Gate News message, April 23 — Ripple has launched registration for Swell 2026, its flagship conference taking place October 27-29 in New York City at The Shed in Hudson Yards. For the first time, Ripple is merging its Swell and Apex events into a single unified

Seoul plans STOs and community REITs to tokenize public assets, enabling small investments in public projects; a 10-month, $2.97M consultancy will craft framework, pilots, and regulatory updates.

Scala Data Centers is set to launch its Scala AI City project in late 2026, costing $500 million for infrastructure. The facility will utilize liquid cooling for high AI workloads and aims for a 4.75 gigawatt capacity, positioning Brazil as an AI processing hub.

The SFPA advocates for lowering financial thresholds for dual-class shares in Hong Kong to attract more innovative companies, proposing new requirements aimed at easing entry for mid-sized tech firms and enhancing the city's competitive edge.

South Korea plans to launch a blockchain-based deposit token pilot in Sejong City in Q4 2026, replacing traditional government payment methods. This initiative aims to simplify transactions and reduce costs for small businesses.

Hong Kong's Finance Secretary Paul Chan expects the city to rise to the world's second-largest financial center in 10-15 years, emphasizing its adaptability, tech growth, and strong ties to mainland China while addressing stablecoin regulations.

Hong Kong's Financial Secretary Paul Chan reported strong economic performance driven by exports, services, and goods trade, alongside steady consumption and rising private investment. He emphasized the city's robust stock market and the need for financial stability to enhance competitiveness.

The latest report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City shows that stablecoins are mainly used for crypto trading and liquidity management, with the proportion used for real payment applications falling short of 1%. In the future, issues such as cross-chain interoperability and compliance frameworks need to be addressed to promote the development of their payment use cases.

A court in Qinzhou District, Tianshui City, Gansu Province, is trying a virtual-currency money-laundering case. The defendant used a part-time “high-paying errands” job to withdraw more than 390k yuan and, with knowledge of what was going on, exchange it for virtual currency, earning a profit of 21.5k yuan. The court sentenced him to two years and four months in prison and fined him. The judge reminded the public to stay alert to related activities in order to prevent them from fueling crime.

A court in Honggang District, Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province, ruled that two men were convicted of stealing electricity by illegally tapping an oil-field high-voltage power line to power Bitcoin mining. The principal offender, Zhang, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined 50,000 yuan, while the accomplice, Zhao, was sentenced to 4 years and 10 months and fined 20,000 yuan. The total value of the stolen electricity exceeded 800,000 yuan.