Seoul Ruling Party to Discuss Crypto Tax Delay With Five Major Exchanges
South Korea's ruling Democratic Party will meet representatives from the country's five largest exchanges — Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax — on Friday to discuss postponing crypto taxation originally slated for January 2027. The party has submitted a bill to push implementation to 2029, citing insufficient infrastructure and difficulty obtaining transaction data. The meeting signals growing political recognition that the current timeline may be unworkable for both platforms and investors.
Beijing Issues First Penalty Against Blockchain Firm for Aiding Pyramid Scheme
Beijing's Haidian District market regulator has imposed fines and confiscations totaling over 930,000 yuan on a technology company in the city's first case targeting a blockchain firm for facilitating a pyramid scheme. The company served as an outsourced service provider for a public chain, offering operations, marketing, exchange integration, and maintenance. Regulators found it continued supporting two referral-based programs despite knowing they operated as pyramid schemes, helping move and expand illicit funds through virtual currency channels.
Hong Kong's LME Explores Tokenizing Metals Stored in Local Warehouses
The London Metal Exchange, owned by Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, is exploring tokenizing metals held in its Hong Kong warehouses to support financing. Three sources told Reuters the plan aligns with Hong Kong's five-year strategy to build a commodities trading hub and could attract investors, traders, and lenders. The LME said it is in early stages of examining tokenization of non-warranted metal inventories and plans an invite-only industry roundtable in early November. HKEX is separately testing converting carbon credits into digital tokens for faster settlement.
Hong Kong Investor Watchdog Flags Risks in Trading Tokenized Funds on Secondary Markets
Hong Kong's Investor and Financial Education Council has warned retail investors about risks in purchasing tokenized funds on secondary markets, including price divergence, liquidity constraints, price segmentation, and reliance on market makers. The council urged investors to fully understand the underlying fund's objectives and strategy, whether settlement occurs on-chain or off-chain, applicable fees, and potential trading suspensions. The guidance reflects Hong Kong regulators' broader push to build safeguards as tokenized financial products gain traction.
SBI Holdings and CRB Group Plan Japan Joint Venture for RWA Tokenization
Japanese financial giant SBI Holdings has signed a strategic memorandum with CRB Group, parent of Cross River Bank, to establish a joint venture in Japan. The partnership will explore tokenizing loan receivables and other real-world assets, cross-border payments, and infrastructure for AI agent transactions. SBI also plans a strategic investment in CRB Group and may integrate the yen stablecoin JPYSC into Cross River's platform for institutional settlement. Final agreements and regulatory approvals are still required.
Alipay Rejects Peer's Claim of Supporting USDC Trading
Alipay has officially denied claims by P2P crypto trading platform Peer that users can buy and sell USDC through the payment network. In a statement, Alipay said it does not support virtual currency trading or related services, calling any third-party claims of crypto purchases via its platform false and unauthorized. The firm urged users to remain cautious and protect their funds and accounts, underscoring mainland China's continuing hard line against crypto transactions.
Asia Investors Turn to Crypto Derivatives as Anthropic IPO Access Stays Tight
Asian investors facing difficulty participating directly in Anthropic's planned IPO are pivoting to crypto derivatives tied to the AI company's valuation, Bloomberg reported. OKX and Binance have both launched perpetual contracts linked to Anthropic's implied valuation, while Hyperliquid's EntropyIO platform briefly showed an implied valuation near $1.88 trillion. TSMC, SK Hynix, and Samsung Electronics could benefit from Anthropic's planned $800 billion computing infrastructure buildout.
FuriosaAI Raises $620 Million as Korean AI Chip Ambitions Expand
South Korean AI chip startup FuriosaAI has closed a $620 million Series D round at a $2.9 billion valuation, roughly four times its previous round's $735 million valuation. Investors include the Korea National Growth Fund, which contributed $280 million, along with Singapore's QUDA Capital and Abu Dhabi's NeoFort Holding. Existing backers Naver, Kakao Investment, and Korea Development Bank also participated, signaling strong domestic and regional support for Korea's AI semiconductor sector.
Samsung Posts Record Profit as AI Memory Supercycle Continues
Samsung Electronics reported third-quarter net profit of 75.21 trillion won (approximately $56.1 billion), up 526% year-over-year, driven by sustained demand for high-bandwidth memory and DRAM used in AI model training and inference. Revenue reached 195.25 trillion won (about $145.6 billion), up 126.88% from a year earlier. The results underscore how Asia's semiconductor leaders are capturing outsized value from the global AI buildout, with Samsung benefiting from inventory normalization and rising chip prices.
Tencent to Release New Hunyuan Models Hy4 and Hy4 Flash
Tencent will release its next-generation Hunyuan models, Hy4 and Hy4 Flash, the company announced at its Global Digital Ecosystem Summit. Hy4 strengthens long-horizon and real productivity task performance, improves chain-of-thought efficiency, and introduces visual understanding for the first time. Hy4 Flash is positioned as a cost-effective model for practical applications, expanding Tencent's competition with domestic rivals in China's increasingly crowded AI landscape.
KeyPal Wallets to Delete Non-Essential User Data Within 15 Days of Order Completion
KeyPal, the hardware wallet brand under TokenPocket, announced it will delete or de-identify non-essential customer personal information within 15 days of order completion. The move responds to rising user data leak and supply chain security risks in the hardware wallet industry. KeyPal said it has found no security breach or customer data compromise in its own systems, describing the change as a proactive preventive measure, and will apply it to orders that are confirmed delivered with no after-sales disputes or legal retention requirements.
Japan's SBI Deepens Tokenization Push Amid Asia Institutional Shift
SBI's agreement with CRB Group reflects a broader pattern of Asian financial institutions moving from speculative crypto exposure toward tokenized real-world assets and stablecoin settlement rails. The venture's planned use of a yen-pegged stablecoin for institutional settlement could position Japan as a testing ground for regulated RWA infrastructure serving cross-border trade. Success would depend on navigating Japan's conservative financial regulatory environment while demonstrating clear efficiency gains for corporate treasury operations.
