Singapore's Hyperliquid warning, Indonesia's FinFluencer licence: Asia Express

Hyperliquid added to Singapore's Investor Alert List

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the city-state's central bank and financial regulator, has added decentralized perpetuals exchange Hyperliquid to its Investor Alert List.

The entry, added on Friday, includes the Hyper Foundation website and the Hyperliquid trading app.

The Investor Alert List is a consumer protection measure that identifies entities that may be wrongly perceived as licensed or regulated by MAS. Inclusion on the list does not constitute a ban or enforcement action.

MAS added crypto exchange Bybit to the list on June 17 and KuCoin and Bitget also appear.

Hyperliquid said that it has never claimed to be licensed or authorized by MAS and that nothing about its permissionless infrastructure has changed.

Don't look at this if you are in Singapore. (Hyperliquid)

Indonesia sets certification rules for influencers recommending crypto

Indonesia’s financial regulator has introduced certification requirements for influencers who recommend crypto and other digital financial assets, as the country expands oversight of financial promotions on social media.

Under Financial Services Authority Regulation No. 6 of 2026, announced Wednesday, individuals recommending digital assets must obtain competency certifications unless they are already subject to a separate licensing requirement.

Influencers may recommend only digital assets listed on authorized exchanges, while any service provider they recommend must also be licensed. Marketing campaigns must be conducted through regulated financial services businesses, which are responsible for the promotional content, and distributed through their official communication channels.

Indonesia joins a growing number of jurisdictions tightening oversight of financial influencers, also called finfluencers, with Australia and the United Kingdom introducing broader rules for investment promotions and the Philippines adopting crypto-specific marketing restrictions.

South Korean authorities fine Bithumb $136K over sharing user information overseas

South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb was order to pay a $136,000 fine after it was found to have breached personal information protections rules when it sent user data overseas.

In a Thursday notice, the country's Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) said that its investigation into Bithumb found that the exchange had “transferred personal information overseas without the separate consent of the data subjects during the process of order book sharing and virtual asset transfer with overseas virtual asset exchanges.”

The incident was connected to Bithumb sharing its Tether (USDT) order books between September and November 2025 with BingX, despite obtaining consent to share the data with Stellar, as well as sharing user information with 13 overseas exchanges.

Source: PIPC

SBI to acquire Bitbank in $289M deal creating Japan's biggest crypto exchange

Japan’s SBI Holdings has signed agreements to acquire full control of crypto exchange Bitbank through a 46.7 billion Japanese yen ($289 million) transaction, advancing a deal first disclosed in May that would create the country's biggest crypto exchange.

SBI expects the transaction to close around October, subject to regulatory clearance.

The acquisition would expand SBI’s regulated crypto exchange footprint and customer base, giving it another potential distribution channel for the stablecoins, tokenized assets and onchain financial products.

Bitbank's daily trading volume has hovered below $50 million for most of the last four months, CoinGecko data showed. Volume is dominated by the BTC/JPY pair (39.5%), followed by XRP/JPY and ETH/JPY (both at 19.7%).

SBI said combining Bitbank with SBI VC Trade would give the group about 1.1 trillion yen in assets under custody and roughly 2.92 million crypto accounts, meaning the combined business would rank first among Japanese crypto exchanges.

Chainlink joins European and Korean bank consortia to develop FX settlement network

Chainlink has joined a working group with European and South Korean banking organizations to explore the use of stablecoins for foreign exchange (FX) settlement.

The protocol has announced Project Pangea alongside South Korean digital asset infrastructure company FairSquareLab, the Unified Korea Alliance (UniKA) — a consortium that includes more than a dozen Korean commercial banks — and Qivalis, a euro stablecoin consortium backed by 37 European banks.

Project Pangea aims to bring together financial institutions across Europe and South Korea to evaluate direct, atomic swaps of euro- and South Korean won-denominated stablecoins using Chainlink’s data infrastructure alongside FairSquareLab’s onchain foreign exchange settlement technology.

The initiative is another example of financial institutions evaluating stablecoins for wholesale financial infrastructure rather than consumer payments. According to the Bank for International Settlements, the global foreign exchange market processes roughly $9.6 trillion in daily trading volume.

South Korea adds token securities to capital market overhaul

South Korea’s financial regulator folded token securities infrastructure into a broader overhaul of the country’s capital markets, alongside plans for faster settlement, longer trading hours and greater use of artificial intelligence.

On Tuesday, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) said it had launched a capital market infrastructure review meeting to coordinate reforms across government agencies and market operators. According to the FSC, plans for token securities will be further discussed separately through a public-private council before being linked to the wider initiative. 

The initiative includes a roadmap for shortening the securities settlement cycle, expected by October, and a Korea Securities Depository (KSD) system for settling over-the-counter trades in unlisted shares and fractional investment products by the end of 2026. 

Circle, Nomura eye Japan corporate FX with stablecoin settlement: Report

Stablecoin issuer Circle and Japan's largest investment bank Nomura have reportedly partnered to enable instant foreign exchange settlement for Japanese companies as early as 2027.

The service would enable companies to convert yen into dollar-denominated stablecoins for cross-border transactions and instant settlement, reducing delays caused by banking hours and time zone differences, Nikkei reported on Thursday.

The partnership would bring one of the world's largest dollar stablecoins into Japan's corporate foreign exchange market, expanding the use of stablecoins for business-to-business cross-border settlement.

Australian regulator extends no-action period for crypto licensing

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has given digital asset businesses another three months (to September 30) apply for licenses required under its updated regulatory guidance.

The extension applies to businesses seeking an Australian Financial Services (AFS) license, as well as companies that may require market or clearing and settlement authorizations.

The regulator said it has received about 30 license applications since updating its digital asset guidance in October 2025 to clarify that many crypto products are financial products under the law and require an AFSL.

It noted its recent court victory against BlockEarner emphasized that point.