Pakistan's central bank formally lifted the 2018 crypto ban, allowing PVARA-licensed firms to open bank accounts. Banks cannot invest in crypto with their own or customer funds. Around 40 million active traders make Pakistan's retail crypto market larger than Germany and Japan.
Taiwan has passed its first dedicated crypto law, bringing VASPs under a full licensing regime and imposing approval, central bank consultation, and full reserve requirements on stablecoin issuers.
Mega Bank’s cross-border remittance test found USDT faster and cheaper for transfers below NT$200,000, while traditional bank wires remained stronger for large-value payments, compliance, and global usability.
India's Financial Intelligence Unit is establishing a Virtual Asset Lab using data analytics and blockchain tracing to detect unregistered offshore crypto exchanges. Over 85 non-compliant links have already been blocked.
Global crypto market cap hits $2.35T, up 1.5%. EVAA leads gainers with 58% spike; Audiera drops 25%. Nigeria passes bill second reading, Spain CNMV sets June 30 deadline, U.S. introduces crypto theft task force bill.
Far Eastern International Bank signed an MOU with Taiwan High Prosecutors Office to integrate 95% of the island's crypto fiat flow into a cross-domain anti-fraud system, combining banking, crypto, and behavioral data.
The Financial Action Task Force, or FATF, released its seventh targeted update on the implementation of standards for virtual assets and virtual asset service providers on July 16, showing wider legal adoption of the Travel Rule across surveyed jurisdictions while warning that stablecoins now account for the largest share of identified illicit on-chain activity. The report said 91 of 109 jurisdictions, or 83%, have enacted Travel Rule legislation, up from 73% in 2025. Including 11 more jurisdictions still in the legislative process, total coverage reached 93%. FATF also reported some improvement in compliance ratings. The share of jurisdictions rated “Largely Compliant” rose to 34% from 29% a year earlier, while those rated “Partially Compliant” fell to 43% from 50%. Still, the body said legislation alone does not mean effective implementation, citing gaps in supervisory capacity, cross-border data exchange, regulatory consistency and engagement with VASPs. The report placed particular focus on stablecoins and DeFi. FATF said most identified illicit on-chain activity now involves stablecoins, with use expanding among DPRK actors, terrorist financiers and cross-border drug trafficking groups. It also flagged the emergence of purpose-built stablecoins designed to bypass issuer freezing and seizure mechanisms. On DeFi, only 18% of surveyed jurisdictions had completed a risk assessment and another 9% were in progress, leaving most jurisdictions without a developed oversight framework.
Hong Kong Legislative Council member Joseph Au warned at the 2026 Hong Kong Web3 Festival that quantum computing could pose a practical threat to cryptocurrencies in more than five years, urging the industry to prepare at the cryptographic level. He highlighted Hong Kong's stable regulation compared to the U.S. and called for more developers and cross-jurisdictional interoperability.
