Today in crypto, Aptos said its recently-launched privacy coin seeks to solve the trade-off between user safety and transparency, Paystand launches a Bitcoin-backed stablecoin for businesses, while Certik said crypto fines from anti-money laundering enforcement have eclipsed that of securities violations.

Aptos says its new privacy coin seeks to fix one of crypto’s biggest trade-offs

Aptos Labs founding engineer Sherry Xiao said Aptos’ newly introduced privacy coin could fix a long-standing trade-off between protecting user privacy and preserving transparency for compliance.

“Confidential APT” launched on the Aptos mainnet on Friday after a governance proposal to integrate the privacy feature passed in a near-unanimous vote. It uses zero-knowledge proofs to conceal token balances and transfer amounts while still enabling transactions to be verified.

Source: Aptos

While blockchains offer a level of transparency that most traditional ledgers do not, the lack of privacy has slowed individual and enterprise adoption due to the risk of exposing financially sensitive information.

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Xiao said Confidential APT — which is pegged 1:1 to Aptos (APT) — reduces the risks of users being subjected to wallet profiling or targeted scams:

“Portfolio sniping, social pressure from visible holdings, personal safety — these are pain points people feel today.”

Xiao said the Confidential APT token solves an active problem in the workplace, too.

“If a company runs payroll on-chain with visible amounts, every employee's salary is permanently public — to coworkers, competitors, recruiters, everyone,” she said.

“Same with treasury moves, settlement flows, trading strategies,” Xiao said, noting that blockchain’s lack of privacy is an “operational dealbreaker” for many businesses.

However, “Confidential balances solve that directly,” Xiao said.

Paystand launches Bitcoin-based stablecoin USDb for enterprise payments

Paystand is launching USDb, a US dollar-backed stablecoin built on Bitcoin-linked infrastructure for use in business payments, including accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll and treasury operations.

According to Tuesday's announcement, the token is issued on Bitcoin-linked rails, including Rootstock, and interoperates with infrastructure from Blockstream. It will roll out first across Paystand’s payments network, which the company says has processed more than $20 billion in volume for over one million businesses.

Santa Cruz, California-based Paystand is a blockchain payments company that provides accounts receivable and accounts payable infrastructure to businesses across North America and Latin America.

The stablecoin is launching with support from Rootstock, Blockstream and Ibex, which will act as its initial minting partner and liquidity provider, and is designed to be compatible with Bitcoin-based networks such as the Lightning Network and Liquid.

Total stablecoin market cap. Source: DeFiLlama

AML eclipses securities enforcement as crypto’s top regulatory risk

Anti-Money Laundering enforcement has overtaken securities violations as the leading regulatory threat facing crypto companies, according to CertiK, with the United States Department of Justice and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network imposing over $1 billion in AML-related fines during the first half of 2025.

The shift marks a sharp break from the US Securities and Exchange Commission-led enforcement cycle that defined earlier years of crypto regulation. SEC crypto-specific penalties collapsed 97% in penalty value year over year, dropping from $4.9 billion in 2024 to $142 million in 2025, according to a Tuesday report by blockchain security auditor CertiK.

Transaction monitoring and licensing failures are now drawing penalties that rival or exceed many earlier crypto securities cases. The DOJ's February 2025 settlement with OKX reached $504 million, while KuCoin paid $297 million in January 2025, both for operating unlicensed money transmitting businesses and Bank Secrecy Act violations.

Notable AML-related penalties in 2025. Source: CertiK

The surge in AML enforcement highlights regulators’ growing focus on compliance controls and financial surveillance, with penalties increasingly targeting operational failures rather than disclosure-related violations. The shift reflects both a change in US administration policy and a broader reassessment of the SEC's jurisdictional approach to digital assets, according to the report.