The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) plans to impose severe punishment in accordance with the law on Tiger Brokers, Futu, and Long Bridge, confiscating all illegal gains obtained by relevant entities at home and abroad.

May 22. The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) of Hong Kong issued a circular today outlining new monitoring measures for account openings and ongoing customer relationship maintenance. The circular follows an SFC review of account-opening practices at 12 securities brokers, which identified key deficiencies: insufficient due diligence on account opening documents, acceptance of suspicious or forged paperwork during the account setup process, and weaknesses in managing cross-border agency relationships with overseas intermediaries. The SFC expressed deep concern that customer accounts could be improperly used for suspicious or unlawful transactions, thereby raising money laundering and terrorist financing risks. The regulator has instructed all licensed corporations to conduct internal reviews as soon as practicable to detect whether any suspicious or forged documents were accepted for account openings. It also outlined additional requirements for licensed firms handling account

On May 22, an official announcement from Bitget states that its stock index contracts are now open for trading on two popular U.S. stock indexes: the S&P 500 (SP500) and the Nasdaq 100 (NDX100). These contracts support up to 50x leverage; for more details, please refer to Bitget’s official platform.

May 22 — Interactive Brokers (IBKR) shares are trading up 6.85% in pre-market action, per market data.

**Flash News: May 22** China’s Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) announced on May 22 that it has launched investigations into the onshore and offshore entities of three securities firms—Tiger Brokers (NZ) Limited, Futu Securities International (Hong Kong) Limited, and Changqiao Securities (Hong Kong) Limited—for alleged illegal securities operations in China, alongside issuing a preliminary administrative penalty notice. In response, Tiger Brokers issued a statement: “We have noted the relevant regulatory notice and will fully cooperate with authorities. All our business operations remain normal at this time. We have always prioritized compliance while maintaining close communication with regulators.”

On May 22, Al Jazeera cited Pakistani sources saying that rising demands from the U.S. and Iran over uranium and the Strait of Hormuz have pushed negotiations into a deadlock. Still, those same sources in Islamabad expressed optimism that Washington and Tehran could reach a partial understanding.

May 22: Next-generation decentralized perpetual exchange (Perp DEX) PopDEX announced the close of a $30 million funding round, led by Foresight Ventures. PopDEX is a trader-centric decentralized perpetual contract trading platform focused on three core priorities: capital efficiency, trading experience, and fair value distribution. Its mission is to build an on-chain derivatives trading platform driven entirely by real trading contributions from its user base. The project’s team stated the new capital will be allocated to key use cases: securing initial project liquidity, enhancing trading depth and capital efficiency, accelerating product development, expanding the team, and scaling marketing efforts. Currently, PopDEX has begun inviting a select group of outstanding traders to join its internal testing phase. The team will continuously optimize the product based on feedback from early testers. The internal test cycle will focus on refining the trading workflow, capital efficiency,