Pakistan's government signed an MoU with SC Financial Technologies, a World Liberty Financial affiliate, to explore integrating the USD1 stablecoin into regulated cross-border payments. The agreement includes collaboration with the central bank on potential technical integration, aligning with Pakistan's broader push to expand digital finance and advance virtual asset regulation.

Dubai's DFSA has updated its Crypto Token Regulatory Framework, enforcing a ban on privacy tokens and related tools across the DIFC from Jan. 12. Stablecoins must now be fiat-pegged and backed by high-quality, liquid reserves, while algorithmic designs like Ethena are excluded from the stablecoin category. Token approval decisions are shifted to licensed firms, which must assess and document the suitability and compliance of assets they list.

Tether froze roughly $182 million in USDT within 24 hours on Jan. 11, targeting five Tron wallets with balances from about $12 million to nearly $50 million. The tokens were locked at the contract level. Since 2023, over $3 billion has been frozen, and stablecoins now dominate illicit-activity metrics.

In 2025, Chainalysis reported that illicit crypto addresses received at least $154 billion, with a large share tied to sanctioned entities and heavy use of stablecoins. Russia’s ruble-backed A7A5 token, launched in February 2025, processed more than $93.3 billion in transactions within the year. Although these volumes grew rapidly, illicit activity still accounted for less than 1% of overall on-chain transaction volume.

Binance has introduced perpetual futures contracts for gold and silver under the tickers XAUUSDT and XAGUSDT, expanding its derivatives offering beyond purely crypto assets. The products, settled in USDT and operating under FSRA oversight in Abu Dhabi’s ADGM, give traders onchain access to precious metals price movements without physical delivery. Other major exchanges already list similar contracts, underlining growing demand for safe-haven exposure via crypto-native infrastructure.

Wyoming has introduced the Frontier Stable Token (FRNT), described as the first stablecoin issued and backed by a US state government. The dollar-pegged token, which went live on January 7 and initially trades on Kraken via Solana, is fully collateralized by cash, cash equivalents, and short-term US Treasuries managed by Franklin Templeton. Interest from the reserves is directed to Wyoming public schools instead of FRNT holders, and state officials are testing its use for government payments amid ongoing federal regulatory uncertainty.

China's major financial industry associations have jointly stated that real-world asset tokenization falls under illegal fundraising, securities, or futures activities and is treated as unlawful finance. The directive targets Hong Kong-linked and offshore structures with mainland staff and applies liability across the Web3 service chain, from token issuers to technology, marketing, and payment providers.

In the 2024–25 financial year, 49 cryptocurrency exchanges registered with India's Financial Intelligence Unit, which now serves as the primary supervisor for virtual asset platforms under anti-money laundering rules. Non-compliant exchanges were fined a total of ₹28 crore, while authorities mapped regional transaction hotspots and flagged digital assets tied to scams, fraud, gambling and more serious criminal risks.

A phishing campaign targeting MetaMask users deploys a convincing 2FA-style workflow to capture wallet recovery phrases. According to SlowMist's chief security officer, attackers use near-identical domains and branded emails to impersonate MetaMask Support. The scheme underscores increasingly polished social engineering tactics despite reports of falling crypto phishing losses in 2025.