Summary of this article
Fed conference to explore stablecoins, tokenisation, AI.
Australian retirement funds see decline in crypto.
Ukraine advances bill on crypto taxation, legalisation.
The US Federal Reserve is set to host its Payments Innovation Conference on October 21, 2025. The conference will discuss how stablecoins, tokenisation, and artificial intelligence could shape the payments industry.
Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said innovation has long been a factor in enhancing payment systems. Cointelegraph has stated that the conference is designed to bring together policymakers, researchers, and industry participants to review the uses and risks of new technologies.
One area of discussion will be stablecoins, digital assets linked to existing currencies. The sessions will examine how they could be applied to payment systems. Another topic will be tokenisation, which is the process of converting financial products such as bonds or property into digital tokens. This process is being studied as a way to make transactions faster and easier to record. AI will also be examined for its potential applications in payment infrastructure.
The program will include panels on the interaction between traditional finance and decentralised finance. These discussions will look at how both systems could operate alongside each other as digital assets become more widely used.
The conference will be available to the public through a livestream on the Federal Reserve’s website.
The event takes place as US legislators continue working on a framework for digital assets, including regulations for the employment of stablecoins. The deliberations are likely to feed into policy and regulation in the future.
Crypto Investments In Australian Retirement Funds Decline Despite Market Growth
Australia’s Tax Office reported that self-managed super funds (SMSFs) held around $3.02 billion in cryptocurrency as of June 2025. This was about $100 million lower than the previous year, showing a 4 per cent fall in value. Bitcoin’s price rose by almost 60 per cent during the same period.
The official figures may not represent the complete picture because SMSFs report their holdings with a delay. The totals could be revised once more tax returns are filed. Over a longer timeframe, the data shows growth. Compared with June 2023, crypto assets in SMSFs have increased by about 41 per cent.
SMSFs are mainly used by older Australians. Almost 97 per cent of members are over the age of 35, and the largest group is between 75 and 84 years. Younger Australians are more active in cryptocurrency markets. More than half of those aged 25 to 34 already hold some form of cryptocurrency. This indicates that crypto ownership within retirement funds may increase as younger groups move into the SMSF system.
Financial service providers are preparing for this development. Several crypto exchanges have introduced products aimed at SMSFs. At the same time, there is a demand for the government to provide more explicit rules for digital assets. This would allow retirement funds to record and manage such investments under defined guidelines.
Ukraine Parliament Approves Crypto Legalisation And Taxation Bill In First Reading
Ukraine’s parliament has approved the first reading of a bill to legalise and tax cryptocurrency. A total of 246 members supported the draft law.
The proposal introduces an income tax of 18 per cent and a military tax of 5 per cent on profits from digital assets, making the combined tax rate 23 per cent. A temporary reduced rate of 5 per cent will apply during the first year when converting cryptocurrency into fiat currency.
The draft law also includes exemptions. Transactions from one cryptocurrency to another, as well as transactions involving stablecoins, would not be taxed. This approach is designed to simplify how digital asset activities are reported.
The text does not yet define which authority will regulate the crypto sector. Options under consideration are the National Bank of Ukraine or the National Securities and Stock Market Commission. Lawmakers have noted that further changes could be made before the second reading.
Earlier in 2025, Ukraine advanced other measures related to digital assets, including a proposal to establish a national reserve held in cryptocurrency. The country continues to show high levels of crypto use. According to Cointelegraph, Ukraine ranks among the top nations in global crypto adoption and holds a leading position in decentralised finance activity in Eastern Europe.
