The People's Court of Huiji District, Zhengzhou City, Henan Province recently concluded a case of "group" buying and selling of virtual currency fraud. The defendants were connected with online telecom fraudsters through banned network software, and cashed in on the tele-fraud proceeds transferred by the online fraudsters. After cashing in, they purchased virtual currency for hedging at illegal currency merchants, and then returned the virtual currency to the online telecom fraudsters, completing the capital laundering of the victims of telecom fraud and obtaining an illegal profit share of 8% of the cashed amount. As of the time of the case, they had helped the online telecom fraudsters transfer more than 1.3 million yuan of stolen money. It is reported that the relevant defendants were sentenced to three years and ten months in prison and fined 40,000 yuan.

South Korean Ministry of Personnel Management announced on the 2nd that it will require approximately 290,000 public officials to submit regular reports on their financial changes through the civil service ethical system by February 29, 2024. The declared assets include real estate, securities, bonds, liabilities, jewelry, antiques, art, membership rights, and intellectual property. Starting this year, virtual assets and virtual asset deposits have been added. Those who are obligated to register their assets must report all virtual assets and deposits they hold, regardless of the amount or quantity. The changes in the assets of the object of the asset disclosure will be integrated and disclosed through the public service ethical system at the end of March.

Today's A17 edition of the Ta Kung Pao pointed out that the Hong Kong SAR government strongly supports the development of virtual assets, green finance and other directions, while providing strong support for family offices. Since last year, the SAR government has gradually relaxed its investment policy on cryptocurrencies, and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange has become the first exchange in Asia to provide cryptocurrency ETF products, with a current scale of 30 billion yuan. At the same time, the SAR government has led the establishment of the Web 3.0 Association and issued virtual asset management licenses to promote the normalization of this business and build the Web 3.0 ecosystem. Currently, some financial institutions have obtained virtual asset management licenses. The Hong Kong financial license is subdivided into 12 categories, and the improvement of financial licenses will promote the development of the financial market. The issuance of virtual asset licenses may lead to the launch of derivative No. 11 licenses in Hong Kong by 2025.

On December 29th, in order to further enhance the foreign exchange exhibition capabilities of banks, promote cross-border trade and investment facilitation, and prevent cross-border capital flow risks, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange formulated the "Bank Foreign Exchange Exhibition Management Measures (Trial)" in accordance with the "Foreign Exchange Administration Regulations of the People's Republic of China" and related laws and regulations, which will be implemented from January 1, 2024.

Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission issued a notice stating that public fund products with virtual assets accounting for more than 10% must meet corresponding conditions for their management companies, related investment strategies, and product custody institutions. According to current regulations, generally speaking, institutions holding the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission's License No. 9 are not allowed to have virtual assets accounting for more than 10% in their fund portfolios. The latest notice clarifies that if the proportion of virtual assets exceeds (or is expected to exceed) 10%, the management institution must apply to the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission for approval before the related products can be sold to Hong Kong investors.

The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission pointed out in the "Circular on the Recognition of Virtual Asset Investment Funds by the Securities and Futures Commission" that the trustee/custodian of virtual asset funds and any representative responsible for holding virtual assets recognized by the Securities and Futures Commission should ensure that the holding of virtual assets is separated from their own assets and assets held for other clients, and most of the virtual asset holdings should be stored in cold wallets. The amount and term of virtual asset holdings stored in hot wallets should be minimized unless necessary for subscription and redemption, and the mnemonic words and private keys should be stored securely in Hong Kong, with strict restrictions on authorized personnel, sufficient resistance to speculation (such as through non-deterministic generation) or collusion (through measures such as multi-signature and key splitting), and appropriate backup to reduce any single point of failure.

New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) has released new standards for the listing and delisting of virtual currencies (coins). These new regulations apply to Bitlicenses and limited purpose trust companies, including considerations for the business model of virtual currency entities (VCE), the latest risk assessment expectations for VCE, new advance notification requirements, and updated definitions.According to the latest guidelines, VCEs that have obtained prior approval for coin listing policies must obtain NYDFS approval for their coin listing and coin delisting policies before self-certifying any coins. Once NYDFS approves these two policies, VCEs can self-certify coins for activity in New York. However, without NYDFS-approved listing policies, VCEs are almost always restricted to listing coins on the NYDFS green list, unless there is specific NYDFS approval. In addition, NYDFS reserves the right of discretion to require VCEs to delist coins or restrict the use of non-green list coins by New Yorkers.

Abu Dhabi Global Market's Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) announced revisions to its anti-money laundering and sanctions rules and guidelines, clarifying requirements previously included in the anti-money laundering rules, particularly making some minor drafting amendments to the wire transfer provisions to more clearly state that the Financial Action Task Force's (FATF) travel rule applies to virtual assets.

Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission's (SFC) Process Review Committee released its annual report, pointing out that the SFC took about 2.5 years to process a virtual asset trading platform license application. In order to promote the licensing process and facilitate the development of Hong Kong's financial technology, while maintaining investor protection, the SFC recommends simplifying the licensing process and strengthening market awareness of the new licensing system for virtual asset trading platforms, as well as enhancing industry education on the licensing system.

The Central Bank of Brazil is preparing to release final rules for virtual asset service providers (VASPs) operating in the country. Based on feedback received after the approval and recognition of the Cryptocurrency Asset Law in December 2023, the institution has begun publicly soliciting opinions from market participants and individuals to develop rules that VASPs must comply with. The bank has launched a survey consisting of 38 questions that respondents can choose to answer in full or in part, and indicate the numbers and themes they would like to see addressed in their statements.