From the launch of new products and services in Japan to facilitating leveraged trading bets, crypto exchanges and some financial firms are rushing to cash in on rising investor enthusiasm for digital assets amid hopes of easing regulations. The recent surge underscores a higher appetite for riskier investments in Japan as inflation outpaces wage growth and overrides a wariness around crypto investments that followed serious security breaches at exchanges in 2014 and 2018 .

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his top officials on Wednesday to draft proposals for a possible test of nuclear weapons, something Moscow has not done since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. The order - responding to President Donald Trump's announcement last week that the U.S. would resume testing - was a further signal that the two countries with the world's largest nuclear arsenals are rapidly nearing a step that could sharply escalate geopolitical tension

Global private equity partners are eyeing a return to China after staying on the sidelines over the last few years, encouraged by cheaper valuations and as investors pare U.S. allocations, top fund executives said on Wednesday. "Investors, particularly the non-U.S. ones, feel like they are overallocated to dollar assets," Jean Eric Salata, Chairman of EQT Asia told the Global Financial Leaders' Investment Summit in Hong Kong. Learn More