Autor Cointelegraph by Zoltan Vardai

Tokyo-based SBI Holdings has opened talks to acquire shares in cryptocurrency exchange Bitbank and make it a consolidated subsidiary, extending its push to consolidate regulated crypto trading platforms in Japan as the country moves toward securities-style rules for digital assets.The financial conglomerate said Friday it is considering a share acquisition as part of a potential capital and business alliance with Bitbank. The deal remains subject to due diligence, negotiations and internal approvals, SBI said.The talks come a month after SBI VC Trade absorbed Bitpoint Japan on April 1, with SBI VC Trade becoming the surviving company. A Bitbank acquisition would give SBI a larger position in Japan’s crypto exchange market at a time when policymakers are preparing to bring crypto assets under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act.SBI said the potential deal would help the group establish an “overwhelming position in the domestic cryptocurrency industry,” citing Japan’s planned regulatory shift for crypto assets.Japan’s Cabinet approved a bill on April 10 to amend the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act and the Payment Services Act, according to the Financial Services Agency. The bill is intended to strengthen market fairness, transparency and investor protection while revising rules for crypto assets.Crypto assets are currently regulated by the FSA under the Payment Services Act as a means of payment. The proposed changes would move crypto closer to Japan’s traditional financial market framework, with stronger disclosure, exchange oversight and rules targeting unfair trading.Cointelegraph asked SBI Holdings for comment on the proposed Bitbank acquisition and how Japan’s shifting crypto rules are affecting the group’s exchange strategy, but had not received a response by publication.Bitbank company profile. Source: SBI GroupBitbank is one of Japan’s major crypto exchanges. It ranks as Japan’s leading cryptocurrency exchange by Coingecko’s trust score, which measures the legitimacy of crypto exchanges based on liquidity, trading activity, cybersecurity and operational scale.It ranks third among cryptocurrency exchanges by daily trading volume, behind bitFlyer and Coincheck.Top Japanese crypto exchanges by trust score. Source: CoingeckoThe proposed deal would add to SBI’s broader digital asset footprint. SBI made a $50 million investment in Circle’s IPO in June 2025. In previous years, SBI also made strategic investments in other crypto-native companies, including BITPoint Japan, Sygnum Bank and crypto exchange TaoTao, which later merged into SBI VC Trade. Japan brings crypto under TradFi umbrella, targets ETFs by 2028Japan’s regulatory shift comes as institutional interest in digital assets continues to grow and policymakers reassess how crypto should fit within the country’s financial markets.Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama first signaled the intent to bring crypto under the same umbrella as traditional finance assets in January, to ensure that citizens will “benefit from digital and blockchain-based assets.”Related: South Korea’s Shinhan Card taps Solana to test real-world stablecoin paymentsThe country is also planning to legalize the launch of cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs) by 2028, according to a January report. Large financial conglomerates like SBI Holdings and Nomura are among the first companies expected to develop crypto-linked ETFs. Magazine: Singapore isn’t a ‘crypto hub’ — it’s something better: StraitsX CEO Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

Stablecoin payments company Kast Kast has hired former US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) communications official Stephanie Allen as head of corporate and policy communications, as the company builds out its licensing and policy operation following an $80 million funding round last month.Kast said Thursday that Allen will work with senior leadership on policy and communications as the company prepares to launch Kast Business and expand further across North America, Latin America and the Middle East. The company said the hire is tied to its next phase of growth and regulatory engagement.Allen previously served as acting director of the SEC’s Office of Public Affairs and earlier held senior media relations and speechwriting roles at the agency. Kast said she also advised the SEC’s Crypto Task Force, though that role does not appear in the SEC’s public biography of Allen.The hire reflects how stablecoin companies are adding policy and communications talent as they move closer to regulated financial services and try to expand across multiple jurisdictions. For Kast, the appointment comes as it pushes deeper into business accounts, cross-border payments and compliance-heavy growth markets.“We’re excited to welcome Stephanie to the Kast team,” said KAST’s chief corporate affairs officer, Brad Jaffe. “Her knowledge of the policy and regulatory landscape stemming from her leadership position at the SEC and deep U.S. public and private sector experience will help drive KAST’s momentum.”The hire comes over a month after Kast raised $80 million to fund the expansion of its payment infrastructure platform, reaching a $600 million valuation.KAST stablecoin payment firm, homepage. Source: Kast.xyzKast offers payment cards and US dollar-denominated accounts to users in over 150 countries, with plans to launch savings and remittance products under its neobank interface. Related: Fireblocks launches tool for institutions to earn yield on stablecoinsStablecoin momentum coolsStablecoin transfer volume dropped 19% to $8.31 trillion over the past month, while stablecoin market capitalization rose 2.06% to $305.29 billion over the same period, Cointelegraph reported Tuesday, citing data from RWA.xyz.The data suggests that the growing value held in dollar-denominated stablecoins does not translate to growing onchain activity, as fewer dollars are being moved across blockchains despite the growing stablecoin supply.30-day stablecoin net flows as of April 28, 2026. Source: RWA.xyzStill, asset manager Fidelity’s Q2 Signals Report showed that Ethereum’s stablecoin transfer values had recently exceeded historical averages, with transfer value over the past 12 months surpassing $18 trillion. Fidelity said that the network activity signals that stablecoins are increasingly being used for payments, settlement and onchain access to US dollars, despite the broader crypto market sentiment.Stablecoin transfer volume reached a record $1.8 trillion in February, according to data provider Allium. Magazine: Will the CLARITY Act be good — or bad — for DeFi?Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

Cryptocurrency exchange OKX has launched an open payments protocol for artificial intelligence agents, joining a growing push by crypto and payments companies to build infrastructure that lets software agents pay for services and transact with less human input.The new cross-chain Agent Payments Protocol (APP) is designed to let AI agents operate and communicate autonomously. OKX said Wednesday that the cross-chain standard can handle agent-to-agent payments, recurring or top-up payment flows and other automated payment arrangements across business processes. The company also said agents will be able to negotiate with each other, escrow funds and release them on verified task delivery.OKX said the framework is built around its self-custodial Agentic Wallet and Payment SDK, with support on X Layer and broader cross-chain implementation. The company is pitching the protocol as a way for AI agents to move from simple payment requests to more autonomous commercial activity.The launch comes as competition intensifies to build payment rails for AI agents. Google has promoted its AP2 protocol, Coinbase has its x402 standard, and Visa and Stripe-linked efforts have also moved into the space, with companies apparently trying to quickly define the rails for machine-to-machine commerce.APP compared to the existing payment protocols. Source: OKXOKX targets end-to-end AI agent commerceOKX is pitching APP as a broader commerce layer rather than a simple payment button.The company said AI agents can query real-time market data feeds, while the service responds with an HTTP 402 payment request, and agents pay per call with automatic settlement.Related: Stablecoin issuers and fintechs race to own payment rails Agents can then hire a specialized sub-agent to complete the research task, APP opens an escrow account, and payment is released upon verification after the work is delivered.OKX AI agent framework. Source: OKXDevelopers can also use OKX’s payment tools on X Layer, where the company says some stablecoin transfers can be executed without gas fees.The growing race to enable machine payments could also support stablecoin usage, as they can help unlock machine-to-machine payments by making microtransactions viable and enabling programmable, conditional payments between software agents without a human in the loop, Bernstein said in March.Magazine: Crypto wanted to overthrow banks, now it’s becoming them in stablecoin fight Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

One of South Korea’s largest credit card providers, Shinhan Card, signed a memorandum of understanding with the Solana Foundation to test stablecoin payment technology and explore the use of non-custodial wallets through a more advanced follow-on proof of concept (PoC). Following a joint pilot project completed at the beginning of April, the new partnership will conduct a more “advanced” PoC to explore the commercial feasibility of stablecoin payments for merchants and customers seeking an improved payment experience, Shinhan Card announced on Thursday.The partnership will also explore developing a “hybrid financial model” that combines traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi) infrastructure.The move signals that South Korea’s second-largest credit card provider is exploring the implementation of blockchain technology to improve retail merchant payment interactions. Shinhan Card is South Korea’s second-largest credit card issuer with a 16.9% market share, which was overtaken by Samsung Card’s 17.02% market share for the top spot in March, KED Global reported.Related: European investors may switch banks for better crypto access, survey findsShinhan Card to develop smart contract-based DeFi servicesShinhan Card said that the partnership’s ultimate goal is to explore DeFi-linked services of its own, which implement blockchain oracles, a technology used to connect information in offchain and onchain environments.The credit card giant said it will also explore the “execution stability” of smart contracts, which are self-executing, digital agreements with terms written in code, used to disintermediate transactions.On April 9, Shinhan Card said it completed a successful PoC with the Solana Foundation on six key areas, including blockchain-based peer-to-peer payments, digital asset integrated payment infrastructure, stablecoin-based check and credit hybrid products, stablecoin-based cross-border remittances and settlement, stablecoin payments and IC chip-based card payment services for crypto wallets.Shinhan said the earlier PoC could serve as a blueprint for bridging the existing fiat-based payment systems with the digital asset ecosystem to discover new business models that can “increase customer convenience in the payment and settlement areas” and strengthen its competitiveness in “next-generation financial markets.” Other large stablecoin issuers exploring stablecoins for improved payments and settlement include Visa, Mastercard and BC Card.Visa is among the more advanced examples, having launched USD Coin (USDC) settlement services for some US-based financial institutions on the Solana blockchain in December 2025.Magazine: Singapore isn’t a ‘crypto hub’ — it’s something better: StraitsX CEOCointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

Security researchers have linked a new macOS malware campaign to the Lazarus Group, the North Korea-linked hacking operation behind some of the crypto industry’s biggest thefts.Flagged on Tuesday, the new “Mach-O Man” malware kit is distributed via “ClickFix” social engineering schemes across traditional businesses and crypto companies, according to Mauro Eldritch, offensive security expert and founder of threat intelligence company BCA Ltd.Victims are lured into a fake Zoom or Google Meet call where they are prompted to execute commands that download the malware in the background, allowing attackers to bypass traditional controls without detection to gain access to credentials and corporate systems, the security researcher said in a Tuesday report.Researchers said the campaign can lead to account takeovers, unauthorized infrastructure access, financial losses and the exposure of critical data, underscoring how Lazarus continues to expand its targeting beyond crypto-native companies.The Lazarus Group is the main suspect in some of the largest-ever cryptocurrency hacks, including the $1.4 billion hack of Bybit exchange in 2025, the industry’s largest so far. Fake Mach-O Man Kit apps. Source: ANY.RUN“Mach-o Man” kit seeks to implement hidden stealer malwareThe final stage of the campaign is a stealer designed to extract browser extension data, stored browser credentials, cookies, macOS Keychain entries and other sensitive information from infected devices.Final staging director for Stealer malware. Source: Any.runAfter collection, the data is archived into a zip file and exfiltrated through Telegram to the attackers. Finally, the malware’s self-deletion script removes the entire kit using the system’s rm command, which bypasses user confirmation and permissions when removing files.The novel malware kit was reconstructed by the security expert through cloud-based malware sandbox Any.run’s macOS analysis capabilities.Related: CZ sounds alarm as ‘SEAL’ team uncovers 60 fake IT workers linked to North KoreaEarlier in April, North Korean hackers used AI-enabled social engineering schemes to steal about $100,000 worth of funds from crypto wallet Zerion, after gaining access to some team members’ logged-in sessions, credentials and the company’s private keys, Cointelegraph reported on April 15. [embedded content]Magazine: 53 DeFi projects infiltrated, 50M NEO tokens could be ‘given back’: Asia ExpressCointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently. Read our Editorial Policy https://cointelegraph.com/editorial-policy