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Hello fintech friends,
With all the global industry news piling up on our desks this week—from intense US-China AI security bans and blocked cross-border M&A to a massive wave of new licensing, localized expansions, and funding initiatives across Europe and Asia—there is plenty of market movement to unpack. Let’s dive straight into this week's heavy hitters.
The Rundown
🚀 Product Launches
Bitget launched CashPlus, a stablecoin yield product, offering an introductory 4% APR on liquid USDT and USDC deposits.
Bybit launched its localized exchange in Indonesia following its acquisition of a majority stake in NOBI's parent company.
Oman-based fintech Mamun expanded into Hong Kong to establish a two-way, Shariah-compliant trade finance corridor between the GCC and the Greater Bay Area.
Statrys introduced local account capabilities in five European markets to help Hong Kong SMEs reduce their cross-border transaction costs.
Airwallex integrated the Octopus payment method to unify and streamline online-to-offline checkouts for merchants in Hong Kong.
Xiaomi partnered with Adyen to consolidate and process its online and physical retail payments across 18 international markets.
Choco Up launched an AI-driven accounts payable financing solution to help SMEs manage delayed cash flows and sustain their procurement cycles.
🏛️ Policy & Regulation
The Hong Kong-listed OSL Group secured regulatory approval in Austria under the EU's MiCAR framework to offer its digital asset services across 30 European countries.
PingPong received in-principle approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) for a Capital Markets Services license to offer foreign exchange derivatives.
Binance withdrew its MiCA application in Greece to avoid a compressed EU transition window, shifting its focus instead toward securing new licenses across Asian markets.
🏦 M&A
Tencent reportedly entered talks with investors to repurchase agentic AI startup Manus for over $2 billion after Chinese regulators ordered Meta to unwind its acquisition.
🗂️ Other News
Investors filed a US securities class-action lawsuit against Futu and its executives for allegedly concealing regulatory risks related to its mainland China operations.
Alibaba blocked Anthropic's Claude Code and urged staff to use internal tools after discovering hidden tracking software designed to monitor proxy access in China.
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Fun Stuff
Do you know despite being two of the most dominant, star-studded powers in international football history, Spain and Argentina have only met once in World Cup history—60 years ago. Back in the 1966 group stage in England, Argentina took a 2-1 victory, meaning Sunday's match isn't just their first-ever World Cup knockout meeting, but a rare clash of titans that has eluded the tournament for six decades. Who are you rooting for this time?
Thanks everyone for reading. Until next time!
Ning
