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The UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has released the final draft of the crypto asset framework. This new regulation is set to bring most crypto activities under the regulation of the Financial Services and Markets Act by October 25, 2027.According to the proposal, any institution that holds customer crypto assets for more than 24 hours or has the ability to revoke customer permissions will be considered a regulated custodian and must hold a full safeguarding license. Validators and node operators that provide value-added features such as yield or reward reinvestment will lose their technical exemptions. In addition, stablecoin issuers within the UK must control the entire lifecycle from issuance to redemption. Relevant institutions must submit authorization applications between September 30, 2026, and February 28, 2027.

According to Decrypt, U.S. Senator Thom Tillis stated that the Senate is expected to release a revised draft text on stablecoin yield distribution this week.Currently, there is a disagreement between banks and crypto companies on whether cryptocurrency exchanges should be allowed to pay yields to stablecoin holders through reward programs, and this controversy has stalled the legislative process of the Clarity Act. The White House Council of Economic Advisers recently released a report stating that banning stablecoin yields would have a minimal impact on small banks, only increasing bank lending by 0.02%. However, the American Bankers Association believes this analysis underestimates the risks. Observers point out that if the draft provisions are too strict, it may lead users and liquidity to flow to other jurisdictions that allow yields.

According to BBX data, yesterday, with the start of the first complete trading week of the second quarter, global listed companies disclosed several key data points regarding "cross-border positioning":$15 million initial position: DraftKings (NASDAQ: $DKNG) disclosed that it has completed a strategic allocation of $15 million in Bitcoin. As a North American sports betting giant, the company plans to use this reserve as the underlying clearing fund pool for its upcoming "Web3 event prediction market."100% hash rate retention: Greenidge Generation (NASDAQ: $GREE) released operational guidance for March and early second quarter yesterday, announcing that its mining facility in New York State has officially entered the 100% output retention phase and has further reduced the acquisition cost of each BTC by utilizing low off-peak electricity prices.$5 million IP anchoring: Lionsgate (NYSE: $LGF.A) confirmed yesterday that it has allocated $5 million to purchase Bitcoin. This marks the first time a leading Hollywood studio has included digital hard assets on its balance sheet, aiming to provide real asset backing for the on-chain tokenization (RWA) of its future film IP.Treasury hedge infrastructure: Cboe Global Markets (BATS: $CBOE) announced yesterday the launch of two brand new "enterprise-level Bitcoin volatility index options," specifically designed for listed companies with more than 500 BTC on their balance sheets, helping them smooth out the fluctuations in book value during quarterly reporting periods.

According to Jinshi, citing the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Gharibabadi stated that Iran is drafting a passage agreement for the Strait of Hormuz with Oman.

Crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett revealed that the office of U.S. Senator Thom Tillis plans to publicly release legislative text related to stablecoin yields and reward mechanisms next week, and is currently in ongoing communication with various industry stakeholders.According to reports, this move comes in response to dissatisfaction expressed by participants in the crypto industry, such as Coinbase, regarding the relevant terms presented earlier this week. Coinbase's Global Head of Investment Research, David Duong, stated that the industry is preparing a coordinated counter-proposal aimed at pushing for adjustments to the terms to protect users while maintaining a sustainable reward mechanism.

U.S. Congressman Steven Horsford and Max Miller announced the discussion draft of the "Digital Asset PARITY Act," which aims to promote the development of digital assets and enhance compliance by establishing a unified tax framework.The draft proposes a small tax exemption for regulated dollar stablecoin transactions under $200 to reduce the tax burden in everyday payments; it also allows miners and stakers to defer tax on rewards for up to 5 years. Additionally, the draft plans to extend the rules for false sales and presumed sales to digital assets and introduce tax treatments based on market value, while clarifying the tax rules for digital asset lending and charitable donations. The bill is still in the discussion stage and has not yet been formally submitted to Congress.

On Tuesday morning, US stocks saw the issuer of USDC, Circle (CRCL), drop by as much as 18%, while the crypto platform Coinbase (COIN) fell by about 8%. CoinDesk reported that the latest draft of the U.S. Clarity Act aims to restrict rewards on stablecoin balances, including prohibiting rewards for passive stablecoin balances and banning structures that are "economically equivalent to interest."Mizuho analyst Dan Dolev stated that the draft may prohibit payments of earnings solely for holding stablecoins and limit any practices that make the program equivalent to bank deposits in any way. The report mentioned that the GENIUS Act previously prohibited issuers from directly paying earnings to users, but issuers and platforms arranged rewards through methods such as distributing earnings from reserve assets; among them, Circle earns interest on the assets backing USDC and shares it with Coinbase, which uses this to provide rewards to users.Keyrock digital asset researcher Amir Hajian noted that the latest draft of the Clarity Act points to the aforementioned "earnings penetration" model by prohibiting arrangements that are "economically equivalent to interest." Additionally, USDT issuer Tether announced that it has hired one of the "Big Four" accounting firms to conduct a comprehensive audit of its USDT reserves. The report also pointed out that this drop occurred after Circle's stock price had risen by 170% since early February, with Clear Street analyst Owen Lau suggesting that the market reaction may be excessive; market participants are also factoring in expectations of interest rate hikes.

According to CoinDesk, cryptocurrency industry practitioners saw the latest provisions regarding stablecoin yields in the revised version of the Senate's "Digital Asset Market Clarity Act" during a closed-door review meeting on Capitol Hill on Monday. The initial impression is that the relevant language is too narrow and not clear enough.The new provisions were announced last Friday by Senators Angela Alsobrooks and Thom Tillis. According to a person familiar with the current draft, the new provisions will prohibit earning yields solely from holding stablecoins, while restricting any practices that equate the program with bank deposits, and setting further limitations on other potentially allowed activities, with the specific identification mechanism for activity-based stablecoin rewards still unclear.This compromise stems from the lobbying struggle between the cryptocurrency industry and the banking sector: the banking industry insists that stablecoin rewards should not be similar to interest-bearing bank deposits, arguing that such competing products could harm the banking sector and suppress lending. The final compromise allows for reward programs based on user stablecoin activities but prohibits rewards based on balances.The closed-door review aims to push the Senate Banking Committee to schedule a hearing, which is an important step for the bill toward a full Senate vote. A similar version of the "Clarity Act" was passed in the House of Representatives last year, and another version has also passed the Senate Agriculture Committee's markup process. The advancement of the bill still faces other obstacles: all parties need to reach an agreement on the DeFi regulatory framework, and Democrats insist on including provisions that prohibit senior government officials from profiting personally from the cryptocurrency industry, a provision clearly targeting President Trump.

According to The Block, the Kenyan National Treasury released the draft of the "2026 Virtual Asset Service Provider Regulations" this Wednesday and opened a public consultation, with a deadline of April 10.The draft is based on the "Virtual Asset Service Provider Act" that came into effect on November 4, 2025, and was drafted by a multi-agency working group involving the Central Bank of Kenya and the Capital Markets Authority.

According to DL News, Tim Scott, the chairman of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, stated at the Washington Blockchain Summit that the "Digital Asset Market Structure Act" (CLARITY Act) has made significant progress, and the first new draft will be submitted for review this week.The bill aims to establish a regulatory framework for the U.S. cryptocurrency market and was passed with bipartisan support in the House of Representatives last July, but has since stalled in the Senate. The main points of contention include: the issue of stablecoin yield authority (with the banking industry pressuring to prohibit cryptocurrency exchanges from paying users interest on stablecoins), ethical provisions regarding officials holding or founding cryptocurrency businesses, anti-money laundering mechanisms for decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, and the bipartisan representation issue in financial regulatory agencies. Currently, Trump has publicly sided with the cryptocurrency industry, supporting the allowance of stablecoin yields. Congressman Dusty Johnson warned that the time window is narrowing. If the midterm elections in November result in the Democratic Party regaining control of Congress, the bill is likely to be shelved. He called for 3 to 4 Democratic senators on the relevant Senate committee to break the internal party resistance, while also urging the cryptocurrency industry not to raise demands arbitrarily during negotiations to avoid further delaying the overall process.

Hester Peirce, a commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, stated at the Investor Advisory Committee (IAC) meeting on Thursday that the SEC is developing innovative exemption provisions for tokenized securities, but the scope will be narrower than previously discussed exemption proposals.The Investor Advisory Committee IAC had previously recommended that the SEC should not adopt a comprehensive exemption approach to avoid undermining investor protections, including core mechanisms such as ownership disclosure, intermediary regulation, and order protection. Instead, it suggested targeted reforms through a rule-by-rule approach, which must undergo a public consultation process.SEC Chairman Paul Atkins stated at the same meeting that the commission expects to soon discuss innovative exemptions in order to seek to establish a timeline for a long-term regulatory framework. Tokenized securities currently must fully comply with U.S. federal securities laws, and the innovative exemption mechanism aims to allow controlled experiments with more advanced trading models while maintaining necessary investor protections.

According to Jinshi reports, the Financial Secretary Paul Chan stated in the "2026 Budget" that the government will submit a draft digital asset policy bill within the year, establishing a licensing system for service providers involved in digital asset trading and custody.Hong Kong has implemented a licensing system for fiat-backed stablecoin issuers, with the first batch of licenses to be issued in March. The government and financial regulators will continue to promote licensed issuers to explore more application scenarios under compliance and manageable risk conditions.

According to Coinpost, the Financial Services Agency of Japan has released the "Cybersecurity Enhancement Guidelines (Draft) for Cryptocurrency Exchanges" and has begun a public consultation, with a deadline of March 11. The draft indicates that the methods of cyber attacks targeting cryptocurrency exchanges are becoming increasingly complex, with a rise in indirect attack methods such as social engineering and breaches through outsourced service providers. Relying solely on cold wallets is no longer sufficient to ensure security, and there is a need to strengthen overall supply chain security management.The draft also mentions suspected state-sponsored attacks and emphasizes the importance of asset protection from the perspective of national wealth preservation. The plan is based on three pillars: self-help, mutual assistance, and public assistance. In terms of self-help, it proposes to impose cybersecurity self-assessments on the cryptocurrency exchange industry starting from the fiscal year 2026 and to enhance security standards; for mutual assistance, it will strengthen the functions of industry self-regulatory associations and promote corporate participation in information-sharing organizations; for public assistance, it will continue to conduct international joint research, aiming for full industry participation in cybersecurity exercises within three years and conducting real environment penetration tests on some operators in 2026.

The chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Mike Selig, announced on Wednesday the formal withdrawal of the "event contract" regulatory proposal put forward in 2024, and the repeal of a related guidance issued during the Biden administration.The proposal originally aimed to prohibit prediction contracts based on the outcomes of political events, equating them with contracts related to war, terrorism, and other "contrary to public interest" matters. Selig stated that the 2024 proposal was a manifestation of the previous administration's "overreach in value-judgment regulation." The CFTC will reintroduce a set of new rules based on the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) that are more consistent and rational, to support responsible innovation in the derivatives market and align with the legislative intent of Congress. This policy adjustment sends a clearer regulatory signal for prediction markets.Previously, the CFTC lost a lawsuit against Kalshi, which forced it to allow political prediction contracts to launch. With the new administration in place, institutions including Coinbase and Cboe have also begun actively engaging in prediction market-related businesses. The withdrawal of the old regulations is seen as a significant turning point in the direction of U.S. prediction market regulation.

According to GlobeNewswire, digital asset management company CoinShares and special purpose acquisition company Vine Hill (VCIC) announced that they have submitted a revised F-4 registration statement draft to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).This submission follows the confidential submission of the initial registration statement draft and represents a continued progress in the transaction regulatory review process. The merger transaction is still proceeding as planned, but it must meet customary closing conditions, including obtaining the approval of CoinShares and Vine Hill's respective shareholders, securing the necessary acts from the Royal Court of Jersey, the effectiveness of the F-4 form, and obtaining approval from local regulatory authorities.It is reported that the relevant hearing is scheduled to be held on February 17, 2026.

According to The Block, the Financial Services Agency (FSA) of Japan has opened a public consultation period to solicit opinions on draft rules regarding the types of collateralized bonds for stablecoins, with a deadline of February 27, 2026.This move aims to implement the Payment Services Act of 2025 by defining the "specific trust beneficiary rights" of the issuer's reserves. The Financial Services Agency stated that the finalized standards will specify the asset composition of all regulated, yen-pegged stablecoins issued within that jurisdiction.

Coinbase will continue to advance the U.S. crypto market structure bill during this week's World Economic Forum and meet with several bank CEOs to discuss how to achieve a win-win situation.It pointed out that stablecoins should provide a level playing field for crypto companies and traditional banks, and will provide feedback on the discussion progress to the Senate and the government. Previously, due to the bill's draft proposing to prohibit crypto companies from paying interest on idle stablecoin balances, Coinbase withdrew its support for the bill. In addition, Brian Armstrong will also engage with global leaders on the potential of crypto to update the financial system and tokenization in capital markets.

SolanaFloor posted on platform X that the latest draft of the cryptocurrency market structure adopts the stablecoin yield processing method advocated by banks, prohibiting interest payments solely for holding a balance.Rewards linked to activities such as trading, staking, liquidity provision, or governance participation are still allowed.

Reporter Eleanor Terrett stated that the Senate Agriculture Committee has been working for months to ensure that the CLARITY bill draft has bipartisan support. Although there is still uncertainty as it approaches a critical juncture, such efforts are not common within Congress.She also recalled that last summer, the CLARITY bill provisions pushed by the House Agriculture GOP passed with significant bipartisan support, with 47 votes in favor and 6 against.