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It has emerged in recent days that two London-headquartered crypto startups have taken steps towards expanding into the Asian market.  Funding to fuel Asian expansion Haruko, an investment platform that focuses on digital assets based in London, announced that it has raised $6 million in a Series A funding round, with the intention of using the funds to propel the company’s expansion into Southeast Asia. The round was led by White Star Capital and MMC Ventures. Combined with an initial seed round which was completed in March 2022, Haruko has raised a total of $16 million. The firm provided details of its latest funding earlier this week through a press release published via AccessWire.  Having been founded in 2021, the startup has established its operations in Europe and North America, adding in excess of 50 institutions to its client list. Those clients include hedge funds, family offices, market makers, over-the-counter (OTC) trading desks, digital asset custodians and prime brokerages. Haruko co-founder and CEO Shamyl Malik spoke to the firm’s global expansion plans, stating: "We're looking forward to continuing our global expansion, investing in exceptionally talented team members to support us in our goal of building out an industry-leading, end-to-end solution for digital assets and the future of the finance industry. We will continue to invest singularly in this mission, ensuring the quality of our products and services is at the forefront of all our activity." The company has already established a base in Singapore through which it can expand further into the Asian market. Asia is clearly becoming an attractive destination for crypto startups as alongside Haruko, a recent announcement from crypto custodian Copper outlined that it has acquired a trading license in Hong Kong.Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on UnsplashTCSP license in Hong Kong The London-headquartered digital assets custodian outlined on X that it has secured a Trust or Company Service Provider (TCSP) license in Hong Kong from the autonomous Chinese territory’s Companies Registry. Copper CEO Dmitry Tokarev commented on the milestone, stating: "Combining trust and efficiency is fundamental to our institution-first approach. This license approval in a key global hub only strengthens that unique offer, highlighting Copper’s compliance with Hong Kong’s regulatory frameworks and standards." The license enables the company in extending the offering of its digital asset custody services to clients in Hong Kong. Tokarev added that the license approval “is a key development in Copper’s expansion in the Asia Pacific market.” Back in 2020, the firm raised $8 million in funding in a Series A round that, as with Haruko, featured MMC Ventures, with a view towards expanding into Asia and North America. Towards the end of last year, the firm launched a settlement network for institutional crypto traders. Its ClearLoop network enables clients to manage collateral and settle trades across a number of exchanges while increasing capital efficiency and mitigating counterparty risk. Over the course of the month of June, the company claimed to have processed 13.1 million trades via ClearLoop, accounting for a notional traded volume of $109.9 billion. 17,500 individual risk clearing settlements were finalized, with 3,600 inter-exchange movements. The company had a number of significant announcements last month, including a collaboration with the Sui layer-1 blockchain and the integration of the ClearLoop system by global crypto exchange, Kraken.

US Sanctions Chinese for Enabling Crypto Money LaunderingIn a press release published earlier this week, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) within the Department of the Treasury in the United States, stated that it had sanctioned two Chinese nationals and a Hong Kong British national for allegedly having aided the North Korean government in crypto money laundering activities.©Pexels/RODNAE ProductionsThe Americans claim that the funds are the proceeds of cyber crime with the laundered money in turn being used to support the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) regime, including its ballistic missile and weapons programs.Illicit OTC crypto tradesThe three OFAC-sanctioned individuals are Wu Huihui (Wu), Cheng Hung Man (Cheng) and Sim Hyon Sop (Sim). Wu is an over the counter (OTC) cryptocurrency trader based within China. OFAC claims that he has facilitated the conversion of millions of dollars worth of stolen digital assets into fiat currency at the behest of a North Korean cyber-crime syndicate.In 2009 OFAC sanctioned a small North Korean bank, Korea Kwangson Banking Corp. (KKBC). At the time, the agency claimed that KKBC had extended financial services to previously designated North Korean banks including Tanchon Commercial Bank and Korea Hyoksin Trading Corporation. Fourteen years on, OFAC has now identified Sim as a facilitator of KKBC money laundering schemes. OFAC claims that Sim represented the sanctioned bank, and in the process, he was the recipient of millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency.Overseas earningsThe agency claims that the source of this money was the earnings of North Korean IT workers who had worked overseas, including within the United States. The North Korean regime has pursued a strategy of sending workers into employment overseas in an effort to raise capital in harder currency.Like Wu, Cheng was also identified as an OTC cryptocurrency trader. It’s understood that Cheng collaborated with Wu, and employed a series of shell companies in order to convert cryptocurrency into fiat money.Blockchain data analysis firm Chainalysis has researched the topic based upon the OFAC and Department of Justice data and information. That analysis has revealed that the North Korean hackers and cyber-crime facilitators make use of cryptocurrency mixers such as Tornado Cash and Sinbad. While other illicit entities utilize these crypto mixers which attempt to obfuscate the origin of digital assets, Chainalysis’ research suggests that the North Korea-affiliated actors use mixers to a far greater extent than others.Reward offeredIt’s understood that the US authorities indicted a fourth person who remains unknown beyond his/her online moniker, “live:jammychen0150.” Properties in the United States connected with the three known individuals have been frozen. The State Department has also outlined its willingness to provide a reward of up to $5 million for any information that leads to the arrest or conviction of Sim. Furthermore, rewards of $500,000 each are being offered relative to the apprehension of two of Sim’s associates, Han Linlin and Qin Gouming.In a statement, Department of Justice Criminal Division Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite Jr. said that “the North Korean operatives have innovated their approach to evading sanctions by exploiting the technological features of virtual assets to facilitate payments and profits, and targeting virtual currency companies for theft.”

Singapore’s DBS Bank has announced the launch of the distribution of crypto-linked structured notes. The development will see structured notes tokenized on the Ethereum blockchain, with the product being made available to eligible non-DBS clients across three digital investment platforms and exchanges. In a press release published to its website on Aug. 21, DBS, the largest bank in Southeast Asia, disclosed that its tokenized structured notes would be made available to the investing public via ADDX, DigiFT and HydraX. These platforms have signed agreements with DBS to distribute its tokenized structured notes, which are debt securities that combine various types of financial products into one offering.Photo by Shubham Dhage on UnsplashFirst token distributionThe development marks a milestone for DBS insofar as it makes for the bank’s first-ever token distribution. The bank explained that the nature of the note means that investors are provided with a cash payout when cryptocurrency prices rise. In this way, the investor can build exposure to the asset class without having to directly manage any digital assets.While this is DBS Bank’s first token distribution, the bank had launched crypto-linked structured notes for its own eligible clients back in September 2024. DBS asserted that demand for the product has been strong, given that it enables investors to run advanced investment strategies related to their digital asset portfolios. ‘The next frontier of financial markets infrastructure’Commenting on the development, DBS Bank’s Head of Foreign Exchange and Digital Assets, Li Zhen, said that “asset tokenization is the next frontier of financial markets infrastructure.” He added that the tokenized product offering addresses a growing institutional appetite for digital assets. Singapore-based Ryan De Souza, APAC partnership lead at blockchain development firm Offchain Labs, described the product offering as an example of the fractionalization prophecy starting to play out. Access to this type of product would typically be available with a minimum investment size of $100,000. With the tokenization of the product, accessibility is increased given that minimum investment has been reduced to $1,000. Each tokenized note represents a fungible $1,000 share of the conventional structure note product. The development is also significant from the perspective of Ethereum. It demonstrates yet another instance of institutional adoption, which increases both liquidity and demand relative to ETH. Tokenized product offerings are likely to gain further momentum given that they bring greater transparency and efficiency by comparison with conventional offerings. DBS outlined that its clients executed in excess of $1 billion in trades involving tokenized structured notes and crypto options within the first half of 2025. Additionally, trade volumes related to these products grew by almost 60% from Q1 2025 to Q2 2025.Singapore-headquartered product distribution partner DigiFT recently partnered with crypto market maker GSR with the launch of its secondary over-the-counter (OTC) trading service for tokenized real-world assets (RWAs). Back in March, DigiFT announced plans to launch an on-chain index fund, backed by a tokenized stock portfolio. ADDX, another Singapore-based platform, had joined forces with OCBC Bank back in 2023 with a view towards facilitating the launch of a tokenized equity-linked structured note.