Welcome back to Continuum Risk Update. Every Friday we pull the top Asia headlines on digital-asset regulation, cyber risk, industry moves and insurance signals, with concise takeaways and practical actions for insurers and corporate risk teams.
1) Regulatory
Damisa and dLocal partner to launch stablecoin-based cross-border settlement across APACAnnounced April 23, Damisa has partnered with dLocal to connect its stablecoin settlement infrastructure to local payment rails across key APAC markets through a single integration. Merchants gain access to local bank transfers in multiple markets, with settlement in hours rather than days and a single transparent fee. The APAC cross-border commerce market is projected to exceed $4 trillion by 2028, and the deal signals growing commercial momentum behind stablecoin settlement rails as regulatory frameworks across the region mature.
Bybit advances crypto-mainstream integration vision at Hong Kong Web3 FestivalOn April 21, Bybit took centre stage at the Hong Kong Web3 Festival to lay out its vision for digital assets’ integration into mainstream finance — covering regulatory frameworks, technological infrastructure, and the practical pathways through which crypto is reshaping financial services. The event, one of Asia’s premier crypto gatherings, served as a signal of Hong Kong’s continued positioning as the region’s regulated digital asset hub, with multiple global exchanges and institutional players present.
2) Hacking & Physical Risks
Lazarus Group drains $292M from Kelp DAO in the largest DeFi hack of 2026On April 18, attackers attributed to North Korea’s Lazarus Group exploited a 1-of-1 verifier setup on Kelp DAO’s LayerZero-powered bridge, draining 116,500 rsETH — roughly 18% of circulating supply. The attack triggered emergency freezes across at least nine lending protocols and caused Aave’s TVL to drop $6.6 billion. Combined April 2026 DeFi losses now exceed $600 million across four major exploits, and the Kelp hack has overtaken Drift Protocol as the largest single DeFi theft of the year.
Black Hat Asia 2026: autonomous AI hackers are now an operational realityRunning April 21–24 at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, this year’s Black Hat Asia confirmed what many in the industry feared: autonomous AI-driven attacks are no longer theoretical. Keynote speaker Ari Herbert-Voss (April 24) presented documented scenarios in which an agentic AI can gain initial access, map a network, and deploy a secondary payload — all within 22 seconds. Violet Blue (April 23) flagged APAC’s fragmented data protection frameworks as a structural vulnerability in the face of these threats. Check Point data presented at the conference showed APAC organisations facing 3,026 weekly attacks on average, with a ransomware infection rate of 0.60% — well above the global average of 0.44%.
3) Industry & Markets
APAC insurers are racing into private markets — their infrastructure is not keeping upA Clearwater Analytics report published April 22, surveying 150 senior executives managing $3.8 trillion in assets across Hong Kong, Singapore, and Australia, found that APAC insurers expect to allocate a third of their portfolios to private debt, private equity, and infrastructure within five years — up from 20% today. But 93% of those same executives acknowledge that legacy technology is already constraining their operations. Only 42% rate their data integration capabilities as excellent, and 95% say the industry remains resistant to change — even as the allocation push demands more, not less, from their systems.
4) Insurance Spotlight
Munich Re: 9 in 10 C-suite executives say their companies are inadequately protected against cyber riskMunich Re’s Global Cyber Risk and Insurance Survey 2026, covering over 9,500 respondents across 20 countries, found that despite rising investment, 90% of C-level managers consider their organisations inadequately protected against cyberattacks. Government, manufacturing, and financial services remain the most targeted sectors. Munich Re projects the global cyber insurance market will grow from $15 billion in 2025 to $28 billion by 2030 — a 15% average annual growth rate — with SME underinsurance flagged as the most critical protection gap remaining in APAC and globally.
