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According to Decrypt, U.S. Senator Warren recently expressed concerns about Musk's planned payment platform X Money, stating that it could pose risks to consumer protection, national security, and the stability of the financial system.Warren pointed out that after acquiring and reshaping X, Musk is pushing it to become a "super app" that covers "all aspects of users' financial lives," potentially even replacing the traditional banking system. She questioned the performance of the X platform in terms of security and content governance, believing that this undermines its credibility in entering the consumer finance sector.Additionally, Warren criticized the current regulatory environment for becoming more lenient, including the "GENIUS Act" promoted by the Trump administration, which provides a "special pathway" for private companies to issue stablecoins, potentially weakening necessary regulatory constraints.

The National Bank of Pakistan has officially lifted its ban on virtual assets that has been in place since 2018, allowing banks to open independent interest-free rupee accounts for virtual asset service providers (VASP) licensed by the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA), and banks must conduct due diligence on the relevant institutions.

The People's Bank of China Shaoguan Branch, in conjunction with the Shaoguan Municipal Government Office, issued a virtual currency risk warning on the occasion of "4·15" National Security Education Day, and announced four typical cases: "High Salary for U Part-time" money laundering, "Guaranteed Principal High Interest Cryptocurrency Trading" illegal fundraising, "RWA Digital Cultural Tourism Fund" pyramid scheme fraud, and offline "Coin Exchange" disguised foreign exchange trading.Regulators have made it clear that virtual currency exchange, trading, and RWA tokenization activities are illegal financial behaviors. Projects claiming "high returns, low risk, guaranteed profits" are mostly scams. The public should abandon the fantasy of getting rich quickly, stay away from virtual currency-related investments, choose legal financial channels, and report any abnormalities to the police in a timely manner to reduce losses.

The Central Bank of Russia stated that it plans to require its citizens to declare their cryptocurrency assets held overseas after the new round of cryptocurrency regulatory rules comes into effect.Vladimir Chistyukhin, the First Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Russia, pointed out that the new regulations will strengthen KYC requirements for exchanges to enhance transaction transparency. He also emphasized that regulation does not prohibit individuals or institutions from holding cryptocurrency assets in overseas wallets, but they must declare them to the federal tax authority. This measure is expected to come into effect in July along with the relevant regulatory framework.

According to Jinshi reports, ECB Governing Council member Lane stated that if the impact of inflation lasts for a longer period, the European Central Bank will consider raising interest rates.

JPMorgan CFO Jeremy Barnum stated during the earnings call that if regulatory rules are not aligned with traditional bank deposits, stablecoins may evolve into a "regulatory arbitrage" tool. He pointed out that some stablecoin models already exhibit deposit-like characteristics, such as providing incentives similar to yields, but are not subject to banking regulatory requirements like capital, liquidity, and consumer protection, which could create an unfair competitive environment. "If the same products are not regulated equally, it will open up arbitrage opportunities," Barnum said.Currently, U.S. legislation is pushing for a cryptocurrency regulatory framework, including the Clarity Act, to clarify the regulatory division of labor between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and to regulate the development of the stablecoin market. Additionally, whether to allow stablecoins to distribute reserve earnings to users has become a point of contention. Cryptocurrency companies, including Coinbase, support "interest-bearing stablecoins," while banks believe this would bring them closer to deposit products but lack corresponding regulatory constraints. JPMorgan expressed support for regulatory clarity but emphasized that "regulatory consistency" takes precedence over speed. At the same time, the bank is advancing product layouts, including JPM Coin and tokenized deposits, through its blockchain division Kinexys to modernize the payment system.

According to Theblock, institutional payment giants Visa and Stripe, as well as Zodia Custody under Standard Chartered Bank, have become early validators of Tempo.It is reported that Tempo is an Ethereum-compatible Layer 1 built for high-throughput payments and stablecoin settlements. The project is incubated by Stripe and Paradigm and launched on a private testnet in September. At the same time, Tempo also launched a proxy payment protocol aimed at enabling transactions through software proxies.

XRP Ledger announced the integration of zero-knowledge infrastructure provider Boundless to support banks and asset management institutions in executing transactions on the public chain that balance privacy protection and compliance.According to reports, this solution can hide sensitive information such as transaction size, frequency, and counterparties, while still allowing regulatory agencies to conduct audits through selective disclosure and role-based access control, thus achieving a balance between privacy and compliance. This integration will support institutional scenarios such as cross-border B2B payments, fund and capital management, over-the-counter (OTC) trading, tokenized asset issuance, and on-chain trading and lending.Industry insiders believe that the contradiction between the transparency of public chains and the demand for privacy has always been a significant barrier to institutional adoption, and this solution aims to reduce the so-called "transparency tax." Meanwhile, competition in the privacy track continues to heat up. Technologies such as zero-knowledge proofs (ZK) and fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) are accelerating implementation, pushing privacy capabilities from optional features to underlying infrastructure. Data shows that the market size of tokenized assets has reached approximately $29.25 billion, with a monthly increase of about 7.9%.

According to Jinshi reports, the Bank of America Global Fund Manager Survey shows that 58% of investors expect the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates within the next 12 months, while 46% of investors expect the European Central Bank to raise interest rates within the next 12 months.

According to Jinshi reports, European Central Bank Governing Council member Rehn stated that if the duration of the war is prolonged and leads to a second-round effect on prices and wages, causing inflation expectations to begin to decouple, monetary policy will be significantly tightened according to the established strategy.

The Governor of the Bank of Japan, Kazuo Ueda, has signaled a dovish stance, indicating a more cautious approach amid the uncertain impact of the Iran war on the Japanese economy, which has provided support for Bitcoin to break through $74,000.In recent years, the Bank of Japan's interest rate hikes have repeatedly caused turbulence in the crypto market. On August 5, 2024, an unexpected rate hike by the Bank of Japan triggered the unwinding of yen arbitrage trades, causing Bitcoin to drop from $64,000 to $49,000 within 48 hours. On the 28th of this month, the Bank of Japan will hold a monetary policy meeting.

The U.S. banking industry has questioned the stablecoin yield report released by the White House, arguing that the conclusions of the report are based on incorrect issues.The White House Council of Economic Advisers' research report states that banning stablecoin yields would have a negligible impact on bank lending, only potentially increasing loans by about $2.1 billion. Sayee Srinivasan, chief economist of the American Bankers Association, and Yikai Wang, vice president, stated that the core policy concern is whether allowing stablecoins to generate yields would encourage deposit outflows, particularly from community banks to large institutions, thereby increasing financing costs and reducing local lending. The American Bankers Association acknowledges that the financial incentives to pursue high-yield stablecoins will prompt households and businesses to move funds out of banks. Currently, the cryptocurrency and banking industries are negotiating the terms of a Senate bill, with the prohibition of interest payments on stablecoins being a key point of contention.

According to an article in the American Bankers Association (ABA) Journal, experts including the ABA's chief economist point out that the recent research report by the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) on the issuance of yield from payment stablecoins raises the wrong questions and may mislead policymakers.The CEA report mainly explores "how prohibiting the issuance of yield from payment stablecoins will affect bank lending," concluding that banning yields would only increase bank lending by about $1.2 billion, with minimal impact.However, the ABA believes that the real policy concern is not the consequences of "prohibition," but the risks that may arise from "allowing" the issuance of yield from payment stablecoins: accelerating deposit outflows, allowing yields to stimulate households and businesses to move funds from bank deposits (especially community banks) to stablecoins, which would have a significant impact when the market size expands to $1-2 trillion. ABA analysis shows that loans in Iowa alone could decrease by $4.4 billion to $8.7 billion as a result.Impact on community banks: Deposit outflows will force community banks to replace funding with higher-cost wholesale financing (such as Federal Home Loan Bank advances), raising their funding costs and thereby reducing loans to local households and small businesses. It is not a harmless "reshuffling": The CEA believes that deposits are merely "reshuffled" within the banking system, with overall impact being minimal.However, the ABA points out that deposits flowing from community banks to a few large institutions or stablecoin reserve accounts will harm sectors that rely on relationship-based bank lending. The ABA believes that prohibiting the issuance of yield from payment stablecoins is a prudent protective measure that allows stablecoins to mature as a tool for payment innovation rather than becoming a source of economic risk that substitutes for insured deposits.

According to Jinshi News, the pricing in the money market shows that the probability of the European Central Bank raising interest rates in April is 50%, while the probability last Friday was about 20%.

The Bank of Korea stated that after the mispayment incident at Bithumb, careful consideration should be given to introducing a "circuit breaker" mechanism in the cryptocurrency market similar to that in traditional financial markets, to address extreme market volatility and systemic risks.The Bank of Korea pointed out that as the scale of the cryptocurrency market expands and related risks increase, existing regulatory measures are insufficient to fully cover potential issues. Therefore, it is necessary to study the introduction of protective mechanisms that can automatically interrupt trading to enhance market stability and investor protection. Previously, Bithumb experienced abnormal payments of some users' assets due to a system failure, which attracted market attention.

According to a report by the Korea Herald, the nominee for the governor of the Bank of Korea, Shin Hyun-sung, stated in a written response during a personnel hearing at the National Assembly that central bank digital currency (CBDC) and commercial bank deposit tokens based on its issuance should become the core of the digital currency ecosystem. Shin Hyun-sung expressed basic support for the introduction of a Korean won stablecoin but emphasized that maintaining trust in the currency is the most important.Regarding the issuing entity of the Korean won stablecoin, he believes that South Korea is not a reserve currency country, and compliance capability is crucial. Therefore, he suggested prioritizing the issuance by a bank-centered alliance, allowing non-bank institutions to participate, and gradually expanding later. Shin Hyun-sung holds a cautious attitude towards the claim that stablecoins can enhance foreign exchange trading efficiency, believing that it is still unclear whether blockchain can comply with capital and foreign exchange regulations. He also stated that crypto assets, including stablecoins, have failed to meet the core functions of currency such as a measure of value, medium of exchange, and store of value, asserting that crypto assets cannot replace fiat currency.

According to a report by Kyodo News, a new company has been established for artificial intelligence (AI) development, led by SoftBank, NEC, Honda, and Sony Group. The report states that the company will utilize support from the Japanese government to create a domestic AI foundational model, with the intention of providing the developed AI to Japanese companies.The company is named "Japan AI Foundational Model Development" and plans to gather about 100 AI developers, with the president position held by an executive from SoftBank. In addition to these four companies, Nippon Steel, Kobe Steel, as well as three major banks—Mitsubishi UFJ Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, and Mizuho Bank—are also participating in the funding. SoftBank and NEC will handle the development, while Honda will apply the development results to autonomous driving. AI development company Preferred Networks (Tokyo) is also involved. The developed AI will also be widely available to Japanese companies outside of the funding companies, and in the future, it will venture into the AI field for controlling robots.

According to the proposal, the regulatory authority over cross-border institutions that are systemically important will be transferred from the competent authorities of each member state to ESMA, covering large CASPs, trading venues, central counterparties, and central securities depositories. This is the most significant structural adjustment to the EU's crypto regulatory framework since the full implementation of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) for CASPs at the end of 2024.Under the current MiCA framework, the national competent authorities act as the frontline regulators, while ESMA plays only a coordinating role.