South Korean lawmakers have introduced legislation that would give the Financial Intelligence Unit direct authority to investigate suspected unregistered crypto businesses instead of relying mainly on police referrals.

Yonhap reported that People Power Party lawmaker Eom Tae-young and nine other lawmakers filed the amendment on Thursday, proposing new powers under the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information, commonly known as the Specific Financial Information Act.

Under the bill, any person could report a suspected violation of the law directly to the FIU. Once a report is received, the financial intelligence agency would be allowed to investigate and analyze the suspected conduct before deciding whether further action is required.

The proposal would also allow the FIU to file complaints with relevant authorities, request criminal investigations, and hand information gathered during its review to investigators. Such powers would change the current process, under which the FIU can identify suspected unregistered operators but must depend on police and other investigative agencies to pursue most cases.

The bill has only been introduced and must pass the National Assembly before the proposed changes can take effect.

FIU could directly investigate unregistered crypto businesses

Lawmakers proposed the additional powers after enforcement data raised questions over how effectively cases involving overseas crypto operators were being pursued once they left the FIU.

According to Yonhap, police suspended investigations or preliminary inquiries into 23 of the 25 unregistered virtual asset service providers referred by the FIU between August 2022 and August 2025.

The companies and people connected to the cases were reportedly located outside South Korea, making investigations more difficult for domestic law enforcement agencies.

Giving the FIU investigative and analytical powers at an earlier stage would allow the agency that first identifies suspected registration violations to collect information before a case moves to another authority.

South Korea requires companies providing virtual asset services to residents of the country to register with the FIU, including foreign companies that actively serve South Korean customers.

As crypto.news previously reported, the FIU said in June that only 28 virtual asset service providers were registered at the time, while about 40 suspected illegal operators had been referred to investigative authorities.

The regulator said foreign businesses must follow the same registration requirements when they provide services to South Korean residents. Companies seeking registration must also meet local compliance requirements, including Information Security Management System certification.

Overseas operators have remained a key FIU enforcement problem

The FIU’s June enforcement warning provided details on how some unregistered foreign crypto businesses were reaching South Korean customers while attempting to limit their visible presence in the country.

According to the agency, some overseas operators recruited customers through Telegram and KakaoTalk open chat rooms while offering customer service in English, a setup regulators said could make their domestic activities less obvious.

Authorities also identified private currency exchange businesses selling stablecoins and other virtual assets to international students, tourists, foreign workers and people seeking transactions without disclosing their identities.

Some operators exchanged digital assets directly for Korean won or other fiat currencies, while promoters were paid to advertise foreign crypto services through YouTube channels, Telegram groups and online communities, the FIU said.

The agency warned that customers using unregistered services could face exposure to fraud, hacking and personal data leaks. Because such businesses operate outside the registered system, the FIU also said users could have difficulty recovering funds when an operator failed to deliver purchased assets.

Money laundering has remained another concern for regulators. The FIU said unauthorized crypto platforms and private exchange services could be used to conceal criminal proceeds or facilitate transfers that avoid standard checks applied by registered financial firms.

The newly introduced bill would allow the agency to pursue suspected violations of the Specific Financial Information Act itself before requesting assistance from another investigative body.

South Korea has tightened AML rules for registered exchanges too

Regulatory attention has not been limited to companies operating without registration.

Earlier this year, domestic exchanges objected to proposed changes that would require them to report overseas-linked crypto transfers worth at least 10 million won as suspicious transactions.

A May regulatory proposal drew objections from the Digital Asset Exchange Alliance, which represents registered virtual asset service providers in South Korea.

DAXA estimated that the rule could increase annual suspicious transaction reports at Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax from about 63,000 to more than 5.4 million.

The association argued that applying an automatic monetary threshold could cause large numbers of ordinary overseas transfers to be reported regardless of the risk attached to the customer or counterparty.

The dispute also involved the treatment of foreign platforms. Regulators have sought stricter controls on transactions involving overseas virtual asset service providers, while local exchanges have asked authorities for clearer standards for determining which foreign businesses should be treated as high risk.

Enforcement decisions under the same financial information law have already produced court challenges. In April, a Seoul court overturned a three-month partial suspension imposed on Dunamu, the operator of Upbit, after the FIU alleged 44,948 transactions involving 19 unregistered overseas platforms.

Bithumb separately secured a court stay against a six-month partial suspension after regulators accused it of customer verification failures and dealings with unregistered foreign companies. Coinone also obtained temporary court relief from enforcement measures connected to anti-money laundering and customer verification requirements.

Cross-border crypto transfers face separate registration rules

South Korea has also created another regulatory route for businesses moving digital assets across national borders.

Under amendments to the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act, companies handling cross-border virtual asset transfers will have to register with the Ministry of Economy and Finance when the framework takes effect in December.

A June licensing report detailed how authorities were preparing enforcement regulations that could allow eligible fintech companies, alongside crypto businesses, to provide blockchain-based cross-border remittance and foreign exchange services.

The South Korean government promulgated the revised law on June 2 with a six-month grace period. Once implemented, virtual asset transfers involving South Korea and another country will fall under the country’s regulated foreign exchange system.

Companies seeking to provide the service will need to register with the finance ministry and report qualifying overseas transfers through the Bank of Korea’s foreign exchange reporting network.

Authorities have said crypto transfers previously operating outside the formal foreign exchange reporting system created risks involving illicit foreign exchange transactions and money laundering.

Applicants under the new framework must first complete virtual asset service provider registration, connect their systems to institutions responsible for transmitting foreign exchange and digital asset transaction data, and satisfy additional requirements covering facilities and qualified personnel.

The Royal Government of Bhutan has moved 490.87 Bitcoin worth about $32.74 million to fresh wallets over the past 24 hours, extending a series of large BTC transfers from state-linked addresses in 2026.

According to blockchain analytics platform Onchain Lens, the latest activity included a 485 BTC transfer worth approximately $32.31 million, which accounted for nearly all of the Bitcoin moved during the period.

Smaller transactions made up the remaining amount, with Onchain Lens data showing BTC leaving wallets identified as belonging to the Royal Government of Bhutan. The analytics platform did not identify the fresh recipient wallets as exchanges or trading firms, and it did not confirm whether the transfers represented sales.

The distinction is important because a transfer to a newly created or unidentified wallet does not establish what happened to the Bitcoin afterward. Bhutan has previously moved BTC to unknown addresses as well as wallets connected to trading firms, making the eventual destination relevant when determining whether funds were sold or simply reorganized.

Bhutan Bitcoin transfers have continued through 2026

The latest movement came just days after another large transaction from Bhutan-linked addresses.

On Aug. 18, blockchain tracker Lookonchain reported that the Royal Government of Bhutan transferred 300 BTC worth about $19.28 million to a new wallet. The firm described the transaction as another sale, although the initial transfer itself went to a fresh address.

Earlier transactions have followed a similar pattern, with large amounts of Bitcoin leaving government-linked wallets before moving through other addresses.

By May, state-linked BTC outflows had already surpassed $230 million for 2026, according to Arkham Intelligence data previously covered by crypto.news.

The May transaction involved 100.44 BTC worth approximately $8.2 million moving to an unlabeled wallet. Arkham said at the time that Bhutan-linked addresses were averaging close to $50 million in monthly Bitcoin movements during 2026.

Some earlier transfers eventually reached Binance and Galaxy Digital, according to Arkham. However, the analytics firm noted that movements to unidentified addresses could not automatically be treated as confirmed sales.

Bhutan’s wallet activity accelerated during March. On March 25, a state-linked address moved another 519.7 BTC worth about $36.7 million to two wallets.

Onchain Lens identified one of the recipients as being linked to crypto trading firm QCP Capital. The transaction was the third major sovereign wallet movement recorded that month, following an approximately $72 million transfer and another $11.8 million movement earlier in March.

Bhutan’s BTC holdings have fallen from their 2024 peak

Repeated transfers have reduced the amount of Bitcoin visible in wallets identified by blockchain analytics firms as belonging to Bhutan or its sovereign investment arm, Druk Holding & Investments.

Arkham data showed Bhutan held more than 13,000 BTC at its peak in October 2024. By March 25, identified holdings had fallen to 4,453 BTC worth about $315 million at the time.

A few days earlier, Bhutan had transferred about $72.3 million in Bitcoin over a 24-hour period. More than 973 BTC moved across several transactions linked to DHI, which oversees the country’s mining and digital asset operations.

The March transactions followed smaller movements earlier in the year. Arkham data showed Bhutan-linked wallets moved more than 284 BTC worth roughly $22 million during one week in February, including transfers to addresses associated with QCP Capital.

By March 20, Arkham estimated that more than $110 million worth of Bitcoin had left Bhutan-linked holdings since the start of 2026. The analytics firm tracked transfers to counterparties including QCP Capital and Binance while also recording movements to unidentified wallets.

The numbers attached to Bhutan’s holdings can vary depending on which addresses blockchain analytics platforms identify as government-controlled. Transfers to a previously unknown address can also reduce the balance displayed under a government’s tagged portfolio even when ownership of the coins has not necessarily changed.

For that reason, the latest 490.87 BTC transaction establishes that the funds moved from addresses attributed to Bhutan, but the available Onchain Lens data does not establish whether the government sold the Bitcoin.

Hydropower mining built Bhutan’s Bitcoin position

Bhutan’s state Bitcoin holdings were largely accumulated through mining rather than purchases or asset seizures.

The Himalayan kingdom began developing state-backed Bitcoin mining operations years ago, using its hydroelectric power resources to operate mining facilities. DHI emerged as the main state entity overseeing the program.

Arkham first publicly identified Bhutan’s holdings in 2024, when it traced more than 13,000 BTC to government-linked mining operations. At the time, the position was worth more than $750 million and placed Bhutan among the largest known government Bitcoin holders.

The country’s mining infrastructure was also expanded through a partnership with Bitdeer Technologies. Plans announced in 2024 called for another 500 megawatts of mining capacity, taking the planned total to 600 MW.

Unlike sovereign Bitcoin positions created through law-enforcement seizures, Bhutan’s holdings therefore represented assets generated through mining operations backed by domestic energy infrastructure.

The government has since incorporated Bitcoin into plans extending beyond mining. In December 2025, Bhutan announced a Bitcoin Development Pledge tied to Gelephu Mindfulness City, a special administrative region being developed in southern Bhutan.

Under the strategy, the country pledged up to 10,000 BTC to support Gelephu’s long-term development, while outlining plans involving hydro-powered mining, long-term Bitcoin holdings and partnerships built around the city.

Gelephu has started putting its Bitcoin strategy into operation

Parts of the Gelephu strategy have moved into implementation during 2026.

On July 30, Gelephu Mindfulness City appointed digital asset manager 3iQ to oversee an undisclosed portion of its Bitcoin treasury.

The mandate covers professional management of BTC assigned to the city while 3iQ establishes a local presence and supports investment expertise and knowledge transfer. The exact amount of Bitcoin placed under the mandate was not disclosed.

The agreement followed the December 2025 pledge of up to 10,000 BTC for Gelephu’s development strategy.

Gelephu has also been building a regulatory structure for digital asset businesses. During May, the city introduced a fast-track licensing route for qualifying crypto companies already regulated in selected overseas jurisdictions.

The framework allows firms with licenses from approved markets to use existing regulatory records during the application process, although they remain subject to local oversight.

More recently, Bitget signed a cooperation agreement with the Gelephu Mindfulness City Authority to establish a local entity and pursue a Financial Services Licence. Under the agreement announced in August, the exchange plans to work with the city authority on regulatory, operational and ecosystem development while preparing its licensing application.

Protocol 27 is the final planned upgrade. ESMA registered the whitepaper. But PayPal integration remains unconfirmed, RoboPay is disputed, and PI trades at a fraction of its peak. What is real and what is not.

Every few weeks, a headline declares that Pi Network has secured a partnership that will finally deliver the real world utility its community has been waiting for since the project launched in 2019. In August 2026 alone, reports emerged that PayPal had added PI to its merchant payment program and that RoboPay would integrate PI for AI driven robot service payments. Each announcement triggered a spike in social media activity and a brief uptick in trading volume.

Neither has been confirmed by the parties allegedly involved.

This pattern, in which ecosystem claims outrun verifiable facts, defines the central tension of Pi Network in 2026. The project has real infrastructure. Its protocol upgrades are genuine. Its ESMA whitepaper filing is a matter of public record. But the gap between what the network has built and what its community claims it has partnered with is wide enough to matter.

What the protocol upgrades actually changed

Pi Network’s technical roadmap in 2026 centers on two mandatory upgrades: Protocol 26 and Protocol 27.

Protocol 26 carried a hard deadline of Aug. 11, 2026. All mainnet node operators were required to complete the upgrade or risk disconnection from the network. The upgrade enhanced contract security and state management, laying the groundwork for more complex smart contract interactions on the Pi blockchain.

The Pi Core Team has designated Protocol 27 as the “final planned upgrade” in the current development sequence. That language is significant. It does not mean the network will stop evolving, but it signals that the foundational infrastructure layer is approaching a state the team considers stable enough to support sustained application development.

The node network itself has grown. Pi reports more than 421,000 active nodes, a figure that reflects the network’s distributed validator model. Validators on Pi do not stake tokens in the way Ethereum or Solana validators do. Instead, they run lightweight software that contributes to consensus through Pi’s adaptation of the Stellar Consensus Protocol.

The distinction matters for understanding Pi’s security model. The network trades the economic security guarantees of proof of stake (where validators risk capital) for a broader distribution model (where more participants run nodes at lower cost). Whether that trade off produces sufficient security for high value transactions remains an open question.

The ESMA whitepaper: what it means and what it does not

In 2026, ESMA registered Pi Network’s MiCA whitepaper as entry 549 in its public registry. The filing was submitted by PiBit Ltd, the entity that appears to manage Pi’s European regulatory compliance.

MiCA, the Markets in Crypto Assets regulation, requires crypto asset issuers operating in the European Union to publish a whitepaper that meets specific disclosure standards. Registration of the whitepaper is a procedural step. It means ESMA has received the document and made it publicly available. It does not mean ESMA has reviewed the document for accuracy, endorsed the project, or granted any form of regulatory approval.

The distinction is critical because the Pi community has at times characterized the ESMA registration as an endorsement. It is not. It is closer to a filing requirement, similar to how a company files a prospectus with a securities regulator before the regulator reviews it.

That said, the filing is not trivial. Completing a MiCA compliant whitepaper requires legal and compliance work that many crypto projects have not undertaken. It positions Pi to operate within the EU regulatory framework if and when full authorization is granted. For a project that began as a mobile mining experiment with no clear regulatory strategy, the ESMA filing represents a genuine step forward.

The PayPal question

In mid August 2026, reports circulated that PayPal had added PI to its “Pay with Crypto” program, which allows eligible U.S. merchants to accept cryptocurrency payments. The claim appeared in several crypto news outlets and spread rapidly through Pi community channels.

The evidence does not support the claim as of this writing.

PayPal’s official documentation lists Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, and PayPal USD (PYUSD) as supported assets in its crypto payment program. PI is not on that list. PayPal has not issued a press release, blog post, or public statement confirming PI integration.

On the Pi side, PayPal does not appear on the KYB (Know Your Business) verified business list that Pi Network maintains. The KYB list is Pi’s own registry of businesses that have been verified to operate on its mainnet. If PayPal had completed a formal integration, a KYB listing would be expected.

The gap between the claim and the evidence is not unusual in crypto. Unconfirmed partnership reports are common, particularly for projects with large and active communities. But the pattern is worth noting because PayPal integration, if real, would be genuinely transformative for a token trading at $0.09. The fact that it remains unverified after more than a week of circulation suggests that the claim was at best premature and at worst fabricated.

RoboPay and the AI robotics narrative

On Aug. 5, 2026, the Fabric Foundation announced that Pi Network had joined RoboPay as a payment partner. The stated purpose was to enable on chain payments for AI driven robot services and autonomous agent hiring, using PiRC2 smart contracts for recurring and automated settlements.

The announcement painted an ambitious picture: a future in which humans hire robotic services through programmable payment channels on the Pi blockchain. Instead of purchasing a robot, a user would purchase the outcome they need, with payment settled automatically through smart contracts.

The Pi Core Team has not confirmed the partnership.

This is the second high profile ecosystem claim in August 2026 that lacks official confirmation from Pi’s own team. The pattern raises a structural question about Pi’s ecosystem development model. Third party organizations announce integrations. The Pi community amplifies them. Pi’s core team remains silent. The result is a steady stream of partnership news that cannot be independently verified.

Whether the RoboPay integration is real, planned, or aspirational is unclear. What is clear is that the Pi Core Team’s silence does not help its community distinguish between confirmed partnerships and speculative announcements.

The tokenomics problem

PI’s price action in 2026 tells a story that no partnership announcement has been able to change.

The token trades near $0.09, with a market cap hovering around $1 billion. Its 24 hour trading volume sits near $11.5 million, modest for a token in the top 60 by market cap. The most active trading pair is PI/USDT on OKX, with approximately $3.6 million in daily volume.

The deeper issue is supply. Pi has a maximum supply of 100 billion tokens, of which approximately 11 billion are currently in circulation. That means roughly 89% of the total supply has yet to enter the market. As locked tokens vest and new tokens are distributed through mining rewards, the circulating supply will continue to grow.

For PI to reach $1, a target that many community members have discussed publicly, the fully diluted market cap would need to exceed $100 billion. That would place Pi roughly in line with Ethereum’s current market cap. For a network with $11.5 million in daily trading volume, no confirmed major partnerships, and a token economy built on mobile phone mining, that valuation is difficult to justify on fundamentals alone.

The circulating supply dynamic also creates selling pressure. Each new batch of tokens that enters circulation represents potential sell orders from miners who have been accumulating PI since the project’s early days. Unless demand from new buyers matches or exceeds the rate of new supply, the price faces persistent downward pressure.

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What the ecosystem actually looks like

Strip away the unconfirmed partnerships and the picture that remains is simpler than the headlines suggest.

Pi Network has a working mainnet with more than 421,000 active nodes. It has completed two major protocol upgrades in 2026. It has filed a MiCA whitepaper with ESMA. It has an ecosystem directory where developers can build and list applications.

The number of operational mainnet apps is growing but remains modest. Pi’s ecosystem directory includes applications ranging from payment tools to social platforms, but none has achieved the kind of adoption metrics (daily active users, transaction volume, revenue) that characterize successful decentralized applications on more mature blockchains.

The Pi Browser, which serves as the gateway to Web3 applications on the network, provides a curated entry point for users. The App Studio offers development tools for builders. But the developer ecosystem lacks the depth of tooling, documentation, and community support that Ethereum, Solana, or even newer chains like Sui and Aptos provide.

Pi’s differentiation has always been accessibility. Mining on a mobile phone, with no hardware costs and minimal technical knowledge required, created a user base that now numbers in the tens of millions. Whether that user base translates into an economically active network is the question that Protocol 27, the final planned upgrade, is supposed to answer.

What to watch

The aftermath of the credibility gap will play out across several measurable indicators over the coming weeks and months.

• Protocol 27 release timeline. This is designated as the final planned upgrade. Its contents and execution will signal whether the Pi Core Team believes the infrastructure layer is ready for sustained application development.
• PayPal’s official crypto asset list. If PI appears in PayPal’s next quarterly update to supported assets, the integration is real. If it does not, the community will need to reckon with another unconfirmed claim.
• KYB verified business count. Pi maintains its own registry of verified businesses. Growth in confirmed KYB listings, particularly from recognizable brands, would be a more reliable indicator of ecosystem adoption than third party partnership announcements.
• Circulating supply growth rate. The pace at which new PI enters circulation relative to trading volume will determine whether selling pressure continues to weigh on the price.
• ESMA review outcome. The whitepaper registration is a disclosure step. The next milestone is whether ESMA grants full authorization, which would allow Pi to operate as a regulated crypto asset within the EU.

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Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or trading advice. Cryptocurrency markets carry substantial risk. Always conduct your own research before making any investment decisions. Published Aug. 21, 2026.