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China’s central bank has reaffirmed its prohibition on cryptocurrency use and announced a renewed enforcement drive targeting stablecoins and underground trading networks. At a high-level interagency meeting convened in Beijing by the People’s Bank of China, officials declared that all virtual currencies remain outside the legal tender framework and insisted that any related business activity constitutes illicit financial conduct.

The PBOC underscored heightened concerns over what it described as a resurgence in speculative trading and misuse of stablecoins. According to the statement delivered at the meeting, stablecoins fail to meet mandatory requirements for identity verification and anti-money-laundering safeguards — deficiencies that increase their vulnerability to use in fraud, money laundering and unauthorised cross-border transfers.

China outlawed trading and mining of cryptocurrencies in 2021, with regulators barring financial institutions and intermediaries from facilitating such activity. The current announcement makes explicit that the ban also extends to stablecoins — digital assets whose value is typically pegged to fiat currencies or other claims — signalling a shift from broad prohibition to more specific targeting.

Officials from thirteen government agencies, including judicial and cyberspace regulatory bodies, participated in the enforcement meeting, indicating that anti-crypto efforts are being treated as a coordinated, cross-sector priority. The agencies pledged to intensify monitoring, crack down on underground trading platforms, clamp down on illicit payment flows and coordinate information sharing across law enforcement and regulatory bodies.

The renewed clampdown comes even as some on-the-ground activity suggests partial revival of mining in certain energy-rich provinces, driven by low electricity costs and data-centre growth. Reports indicate that a segment of cryptocurrency miners have quietly restarted operations despite the 2021 ban, suggesting enforcement may be uneven across China’s vast terrain.

Regulators framed the move as necessary to safeguard financial and economic stability, citing recent upticks in speculation, fraud and illegal cross-border capital flows linked to virtual currencies. The articulation of fresh enforcement measures and explicit inclusion of stablecoins reflects a shift in China’s regulatory approach — from discouragement to active suppression.

Given the global ripple effects of China’s policy, observers expect tightening enforcement to influence not only domestic underground markets but also international crypto platforms, stablecoin issuers and cross-border payment flows that might involve Chinese users or capital.

Travel demand across the Gulf is undergoing a distinctive shift as Saud Arabia and Bahrain emerge as the region’s fastest-growing outbound markets. Airport usage data compiled by Dragonpass shows that Saudi travel volumes increased by 36 per cent this summer, with June marking its busiest month ever. Meanwhile Bahrain posted a 208 per cent year-on-year rise, the sharpest growth among Gulf Cooperation Council nations and a clear signal of expanding mobility across the region.

The surge in air travel across these Gulf states reflects a combination of expanded airport capacity, evolving travel behaviour and government efforts to reposition their countries as regional travel hubs. Saudi Arabia’s growth aligns with its strategic development blueprint under Saudi Vision 2030, which aims to promote tourism and business travel alongside infrastructure investment. Bahrain’s dramatic increase illustrates its emergence as a regional connector, reinforcing its role in the Gulf’s evolving aviation and tourism ecosystem.

The upturn is not limited to those two. Other Gulf states including Qatar and Oman also recorded notable increases—travel volumes in Qatar rose by 198.9 per cent year-on-year, while Oman saw an 89.2 per cent boost as its airport infrastructure and heritage-led tourism gained traction. At the same time the region’s historical hub United Arab Emirates witnessed a 21 per cent decline over the summer, a reversal that observers attribute to shifting travel patterns and growing competition from its neighbours.

Beyond sheer volume, travel habits are evolving. A rising number of travellers across the Gulf are opting for premium airport services such as lounge access, signalling growing demand for comfort and convenience. Bahrain now leads globally on lounge-use, with 1.35 per cent of passengers utilising premium facilities — a rate ahead of major global aviation hubs. Saudi Arabia placed second in the region at 0.86 per cent.

Analysts suggest that this shift is driven by a combination of rising disposable incomes, increased business travel, and a changing perception of intra-Gulf mobility from a necessity to a lifestyle and leisure choice. Expansion of airport capacity, new routes and better services have made air travel more accessible and attractive than before. In Saudi Arabia, expanding infrastructure investment under Vision 2030 has increased flight connectivity and lifted capacity constraints. In Bahrain, efforts to position the nation as a regional aviation hub seem to be bearing fruit as the kingdom leverages its strategic geographic location and growing investment in tourism.

The broader context signals a reconfiguration of Gulf air travel dynamics. As smaller Gulf states and Saudi Arabia ramp up capacity and services, they are drawing passengers who might previously have transited through traditional hubs such as the UAE. This pattern points to intensifying intra-Gulf competition in aviation and travel services, accompanied by a shift in consumer preferences toward convenience, comfort and variety.

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Bahrain-based alternative investment firm Investcorp has agreed to sell its majority stake in the European fintech firm Shine to cloud-software group Cegid, marking the end of an eight-year partnership. The deal will be executed via Investcorp Technology Partners and comes nearly a decade after Investcorp first backed the Danish fintech, then known as Ageras. Financial terms remain undisclosed, and the sale awaits customary regulatory clearances.

Shine, headquartered in Copenhagen, operates across multiple European markets including France, the DACH region, the Netherlands and Denmark. The platform provides a broad suite of services for small and medium-sized businesses — covering business formation, digital banking, invoicing, accounting, and payroll. Under Investcorp’s stewardship, it expanded its reach and grew recurring revenues more than ten-fold, while completing nine acquisitions in its core regions.

Cegid — majority-owned by private equity firm Silver Lake — aims to integrate Shine into its Small Business division, positioning the combined entity as a pan-European “financial copilot” for SMEs and accountants. The merged platform is being designed to offer a unified, cloud-native, AI-driven ecosystem combining e-invoicing, accounting, business banking, payments, payroll, HR and tax compliance. The target user base across Europe is estimated at over one million SMBs and 15,000 accounting professionals.

Reflecting on the sale, Investcorp’s Head of Technology Partners and Chairman of Shine, Gilbert Kamieniecky, said the firm is proud of having supported Shine’s evolution “from a start-up with only a few million in revenue into a European leader and unicorn.” Shine’s co-founders, Rico Andersen and Martin Hegelund, expressed optimism about the next phase under Cegid, emphasising their ambition to deliver more advanced, scalable financial infrastructure to businesses across Europe.

For Cegid, adding Shine strengthens its footprint across key European markets and significantly boosts its SMB customer base, offering opportunities to deploy embedded finance solutions and streamline compliance workflows ahead of evolving e-invoicing and digital reporting mandates across the continent. The integration of Shine’s scalable technology stack with Cegid’s existing cloud and AI infrastructure underscores a strategic bet on digital transformation in SME finance and accounting.

Organisers DMCC and Bybit have selected five winning projects from their global Web3 Unleashed #3 hackathon, granting a total prize pool of US$140,000 to the top teams. The live finale took place at S/O Uptown Dubai where finalists pitched across six tracks — DeFi, Web3 Gaming, SocialFi, Infrastructure, Tokenisation, as well as two new areas, DeFAI and DeSci.

More than 90 teams applied from around the world and ten were chosen to present before a panel of industry experts and investors. Judges assessed the entries on technical execution, innovation, business potential and real-world impact. The five winners were Yumi Finance, Glint Analytics, Sorachain AI, Aurayale and Spout Finance.

Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Executive Chairman and CEO of DMCC, said the Web3 Unleashed programme has evolved from a regional initiative into a global benchmark for Web3 innovation, and adding new tracks this year reflects organisers’ commitment to technological evolution and decentralised transformation.

Helen Liu, Co-CEO of Bybit, noted the growing technical depth and global calibre of hackers joining the competition. She underscored that despite volatility in crypto markets — with major tokens facing pullbacks — the exchange remains committed to backing builders working on utility-driven Web3 solutions.

Support for the hackathon came from partners including DWF Labs, Hacken, CV Labs, Blockchain for Good Alliance, Verse8, CROSS and Cointelegraph, which contributed mentorship, technical guidance and exposure to participating teams.

The hackathon’s broadened scope this year, especially with DeFAI and DeSci categories, highlights widening interest in merging blockchain with artificial intelligence and decentralised scientific research — areas gaining traction among developers worldwide. The winners’ projects are expected to benefit from access to mentors, potential backing from investors and integration into DMCC’s expanding Web3 ecosystem.

Stakeholders consider the outcome indicative of a maturing Web3 landscape in Dubai and beyond, where decentralised technologies are increasingly judged on real-world utility, technical robustness, and cross-sector applicability.

Stellar’s native token XLM jumped above $0.25 as U. S. Bank embarked on a pilot to issue a bank-grade stablecoin on the public Stellar blockchain. That move marks a notable shift for legacy finance, signalling growing institutional comfort with blockchain rails offering compliance, speed and programmability.

U. S. Bank, the fifth-largest commercial bank in the United States, is working in partnership with advisory firm PwC and the Stellar Development Foundation to test issuance of a custom stablecoin using the Stellar network. The pilot aims to evaluate whether a traditional bank can leverage a public blockchain for regulated payments by utilising Stellar’s ability to freeze assets and reverse transactions — features deemed essential for regulatory compliance and customer protection. According to a bank executive, those built-in safeguards helped make the network an attractive choice for a stablecoin pilot.

This institutional endorsement of Stellar coincides with the network’s ongoing development push. A major upgrade code-named Protocol X-Ray is slated for rollout in early 2026. The upgrade will support zero-knowledge applications, giving institutions optional privacy tools for confidential transfers while retaining blockchain auditability — a balance likely to appeal to regulated financial players concerned with compliance and confidentiality.

On-chain metrics suggest the network’s fundamentals are strengthening. Total value locked on Stellar’s smart-contract layer has climbed substantially this year, while transaction volume of stablecoins on the chain — including $AUDD, a prominent fiat-pegged token — has surpassed the $1 billion mark. Observers point out that this surge reflects genuine usage by businesses and institutions rather than speculative activity.

The market has reacted positively. XLM recorded a 2.6 percent uptick, rising from around $0.244 to $0.2505 over 24 hours, with trading volume surging about 45 percent above the daily average. That breakout cleared a key technical resistance near $0.246 and pushed the token past the psychologically significant $0.25 level, renewing optimism among investors who follow price action closely.

While the stablecoin pilot at U. S. Bank remains at an exploratory stage, the partnership underscores a broader shift in the financial sector toward embracing tokenised assets under regulatory guardrails. If the trial succeeds, other banks may follow, potentially driving further demand for blockchain platforms that combine compliance, efficiency and transparency.

Moscow has moved to ease restrictions on investments tied to digital assets by announcing that major fund managers will be permitted to purchase derivatives linked to cryptocurrencies from early next year. Under this policy shift, the Bank of Russia plans to amend regulations in the first quarter of the upcoming year to allow capital-management firms, previously barred, to engage in futures and options referencing digital currencies.

The initiative marks a departure from earlier policy built around tightly defined access for “specially qualified” investors under a three-year pilot programme unveiled in March, which required individuals to hold over 100 million rubles in securities or earn above 50 million rubles annually. Deputy Finance Minister Ivan Chebeskov confirmed the government is also considering scrapping the “superqual” status entirely, a label proposed for crypto-investors under previous drafts.

The timing aligns with a broader regulatory realignment in which Moscow is both cautioning on crypto risks and expanding permissible use-cases. Earlier this year the central bank issued guidance emphasising that direct cryptocurrency holdings carry significant risk even as it proposed a stepped investment regime for qualified entities. Meanwhile legislators had sanctioned the use of crypto-assets for certain cross-border payments and legalised mining operations in July of last year.

Significant players in the Russian financial sector are already positioning themselves for the shift. Sberbank, the country’s largest lender by assets, reported it had raised 1.3 billion rubles through crypto derivative offerings in recent months and signalled plans to expand the business line further.

Market watchers interpret the regulatory loosening as part of a dual strategy: fostering new sources of capital amid constraints from sanctions, while maintaining supervisory controls on the evolving digital-asset ecosystem. “Allowing derivatives tied to cryptocurrencies is a big step—Russian funds were previously excluded,” said one analyst at a Moscow-based brokerage. At the same time, the analyst warned that “the oversight framework remains immature and the risks of liquidity, valuation and sanctions remain.”

Critics caution that letting traditional investment firms access crypto-linked instruments could raise systemic vulnerabilities. The European Union has recently targeted stablecoin-linked Russian entities under sanctions, and anti-money-laundering regulators flagged the region as high-risk, particularly in flows tied to offshore crypto trading.

Regulators in Moscow underline that the institutional gateway is intended to provide a controlled environment. The Bank of Russia’s earlier proposal for an experimental legal regime limited participation to investors meeting strict asset or income thresholds and required intermediaries to ensure transparency of transactions. It did not allow cryptocurrencies to be used as payment for goods and services.

As the investment window broadens, industry participants expect asset management firms to bring structured products to market, linking outcomes to benchmark crypto indices rather than direct holdings of tokens. “Derivatives give firms a means to hedge and gain exposure without custody of coins,” noted a fund-manager in Moscow. However, he added that regulatory clarity on taxation, disclosure, and cross-border transfers is still lacking.

The government’s removal of the “superqual” status could widen the investor base further, allowing mid-sized firms and high-net-worth individuals access to asset classes previously off-limits. This move may increase competition, as offshore platforms draw new Russian clients frustrated by domestic restrictions.

At the same time, the expanded framework raises questions about how Russia’s risk-management infrastructure will evolve. The central bank has repeatedly warned that cryptocurrencies remain speculative and not backed by the state; ongoing amendments to legislation will need to address issues of market integrity, investor protection and sanctions compliance.