The British government said on Aug. 27 that it plans to give the Bank of England a new statutory objective supporting innovation in payment systems, stablecoins and other forms of digital money.

The secondary objective would remain subordinate to the Bank’s primary responsibility for protecting financial stability. HM Treasury plans to implement the change through amendments to the Financial Services and Markets Bill.

Bank of England stablecoin objective remains secondary

The proposed mandate would extend an existing innovation objective covering central counterparties and central securities depositories to the Bank’s regulation of systemic payment systems. That remit includes systems using digital settlement assets such as stablecoins.

The government said the Bank would not have to support an innovation when doing so could undermine financial stability. The change therefore adds a formal duty to consider innovation without weakening the central bank’s existing risk controls.

City Minister Lucy Rigby said tokenization and distributed ledger technology “have the potential to transform financial markets.” She said the objective would help the Bank support digital finance while maintaining its financial stability mandate.

Bank of England Deputy Governor Sarah Breeden welcomed the proposal. She said it would support innovation “without compromising on financial stability,” according to the government’s announcement.

The Bank would report annually to Parliament on its work under the objective. This requirement would give lawmakers a recurring opportunity to examine whether payments regulation is adapting to new technology.

Systemic stablecoin rules have already become less restrictive

The proposal follows the Bank of England’s June policy statement covering sterling-denominated systemic stablecoins. The framework applies to stablecoins that HM Treasury formally recognizes as systemically important.

The Bank removed planned temporary limits of £20,000 for individuals and £10 million for most businesses. It replaced those restrictions with an initial £40 billion issuance limit for each systemic stablecoin.

As previously reported, the Bank of England dropped individual stablecoin limits and introduced a £40 billion issuance guardrail. The change followed industry warnings that individual limits would restrict payment use.

Under the revised policy, issuers can hold as much as 70% of their backing reserves in short-term British government debt. The remaining 30% would generally be held as non-interest-bearing deposits at the central bank.

Those rules concern systemic stablecoins. The Financial Conduct Authority will supervise other qualifying stablecoin issuers, trading platforms, custodians and crypto intermediaries under the wider framework.

FCA licensing deadlines will arrive before implementation

The FCA finalized its main crypto rules on June 30. The framework covers financial resilience, market integrity, stablecoin reserves, redemption and consumer standards.

Crypto firms can apply for authorization from Sept. 30, 2026, through Feb. 28, 2027. The mandatory regime is scheduled to begin on Oct. 25, 2027, according to the FCA’s rules.

Existing anti-money-laundering registrations will not automatically become full authorizations. Trading platforms, custodians, stablecoin issuers and staking intermediaries must submit applications covering their regulated activities.

In related coverage, the FCA established a February 2027 application deadline for crypto firms. Companies that miss the application window may lose access to transitional arrangements.

Parliament will decide whether the mandate becomes law

The new objective has not yet taken effect. The government expects to introduce amendments when the Financial Services and Markets Bill returns to the House of Lords on Sept. 7 and 9.

Parliament can approve, reject or modify those amendments. The final statutory wording will determine which payment systems fall within the objective and how the annual reporting requirement operates.

The policy also adds a competitive response to U.S. stablecoin regulation. The U.S. GENIUS Act established a federal payment stablecoin framework in 2025, increasing pressure on Britain to provide issuers with a predictable route to market.

U.S. and British regulators have already expanded stablecoin discussions. As crypto.news reported, officials from both countries backed one-to-one reserves and closer cross-border coordination, although those discussions did not create binding shared rules.

The article has been updated with information provided by Bitfinex Securities.

Bitfinex Securities has completed a record $50 million tokenized capital raise for metals company Alkemya through a security backed by partnership interests tied to an independently valued $1.64 billion nickel asset base.

Bitfinex Securities and Alkemya said in an announcement on Thursday that the fundraising involved ALKN, a tokenized security representing limited partnership interests in Luxembourg-based Alkemya Metacore SCSp.

The partnership owns about 7 million meters of 99.99% pure nickel wire, according to the companies. Its nickel holdings have been independently valued at about $1.64 billion, according to the companies, while ALKN represents limited partnership interests tied to the asset.

For Bitfinex Securities, the $50 million total is the largest capital raise completed on its platform. The company said in the announcement that its previous record stood at $30 million and involved USTBL, a tokenized product linked to short-term U.S. Treasuries.

Bitfinex Securities sets a new $50 million fundraising record

Following the Alkemya transaction, Bitfinex Securities has now completed seven capital raises and listed 16 assets, according to figures provided by the platform.

ALKN is also Alkemya’s first tokenization project, an Alkemya spokesperson said in the announcement. Under the structure, eligible investors receive fractional interests in Alkemya Metacore SCSp in digital form, with the tokens designed to be transferable between eligible holders.

Proceeds from the offering will be used to support the commercialization of high-purity nickel products through Alkemya’s Singapore-based operating subsidiary, Green Transitional Metals Pte Ltd. Proceeds will be used to commercialize high-purity nickel products through its Singapore-based operating subsidiary, Green Transitional Metals Pte Ltd. Planned applications include semiconductors, electromagnetic interference shielding, aerospace and defense, power systems, green hydrogen, and rare and precious metals recovery.

Investors who did not participate in the completed $50 million raise will still have access to additional ALKN tokens. Bitfinex Securities plans to keep the offering open to eligible investors until Oct. 15 as Alkemya proceeds with another fundraising tranche.

Following the initial $50 million capital raise, ALKN tokens are available for trading on Bitfinex Securities for eligible investors. Additional ALKN tokens also remain available as part of the offering.

ALKN gives investors fractional interests in the nickel partnership

The ALKN structure places the legal investment interest in the Luxembourg partnership onchain while the underlying physical asset remains the nickel inventory held through Alkemya Metacore.

Each token represents an interest in the limited partnership instead of direct ownership of individual sections of nickel wire. Alkemya said the digital structure allows those partnership interests to be divided into fractional holdings and transferred electronically among eligible investors.

The transaction also comes as tokenized commodities have expanded beyond precious-metal products. In April, crypto.news reported that the value of tokenized commodities and equities had moved above $7 billion, with gold-backed products accounting for a large part of the market while tokenized oil, gas and agricultural assets were also gaining activity.

The same report cited Bitfinex research that put the tokenized commodity market at roughly $7 billion after an increase of nearly 600% since early 2025. Bitfinex said tokenized commodities were increasingly being used as onchain collateral across centralized platforms and decentralized finance protocols.

Earlier Bitfinex Securities offerings included Treasuries and debt

Before the Alkemya transaction, Bitfinex Securities had used its infrastructure for tokenized government debt exposure, corporate financing and other securities.

Crypto.news previously reported in November 2024 that the platform had launched a tokenized U.S. Treasury offering under El Salvador’s Digital Asset Law. Issued by NexBridge Digital Financial Solutions, USTBL represented shares in the iShares $ Treasury Bond 0-1yr UCITS ETF, which tracks U.S. government debt with maturities of less than one year.

The initial USTBL subscription period targeted a minimum raise of $30 million and accepted Tether’s USDT, with Bitcoin payments planned afterward. Bitfinex Securities said in the announcement in connection with the Alkemya deal that its previous fundraising record was the $30 million USTBL raise.

Earlier tokenized deals on the platform included corporate debt. In April 2024, Bitfinex Securities launched a tokenized debt offering designed to raise $6.25 million for construction of a Hampton by Hilton hotel near El Salvador International Airport. The HILSV security was issued on Liquid Network, a Bitcoin sidechain, and carried a five-year term with a 10% annual return.

Bitfinex Securities had also entered the tokenized bond market in 2023 with ALT2611, a 36-month security denominated in USDT and issued by a Luxembourg-based securitization fund managed by Mikro Kapital. The offering targeted $10 million and carried a 10% coupon, although early subscriptions fell below the original fundraising target.

Bitfinex has built regulated operations around tokenized assets

Bitfinex Securities operates regulated securities platforms in both El Salvador and the Astana International Financial Centre in Kazakhstan. The platform has also listed more than $500 million in tokenized assets, according to the company. In July, Bitfinex completed its Salvadoran license set covering spot trading, derivatives and regulated tokenized securities through separate operations.

In El Salvador, Bitfinex Securities received approval under the country’s Digital Assets Issuance Law before the group completed the rest of its local licensing structure. The National Commission of Digital Assets registry lists the securities entity under PSAD-0001 with an Oct. 24, 2023 registration date, and its permitted business includes issuance and trading infrastructure for tokenized financial products.

The platform’s tokenization work has also extended into distribution and infrastructure agreements. In November 2025, Tether’s Hadron tokenization platform, KraneShares and Bitfinex Securities announced a tokenized capital markets partnership under which Bitfinex Securities would provide regulated infrastructure and support access to secondary-market liquidity for tokenized products.

Additional ALKN tokens remain available to eligible investors through Oct. 15, while ALKN is already available for trading on Bitfinex Securities following the initial capital raise.

Public Citizen, a US consumer advocacy nonprofit, has alleged that investors tied to Donald Trump’s digital-asset activities since 2022 have been left “at least an estimated $4.7 billion underwater,” citing a mix of governance tokens, NFTs, and memecoin-related transactions.

The group’s assessment focuses on several Trump-linked crypto efforts, arguing that the scale of investor losses—particularly connected to the TRUMP memecoin—outweighs the reported earnings that flowed to Trump’s side through licensing, royalties, and sales tied to World Liberty Financial and other crypto ventures. White House officials did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.

Key takeaways

• Public Citizen estimates Trump-related crypto ventures have left investors “at least” $4.7 billion in losses since 2022.
• About $3.2 billion of the estimated losses are attributed to investors in the TRUMP memecoin.
• Public Citizen says buyers of World Liberty Financial’s USD1 stablecoin “haven’t suffered major losses.”
• The nonprofit argues that a forthcoming US cryptocurrency market structure bill should include ethics requirements such as presidential and family divestment.

Public Citizen’s $4.7 billion underwater estimate

In a report shared with the public, Public Citizen says investors lost billions of dollars through multiple Trump family digital asset undertakings, including the World Liberty Financial governance token, NFT trading cards launched in 2022, and two other revenue-linked areas: the TRUMP memecoin and Trump Media’s digital asset treasury.

According to Public Citizen, the largest share of the losses came from TRUMP memecoin investors, estimated at $3.2 billion. The organization frames the memecoin outcome as a transfer of wealth rather than a simple wipeout—saying the losses amounted to “wealth transferred to a small group of early buyers rather than money that simply vanished.”

Public Citizen also highlights that, within its assessment, stablecoin holders appear to have experienced less severe outcomes. The group states that buyers of World Liberty Financial’s USD1 stablecoin have “haven’t suffered major losses,” an observation that matters because stablecoins are often marketed and structured with different risk expectations than volatile tokens.

How much Trump is reported to have earned

Public Citizen’s filing argues that while investors are estimated to have absorbed substantial losses, Trump also generated revenue from parts of the crypto ecosystem. The nonprofit says Trump earned $7.2 million from NFT licensing fees and royalties.

It further claims earnings tied to World Liberty include more than $600 million from World Liberty token sales and revenue from selling an equity stake, alongside $635 million in licensing fees for the memecoin and $197 million from capital contributions to World Liberty. The nonprofit also notes that these figures do not fully capture the value of Trump-held stakes in companies and ventures that remain under his control.

Some of the numbers referenced by Public Citizen were also said to be included in Trump’s 2025 disclosures, which Cointelegraph coverage previously noted as indicating $1.4 billion in earnings linked to crypto.

White House response and recurring conflict-of-interest questions

Cointelegraph reached out to the White House for comment regarding Public Citizen’s claims but did not receive an immediate response. The report references a White House spokesperson, Anna Kelly, who has repeatedly said that there are “no conflicts of interest” in connection with Trump’s crypto investments and related activity.

Public Citizen’s central contention is that investor outcomes and official policy should be considered together. The organization argues that it is not possible to cleanly separate the president’s policy choices from a personal portfolio that includes exposure to projects operating in the same market.

Ethics push as the CLARITY Act nears

Public Citizen’s report is also tied to a broader legislative fight over how US crypto markets should be structured. The group renewed calls for ethics provisions in the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act, describing the proposal as incomplete without rules addressing potential conflicts involving the president and his family.

Specifically, Public Citizen argues that any bill shaping the industry should require a US president and their family to divest from projects in the sector, stating that “the president’s policy choices and personal portfolio cannot be separated.”

The nonprofit’s ethics stance comes as Trump has also been publicly active on crypto policy. Cointelegraph previously reported that Trump met with crypto company executives last week, urging a “fair version” of the CLARITY Act and saying it should pass once the Senate returns to session next month.

In terms of procedure, the bill is scheduled for a cloture vote on Sept. 15. If it advances, it would require at least 60 senators to vote in favor to move forward—an important threshold that determines whether the measure can proceed through the Senate agenda.

What to watch next

As the CLARITY Act approaches its cloture vote, the key question for market participants is whether ethics amendments—such as divestment requirements for the president and family—gain traction alongside the bill’s core regulatory changes, and how lawmakers reconcile the political push for industry “clarity” with ongoing conflict-of-interest concerns raised by Public Citizen.

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Mirae Asset—one of South Korea’s largest financial groups—wants to scale its crypto footprint into a major digital-asset business after taking control of the exchange formerly known as Korbit. According to The Korea Times, the group is aiming to build a 150 trillion won ($109 billion) digital asset platform centered on Digital X, the renamed exchange.

The reported roadmap is broad: Digital X would operate across cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, real-world assets (RWAs) and security token offerings, including plans to tokenize physical assets such as gold, silver and electricity. The strategy follows Mirae Asset Consulting’s acquisition of a controlling stake in Korbit earlier this year, positioning a traditional finance group as a direct operator of a domestic crypto exchange.

Key takeaways

• Mirae Asset plans a 150 trillion won ($109 billion) digital asset business built around Digital X, per The Korea Times.
• Digital X’s intended scope spans crypto trading, stablecoins, RWAs and security token offerings, including tokenization of physical assets like gold and silver.
• The expansion comes after Mirae Asset Consulting bought a 97.15% stake in Korbit in July and the exchange was rebranded as Digital X.
• Digital X started waiving trading fees for won-denominated assets on Monday, with the zero-fee period scheduled to run through Aug. 24, 2027.
• Despite Korbit’s long history (founded in 2013), it represented only 0.5% of South Korea’s crypto trading market in 2025, according to the Fair Trade Commission.

Mirae Asset’s digital-asset ambition and why it matters

The reported plan signals a continued shift in South Korea toward integrating digital assets into the broader financial-services ecosystem. For investors and market participants, the key point is not simply that a financial group owns an exchange—it’s the stated intention to move beyond spot trading into tokenization and regulated-style asset distribution.

By setting a large business target for “Mirae Asset 3.0,” Mirae Asset is effectively framing Digital X as a growth engine rather than a passive investment. According to The Korea Times, Mirae Asset founder and chairman Park Hyeon-joo discussed the direction at a Digital X employee event in Seoul on Wednesday, describing an initial goal of making Digital X a core pillar of “Mirae Asset 3.0.”

That positioning matters because tokenization initiatives—especially those involving real-world assets—depend on partnerships, custody and compliance frameworks, as well as market demand for new tokenized products. Whether Digital X can translate these ambitions into products that attract liquidity will likely determine how meaningful the exchange becomes within the domestic digital-asset value chain.

From Korbit to Digital X: control, rebrand, and market gap

Mirae Asset’s push is tied directly to its ownership of the exchange. The Korea Times reports that Mirae Asset Consulting completed a takeover of Korbit with a 97.15% stake in July, after accumulating a total cost of 141.4 billion won. The acquisition and subsequent rebrand are described as a notable first in South Korea: an affiliate of a financial group gaining control of a domestic crypto exchange.

Digital X began operating under the Korbit name’s successor brand after the control change. While Korbit has been active since 2013 and was described by The Korea Times as South Korea’s first cryptocurrency exchange, its scale has not matched its seniority. The Fair Trade Commission data cited by the same outlet indicated Korbit accounted for just 0.5% of South Korea’s crypto trading market in 2025.

In other words, the acquisition came with a built-in strategic challenge: Digital X will need to grow a relatively small footprint into a larger platform capable of supporting both trading activity and longer-horizon tokenization products.

Fee waivers and the push to win liquidity

One of the most immediate actions taken after the rebrand concerns trading costs. As of Monday, Digital X began waiving trading fees across all won-denominated assets, with the zero-fee initiative scheduled to run through Aug. 24, 2027. The exchange’s fee policy page lists the promotion and its coverage, including the won-denominated trading pairs the offer applies to (Digital X/Korbit fee information).

For traders, lower trading fees can improve effective returns—particularly for active users and market-makers who are sensitive to cost-per-trade. For the exchange, sustained fee reductions are often used to attract volume, increase order flow and improve overall liquidity, which can also help support new product launches.

However, fee waivers also shift business risk onto the platform: a longer period of reduced fees means revenue depends more heavily on alternative income streams (such as custody, token issuance-related services, or broader financial product distribution) that align with the company’s stated RWA and security token plans.

What’s planned beyond spot trading

According to The Korea Times, Digital X’s planned product direction includes crypto, stablecoins, RWAs and security token offerings—an expansion that aims to bring tokenized assets into a format that can be traded, held and potentially distributed like digital financial instruments.

The article’s examples of tokenization targets—physical assets such as gold, silver and electricity—highlight the core appeal of RWAs: the possibility of converting traditionally illiquid assets into blockchain-based representations that may be easier to transfer. At the same time, RWAs require robust governance around asset backing, redemption mechanics and compliance with securities-related rules where applicable.

While the plan is ambitious, the path from concept to live products typically depends on regulatory clarity, the ability to secure counterparties and the market’s appetite for new tokenized instruments. Readers should watch whether Digital X pairs its fee-driven liquidity push with concrete launches in stablecoins, RWAs and security token offerings, rather than limiting expansion to trading.

What to monitor next is how Digital X turns its ownership and fee incentives into sustained user growth and whether it can progress from a multi-category roadmap into specific tokenized asset products—particularly those tied to gold, silver and electricity—under South Korea’s evolving regulatory framework.