Abu Dhabi International Financial Center revises anti-money laundering rules, emphasizing FATF’s travel rules apply to virtual assets
Abu Dhabi Global Market's Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) announced revisions to its anti-money laundering and sanctions rules and guidelines, clarifying requirements previously included in the anti-money laundering rules, particularly making some minor drafting amendments to the wire transfer provisions to more clearly state that the Financial Action Task Force's (FATF) travel rule applies to virtual assets.
The Procedure Review Committee of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission: Proposals to simplify the licensing procedures for virtual asset trading platforms
Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission's (SFC) Process Review Committee released its annual report, pointing out that the SFC took about 2.5 years to process a virtual asset trading platform license application. In order to promote the licensing process and facilitate the development of Hong Kong's financial technology, while maintaining investor protection, the SFC recommends simplifying the licensing process and strengthening market awareness of the new licensing system for virtual asset trading platforms, as well as enhancing industry education on the licensing system.
The Central Bank of Brazil publicly solicits opinions on the formulation of rules for virtual asset service providers
The Central Bank of Brazil is preparing to release final rules for virtual asset service providers (VASPs) operating in the country. Based on feedback received after the approval and recognition of the Cryptocurrency Asset Law in December 2023, the institution has begun publicly soliciting opinions from market participants and individuals to develop rules that VASPs must comply with. The bank has launched a survey consisting of 38 questions that respondents can choose to answer in full or in part, and indicate the numbers and themes they would like to see addressed in their statements.
Hong Kong police launched anti-money laundering operations codenamed "Hammer" and "Strike" on the 8th, arresting a total of 12 people
Hong Kong police launched anti-money laundering operations codenamed "Hammer Strike" and "Conspiracy Attack" on the 8th, arresting a total of 12 people who are suspected of using large cash withdrawals and virtual currency transactions to launder HK $30 million in black money related to fraud cases.
South Korean regulators begin accepting reports on undeclared virtual asset operators
According to reports, the Korean digital asset exchange joint negotiation organization (DAXA) will cooperate with the Korean Financial Intelligence Agency (FIU) to accept reports on unreported virtual asset operators. Specifically, whistleblowers can report domestic and foreign virtual asset operators who have not submitted reports under the "Specific Financial Information Act" (Special Act) and have conducted unreported business with Koreans. DAXA will conduct a preliminary review of the report and transfer the results to FIU. FIU will reply to DAXA with the determination of whether the unreported encrypted business belongs to encrypted business and inform the company of the results.
Chen Maobo: Virtual assets require new regulatory systems to deal with them
Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po pointed out at a high-level meeting of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) that the global financial industry is innovating rapidly, and there have been major breakthroughs in the development of artificial intelligence. This will bring new work models to society and the financial industry, and virtual assets are also emerging. All technological applications and investments require new regulatory systems to cope with them. Local governments and central banks need to cooperate and share information, and coordinate with each other when launching relevant policies, in order to further promote financial innovation.
A Taiwanese boss engaged in virtual currency mining and stole more than NT$76 million in electricity a year.
Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau recently cracked a theft of electricity case, with the main suspect being a medical beauty clinic owner who used mining to produce virtual currency to make money. The suspect set up eight so-called "mining fields" throughout Taichung, all of which required stolen electricity to mine. Within a year, Taiwan Power Company lost more than 76 million New Taiwan dollars. (CCTV News)
Bithumb Burrito wallet expands services to Central and South America
Rodenda, the operator of the virtual asset wallet Bithumb Burrito Wallet, announced on the 21st that it plans to expand its business to Central and South America. Bithumb Burrito Wallet was launched in February last year and supports 11 mainnets, including Bitcoin and Ethereum. Users can manage over 1400 tokens.
Wuchang police busted a virtual currency money laundering gang involved in a 1 billion yuan case
Recently, the Wuchang Branch of the Wuhan Public Security Bureau successfully dismantled a criminal gang that used virtual currency to launder money through the cooperation of three centers: the "Qingzhi Xing" Integrated Center, the Law Enforcement Case Management Center, and the Synthetic Combat Center. Seven arrest teams were dispatched to Sichuan Deyang, Jilin Changchun, Guangdong Dongguan and other provinces and cities to simultaneously intercept the gang. After investigation, 27 arrested members were criminally detained according to law, and the amount of funds controlled by the gang's accounts reached 1 billion yuan in terms of the number of fund flow records.
Infomax, a subsidiary of Yonhap News Agency, will provide standard price data for virtual assets based on South Korea’s five major crypto exchanges
According to official sources, Infomax, a financial information subsidiary of the South Korean news agency Yonhap, announced that it will provide standard prices for virtual assets in South Korea by the end of this year. Yonhap's Infomax has signed API supply contracts with the country's five major cryptocurrency exchanges (Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax). Through this method, the standard price of the country's virtual assets will be provided every 30 minutes as a weighted average based on the actual trading volume of these five Korean won exchanges.
