Uk Jin

Last week, U.S. new unemployment claims fell short of market expectations. On the 26th (local time), the U.S. Department of Labor said last week's new unemployment claims totaled 216,000. This is 10,000 fewer than the experts' forecast (226,000). It is 6,000 fewer compared with the previous week's revised figure (222,000). The number of continued unemployment claims, for those filing claims for two consecutive weeks, was 1,960,000. It is 7,000 more than the previous week's revised figure (1,953,000). Initial unemployment claims are an indicator that gauges overheating in the U.S. labor market. If unemployment claims increase, it can be interpreted as the overheated labor market cooling. Meanwhile, the probability of a rate cut by the Federal Reserve (Fed) in December remains high at 84.9%.

On the 26th (Korean time), according to SolidIntel, Bolivia's Minister of Economy announced plans to integrate stablecoins (virtual assets whose value is linked to fiat currency) into the country's official financial system.

Staking firm KR1 is listing on the London Stock Exchange. On the 26th (local time), crypto-focused media CoinDesk reported that KR1 will begin trading on the London Stock Exchange from that day. Unlike most digital asset treasury companies that buy and hold assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, KR1 operates its business based on staking rewards, asset management, and venture investments. KR1 expects business expansion through the LSE listing, including increased access to institutional investors, expanded infrastructure partnerships, and staking education for traditional investors. The company plans to increase its market capitalization in the medium to long term from the current 50 million pounds to 500 million pounds (about $658 million). Keld van Schreven and George McDonagh, KR1 co-founders, described the LSE listing as "a decision reflecting a mature market environment and a business model with long-term resilience."

Allegations have been raised that team-related wallets accumulated 30% of the token supply during the launch process of tokenized stock and RWA lending protocol Edel Finance (Edel Finance). On the 26th (Korean time), according to Cointelegraph, blockchain analytics firm Bubblemaps reported that earlier this month about 160 wallets concentrated purchases equivalent to 30% of the total supply, approximately $11,000,000, shortly before the EDEL token launch. It claimed these wallets received funds from Binance and MEXC, were dispersed in stages, and then connected to the final purchasing wallets. Bubblemaps said, "About 60 wallets simultaneously received funds right before the launch and subsequently purchased tokens preemptively," and, citing the inclusion of 100 auxiliary wallet addresses in the token contract code, stated, "there is a clear connection between the team and the sniping wallets." EDEL was launched on November 12, and its market capitalization is about $14.9 million. Its price fell 62% over the past week. James Sherbon, co-founder of Edel Finance, denied the allegations. He explained, "As stated in the documents, the team secured about 60% of the total supply and put it into a vesting contract," stating that the actual team allocation is 12.7% and follows a 36-month vesting structure. However, Bubblemaps rebutted, saying, "That explanation is similar to meme coin cases that previously caused internal supply issues," and argued, "a 50% vesting allocation is the amount held directly by the distributor and is unrelated to sniping."

On the 26th (Korean time), the virtual asset (cryptocurrency) specialist feed account 'TheBitcoinHistorian' reported on X (formerly Twitter), "The Thai government is applying a 0% capital gains tax to Bitcoin transactions on the national exchange."

German exchange group Deutsche Börse will integrate AllUnity's euro-pegged stablecoin 'EURAU' into its market infrastructure. On the 26th (Korean time), Cointelegraph reported that Deutsche Börse said it will apply EURAU starting with institutional custody services through central securities depository Clearstream, and later plans to expand the integration to its entire service portfolio. Deutsche Börse's domestic stock market capitalization is about $2.23 trillion. AllUnity and Deutsche Börse have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in this regard, but the specific timing for implementation was not disclosed. Deutsche Börse has recently been expanding its euro stablecoin strategy. After adopting Circle's Euro Coin (EURC) in September, it announced plans earlier this month to integrate Société Générale-Forge's EURCV. EURAU is a stablecoin issued by a BaFin-authorized electronic money institution in Germany, forming a multi-layered strategy alongside the bank-issued model EURCV and EURC, issued by a U.S.-based technology company.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has appointed Tomaso Mancini-Griffoli, Deputy Director of the IMF's Monetary and Capital Markets Department, as the new head of the BIS Innovation Hub from March 2026. On the 26th (Korean time), Cointelegraph reported that the BIS said Mancini-Griffoli will lead technological innovation for the central bank community and oversee projects related to central bank digital currencies (CBDC), tokenized assets, and next-generation financial infrastructure. Mancini-Griffoli is a key figure in the field of digital money who has led payments and monetary work at the IMF. He has consistently emphasized a regulated, publicly supported digital currency model and is known as a leading 'central bank digital currency (CBDC) advocate' who has pointed out the structural risks of unregulated stablecoins.

The merger of Naver Financial and Dunamu has been formalized. On the 26th (Korean time), according to the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure system, Naver Financial and Dunamu are pursuing a share exchange with an exchange ratio of 1 to 2.5422618 shares. The planned exchange date is June 30, 2026. Naver Financial's equity value is 4.9 trillion won, and Dunamu's equity value is 15.1 trillion won, making Dunamu about three times larger. Reflecting each company's issued shares, the per-share value is 172,780 won for Naver Financial and 439,252 won for Dunamu, with Dunamu being 2.54 times higher. Accordingly, Dunamu shareholders will receive 2.54 Naver Financial shares for each Dunamu share. Naver Financial plans to make Dunamu a 100% subsidiary through this share exchange to secure future growth driven by digital assets. The shareholders' meeting is scheduled to be held on May 22, 2026. However, the schedule may change depending on approvals from relevant authorities. Naver Financial and Dunamu must obtain regulatory approvals such as merger approval and change-of-major-shareholder approval under the Credit Information Act, and depending on the approval results, the schedule may be delayed or the transaction may be canceled. Both companies plan to maintain their existing businesses after the share exchange while reviewing restructuring measures through functional cooperation.

The world's largest virtual asset (cryptocurrency) exchange, Binance, and Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to develop an International Financial Center (IFC). On the 26th (Korean time), according to Tech in Asia, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Finance and Binance signed an MOU for IFC development on the occasion of the Autumn Economic Forum 2025 and agreed to pursue establishing regulations related to digital assets and blockchain, support for startups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and training programs for regulatory authorities. The cooperation will be managed by a joint working team, and the MOU will be transferred once an operating body for the International Financial Center is established.

Robinhood plans to launch a new futures and derivatives exchange in a joint venture with Susquehanna International Group (SIG) to expand its prediction market business. The new exchange is scheduled to begin operations in 2026. According to The Block on the 26th (KST), Robinhood said in a statement that the joint venture will acquire MIAXdx (Designated Contract Market·DCM), a Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO), and a Swap Execution Facility (SEF) under Miami International Holdings. MIAX will retain a 10% stake in the new exchange. The new exchange will offer futures, derivatives, and prediction market products, and SIG will participate as an initial liquidity provider. Robinhood said, "Prediction market products have become the fastest-growing business segment, with more than 1 million people trading over 9 billion transactions to date," adding, "We will provide innovative products through investments in trading infrastructure." In March this year, Robinhood collaborated with Kalshi to build an in-app prediction market hub, and in August added sports prediction markets linked to American football (NFL·NCAA). U.S.-regulated prediction market platform Kalshi has recently outpaced Polymarket in monthly trading volume. As of October, Kalshi recorded $4.4 billion and Polymarket $3.02 billion in volume. However, regulatory uncertainty surrounding prediction markets still remains to be resolved. According to Bloomberg, a Nevada federal court lifted the regulatory stay that had applied to Kalshi, allowing the state gaming authorities to resume enforcement procedures. The court judged that sports-based prediction contracts operated by Kalshi, such as the timing of a football touchdown, are closer in nature to betting than derivatives. Accordingly, analyses suggest that Kalshi's sports-related markets will find it difficult to avoid scrutiny under Nevada state law. Kalshi immediately expressed its intention to appeal and again requested an emergency injunction.

The world's largest virtual asset (cryptocurrency) exchange Binance emphasized, citing examples of tracking crimes related to virtual assets, that cooperation between law enforcement agencies and exchanges is necessary to respond to crimes that abuse virtual assets. At the 'Binance 2nd BBS' held on the 24th (Korean time) at the PR Bridge Lounge in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, Kim Min-jae, a Binance special investigator, said, "Virtual asset exchanges must play an important role beyond simply providing trading services by tracking criminal proceeds and preventing crime," adding, "To this end, strengthening cooperation with law enforcement agencies is essential." Binance provides information such as the movement paths of criminal funds, subscriber information, and transaction patterns at the request of investigative agencies. It also freezes criminal funds when requested by investigative agencies. Kim explained that due to characteristics of virtual assets such as fast remittance speed, anonymity, and their global nature, exchanges must necessarily cooperate in the investigation process. He said, "Because criminal funds can move quickly, it is difficult to stop crimes without real-time cooperation between the police and exchanges," and added, "Binance is already actively working with police in several countries to track and freeze the flow of criminal funds." Requests for cooperation from investigative agencies to Binance are also on the rise. Kim said, "Last year, the number of requests for investigative cooperation received worldwide reached 65,120," and "In South Korea, there were 740 requests in the first half of this year." The possibility of victim recovery is also a reason why cooperation is important. Kim emphasized, "Because criminal funds can move quickly, it becomes difficult to track funds if there is a delay," and "If there is a rapid response through real-time cooperation, the chances of victims recovering their losses increase." He also cited actual cases. Kim said, "One of the cases tracked together with police from several countries that Binance cooperated on was a voice-phishing incident that occurred in South Korea," adding, "In that case, the criminals laundered victims' funds through multiple stages, and as a result of Binance tracking the movement of funds and freezing the criminal funds, some funds were recovered for the victims." He added, "We also assisted in tracking a suspect's funds in response to a request for investigative cooperation in a kidnapping and extortion case that occurred in Cambodia."

Zero-knowledge proof (ZK) infrastructure provider CYSIC said on the 24th that it has begun supporting zero-knowledge proof technology for the AI network NOYA. CYSIC has been providing a full-stack computing network capable of generating zero-knowledge proofs for Web3 applications including AI. For NOYA, the AI agent-based distributed network, it will provide zkML (zero-knowledge machine learning), helping to accelerate proof generation and handle real-time distributed tasks more efficiently. A CYSIC official said, "This collaboration has demonstrated the ability to provide fast and cost-effective infrastructure for large-scale Web3 applications and distributed computing environments that require zero-knowledge proof technology."

President Donald Trump's administration is reportedly preparing alternative measures in case the Supreme Court limits its authority to impose tariffs. The administration is said to be considering imposing alternative tariffs immediately if existing tariffs are invalidated. On the 22nd (local time), Bloomberg reported that the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) are reviewing provisions, such as Sections 301 and 122 of the Trade Act, that would allow the president to impose tariffs unilaterally in case tariffs based on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) are overturned. The Supreme Court reportedly showed a skeptical response during hearings this month to President Trump's broad exercise of tariff authority. The administration has said it intends to maintain tariff policy regardless of the ruling, and that it would reimpose tariffs through alternative means even if an unfavorable decision is issued. Currently, tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act account for more than half of the country's overall import tariff rate (about 14.4%), and include tariffs on products from major trading partners such as China, Canada, Mexico, and Brazil. Experts said, "If an alternative tariff system is introduced, confusion for companies and trading partners is inevitable," and "there could also be a situation where tariffs of more than $88 billion that were previously collected would have to be refunded." The Trump administration said, "We are confident in the Supreme Court ruling," but also said, "If necessary, we will immediately restore tariffs by other means."