Singapore's crypto economy expanded 55.4% to $284 billion in the year ended June 2026, reclaiming the top slot in Central and Southeast Asia and Oceania (CSAO) even as the broader regional market contracted 6.8%, according to Chainalysis figures shared with Cointelegraph.

Institutional rails carried the growth. Platform activity tied to professional trading desks climbed 94% to $60 billion, concentrated among a narrow set of market makers, over-the-counter firms, and brokerages rather than a surge of new entrants.

"The growth in Singapore's institutional platform ecosystem was very concentrated and marked by mostly high-volume activity by existing platforms rather than the dynamic entry of new services," Chainalysis told Cointelegraph.

Is China treating blockchain as a surveillance target?

China's Ministry of State Security (MSS) labeled cryptocurrencies "accomplices" in foreign espionage, claiming that overseas adversaries use digital assets to launder funds, mount cyberattacks, and erode financial order, the South China Morning Post reported. The post appeared on Chinese social media and was framed as guidance to would-be spies who assume crypto transactions stay invisible.

The MSS singled out the recruitment pitch used by foreign agencies, who allegedly tell sources that "the circulation of virtual currencies was hard to verify." Privacy-focused assets such as Monero and Zcash remain difficult to trace when used correctly, leaving Bitcoin and Ethereum transactions largely exposed to chain analysis.

China has banned crypto exchanges since 2017 and mining since 2021, and has declared all crypto businesses illegal. The MSS post signals that the enforcement net now extends to the on-chain footprint of foreign intelligence operations.

Will South Korea legalize crypto market makers?

The Financial Services Commission (FSC) is reviewing a formal market-making regime for digital assets after a yen-pegged stablecoin traded as much as 4x its intended price on Upbit earlier this month. Yoo Young-joon, director of digital finance policy at the FSC, said the regulator will "review the need to introduce systems such as market-making activities to increase the efficiency and stability of the digital asset market."

Upbit listed JPYC, a yen-backed stablecoin, on Sept. 17. The token opened at 12 Korean won and touched 37.6 won within an hour, a move the FSC attributed to thin liquidity. The country's Virtual Asset User Protection Act contains no exemption for market-making within its market-manipulation provisions, leaving professional liquidity providers in legal limbo.

Separately, U.S. payments infrastructure firm MoonPay incorporated a South Korean subsidiary to pursue remittances, payments, settlements, and digital asset distribution with local financial institutions, pending regulatory approval.

How will Binance Pay reach PayPay merchants in Japan?

Binance Pay began letting eligible overseas visitors spend more than 100 cryptocurrencies at most PayPay-supported merchants on Wednesday, routed through HIVEX, a QR-payment interoperability layer. Tether's USDt serves as Binance Pay's settlement rail; HIVEX then settles in yen with PayPay, which pays merchants in local currency.

PayPay already lists nine overseas payment services connected through HIVEX, drawn mostly from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Binance said it is the first crypto-native service to plug into that network, and confirmed that merchants do not need to opt in separately.

What does Hong Kong's new regulator pact change?

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and the Accounting and Financial Reporting Council (AFRC) signed a cooperation agreement covering audit and assurance work at licensed crypto firms. The framework spans information sharing, case referrals, mutual assistance, and coordinated inspections, aligning accounting oversight with the SFC's existing conduct regime.

HSBC separately laid out a phased rollout for RedCoin, its planned Hong Kong dollar-pegged stablecoin. The bank will start with peer-to-peer and merchant payments before moving into corporate and institutional use cases, and will run a public education campaign aimed at reducing stablecoin scams.

The combined direction of travel, from Singapore's institutional concentration to Hong Kong's audit framework and Seoul's market-making consultation, points toward a more structured, compliance-driven Asian digital-asset market by mid-2026.