This Week's News Preview | Hong Kong Stock Exchange Lists Two New Spot Virtual Asset ETFs

ChainCatcher Selection

2025-08-18 10:00:00

Collection

Highlights of the week from August 18 to August 24.

整理：Jerry，ChainCatcher

Key News:

August 18 (Monday)

Thailand will launch a cryptocurrency exchange program for foreign tourists on August 18

According to Crowd fundinsider, Thailand will launch the "TouristDigiPay" program on Monday, allowing foreign tourists to exchange cryptocurrencies for Thai Baht for electronic payments within a regulatory sandbox framework, with a maximum monthly spending limit of 500,000 Thai Baht (approximately $14,000), aimed at boosting the recovery of the tourism industry.

Under the program, foreign tourists must open accounts with digital asset businesses and electronic money providers regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Bank of Thailand. The program operates within a regulatory sandbox to ensure oversight and prevent the direct use of digital assets as a payment method. The service is available only to foreign tourists temporarily residing in Thailand. Participants must complete KYC verification according to the standards of Thailand's Anti-Money Laundering Office. The service allows tourists to exchange digital assets for Thai Baht and make electronic payments via QR code scanning.

Previous reports indicated that the Thai SEC and the central bank plan to launch a "crypto sandbox" to support foreign tourists in exchanging crypto assets for Thai Baht for consumption.

Binance Alpha will list Reservoir (DAM) on August 18

According to an official announcement, Binance Alpha will be the first platform to list Reservoir (DAM).

Alpha trading opens: August 18, 2025, 19:00 (UTC+8).

Contract trading opens: August 18, 2025, 20:30 (UTC+8).

Eligible users can visit the Alpha event page to claim airdrops using Binance Alpha points after Alpha trading opens. Specific details will be announced later.

Binance Wallet will launch the 34th TGE project Rice AI (RICE) on August 18

According to official news, Binance Wallet will launch the 34th TGE project Rice AI (RICE) on August 18.

The event will be held on August 18, 2025, from 16:00 to 18:00 on Binance Wallet via PancakeSwap. Eligible users must use Binance Alpha points to participate.

The official will also provide an additional 40 million RICE for subsequent activities, with more details and event access to be announced later.

Coinbase Derivatives will launch nano XRP and SOL perpetual futures for U.S. traders on August 18

According to cryptobriefing, Coinbase Derivatives will launch nano XRP and SOL perpetual futures for U.S. traders on August 18. Both futures contracts will be cash-settled, tracking spot prices, and will have position limits and trading hours.

OKB will upgrade its smart contract on August 18

According to an official announcement from OKX, the specific timeline for the completion of the PP upgrade and the launch of the OKB Gas Token economic model optimization is as follows (Beijing time):

August 13, 2:10 PM: OKT will stop trading on the OKX platform, while OKTChain will continue to produce blocks and process on-chain transactions.

August 13, 3:00 PM: The OKX platform will stop allowing OKB withdrawals to ETH L1.

August 15, 10:00 AM: The platform will automatically convert users' OKT in their accounts to OKB according to the rules.

August 15, 2:00 PM: A one-time destruction of OKB will occur, and the smart contract will be called for on-chain destruction.

August 18, 2:00 PM: Upgrade the OKB Smart Contract to remove the functions of issuance and destruction.

August 19 (Tuesday)

Coinbase will conduct maintenance on August 19

According to official news, Coinbase will conduct maintenance at 8:00 AM Beijing time on August 19.

During the maintenance period, sending and receiving of BTC, LTC, BCH, ZEC, and DASH will experience delays. All ERC20 tokens, as well as sending and receiving on the Ethereum (ETH) and Ethereum Classic (ETC) networks, will also experience delays, but trading will not be affected.

Deribit will launch USDC-settled Bitcoin and Ethereum linear options on August 19

According to The Block, Deribit announced that it will launch USDC-settled Bitcoin and Ethereum linear options and futures contracts on August 19. The product will have a minimum order size of 0.01 BTC and 0.1 ETH to enhance trading flexibility.

Deribit CEO Luuk Strijers stated that USDC settlement can provide higher capital efficiency and fiat equivalence for institutional and individual investors. The exchange recorded a trading volume of $185 billion last month, setting a new historical high. Coinbase recently completed the acquisition of Deribit for $2.9 billion.

A New York court will hold a hearing related to LIBRA project advisor Hayden Davis on August 19

According to Argentine media Clarín, LIBRA project advisor Hayden Davis recently submitted documents in a U.S. court, acknowledging for the first time that LIBRA is a Meme token and denying it as an investment project with a business plan, contradicting President Javier Milei's claim that it "supports the Argentine economy."

Davis's defense attorney admitted that the Meme token "is not an investment, has no intrinsic value, and is an unsecured, uncollateralized affinity and collectible, with extreme market volatility." Meanwhile, another funding transaction was exposed. On January 30 of this year, during a meeting with Milei at the presidential palace, his associated wallet transferred nearly $500,000 USDC to the centralized exchange Kraken, suspected to be related to project fund flows. Records also show that the purpose of the meeting held at the presidential palace on January 30 was to "analyze blockchain and decentralized technology."

The case involves approximately $280 million in frozen assets, and the New York court will hold a hearing on August 19 to determine whether Hayden Davis and his partners are suspected of manipulating LIBRA for profit. Previously, on January 30 of this year, during a meeting with Javier Milei at the presidential palace, his associated wallet transferred nearly 500,000 USDC to Kraken, suspected to be related to project fund flows.

August 20 (Wednesday)

Brazil plans to hold a hearing on Bitcoin strategic reserves on August 20

According to CoinDesk, Brazil will hold a public hearing on August 20 to discuss the establishment of Bitcoin strategic reserves.

ProShares and Bitwise submit ETF applications tracking Circle stocks, expected to take effect on August 20

Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas disclosed on the X platform that ProShares and Bitwise have submitted ETF applications to the U.S. SEC tracking Circle stocks, namely: ProShares Ultra CRCL ETF and Bitwise CRCL Option Income Strategy ETF.

The trading codes are pending, with an expected effective date of August 20.

Wyoming stablecoin WYST is set to launch on August 20

According to Cointelegraph, the Wyoming Stablecoin Committee announced plans to officially launch its official stablecoin WYST at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium in Jackson on August 20, 2025.

Decentralized data platform Sapien will conduct TGE on August 20

According to CoinDesk, decentralized data platform Sapien announced it will conduct TGE on Base on August 20.

This will adopt a fair distribution model, initially unlocking 25% of the total supply of 1 billion tokens to support AI decentralized data minting operations.

August 21 (Thursday)

The U.S. will announce initial jobless claims for the week ending August 16 on August 21

At 20:30 Beijing time on August 21, the U.S. will announce initial jobless claims for the week ending August 16.

Upbit and Bithumb will delist STRIKE on August 21

According to an official announcement, South Korean crypto exchanges Upbit and Bithumb will delist STRIKE at 15:00 local time on August 21.

Hong Kong Stock Exchange will list two new spot virtual asset ETFs on August 21

According to reports from Dongwang, according to Hong Kong Stock Exchange documents, MicroBit's MicroBit Bitcoin spot ETF and MicroBit Ethereum spot ETF will be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange next Thursday (August 21), with a management fee of 0.5% per year of net asset value, which is relatively low among existing virtual currency spot ETFs.

Bank of China International UK will act as the custodian and administrative manager, with HashKey Exchange as the virtual asset trading platform and Hash Blockchain Limited as the virtual asset sub-custodian. Participating brokers include China Merchants Securities (Hong Kong), Ade Securities and Futures, Mirae Asset Securities (Hong Kong), Huaying Dongfang (Asia), Huasheng Capital Securities, and Victory Securities.

August 22 (Friday)

Public company BTC Digital postpones extraordinary general meeting to August 22

According to PRNewswire, Nasdaq-listed BTC Digital Ltd. announced that it has postponed its extraordinary general meeting to August 22, 2025. The company previously announced that it would fully embrace Ethereum (ETH) as its core asset and operational foundation and plans to convert all BTC reserves to ETH, with related plans expected to be discussed and voted on at the shareholders' meeting.

August 24 (Sunday)

Brazil's central bank seeks public consultation on virtual asset accounting standards, deadline August 24

According to the Brazilian Central Bank's official website, the Brazilian Central Bank has recently released a regulatory draft regarding the accounting recognition, measurement, derecognition, and disclosure standards for virtual assets and utility tokens by financial institutions and has initiated public consultation. This initiative aims to enhance the transparency, comparability, and quality of related accounting information. The public can submit opinions and suggestions through the central bank's official website or the government "Participa + Brasil" platform until August 24, 2025.

Chain game TOKYO BEAST announces complete service termination on August 24

The chain game project TOKYO BEAST announced that it will officially terminate all services on August 24 at 08:00 (UTC).

Producer Naoki Motohashi stated that due to difficulties in balancing operational costs, the team decided to cease operations. To avoid price shocks to the ecological token TGT, the official will provide compensation to players in USDC. The team also confirmed that TGT and its underlying TOKYO GAMES Foundation will continue to operate and revealed that a second new project is in preparation.

Previously, TGT was launched on Binance Alpha on May 21. TOKYO BEAST is the first game in this ecosystem, launched by a leading mobile game company in Japan.