Uk Jin

Larry Fink, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the world's largest asset manager BlackRock, and Rob Goldstein, Chief Operating Officer (COO), emphasized that tokenization will be a core technology connecting traditional finance and digital assets. On the 3rd (Korean time), according to crypto-focused media Cointelegraph, CEO Fink and COO Goldstein wrote in an op-ed that "tokenization will serve as a bridge connecting traditional financial institutions such as banks and asset managers with digital asset operators such as stablecoin issuers, fintech, and public blockchains." In the op-ed the two said, "The two industries are not competing but are learning interoperability," and "In the future, people will not separate stock and bond portfolios from crypto wallets." They went on to predict, "A future will come in which all kinds of assets can be bought, sold, and held in a single digital wallet." The two also emphasized, "Initially, tokenization was mixed in with speculative surges in virtual assets, making it difficult to see the big picture; however, recently its potential has been confirmed in traditional finance," adding, "Through tokenization, in addition to listed stocks and bonds, a much wider range of real-world and unlisted assets can be tokenized to expand investable areas." However, regulatory gaps were pointed out as an area for improvement. The two said, "Regulators should apply the 'same function, same regulation' principle," and "The fact that a tokenized asset exists on a blockchain does not change the nature of the asset."

The UK has enacted a bill that defines virtual assets (cryptocurrencies) and stablecoins (virtual assets whose value is pegged to fiat currency) as property. This is expected to provide a clear legal basis for ownership and recovery procedures for digital assets. On the 3rd (Korean time), the crypto-focused outlet Cointelegraph reported that the House of Lords' 'Property, Digital Assets etc Bill' received Royal Assent from King Charles III and has come into force as law. The law specifies that assets in digital form can be considered personal property even if they do not fully fit the traditional categories of 'things in possession' or 'things in action.' This reflects the 2024 recommendation of the Law Commission for England and Wales that digital assets can possess characteristics of both types. The law codifies the existing case law principle treating digital assets as personal property. UK digital asset groups such as 'BPUK' explained, "The legal doctrine on digital assets, which relied on case-by-case rulings, has been clearly defined," and "legal certainty has increased in proving ownership, recovering stolen assets, and handling bankruptcy and inheritance." The groups emphasized that the measure strengthens consumer and investor protection and enables the clear recovery of assets lost to theft or fraud. They also said it is expected to provide a foundation for tokenized assets, new financial products, and digital market growth.

There is a prospect that virtual assets (cryptocurrencies) could emerge from a long correction. On the 3rd (Korean time), Jack Lee, founder of LD Capital, said on X (formerly Twitter), "Bitcoin (BTC) reached $93,000," adding, "the virtual asset market's 60-day bearish phase may soon end." The founder said, "The past 60 days of weakness were the result of overlapping negative factors such as the '1011 large-scale liquidation incident', Japanese interest rate hikes, and a government shutdown," and added, "If a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair who is friendly to virtual assets, along with a Federal Reserve (Fed) chair who is friendly to virtual assets, is nominated, market sentiment could turn." He continued, "Most of the negative factors have now been largely digested," adding, "expectations of rate cuts and virtual asset-friendly policies could act as positive factors at the same time."

STABLE, a layer-1 blockchain specialized in stablecoins (crypto assets pegged to fiat currency), has revealed the tokenomics of its native token. On the 3rd (KST), according to crypto-focused outlet The Block, STABLE published basic information about the 'STABLE' token on its blog. The total supply of STABLE tokens is fixed at 100 billion, and the consensus algorithm 'STABLE BFT' will be applied. STABLE will use 10% of the total tokens for genesis allocation for liquidity bootstrapping and expanding community participation, and 40% will be allocated to developer grants and partnerships. STABLE is currently in the mainnet deployment preparation stage, carrying out validator onboarding and developer tooling integration. A concrete schedule has not been disclosed, but it plans to launch in phases starting with activating tokenholder governance.

Recently, centered on the U.S. stock market, digital asset treasury (DAT) companies that incorporate virtual assets (cryptocurrencies) into corporate financial assets are increasing, and a warning has emerged that this phenomenon could pose an insider trading risk to traditional financial markets. On the 29th (Korea time), according to cryptocurrency-specialized media Cointelegraph, CEO Shane Molidor Fogd said, "Front-running (gathering information in advance) occurs in the process of learning in advance which assets DAT will purchase," and "structural problems of the virtual asset market are moving into traditional finance through DAT." Molidor said he viewed the increase in DATs with smaller market capitalizations following Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) as vulnerable. He emphasized, "The shallower the liquidity of an asset, the more clearly some participants who have identified DAT's purchase plans in advance drive up prices through pre-emptive buying," and "price increases stimulate fear-and-greed sentiment to induce lagging purchases, and as this process repeats it is prone to overheating." He added, "Currently Bitcoin's market depth is large so this effect is not significant, but small assets still respond sensitively to DAT purchases," and "large issuers do not understand financial structures, and institutions do not know cryptocurrency market mechanisms well. Lack of understanding on both sides is enlarging the problem."

On the 29th (Korea time), U.S. President Donald Trump said on Truth Social, "To all airlines, pilots, drug traffickers, human traffickers: be advised. Consider Venezuelan airspace and surrounding airspace to be fully closed."

The National Bank of Kazakhstan said it is considering purchases of virtual assets (cryptocurrencies) totaling up to $300 million. According to Cryptopolitan on the 29th (local time), Timur Suleimenov, governor of the National Bank of Kazakhstan (NBK), said in a local briefing, "We will wait until the effects of the recent market plunge have subsided before finalizing the investment size," adding, "It could be $500,000, or it could be $100 million to $250 million." Funds for the purchases are planned to be covered from the central bank's foreign exchange and gold holdings, not from the national fund. Given the recent increase in volatility in the virtual asset market, they plan to make cautious investments. Suleimenov emphasized, "We will not make hasty investments as digital and financial assets have undergone adjustments." Kazakhstan has recently been formulating plans to increase its holdings of virtual assets. Earlier, Suleimenov said in an interview, "We are building a virtual asset reserve of up to $1 billion," explaining ", confiscated assets, equity stakes in related companies, ETFs, etc. could be included." In addition, Kazakhstan's Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development purchased Binance Coin (BNB) in September with sponsorship from Binance.

Ukraine: "3 Killed by Russian Attack" Russia, before Ukrainian ceasefire delegation's U.S. visit Large-scale bombing causes power supply disruptions Russia carried out a large-scale bombing of Ukraine's capital Kyiv. The attack, which came ahead of the Ukrainian ceasefire delegation's visit to the United States, reportedly left multiple casualties. On the 29th (local time), Reuters and others reported that Ukrainian officials said three people were killed and nearly 30 injured in Russia's overnight drone and missile attacks around Kyiv. With attacks concentrated on energy facilities, power was cut to about 600,000 households. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia used about 36 missiles and about 600 drones in the attacks that day. Vitali Klitschko, Kyiv's mayor, told the AP that debris from intercepted Russian drones fell on residential areas, injuring more than 10 people and cutting power to western parts of Kyiv. Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine's foreign minister, pointed out, "While everyone is discussing the terms of a peace plan, Russia continues to pursue a 'war plan' of murder and destruction." A Ukrainian government delegation led by Rustem Umerov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, headed to the United States on the 28th (local time) to meet Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, who is leading mediation of the ceasefire talks, to discuss the detailed terms of a ceasefire proposal. Analysts say Ukraine's worries can only deepen. Russia's persistent attacks targeting energy facilities have continued at a time when Andriy Yermak, who effectively led the wartime administration as President Zelensky's "right-hand," has fallen amid corruption allegations. Reuters reported that as power conditions worsen, households in Ukrainian cities have recently often been supplied with electricity for only eight hours a day. Kyiv's streets are reportedly filled with the roar of portable generators and the smell of diesel fuel, and streetlights often go out, with pedestrians using flashlights. Daeyoung Kim, Hankyung.com reporter kdy@hankyung.com

Bitcoin (BTC) mining activity in China is expanding again for the first time in four years since the 2021 nationwide crackdown. On the 29th (local time), Cointelegraph reported that China's share of global Bitcoin hashrate had recovered to about 14% as of 2025. CryptoQuant estimated China's actual Bitcoin mining share at 15~20%. Accordingly, China's Bitcoin mining share, which had plunged after the People's Bank of China's 2021 comprehensive ban on virtual asset (cryptocurrency) related economic activities, rose to third place following the United States and Kazakhstan. The outlet analyzed that surplus power and excess data center infrastructure are the main causes. The outlet explained, "Western regions such as Xinjiang and Sichuan have a lot of surplus power because coal- and hydro-based generation exceeds demand, and transmission infrastructure constraints make external supply difficult," and added, "Local data centers have also been overbuilt, increasing idle capacity and accepting leasing demand from mining companies."

It was revealed that a virtual asset (cryptocurrency) investment scam worth $317,000 (about $430,000,000) occurred in the U.S. state of Florida. According to Cryptopolitan on the 29th (Korean time), the perpetrator using the alias 'Astreet Olove' deceived 16 residents living in Florida, using an investment platform called 'XM DeFi' promising to generate returns, and extorted $4 million. The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida stated, "Olove contacted the victims after receiving a misdirected text message, built trust, and then induced transfers through high-yield virtual asset transactions," and "when initial profits appeared, the victims genuinely believed it and wired large sums," it stated. Authorities warned that investment solicitation messages of unclear origin and transfer scams via fake platforms are increasing, urging special caution.

DSRV, a domestic validator company, directly rebutted the Capital Market Research Institute's claim that KRW stablecoins (virtual assets pegged to fiat currency) are structurally unstable, calling it "a misreading of historical cases and overseas regulation." On the 29th, DSRV co-CEO Seo Byung-yun posted on LinkedIn that the Capital Market Research Institute's recently released report titled 'Stablecoin Price Stability' "places 17th-century goldsmiths and regulated stablecoins on the same plane and overly simplifies the intent of foreign legislation," he said. Specifically, Seo strongly rebutted the report, saying it "leads to the conclusion that stablecoins are risky based on historical failures of private money," and that "modern stablecoins are designed based on regulated financial standards such as reserve assets exceeding 100%, segregated custody, licensing and supervision, anti-money laundering (AML)/know-your-customer (KYC)." He also criticized the part that cited the USDC depegging as evidence of stablecoin risk itself. Seo said, "The 2023 USDC price fluctuation was caused by Silicon Valley Bank (SVB)'s failure in interest rate risk management and supervisory lapses, an incident in which regulated bank risk was transmitted to a stablecoin," and "interpreting this as a structural vulnerability of stablecoins reverses cause and effect." Seo also explained that the report's point that "in extreme crises, government bond values can fall and depegging risk increases" is inappropriate. He rebutted, "It is unfair to single out a specific asset class as risky on the assumption of a collapse of the financial system that shakes government bonds, bank deposits, and money market funds (MMFs)," adding, "At that level of crisis, the NQA (No Questions-Asked Principle) for bank deposits would also be hard to maintain." He criticized the part that limited reserve asset regulation to "short-term government bonds." He said, "Overseas regulations such as MiCA require reserve assets to be broadly composed of bank deposits, high-quality liquid assets (HQLA), etc.," and "Korea has a sufficient pool of safe assets comparable to government bonds, such as Monetary Stabilization Bonds and policy financial institution bonds." He added that the conclusion that "Korea's lack of short-term government bonds makes it difficult to maintain stablecoin stability" "stems from a misunderstanding of the concept of HQLA." Regarding the proposal to limit the number of issuers, Seo said, "If the number of issuers is artificially reduced, a few firms could become 'too big to fail,' increasing the burden on public safety nets," and emphasized, "Combining on-chain verification technologies such as Proof of Reserves (PoR) allows effective supervision even if the number of issuers is large." Finally, Seo concluded, "To strengthen discussions on stablecoin risks, it is necessary to accurately understand foreign regulations, reserve asset composition, and supervisory technologies," and warned, "Incorrect premises and narrowed interpretations can distort policy direction."

China, which is applying strict regulations to virtual assets (cryptocurrencies), appears to be poised to step up crackdowns on its citizens. On the 29th (Korean time), according to BlockBeats, the People's Bank of China held a "Virtual Asset Trading and Speculation Crackdown Work Coordination Mechanism" meeting and discussed the recent possibility of increased virtual asset speculation and illegal financial activities. The meeting particularly emphasized that, as volatility in the virtual asset market has recently increased, speculative activity is intensifying. The People's Bank of China also reiterated at the meeting that virtual assets do not have the same legal status as fiat currencies and that they cannot be recognized as having the compulsory legal-tender status of fiat currency. It went on to define all business activities related to virtual assets as illegal financial activities. It also indicated that regulatory intensity on stablecoins (virtual assets pegged to fiat currency) would be increased. The People's Bank of China pointed out, "Stablecoins are a form of virtual asset," and "they fail to meet basic requirements such as customer identification (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML), and there is a high risk of misuse for money laundering, illegal fundraising, and unlawful movement of funds."

As the virtual asset (cryptocurrency) market went through a slump during November, a claim emerged that it should be taken as a buying opportunity. On the 29th (Korea time), Changpeng Zhao, founder of Binance, said on X (formerly Twitter), "It may be an unpopular opinion, but it's better to sell when the market is extremely greedy and, conversely, buy when it feels extreme fear." On that day, the crypto Fear & Greed Index registered 28 points, moving out of extreme fear and entering the 'fear' phase.