Daily Summary2026-08-25

Standard Chartered became the first bank to directly distribute a regulated Hong Kong dollar stablecoin, per CoinDesk. The coin is issued by Anchorpoint Financial — the joint venture between Standard Chartered, Animoca Brands and HKT — under Hong Kong's stablecoin licensing regime. Distribution volumes were not disclosed.

The US Treasury announced the Quantum-Readiness Task Force, a public-private initiative to accelerate the financial sector's transition to post-quantum cryptography, following Executive Order 14412. It will run three workstreams — sector alignment and PQC transition, vendor readiness, and digital assets and emerging technology risk — building on the G7 cyber group's roadmap, which points to a non-binding 2035 transition target. Members were not announced.

Zcash's NU7 coinholder vote — which includes a proposed change to how ZEC is issued — has its mainnet snapshot on August 24, with voting weight derived from shielded holdings and only vote totals published, per coverage. ZEC surged roughly 62% in a week to an approximately eight-year high near $880, with futures open interest reported nearly doubling. Grayscale's converted Zcash fund is expected to begin NYSE Arca trading around August 25, pending final SEC effectiveness.

Coinbase's tokenized US equities went live on Base, with four stocks — Nvidia, Apple, Meta and Alphabet — issued as B20 tokens backed 1:1 by shares held through Alpaca, a broker regulated under Abu Dhabi's ADGM framework, per Cointelegraph and the Base announcement. The tokens trade 24/7, integrate with Base DeFi via Chainlink price feeds, and can sit in self-custody wallets. The products are available only to eligible users outside the United States and are not registered under the US Securities Act.