exchanges

According to a report by South Korea's SBS News, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of South Korea has adjusted the amendment to the Enforcement Decree of the Specific Financial Information Act, removing the mandatory reporting obligation for virtual asset transfers exceeding 10 million won, and instead allowing exchanges to manage risks independently. The original proposal required domestic operators to report to the FIU when transferring more than 10 million won abroad, regardless of the level of risk. After adopting industry opinions, the FIU decided to cancel the mandatory reporting and instead require companies to establish internal risk management systems.Other adjustments include: the scope of the Travel Rule will be expanded from amounts over 1 million won to all amounts; the strengthened customer verification for high-risk suspicious transactions will change from mandatory to only being executed when the company assesses the risk to be particularly high; small businesses will be given a one-year grace period for the reporting condition of a debt ratio not exceeding 200%; the requirement for anti-money laundering computer equipment to be located domestically will allow the use of overseas cloud services. The amendment will take effect on August 20 after review by the Legal Affairs Office.

According to on-chain analyst Ai Yi's monitoring, former ConsenSys ambassador Russell Verbeeten (@rverbee) has started transferring a large amount of ETH after a year, with the source of his funds traceable back to 10 years ago, at a cost as low as $5.6. Seven hours ago, he withdrew 20,426 ETH ($37.26 million) from Aave, which was then distributed to 10 new addresses, one of which has 4,144 ETH deposited into the Coinsquare exchange, while other tokens have not yet been transferred or sold.

The tokenized asset platform RootData has released the "Exchange Tokenized Asset Provider and License Map," systematically sorting the paths and regulatory licenses of providers and brokers in mainstream exchanges such as Binance, Gate, Bitget, and Bybit for products like real stocks, TradFi stocks, CFD contracts, and tokenized stocks. The map shows that the current stock-type assets on exchanges have gradually formed a three-tier structure: real stock spot mainly relies on a regulated brokerage system for securities execution and custody; TradFi stocks are primarily based on CFDs/Perps; tokenized stocks are mainly supported by solutions like Ondo and xStocks. Among them, Binance currently accesses Alpaca Securities through Nest Trading to provide real US stock/ETF exposure and has launched Ondo stock tokens in the Alpha zone, with plans to introduce bStocks later; Gate's real stock collaboration is with AIpaca, CFDs adopt the MT5 model, and perpetual contracts are self-operated by the platform; Bybit currently mainly uses the Backed Finance (xStocks) solution; Bitget provides 1:1 US stock/ETF tokenized products through its own Reality (rToken) brand. RootData believes that as the tokenized stock market heats up, competition among exchanges is gradually shifting from merely launching products to underlying broker capabilities, real securities custody, and regulatory license capabilities, with licensed brokers like Alpaca Securities strengthening their infrastructure roles across multiple platform ecosystems.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced that it has added Iran's largest cryptocurrency exchange Nobitex, as well as three Iranian cryptocurrency exchanges Wallex, Bitpin, and Ramzinex, to its sanctions list, and imposed sanctions on Nobitex's chairman and co-founder Amir Hossein Rad, current CEO Seyed Ali Khoee, and several co-founders and executives.The U.S. Treasury accused Nobitex of processing over 50% of Iran's cryptocurrency inflows in 2025 and providing support for transactions related to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), ransomware organizations, and sanction evasion activities. It also assisted the Central Bank of Iran in obtaining hundreds of millions of dollars in stablecoin funding. U.S. officials stated that after U.S. military actions against Iran, Nobitex helped transfer and protect the assets of the Iranian regime.In addition, the Treasury stated that Iran's second-largest cryptocurrency exchange Wallex, as well as Bitpin and Ramzinex, were also found to have links to transactions related to the IRGC. Among them, Wallex received about 12% of Iran's cryptocurrency inflows in 2025, Bitpin accounted for about 10%, while Ramzinex, established in 2018, has processed over $2.45 billion in transactions.This action is part of the Trump administration's "Economic Fury" strategy to exert maximum pressure on Iran. The U.S. Treasury stated that it will continue to combat Iran's use of digital assets for terrorist financing and sanction evasion and reserves the right to impose secondary sanctions on foreign financial institutions and companies that assist Iran's illegal trade.

According to IOL, the High Court of Gauteng Province in South Africa ruled that Bitcoin falls under "capital" and "currency" within the South African foreign exchange control system, and ordered the confiscation of nearly 6 million rand worth of Bitcoin assets. The court determined that a trader transferred nearly 1,680 Bitcoins to a wallet accessible only through an overseas registered cryptocurrency exchange via their Luno account between January 2018 and March 2020, which amounted to exporting capital abroad without approval from the Treasury, violating foreign exchange control regulations.Meanwhile, the South African Treasury released a draft consultation on capital flow management for 2026 last month, aimed at modernizing the management of cross-border capital flows by reducing pre-approval for transactions, strengthening reporting, and monitoring high-impact, high-risk cross-border transactions.

According to on-chain analyst Yu Jin's monitoring, multiple addresses associated with well-known crypto investor Cobie (Jordan Fish) have accumulated 20 million LDO (6.58 million USD) and transferred them to exchanges such as Binance, OKX, and Kraken in the past half hour.

According to CriptoNoticias, the Argentine government submitted a bill to Congress through the Ministry of Health aimed at preventing gambling addiction and regulating online gambling, which for the first time explicitly includes virtual asset service providers within the regulatory scope. The bill stipulates that banks, fintech companies, cryptocurrency exchanges, and wallet providers are prohibited from providing services or facilitating transactions for gambling platforms operating without a license in Argentina.The bill also proposes amendments to the criminal code, imposing a prison sentence of 2 to 4 years on individuals or companies that provide financial, technical, or digital asset services to these illegal platforms. Exchanges and cryptocurrency asset providers will be required to implement stricter due diligence, transaction monitoring, and KYC policies. The Central Bank of Argentina, the National Securities Commission, the National Communications Commission, and NIC Argentina will enhance inter-agency coordination to effectively block technical access and the flow of funds.

According to CoinDesk, the UK has imposed sanctions on 18 entities and individuals accused of assisting Russia in evading Western restrictions and funding its war in Ukraine, including the cryptocurrency exchange Huobi Global S.A. (operator of HTX) and the stablecoin issuer Open Joint Stock Company "Virtual Asset Issuer."This is the first time the UK has applied Regulation 17A, which targets sanctioned banks, to cryptocurrency exchanges, requiring UK financial institutions and cryptocurrency service providers to freeze relevant funds, track on-chain transactions, and not maintain agency relationships or process payments related to sanctioned entities. The sanctions primarily target the A7 payment network.According to the official announcement from Huobi HTX, the sanctioned "Huobi Global S.A." and the online Huobi HTX exchange are independent entities, and this sanction will not affect the online Huobi HTX exchange. Currently, Huobi HTX's global operations are normal, and user funds are safe and secure.

Tiger Research's Research Director Ryan Yoon stated that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is preparing to launch an "innovation exemption" framework that allows third parties to tokenize listed stocks without the issuer's approval.Ryan Yoon warned that this move could cause two major structural shocks to traditional exchanges: first, liquidity fragmentation, as funds will disperse from centralized exchanges to multiple blockchain platforms; second, revenue fragmentation, as trading fees and intermediary income may flow to overseas or competing platforms, threatening the competitiveness of U.S. finance.He believes that traditional exchanges are like monopolistic superstores, while tokenized stocks are akin to allowing anyone to set up a street stall, which will significantly change the concentration of capital markets. The SEC is advancing this framework at this time to keep global financial income within the domestic regulatory scope.

According to on-chain analyst Ai Yi's monitoring, the largest external holder of HYPE, a16z, is still accumulating. In the past 24 hours, a total of 2.597 million HYPE has been withdrawn from various exchanges, worth 13.29 million dollars, with an average withdrawal price of 51.17 dollars; among them, 73,000 coins were recharged back to the exchange, with an unknown purpose.

As cryptocurrency trading platforms gradually extend from trading single digital assets to traditional asset trading scenarios such as stocks, gold, foreign exchange, and indices, platform competition is shifting from "asset coverage" to "trading entry points, operational paths, and execution efficiency." Whether users can discover opportunities faster, enter the market, and complete transactions is becoming an important measure of the product experience on exchanges.Recently, Bitget announced the launch of the 10-second gold buying challenge, inviting users to record the entire process from opening the Bitget App homepage to completing a XAUUSD gold CFD transaction, with a chance to win rewards if completed in less than 10 seconds. The activity showcases the changes in mobile TradFi trading paths through actual user operations, reflecting that cryptocurrency exchanges are attempting to further streamline and simplify the trading experience of traditional financial assets.According to Bitget, the platform has previously brought TradFi to the first-level entry of the App homepage, covering traditional asset trading scenarios such as gold, stocks, foreign exchange, and indices. Compared to the past, where traditional asset trading typically required completion on independent platforms or through multiple entry points, Bitget aims to allow users to engage with various asset types more directly within the same platform through a unified entry point and optimized mobile processes.

Gate Europe CEO Dr. Giovanni Cunti attended the VI3NNA Congress 2026 and delivered a keynote speech titled "The Role of Exchanges and Stablecoins." The conference was held from May 19 to 20 in Vienna, Austria, bringing together industry representatives from Web3, AI, finance, and regulation to discuss the future development direction of the European digital economy.Giovanni Cunti's speech analyzed the popularization of stablecoin applications, industry development trends, and how blockchain financial infrastructure is gradually reshaping the traditional financial market landscape. It focused on how crypto asset service providers, including Gate Europe, are transitioning from meeting user needs to playing a key role in driving industry structure and future market development. In addition to the keynote speech, Giovanni Cunti also participated in several roundtable discussions, engaging with policymakers, financial institutions, investors, and industry innovators on topics such as digital asset regulation, infrastructure development, and real market implementation.Currently, Gate's Malta company, Gate Europe, has obtained European MiCA and PI licenses under the regulation of the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA). As the industry continues to move towards compliance and institutional development, Gate is actively participating in global key industry dialogues and promoting the long-term development of the digital asset ecosystem.

According to Bits.media, the Central Bank of Russia aims to prohibit Russian citizens from trading on cryptocurrency exchanges that comply with international sanctions. Ekaterina Lozgacheva, head of the Central Bank's Strategic Development Department, stated that the Central Bank plans to ban Russians from trading on foreign cryptocurrency exchanges that adhere to international sanctions. Russians can only trade cryptocurrencies on foreign platforms through Russian brokers, provided that these foreign platforms do not comply with international sanctions.The country's central bank will establish its own standards for foreign platforms that Russian brokers and investors can use. Lozgacheva noted that even trading cryptocurrencies abroad through Russian intermediaries is subject to foreign regulation, posing additional risks. The annual purchase limit for non-professional investors is set at 300,000 rubles, and they can only access the most liquid cryptocurrency assets through domestic brokers. A test must be completed before trading, and qualified investors are not subject to the limit but must also undergo testing. Relevant restrictions will be included in the second reading version of the draft "Digital Currency and Digital Rights Law," with key provisions expected to take effect on July 1.

According to Edaily, South Korea's FIU plans to tighten cryptocurrency regulation, proposing a reporting obligation for overseas cryptocurrency transactions exceeding 10 million won (approximately 7,200 USD), and strengthening KYC information verification and the applicability of the Travel Rule.The FIU is expected to hold its first discussion today (May 19) with the CEOs of the five major South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges: Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and GOPAX, as well as DAXA.Some industry experts in South Korea have warned that implementing "full reporting" for large transactions may constitute excessive regulation and could lead to users and funds flowing to overseas platforms. They suggest that regulators should focus more on abnormal trading patterns rather than a single monetary threshold.

According to CoinDesk, XRP's trading volume on major exchanges in South Korea exceeded that of Bitcoin and Ethereum within 24 hours.In the past 24 hours, the XRP/KRW trading pair on Upbit had a trading volume of approximately $110.9 million, surpassing Bitcoin's $88.6 million and Ethereum's $67 million; it ranked second on Bithumb, only behind USDT/KRW.South Korea has been one of the most active speculative markets for XRP, but the price of XRP has only fluctuated slightly, ranging between $1.44 and $1.45, with a weekly increase of about 3%, still unable to break through the resistance zone of $1.49 to $1.50 since February.The South Korean Kospi index fell sharply on Tuesday due to comments on tax policies, indicating that market risk appetite is sensitive, with investors focusing on trading XRP rather than broadly chasing high-risk assets.

According to data released by Binance Research, currently 28% of Binance users allocate at least half of their investment portfolio to stablecoins, a significant increase from 4% in 2020; in emerging markets, this proportion is as high as 36%.