News digest from Monoup: main fintech and gaming events of the week

We wrap up the week with a roundup of the latest important news from past week, gathered by Monoup experts. Once a daunting and unknown license, MiCA is now becoming an industry standard. More and more crypto companies are obtaining this authorization, and we'll tell you who has already managed to do so in this article.

Meanwhile, Chinese SWIFT competitor — CIPS is actively expanding its horizons and connecting new partner banks. In addition to local Chinese banks, a number of Asian holdings have already joined the network, giving hope for a truly bright future for this system.

We review what happened this week in fintech and iGaming, and what you definitely need to know.

Kraken Authorized Under MiCA

Kraken crypto exchange has received a license from the Central Bank of Ireland and can now legally conduct exchange and other operations with digital assets in the EU.

MiCA license has caused quite a stir in the industry. Many was afraid of strict rules, and the uncertainty added fuel to the fire of discussions that Europe was “stifling crypto.” Despite many, including top management of Tether, the issuer of USDT, still holding this opinion, many decided to comply with the new regulation. We previously discussed the essence of this new license and its main features; if you haven't read it, article is available at the link.

The following major exchanges have already obtained MiCA licenses:

• Coinbase;
• OKX;
• Crypto.com;
• Bybit;
• Bitstamp;
• Bitpanda.

Thus, all of them have the full right to operate in the EU and provide cryptocurrency exchange, storage, and purchase/sale services to citizens of the European Union. An important point is that all authorized companies had to delist USDT from their platforms, as Tether considers the EU's requirements detrimental to stablecoins and does not intend to obtain a respective license.

Ruble Token A7A5 Gains Special Attention

A7A5 token, created a few months ago by a Moldovan businessman, turned out to be backed by real deposits in Russian Promsvyazbank. This news immediately provoked various investigations into Russia bypassing of sanctions using this token, and revealed information about very large turnover of the coin.

Since February 2025, token has processed transactions worth nearly $10 billion, with most of them passing through the Kyrgyz exchange Grinex, which became a direct successor to Garantex, taking over some of its clients. Notably, both Grinex and new token A7A5 were registered in Kyrgyzstan at approximately the same time, but no direct connection between them has been found.

It is believed that users buy A7A5 tokens on the Tron or Ethereum blockchains and then use them to purchase USDT. This scheme helps Russia bypass sanctions and make necessary purchases abroad. Additionally, other interested parties and private companies may also use it. Many users were alarmed by the involvement of USDT in this chain, which further undermines the trust in the coin among legitimate users.

RS2 Will Not Acquire HSBC Malta

A deal that the entire iGaming industry in Malta was anticipating did not materialize. Despite lengthy and seemingly almost successful negotiations, payment system RS2 withdrew its offer to purchase HSBC's department in Malta. Back in September 2024, HSBC Bank decided to close several branches in Europe that were not profitable or were not core to its business. The bank announced that it would develop Asia and did not consider the EU its target market. For this reason, the Maltese branch was put up for sale. Several European banks, an unnamed local bank, and RS2 payment system competed for the purchase.

For the iGaming industry, this news was a breath of fresh air, as operators have been suffering from a lack of banking services for some time, and many hoped that payment system would help them restore access to banking along with its own services. However, RS2 unexpectedly refused the purchase, citing a high price and other unfavorable conditions.

The iGaming industry immediately reacted to this event and considered this outcome a missed opportunity. The bet on a payment company RS2, which better understands gaming products, was not winning. Today, Malta, considered a hub for iGaming, has faltered in its position, unable to provide banking support to operators. An important factor is that the main part of the island's income depends on gambling, and deterioration of conditions for this business means fast transfer of products to other jurisdictions. This is already happening, as many are choosing Anjouan, if not Curaçao, and other offshore setups. It is worth noting that offshore jurisdictions do not offer a wide choice of banking institutions and practically do not support operators, except for the low cost of launch, but for many, this is still a decisive factor. After all, why pay more if the result is the same?

Although the Maltese license is still considered more prestigious than, for example, Anjouan, its prestige has significantly declined in recent years due to shortcomings in AML, and many are willing to operate in simpler jurisdictions.

CIPS Expands Regions of Operation

Chinese payment system CIPS caused a stir in fintech, but talks about it quickly subsided. Although it was immediately predicted to take a central place in the world's financial flows and was called a direct competitor to SWIFT, it does not seem to be heading in that direction.

At the same time, CIPS is successfully expanding in Asia. Serious players in Asian banking sector have already joined the system:

• Standard Bank (South Africa);
• African Export-Import Bank (Egypt);
• First Abu Dhabi Bank (UAE);
• Eldik Bank (Kyrgyzstan);
• UOB (Singapore);
• Bangkok Bank (Thailand).

All these banks actively cooperate with China and have joined CIPS to reduce the cost of their transactions and increase their speed. Currently, the trend towards the division of finance into “Western” and “Eastern” still persists. While the collective West continues to use slow and expensive SWIFT, Eastern countries are confidently switching to CIPS. In parallel, Western countries are actively developing stablecoins, and it is believed that this direction will become the next stage in international payments, rather than some updated and faster SWIFT. Major companies have already started developing their own stablecoins (such as Visa and Mastercard), and others are integrating already known coins into their operations.

Here are the news highlights that Monoup is sharing with you this week. More news and short notes can be found in our Telegram channel, and broader materials are always available in the Mono Talks section.