[VelaFi Expands into Japanese Market, Driving Digital Upgrade of Trade Settlement] On October 30, stablecoin cross-border financial infrastructure platform VelaFi announced its official entry into the Japanese market and its participation in the Stablecoin Settlement Association, led by Tokyo-listed company Ikuyo Corporation. Together, they aim to promote the digital upgrade of Japan's trade settlement system. The association will collaborate with financial institutions, exporters, and fintech service providers to build standardized blockchain-based settlement infrastructure, addressing issues such as delays, hidden costs, and lack of transparency in cross-border payments. VelaFi will offer services including T+0 instant settlement, transparent currency exchange, and multi-currency virtual account management. This collaboration marks a significant milestone in VelaFi's global expansion, further strengthening its influence in the Asia-Pacific region.

[Chinese Man Arrested in Thailand for Alleged $14 Million Cryptocurrency Ponzi Scheme] Thai police on Wednesday arrested Chinese national Liang Ai-Bing (Liang Ai-Bing, transliterated), who is accused of involvement in a $14 million Ponzi scheme linked to the now-defunct cryptocurrency investment platform FINTOCH. FINTOCH had promised high daily returns of 1% and falsely claimed to have backing from Morgan Stanley, while hiring actors to impersonate the company's CEO. The platform carried out an 'exit scam' in May 2023. On-chain analyst ZachXBT's investigation revealed that the scammers transferred a total of 31.6 million USDT through the Tron and Ethereum networks, making it one of the largest DeFi scam cases of 2023.

[Pieverse Secures $3 Million Investment from CMS Holdings to Expand BNB Chain Applications] Web3 payment and compliance infrastructure startup Pieverse announced that it has received $3 million in funding from CMS Holdings. This round of financing will be used to drive its business expansion on the BNB Chain. With this, Pieverse's total funding has reached $10 million, including previous seed and strategic rounds of investment. On October 27, Pieverse launched the x402b protocol, aimed at enabling gas-free payments on the BNB Chain. The protocol leverages on-chain timestamp technology to add a critical verification layer to the Web3 ecosystem, providing trustworthy, transparent, and cross-chain interoperable cryptographic proofs for invoices, receipts, and transactions.

[Trump Announces Rare Earth Agreement with China and Reduces Fentanyl Tariffs to 10%] U.S. President Trump confirmed that a one-year agreement on rare earths and critical minerals has been reached with China, while reducing tariffs on fentanyl imports from China to 10%. The leaders of the two countries held their first meeting in six years in Busan, South Korea, which lasted 1 hour and 40 minutes. Trump stated upon leaving South Korea that the meeting achieved significant results, including resolving the rare earth issue and reducing China's export tariffs from 57% to 47%. Additionally, Trump revealed plans to visit China in April 2026 to further advance bilateral cooperation.

[Trump Announces China's Fentanyl Tariff Will Be Halved to 10%] Trump stated that China's tariff on fentanyl will be reduced from 20% to 10%.