Singapore’s crypto economy grows 55%, South Korea set to make crypto market makers legal, and Chinese spy ministry warns would-be foreign spies it’s watching the blockchain.
China’s Ministry of State Security has toughened its rhetoric on the risks of cryptocurrencies, highlighting their role in crime and stressing transactions are not really anonymous.
According to the South China Morning Post the spooks published an article on social media stating cryptocurrencies are used to facilitate money laundering and cyberattacks and serve as “accomplices” in espionage.
The MSS stated that crypto is often used by “overseas anti-China hostile forces” to disrupt financial order and harm national security.
The warning that crypto isn’t as anonymous as most people assume, seemed to be a coded warning aimed at would-be foreign spies who mistakenly believe they could send or receive payments without the authorities knowing:
‘We’re watching the blockchain’ was the message. While the warning holds true for most cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, Monero or Zcash are totally private when used correctly.China banned crypto a number of times, before a comprehensive ban on exchanges in 2017 and a later ban on mining in 2021. It has also declared all crypto businesses illegal.
Singapore’s crypto activity rose 55.4% to $284 billion in the year ended June 2026, bucking a regional contraction and regaining its position as the largest crypto economy in Central and Southeast Asia and Oceania (CSAO), according to Chainalysis.
Much of the growth came from institutional platform activity, which increased 94% to $60 billion, concentrated among a small number of market makers, over-the-counter trading firms, and institutional brokerages. Chainalysis said the broader CSAO crypto economy contracted 6.8% over the same period.
“The growth in Singapore’s institutional platform ecosystem was very concentrated and marked by mostly high-volume activity by existing platforms rather than the dynamic entry of new services,” Chainalysis told Cointelegraph.
Total crypto economic activity in CSAO. Source: Chainalysis
South Korea’s Financial Services Commission said it is considering a market-making system for digital assets, after a stablecoin linked to the value of the Japanese yen traded for as much as four times its peg on a major South Korean crypto exchange earlier this month.
Crypto exchange Upbit opened trading of JPYC, a yen-backed stablecoin, on Sept. 17, with the market opening at 12 Korean won per JPYC before reaching a high of 37.6 Korean won just an hour later, more than four times its market value. The spike was attributed to limited liquidity on Upbit.
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