Coinbase and Citi Expand Stablecoin Payments Partnership

The Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, has filed accusations against five individuals with the Economic Crime Suppression Division, alleging they jointly provided digital asset trading services through the Vcex.io platform without authorization between December 24, 2021 and September 2, 2022. The accused are Assure Technology Co., Ltd., Mr. Yutthana Srisuriyaporn, Mr. Siwanat Yamdee, Mr. Keerati Prasanthai, and Miss Pimchaya Wattanakulyothin. Assure Technology, along with Mr. Siwanat and Miss Pimchaya, jointly operated the platform, which allowed users to match buy and sell orders or exchange digital assets, collected fees as a regular course of business, provided services in Thai, and promoted the platform through events held in various locations nationwide as well as online channels. This constitutes operating a digital asset exchange business without a license, in violation of Section 26 of the Emergency Decree on Digital Asset Businesses B.E. 2561, and is punishable under Section 66 in conjunction with Section 83 of the Criminal Code. Meanwhile, Mr. Yutthana, Mr. Siwanat, and Mr. Keerati, who serve as authorized signatory directors and are responsible for the operations of Assure Technology, must be held liable along with the company under Section 94 of the same Emergency Decree. Following the accusation, the case will proceed through the investigation stage by inquiry officials, the prosecution's indictment order, and the court's consideration, respectively. In addition, the SEC has forwarded information about the Vcex.io platform to the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society under the Emergency Decree on Measures for the Prevention and Suppression of Technological Crimes (No. 2) B.E. 2568 in order to order the blocking of access to the platform, and the public will be unable to access it starting from November 7, 2026.

Michael Selig, chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, said in an October 5 speech that the CFTC and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had produced a joint interpretation on crypto assets, expressing the view that Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP and others are not securities in principle. In March, the two agencies published a joint interpretation classifying crypto assets into five categories: digital commodities, digital collectibles, digital tools, stablecoins, and digital securities. Of these, the three categories of digital commodities, digital collectibles, and digital tools are deemed not to be securities in principle. Digital commodities include Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP, as well as Solana, Stellar, and Tezos, and are positioned as assets whose prices arise not from expectations of profits based on the managerial efforts of a company or other entity, but from a functioning crypto asset system or from supply and demand. The joint interpretation also indicated that even if a crypto asset itself is not a security, it may fall under federal securities law if sold as part of an investment contract. In his speech, Chairman Selig also explained a new regulatory framework for retail crypto asset trading based on this classification, and the CFTC on the same day published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking covering retail transactions involving margin, leverage, and lending, and began soliciting public comment. Under the new framework, the agency is considering establishing a market segment called the Crypto Asset Market that would allow eligible crypto asset exchanges to operate under federal regulation, and has also presented a proposal to require exchanges that manage customer assets in aggregate to provide proof of reserves backing the crypto assets they hold.

On the 7th, Japan's Financial Services Agency published a dedicated page compiling the names and other details of entities conducting crypto asset exchange business without registration. The agency announced this on its official X account, and added a new item titled "Beware of Transactions with Unregistered Operators!!" to the cautionary information on its top page. The new page lists three domestic operators and 22 overseas-based operators in table form, showing operator names, locations, the nature of their business, and the date of listing. The most recent addition, listed in September, is Hong Kong-based Izakaya Limited, which operates the crypto asset trading service "IZAKA-YA." Bybit Fintech Limited, which operates the major overseas exchange Bybit, has been listed three times: in May 2021, March 2023, and November 2024. Conducting the buying, selling, exchange, or management of crypto assets as a business with Japanese residents as counterparties requires registration as a crypto asset exchange operator under the Payment Services Act, and when the FSA confirms an operator conducting business without registration, it issues a warning letter and publishes the operator's name.

The Central Bank of Russia published its first registry of licensed crypto service providers on Tuesday under new crypto regulations that took effect on September 1, listing four cryptocurrency exchange service providers and five digital asset custodians. Sberbank, Russia's largest bank, was added to the list of custodians alongside Atomyze, Voltari and Cloud Infrastructure, while T-Invest Lab, Zefir and Sistema-Crypto appeared on the list of crypto exchange service providers. VTB Bank appeared on both lists. Sberbank said on Monday that it had applied for digital asset custodian status and planned to launch its first crypto products on December 1, initially planning to support Bitcoin, Ether and USDt through its existing SberBank Online, SberInvestments and SberBusiness platforms. The registrations follow Russian President Vladimir Putin's signing of a crypto law in August that created a regulatory framework for exchanges, asset custodians, brokers and investors. The law places the market under the supervision of the Central Bank of Russia and keeps Russia's ban on using crypto to pay for goods and services.