Hong Kong's "BBB Group" Agarwood Investment Suspected of Scam; Police Arrest Four Over Sale of OTC Stocks, Digital Assets

According to Thai media outlet Khaosod English, Thai immigration police recently arrested a 37-year-old Chinese national in Bangkok. The man is wanted by Chinese police on suspicion of involvement in a transnational criminal network and money laundering. Police said the criminal network in question involved transactions exceeding 500 million yuan (approximately 2.485 billion Thai baht). The suspect is alleged to have processed cryptocurrency and foreign exchange transactions for the criminal group via more than 133 accounts, and assisted members of the transnational criminal network in obtaining visas. Police added that the suspect evaded manhunts by falsifying residence registration documents, changing license plates, and altering vehicle appearances, before finally being apprehended at a luxury residence in Bangkok. Thai authorities will handle his overstay issues in accordance with the law and coordinate his deportation back to China for investigation.

Holograph (HLG)’s 2024 illegal issuance of 1 billion tokens went to trial on October 16 in Paris, with the case involving approximately $14 million at the time. Among the three defendants, the main suspect is a Ukrainian former Holograph employee residing in France, accused of modifying token creation conditions to illegally mint 1 billion HLG, transferring them to a personal wallet, and moving the funds via multiple exchange accounts with accomplices. A lawyer for the Holograph Foundation told the court that the incident caused the project to lose client trust, has now come to a complete halt, and the foundation is preparing for liquidation.

According to crypto analyst Specter, since the Bitget attacker transferred stolen funds via Zcash’s privacy features, other stolen funds have also started flowing into ZEC, including funds from the Cryptobills Ledger incident and the $12 million Triple-A hack.

On October 15, the Arbitrum Foundation launched its Stablecoin Growth Program for protocols holding stablecoin balances of no less than $1 million, requiring selected teams to designate USDG as their primary stablecoin on Arbitrum One. The program offers a 2 million ARB reward pool: the first 10 teams that achieve a 30-day average USDG balance of $10 million will each receive up to 200,000 ARB (capped at $200,000). The reward pool is valid through December 31, 2027, and each participant is eligible for only one reward.

Bloomberg senior commodity strategist Mike McGlone wrote in a post yesterday that a 20% pullback in U.S. stocks could push Bitcoin toward the $10,000 support level. "The first cryptocurrency (BTC), launched in 2009, led the rally in risk assets, but Bitcoin’s 2025 peak above $100,000, gold’s rise to over $5,000 in Q1, and most central banks turning cautious amid surging government bond yields may signal the end of this cycle," he noted. In response, crypto analyst Darkfost countered that a 20% U.S. stock pullback has never historically aligned with a roughly 92% drop in Bitcoin from its highs, so he deemed the price target "highly unlikely."

According to tokenization service documents released by DTCC, the offering initially makes 25 tokenizable securities available, with underlying assets being DTC-custodied securities valued at approximately $30 trillion. The tokens maintain a 1:1 parity with the underlying securities, use the same CUSIP identifiers, offer identical rights and investor protections as book-entry securities, and official ledger records remain held by DTC. 24/7 peer-to-peer transfers are permitted between DTC-registered wallets, with tokens subject to compliance-focused transfer restrictions. U.S. Treasury coupon payments and maturity services will be executed on-chain, with funds disbursed in fiat to participants’ traditional accounts. Initial supported assets include Russell 1000 constituents (starting with select large-cap stocks), certain ETFs, and U.S. Treasuries. The first networks to launch are Canton Network (CIP-56) and DTCC’s private Besu network (ERC-20); Stellar (SEP-41) and Circle’s Arc (ERC-20) are expected to be integrated in 2027. The future roadmap includes expanding the range of tokenizable securities, adding controls such as single sign-on and maker-checker workflows, expanding corporate action services for stocks and ETFs, merging book-entry and on-chain stock holding records, supporting on-chain net settlement, collateral, and digital cash, and gradually expanding the pool of compliant DTC participants. Priorities for 2027 and beyond will be determined in consultation with participants and industry stakeholders.