1. The U.S. Treasury dismantled a North Korean cryptocurrency money laundering network.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) dismantled a North Korean cryptocurrency money laundering network that provided laundering and cryptocurrency trading services through a UAE company, funneling illegal proceeds back to Pyongyang, involving amounts reaching millions of dollars.
2. Ohio State Representative suggests the state treasury establish a Bitcoin reserve.
Ohio State Representative Derek Merrin suggested that the state's treasury establish a Bitcoin reserve to supplement the state's treasury investment portfolio and hedge against the depreciation risk of public funds.
3. Deutsche Bank launches a compliance trading pilot platform for digital assets based on Ethereum L2, Dama 2.
According to Bloomberg, Deutsche Bank will launch a test version of the Dama 2 digital asset compliance trading platform based on Ethereum L2 in November. The L2 in this platform was developed by Memento Blockchain and Interop Labs based on ZKSync's ZK Stack. Deutsche Bank stated that trading based on self-developed L2 can avoid compliance issues such as paying transaction fees to sanctioned entities. The bank hopes to launch a minimum viable product next year after obtaining regulatory approvals.
4. The Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Christopher Hui, introduced the second reading of the Stablecoin Bill.
According to a press release from the Hong Kong government, the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Christopher Hui, today introduced the second reading of the Stablecoin Bill at the Legislative Council meeting and hopes to pass it as soon as possible. The regulatory framework focuses on: (1) licensees must maintain a robust reserve stability mechanism; (2) stablecoin holders should have the right to redeem stablecoins at face value from the issuer; (3) a series of requirements must be specified to combat money laundering, risk management, disclosure regulations, audits, and suitable candidates.
5. Australian Securities and Investments Commission Vice Chair: Binance Australia's compliance system is severely inadequate.
According to a statement from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, the Australian financial services regulator has sued Binance Australia Derivatives for misclassifying over 500 retail clients and refusing to provide legal protections. The lawsuit outlines several regulatory violations, including Binance's failure to publish a Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) or Target Market Determination (TMD), inadequate dispute resolution mechanisms, and a lack of employee training to ensure compliance with its financial services license. ASIC also accused Binance of failing to provide services 'efficiently, honestly, and fairly.'
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission stated in a document that retail clients are entitled to stronger consumer protections, including Product Disclosure Statements (PDS), Target Market Determinations (TMD), and internal dispute resolution procedures. ASIC Vice Chair Sarah Court criticized Binance's compliance system, calling it 'severely inadequate,' and stated that many clients suffered significant financial losses due to inadequate protective measures.
6. The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission issues licenses to four virtual asset trading platforms under the 'Fast Licensing Procedure.'
The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) today issued licenses to four applicants for virtual asset trading platform licenses under the 'Fast Licensing Procedure.' The four applicants are Cloud Account Greater Bay Area Technology (Hong Kong) Limited, DFX Labs Company Limited, Hong Kong Digital Asset Trading Group Limited, and Thousand Whales Technology (BVI) Limited. The SFC is reviewing the remaining applications under the same fast licensing procedure.
