Key Insights
- South Korea legalizes tokenized securities as it pushes aggressively into RWAs.
- Polygon lays off 30% of its staff in a major restructuring effort that will push towards stablecoin.
- Iran’s crypto dependence surged to $7.8 billion in 2025.
As the week approaches its tail end, we look at some of the most noteworthy crypto news events. South Korea is embracing RWAs and Polygon is doubling down on its stablecoin strategy with some collateral damage.
South Korea is making crypto news headlines this week courtesy of its recent regulatory moves. The race for RWAs is intensifying and the Asian country is making moves aimed at becoming a strong contender.
South Korean lawmakers have reportedly given the regulatory green light for securities tokenization. This makes it the latest country to toss in its bid for the RWAs narrative, which has been one of the key crypto news narratives in the last 12 months.
Preliminary data over the matter revealed that South Korea plans to push its real estate industry and stock market onto blockchain through tokenization.
Polygon on crypto news spotlight with its pivot to stablecoins
The Polygon network is reportedly re-adjusting its strategy to focus more on stablecoins. Recent reports revealed that the company plans to let go of roughly 30% of its staff as part of the restructuring efforts.
Polygon has recently been making moves aimed at securing more dominance in the stablecoin market. Among those efforts was the creation of the Polygon Open Money stack aimed at helping companies to move funds on-chain.
Earlier this week, Polygon announced its plan to become a regulated payment platform in the US through two new strategic acquisitions.
Meanwhile, Polygon crypto embarked on a notable retracement this week after its rally last week. The cryptocurrency kicked off January with an impressive rally judging by the 80% plus bullish move in the first 10 days of the month.
The retracement this week was expected, considering that its RSI was in overbought territory. This set the pace for a profit-taking-induced retracement.
Iran’s full scope of crypto usage
Iran has been making headlines due to its political and economic woes this week. It even made crypto news headlines after reports revealed that the country has been using crypto to bypass US sanctions.
A recent Chainalysis report revealed that Iran’s crypto usage in 2025 ballooned to $7.78 billion. The country’s involvement in the crypto market was almost non-existent in 2022, but that has since grown aggressively.
According to the report, Iran’s crypto involvement grew much more aggressively in 2025 compared to the previous year. Moreover, it also revealed that Iranians have been increasingly withdrawing more Bitcoin from exchanges to their private wallets.
In other words, Iranians have been using Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a safe haven during periods of conflict and economic uncertainty. The country has recently been struggling with elevated inflation and this may explain the rising demand for crypto in the country.
The Chainalysis report also revealed that crypto adoption surged during periods when the country was in conflict. These kinds of observations were not isolated.
Demand for crypto has been rising as trust in the traditional banking systems deteriorated. This trend is increasingly prominent now that the US dollar is facing greater economic pressures.