Metaplanet share backlash, Citi blockchain payments, Southeast Asia crypto funding hits $680 million

Japan’s Metaplanet is getting shareholder pushback over dilution tied to its executive stock pool, while Citi is preparing near-instant cross-border blockchain payments for Japanese companies. In Southeast Asia, crypto funding doubled to $680 million in 2026, but the money is getting concentrated into fewer deals — a useful reminder for PSPs that capital is not the same thing as breadth of market.

1. Metaplanet’s 10th Series executive option pool has triggered shareholder backlash because it was designed as 20% of fully diluted shares and automatically expanded as the company issued new shares to fund its Bitcoin (BTC) accumulation. Several shareholders objected on social media, and some are now asking Metaplanet to cancel the additional 273 million shares created by the changes and to provide more transparency on future decisions.
2. Bitcoin Magazine CEO David Bailey defended the structure, saying that giving the team 20% of the cap table over five years “isn’t some crazy number.” Shareholders, as the market has helpfully pointed out, do not all share that view.
3. Citi plans to offer Japanese companies near-instant international payments through blockchain-based infrastructure, including outside standard banking hours. For high-risk merchants and PSPs, that matters because cross-border payout speed is often less about slogan-copy and more about settlement windows, operational cutoffs, and whether the rails are open when the merchant actually needs them.
4. In southeast Asia, investment in crypto firms doubled between 2025 and 2026 to 25 funding rounds worth $680 million in 2026, up from $319 million, according to private market data platform Tracxn. The catch is that the number of rounds fell from 46 last year, so more capital is going to fewer companies.
5. Singapore has become Asia’s leading crypto hub in this data set, with 2,285 of the 3,957 blockchain companies in the region. It has also accounted for 82.5% of all-time blockchain equity funding tracked across the region, which is the kind of concentration that tends to matter when PSPs are deciding where deal flow, counterparties, and regulator attention are headed.
6. US authorities restrained more than $52 million in crypto linked to scam marketplace Xinbi Guarantee and its vendor network. The US Department of Justice said its Scam Center Strike Force seized two wallets used by Xinbi to collect vendor payments containing about $12 million, and law enforcement also sought restraints against 47 additional wallets believed to be connected to money laundering across the network.
7. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Xinbi as a significant transnational criminal organization and also sanctioned Singapore-based SafeW Technology and Cambodia-based Anwen Technology for allegedly providing technological and financial support to Xinbi. For payment providers, that is the practical bit: the customer story is secondary to the sanctions footprint.
8. Gemini has received a Major Payment Institution (MPI) license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), completing its transition from the in-principle approval granted nearly two years ago. MPI license holders can provide regulated payment services without the transaction-volume limits imposed on standard payment institutions.

Gemini President and co-founder Cameron Winklevoss said the exchange has served customers in Singapore since 2020. For PSPs watching Singapore, the signal is plain enough: MAS is still the gatekeeper, and once the license is in hand, the operational ceiling changes in a way that can matter for volume, counterparties, and product scope.