Taiwan's largest virtual currency dealer, Bixiang Technology, and its ringleader, Shi Qiren, were convicted on 485 counts of aggravated fraud and money laundering, with Shi sentenced to 22 years in prison. The court found that the firm colluded with fraud syndicates to launder 2.3 billion New Taiwan dollars ($71 million) through 45 branches selling USDT, defrauding over 1,500 victims. Shi, who has ties to the Tiandao gang, also forfeited 43.73 million TWD in criminal proceeds. The company had failed to complete anti-money laundering registration.
Crypto Market Slides
Bitcoin fell below $63,000 on OKX, trading at $62,985.70 with a daily decline of 2.66%. The broader crypto market saw widespread losses, with the DeFi sector dropping over 5%. Hyperliquid's HYPE tumbled 10.28%, while Ethereum slipped below $1,900. The sell-off mirrored weakness in Asian equities, where China's A-share market plunged, with the Shanghai Composite falling 3.05% and tech-heavy indexes sinking over 7%, leading to nearly 200 stocks hitting limit down amid turnover of 2.65 trillion yuan.
Regulatory Developments
South Korea's Financial Services Commission unveiled a draft amendment to include cryptocurrency assets transferred from telecom fraud into victim compensation. Under the new rules effective October 1, if frozen assets are crypto, victims will receive the same type and amount; if different, assets will be paid in the frozen form with valuation at market price. Meanwhile, Russia's State Duma Financial Markets Committee recommended rejecting amendments to relax cryptocurrency restrictions, keeping the annual purchase limit for non-qualified investors at 30,000 rubles (approximately $340) through a single intermediary. The committee also vetoed expanding tradable cryptocurrencies beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum, non-custodial wallet use, and removing mandatory consent from digital depositaries. The final bill retains authorities' power to inspect and freeze transactions, with passage delayed to September 1.
Tokenization and AI
Ondo Finance forged a strategic partnership with Japanese financial giant SBI Group to bring Japanese equities on-chain, distribute Ondo's tokenized products within SBI's ecosystem, and utilize JPYSC stablecoin for settlement and collateral. In AI news, Beijing-based Moonshot AI unveiled Kimi K3, a 2.8 trillion parameter open-source model, the largest globally, natively supporting visual understanding and a 1 million token context window. China's National Development and Reform Commission also issued an AI cooperation development action plan, promoting cross-border data flows and fostering an international AI open-source community.