TREE NEWS update: Singapore’s BLOOM initiative has added the central banks of Malaysia and Thailand as participants, alongside new members Mastercard, Airwallex and the World Bank Group. The Monetary Authority of Singapore’s release announcing the expansion did not name any stablecoin, pilot or launch date. BLOOM is MAS’s project for settling cross-border payments using tokenized bank deposits and stablecoins.
TREE NEWS update: The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency published final rules implementing the GENIUS Act, setting issuance, reserve, redemption, custody and risk-management requirements for payment stablecoins under its jurisdiction, effective January 18, 2027. Issuers must detail who holds reserves, how users redeem for dollars and how mass redemptions are handled. The final version relaxes a draft provision on third-party reward arrangements, preserving some scope for exchanges to offer stablecoin rewards.
TREE NEWS update: Judge Marcelo Martínez de Giorgi dismissed the LIBRA memecoin case against Argentine President Javier Milei and all 11 people under investigation, including Kelsier’s Hayden Davis, siding with prosecutor Eduardo Taiano’s finding that the facts fit no crime. The ruling is not yet final.
TREE NEWS update: Kraken has scrapped questionnaires asking clients what they plan to do with withdrawn Monero, though source-of-funds checks remain in place. Co-CEO Arjun Sethi said asking customers what they will do with withdrawn coins is unacceptable. XMR stays listed on the exchange.
TREE NEWS update: The SEC’s exam division has named tokenization a “high-risk area” in clearing-agency examinations for fiscal 2027. Tokenization is also listed as an emerging trend in market-systems reviews. Neither the 2025 nor the 2026 edition of the document mentioned tokenization.
TREE NEWS update: New York’s attorney general has asked a court to enter a $1.37 billion judgment against Cynthia and Eddy Petion, the founders of the crypto scheme NovaTech. Four promoters have agreed to pay about $6 million to victims. Neither the filing nor the release says how money would be recovered from the Petions.
TREE NEWS update: The UK announced £100 million in funding to establish an AI biosecurity laboratory in partnership with OpenAI, Anthropic and Google DeepMind. The initiative, disclosed on the government side, pairs public money with the three leading AI developers to work on biosecurity applications. No further terms or timeline were given.
TREE NEWS update: The U.S. Federal Communications Commission granted conditional approval to certain equipment, including devices from Bloom Energy and Hitachi Energy. The agency announced the conditional approval without specifying which devices were cleared or the conditions attached. Bloom Energy makes fuel-cell power systems and Hitachi Energy supplies grid and power equipment.
TREE NEWS update: Brazil’s central bank approved a set of resolutions requiring financial institutions to give customers clear mechanisms to block advertised and unsolicited credit products, and to provide a dashboard consolidating their credit data. The measures also set new rules for credit offered during the initiation of Pix transactions. The central bank said the resolutions strengthen financial institutions’ responsibility in offering and granting credit.
TREE NEWS update: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on the 23rd that he has ordered preparations for possible international economic and financial sanctions, including a plan for an “alternative economic system” that could use blockchain and cryptocurrency networks to circumvent banking sanctions. Domestic opinion in Israel argues the proposal does not address the country’s economic isolation under sanctions.
TREE NEWS reports: Wells Fargo and five other firms have objected to the proposed tokenized stock platform by the OKX-ICE joint venture under the SEC’s innovation exemption, bringing the total number of objecting companies to 22 as of Friday. The filings target the venture’s plan to list tokenized equities under the regulatory carve-out.
TREE NEWS update: Days before Israel’s election, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he has asked for a blockchain-based plan in case Israeli banks are hit with sanctions, and told Israelis to prepare for a rainy day in the wake of Donald Trump. The remarks frame crypto infrastructure as a contingency against financial isolation.
TREE NEWS update: An Argentine judge dismissed the criminal case tied to the LIBRA token against President Javier Milei and 10 other defendants, including his sister Karina Milei and Hayden Davis. A separate investor class action filed in New York was dismissed in September. The ruling closes, for now, the criminal track of litigation over the token’s promotion.
TREE NEWS update: The US Internal Revenue Service is planning an overhaul of its voluntary tax disclosure program that would lower penalties, including for crypto, and offer faster resolutions and more flexible payment options for taxpayers who come forward on past violations. The agency is targeting quicker case closures and easier payment terms under the planned changes.
TREE NEWS update: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against OpenAI Global and CEO Sam Altman, alleging the company failed to protect users from risks posed by the ChatGPT chatbot. The suit claims OpenAI violated a Texas law requiring digital service providers to implement specific safety features for children. Paxton seeks injunctive relief and $10,000 per violation of the state’s deceptive trade practices law.
TREE NEWS update: An Argentine federal judge, Marcelo Martínez de Giorgi, ordered the dismissal of a criminal investigation into President Javier Milei and his sister Karina Milei over their roles in the LIBRA memecoin episode, court records showed. Prosecutor Eduardo Taiano had requested the case be dropped. The probe, opened in February 2025, examined possible fraud in the token’s issuance after Milei promoted it on X, the price collapsed and he deleted the post.
TREE NEWS update: China’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, Sun Lei, called on the International Atomic Energy Agency to halt its review of Iran’s nuclear issue during a UN General Assembly session on the IAEA’s annual report on Sept. 23. Sun said the IAEA should maintain an objective and impartial stance and act strictly within its mandate, while Iran’s nuclear dispute must ultimately be resolved through diplomacy, as military force and sanctions only escalate tensions.
TREE NEWS update: Sen. Richard Blumenthal has demanded Tether’s records on payments to Nxum, a firm co-owned by former White House crypto adviser Bo Hines. The probe seeks documentation of the stablecoin issuer’s financial ties to the firm. Tether has not publicly responded to the request.
TREE NEWS update: The SEC’s Division of Examinations has named “super intelligence and other advanced technologies” as a focus area alongside tokenization risks, the regulator said. The division identified the two themes as systemic market risks it will scrutinize. The notice did not specify which firms or products would be examined.
TREE NEWS update: US Senator Marsha Blackburn, chair of the Senate Judiciary privacy, technology and law subcommittee, raised concerns Friday about Meta Platforms’ planned update to its business terms, saying the changes could harm businesses and creators. Blackburn said the revised terms would let Meta scrape content from any website linked to Facebook and Instagram business accounts and use it to develop its commercial products. She added that Meta’s earlier removal of explicit AI-training language was insufficient.