digital

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) launched the Demat 2 pilot this week, issuing corporate bonds in the form of digital tokens on a distributed ledger operated by regulated market institutions, and settling through the wholesale digital rupee of the Reserve Bank of India. The size of India's corporate bond market is approximately $620 billion.The state-owned power financing institution REC raised ₹50 billion (approximately $56 million) through this system, engineering and construction giant Larsen & Toubro refinanced ₹50 billion, and non-banking financial institution IIFL Finance raised ₹2.5 billion (approximately $2.8 million), totaling around ₹102.5 billion. The bonds retain fixed interest rates, maturity dates, and investor rights, but the tokenized bonds can be settled simultaneously with the digital rupees used for purchase, thereby reducing transaction risk.Subsequent phases will introduce smart contracts to handle corporate actions such as interest payments and redemptions, and there are plans to open secondary market trading, ultimately allowing retail investors to participate. India maintains a cautious attitude towards private cryptocurrencies, and this pilot is an attempt to introduce tokenization into its controlled financial system.

On Wednesday, the House of Lords in the UK passed an amendment with 194 votes in favor and 138 against, requiring the government to develop a digital asset strategy, despite opposition from the ruling Labour Party.The amendment was proposed by Conservative peer Baroness Neville-Rolfe and calls for the UK Treasury to formulate, publish, and seek consultation on the strategy within 12 months after the Financial Services and Markets Bill comes into effect. The strategy will cover crypto assets, stablecoins, and tokenized securities, and will address issues such as innovation, consumer protection, and businesses' access to banking, payment, and settlement services. The relevant bill still needs to be submitted to the House of Commons, where members can accept, modify, or reject the amendments from the House of Lords. The UK Crypto Assets Business Council expressed support for the voting outcome. Previously, the Minister for Investment at the Treasury, Lord Stockwood, stated that the government already has a digital asset strategy and is implementing it.

The Kremlin stated that Russia will discuss trade settlements using digital currencies with BRICS+ partners at the summit in India.

The 26th China International Investment and Trade Fair recently opened in Xiamen. Under the guidance of the People's Bank of China, Bank of Communications officially released a cross-border trade service plan based on the "Digital Currency Bridge" (CBETS) blockchain infrastructure, focusing on cross-border trade settlement and compliance needs, enhancing the collaborative efficiency of capital flow, information flow, and document flow through on-chain rights confirmation, smart contracts, and other means.The plan relies on Digital Currency Bridge to support multi-party participation and data sharing, providing services such as cross-border payment and trade background verification for import and export enterprises, financial institutions, and regulatory departments, aiming to reduce compliance costs, shorten settlement cycles, and reserve expansion space for the digital renminbi and cross-border financial infrastructure integration.

According to CoinDesk, the Crypto Innovation Committee (CCI) and the Blockchain Association filed a preliminary injunction motion on Wednesday in the Sangamon County Circuit Court of Illinois, requesting to suspend the enforcement of the state's digital asset transaction tax during the litigation. The tax rate is 0.2% and applies to entities headquartered in Illinois or providing services in the state with total revenue exceeding $100,000, which is set to take effect on January 1, 2027.The two lobbying organizations, along with the Digital Chamber, filed a lawsuit against Illinois last month, claiming that the tax violates the Internet Tax Freedom Act and the U.S. Constitution, and that Illinois's approach to taxing digital assets differs from other financial services.CCI CEO Ji Hun Kim stated that businesses are forced to spend millions of dollars to build compliance systems, yet basic issues such as the tax subjects and timing remain unclear. Blockchain Association CEO Summer Mersinger warned that if the law is enacted, Illinois will not be the last state to attempt this.

According to the official announcement from Gate, Gate is exploring strategic cooperation with the clearing and custody company RQD* Clearing. Both parties plan to advance discussions on cooperation in areas such as digital assets, clearing and market infrastructure, regulatory compliance, and asset tokenization, leveraging their respective capabilities in digital asset services and financial market infrastructure to find new business synergy opportunities.Gate's founder and CEO Dr. Han stated that as digital assets increasingly integrate with traditional financial markets, Gate is focused on building the infrastructure that supports this process and looks forward to exploring cooperation opportunities with RQD* Clearing in the areas of clearing, infrastructure, compliance, and asset tokenization.RQD* Clearing provides the necessary clearing, custody, and technical infrastructure for broker-dealers, registered investment advisors, overseas financial institutions, and proprietary trading firms to access the market, and relies on its self-developed technology to offer clients real-time business data and flexible platform support.This exploration of cooperation is expected to further connect Gate's global digital asset ecosystem with RQD* Clearing's infrastructure capabilities in the market, opening up more space for the integration of digital assets and traditional financial systems at the asset, transaction, and technical levels.

Global digital asset trading platform Websea will appear as a gold sponsor at TOKEN2049 Singapore 2026. This conference will be held in October at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. Websea will focus on showcasing its latest explorations in the field of digital derivatives trading and innovative financial products.Public information shows that in the three years since its establishment, Websea has surpassed 1.5 million registered users globally, with a recent daily trading volume reaching 5 billion USD, and has built a comprehensive business system covering areas such as digital asset trading, risk management, and traditional financial asset trading.

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, Galaxy Digital transferred 95,270 HYPE to Bybit and OKX in the past four hours, worth approximately 8.11 million USD, indicating a possible intention to sell.Among them, 36,420 HYPE was transferred to Bybit, worth about 3.1 million USD; 58,850 HYPE was transferred to OKX, worth about 5.01 million USD.

DBS and Citibank's New York office completed a cross-border payment in US dollars between Singapore and the United States on September 5 using tokenized deposits through the Swift Digital Ledger. The transaction was executed over the weekend and took only a few minutes, while traditional cross-border payments typically take up to two business days, allowing businesses to avoid losing time due to time zone differences and weekend gaps. This is the second confirmed real-time application of the ledger, following HSBC and Standard Chartered's completion of the first real-time tokenized deposit cross-border transaction in August. Swift announced the ledger's preliminary availability on July 9, with 17 banks ready to pilot it, and DBS is the only bank headquartered in Asia among the 12 core design group members. DBS Group Chief Operating Officer Rachel Chew stated that the Swift Digital Ledger is connecting traditional banking infrastructure with emerging digital networks to drive the practical application of tokenized currency from experimentation. Citibank's Head of South Asia Services Mridula Iyer noted that weekend real-time transactions prove that around-the-clock cross-border payments have become a reality. DBS will launch DBS Token Services in 2024, offering 24/7 programmable instant value transfer services.

Gate Europe CEO Dr. Giovanni Cunti stated in a LinkedIn post that financial markets are becoming increasingly interconnected, with digital assets, stablecoins, and tokenized assets merging with traditional finance, reshaping the pathways for cross-border capital flow. The core of liquidity is no longer just depth and trading volume, but also the efficiency of capital circulation and the ability to access it instantly.He emphasized that future liquidity not only means more capital but also aims to make capital flow more easily and be accessed more efficiently, achieving better connections between different markets. Broad market access can break the fragmentation of liquidity and enhance the efficiency of capital operations. As stablecoins accelerate payment settlements and tokenization introduces new assets, the focus is on promoting seamless collaboration across all links.Relying on the compliance foundation of the MiCA and payment institution PI dual licensing system, Gate Europe has established highly regulated operational standards to enhance the confidence of institutions, enterprises, and investors with a clear regulatory framework. He pointed out that Europe is advancing digital asset innovation alongside regulatory compliance. Gate Europe stated that it will continue to empower this transformation and work with industry partners to shape the future together.

According to a report by the Korean News Agency, Park Woo-yeol, the chief researcher at Shinhan Financial Investment, stated that the traditional "60% stocks + 40% bonds" strategy has weakened due to the rising correlation between stocks and bonds, and he recommends allocating 8% to alternative assets and 2% to digital assets.His analysis shows that a combination of gold and Bitcoin configured at an 8:2 ratio performs relatively well on a risk-adjusted basis.

Bitmine Chairman Tom Lee recently expressed the view that Ethereum (ETH) is more like "digital land" rather than cash. Lee believes that the core value of quality assets lies in their ability to store value, meaning that investors believe they can effectively hold and allocate capital over the long term.Lee pointed out that stocks can become store of value assets because investors expect companies to manage capital effectively when they buy stocks; real estate, on the other hand, has both store of value and cash flow properties, generating income through rentals. Within this framework, he believes Ethereum is closer to the stock market or land, with its long-term value primarily derived from the network itself as underlying infrastructure.Bitmine has been increasing its holdings for 65 consecutive weeks. As of August 30, 2026, its total Ethereum holdings reached 5,901,112, accounting for approximately 4.9% of the total Ethereum supply.

ARK Invest's Director of Digital Asset Research, Lorenzo Valente, posted on X that since the rise of L1, application chains, and Rollup-centric roadmaps, messaging and interoperability protocols have become critical infrastructure. As more assets go on-chain, the demand for universal interoperability will grow exponentially.Lorenzo Valente stated that the interoperability business of the cross-chain interoperability protocol LayerZero is likely to quickly grow to a nine-figure ARR, and mentioned that the team has more progress to share in the future.

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, Wintermute (0xecb...2b00) holds a short position of 99.82 million dollars and a long position of 5.12 million dollars on Hyperliquid; Galaxy Digital (0xcac...26b3) holds a short position of 26.41 million dollars and a long position of 6.21 million dollars.The two combined hold a total of 126.23 million dollars in short positions and 11.33 million dollars in long positions. In the past 30 days, Wintermute has lost 15.3 million dollars, and Galaxy Digital has lost 5.96 million dollars.

The Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and the Ministry of Commerce jointly issued the "Implementation Plan for Promoting Coordinated Transformation and Development of Digitalization and Greening (2026-2030)", proposing to advance the coordinated transformation of digitalization and greening during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period.The plan emphasizes empowering green and low-carbon transformation with digital intelligence technology, achieving low-cost and high-efficiency applications of artificial intelligence by 2030, significantly improving the energy efficiency of computing facilities and 5G base stations, promoting renewable energy electricity consumption in key areas such as computing facilities to reach the responsibility weight level of the respective provinces, and deepening the digital and green applications in agriculture, manufacturing, trade, consumption, and urban operation, strengthening intelligent governance of the ecological environment and digital carbon management, and solidifying the foundation for coordinated dual transformation and international cooperation.

Banco do Brasil announced an investment of 5 million USD using its own funds in a digital-native structured note transaction issued by Citi and completed through the Euroclear digital financial market infrastructure platform, becoming the first of its kind in Latin America. Banco do Brasil stated that blockchain technology enables the native digitization of assets, reduces operational steps, and enhances transaction traceability, laying the foundation for new trading, settlement, and asset management models.The bank noted that the investment aligns with its ongoing focus on changes in the financial industry. Francisco Lassalvia, Vice President of Wholesale Banking at Banco do Brasil, stated that decentralized digital technology has become a long-term structural trend in financial markets. Roksolana Dushynska, Equity Structured Products Manager at Citi Global Markets, pointed out that distributed ledger technology can enhance the efficiency, transparency, and accessibility of capital markets. Banco do Brasil previously participated in the Brazilian Central Bank's digital currency Drex pilot and proposed an offline payment solution. The bank is controlled by the Brazilian federal government and is also listed on the Brazilian securities market.

Circle President and former CFTC Chairman Heath Tarbert stated at a hearing of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee that the GENIUS Act has established a federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoins, equivalent to building a "dollar layer" for the internet financial system. He urged Congress to next pass the CLARITY Act to complete the long-term regulatory framework for the "market layer" of digital assets.In addition, Tarbert also urged that the final implementation rules of the GENIUS Act should close the regulatory arbitrage space for offshore stablecoins, requiring intermediary institutions that actually serve U.S. customers to be subject to corresponding restrictions, and ensuring that foreign stablecoin issuers meet truly comparable regulatory standards.

According to Businesswire, the bank-led digital currency network Cari announced that it has raised $32.5 million in its first round of external financing, with all funds coming from banking institutions, including First Horizon Bank, Huntington Bank, KeyBank, M&T Bank, Old National Bank, and SouthState Bank, as well as Glacier Bank.Cari is built on an Ethereum-based permissioned Layer 2 blockchain, aimed at helping banks put funds on-chain through shared infrastructure, providing programmable financial services. The new funds will be used to accelerate bank access and integration, expanding tokenized deposits and programmable currency application scenarios.