Asia Weekly Crypto Roundup: HKMA Settlement, PBOC Stance, and Russian Crypto Adoption

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) plans to launch 24/7 on-chain real-time settlement for its Central Moneymarkets Unit by year-end to support digital assets and CBDCs. Meanwhile, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) has reiterated its ban on virtual currency businesses and the issuance of RMB-pegged stablecoins. Additionally, the Russian Ministry of Finance reported that the country has approximately 20 million cryptocurrency users with total investments reaching 3.7 trillion rubles (approximately 44 billion US dollars).