Autor Cointelegraph By Ezra Reguerra

Stephen “Cap” Newnham, who leads the Solana community group Superteam UK, said he will run as an independent candidate in the Aug. 13 parliamentary by-election in Clacton against Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.On Tuesday, Newnham outlined five campaign pledges, including support for local entrepreneurs, digital and artificial intelligence education, financial literacy in schools and onchain political transparency. He announced his intention to stand as an independent candidate on July 9.Newnham’s fourth pledge, “You should own your pension,” argues that existing structures like self-invested personal pensions and small self-administered schemes allow savers to choose where their assets are held. He also pledged full transparency, with donations and meetings published in plain English and onchain. The campaign has not detailed a role for blockchain technology in managing pension assets or proposed changes to pension law. A blockchain could make published records more difficult to alter, but it would not by itself ensure that every donation or meeting had been disclosed.Cointelegraph contacted Newnham for more information about his proposals but had not received a response by publication.Farage funding scrutiny shapes contestThe candidacy brings an explicit crypto platform into a contest triggered when Farage resigned from Parliament on Wednesday and opted to recontest his Clacton seat amid a parliamentary standards investigation into whether Farage should have declared a 5 million pound ($6.7 million) personal gift from crypto investor Christopher Harborne. Farage has said he was not required to declare the gift because it was received before he entered Parliament. Farage has faced additional scrutiny over reported financial support from crypto entrepreneur George Cottrell and allegations that his financial relationships intersected with his advocacy on digital asset policy. Farage has denied wrongdoing and said he followed parliamentary rules.Related: Bank of England governor denies Farage lobbying swayed CBDC policy: ReportNational poll favors Count BinfaceAt the time of writing, Democracy Club lists 11 prospective candidates, including Newnham, Farage and satirical candidate Count Binface, though the council is not expected to confirm the official field until July 17. On Friday, an Ipsos survey of 1,000 British adults found 33% would prefer Binface to win, compared with 21% for Farage, but the national poll did not measure voting intentions among Clacton residents. Early survey results on the upcoming by-election. Source: IpsosDespite the unconventional field, the result is being closely watched because of Farage’s involvement and the scrutiny surrounding his decision to force a new vote.Magazine: Thai scammer’s $122M wallet, Japan embraces crypto credit: Asia Express

South Korea plans to conduct a 2027 pilot linking tokenized government bonds to its institutional central bank digital currency (CBDC) infrastructure, moving sovereign debt tokenization from a proposal to an official government timeline. On Tuesday, the government unveiled its 2026 Economic Growth Strategy for the Second Half, which includes the plan. In addition to assigning a date for the pilot, the strategy said authorities would study how to make the Bank of Korea’s (BOK) CBDC infrastructure interoperable with other blockchains, enabling a potential connection between external distributed ledgers and the bank’s permissioned system. The project would test whether South Korea’s wholesale CBDC, designed for use by financial institutions, can support capital markets infrastructure, rather than serving only as a digital payment instrument.The document did not identify which bonds would be included, the size of the pilot, the participants, or which blockchain technologies would be used. It also did not provide specifics on whether the project would cover the initial issuance of government debt, secondary-market trading or only post-trade settlement. South Korea expands blockchain and tokenization agendaThe idea was first outlined publicly on July 1 by BOK Governor Hyun Song Shin during a panel at the European Central Bank Forum on Central Banking. Shin described government bonds as the “big prize” for tokenization and proposed bringing tokenized bonds, wholesale central bank money and tokenized commercial bank deposits onto a unified ledger as an extension of the BOK-led Project Hangang. The government strategy said the bond pilot would form part of a broader effort to promote a “blockchain economy.” Authorities plan to introduce measures in the second half of 2026 to support large-scale demonstrations and the development of technologies across the digital asset and blockchain ecosystem. The BOK said that faster, continuous settlement can transmit stress more quickly and introduce smart contract, liquidity and data oracle risks, as discussed in the paper at the ECB forum. It also said Project Hangang’s digital ledger and the central bank’s existing payment system do not yet communicate in real time.Related: South Korea adds token securities to capital market overhaulIn addition to the pilot, the strategy called for broader measures to support the country’s blockchain and digital-asset industry, including legislation covering businesses and stablecoins. The bond pilot is expected to coincide with the rollout of South Korea’s regulated token securities market. Amendments recognizing distributed ledgers as valid securities registries are scheduled to take effect in February 2027. This allows regulated issuance and circulation of tokenized securities, including stocks, bonds and money-market products.Magazine: Thai scammer’s $122M wallet, Japan embraces crypto credit: Asia Express

The United Kingdom could add as much as 33 billion British pounds ($44 billion) to its annual economic output by 2035 by becoming a leader in tokenized financial markets, according to a government-backed industry task force. The estimate appears in the first report from Wholesale Digital Markets Champion Chris Woolard, who was appointed by HM Treasury to help implement the government’s digital markets strategy. Developed with an industry task force, the report sets out a 12-month plan to test blockchain in a financial transaction where securities are used to borrow cash. It also calls for the UK to issue its first tokenized government bond by the first quarter of 2027.The roadmap attempts to move UK tokenization beyond isolated pilots and into live markets where securities can be traded, settled and used as collateral. The report said the task was now to move “from pilots to scale” and “from ambition to action.”Ripple, which is listed among the task force’s industry members, backed the initiative on Monday. “Onchain funds, bonds and repo aren’t experiments,” the company said, adding that such instruments are already proving “cheaper, better and faster than their legacy equivalents.”UK builds on digital gilt and settlement initiativesThe digital government bond, or gilt, itself is not a new proposal. The UK first announced the Digital Gilt Instrument pilot in November 2024. This was followed by a July 2025 update outlining plans for onchain settlement, over-the-counter trading and secondary-market development. On Feb. 12, the government appointed HSBC’s Orion platform to support the pilot.The new report adds a timetable and expands the intended role for the financial instrument. Beyond calling for issuance, the report seeks subsequent digital-gilt offerings, live secondary-market trading and eligibility for use as central bank collateral. The report said tokenized securities have limited value unless they can be traded or used to raise cash, and urged the Bank of England to accept digital gilts as collateral. Related: UK politicians mull permanent crypto donation ban in wake of Nigel Farage scandalThe UK also has a blockchain-based wholesale payment infrastructure that could support such markets. On Sept. 23, 2025, London-based Fnality launched a sterling-denominated payment system tied to central bank reserves, designed to support real-time repo, tokenized securities settlement and cross-currency payments.Magazine: Has Bitcoin bottomed for this cycle? Analysts say ‘not yet’

Japanese convenience-store operator Lawson plans to test yen-denominated stablecoin payments at a Tokyo location in August, examining whether stablecoin payments can work inside a standard convenience store checkout flow.On Monday, blockchain company HashPort said it had signed an agreement with Lawson and telecom group KDDI to conduct the trial at the Lawson Takanawa Gateway City store. Participants will use HashPort’s non-custodial wallet, while the store will process payments through the company’s point-of-sale system without needing to open or manage crypto wallets. The pilot aims to explore how stablecoin payments can be integrated into Japan’s existing retail infrastructure while shielding merchants from much of the operational complexity associated with accepting digital assets.The companies plan to assess integration requirements, checkout operations, payment processing times and wallet usability before considering broader applications.Netstars launches multi-stablecoin merchant serviceSeparately, Japanese payments company Netstars launched Stablecoin Pay on Monday, opening applications from merchants seeking to accept multiple stablecoins as payment options. The service initially supports USDC, USDT and the yen-denominated JPYC through the Solana and Polygon networks, with MetaMask as the supported wallet. Netstars set the merchant payment fee at 0.98% and said it plans to add more wallets and blockchains. With the service, merchants can use existing payment terminals in most cases and handle product pricing, sales records and settlement in yen, even when customers pay with dollar-denominated stablecoins. Netstars said this removes the need to hold crypto or manage exchange rates.The commercial launch follows Netstars trials involving USDC payments at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport from January to February and at a trading-card store in Himeji from April.Related: Japanese lender launches Bitcoin-backed loans of up to $6.2MThe move from limited pilots to a merchant-facing service comes as Japanese companies build more consumer-facing products around the country’s regulated stablecoin market. On June 1, 2023, Japan introduced a dedicated framework for stablecoins when amendments to the Payment Services Act and related laws took effect. The rules created regulatory categories for fiat-linked stablecoins and require businesses acting as intermediaries to register with the Financial Services Agency.The framework was followed by regulatory approval for USDC distribution in March 2025 and by JPYC’s registration as a fund transfer service provider that August, before the stablecoin was launched in October. Magazine: Has Bitcoin bottomed for this cycle? Analysts say ‘not yet’

Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA) chairman Bilal bin Saqib has called for continued dialogue on the treatment of digital assets under Islamic law after meeting prominent scholar Mufti Taqi Usmani, who backed a ruling against purchases made with crypto.In a Saturday post, Saqib said the discussion covered blockchain technology, digital assets, stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), as well as the need to protect Pakistanis from fraud, exploitation and financial harm.Saqib said the different categories of digital assets merit “careful technical assessment alongside rigorous Shariah examination, rather than being viewed through a single lens.”The exchange highlights tension between Pakistan’s push to build a regulated crypto market and religious objections that could shape public acceptance. Religious views could carry significant weight in Pakistan, where about 231.7 million people, or 96.35% of the population, identified as Muslim in the 2023 census. Pakistan’s crypto framework meets religious scrutinyAccording to Pakistani newspaper Dawn, Usmani and five other scholars signed an Islamic legal ruling issued by Jamia Darul Uloom Karachi, a prominent Islamic seminary, on Friday. The ruling reportedly said purchases made with crypto, including stablecoins such as USDT, were not permitted because digital tokens did not qualify as recognized property or wealth under their interpretation of Islamic law.Saqib did not directly challenge the claim. Instead, he called for scholars, regulators and industry participants to continue discussing distinctions among digital-asset categories. “I shared that blockchain, digital assets, stablecoins, and tokenized real-world assets represent a broad spectrum of technologies and use cases,” he said. Related: PUSD stablecoin deploys on ADI Chain, targeting $3T Islamic finance marketThe discussion comes as Pakistan shifts from years of restrictions toward a licensed virtual-asset sector. On April 15, the State Bank of Pakistan allowed banks to open accounts for virtual asset service providers (VASPs) licensed by the PVARA, ending an eight-year restriction on regulated institutions dealing with crypto. The move followed the passage of Pakistan’s Virtual Assets Act 2026 in March, which established PVARA as the statutory body responsible for licensing and oversight of virtual asset activities. Magazine: Bitcoin nearing late stages of bear market: Jamie Coutts, Real Vision