The week’s ten most important crypto stories from India and Asia, ranked by impact.

1. Unocoin puts its loss at about $200,000 and says its own paper backup keys were compromised
The Indian exchange said on Saturday 14 Nov that an estimated $200,000 left three of its operational hot wallets, which it calls “significantly less than 1%” of the crypto it holds for customers. It says it will pay the loss itself and that no customer balances will be reduced, and that customer details, including emails, home addresses and KYC-related information, may be exposed. On Friday, BitGo said the transfers were signed with Unocoin’s own user and backup keys, without BitGo’s key, in a technical write-up. Unocoin’s security update says the printed backup keys were generated about eight years ago. Our reports: Unocoin’s loss estimate and BitGo’s findings.
Why it matters: a two-of-three custody setup with a freeze in place did not stop the transfers, and how the backup keys were compromised is still unexplained.
Caveat: the $200,000 is Unocoin’s own estimate; we have not checked it against on-chain data.

2. Coinone says a breach at its customer-support contractor may have exposed users’ passwords and ID numbers
The Korean exchange said in a notice dated 15 Nov (08:00 Korea time) that an attacker accessed the servers of MetaM, the firm that runs its customer support, at about 04:00 on 12 Nov. It says its account, trading and wallet systems run separately and showed no sign of direct intrusion. Details that customers gave in support chats and calls, including names, phone numbers, bank account numbers, passwords and resident registration numbers, may be exposed. Our report: Coinone’s disclosure.
Why it matters: the notice came about three days after Coinone says it learned of the breach, and it did not say how many customers are affected.
Caveat: the notice is in Korean and the translation is ours; the three-day gap is our reading of the two timestamps.

3. Korea’s FSC will let exchanges freeze deposits and withdrawals when a hack is only suspected
The Financial Services Commission said on Thursday 12 Nov that it will issue a no-action letter so exchanges can halt deposits and withdrawals pre-emptively, under conditions it has not yet published, and that exchanges must monitor security around the clock or process withdrawals only during staffed hours. It chaired the meeting with exchanges and custodians in Seoul and issued emergency response guidelines that apply before the Digital Asset Act becomes law, according to its release (Korean). Our report: the FSC’s plan.
Why it matters: exchanges told the FSC it was unclear whether they could act before a hack was clear, which the Gopax halt on 6 Nov, after a threat email, had brought into focus.
Caveat: the conditions for the no-action letter are not public yet.

4. Thailand’s SEC proposes a 5 million baht daily cap on stablecoin deposits and withdrawals
The draft notification would limit stablecoin deposits and withdrawals to 5 million baht (about $148,000) per customer per day at each licensed operator, with inbound and outbound counted separately, and would allow transfers only to and from wallets verified as the customer’s own, the SEC said in News 253/2026. Comments close on 26 Nov. Our report: the Thai draft.
Why it matters: it follows a September consultation, and the SEC says the aim is to stop stablecoins being used for money laundering, cybercrime or getting around rules on international transfers.
Caveat: this is a proposal, not a rule.

5. Coinbase India’s rupee withdrawals have been unavailable since 9 Nov after a bank-partner outage
Coinbase India said on X on Saturday that INR withdrawals are “temporarily unavailable due to an outage at our banking partner”, which it says is affecting the bank’s payouts for all of its clients. Deposits, including UPI, and bank-account linking still work, and Coinbase says customers’ funds are safe. It has not named the bank or given a restart date. Our report: the Coinbase India outage.
Why it matters: users can trade or deposit more but cannot cash out to their bank accounts until the bank restores payouts.
Caveat: we have not found a statement from the bank itself.

6. Korean exchanges suspend KAVA transfers after the Kava Lend incident
Bithumb warned users of a security incident at Kava and suspended KAVA deposits and withdrawals, according to its notice (Korean). TokenPost reported that Upbit and Coinone did the same. Kava said the event was “isolated and contained within Kava Lend”. The Block reported, from on-chain data it reviewed, that about 55.2 million KAVA, worth roughly $3.76 million at the pre-attack price, was drained, The Block said. Our report: the Kava Lend incident.
Why it matters: the three Korean exchanges acted on the same day, ahead of any word from Kava on the size of the loss.
Caveat: the loss figures are The Block’s reading of on-chain data; we have not checked them, and Kava had not published a post-mortem when we last looked.

7. Kazakhstan’s central bank plans tokenized government bonds, probably in the first quarter of 2027
National Bank Governor Timur Suleimenov said on 13 Nov that the bank plans to issue tokenized government bonds jointly with the Ministry of Finance, The Astana Times reported. It follows a 9 Nov pilot of 10 billion tenge (about $21.5 million) of central bank notes in tokenized form, at a weighted average yield of 15.72%. Our report: Kazakhstan’s plan.
Why it matters: Kazakh outlets say the Finance Ministry has separately drafted rules allowing electronic-digital treasury obligations, with public comment open until 27 Nov.
Caveat: the size, maturity and date of the bonds are not known, and we have not read the Finance Ministry draft itself.

8. The Bank of England, MAS and Bank of Thailand finish a simulated FX settlement trial
The three central banks said on 13 Nov that Project Meridian FX APAC linked their test settlement systems through one coordinating service, built by Partior, so that both sides of a foreign-exchange trade settle together or not at all. Our report: Project Meridian FX APAC.
Why it matters: it tests the settlement gap in trades such as pounds for baht, and the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Philippines’ central bank took part as observers.
Caveat: it ran in simulation and left out the full trade lifecycle, live participants and production conditions; the banks say technical atomic settlement is not the same as legal finality.

9. US prosecutors win authority to seize or restrain over $1.2 billion of the Binance theft attributed to North Korea
The Justice Department said on Thursday 12 Nov that a court authorised the seizure or restraint of over $1.2 billion of the crypto stolen from Binance, part of more than $2.7 billion frozen so far with private companies. The FBI attributes the theft to members of the North Korean military that it calls TraderTraitor. Our report: the seizure order.
Why it matters: frozen funds are not seized and seized funds are not returned; the release does not say who would receive any money that is forfeited.
Caveat: the attribution is the FBI’s; the tracing of the remaining funds is not finished.

10. Payward says Hong Kong-listed shares are next for its xStocks tokenized equities
Payward, the parent of Kraken, said on Wednesday 11 Nov that it had issued tokenized versions of more than 200 UK and EU shares, and that hundreds of Hong Kong-listed shares are due in the coming weeks, according to its press release. Our report: the xStocks expansion.
Why it matters: it would extend tokenized-stock access to a market where those shares are listed, though the tokens for UK and EU shares are closed to US persons and UK investors.
Caveat: no date or list of Hong Kong shares has been published, as far as we have found.

Next week in Asia

  • Thu 19 Nov: Korean press said the Financial Supervisory Service will meet virtual-asset firms’ chief information security officers. No time was given, and we have not read an FSS notice.
  • Thu 26 Nov: public comments close on Thailand’s draft stablecoin notification.
  • Fri 27 Nov: public comment closes on the Finance Ministry’s Kazakh draft on electronic-digital treasury obligations, according to Kazakh outlets.
  • Sat 5 Dec: Thailand’s SEC says the public will be unable to reach Bitget’s site and app, unless the planned block changes.

Related: Last Sunday’s Asia Ten

This article is for information only and is not investment advice.