Apple has delisted 14 crypto apps in South Korea at the request of one of the country’s regulators.

South Korea’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), an anti-money laundering agency, issued the requests.

The regulator claims the banned apps involved foreign virtual asset operators conducting “unreported business activities.”

Apple’s list of blocked apps includes the crypto exchange giants KuCoin and MEXC. Last month, Google Play delisted both of those exchanges and 15 other crypto operators at the FIU’s request.

The regulatory crackdown materializes as crypto adoption swells across South Korea. The Seoul-based news agency Yonhap, citing data released by the South Korean government, reported that as of late February of this year, 16.29 million people have opened accounts on Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax, the country’s top five domestic crypto exchanges. The country currently has an overall population of nearly 52 million.

Banks in South Korea have also reportedly been rushing to partner with crypto firms as the country’s digital asset regulations become less restrictive.

In February, South Korea’s Financial Services Commission announced that the country would launch a pilot program in the second half of 2025 that allows 3,500 corporate entities to buy crypto for investment and financial purposes. Corporate crypto transactions have been banned in the country since 2017.

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Greek exchange Athens Exchange Group has moved closer to adopting a Sui-based order book following its collaboration with Mysten Labs.

On April 16, the Sui (SUI) team announced that Athens Exchange Group, or ATHEX, had finalized the technical design for an onchain fundraising platform that will leverage zero-knowledge proofs on the Sui blockchain.

ATHEX’s ZK-powered fundraising platform will help the stock exchange enhance its offering with privacy and speed, bolstering its growth in traditional capital markets.

This nod to blockchain innovation and integration follows Sui contributor Mysten Labs’ partnership with the Athens Exchange Group in March 2024.

The collaboration between the two platforms aims to leverage their respective ecosystems to deliver the technical design for ATHEX’s Electronic Book Building (EBB), the exchange’s fundraising feature. By tapping into Sui’s technology and tooling, the company will be able to integrate zero-knowledge proofs into EBB’s bidding process.

Currently, Athens Exchange Group and Mysten Labs are eyeing a proof of concept, with this a key milestone towards building the first onchain order book for a stock exchange.

“The focus on privacy-preserving mechanisms, combined with Sui’s unparalleled speed and security, will enable us to build a state-of-the-art PoC that can evolve into a full-fledged onchain order book, setting a new benchmark for the industry,” said Dr. Kostas Kryptos Chalkios, Chief Cryptographer and Co-Founder of Mysten Labs

ATHEX will benefit from a platform that combines privacy-preserving mechanisms, speed and security.

Sui’s capacity to scale and handle transactions in parallel, with industry-leading throughput will be crucial to the stock exchange.

“By integrating zero-knowledge proofs, we aim to uphold the highest standards of compliance and data integrity while boosting operational efficiency for all market participants,” said Nikos Porfyris, chief operating officer at Athens Exchange Group. 

Sui is the 10th largest blockchain by total value locked per DeFiLlama with over $1.18 billion in TVL.

AI-focused crypto tokens are seeing a dip as Nvidia, the top AI chipmaker fueling the space, could soon take a major financial hit due to new U.S. export restrictions.

In a filing on April 14, Nvidia said it expects around $5.5 billion in charges for the first quarter of fiscal year 2026 because of U.S. government rules limiting its AI chip sales to China.

On April 9, officials told Nvidia it now needs special export licenses for its popular H20 chips and others with similar capabilities. The new restrictions target China, Hong Kong, and Macau, with the government warning that the chips could end up powering Chinese supercomputers.

The H20 chip is the most advanced AI chip Nvidia is currently allowed to sell in China under the earlier rules. It’s reportedly been used by Chinese AI startup DeepSeek to train models, something that has raised concerns among U.S. lawmakers.

Even though Nvidia said it plans to spend hundreds of millions over the next four years making some AI chips in the U.S., that hasn’t stopped the stock from sliding after its latest filing and the expected hit to future revenues. NVDA dropped 6.3% in after-hours trading on April 15 to $105.10, and it’s down about 16.45% so far this year.

Nvidia’s decline mirrors a wider pullback in tech as Trump’s tariff escalation rattles investor confidence across the sector. Other prominent tech stocks were also in the red, with Apple down 0.20% from the previous close to $202.14, Microsoft off 0.56% at $385.73, Alphabet sliding 1.71% to $156.31, and Amazon dropping 1.33% to $179.59.

Adding to Nvidia’s troubles, a “death cross” has formed on the 1-day NVDA/USD chart, a bearish technical signal where its 50-day moving average drops below the 200-day one. The last time this happened was in April 2022, and Nvidia’s stock plunged nearly 50% in the following six months.

That’s got investors in AI crypto tokens on edge, as these tokens have often reacted to Nvidia-related news mostly due to the fact that Nvidia’s hardware plays a central role in powering the AI infrastructure that many of these projects rely on. 

For instance, in December, reports of China launching an antitrust probe into Nvidia caused the AI crypto token market cap to drop by over 14% in a single day. In the past, a surge in the Nvidia stock price has also resulted in bullish rallies for AI tokens.

Following Nvidia’s latest filing, the total market cap of AI-related tokens has fallen 3.7% in the past 24 hours, now sitting at around $20.1 billion. Trading volume also declined, signaling weaker demand.

Near Protocol (NEAR), the biggest AI crypto by market cap, slid 5.3% over the past day. Other major tokens like Internet Computer (ICP), Render (RENDER), Sei (SEI), Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL), and Akash Network (AKT) also lost between 5% and 12%.