In a week marked by pivotal developments across the Asian digital assets landscape, three major stories have set the tone for the fast-evolving world of regulated cryptocurrency banking and trading. From the Philippines to South Korea and Hong Kong, the region’s top financial players and regulators are making bold moves that signal both an embrace of innovation and a tightening of oversight.
Philippine digital bank Maya, which has rapidly built a name as a one-stop financial app for everything from savings to crypto trading, is now reportedly preparing for a U.S. initial public offering that could raise as much as $1 billion. According to Bloomberg, Maya is working with advisers on the potential deal, which would mark a historic moment for the region’s fintech sector if it comes to fruition. The move, first reported on February 17, 2026, would give Maya access to the deeper capital pools and broader institutional investor base of the U.S. markets—an attractive prospect, especially given the relatively limited appetite for large-scale tech listings on Southeast Asian exchanges in recent years.
Maya operates under a digital banking license from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, offering savings accounts, consumer loans, payments, and merchant services through its widely used app. What sets Maya apart, however, is its in-app cryptocurrency trading feature, which operates under a regulated virtual asset service provider framework. This allows users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies directly within the banking app—a convenience that has drawn in a new wave of tech-savvy Filipino consumers.
Yet, Maya’s crypto segment has not been without controversy. Users have reported intermittent difficulties executing trades, with the platform’s “Buy” and “Sell” buttons sometimes grayed out or disabled for certain tokens during periods of sharp price increases. According to Decrypt, assets posting double-digit gains within short timeframes were marked as “temporarily unavailable,” while less volatile cryptocurrencies remained tradable. These issues have prompted complaints from users who said they were unable to enter or exit positions when needed, raising questions about the platform’s reliability during market surges. Maya has not publicly disclosed how much revenue or transaction volume its crypto segment contributes to the broader business, and the company did not respond to Decrypt’s request for comment regarding the trading outages.
The timing of Maya’s reported IPO plans is notable. After a sluggish period for technology and fintech listings, U.S. IPO activity rebounded in 2025, with 202 listings raising about $44 billion—a four-year high, according to Renaissance Capital. Globally, 1,293 IPOs raised roughly $171 billion last year, a 39% year-over-year increase, per EY data on global IPO trends. The U.S. market’s resurgence has been a beacon for tech companies seeking capital, and Maya’s move suggests confidence in both its growth prospects and the appetite of international investors for regulated digital finance platforms.
Local experts, however, are urging caution. As Nathan Marasigan, Partner at Manila-based MLaw Office, told Decrypt, “A U.S. listing is doable, but the timing will be judged on whether the company can present a stable, bank-quality earnings story in a market that’s still selective.” The challenge for Maya will be to convince U.S. investors that its blend of traditional banking and crypto trading can deliver sustainable, predictable growth—a tall order in a sector often marked by volatility and regulatory flux.
Meanwhile, in South Korea, the country’s asset management giant Mirae Asset has made its own headline-grabbing move by acquiring 92% of Korbit, one of only five regulated crypto exchanges in the nation. The deal, valued at 133.5 billion Won (about $93 million), saw Mirae Asset buy out major shareholders including venture investor NXC, Nexon, and SK Square. The remaining 8% of Korbit is held by Bitstamp, a crypto exchange owned by Robinhood, suggesting ongoing international interest in the Korean crypto market.
Korbit is the fourth largest regulated exchange in South Korea, a country known for its stringent oversight of digital asset trading. Mirae Asset’s acquisition was executed through Mirae Asset Consulting, a subsidiary traditionally focused on real estate. This has prompted speculation about the group’s broader ambitions, with some observers suggesting that future tokenization efforts might center on real estate assets—though this remains unconfirmed. Last year, Mirae Asset announced its “Mirae Asset 3.0” vision, which included a commitment to developing web 3.0 businesses both in Korea and overseas, with the goal of building a global digital wallet and expanding its asset management reach into the world of digital finance.
Across the East China Sea, Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has added Victory Fintech Company Limited to its list of formally licensed cryptocurrency trading platforms, marking the first such approval since June 2025. Victory Fintech becomes the twelfth entity on the SFC’s roster of licensed crypto and blockchain operators, a significant milestone in a jurisdiction known for its tough stance on unregulated trading. Since June 2024, operating an unlicensed virtual asset trading platform in Hong Kong has been a criminal offense, prompting several exchanges—including OKX and Bybit—to either shut down or withdraw their licensing applications.
The SFC’s latest guidance, released just days before the Victory Fintech announcement, allows licensed brokers to provide virtual asset margin financing, with Bitcoin and Ether as the only eligible collateral—at least for now. The regulator also outlined a framework for trading platforms to offer perpetual contracts to professional investors, signaling a cautious but clear expansion of regulated crypto trading services in the city. While a dozen companies now hold licenses under the SFC, Hong Kong’s Monetary Authority has not yet approved any stablecoin issuers, highlighting ongoing regulatory caution in certain corners of the digital asset space.
Hong Kong’s regulatory moves come as authorities prepare to submit a draft ordinance for crypto advisory service providers in 2026, part of a broader push to ensure that the city’s burgeoning crypto industry operates under strict oversight. As Christopher Hui, Hong Kong’s Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, noted in January, these efforts are designed to balance innovation with investor protection—a theme echoed across the region.
Taken together, these developments underscore the dynamic and sometimes contradictory nature of Asia’s approach to digital assets. On the one hand, financial giants like Mirae Asset are betting big on the future of regulated crypto trading, while upstarts like Maya are seeking global capital to fuel their fintech ambitions. On the other, regulators in Hong Kong and elsewhere are drawing clear lines in the sand, making it plain that only those willing to play by the rules will be allowed to participate in the next phase of digital finance.
As 2026 unfolds, all eyes will be on how these stories evolve—whether Maya’s U.S. IPO will set a precedent for Southeast Asian fintechs, how Mirae Asset’s Korbit acquisition will reshape the Korean crypto landscape, and whether Hong Kong’s cautious but steady embrace of regulated platforms will make it a global crypto hub once again. For now, one thing is certain: the race to define the future of digital banking and trading in Asia is only just beginning.