South Korea's Bithumb said on Wednesday that serious flaws had left the crypto exchange's internal system susceptible to potential sabotage and failed to prevent an erroneous transfer of more than $40 billion in assets last week, Reuters reported. The country's second-largest virtual asset exchange said it accidentally gave away about 620,000 bitcoins to customers during a promotional event, instead of 620,000 won ($426), triggering a 17% slump in bitcoin's price.

The European Union must simplify its regulations to make the bloc more competitive against the likes of the United States and China, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said ahead of summits of EU political ‌and business leaders, Reuters reported. EU growth has been persistently lower than that of the United States over the past two decades, with EU productivity and innovation, ‌particularly in fields like AI, falling short. "Let me take the U.S. example again. One financial system, one financial capital," von der Leyen said on Wednesday.

The European Commission has imposed additional duties on imported electric vehicles made in China since 2024, though under European Union rules carmakers can now negotiate tariff exemptions for individual electric models imported from China, Reuters reported. In February 2026 the Commission approved, in a first such move, a request by Volkswagen's Cupra brand to free its Tavascan SUV coupe, which is made in China, from import tariffs in exchange for a minimum price and annual quota model.

Taiwan’s exports showed no signs of slowing at the start of 2026, rising at the fastest pace in 16 years for the first month of the year as AI demand continues unabated, the Wall Street Journal reported. Exports rose 69.9% in January from a year earlier, official data showed Monday, topping the 52.2% increase expected in a Wall Street Journal poll of economists and logging the fastest pace of growth since early 2010.

A Dutch court on Wednesday ordered an investigation into mismanagement at chipmaker Nexperia BV ‌and upheld an October decision to suspend former CEO Zhang Xuezheng, the ‌founder of Nexperia's Chinese parent Wingtech, saying that the company needs stability, Reuters reported. The decision leaves control of the company ​in the hands of the European team that has overseen it since a Dutch state intervention led to a conflict over the firm that has disrupted automotive industry supply lines around the world.

According to the Australian Financial Security Authority (AFSA), 344 people who entered personal insolvency in December 2025 were also involved in a business, up from 249 a year earlier – a 38% year-on-year increase, BrokerNews.com.au reported. That December figure has climbed steadily over four years, from 163 in 2022 to 232 in 2023, 249 in 2024 and now 344, pointing to a structural shift rather than a single-month anomaly.

The U.S. is moving to reduce its so-called reciprocal tariff on goods from Bangladesh and offering a new exemption for textile products, the White House said Monday, in the latest adjustment for the South Asian country, Bloomberg News reported. President Donald Trump will lower the country’s overall reciprocal tariff to 19%, after previously slashing the rate from 37% to 20% last year. But the deal also includes a mechanism that allows certain textile merchandise to receive a full exemption from the levies, providing a break to Bangladesh’s apparel industry.

Japan's bankruptcy cases rose in January as companies struggled with rising labour costs in a tight job market, a private survey showed on Monday, a sign of how increasing pay was hitting smaller firms, Reuters reported. Separate data showed real wages fell 0.1% in December from a year earlier, much slower than a 1.6% drop in November, as inflation eased and workers saw a steady gain in bonuses. Bankruptcy cases rose 5.6% in January to 887 from a year earlier, the highest level for the month in 13 years, a survey by private think tank Tokyo Shoko Research shows.

The South Korean SMEs and Startups Agency (KOSME) said on Feb. 8 that it will fully roll out the Small and Medium-Sized Corporations Crisis-Overcoming Alert Service to proactively prevent management crises at small and medium-sized corporations, Chosun.biz reported. The service was presented as a key task in a briefing by agencies under the Ministry of SMEs and Startups on the 12th of last month.