institute, SK Shields, and self-inspection teams from Woori and Nonghyup Banks, leading critics to label it a regime of "regulatee self-inspection." The central bank acknowledged external doubts about the security of deposit tokens but claimed the pre-checks were sufficient. However, critics argue this defense is still a self-evaluation rather than a genuine third-party audit, raising questions about the robustness of Korea's digital won preparations.

South Korea's Democratic Party of Korea is urging the Financial Services Commission (FSC) to intensify monitoring of single-stock leveraged ETFs and prepare additional measures if necessary. At a policy consultation meeting between the ruling party and the FSC, lawmakers pointed to elevated market volatility driven by such products and called for strengthened surveillance. This follows the FSC's recently announced measures last Thursday. The calls underscore official concern in Korea that leveraged ETFs, which attract heavy retail inflows, are amplifying price swings in major stocks like Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

South Korea's KOSPI index has seen annualized volatility surge above 60% this year, nearly double that of Japan's Nikkei 225 and even higher than bitcoin's. The exchange has triggered circuit breakers seven times in 2026 compared to zero in 2025. The culprits: Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, which together account for over 50% of KOSPI's market value, ride the AI hype but lack commensurate revenue, making them highly sentiment-driven. Meanwhile, more than $4 billion has poured into single-stock leveraged ETFs tracking these names this year, accounting for over 70% of their daily trading volumes and magnifying intraday moves. The situation highlights how Korea's equity market, deeply tied to the AI narrative, has become a lightning rod for global investor sentiment.

After a hacker AI agent breached its server, the global open-source AI community Hugging Face found that a leading US commercial large language model refused to analyze more than 17,000 attack logs, confusing the incident response team with the attacker. Hugging Face then deployed China's GLM 5.2 open-source model on its own infrastructure, successfully conducting the forensic analysis in hours instead of days. The incident puts a spotlight on the reliability and neutrality of Chinese AI models in critical security scenarios, and highlights the country's growing influence in advanced AI development.

Ant International has completed its Series A funding round, raising about $1.2 billion from Ant Group, Alibaba, and other international investors. The funds will be used to expand its global business, accelerate AI technology investment, and broaden its cross-border payment, global account, and other inclusive fintech services. The company connects over 150 million global merchants and 2 billion consumer accounts across Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America. Ant International's growth underscores the rising ambition of Chinese fintech giants in the global digital payment infrastructure race.