Payward, Kraken's parent company, has obtained a VASP registration in the British Virgin Islands, expanding its regulatory network to over 100 licenses globally and marking a key step in its transformation from an exchange to a financial infrastructure group.
Kyrgyzstan launched KGST, a som-pegged stablecoin backed by bank deposits. Binance regional head says infrastructure is ready; Binance Pay with QR-code payments is expected by end of February. Education efforts include 100+ translated articles and a university tour covering 36 institutions.
A DOJ internal memo warned prosecutors that Binance may add conditions before freezing or seizing customer assets. The dispute centers on ADGM licensing and data disclosure rules, with potential delays for cross-border crypto investigations.
The UAE central bank has approved USDU, the country’s first foreign-currency payment token registered under a central bank framework, for cross-border settlement, derivatives trading, and virtual asset purchases.
Aster has listed the SKHYB spot market and added support for using SKHYB as collateral in perpetual futures accounts under its multi-asset mode, with a collateral ratio of up to 90%. At the same time, the platform has rolled out a SKHYB holding campaign with a total prize pool of $15,000 in SKHYB, running from July 15 to July 22 at 18:00. To qualify, users must enable multi-asset mode, hold at least $100 worth of SKHYB, and complete at least $1,000 in perpetual futures trading volume. SKHYB is part of Binance’s bStocks tokenized equities offering and tracks shares of South Korean semiconductor company SK Hynix. It is issued by BTECH Holdings Ltd (ADGM) and backed 1:1 by real shares held by a regulated custodian. Rewards will be distributed based on a combined assessment of users’ holdings and holding duration.
Binance Research said in a July 8 report that stablecoins are no longer expanding mainly as liquidity instruments for crypto trading. The report argues that the sector is shifting toward a broader role as digital financial infrastructure, spanning value storage, yield generation, payments, settlement and cross-border treasury management. The report points to several data sets inside the Binance ecosystem and across public blockchains. On Binance, 30% of users with at least $10 in assets now keep more than half of their portfolios in stablecoins, up from 4% in 2020. It also highlights persistent fiat-to-stablecoin premiums across multiple economies, stronger savings demand in emerging markets, and growing use of tokenized Treasury products and structured on-chain yield products. Binance Research also links stablecoin growth to merchant payments, non-dollar stablecoins, weekend settlement activity, AI agent micropayments and on-chain foreign exchange. In its view, the category is becoming less tied to crypto bull and bear cycles and more connected to wider global financial demand. The report says regulation, reserve transparency and macro conditions will still shape how quickly this shift unfolds.
Malta has warned that the EU's proposed cryptocurrency regulations could be too restrictive, driving crypto firms to relocate to the US, UAE, and Asia, thus undermining Europe's competitiveness in the digital asset industry.
Abu Dhabi’s ADGM has formally recognized USDT as an approved fiat-referenced token across multiple major blockchains, expanding regulated use for licensed firms and reinforcing the emirate’s institutional digital-asset ambitions.
