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According to Bloomberg, the UK government will grant the Bank of England (BoE) a new responsibility to promote innovation in the field of digital currency and payments. The UK Treasury stated that this responsibility will serve as a secondary objective for the Bank of England, still subordinate to its core mission of maintaining financial stability.This move responds to criticism that the UK central bank has been too conservative in its approach to emerging financial technologies. UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has prioritized maintaining London's competitiveness in the rapidly evolving digital asset market as a key policy direction. This policy suggests that the UK regulatory framework may place greater emphasis on balancing risk control with financial technology innovation, potentially creating a clearer development environment for digital payments, stablecoins, and other digital asset-related businesses.

The bankers' associations from 39 states in the United States have jointly formed the BankChain alliance, planning to build an industry-owned blockchain network for tokenized deposits, stablecoins, smart payments, and automated settlements, with the goal of launching in 2027. The alliance is currently still selecting technical partners and has not yet become an operational payment network.The BankChain alliance states that the 39 member associations represent 3,283 banks, with total assets of $21.8 trillion. The board of the alliance is chaired by Kathy Kraninger, president and CEO of the Florida Bankers Association. Howard Headlee, president of the Utah Bankers Association, stated that governance is a differentiated advantage, and BankChain aims to allow member banks to "equally access a network owned by them and have their voices heard."The area that BankChain is entering has a bank tokenization deposit project led by The Clearing House, which was announced in June and aims to facilitate on-chain clearing and settlement of tokenized commercial bank money, connecting the RTP and CHIPS payment networks. In contrast, BankChain's product range is broader, covering stablecoins and automated settlements, but it is still in the early stages and needs to first identify technology suppliers and convert association-level support into commitments from member banks.

Matthew Gould, the founder of Unstoppable Domains, stated that the company did not submit an application for its Web3 top-level domains in ICANN's 2026 expansion round and will refund customers who purchased related domains. Gould mentioned that the compliance, application, and bidding costs of incorporating Web3 domains into the ICANN system exceeded the company's expected recoverable sales. This move ends the company's commitment since 2019 that domains like .crypto and .wallet would eventually be resolvable in standard browsers.The application window for this round of ICANN opened on April 30 and closed on August 12, receiving over 1,600 major applications. Gould stated that customers have been notified via email, but the list of affected extensions and refund terms have not been disclosed. Some holders questioned the scope of the refunds, claiming they held the domains based on Unstoppable's commitment to advance the ICANN application. Gould responded that Web3 domains will still serve as on-chain assets for cryptocurrency transactions.Unstoppable continues to participate in ICANN activities as a service provider and previously announced a partnership with Telegram to apply for the .gram domain. Meanwhile, ENS has chosen a different path, with token holders approving the restructuring of the ENS Foundation to pursue the .ens top-level domain in ICANN, but ENS will not apply for .eth, as it is reserved for ISO 3166-1 country codes.

According to CoinDesk, Coinbase Chief Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad wrote an article for CoinDesk rebutting the arguments made by the American Bankers Association (ABA) against the stablecoin reward provisions in the Clarity Act. ABA CEO Rob Nichols claimed that only minor wording changes were needed to strengthen the bill and warned that allowing stablecoin rewards would lead to a loss of deposits for community banks.Shirzad pointed out that Coinbase has been paying stablecoin rewards for USDC for over four years, while community bank deposits grew by 26% from June 2019 to March 2026, amounting to approximately $482 billion.Shirzad cited research from Charles River Associates and the Economic Advisory Council stating that there is no significant correlation between stablecoins and bank deposits. He emphasized that the credit card industry was built on reward mechanisms, and the banking industry itself relies on this model. The current text of the bill was reached after months of negotiations between Senators Tillis and Alsobrooks and bank representatives, clearly delineating the boundaries: prohibiting returns on idle funds but allowing compensation for real activities.Shirzad believes that the Clarity Act will grant banks the broadest statutory powers since the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999, including custody, staking, lending, payments, clearing, and market-making, with community banks benefiting the most. He called on all parties to accept this compromise and work together to advance the bill.

According to CoinDesk, Dallas Federal Reserve economists Rosie Levy and Srini Ramaswamy estimate that if depositors' sensitivity to interest rates increases by 10%, tokenized deposits could reduce U.S. banks' ability to bear long-term interest rate risk by about $700 billion; if tokenization leads to a 10% early outflow of deposits, banks would lose about $580 billion in risk absorption capacity.Tokenized deposits place commercial bank money on the blockchain, supporting programmable payments and real-time settlement, but smart contracts and AI agents could automate deposit transfers, weakening deposit stickiness. Banks can respond by raising deposit rates, increasing reserves and government bonds, or relying more on term debt, but this could drive up credit costs for consumers and businesses.Research from Brazil's instant payment network Pix shows that more frequent use of the system increases banks' holdings of liquid assets like government bonds while reducing credit intermediation. Currently, tokenized deposits are still in the early stages, with clearinghouses and U.S. banks such as Bank of America, Citibank, and Wells Fargo developing interoperable networks that support interbank clearing, automated workflows, and 24/7 settlement.

European Central Bank (ECB) Executive Board member Piero Cipollone stated in a recent interview that the digital euro will provide stronger privacy protection than regular bank transfers. He pointed out that the euro system is structurally unable to associate specific individuals with their digital euro transactions, whether online or offline.Cipollone stated that offline payments will be conducted entirely directly between individuals, with transaction details visible only to the payer and payee, equivalent to cash transactions; only banks participating in online transactions will be able to identify user identities, and this will only be used for anti-money laundering purposes. He also refuted concerns that the digital euro would replace physical cash, citing the ECB's recent public consultation on the design of the new euro banknotes as an example, stating, "If institutions intend to eliminate cash, it makes no sense to do so."Cipollone's remarks come at a time when public opposition to the digital euro is rising. Civil society groups such as the Austrian digital rights organization Epicenter.works warned in a joint statement earlier this month that the privacy protections of the digital euro "over-rely on institutional commitments rather than technical execution," and that legislative commitments may be weakened in implementation, reinterpreted in court, or even broken. The digital euro regulation was approved by the European Parliament last month, with plans to launch in 2029. ECB President Lagarde previously stated that the digital euro will coexist with physical cash.

Market news indicates that SoftBank Group is in discussions with investment banks regarding a potential bond issuance of $10 billion to $20 billion to help refinance its investment in OpenAI.

According to the Nikkei, Japan's Financial Services Agency, Ministry of Finance, Bank of Japan, and financial institutions plan to establish a research group in the summer of 2026 to promote the construction of next-generation payment and settlement infrastructure based on blockchain (distributed ledger), with a specific preparation plan expected to be formed in early 2027.The plan initially focuses on government bonds and stock trading, aiming to achieve 24-hour instant settlement of funds and securities. The report notes that although there have been several blockchain financial application trials in the past, this is the first time the Japanese government and central bank have set a clear timeline for the actual implementation of related infrastructure.

A Reuters survey shows that most economists believe the Bank of Japan will take action faster than previously expected, and will raise interest rates again in September, with the terminal rate potentially being higher. 57% of economists expect an interest rate hike next month, a significant increase from 5% in July. Ayako Fujita, Chief Economist for Japan at JPMorgan, stated that delaying the rate hike could lead to market turmoil. In addition, more than two-thirds of respondents believe that the recent US-Japan joint foreign exchange intervention has had limited effects.

The American Bankers Association announced plans to create a nationwide financial infrastructure based on blockchain to optimize industry collaboration and settlement efficiency.

Cryptocurrency infrastructure provider Zerohash has resubmitted its national trust bank charter application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), marking its second attempt following the rejection of its application in July. Previously, on July 17, the OCC returned Zerohash's application, citing "insufficient materials."Zerohash stated that the return was part of an administrative process, allowing it to reapply this month, a practice coordinated with the OCC and not a judgment on the substantive content of the application, nor does it affect the company's existing operations. The company noted that the initial application covered "a wide range of digital assets and fiduciary services," and thus decided to adopt a "phased" approach, focusing on "national trust business that aligns more closely with the established launch timeline."Zerohash is a Chicago-based cryptocurrency infrastructure platform that provides backend operational support for cryptocurrency businesses to institutions such as E*Trade under Morgan Stanley, BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, Stripe, Interactive Brokers, and DraftKings, and it already holds a state trust bank charter.

The Federal Reserve discount rate meeting minutes show that 4 out of 12 regional Federal Reserve banks voted in July to support an increase in the discount rate.

On August 25, Bank of America data showed that actively managed long-term funds significantly reduced their holdings in global semiconductor stocks last month, selling approximately $44.4 billion, indicating that institutional funds are withdrawing from the most crowded AI trades. The flow of funds has shifted towards telecommunications, energy, materials, and grid modernization, reflecting a more noticeable redistribution within the AI theme.This set of data explains part of the recent market pressure. Ahead of NVIDIA's earnings report, the market still holds high expectations for AI demand, but semiconductor stocks have previously risen too much, and positions have become more concentrated. Once long-term interest rates rise, AI revenue expectations cool, or the return on capital expenditures for cloud vendors is questioned, the semiconductor sector will be the first to bear the pressure of position reduction. Bank of America also pointed out that the themes that funds sold the most in the past year include AI computing and quantum computing, indicating that funds have not completely left AI but are reducing exposure to highly crowded sectors.Bank of America expects that semiconductor stocks will continue to be influenced in the short term by NVIDIA's performance, cloud vendor guidance, and interest rate trends; in the medium term, funds may be more willing to allocate to sub-sectors such as electricity, equipment, networks, and storage that can share in AI infrastructure spending.

Jeonbuk Bank has partnered with blockchain payment company Ripple to deploy its cross-border payment system, providing faster and cheaper remittance services for business clients such as import and export companies, tech startups, and online content creators, replacing the traditional transfer method that takes several days via the SWIFT network.Meanwhile, the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA) has opened the application portal for crypto licenses. Companies providing virtual asset services on or before March 5 must submit a No Objection Certificate (NOC) application by September 5, or they will cease operations. PVARA stated that the licensing window is officially open, providing a clear path for businesses to enter Pakistan's regulated virtual asset market.In addition, Laser Digital, a digital asset subsidiary of Nomura Group in Japan, has received approval from the Financial Services Agency (FSA) to become the first platform to obtain a crypto exchange license in four years, the last being Binance Japan in October 2022.

According to the New York Times, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has issued subpoenas to major Wall Street banks, requesting information regarding the artificial intelligence hedge fund Situational Awareness trading.

According to CoinDesk, Standard Chartered Bank, headquartered in London with assets of $850 billion, announced that it will become the first bank to distribute Hong Kong-regulated stablecoins. The institution stated in an email announcement released on Monday that it will first assist its eligible institutional clients and partners in integrating the Hong Kong dollar stablecoin HKDAP issued by Anchorpoint Financial, of which Standard Chartered is the majority shareholder.Standard Chartered also indicated plans to launch several new HKDAP commercial applications within the next month, with use cases including market fund subscriptions, settlements with asset management managers, inter-departmental settlements within the bank's global network, and cross-border payments. Anchorpoint Financial began a limited rollout of HKDAP on August 12, having just obtained one of the first two issuance licenses in Hong Kong four months prior. The initial rollout will focus on institutional payments and settlements, with more access channels and cross-border applications to be added later.Another licensed institution, HSBC, is preparing to launch its stablecoin in the second half of 2026 and may distribute it through PayMe, which has 3.3 million users. Additionally, Kraken's parent company Payward has expanded its stablecoin business in Hong Kong through a $600 million acquisition of Reap Technologies.

According to Bloomberg, the cryptocurrency project World Liberty Financial, supported by the Trump family, has received preliminary conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for a national trust bank charter, intending to establish World Liberty Trust Company. After final approval, the institution will be able to issue and redeem the stablecoin USD1 directly, manage its reserve assets, and provide digital asset custody services.This application comes at a time when the approval process for new bank charters in the United States has significantly accelerated. OCC data shows that 22 bank charter applications have been approved in the 19 months prior to Trump's second term, exceeding the total from the previous five years, with several being fintech and digital asset companies. World Liberty Trust Company is not a traditional commercial bank and cannot accept deposits insured by the FDIC or issue traditional loans.

On August 24, recent news reported that some banks in Hong Kong have initiated a source of funds declaration procedure for certain existing mainland investment clients, setting deadlines of August 20 (services may be suspended if not submitted) and September 12 (services may be terminated if not submitted).Previously, in response to requirements from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, some banks have begun to require new mainland account investors to confirm that their source of funds comes from legitimate overseas channels. This source of funds confirmation procedure targets existing mainland investor accounts, primarily focusing on long-term "inactive accounts." It is understood that some licensed institutions in Hong Kong, including HSBC Hong Kong and branches of Chinese banks in Hong Kong, have indeed implemented such measures recently.