licensing

According to U.S. SEC filings, the Dogecoin Foundation has terminated its exclusive trademark licensing agreement with the Nasdaq-listed company House of Doge, effective October 19. House of Doge and its U.S. subsidiaries must rebrand by the end of 2026 and cease using titles such as "official commercial partner of the Dogecoin Foundation." The relevant subsidiaries are also required to pay the foundation a termination fee of $400,000.Under the new agreement, House of Doge retains non-exclusive trademark rights to three existing 21Shares DOGE investment products. House of Doge plans to transfer assets related to Such App to Dogecoin Labs in exchange for shares valued at approximately $4 million, a transaction that has yet to be completed. Dogecoin Labs has become the foundation's new official commercial partner.

Google's advertising policy announcement indicates that starting from October 21, 2026, advertisers targeting cryptocurrency exchanges and software wallets in the UAE must obtain permission from one of the designated local regulatory authorities and be certified by Google.Acceptable licensing authorities include the Capital Markets Authority (CMA), the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA), and the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA). Advertisers must also comply with other local legal requirements, and this policy applies to all accounts globally that target the aforementioned advertisements in the UAE.

On October 13, chip company Qualcomm announced in San Diego that a jury found Arm in violation of the long-standing architecture license agreement (ALA) with Qualcomm, failing to fulfill related commitments and deliberately disrupting Qualcomm's business.Qualcomm stated that, combined with the previous court victory, this outcome further indicates Arm's intention to harm Qualcomm and its ecosystem. Qualcomm called this result a victory for innovation and competition and will continue to develop and deliver semiconductor products, including the Oryon CPU.

According to a press release from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Christopher Hui, attended a policy briefing by the Legislative Council's Financial Affairs Committee. He stated that a bill to establish a licensing system for virtual asset trading, custody, advisory, and management services will be submitted within this year as part of Hong Kong's first five-year plan concerning financial services and the Treasury.In addition, the Hong Kong Central Clearing and Settlement System for gold will officially launch in the first quarter of next year, and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange will announce details of a new gold futures contract priced in Renminbi and settled in physical gold within this year.

Huawei announced that Huawei and Qualcomm have reached a multi-year, broad patent licensing agreement, which includes cross-licensing of patent portfolios in multiple fields such as 5G, computing, artificial intelligence, and networking, as well as Qualcomm's acquisition of some of Huawei's U.S. patents.The transaction will be completed upon obtaining the necessary regulatory approvals. The agreement reflects the two companies' shared commitment to intellectual property protection and adherence to licensing practices that are fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory.

Qualcomm (QCOM.O) announced the renewal of its global patent licensing agreement with Apple (AAPL.O).

The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission announced the implementation of the strategic action plan for the first five-year plan, which will shortly introduce a new licensing system for digital assets, and implement digital asset custody supervision, CrypTech market supervision, and anti-money laundering capability building.In the medium to long term, it will develop a regulatory framework for tokenized investment products as needed, covering tokenized gold and other real-world assets. The agency will also support the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government in establishing a central clearing and settlement system for gold, and developing gold and commodity products priced in Renminbi.

According to the New York Times, regulators are investigating the licensing agreement reached between Nvidia and Groq.

Ronald Keung, the head of Asian Internet Research at Goldman Sachs, stated that as the global usage of Chinese AI models surges, developers may begin to charge commercial licensing fees to cloud platforms for hosting their open-weight models. Currently, most Chinese models are released under permissive licenses such as the MIT License, allowing any user to use, modify, and host them for free, including for commercial purposes.Keung pointed out that Chinese AI models like Kimi K3 from the Dark Side of the Moon and GLM-5.2 from Zhiyu AI have performance levels that are close to those of leading models in the United States. The adoption rate among small and medium-sized enterprises, both domestically and globally, is very fast, and even large enterprises are beginning to consider using Chinese models. Goldman Sachs believes that model developers can convert the growing use of open-source into actual revenue by requiring third-party service providers to purchase commercial licenses to run model inference on their own infrastructure.

According to CoinDesk, with the official full implementation of the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), the European digital asset market has entered a new era of unified regulation. Regarding the impact of MiCA on the industry landscape, Dr. Han, founder and CEO of Gate, stated in an interview that Gate began laying the groundwork for compliance in Europe several years ago and completed preparations for MiCA and Payment Institution (PI) licenses ahead of schedule in 2025. He pointed out that the significance of MiCA lies not only in establishing a unified regulatory framework but, more importantly, in ensuring that all market participants start from the same starting line. "Only when all platforms adhere to the same rules can the industry truly compete based on products, services, and user experience." At the same time, he also mentioned that if unauthorized platforms can still provide services to European users, the fair competition environment will still face challenges, making the effective enforcement of regulations equally crucial.Currently, Gate Europe has been continuously improving its compliance system, risk management, and operational governance capabilities based on the dual licenses of MiCA and PI, while deepening its global compliance layout. In addition to Europe, several entities under Gate have completed relevant regulatory registrations, license applications, or obtained authorizations and approvals in jurisdictions such as Malta, the Bahamas, Japan, the United States, Australia, and Dubai, solidifying the global business foundation through multi-regional regulatory licenses and continuously providing safer, more transparent, and efficient digital asset services to global users. In the future, Gate will continue to adhere to the parallel development of compliance and innovation, promoting the long-term healthy development of the digital asset industry with higher quality product experiences and global service capabilities.

According to The Block, the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) finalized a comprehensive crypto regulatory framework on Tuesday, with a mandatory licensing regime set to take effect on October 25, 2027. The framework covers prudential requirements, market abuse regulation, and stablecoin standards, applicable to crypto trading platforms, custodians, stablecoin issuers, lending and staking service providers, as well as some DeFi companies with identifiable controlling entities.Businesses can apply for authorization between September 30, 2026, and February 28, 2027, and existing anti-money laundering registrations will not automatically convert. Regarding trading platform rules, the FCA requires UK-qualified crypto asset trading platforms to conduct due diligence, meet entry standards, and publish disclosure documents, while removing the previous exemption that allowed fungible crypto assets to be listed without disclosure documents. Market abuse rules cover insider trading and market manipulation.For stablecoins, the FCA has removed the obligation to forecast the redemption of reserve assets, allowed limited group internal custody arrangements, and reduced the K-SII capital ratio for stablecoin issuance from 2% to 1%. Crypto assets on qualified platforms will be subject to a unified 40% net risk exposure requirement and a 40% counterparty default volatility adjustment. FCA's Director of Payments and Digital Finance, David Geale, stated that the framework is an important milestone for crypto regulation in the UK, providing regulatory certainty while allowing businesses to maintain innovation space.

According to Bits.media, the Central Bank of Brazil has tightened the licensing rules for virtual asset service providers, requiring them to undergo independent financial audits before obtaining operational licenses starting June 1. The auditing firms must not only examine the company's financial status but also review its compliance with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regulations, including whether the platform separates its own funds from customer assets, its risk management practices, and employee training. Auditors must be registered with the Brazilian Securities Commission. Cryptocurrency exchanges, brokerage firms, and custody services applying for a license for the first time must comply with these requirements from the start of the registration process, and companies that already hold licenses must also pass independent audits when renewing.Brazil first clarified in legislation in 2022 that virtual asset services are regulated by the central bank, establishing a category for licensed virtual asset service providers in November 2025. Additionally, Brazil recently imposed a complete ban on 28 betting and prediction market platforms, including Polymarket and Kalshi, on the grounds that they did not comply with local derivatives trading requirements. Starting October 1, Brazilian electronic foreign exchange providers will be prohibited from using cryptocurrencies for international remittances.

According to an official announcement, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) has released a proposed rule outlining the operational and risk management standards for stablecoin issuers permitted under the GENIUS Act. NCUA Chairman Kyle Hauptman stated that the proposed rule aims to ensure that credit unions are not at a disadvantage in terms of standards and aligns with the proposed standards for bank subsidiaries. The proposed rule has been published in the Federal Register, and the comment period will close on July 17, 2026.

According to Decrypt, Dapper Labs announced that its digital collectibles platform NFL All Day, in collaboration with the NFL, will stop issuing new NFTs, but existing collectibles can still be bought and sold on the market. Dapper Labs CEO Roham Gharegozlou stated that the company has signed a new licensing agreement with the NFL and will announce details as the next season approaches. As part of the adjustments, the platform will offer collectors a "Founding Collector" label and launch a 5% Dapper balance rebate, but the purchased items must be held for one year before they can be released.After the announcement, trading volume on the NFL All Day market surged, exceeding $53,000 on Thursday, with the number of sellers jumping from fewer than 100 last week to over 400 on Thursday. Some collectors complained that their bids were still accepted after the announcement, leading to the purchase of NFTs that significantly decreased in value. Dapper Labs stated that it is working to advance the next phase of NFL digital collectibles development.

PANews' in-depth analysis article points out that, in the context of accelerating global cryptocurrency regulation, compliance capability is becoming a key watershed in the competition among CEXs. Trading platforms represented by Gate are strengthening their competitiveness in the mainstream financial system by continuously expanding their global licensing network.Specifically, Gate is promoting its compliance layout through its various operational entities: Gate US achieves compliant operations in 46 jurisdictions by holding 35 state-level MTL licenses in the United States; leveraging the Cyprus CySEC license, MiCA license, and Payment Institution (PI) license, it is deeply developing business in multiple regions in Europe; Gate Japan is entering the highly regulated Japanese market with the FSA license; it is tapping into the rapidly growing Middle Eastern market with the Dubai VARA license; at the same time, it has completed its layout in the Australian market through AUSTRAC registration.The article notes that compared to some platforms that focus on advancing in a single region, Gate prefers to promote its global compliance layout by establishing entities in multiple locations and directly applying for licenses. Although this path takes longer and incurs higher costs, it helps enhance long-term compliance credibility and diversify risks associated with a single jurisdiction. As global regulation enters the enforcement phase in 2026, the industry's model of "expanding first, complying later" is gradually retreating, and compliance is transforming from a cost item into a core asset, becoming a key threshold for platforms to participate in mainstream market competition.