Flash News

TREE NEWS update: The European Commission’s consultation on its review of the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation has closed. Europe now must decide whether its crypto rulebook protects the market without making it too costly to build in. The review will determine whether MiCA strikes the right balance between market protection and the cost of building in Europe.

TREE NEWS update: The SEC has sued four firms over alleged crypto scams totaling $15 million, run through WhatsApp chats. Two SEC complaints allege the operations used fake AI trading tips, impersonated well-known finance professionals and forged SEC paperwork to steer retail investors’ crypto onto platforms where no trading took place.

TREE NEWS update: US Senator Richard Blumenthal’s subcommittee released a report Monday calling Tether’s USDT a ‘superhighway’ for Iranian sanctions evasion and referred its findings to the Treasury Department and the Justice Department. The Connecticut senator’s panel flagged the stablecoin’s role in the alleged activity in the referral.

TREE NEWS update: Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said regulating artificial intelligence is “not the right starting point,” arguing that the focus should come before formal rules are drawn up. Bailey made the remark in comments on how authorities should approach AI oversight. He did not announce any new policy or regulatory measure.

TREE NEWS update: Kalshi is ending its trader volume rewards program on Oct. 13, more than a year ahead of the original Oct. 1, 2027 end date. The filing gives no reason for moving the date up, and the change comes amid wash trading allegations against the prediction market.

TREE NEWS update: Kalshi moved the end date of its trading-volume incentive program to Oct. 13, 2026 from Oct. 1, 2027. 28 filing with the CFTC, which is investigating prediction-market reward programs over concerns they use misleading promotions to attract traders. A source said the CFTC could act by the end of the week. Polymarket, which has paid out about $128 million in rewards against $229 million in trading fees, is seen as a likely focus.

TREE NEWS update: China’s Internet Finance Association has launched a self-assessment for third-party internet platforms to comply with the Financial Product Online Marketing Management Measures, which took effect on September 30. The self-check covers 40 verification dimensions and aims to tighten platform accountability and curb long-standing abuses in online financial product marketing.

TREE NEWS update: HSBC has named its Hong Kong dollar stablecoin ‘RedCoin’, with a retail rollout planned for the second half of 2026. Initial distribution will be limited to PayMe and the HSBC HK Mobile App, the bank said.

TREE NEWS update: The Shanghai Stock Exchange said it took self-regulatory measures against 132 cases of abnormal securities trading, including price ramping, suppression and false order declarations, during the September 21-30, 2026 period. The exchange placed funds trading at elevated premiums, including the Global Chip LOF, under focused monitoring, and conducted special reviews of 37 major corporate matters. No specific issuers or funds were named beyond the Global Chip LOF.

TREE NEWS update: The Beijing Municipal People’s Government issued its Digital and Intelligent Beijing Development Plan for the 15th Five-Year period, calling for the city to take the lead in developing a token economy. The plan proposes building a quantifiable and priceable data value system based on tokens and encourages the construction of token factories, alongside new agent-economy models such as model-as-a-service and agent-as-a-service.

TREE NEWS update: The Beijing Municipal People’s Government issued the ’15th Five-Year Period Digital Beijing Development Plan’, calling for deeper coordination on computing power, public data sharing and the digital-intelligence industrial chain across Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei. The plan also seeks digital-intelligence ties with the Yangtze River Delta and Greater Bay Area, cross-regional rule mutual recognition and factor flows, and continued filing review, security assessment and confidentiality management for government large-model applications.

TREE NEWS update: The Bank of England’s Financial Policy Committee said high-risk credit markets, including parts of private credit, remain vulnerable to tighter financing conditions. UK households and businesses remain resilient, and the banking system is well capitalised. The countercyclical capital buffer was held at 2%.

TREE NEWS update: Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said more testing of AI models is needed both before and after deployment, ahead of any regulatory framework. Bailey’s remarks signal the central bank’s cautious stance on overseeing AI, with testing requirements positioned as a precondition for regulation rather than a parallel track. He did not specify a timeline or which models would be covered.

TREE NEWS update: The Bank of England’s Financial Policy Committee said the likelihood of simultaneous financial risks has risen since July, citing longer-lasting supply shocks from higher oil and gas prices and vulnerabilities in frontier AI. The FPC plans to set out proposals for bank leverage ratio reform and gilt repo reform in early 2027, with market-based gilt repo reform intended to mitigate risks from leverage ratio changes. Financial markets have so far shown resilience to rising energy prices and bond yields.

TREE NEWS update: China’s National Press and Publication Administration released its September 2026 approval list for domestic online games, clearing 206 titles. The batch is the latest monthly licensing round for the world’s largest gaming market, where publishers must secure a licence before a game can be commercially released. The regulator published the list covering domestic titles only.

TREE NEWS update: China’s Ministry of Commerce extended its trade-barrier investigation into US practices and measures obstructing green product trade until December 27, 2026, citing the case’s complexity. The probe was opened on March 27, 2026 under Announcement No. 18, invoking the Foreign Trade Law and the ministry’s trade-barrier investigation rules.

TREE NEWS update: China’s Ministry of Commerce said it will extend its trade barrier investigation into US measures it says disrupt global industrial and supply chains, pushing the deadline to December 27, 2026. The probe was opened on March 27, 2026 under Article 17 of the ministry’s 2026 announcement, citing the Foreign Trade Law and the Foreign Trade Barrier Investigation Rules. The ministry said the case is complex and invoked Article 32 of the rules to justify the extension.

TREE NEWS update: China’s Cyberspace Administration issued a notice launching a nationwide two-month campaign targeting fake personas in short videos, including people posing as members of vulnerable groups and fabricated professional credentials. The special action, named “Qinglang: Rectifying Fake Persona Chaos in Short Videos,” covers two listed problem categories. No end date or enforcement figures were given.

TREE NEWS update: The Shanghai Futures Exchange said its board has approved a revised management measure for accounts under actual control relationships, with the amendment reported to the China Securities Regulatory Commission and now published. The revised rules take effect on October 20, 2026. The measure governs how the exchange identifies and manages trading accounts linked by actual control.