1. Vietnam Officially Launches Pilot Program for Crypto Asset Trading Platform Licenses link
Vietnam has officially launched its crypto asset trading platform licensing pilot program. Pursuant to Decision No. 96/QD-BTC issued by the Ministry of Finance on January 20, 2026, the National Securities Commission has started accepting applications for the issuance, modification and revocation of crypto asset trading platform licenses, with the regulatory framework anchored in Government Resolution No. 05/2025/NQ-CP. Key eligibility criteria include the applicant being a Vietnamese domestic company and meeting a minimum paid-up capital requirement of VND10 trillion (approximately USD 380 million). Several title companies and banks have expressed interest in participating in the program.
2. Indonesian Financial Services Authority: Crypto asset trading volume in Indonesia reached approximately IDR 482.23 trillion (approximately $31-32 billion) in 2025 link
The Indonesian Financial Services Authority (OJK) reported that despite an annual decline in crypto asset trading volume in 2025, the number of investors and tax contributions continued to increase. Data shows that the trading volume of crypto assets in Indonesia reached approximately IDR 482.23 trillion (approximately USD 31-3.2 billion) in 2025, up from over IDR 650 trillion (approximately USD 41-4.2 billion) in 2024. By the end of 2025, the number of crypto investors increased to 20.19 million, mainly from young people. Hasan Fauzi, head of OJK, said that the cumulative tax revenue from the crypto industry reached IDR 719.61 billion (approximately $45-47 million) as of November 2025.
3. South Korea’s Gwangju District Prosecutor’s Office lost seized bitcoins worth $48 million, suspected to be caused by employees falling for phishing scams. link
The Gwangju District Prosecutor’s Office in South Korea lost Bitcoin worth tens of billions of won while retaining the seized items. Prosecutors discovered the incident during a regular check of private key passwords stored on a USB stick. According to internal sources, the accident was caused by inadvertently accessing a “fraudulent website” during the inspection, with internal rumors putting the loss at 70 billion won (approximately US$49 million). The Gwangju District Prosecutor’s Office said it “cannot confirm” the case.
4. Central Conference on Political and Legal Affairs: Proactively Present Legislative Proposals on Virtual Currencies link
During the deployment of 2026 political and legal work and the advancement of scientific legislation, the Central Conference of Political and Legal Work proposed to conduct forward-looking research on emerging issues such as protecting the rights and interests of new employment groups, virtual currencies and low-lying economy, and proactively put forward legislative proposals.
5. A Chinese man’s account contains large amounts of Bitcoin; Police from two regions intervened and filed complaints for different accusations link
Li Dong, a network engineer, is suspected of two crimes. 1. Crime of operating a casino: In 2024, he was summoned by the Zhangjiajie police, who seized 103 Bitcoins from him and converted them into more than 49.61 million yuan. Four days after being released on bail awaiting trial, he was taken away by Xuchang police, who seized around 80 Bitcoins. 2. Crime of theft: Prosecutors alleged that Li Dong exploited vulnerabilities in the gaming site “Kaiyun Sports” to steal the personal information of more than 1.84 million Chinese citizens. In 2020, he switched his bank account for agent remittances and embezzled more than 35.5 million yuan in remittance funds (more than 6.44 million yuan was transferred to bank cards under his control and more than 29.05 million yuan was used to purchase Bitcoin which was transferred to his digital wallet). The defense argued that the evidence for the theft charge was insufficient and that the connection between the accounts had not been proven; Li Dong’s confession of guilt was obtained through threats made by police against his pregnant wife, and the defense requested the exclusion of illegally obtained evidence.
Sponsored by FinTax
6. Hong Kong Industrial Association opposes proposed new regulations on virtual asset management link
The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Professionals Association (HKSFPA) has opposed the proposed new regulations on virtual asset management in its submission to the regulator. He said that if the “de minimis exemption for the allocation of crypto assets within the 10% limit” applicable to Type 9 (asset management) licenses was removed, even an allocation of just 1% to Bitcoin would require an application for a full virtual asset management license. The association argued that compliance costs would be disproportionate to risk exposure, which could deter traditional asset management institutions from experimenting with crypto assets.
7. The Bank of Russia plans to simplify licensing regulations for cryptocurrency exchangers in order to move the industry out of the gray zone. link
The Central Bank of Russia said it will simplify licensing and regulatory requirements for cryptocurrency exchangers not involved in the securities market to help relevant institutions move out of the “gray zone.” Ekaterina Lozgacheva, director of the Department for Strategic Financial Market Development at the Central Bank, said the regulator was considering establishing a separate compliance framework for crypto intermediaries instead of applying the rules governing the securities market. At the same time, it will introduce special prudential restrictions on banks and securities brokers to prevent the transmission of risks from crypto-related activities to the traditional financial system. The relevant legislation is expected to be completed by July 1, 2026 and liability for illegal crypto intermediaries will be imposed from July 2027.
8. Indian FIU orders exchanges to stop supporting privacy coins, citing money laundering risks link
The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the Indian Ministry of Finance, in its updated guidelines, has directed cryptocurrency exchanges and associated platforms to prohibit deposits and withdrawals of Anonymity Enhancing Tokens (AETs), classifying these assets as high risk. He argues that AETs can mask the origin, ownership and value of transactions, making them vulnerable to money laundering and other illicit activities. The report notes that privacy coins like Monero, Zcash, and Dash, as well as tools like crypto mixers/tumblers, can be used to disrupt on-chain fund tracking trails. Additionally, the FIU required platforms to strengthen customer information collection and risk control measures for transactions involving unhosted wallets.
9. North Korean hackers’ attack method of planting backdoors via automated VS Code tasks was revealed 7 months ago link
@im23pds, Chief Information Security Officer at SlowMist Technology, posted a warning stating that the recently high-profile attack method targeting developers by North Korean hackers actually appeared in the GitHub repository “VSCode-Backdoor” as early as seven months ago. This attack method involves affected personnel from North Korea luring developers with fake job offers. Once a developer opens the malicious VS Code project, the hidden tasks will run automatically, grab JavaScript code from Vercel, and deploy backdoors, thereby achieving remote code execution (RCE).
10. CZ: In talks with “Possibly over a dozen governments” on tokenizing national assets link
CZ, co-founder and former CEO of Binance, said at the World Economic Forum in Davos that he is engaged in discussions with “probably more than a dozen governments” regarding the tokenization of state-owned assets. It has explored leveraging blockchain for fractional financing of state-owned assets such as infrastructure, real estate and commodities. Previously, he revealed that Pakistan, Malaysia and Kyrgyzstan were among the countries he communicated with. CZ also noted that the integration of traditional payments and crypto payments is accelerating and he believes that cryptocurrency will become the native payment currency for AI agents, who will directly use crypto assets to transact on behalf of users.
Follow us
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WuBlockchain
Telegram:
