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Standard Chartered's Stablecoin Move, SEC Retreats & Bitcoin Hits $79K
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
Standard Chartered goes live with a Hong Kong dollar stablecoin as settlement infrastructure — a structural shift, not a pilot. Today's briefing covers the SEC dropping its crypto rulemaking regime, Bitcoin breaking $79K on Treasury stimulus, Pakistan's licensing deadline, and where global fintech capital is consolidating.
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
Standard Chartered just distributed a Hong Kong dollar stablecoin to its clients. Not a pilot.
The regulatory backdrop is moving in the same direction. The SEC has abandoned its comprehensive crypto rulemaking initiative, known internally as Reg Crypto, after sustained pressure from both industry and lawmakers.
Bitcoin broke through seventy-nine thousand dollars this week, hitting seventy-nine thousand, one hundred and forty-eight. The catalyst was the U.S. Treasury doubling its bond buyback program, injecting liquidity into markets and triggering a cascade of short liquidations totaling three billion dollars in just a few days.
Pakistan's Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority has set a September fifth registration deadline for crypto firms operating in the country. Miss it, and face mandatory closure.
In Liberia, the central bank launched an Enhanced Collateral Registry supporting movable and immovable assets, and immediately deployed a six million dollar credit line to three hundred and fifty-eight small businesses. Sixty-four percent of that lending went to women-owned businesses.
Singapore fintech funding dropped to four hundred and ninety-nine million dollars across fifty-three deals in the first half of this year, down from one point four five billion in the same period of twenty twenty-five. The story inside that number: a single three hundred and twenty million dollar cross-border payments round accounted for sixty-six percent of total activity.
The through-line in today's briefing is a market moving from speculation toward settlement. Stablecoins in bank infrastructure.
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