Yellen seeks clamp on stablecoinS

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen pushed top US financial regulators to accelerate their consideration of new rules to police stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency that's seen rapid recent growth and remains largely unsupervised.

"The secretary underscored the need to act quickly to ensure there is an appropriate US regulatory framework in place," the Treasury Department said in a statement. The group "expects to issue recommendations in the coming months," according to the statement.

Meanwhile, bitcoin investment products and funds registered outflows for a second consecutive week, according to CoinShares. Outflows hit US$10.4 million in the week ended July 16, after outflows of US$6.9 million (HK$81.12 million) the previous week, as the cryptocurrency fell below US$30,000 for the first time in a month.