regulation

South Korean investors are once again pushing to delay the cryptocurrency capital gains tax scheduled to be implemented on January 1, 2027, but regulators insist on proceeding as planned. According to the South Korean National Assembly's electronic petition system, a petition requesting a two-year delay of the crypto tax plan has garnered 50,000 valid signatures, reaching the legislative review threshold, and will be automatically submitted for consideration by the relevant standing committee.South Korea plans to impose a 22% tax (including a 20% basic tax rate and a 2% local tax) on the portion of annual income from digital assets exceeding 2.5 million Korean won (approximately $1,856), covering income from the sale, transfer, and lending of cryptocurrency assets. This tax has been postponed three times since it was first discussed in 2022. Petitioners argue that the majority of crypto investors are suffering significant losses, with major South Korean crypto companies experiencing a decline in operating profits of up to 90%. Implementing the tax at this time would kick young people's wealth ladder away and could push investors toward offshore platforms.In May of this year, a petition calling for the abolition of the crypto tax reached the 50,000 signature threshold within eight days of submission but did not advance further. Meanwhile, the government's stance remains firm, with the nominee for the Minister of Economy and Finance, Lee Heung-ik (phonetic), stating last weekend that the crypto tax plan is proceeding as scheduled, and the National Tax Service will announce detailed tax standards later this year.

The final rules from the Central Bank of Brazil for Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP) set the minimum capital requirement based on business and risk at approximately 10.8 million to 37.2 million Brazilian Reais (approximately 2.11 million to 7.2 million US dollars), significantly higher than the 1 million to 3 million Brazilian Reais range (approximately 195,000 to 586,000 US dollars) in the consultation draft, and adds requirements for governance, internal controls, anti-money laundering, auditing, and ongoing reporting.Industry estimates suggest there are currently about 150 to 300 related companies, with around 20 to 25 meeting the conditions or willing to apply, and ultimately only about 10 may obtain licenses. Some small platforms have ended or restructured their retail operations.

According to Bitcoin.com, the cryptocurrency industry in Brazil may enter a consolidation phase due to new regulations from the central bank. The new regulations require virtual asset service providers to meet higher capital, auditing, anti-money laundering, and ongoing reporting requirements, with capital requirements for certain types of institutions reaching up to 37.2 million reais, approximately 7.2 million dollars.

According to the Financial Times, the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is working with the Treasury and the Bank of England to establish a dedicated regulatory framework for tokenized gold or more broadly tokenized commodities, and is assessing exemptions for certain tokenized gold products or market infrastructure from the scope of Collective Investment Schemes (CIS) and Alternative Investment Funds (AIF) regulations. Specific plans have not yet been determined.

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev stated that the company should not have veto power over tokenized stock products, provided that these products do not alter shareholder rights, issuer obligations, or the company's official stock register.Tenev posted on the X platform that whether the issuer should participate depends on whether the tokenized product changes the rights associated with the underlying stock or creates new obligations for the company and its transfer agents. If so, the issuer should participate; however, if the product creates an independent financial instrument that holds or references freely transferable shares and does not change the issuer's rights, obligations, or shareholder register, then issuer consent is not required.Tenev mentioned that Robinhood Stock Tokens use a third-party structure, with independently issued instruments backed by the underlying stock on a 1:1 basis, providing users with economic exposure to stocks and ETFs without altering the issuer's equity structure or the rights attached to the stock. He said, "Going on-chain should not grant the issuer veto power that they never had off-chain." Previously, AMC Entertainment CEO Adam Aron criticized Robinhood's tokenized stock products on September 4, stating that AMC has no association with these products and will require securities legal counsel to review them.

According to The Block, after Senate Republicans released the "final" version of the Clarity Act reflecting the amendments requested by Democrats, the probability of the bill passing on Polymarket in 2026 rose to 30%.

According to crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett, U.S. Senate Republicans have released a new version of the CLARITY Act text, referring to it as the "last, best, and final proposal" presented to Democrats before the debate vote ends on Tuesday. The new text includes several adjustments related to ethical standards, BRCA, stablecoin earnings, and provisions related to the Agriculture Committee.Among them, Trump has agreed to about 80% of the content of the Tillis-Gallego ethical standards proposal, including the sale of "significant" crypto-related financial interests or placing them in a blind trust; the stablecoin earnings section introduces a "circuit breaker mechanism," allowing federal regulators to intervene if there is a large-scale flow of community bank deposits into stablecoins, with the relevant judgment to be made by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Additionally, the scope of BRCA's protections has been narrowed, and the new text further strengthens restrictions on vertical integration, including related party transactions and conflicts of interest involving digital commodity exchanges, brokers, and dealers.

According to Politico, U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer arranged a Democratic caucus meeting to discuss the Clarity Act on Sunday evening.The landmark cryptocurrency bill will face a Senate vote on Tuesday.

Nate Geraci, President of ETF Store, stated that if the Clarity Act can gain enough votes to advance this week, it will be beneficial for the industry. However, he believes that the act is not a key factor in determining the future of cryptocurrency. Under the Trump administration, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission will use their existing powers to promote the development of cryptocurrency; the Clarity Act is more about enhancing regulatory certainty to further accelerate industry innovation.The speed of development in the cryptocurrency industry far exceeds the policy-making cycle. By the time the U.S. political sphere realizes that the financial system has already been upgraded, it may be difficult to reverse this trend. The Clarity Act will only serve as a further catalyst, providing clearer policy expectations for the cryptocurrency industry by enhancing market confidence that innovative achievements are not easily reversible, but the future of the cryptocurrency industry does not depend on whether this act can be passed.

Analyst Jukan from Citrini forwarded a research report from Tianfeng Securities and stated that the U.S. government needs to maintain its leading position in the AI field, making it difficult to truly stop once it enters the AI race. Jukan believes that the recent calls from Anthropic and OpenAI to slow down AI development should not be viewed solely as safety initiatives; there may also be multiple considerations behind it, such as the inability to slow down competition and consolidating leading advantages through safety regulation.Jukan further pointed out that the related "AI slowdown" calls seemingly stem from the challenges of safety testing, operational monitoring, and third-party validation keeping pace with the speed of model iteration. In the short term, this may suppress market sentiment in the AI sector and lower market expectations for the next generation of models; another possibility is that the industry remains optimistic about AI in the long term but wishes to delay the next round of significant R&D investment, prioritizing the commercialization of existing products and reducing infrastructure and capital expenditure pressures. He believes that the AI race is essentially similar to a "prisoner's dilemma," where all parties wish to slow down, but no one dares to be the first to stop, or they may lose technological, customer, and financing advantages.Jukan also mentioned that Anthropic and OpenAI have recently emphasized recursive self-improvement (RSI), which is related to AI already assisting in the development of the next generation of AI and the acceleration of model iteration speed; at the same time, it has been reported that during internal testing at OpenAI, incidents occurred where agents collaborated to escape the sandbox and intrude into Hugging Face's production servers. Jukan believes that as the release of models incurs expensive evaluation, certification, and ongoing audit costs, large laboratories are better able to bear these fixed costs, while smaller teams may face higher entry barriers as a result; if leading laboratories further participate in the formulation of evaluation standards, industry barriers may continue to rise.

The new regulations from the Central Bank of Brazil require virtual asset service providers to meet compliance requirements related to capital, auditing, anti-money laundering, and ongoing reporting, with capital requirements reaching up to 37.2 million reais, approximately 7.2 million US dollars. Currently, among about 300 related institutions, only 20 to 25 may meet the conditions to apply for authorization, and it is expected that only 10 will obtain licenses.Some small platforms have ended or restructured their retail operations, including Bitnuvem, NovaDAX, Digitra, and Coinext, but these platforms did not attribute their decisions to the new regulations. Institutions that fail to meet the requirements will also face ongoing compliance costs, and some businesses may struggle to maintain operations. Related institutions must apply for authorization by October 30, and those that do not apply will cease operations within 30 days and notify customers.Isabel Longhi, Head of Public and Regulatory Policy for Ripple Latin America, stated that market consolidation is expected to occur as the Brazilian crypto market matures, but the new regulations will limit innovation in the short term.

According to Cryptoslate, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Thailand has proposed a new regulation draft for stablecoins, allowing licensed crypto platforms to only permit customers to deposit or withdraw stablecoins from/to their verified accounts or wallets, prohibiting transfers to others' wallets.At the same time, a limit of 5 million Thai Baht (approximately 150,000 USD) per person per platform per day has been set. The proposal is currently in the public consultation stage, with comments due by September 25, and has not yet come into effect.

The head of research at digital asset management company Grayscale, Zach Pandl, stated in an analysis that even if Congress fails to pass the CLARITY Act this year, U.S. crypto regulation can still advance in areas such as stablecoins, token issuance, tokenized securities, and perpetual futures.U.S. President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act on July 18, 2025, establishing a regulatory framework for the issuance of payment stablecoins. The act requires issuers to provide sufficient reserves and publicly disclose the composition of reserves monthly, prohibiting misleading claims that tokens are federally insured, backed by the U.S. government, or considered legal tender. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed Regulation Crypto Assets, which aims to allow eligible projects to raise no more than $5 million over four years, or no more than $75 million every 12 months. Relevant exemptions and investment contract safe harbors are still in the proposal stage, with the public comment submission deadline set for October 20.The recent procedural milestone for the CLARITY Act was the termination debate vote on the motion to advance held on September 15, which requires 60 votes to pass and is not the final vote. Grayscale stated that the act would still help clarify the division of regulatory authority between the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), but its failure to pass would not halt the regulatory measures already in progress.

According to the Financial Times, the UK cryptocurrency industry is entering the regulatory implementation phase. Zumo founder and CEO Nick Jones stated that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will open the application window for cryptocurrency asset authorization on September 30, with the new regulatory system expected to be officially implemented in October 2027.He pointed out that for a long time, regulatory uncertainty and counterparty risk have made financial institutions cautious about the UK cryptocurrency market, not due to a lack of interest in digital assets. As the regulatory path becomes clearer, traditional financial institutions such as the UK's largest retail investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown are beginning to enter the cryptocurrency market. The industry will gradually bid farewell to offshore operations, startup-style business processes, and unregulated models, and the importance of compliant infrastructure and local service providers will further increase.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) announced on Thursday that three issuers raised a total of 102.5 million rupees (approximately 10.72 million USD) through its Demat 2 pilot program by issuing tokenized corporate bonds. This pilot utilizes distributed ledger technology to issue, hold, and settle corporate bonds.REC Ltd. was the first to issue on September 7, raising 50 million rupees (approximately 5.23 million USD) from 18 investors; L&T Ltd. raised a similar amount from 4 investors on September 9, and IIFL raised 25 million rupees (approximately 2.6 million USD) from 1 investor on the same day. SEBI stated that the pilot infrastructure records corporate bonds in the form of native digital tokens on a distributed ledger owned by the depository and achieves atomic settlement of bonds and funds through a unified market interface connected to the Reserve Bank of India’s wholesale central bank digital currency.This mechanism can reduce settlement risks arising from the separation of securities and funds transfer, allowing issuers to receive funds on the same day as the bidding, whereas the existing process typically takes two to three days. The regulator noted that the information of bondholders on the shared ledger is instantly visible to all authorized entities, and at maturity, e₹ payments will go directly into the bondholders' central bank digital currency wallets. SEBI clarified that this pilot does not create a new category of corporate bonds; tokenized bonds retain the same ISIN, issuer obligations, coupon, maturity, covenants, ratings, and investor rights as traditional paperless bonds. The pilot will be implemented in three phases, with the first phase covering institutional issuance, while secondary trading and retail access will be conducted in subsequent phases within SEBI's regulatory sandbox.

Grayscale's research director Zach Pandl stated that the U.S. CLARITY Act, aimed at establishing comprehensive rules for the cryptocurrency market, will face a procedural vote in the Senate on September 15, requiring 60 votes in support. With the Republican Party currently holding 53 seats, the advancement of this bill still requires Democratic support, and market predictions indicate a low probability of its passage by 2026.However, Grayscale believes that even if the CLARITY Act fails to pass within the year, progress in U.S. cryptocurrency regulation will not stagnate. Regulatory frameworks in areas such as stablecoins, token issuance, tokenized securities, and perpetual futures have gradually become clearer. Among them, the GENIUS Act has established a federal framework for payment stablecoins, the proposed rules by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission may provide a clearer path for token financing, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has also opened regulated channels for perpetual futures through Kalshi and Coinbase.

The city council of Albuquerque, New Mexico, passed an ordinance on Wednesday prohibiting the operation of cryptocurrency ATMs (cryptocurrency vending machines) within the city limits, while also banning cashier-assisted virtual currency transactions. The city government will notify known operators and retailers hosting the machines, requiring them to remove the relevant equipment within 45 days.The ordinance was jointly initiated by District 1 Councilor Stephanie Telles and District 7 Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn. Telles stated that 90% of cryptocurrency ATM transactions in Albuquerque are related to fraud, claiming that these machines are primarily exploited by scammers, organized crime, and human traffickers due to the instant, anonymous, and irreversible nature of transactions. Fiebelkorn remarked that we cannot wait for federal regulators to resolve the crisis. The city council emphasized that residents can still freely hold, mine, and transfer cryptocurrencies through online exchanges and personal wallets.In terms of background, Indiana banned such machines statewide in March, Tennessee in July, and Minnesota in August; Delaware has advanced related legislation, New Jersey is considering it, and Texas is also brewing a ban. One of North America's largest operators, Bitcoin Depot, filed for bankruptcy protection in May and removed about 9,700 machines. According to data from the FBI, nearly 11,000 complaints of vending machine fraud were received in 2024, involving amounts exceeding $246 million.

Crypto In America host Eleanor Terrett stated on X that the Republican Party of the U.S. Senate has released an updated text of the Clarity bill, reflecting changes from negotiations during the August recess.She noted that the ethical provisions section appears unchanged, and the provisions related to BRCA and stablecoin earnings remain the same.Changes include: requiring non-decentralized DeFi protocols to register with the CFTC, which aligns with Section 10301 of the Banking Committee's part of the bill; limiting DeFi provisions to spot or cash digital commodity trading, seemingly aimed at addressing tribal concerns about blockchain-based prediction markets; and clarifying the authority of credit unions to handle crypto assets.