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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.

The Responsible Fintech Institute (RFI) and the cryptocurrency asset custody infrastructure provider Safeheron announced the launch of a pilot program for quantum-resistant digital asset wallets and on-chain transfers, with participants from Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. The pilot operates on the quantum-resistant NEAR testnet and uses a multiparty computation protocol that supports the ML-DSA-65 standard.Participating regulatory bodies include the Abu Dhabi Global Market, Bhutan's Gelephu Financial Services Office, and Malta's Financial Services Authority, with Bison Bank and DK Bank participating as financial institutions. The banks will test wallet generation and transfers in a shared application environment, while regulatory bodies will observe in the initial phase and later participate in governance workflows. The organizers plan to release a white paper covering research, protocol design, and testing results, and gradually open-source the underlying technology. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority plans to prepare the Hong Kong banking sector to fully address quantum security risks by 2030, while a report from the Bank for International Settlements published in 2025 suggests that financial institutions should migrate to quantum-resistant systems in phases.

According to CoinDesk, the new stablecoin bank Fasset has raised $68 million in funding led by the SBI Group, with a valuation of $1 billion. The company's annual trading volume exceeds $40 billion, covering 125 countries, with revenue growing approximately six times year-on-year, and it has been profitable for 12 consecutive months.Fasset has built a proprietary Layer 2 network called OWN based on Arbitrum, providing cross-border payment services for stablecoin settlements to institutions and individuals, and has partnered with SBI Remit to access its remittance network covering 200 countries.

Japan's SoftBank Group plans to issue 1 trillion yen (approximately 6.29 billion USD) in seven-year corporate bonds aimed at individual investors. The bonds are tentatively set with a coupon rate range of 4.3% to 4.9%.This issuance will be the largest bond issuance in SoftBank's history, nearly double the previous record. SoftBank is expected to announce the final terms on September 4.

According to Bitcoin.com News, the Central Bank of Russia has launched a special financial literacy test to lower the threshold for residents to qualify as accredited investors, in order to expand their cryptocurrency trading limits.

The Bank Policy Institute (BPI) is an organization representing large banks such as JPMorgan, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citi. BPI proposed that the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury should expand customer identification program requirements to the secondary market for stablecoins, covering exchanges and other platforms that establish direct account relationships with retail investors.BPI stated that the relevant exchanges and platforms engage in a significant amount of buying and selling activities within the payment stablecoin ecosystem, where most illegal activities related to stablecoins occur. If the proposal is incorporated into the rules, the relevant platforms will be required to collect customer information in accordance with the Bank Secrecy Act, and decentralized exchanges may also fall under regulatory oversight. The proposed rules by FinCEN indicate that transactions in the secondary market for stablecoins on the blockchain typically use anonymous or pseudonymous identities, and there are no centralized nodes for collecting identity information, limiting the ability of issuers to gather customer data from the secondary market. BPI has also opposed the current version of the Digital Asset Market Structure Bill along with other banking organizations.

Kendrick stated that this round of increase is mainly driven by short covering, while the current open interest remains at a low level. As prices rise, it may leave room for more investors to re-enter the market.

Geoff Kendrick, the Global Head of Digital Asset Research at Standard Chartered Bank, stated that Bitcoin could approach its historical high of $126,000 by the end of the year, with a related recovery potentially accelerating after October 6. He remarked, "For the first time this year, there is a risk that my prediction of $100,000 by the end of the year may be too low."Kendrick pointed out that the recent rise has been primarily driven by short liquidations, but inflows into Bitcoin spot ETFs have also begun to recover. The current open interest is low, which may leave room for more investors to re-enter the market as prices rise.In February of this year, Kendrick had lowered Standard Chartered's Bitcoin year-end target from $150,000 to $100,000 and the Ethereum target from $7,500 to $4,000. At that time, he expected Bitcoin to drop to around $50,000 and Ethereum to around $1,400, before recovering over the remainder of the year.

Factblock CEO and Korea Blockchain Week organizer Andrew Park stated that the South Korean crypto market is shifting from retail-driven trading to institutional digital finance. The focus of global financial institutions and enterprises has shifted from tokens, exchanges, and prices to custody, tokenization, stablecoins, payment settlement infrastructure, and regulatory compliance.The South Korean Financial Services Commission has proposed a framework to open corporate virtual asset accounts to approximately 3,500 listed companies and registered professional investors. The South Korean National Assembly has officially passed amendments to the Electronic Securities Act and the Capital Markets Act, incorporating tokenized real-world assets and security tokens into a unified legal framework.The Bank of Korea has completed the preliminary trial of the Project Hangang real-world deposit token project and plans to conduct the second phase of institutional testing by the end of 2026. Related technical experiments have utilized wholesale deposit tokens to allow AI agents to execute automated conditional trading.

According to Cointelegraph, Geoff Kendrick, the Global Head of Digital Assets Research at Standard Chartered Bank, stated that the prediction of Bitcoin reaching $100,000 by the end of the year may be too conservative, and there is a possibility of the market challenging the historical high of $126,000 again before the year ends.Geoff Kendrick mentioned on Friday that the recent rise in Bitcoin was primarily driven by short liquidations, while the inflow of funds into spot Bitcoin ETFs has also started to recover. Given the current low level of open contracts in the market, as prices rise, more investors may re-enter, providing further momentum for the market."There is a risk that my prediction of $100,000 by the end of the year may be too low for the first time this year," Kendrick stated.Geoff Kendrick believes that the momentum of Bitcoin's rebound may accelerate further after October 6. Meanwhile, several market participants also believe that the bear market may be nearing its end. Swan Bitcoin CEO Cory Klippsten previously stated that Bitcoin could bottom out in October; 10x Research founder Markus Thielen believes that if the closing price in August stands above $63,000, it may confirm the formation of the bear market bottom.

Bank of America strategist Hartnett stated that if the U.S. Treasury's plan to control long-term Treasury yields fails, the dollar will come under pressure and may trigger short-selling bets on risk assets before the midterm elections in November.If Treasury Secretary Yellen cannot bring the 30-year yield down to below 5%, the dollar is expected to decline, and risk assets such as financial stocks and AI mega-cap companies will face short-selling risks.

The Bank of Montreal has initiated coverage on NVIDIA (NVDA.O) with an outperform rating and a target price of $340. It has also initiated coverage on Micron Technology (MU.O) with an outperform rating and a target price of $1,300.

In a research report released by the Bank of Italy in July 2026, a "mystery shopper" empirical investigation was conducted for the first time, tracking 200 USDC transfers across ten corridors between Italy and Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, the UAE, and Japan. The results showed that the total cost of stablecoin remittances fluctuated greatly, with a minimum of only 0.3% and a maximum close to 9%. On-chain transfers accounted for an average of only 0.4%, with the bulk of costs concentrated in fiat withdrawal and deposit stages—traditional intermediary fees such as exchange buy-sell spreads, credit card fees, and withdrawal fees were the decisive factors. Compared to traditional channels like Wise, stablecoins have a cost advantage in some corridors like Brazil to Italy, but the costs are higher in corridors like UAE to Italy, showing a high degree of "corridor specificity."In terms of speed, blockchain transfers themselves take only a few minutes, but end-to-end efficiency entirely depends on the quality of the traditional payment infrastructure in the destination country. Countries with instant payment systems, such as Brazil (PIX), Italy (TIPS), and Argentina (Transferencias 3.0), can keep the entire process under 20 minutes; whereas countries like South Africa, which rely on traditional bank transfers, see the arrival time extended to 1 to 2 business days. The report pointed out that the efficiency of stablecoin remittances is jointly determined by their own infrastructure and the surrounding traditional payment infrastructure, with both being complementary rather than substitutive. The report also analyzed the impact of global regulatory fragmentation: the EU's MiCA and the US's GENIUS Act represent mature compliance frameworks; Japan's strict "safety first" access, while lowering nominal costs, complicates processes leading users to offshore platforms; countries like India and Turkey are in a transitional regulatory phase; while countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, with prohibitive measures, have failed to suppress demand, instead pushing transactions into gray channels.

On August 21, China Merchants Yonglong Bank issued a notice to customers, stating that it is cooperating with the latest risk management and account compliance guidelines from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Securities and Futures Commission to conduct a comprehensive optimization and review of investment accounts for mainland investors. Upon verification, all investment accounts held by relevant customers (including wealth management, securities, and/or paper gold passbook accounts) as of May 22, 2026, have no asset balance, and there have been no investment transaction records in the past 12 months, which have been classified as "zero balance non-active investment accounts."To maintain normal account operations, the bank requires customers to submit the "Non-Active Investment Account Declaration" as soon as possible. Customers can complete the submission through the pop-up in the personal account section of the China Merchants Yonglong Bank mobile app; joint account holders or those who have not registered for the mobile app can call the customer service hotline for guidance, and each joint account holder must submit separately. The main content of the declaration includes confirming the accuracy of personal information, the legality of the source of funds, that the account has not been closed or suspended due to suspicious documents, and timely notification of any changes in information.The bank reminds that if customers fail to complete the submission in a timely manner, new investment transactions (including buying stocks, subscribing to wealth management products, etc.) will be suspended accordingly; if the submission continues to be delayed, it is expected that starting from November 2026, relevant "non-active investment accounts" may be closed. Once an account is suspended or closed, no new securities or wealth management product investment transactions can be conducted.

According to the case information page of Verita Global, the cryptocurrency mining pool operator Poolin Technology PTE. LTD and its affiliated entities Lonestar Taproot LLC and Lonestar Dream, Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code on July 22, 2026, in the Federal Bankruptcy Court of New Jersey, with the case presided over by Judge Eamonn J. O'Hagan, and the joint administration case number is 26-18325.In terms of important milestones, the creditors' meeting was held on August 28, the bidding deadline is September 8, and the asset sale hearing is scheduled for September 18. The debtor's legal representation is provided by Archer & Greiner, P.C., and creditors can submit proof of claim to the claims processing center located in El Segundo, California, KCC dba Verita Global by mail.

According to The Block, Kraken's parent company Payward's co-CEO Dave Ripley stated that the company is exploring becoming a "full-service bank" outside the United States to expand services such as payments, lending, yield, and custody.Payward is also building asset management capabilities and transforming its infrastructure into a series of services accessible to banks, brokerages, and fintech companies.

According to monitoring by BitcoinTreasuries.NET, Gulf International Bank, which is controlled by the Saudi Arabian government, disclosed that it holds 19,842 shares (worth $2.27 million) of the Bitcoin treasury company Strategy (stock ticker: MSTR).

According to CoinDesk, Rob Nichols, President and CEO of the American Bankers Association (ABA), stated that the goal is to strengthen rather than block the passage of the CLARITY Act. He believes that the digital asset industry needs a clear regulatory framework, but a key provision in the bill regarding stablecoin rewards still needs to be tightened further. Nichols pointed out that the GENIUS Act, set for 2025, has already prohibited stablecoin issuers from paying interest or returns to holders, and the current controversy revolves around whether related parties, such as cryptocurrency exchanges, can offer similar interest-like rewards.He believes that if stablecoin wallets attract bank deposits out through such mechanisms, it could weaken the funding base that banks use for small business loans, housing mortgages, and agricultural financing. The American Bankers Association suggests amending the relevant statements in the bill to prohibit stablecoin rewards that are "substantially similar" to interest payments and to remove certain wording that may cause ambiguity. Nichols stated that these modifications would not prevent crypto companies from offering other reward programs but could avoid the reward mechanism evolving into a disguised form of deposit interest.He also mentioned that the American Bankers Association is pushing for senators to amend the relevant provisions before the vote in September and believes that the U.S. can be both a global banking center and a global crypto center, provided that clear and consistent regulatory rules are established.