Flash News

TREE NEWS reports: South Korea’s government is reportedly considering postponing the implementation of its 2020 income tax policy on digital assets until 2029, citing concerns over receiving data from US officials. The potential delay would mark another pushback for the crypto tax framework, which has already faced multiple postponements. No final decision has been announced.

TREE NEWS reports: South Korean officials are leaning toward postponing the country’s crypto tax until 2029, a presidential office official said, with talks moving toward a delay. A government official expects a final decision in late November or early December.

TREE NEWS update: Elvis Presley’s song catalog rights holders, including music publishers, sued Anthropic PBC, alleging the AI company used Presley’s lyrics without permission to train its Claude chatbot. The complaint, filed October 23 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, accuses Anthropic of copyright infringement, circumventing digital access controls and removing copyright information from about 274 protected works. Plaintiffs seek up to $48.6 million in damages under the Copyright Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

TREE NEWS update: CFTC Chairman Mike Selig said the agency is advancing a voluntary federal registration path for cryptocurrency exchanges, moving them closer to U.S. market standards, even as Congress has not acted on related legislation. Selig said crypto markets should be subject to the same protections as U.S. derivatives markets.

TREE NEWS update: The NBA has designated Kalshi and Polymarket as preferred prediction market exchanges, giving both platforms official league data and NBA branding. The deal marks the league’s first formal partnership with prediction market operators, extending official NBA data and marks to the two venues.

TREE NEWS update: Harvest STAR Bond ETF completed the Shenzhen Stock Exchange’s first bond ETF pledged agreement repo transaction on the day the exchange added bond ETFs to its eligible collateral list. The trade marks the official launch of the bond ETF pledge financing function on the Shenzhen market, giving institutions a new route to mobilize existing assets.

TREE NEWS update: The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is encouraging community banks to become stablecoin issuers, though applications have yet to open and new issuers generally must win approval before beginning U.S. operations. The push signals a regulatory opening for smaller banks to enter stablecoin issuance, subject to the existing approval process.

TREE NEWS update: A senior Democratic lawmaker expected to take a key leadership post next year has demanded that major banks and ports preserve all records related to potential imports of Russian diesel or associated transactions. The request covers documentation tied to such trade, though no specific institutions or figures were disclosed. The lawmaker is positioned for a prominent role in the next congressional session.

TREE NEWS update: More than 100 economists, including former Bank of Israel governor Jacob Frenkel, warned that a plan by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to use cryptocurrency to evade sanctions would deepen Israel’s international isolation ahead of the October 27 national election. The central bank rebuked the proposal, the economists said the move risks further isolating the country.

TREE NEWS update: Cryptex Digital Market Cap ETF filed its sixth pre-effective S-1 amendment with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Oct. 23, seeking a Nasdaq listing under the ticker BAGZ, with Cryptex Finance as sponsor. The fund plans to directly hold multiple crypto assets, building its portfolio from the constituents and weights of the Cryptex Digital Market Cap Index and rebalancing alongside it. Assets initially listed as potentially reaching 5% or more of net asset value include BTC, ETH, XRP, HYPE, DOGE, SHIB, ADA and CTX.

TREE NEWS reports: South Korea is considering a fourth postponement of its crypto gains tax, with a possible start date of 2029, to align with the U.S. timetable for implementing CARF, the OECD’s international tax framework for digital assets. The move would mark another delay for a levy that has already been pushed back three times.

TREE NEWS update: Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said the government plans to formulate an emergency response plan for cyberattacks next week. The announcement gives no further detail on the plan’s scope or which agencies will be involved. The move comes as governments step up defenses against digital threats.

TREE NEWS update: Shanghai’s Economy and Information Technology Commission and five other departments issued the Shanghai Satellite Internet Industry Innovation and Development Action Plan (2027-2030), supporting individual users in accessing satellite internet via direct phone connections or portable terminals. The plan backs carriers in launching discounted satellite internet packages to lower costs for users, aiming to turn satellite connectivity from specialized equipment into a mass-market consumer service providing ubiquitous coverage in terrestrial blind spots.

TREE NEWS update: Chinese Premier Li Qiang signed a State Council decree publishing the Regulation on the Registration of Public Institutions, the State Council announced. The regulation will take effect on December 1, 2026. The decree sets out registration rules for public institutions, which are government-affiliated entities that provide public services such as education, healthcare and research.

TREE NEWS update: The People’s Bank of China has decided to establish a Bond Market NBFI Swap Facility, known as BNSF, aimed at non-bank financial institutions facing large-scale redemptions in the bond market. The central bank announced the new tool without disclosing its size, pricing or operational start date. The facility is designed to provide swap liquidity to non-bank institutions under redemption pressure.

TREE NEWS update: China’s Ministry of Commerce on October 3, 2026 issued Announcement No. 44, opening an anti-dumping investigation into p-nitrotoluene imported from the European Union under tariff code 29042020. The ministry has begun distributing investigation questionnaires, requiring foreign exporters and producers, domestic producers and domestic importers to complete and return their respective forms as stipulated under China’s anti-dumping regulations.

TREE NEWS update: Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing will tighten the price limit on order input for all securities except structured products to five times the previous closing price, down from nine times, after the Securities and Futures Commission approved the exchange rule amendment. The change takes effect on Monday, November 2, 2026.

TREE NEWS update: China’s Ministry of Commerce on [date] released a draft of Special Provisions on the Protection of Chinese Trade Secrets for public comment, setting out countermeasures against foreign entities found to have misappropriated them. The draft would let the ministry restrict or ban such entities’ China-related goods, technology and services trade, bar new investment in China, deny entry to personnel and transport, revoke work and residence permits, and impose fines scaled to the severity of the case.