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From left to right: Annie Lin (Geoswift); VelaFi team; Gabriel at PhotonPay booth.
Hello fintech friends,
This week, I spent most of my time on the floor at StableCon connecting with builders across the space. The strong turnout from Chinese fintech leaders was a major highlight.
Catching up with peers like VelaFi's CEO and Cofounder Maggie, Geoswift's VP of Strategic Planning and Partnerships Annie, and PhotonPay's Global Head of FI Gabriel made it clear just how rapidly the industry is maturing, and that maturity is driving far deeper, more substantive discussions about the ecosystem's trajectory. A recurring takeaway was the event's focus on APAC solutions and how non-USD stablecoin could faciliate cross-border payments particularly in that region. Gabriel highlighted just how central this theme was throughout the week's discussions, while Annie noted that leveraging Geoswift’s strong regional advantage to ride this momentum is top of mind for her team.
At the same time, Maggie also observed that the current landscape remains heavily skewed toward payments infrastructure, she voiced optimism for more product diversity moving forward, specifically around yield, lending, and broader financial services.
On that note, let’s jump straight into this week’s big moves, key headline news from Greater China region.
- Ning
The Rundown
🚀 Product Launches
Binance launched physically settled options trading on over 1,000 selected US stocks and ETFs for eligible non-US users.
In partnership with Mastercard, Citi Hong Kong introduced a virtual credit card featuring dynamic, single-use validation codes to combat online card-not-present fraud.
Ping An Digital Bank rolled out a collateral-free purchase order financing product to support the liquidity needs of cross-border e-commerce merchants.
Digital asset platform OSL Group partnered with payments platform Waka to bring institutional stablecoin-to-fiat settlement infrastructure to African trade corridors.
HK-based fintech company Reap launched a virtual asset ledger that allowed clients to fund card spending directly from existing cryptocurrency balances without prior conversion.
🏛️ Policy & Regulation
Financial infrastructure firm Unlimit obtained a money service operator license in Hong Kong to expand its payment channels across the Asia-Pacific region.
🗂️ Other News
StableCon EMEA is heading to Lisbon!
Chinese AI startup Moonshot AI reportedly explored dual public listings in Hong Kong and Shanghai to bolster its fundraising capabilities.
ByteDance secured a massive loan of nearly $30 billion to heavily fund its AI development.
Southeast Asian digital banking and e-commerce platform Akulaku confidentially filed for a Hong Kong IPO aiming to raise up to $500 million.
See you next week!
