Vietnam plans to grant its first crypto asset service provider licenses in 2026 under a pilot legal framework, according to Bitcoin.com News. The State Securities Commission (SSC) chair Vu Thi Chan Phuong said the regulatory approach draws on FATF recommendations and the EU model, with emphasis on risk management, investor asset protection, and anti-money laundering. The move would allow the first digital asset platforms to begin operating in the country, marking a significant shift for one of Southeast Asia's largest crypto-adopting populations.

People's Bank of China Deputy Governor Lu Lei told the China-ASEAN Financial Cooperation and Development Forum that next-generation AI brings new risks including algorithmic black boxes and model hallucinations. Speaking on deepening China-ASEAN AI cooperation in finance, Lu stressed the problem of asymmetric understanding between humans and AI decision-making processes. His remarks signal growing regulatory attention to AI governance across China's financial system and its regional partners.

Beijing's Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology and the Development and Reform Commission unveiled an action plan for 2026-2028 to accelerate the tokenonomy economy. The plan sets grading standards for token factories, covering metrics such as model adaptation capacity, token throughput speed, first-token latency, cache hit rate, and power usage effectiveness. It also calls for breakthroughs in model-chip adaptation, inference-specific chips, and edge deployment to expand token production capacity.

On-chain analyst Ember tracked a whale entity that accumulated over 100,000 BTC at around $7,242 per coin in 2018, a position worth more than $10 billion last year. Starting August 2025, the entity sold roughly 89,000 BTC and purchased about 900,000 ETH at an average cost above $3,500. Those ETH holdings were transferred to Binance in the first half of 2026, with the entity recording losses on multiple occasions over the past year.

EVAS Intelligence, a general-purpose AI compute chip unicorn, completed a new funding round of nearly 2 billion yuan (approximately $280 million), with a post-money valuation close to 15 billion yuan (about $2.1 billion), according to PANews sources. The round drew over 20 investment institutions including Huatai Innovation, Eastern Bell Capital, SMIC Juyuan, and Jiu'an Medical. EVAS provides scalable AI computing acceleration solutions and is positioning itself as a key player in China's AI chip ecosystem.

Samsung Electronics America is recruiting a senior manager in New York for Samsung Wallet business development, and the role's payment partnership scope explicitly includes stablecoins and buy-now-pay-later services, according to Digital Asset. The position covers partnerships with card issuers, general payment services, and fintech players, as well as contract negotiation and product feature launches. The listing signals Samsung's continued push to integrate digital assets into its consumer payment ecosystem.

Security firm SlowMist issued an asset theft warning for FomoPeek App versions 1.1-1.2 after multiple users reported losing funds. Joint analysis with OKX security team confirmed the app was bundled with two malicious modules, including a professional iOS kernel attack framework with eight exploit methods targeting iOS 12.0-18.7 and 26.0-26.1. The framework can automatically select attack vectors based on device model and system version, posing a serious threat to users who downloaded the affected versions.

SoftBank Group is finalizing nearly $21 billion in potential new borrowing to expand its AI financing capacity, Bloomberg reported. The Japanese conglomerate increased its margin loan secured by Arm Holdings shares by $5 billion to $25 billion and added $450 million to existing credit facilities. SoftBank also plans to raise another $10-20 billion through a jumbo bond deal next week, underscoring its aggressive AI investment push.

A wallet associated with BIT.com transferred 1,000 BTC worth approximately $81 million to Binance, according to Lookonchain monitoring. BIT.com operates as an Asian digital asset exchange, and the transfer highlights continued institutional-level movement of Bitcoin through regional trading venues during the current market rally.

Police in the UAE and Sweden arrested seven people linked to an international money laundering network that processed roughly 70 million Swedish kronor (about $7.1 million) in criminal proceeds over ten months, Decrypt reported. Investigators traced cryptocurrency transactions and digital evidence to tie the funds to organized crime and contract killings. The case demonstrates growing cross-border enforcement cooperation targeting crypto-enabled crime involving Gulf states.