A Note from the Team
June was a fruitful month for the Hong Kong ETH Community and ETH HK Hub. Four events were hosted by the Hub — including an industry policy consultation roundtable with the legislation council member to Ethereum ecosystem event with an institutional Ethereum community leader from the west. The conversations ranged from regulatory architecture to agentic payments infrastructure, and the common thread was the same: people are moving from thesis to execution.
On the ecosystem front: Ethlabs was formally launched on June 22 as a new independent nonprofit R&D lab, with broad support from the Ethereum community. Initiated by former Ethereum Foundation contributors, Ethlabs will focus on addressing key technical challenges for Ethereum and continuing to build across the ecosystem. The initiative has received support from SNZ, Bitmine, Sharplink, Joe Lubin (founder of Consensys), and dozens of core ecosystem contributors, founders, and leaders representing EVM protocols, DeFi, venture builders and investors
Looking ahead, July 17 is the date for reservation. We're co-hosting the Asia Onchain Finance Summit with Baillie Gifford, BlockUnion,SNZ, Sharplink and other select industry leaders — bringing together innovative financial institutions, fintech, tokenization participants, and infrastructure leaders in one room. Details and registration are below.
Join us through our official media channel: ETH HK Hub Website and Telegram channel for community participation, ecosystem updates and upcoming events.
Events Recap
Ecosystem Roundtable: Industry Leaders Chart Hong Kong's 5-Year Digital Finance Blueprint at ETH HK Hub
Supported by the ETH HK Hub, a closed-door roundtable brought together 22 core Web3 ecosystem leaders and Legislative Council Member Hon. Duncan Chiu to contribute strategic input to Hong Kong's upcoming 15th Five-Year Plan. Participants included blockchain infrastructure builders, institutional asset platforms, and compliance specialists, with discussion focused on the region's digital finance architecture over the next five years.
AI & On-Chain Assets Session Explores the Future of Agentic Finance
A gathering in Central convened institutional players — including Sharplink, Futufriends, and Canopy — to discuss the convergence of Ethereum's institutional role, the machine economy, and AI-driven wealth management. The session worked through what agentic finance actually requires at the infrastructure level, and where the gaps still are.
High Signal over Morning Coffee: Sharplink Community Breakfast Packs the Hub
Sharplink and SNZ gathered over 50 of Asia’s top Ethereum builders, protocol architects, and founders at the Hub for a high-density networking breakfast. Designed to bypass superficial market noise, the event served as a premier launchpad for ecosystem alignment and long-term tactical alliances heading into the new cycle.Alongside exclusive technical insights from Sharplink and Undefined Labs, the event replaced formal panels with candid, peer-to-peer knowledge sharing over premium coffee.
Whitepaper Reading Club HK: Unpacking Agentic Payments
Another Whitepaper Reading successfully hosted in Hub, to dissect the infrastructure of machine-to-machine commerce. The discussion revealed that the true bottleneck for Agentic Payments is not the payment rails, but peripheral infrastructure like service discovery, identity authorization, trust scoring, and risk control. While Hong Kong has become a premier sandbox—with Visa, Mastercard, UnionPay, and local banks piloting tests—the ecosystem remains in a "human-in-the-loop" phase rather than achieving full autonomous agent-to-agent stablecoin settlement.
Ecosystem Update
June Headlines:
- Ethereum Foundation released its new organizational structure: On June 23, EF officially published an update on its new structure, stating that it had completed several months of organizational restructuring and formed a new working structure around the Protocol Layer, Access Layer, User Layer, Community Layer, Institutional Layer, and other areas.
Source: https://blog.ethereum.org/2026/06/23/ef-structure - Ethlabs officially launched: On June 22, Ethlabs was formally established as a new independent nonprofit R&D lab. Initiated by former Ethereum Foundation contributors, Ethlabs will focus on tackling multiple technical challenges for Ethereum and continuing to build the Ethereum ecosystem. It has received support from SNZ, Bitmine, Sharplink, Joe Lubin, as well as dozens of core ecosystem project founders, developers, and EF researchers.
Source: https://x.com/ethlabs_org/status/2069104073245159573 - SBI and Startale launch JPYSC, Japan’s first trust-type yen stablecoin on Ethereum: On June 24, SBI Group and Startale Group launched JPYSC. According to SBI VC Trade, JPYSC was jointly developed by SBI Holdings and Startale and is issued by SBI Shinsei Trust & Banking as Japan’s first trust-type Japanese yen stablecoin. Each JPYSC is pegged 1:1 to the Japanese yen, and the listed network is Ethereum. However, SBI VC Trade currently does not support JPYSC deposits or withdrawals, and public-chain circulation is expected only after further legal, tax, and regulatory clarification.
- Ripple and SBI Group officially launched RLUSD in Japan: On June 24, Ripple and SBI Group announced the launch of Ripple USD（RLUSD）in Japan. RLUSD is available through SBI VC Trade’s VCTRADE platform for both institutional and retail users. Ripple stated that RLUSD has received the relevant regulatory approval in Japan and is classified under Japan’s Payment Services Act as a new type of electronic payment instrument for foreign-issued stablecoins.
Source:https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/crypto/articles/ripple-sbi-launch-rlusd-japan-032053384.html
Fundamentals / Data
- Token Terminal released its Ethereum Q1 2026 fundamentals report, with several key metrics reaching all-time high: According to the report, Ethereum L1 monthly active users reached approximately 13.2 million, up 85.9% year-over-year; quarterly transactions reached approximately 200.4 million; average throughput was around 25.78 TPS; meanwhile, L1 fees declined 81.9% year-over-year.
Source: https://www.binance.com/en/square/post/06-18-2026-ethereum-saw-a-record-number-of-active-users-in-the-first-quarter-with-l1-fees-decreasing-by-81-9-year-over-year-335476784255602 - RWA.xyz June data shows that Ethereum continues to lead in RWA and stablecoin scale: As of June 25, 2026, Ethereum recorded approximately $22.42 billion in 30-day RWA transfer volume, 1,062 RWA assets, around $159.16 billion in stablecoin market capitalization, approximately 24.58 million stablecoin holders, and roughly $2.35 trillion in 30-day stablecoin transfer volume.
Source: https://app.rwa.xyz/networks/ethereum - Lido recently published a detailed analysis examining stETH’s performance during the market volatility surrounding the April KelpDAO event. According to the report, stETH liquidity held up remarkably well amid the turbulence. Pricing remained orderly, liquidity depth stayed resilient, and secondary markets continued to function normally without significant depegs or disruptions. This stability once again highlights one of stETH’s key strengths as staking collateral: its deep and resilient liquidity, which provides greater confidence and lower risk for DeFi users and institutions.
Source:https://blog.lido.fi/steth-liquidity-held-ground-during-stress-event/
Privacy
- The Zama / Morpho Confidential USDC vault became a productized milestone for privacy DeFi: The product applies FHE to encrypted USDC balances and connects them to a Morpho yield product, making it one of the most application-ready privacy developments in June.
Source: https://blog.thirdweb.com/confidential-defi-is-here-how-fhe-is-bringing-private-yield-vaults-to-ethereum/
Ecosystem Summit: Baillie Gifford, ETH HK Hub, BlockUnion, and SNZ to Host Asia Onchain Finance Summit
Jointly initiated by Baillie Gifford, ETH HK Hub, BlockUnion, and SNZ, and co-hosted by Sharplink, the Asia Onchain Finance Summit bridges traditional finance, fintech, RWA, and the crypto-native ecosystem. As blockchain reshapes global capital markets, cross-border transactions, and wealth management, this high-level summit unpacks the next phase of financial evolution—from asset issuance and compliance to infrastructure upgrades across the value chain.
📅 Date: July 17, 2026 (Friday)
🕒 Time: 14:30 – 18:00
📍 Location: Will be announced after approval
👉 Register Now
Hong Kong Ethereum Community Hub
Contact Us: ethereumhkhub@snzholding.com
Address: Block B, New World Town Hall, 83 King Lam Street, West Kowloon, Hong Kong
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