Global regulation is still in massive effect. From Africa to the EU to the good ol’ SEC, we are seeing the guidelines and policy updates on par with traditional finance. Before we dig in, however, we have to first cover what’s going on in the Kaspa community - the crowned King of crypto.

Kaspa Development Updates

First, The Kaspa Industrial Initiative (Kii) launched a redesigned website highlighting three flagship systems built on Kaspa: WarpCore for ISO 20022 payment settlement, Meridian for institutional asset issuance and servicing, and KiiWORKS for trade documents, credentials, and product records. The updated site also expands the project's technical documentation.

The redesign further clarifies the separation between Stichting Kii Foundation's public-goods work and the commercial entities operating the products. According to the website, the systems have been built and tested, with pilot discussions open ahead of launch.

Following the Kaspa Industrial Initiative (KII) website redesign, members of the Kaspa community noted that GigaWatt Stablecoin was omitted from the group's website. When asked about this on X.com, the team confirmed that GigaWatt Stablecoin remains under active development, despite not being featured on their new website.  The project is intended to serve as a settlement mechanism for the energy sector.

When asked if they were still working on Gigawatt Coin, they shared: 

“Yes. But the regulatory landscape has changed and needs clarification; we have several preferred paths to delivery, but they are gated by EU regulations in particular. The goal remains as a settlement mechanism for energy industry users with  the associated environmental attributes also settled and accounted for.”

The team said development is continuing while it evaluates evolving stablecoin regulations, including the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework and proposed U.S. legislation such as the GENIUS Act, which could affect cross-border settlement projects.

But what about core development? Kaspa Core Developer Michael Sutton shared additional context on the design philosophy behind Open ICC, an ongoing research concept exploring policy-driven distributed systems. 

On July 10, 2026, Sutton posted: 

“My line of thinking towards open ICC was motivated by the desire to write a distributed open game where participants write their own free policies (=actors) and the core game cells only enforce the core rules/physics, but in the process I started realizing the broader implications”

The post offers additional insight into the origins of the research, suggesting the concept expanded beyond its initial gaming-inspired use case into a broader architectural framework.

Moreover, developer Merlin reported that personal compatibility testing found Kasplex and Igra to be more than 200 times less expensive than Ethereum mainnet while maintaining identical execution to Ethereum Sepolia across 66 EVM operations. The benchmark included token transfers, DEX swaps, lending, and NFT functions, and documented deployment and infrastructure challenges encountered during testing.

Summarizing the findings, Merlin wrote:

“TL;DR: I built a guide to help builders leverage Kaspa smart contracts, which led me to create an Ethereum/Kasplex/Igra compatibility test tool. The results show that Kasplex and Igra are fully EVM-compatible TODAY and over 200x cheaper than Ethereum. Deployment and RPC issues remain, but Kasplex and Igra together open powerful opportunities for developers.”

Lastly, in a thread discussing the current status of DAGKnight, Kaspa Core Developer @coderofstuff_ shared that an internal development network has been running since February. According to the post, current work is focused on implementing an incremental version of UMC for production use and onboarding additional core developers to the project. 

Michael Sutton suggested development efforts are expected to accelerate in the coming weeks: 

"The August rush of core knights is coming..." 

International Crypto Regulation Updates 

SEC’s 2026 Regulatory Agenda Targets Three Major Crypto Rulemakings

On July 7, 2026, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published its 2026 Regulatory Agenda, outlining several proposals that could affect the digital asset industry. The agenda includes three rulemakings that explicitly reference crypto: Crypto Assets, Amendments to Broker-Dealer Financial Responsibility and Recordkeeping and Reporting Rules Regarding Crypto Assets, and Crypto Market Structure Amendments.

In an accompanying statement, SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins said the Commission intends to modernize its regulatory framework to better accommodate digital assets while maintaining investor protections:

“This Commission recognizes the importance of advancing our regulatory framework to reflect the realities of today’s operating environment – embracing innovation and new technology. To deliver on President Trump’s goal to ensure that the United States is the crypto capital of the world, we are embracing innovation to bring more products onshore, creating clear rules of the road for capital raising with crypto assets, and providing clarity as to how market participants can custody and facilitate trading of tokenized securities on-chain. “

It’s important to note that the agenda is not just another attempt to define which tokens are securities. Instead, it represents the next phase: creating the actual infrastructure through which crypto offerings, custody, and trading could operate under SEC rules. The three potential rulemakings would address different parts of the crypto market. The Crypto Assets proposal may establish exemptions or safe harbors for the offer and sale of crypto assets, potentially providing token issuers with clearer pathways to raise capital. The broker-dealer proposal would consider amending existing net capital, customer protection, custody, recordkeeping, and reporting rules to clarify how they apply to crypto assets. Finally, the Crypto Market Structure Amendments would consider modifying Exchange Act rules to accommodate the trading of crypto assets on alternative trading systems and national securities exchanges.

The agenda signals that the SEC intends to develop a more comprehensive regulatory framework for digital assets, with proposals addressing crypto market structure, broker-dealer obligations, and the treatment of crypto assets within existing securities regulations. The rulemakings remain in the proposed stage, and no adoption timeline has been announced.

Brazil Expands Crypto Tax Reporting Requirements

Brazil’s Normative Instruction No. 2,291/2025, issued by the Federal Revenue Service, established the Declaration of Crypto Assets, or DeCripto, and aligned the country’s crypto-reporting framework with the OECD’s Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework. Its monthly transaction-reporting provisions took effect on July 1, 2026, replacing Brazil’s previous 2019 reporting regime.

Brazilian individuals and entities must submit DeCripto when their combined monthly transactions exceed BRL 35,000 and are conducted through foreign crypto service providers, decentralized platforms, or without an intermediary. Covered crypto service providers—including certain foreign providers actively serving Brazilian residents—have separate reporting obligations covering individualized transactions and annual customer balances.

Reportable activity includes the following: purchases or sales, crypto-to-crypto exchanges, airdrops, staking and mining income, loans, collateral transactions, payments for goods and services, and transfers to self-hosted wallets. Monthly reports are due by the last business day of the following month, while annual balance and CARF reports are due by the last business day of January. The measure expands tax transparency and international information sharing but does not itself impose new crypto tax rates.

Moreover, under the Central Bank’s broader virtual-asset framework, crypto service providers already operating when the new authorization rules took effect generally must initiate the authorization process by October 30, 2026.

Russian Banks Preparing to Launch Crypto Trading

Russia’s largest banks are working to launch crypto wallets and digital asset custody services after draft bill No. 1194918-8, "On Digital Currency and Digital Rights," moves toward becoming law. The draft bill passed its first reading in Russia’s State Duma in April 2026, permitting crypto trading in Russia for the first time through select intermediaries if ultimately enacted. Eligible digital assets must meet certain criteria, including market capitalization and trading history, with an annual investment limit of roughly $4,000. First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank, Vladimir Chistyukhin, expects the law to take effect in September 2026. While the bill is not yet guaranteed to become law, Russia’s three largest banks expect it to pass.

Russia’s largest state-backed banks, Sberbank and T-Bank, plan to apply for digital asset licenses that would allow them to offer crypto services. Sberbank intends to integrate those services into its Sberbank Online and SberInvestments apps.

First Deputy Chairman of Sberbank’s Management Board, Kirill Tsarev, said of the planned launch: 

“As regulations emerge, we will prepare a service for our clients. Essentially, it will be a crypto wallet, which we will implement first in Sberbank Online and SberInvestments.”

Additionally, the largest privately held bank, Alfa-Bank, also announced plans to offer crypto services to both retail and institutional clients. According to Wu Blockchain, the bank plans to build on public blockchains in an effort to appeal to international users.

According to Binance.com, the development reflects a broader industry trend:

“For the broader market, the Russian pivot toward regulated crypto custody is one more data point in a multi-jurisdiction shift away from the unhosted wallet model toward bank-intermediated digital asset services. When the largest private bank in a G20 economy decides to enter crypto custody, it stops being a fringe theory and starts looking like market infrastructure.”

EU Begins Review of MiCA to Address Foreign Stablecoin Issuers and Tokenization

The European Commission has begun consulting stakeholders on potential revisions to the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, including whether the framework should be expanded to cover non-EU crypto-asset issuers and emerging tokenized payment instruments. The consultation runs through Sept. 30, 2026, with any legislative revisions expected in 2027.

According to Euronews, the review is partly driven by global regulatory developments surrounding stablecoins. Approximately 95% of stablecoins are currently pegged to the U.S. dollar, while Artemis Analytics estimates stablecoin transaction volume reached roughly $33 trillion in 2025, representing approximately 72% year-over-year growth.

Since MiCA entered into full application, several exchanges operating in the European Union have delisted Tether's USDT due to compliance requirements, while Binance has reduced its stablecoin offerings in the region.

German Banks Roll Out Native Crypto Trading

Germany’s savings and cooperative banking networks are preparing to roll out crypto trading. DekaBank is building a platform for roughly 340 savings banks. Participation is optional, but early interest has been promising.

German lender DZ Bank secured its MiCA license in December 2025 and has built a crypto trading platform available to its network of roughly 650 cooperative banks, offering trading in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Cardano. Surveys found that roughly 71% of the cooperative banks are interested in offering crypto trading.

Board member at Volksbank Raiffeisenbank Würzburg, Claus Reder, stated: 

“Now, trading takes place in a familiar environment. That gives the trading service a certain credibility.”

Another bank executive, Ralf Kölbach, who heads cooperative lender Westerwald Bank, said:

“If a local bank doesn’t offer cryptocurrency trading, it loses relevance in certain segments of the market, for example, among young or tech-savvy customers.” 

Ondo Finance to Offer Perpetual Futures Contracts for Tokenized Stocks 

Eligible Ondo Finance users outside of the US, can now access 24/7 trading, with up to 20x leverage, and use certain tokenized stocks as collateral, including Strategy (MSTR), Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Nvidia (NVDA), gold (XAU), silver (XAG), and more.  

This is particularly significant because this means Ondo is expanding tokenized assets beyond spot ownership; in other words, tokenized stocks can now function as productive collateral for leveraged derivatives trading - which is the first platform to do so. There is strong demand for this as Ondo has approximately 996 million USD in tokenized assets and 126 million USD in 24-hour volume, while the broader RWA crypto sector is valued at approximately 53 billion USD. Ondo posted on X.com: 

“Ondo Perps is the first platform to allow tokenized stocks as collateral, available now for Pre-Alpha users. RWA perps can now trade on a platform built to deliver liquidity and capital efficiency on par with traditional derivatives exchanges.”

Paxos Launches PayPal USD on Polygon

As of July 9, 2026, PayPal USD (PYUSD) is now available through the Polygon Open Money Stack (OMS). Issued by Paxos, known for their regulated tokens like gold-backed Pax Gold (PAXG). PYUSD can easily be integrated into Polygon's payments infrastructure through Polygon’s One Money Stack (OMS), enabling businesses to incorporate the stablecoin into cross-border payment workflows.

Explaining the significance of the launch, Polygon wrote: 

“For a regulated buyer, that federal backing means PYUSD meets the compliance bar that institutional and enterprise use cases require.”

Paxos issues PYUSD under a national trust charter supervised by the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). According to Polygon, the network settles more than $2.5 billion in stablecoin volume daily and more than$2.6 trillion in cumulative stablecoin volume.

Tether will issue native USDT on Bitcoin via RGB.

Tether announced plans to launch a native Bitcoin version of USDT using the RGB protocol, nearly a decade after the stablecoin migrated away from the Omni Layer in 2017. The rollout is expected within weeks and will be supported by Bitcoin-native infrastructure provider UTEXO. As stated, 

"This is not a nostalgic homecoming. It's a strategic bet that Bitcoin's security model, combined with RGB's client-side architecture, can capture a slice of the $33 trillion in annual stablecoin settlement volume — and potentially redefine what Bitcoin is capable of." 

The launch will use the RGB protocol, which enables digital assets and smart contracts to be issued on Bitcoin using client-side validation. Rather than storing all transaction data on-chain, RGB records cryptographic commitments on Bitcoin while validating asset data locally, allowing assets to benefit from Bitcoin's proof-of-work security with improved scalability and privacy.

South Africa Releases Draft Crypto Tax Guide

On July 1, 2026, the South African Revenue Service published a draft guide explaining how existing income-tax and capital-gains-tax rules apply to crypto assets - though the document does not yet establish a new crypto tax regime and is not legally binding. Moreover, it also does not address the treatment of crypto assets under the Value-Added Tax Act. Regardless, the report’s guidance is important to track as global entities enter the market. Let’s take a look. 

First, the guide characterizes crypto assets as intangible property and financial instruments rather than legal tender, currency, foreign currency, or shares. South African tax residents are generally taxable on worldwide crypto income and capital gains, including transactions conducted on foreign exchanges.

Whether a crypto gain is taxed as ordinary income or as a capital gain depends on the taxpayer’s intention and the facts surrounding the activity, including trading frequency, holding period, business conduct and whether the assets were acquired as part of a profit-making scheme. The taxpayer bears the burden of substantiating capital treatment.

Sales for fiat currency, crypto-to-crypto swaps and purchases made with crypto may all constitute taxable disposals. The guide also addresses crypto received as employment compensation, arbitrage profits, mining and staking rewards, airdrops, hard forks and donations. Mining and staking rewards are generally included in gross income at market value when received, while the treatment of airdrops and forked assets depends on whether they were fortuitously received or earned through services or other activity.

Although the guide mentions decentralized finance, it does not provide detailed rules for individual DeFi arrangements. Instead, it states that lending, borrowing, derivatives and other structures must be examined individually under ordinary income-tax and capital-gains-tax principles.

Lastly, taxpayers must disclose crypto-related income, expenses, gains, and losses - this is in addition to retaining transaction records for at least 5 years while complying with any applicable provisional tax requirements. The guide also highlights SARS’s audit and information-gathering powers, as well as South Africa’s implementation of international crypto reporting under the OECD’s Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework.