US Stablecoin Issuers Seek National Bank Charters, USDG Launches in EU
By Keith R. Murphy
According to a recent press release, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin has submitted an application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish a national trust bank, First National Digital Currency Bank, N.A. According to the release, if the application is approved, the proposed national trust bank would be authorized to operate as a federally regulated trust institution. Obtaining the federal trust charter reportedly also would assist the company in meeting the anticipated requirements under the proposed GENIUS act stablecoin legislation.
In related news, a major U.S. fintech company and issuer of the RLUSD stablecoin is also applying to the OCC for a national bank charter, according to a recent report. The charter reportedly would allow cryptocurrency companies to settle payments faster by bypassing intermediary banks. The company also is seeking a Federal Master account to give it access to the U.S. central bank’s payments infrastructure, which would allow it to hold its stablecoin reserves with the central bank, according to the report.
In other stablecoin news, according to a recent press release, Global Dollar, a global stablecoin regulated by the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority and the Monetary Authority of Singapore, has launched to consumers across the EU, opening up access to more than 450 million consumers in 30 countries.
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US Companies Launch Staking Rewards SOL ETF, Tokenized Index Fund
By Jonathan Cardenas
A U.S.-based provider of alternative-strategy exchange traded products (ETPs) recently announced the launch of a joint initiative with a U.S.-based digital asset investment services provider to develop a U.S.-listed exchange traded fund (ETF) that will provide investors with direct exposure to Solana (SOL) and SOL staking rewards. The ETF, which is listed on a major U.S. options exchange, provides investors with spot SOL exposure and on-chain SOL staking rewards that are passed directly to investors. According to a press release, the ETF intends to hold the majority of its assets in directly staked SOL, while the remainder of its assets will be held in ETPs that stake SOL as well as a small amount held in liquid staking tokens.
In other news, S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI) recently announced its plans to enter the index fund tokenization market through a collaboration with Centrifuge, a real-world asset-focused decentralized infrastructure provider. According to a press release, S&P DJI will license the S&P 500 Index to Centrifuge’s web3 asset management arm and to a leading global asset manager in order to launch a tokenized S&P 500 Index fund (Fund), which will enable investors to gain on-chain exposure to the S&P 500 Index. The Fund, which is subject to regulatory approval, is planned to launch later this year.
According to a recent report, venture capital investment in the crypto industry rose significantly in the second quarter of 2025, reaching approximately $10.03B in funding. According to the report, crypto venture funding levels amounted to approximately $5.14B in June 2025 alone, which ranks as the strongest month for crypto venture financing volume since January 2022. Crypto venture financings in Q2 2025 were spread across various crypto sectors including blockchain infrastructure, decentralized finance, stablecoins and blockchain services, among others.
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FATF Publishes Sixth Targeted Update on Virtual Assets and VASPs
By Robert A. Musiala Jr.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recently published its sixth Targeted Update on Implementation of the FATF Standards on Virtual Assets and Virtual Asset Service Providers. According to a press release, the report finds that “overall, jurisdictions—including those with materially important VASP activity—have made progress since 2024 towards developing or implementing AML/CFT regulation and taking supervisory and enforcement actions.” However, the report finds that more work is needed on licensing and registration, and jurisdictions continue to face difficulties in identifying natural or legal persons that conduct VASP activities. The report also finds that many jurisdictions have reported challenges with mitigating the risk of offshore VASPs (virtual asset service provider).
The FATF report highlights the following emerging risks arising from the criminal exploitation of virtual assets (VAs): (1) the use of stablecoins by illicit actors has increased since 2024 and “most on-chain illicit activity now involves stablecoins”; (2) DPRK this year carried out the largest single VA theft in history, stealing $1.46 billion from the VASP ByBit, with only 3.8 percent of the stolen funds having been recovered; (3) there has been a recent increase in the use of VAs in fraud and scams, with one report finding approximately $51 billion in illicit on-chain activity relating to fraud and scams in 2024.
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OFAC Sanctions Target Schemes Involving Ransomware, Cryptocurrencies
By John E. Robertson
On July 1, the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced sanctions against Aeza Group, a Russian bulletproof hosting (BPH) services provider, along with its CEO Arsenii Penzev and other key personnel. According to a press release, the BPH provider sold access to specialized servers designed to help cybercriminals engage in ransomware attacks, information theft and the drug trade. As part of the action, OFAC added four individuals and four entities to the OFAC Specially Designated Nationals list.
In a similar action, on July 8, OFAC announced sanctions against Song Kum Hyo, an individual associated with the sanctioned DPRK hacking group Andariel. Andariel is reported to have falsified identities and nationalities for its members, who then obtained employment as information technology workers at unsuspecting companies. In its press release, OFAC reports the workers were paid in virtual currencies that were then remitted to the DPRK. OFAC also announced sanctions against Gayk Asatryan, a Russian national, who reportedly hired North Korean IT workers, which generated revenue for the DPRK.
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DOJ and Europol Dismantle Global Investment Scams, Indict Perpetrators
By Keith R. Murphy, Brandon Hansen
According to a recent press release by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), two men, including the founder and leader of operations of a major multi-level marketing program, were recently indicted for their alleged involvement in founding, operating and promoting an international investment scheme that defrauded investors of an estimated $650 million. According to the press release, this scam was accomplished through promises of extraordinary returns on advertised investment packages that were supposedly managed by elite foreign exchange traders. The DOJ alleges that the more than $650 million in investment funds collected were then transferred to virtual currency wallet addresses controlled by program executives and allegedly dispersed among high-ranking promoters and program leadership, all while the company allegedly claimed that it was transferring funds over to a new platform following a supposed network hack.
In another recent press release, the DOJ announced the indictment of four North Korean nationals alleged to be involved in wire fraud and the laundering of stolen virtual currencies. The DOJ alleges that by utilizing fraudulent identification to gain employment as remote IT workers at an Atlanta, Georgia-based blockchain research and development company, defendants Kim Kwang Jin and Jong Pong Ju exploited their positions to steal virtual currency valued at approximately $915,000. The DOJ alleges that following the theft, these defendants transferred the stolen currencies into two separate virtual currency exchange accounts controlled by the defendants under false Malaysian aliases.
A final notable press release by the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) reported a victory in an ongoing two-year investigation when authorities conducted an operation in Spain, resulting in the arrest of five members of a criminal network involved in cryptocurrency investment fraud. Europol alleges that the perpetrators laundered an estimated $460 million in euros as illicit profits stolen through a series of associates worldwide. These associates allegedly utilized the accounts and routing information in the names of different entities to both receive and subsequently transfer the funds into their own accounts. Approximately 5,000 victims are affected by this incident, and the case is ongoing.
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DEX and DeFi Protocol Hacked; Reports Note More than $2B in 2025 Hack Losses
By Robert A. Musiala Jr.
According to recent reports, the GMX V1 decentralized exchange (DEX) was hacked, with losses totaling approximately $40 million. Blockchain security company SlowMist reportedly attributed the exploit to a design flaw that allowed hackers to manipulate the GLP token price through the calculation of the total assets under management. In another recent hack, stablecoin decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Resupply reportedly lost $9.6 million. Blockchain security firm Cyvers reportedly attributed the hack to a price manipulation attack involving the protocol’s integration with a synthetic stablecoin called cvcrvUSD.
A recently published report by TRM Labs, a blockchain analytics company, found that in the first half of 2025, more than $2.1 billion was stolen from the crypto industry across at least 75 distinct hacks and exploits. The report notes that the number “marks a significant surge in illicit activity — surpassing the previous H1 record set in 2022 by roughly 10% and nearly equaling the total amount stolen in all of 2024.” In a separate report, blockchain security firm Cyvers quantified crypto losses in the first half of 2025 at $2.5 billion. In a third recent report, Elliptic, a blockchain analytics company, analyzed crypto scams in 2025. The report analyzes the following 11 major scam trends observed in 2024 and 2025: address poisoning, ATM scams, deepfake authorization scams, donation scams, incentive-based scams, phishing and ice phishing, pig butchering, Ponzi schemes, recovery scams, rug pulls and pump-and-dump schemes, and sextortion.
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