OSL Parent Company Denies Sale Plans

FPG Halts Withdrawals Following HackFloating Point Group (FPG), a prominent crypto prime brokerage platform, has temporarily halted trading, deposits, and withdrawals following a cyber security incident that occurred on Sunday.Photo by Thom Milkovic on UnsplashIncident responseFPG, headquartered in Singapore while maintaining a base in Hoboken, New Jersey in the United States, manages over $50 billion in assets. The firm took immediate action upon discovering the incident by engaging third-party forensics experts and law enforcement agencies.The company acknowledged the problem publicly via a tweet thread on Twitter on Wednesday. FPG stated that the company has locked all third-party accounts and secured its wallets while it investigates the extent and details of the breach. Although the full extent of the loss is still under investigation, the current estimate stands at approximately $15 million to $20 million in lost cryptocurrencies.Investigative cooperationIn response to the incident, FPG is collaborating with the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, regulatory bodies, and Chainalysis to comprehend the nature of the attack and initiate asset recovery measures. As the investigation involving those entities is ongoing, specific details are not being disclosed at this stage, but FPG has pledged to provide updates as new information becomes available.The cyber security incident comes six months after FPG obtained a SOC 2 certification, which verifies the implementation of robust security, privacy, and control measures by service organizations to ensure the reliable handling of sensitive data and systems.Originally founded in 2018 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US, FPG functions as both a crypto prime brokerage platform and an agency trading desk for asset managers, offering access to liquidity across various markets. In December, FPG announced that its blockchain foundation customers accounted for 5% of the total treasury management market.Backed by prominent investors such as Coinbase Ventures, Anthony Scaramucci of SkyBridge Capital, and Naval Ravikant, the founder of AngelList, FPG has raised a total of $12 million in funding thus far.In August of the previous year, FPG successfully registered as a virtual asset service provider (VASP) in the Cayman Islands. This registration ensured the secure custody of customer assets and safeguarded them from the company’s creditors in the unlikely event of bankruptcy.Broader crypto issuesIt has not been a good couple of weeks for the crypto sector relative to hacks and platform withdrawal pauses. Within the past twenty four hours, two Asia-based crypto lending platforms, Haru Invest and Delio, have suspended withdrawals. In those cases, the issue is suspected to relate to platform contagion and solvency issues.Earlier this month, the Atomic Wallet platform was hacked despite the understanding that the project offered self-custodial wallets. Originally, the loss was estimated at $35 million, but more recent reports are now estimating that figure to be in excess of $100 million.As FPG continues its efforts to mitigate the aftermath of the cyber attack, industry participants eagerly await further updates and measures undertaken by the company to recover from this incident and restore trust among its clients.

Russia is moving closer to establishing a comprehensive legal framework for cryptocurrency, a regulatory shift intended to integrate digital assets into the mainstream economy while simultaneously cracking down on unlicensed market participants. Photo by Egor Filin on UnsplashCrypto enforcement slated for 2027According to a report from the Parliamentary Gazette, the new package of regulations is planned to be prepared by the end of June, while from July 1, 2027, liability for illegal activity by crypto intermediaries is expected to be introduced. Anatoly Aksakov, head of the State Duma’s Committee on the Financial Markets, said that the legislation is intended to establish clear rules for the market, including strict oversight of crypto exchanges. He added that the draft law could be considered in its first reading within the next month. While the legislation seeks to normalize digital assets, officials have emphasized that the market will not be a free-for-all. The proposed framework would introduce administrative, financial, and potentially criminal liability, with enforcement modeled on existing laws governing illegal banking activity. Aksakov noted in earlier comments reported by TASS that while crypto may become a fixture of daily life, it would have clear boundaries. The government plans to cap annual crypto purchases by retail investors at 300,000 rubles (approximately $3,800). This regulatory drive coincides with an increase in crypto’s role in Russia’s cross-border transactions. Following the invasion of Ukraine, Western sanctions severed Russian banks from the SWIFT messaging system, prompting Moscow to seek alternative channels for international settlements. New data suggests these alternative payment rails have gained rapid traction. A report by TRM Labs revealed that sanctions-related crypto activity in 2025 was dominated by Russia-linked flows, a trend driven largely by the explosive growth of A7A5, a ruble-pegged stablecoin. The firm reported that A7A5 processed over $72 billion in total volume that year, while a wallet cluster tied to the A7 sanctions evasion network A7 was connected to at least $39 billion. TRM Labs identified A7 as a key bridge between Russian entities and partners in China, Southeast Asia, and Iran, signaling a concerted effort to bypass U.S. dollar-based systems. Illicit volumes hit record $158BThese numbers come as illicit crypto usage rises worldwide. According to TRM Labs, criminal transaction volume hit a record $158 billion in 2025—a 145% increase over the previous year. Yet, despite this surge, illicit activity accounted for a smaller share of the total market, falling from 1.3% in 2024 to 1.2% in 2025. Beyond Russian sanctions evasion, researchers also highlighted the burgeoning scale of Chinese-language money laundering networks (CMLNs). TRM Labs identified Chinese-language escrow services and underground banking as a distinct, high-growth sector. Adjusted crypto volume for these networks rose from roughly $123 million in 2020 to over $103 billion in 2025. Meanwhile, Chainalysis offered a smaller estimate, finding that CMLNs processed $16.1 billion in illicit crypto funds in 2025. The firm estimates that the illicit on-chain laundering market has surged from $10 billion in 2020 to over $82 billion today. This growth is supported by a sharp expansion in infrastructure, with the ecosystem now utilizing over 1,799 active wallets. Over the past five years, these operations accounted for roughly 20% of all illicit crypto funds—a share that has grown faster than illicit inflows to centralized exchanges. 

South Korea will tax crypto gains regardless of whether assets sit on domestic exchanges, offshore platforms or in self-custody wallets when its long-delayed digital asset levy takes effect in 2027. Policing private wallets, however, will be difficult, the tax agency acknowledged. Income residents earn from transferring or lending digital assets will be subject to tax wherever they are kept, the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the National Tax Service said in written responses to People Power Party lawmaker Kim Sang-hoon, according to Digital Asset. The regime is scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, 2027. Gains above an annual deduction of 2.5 million won, or about $1,800, will be treated as miscellaneous income and taxed at 20%, or 22% including the local surtax.Ilustration generated with ChatGPTThe NTS said self-custody wallets are difficult to track since users can freely generate new addresses and transact without regulated intermediaries. It plans to use blockchain tracing tools to strengthen enforcement. For offshore exchanges, authorities will rely on overseas financial account reporting and the OECD's Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework, or CARF. The treatment of staking, lending, airdrops and hard forks remains unsettled. Tokens distributed free by exchanges may already count as miscellaneous income when classified as prizes or promotional rewards. Foreign crypto companies and domestic financial institutions are also expanding their presence in the market. BitGo Korea completed its virtual asset service provider registration after receiving Financial Intelligence Unit approval on Aug. 18, Yonhap reported. It is the first local subsidiary of a foreign crypto company to register as a VASP without acquiring an already licensed operator. Hanwha Asset Management, Ripple and U.S. investment manager Canary Capital have formed a partnership spanning trading, custody, wallets, payments, tokenized real-world assets and exchange-traded funds, Korea Economic Daily TV reported. Canary CEO Steven McClurg said the company intends to launch an ETF in South Korea, building on its experience with its U.S. XRP ETF. Ripple has also signed Jeonbuk Bank as the first South Korean regional bank to use Ripple Payments for cross-border corporate remittances, cutting settlement times from several days to near-instant. Shinhan Asset Management signed a memorandum of understanding with Plume Network to test a won-denominated tokenized fund based on one of its ultra-short-term bond funds, Yonhap Infomax reported. The trial will be conducted in a country outside the two markets and cover issuance, distribution, wallet whitelisting, know-your-customer (KYC) checks and anti-money-laundering (AML) controls. Any rollout at home would still require regulatory approval. The 2027 timeline could still slip. Kim is preparing a bill to push the levy back to Jan. 1, 2029, Edaily reported. The National Assembly's legislative office is reviewing the proposal, which could be introduced as early as this month. South Korea first planned to introduce the crypto tax in 2021 but has delayed it several times.