Hi, it’s Marc. ✌️

“Fiat needs to move 24/7. And that’s what blockchains are built for.”

That’s Sveinn Valfells, co-founder of Monerium, one of Europe’s oldest and largest stablecoin players – and one of the few people in Europe who’s not just talking about on-chain finance but actually building the regulatory-compliant rails to make it happen.

In this episode, we talk about how Sveinn helped write the stablecoin playbook that’s now shaping global policy. His company, Monerium, issued the first regulated stablecoin in Europe, long before Circle had a legal framework and before the U.S. even passed enabling legislation.

But this isn’t just another stablecoin episode.

It’s a front-row seat to the regulatory cold war unfolding between the U.S. and Europe and why Europe lost the first phase of this war.

About Sveinn: Sveinn Valfells is an Icelandic entrepreneur, scientist, and investor. With a background in tech and physics, Sveinn was an early adopter of Bitcoin, helping to organise the first Bitcoin conferences in London. He led Monerium in 2015 to become the first company licensed in the European Economic Area to issue e-money on-chain, including EURe, GBPe, and USDe stablecoins, enabling instant transfers between traditional bank accounts and blockchain wallets.

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🎧 Jump to the best parts

* (00:37) → The future of Fiat is on-chain: Sveinn explains his core thesis: blockchains offer a superior infrastructure for transacting real-world assets, and fiat currency is the most significant of these.

* (07:23) → The e-money blueprint: How Monerium issued the first regulated stablecoin in Europe using the pre-MiCA e-money framework — years before Circle or Paxos had legal clarity.

* (17:11) → MiCA vs. the Genius Act: Sveinn compares the EU’s MiCA regime with the U.S. Payment Stablecoin Act — and explains why America is now copying Europe’s early blueprint.¨

* (23:47) → The “too big to fail” risk of dollar dominance: Why relying on USD for 99% of stablecoin volume is dangerous — and how multi-currency rails could mitigate systemic risk.

* (29:00) → Why Europe fell behind and how they’ll catch up: Despite clear regulation, Europe’s fragmented startup ecosystem slowed real adoption. Sveinn outlines what needs to change for Europe to lead.

Important Links

* Website: https://sveinn.valfells.com/

* X: https://x.com/sveinn_valfells

* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sveinn-valfells

* Medium: https://medium.com/@valfells

* Monerium: https://monerium.com/board/

🎙️ In our conversation, we discussed:

* Why the future of fiat currency is on the blockchain

* How Monarium pioneered regulated stablecoins in Europe

* The critical differences and similarities between EU and US stablecoin regulation

* The systemic risks of global reliance on the US dollar and its infrastructure

* Why the Euro has the potential to become a major on-chain currency

* The future of financial services in a tokenised world

* Why a multi-chain, multi-currency stablecoin ecosystem is inevitable

Watch or listen now:YouTube • Spotify • Apple Podcasts

Recommended podcasts:

Recommended reports:

🙌 A note from 51: We arm financial institutions and digital asset leaders with bespoke research, thought leadership to shape the most important conversations, scale trust, and win business.

My biggest takeaways from this conversation:

Hey, it’s Marc.

When JPMorgan tokenizes private equity, Circle launches a blockchain with 100+ Wall Street partners, and Mastercard drops $2 billion on a crypto infrastructure deal, the signal is clear: We’re in a race to own the rails of the next financial system.

Some are building them (JPM, BlackRock, Stripe, IBM, Circle), others are buying them. 2025 has quietly become the year of crypto M&A:

* Stripe → Privy

* Coinbase → Echo, Deribit

* Mastercard → ZeroHash

* Robinhood → Bitstamp

* Ripple → Hidden Road

* Circle → Hashnote

* Kraken → NinjaTrader

* MoonPay → Iron

It’s infrastructure, not tokens, stupid.

Also this week:

* Zelle ($1T+ in transfers, 2,100 banks), integrates stablecoins [more]

* First yen-pegged stablecoin went live

* Western Union plans to launch USDPT stablecoin on Solana.

We’ll unpack all of these highlights below 👇

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Top Boardroom Reads

* Progressing fund tokenisation (FCA)

* Crypto-assets and decentralised finance (ESRB)

* MicroStrategy gets B-rating from S&P (51)

* Why Privacy Is Becoming the World’s Most Valuable Currency (Maja Vujinovic)

* 2024 BIS survey on central bank digital currencies and crypto (BIS)

* Stablecoins – Implications for EM (Standard Chartered)

* Ethereum’s Endgame: Why Credible Neutrality Beats Speed, with William Mougayar (51)

* The Stablecoin Balancing Act (IMF)

🙌 Work with us: We create pioneering thought leadership that helps digital asset and technology companies lead the conversation, earn trust and win business.

Top Signals This Week

J.P. Morgan makes private equity history on-chain

JPMorgan just made private equity history: tokenizing a private fund on its blockchain, Kinexys, giving private wealth clients direct digital ownership of fund shares. [NEWS]

The goal? To digitize one of finance’s most illiquid markets and make alternative assets trade like stocks, enabling real-time settlement, programmable compliance, and 24/7 liquidity.

Why it matters: Kinexys, JPM’s in-house blockchain, has already processed $1.5T in transactions and $2B+ daily volume. Unlike Goldman and BNY’s tokenized money market funds, JPM is tackling the hardest problem: tokenizing what never moves.

Our take: Private markets are a $23T asset class expected to hit $25T by 2030, and JPM now controls the first end-to-end infrastructure to move it on-chain. By 2026, Kinexys aims to support private credit, real estate, and infrastructure funds, effectively becoming the Stripe of private markets. The world’s largest bank just built the rails for the next $15T in alternative assets.

Zelle, Western Union upgrade infra with blockchain

Two of the world’s biggest money movers: Zelle ($1T+ in transfers, 2,100 banks) and Western Union (500K+ outlets, 200+ countries), are going stablecoin. Western Union plans to use stablecoins for cross-border payments and its own treasury operations, aiming to cut fees and reduce settlement times. Zelle, backed by major U.S. banks, will use stablecoins to enable international transfers and is even considering launching its own. [RELEASE]

So what? For years, PayPal, Wise, Tether and others dominated cross-border payments while banks watched from the sidelines. Now Zelle’s owners are building their own stablecoin rails and keeping those transaction fees in-house. Distribution is their moat: 100 MILLION (!) verified bank users will now get stablecoin rails without ever leaving their banking app (Zelle has over 74.8M active users, while Western Union serves over 150M customers worldwide, operating in 200+ countries).

Circle’s Arc: Wall Street’s New Blockchain?

Circle launches its blockchain Arc with 100+ institutional partners, including Visa, BlackRock , ICE , Goldman Sachs, HSBC , State Street , AWS, Deutsche Bank , Coinbase , Kraken, Anthropic , and 90+ others. [RELEASE]

The challenge: Big players want neutral rails. Centralized blockchains only work with massive distribution and industry coalitions (if ever). Because BlackRock won’t tokenize $10T on a chain run by one vendor. They’ll need credibly neutral rails.

Our take: The financial stack is being rebuilt. Quietly. Globally. But this time, the prize isn’t the token. It’s who controls the new pipes, that makes the money. Stripe, JPM, Citi, Blackrock, SWIFT – all of them, and soon more, want to build the rails. And with Arc, Circle just made its boldest move yet to do the same.

Japan’s first Stablecoin

The world’s first yen-pegged stablecoin just went live. With 10-year JGB yields at just 1.65%, JPYC’s thin-margin seigniorage model faces heightened stability risk, making yen-backed stablecoins structurally weaker than dollar-backed ones. [NEWS]

So what? USD-pegged stablecoins command over 99% of the global market, which crossed $300B in total capitalisation as of October 2025. JPYC’s stablecoin offers a “De-dollarisation Lite” path, creating a sovereign, regulated digital alternative to the USD for Asian trade settlement.

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Mastercard to acquire Zerohash for $2B

Mastercard is acquiring Zerohash, a crypto infrastructure company, for up to $2B. This mirrors Stripe’s $1.1B acquisition of Bridge in February. Zerohash enables Fiat-to-crypto conversions, stablecoin trading, API-level crypto integration and offers tokenisation infrastructure. [NEWS] [ANALYSIS]

The best part: Zerohash raised $104M at a $1B valuation in September 2025. Mastercard just offered to double that within a month. And they know why: the race is on. Stripe, PayPal, Visa, WorldPay and pretty much all major banks are all building on stablecoin rails.

So what? Mastercard is positioning itself at the center of the stablecoin economy. By acquiring Zerohash, it gains direct control over the infrastructure that connects traditional payment networks with digital assets: fiat conversion, custody, and tokenization. It’s a strategic move to future-proof its core business as payments shift from cards to blockchain rails.

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News Flash

* IBM launches Digital Asset Haven, infra for financial institutions & enterprises. Link

* Securitize to become a public company at $1.25B valuation. Link

* The European Central Bank plans to launch the digital euro by 2029.

* Ant Group applied to register crypto trademarks. Link

* Apollo partners with Coinbase to unlock stablecoin lending business. Link

* Canada advances stablecoin framework. Link

* Citi and Coinbase partner to streamline global digital asset payments. Link

* Visa added support for 4 new stablecoins across 4 chains. Link

That’s all for now, folks.

Take care

– Marc & Team

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* Check out our Crypto Treasury Alpha newsletter here.

Hey, it’s Marc.

J.P. Morgan just did what no major bank had dared: it will now lend against Bitcoin and Ethereum. That single decision pulls crypto into the global credit system. This is a small step for JPM, but a big step for crypto, particularly Ethereum (more below).

In the same week, Aave launched Horizon, letting institutions borrow stablecoins against tokenized Treasuries and funds on-chain.

Read that together: banks are accepting crypto as collateral while DeFi starts accepting bank-grade collateral.

The signal is clear: rails are converging. And again, everything except Bitcoin will be priced as infrastructure. The alpha isn’t any longer “up only”. It’s who owns issuance, distribution, collateral flows, and the spread as these rails sync.

Also this week:

* Coinbase goes full-stack with $357M Echo acquisition

* Trump pardons CZ, the Binance founder

* Polymarket confirms U.S. return & token airdrop

We’ll unpack all of these highlights below 👇

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Top Boardroom Reads

* Enterprise-grade private, permissioned L2s on Ethereum (zksync)

* State of crypto 2025 (a16z)

* Gold’s reign, Bitcoin’s rise. (Deutsche Bank)

* FGNexus Alpha Brief October (FGNX & 51)

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Top Signals This Week

J.P. Morgan Makes Bitcoin and Ethereum Bankable Collateral

JPM will let institutional clients pledge Bitcoin and Ethereum as loan collateral by year-end. Assets sit with third-party custodians (think Fidelity/BNY). It extends JPM’s existing acceptance of crypto ETFs as collateral into native tokens. [NEWS]

The goal? To bring crypto into traditional credit workflows.

So what? This makes BTC and ETH officially “bankable.” It places digital assets beside gold and Treasuries as recognized collateral. For Ethereum especially, this is validation of its role as financial infrastructure, a yield-bearing, settlement-ready asset inside the world’s biggest bank. This move formally integrates crypto into core banking workflows: balance sheet lending, repo, and margin facilities.

Aave’s launches DeFi’s first institutional credit market

Aave Labs unveiled Horizon, a permissioned on-chain lending market for institutions to borrow stablecoins against tokenized real-world assets (RWAs). Horizon launches with a consortium of top-tier partners: Circle, Superstate, Centrifuge, Chainlink, Ethena, OpenEden, Ripple, Securitize, VanEck, WisdomTree, KAIO, and Ant Digital Technologies. [RELEASE]

So what? Horizon is the missing bridge between tokenization and credit markets. RWAs are no longer passive, illiquid assets, they now serve as programmable collateral that can generate liquidity in real time. For investors, it means two things: new yield opportunities from institutional borrowers and DeFi’s transformation into a full-fledged wholesale funding market. This is the first DeFi-native credit desk built for Wall Street scale.

Coinbase goes full-stack

Coinbase acquired Echo for $375M , a fast-growing onchain capital formation platform enabling public and private token sales. Echo’s product Sonar allows compliant, self-hosted token launches with full onchain transparency. Since inception, Echo has facilitated 300+ deals, raising over $200M directly from communities. [RELEASE]

The big picture: This builds on Coinbase’s acquisition of Liquifi earlier this year, giving it end-to-end coverage of tokenized markets: creation (Liquifi), issuance (Echo), and trading (Base), all integrated with custody, compliance, and stablecoin rails.

So what? Coinbase now owns the full capital stack of crypto finance. It’s no longer just an exchange, it’s becoming the infrastructure provider for compliant tokenized fundraising. As soon as U.S. regulation will allow public token sales, Coinbase will be the default platform for issuers and investors alike. Think of it as building the NASDAQ, NYSE, and AngelList of the onchain era.

Polymarket token incoming

Polymarket’s CMO confirmed a POLY token and airdrop are coming, but only after the platform completes its CFTC-approved reentry into the U.S. market. The company is currently testing an invite-only U.S. app with event contracts tied to macro, politics, and culture. [NEWS]

So what? Backed by ICE’s $2B investment, Polymarket is evolving into the institutional layer for event-driven data, turning sentiment, probabilities, and information into tradeable assets. For investors, it’s an emerging market for alpha, a new data class that bridges prediction, liquidity, and macro hedging.

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News Flash

* Sony Bank has filed for a crypto banking charter to issue stablecoins. Link

* Stripe-backed Tempo blockchain raises $500 million Series A at a $5 billion valuation. Link

* Coinbase, Ripple & Gemini listed as donors for Trump’s $300 M White House ballroom. Link

* Hyperliquid Strategies Inc. files S-1 to raise $1 B and buy HYPE tokens. Link

* Revolut secures MiCA license, preps for EU crypto launch. Link

* Aave launches V4: liquidity hubs + spokes for capital efficiency. Link

* Google announces 13,000× quantum speed breakthrough. Link

* Fed Governor Waller: “Crypto is woven into the financial system.” Link

* Ripple-backed Evernorth files SPAC to create public XRP treasury. Link

That’s all for now, folks.

Take care

– Marc & Team

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* Check out our AI newsletter, AI Operator, here.

* Check out our Crypto Treasury Alpha newsletter here.

Hey, it’s Marc.

When gold outperforms Bitcoin, BlackRock starts building on-chain infrastructure, and JP Morgan invests $1.5T in U.S. infrastructure, something is cooking (we’ll unpack all of this below and in our CEO Notes).

“We need to be tokenising all assets, especially assets that have multiple levels of intermediaries.” — Larry Fink, BlackRock CEO

“Bitcoin is likely to become a reserve asset for central banks. Alongside gold, by around 2030.” – Deutsche Bank

The signal is clear: Smart money is moving from fiat dependence to real and digital (hard) assets. I highly recommend Maja Vujinovic ‘s read on this: Powell, JPMorgan, and the Quiet Pivot.

Oh, and before I forget: This week, crypto markets also experienced their largest-ever liquidation event, with over $19–20B in leveraged positions wiped out. And, DeFi held firm while centralised exchanges stumbled. [Read full story]

Also this week:

* Ant Group’s builds on Ethereum

* Citi to launch crypto custody in 2026

We’ll unpack all of these highlights below.

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Top Boardroom Reads

* Stablecoins beyond payments (Visa)

* Powell, JPMorgan, and the Quiet Pivot (Maja Vujinovic)

* Real World Assets: The Practitioner’s Guide (Rebank)

* Ethereum’s Endgame: Why Credible Neutrality Beats Speed, with William Mougayar (51)

* The Compelling Case for Crypto (Franklin Templeton)

* Stablecoins (KPMG)

🙌 Work with us: We create pioneering thought leadership that helps digital asset and technology companies lead the conversation, earn trust and win business.

Top Signals This Week

Crypto's biggest liquidation ever

$19-20B in total liquidations occurred within 24 hours, affecting over 1.6M traders, triggered by President Donald Trump’s announcement of escalated tariffs against China. Here’s the breakdown.

* Long positions liquidated: $16.7-16.8B

* Traders affected: 1.6M+

* Single-hour liquidations: $7B (within one hour of Trump’s announcement)

* Open interest destroyed: $65B wiped out

Let’s do the math: Open interest in perpetual DEXs fell 50% ($25.7B → $13.7B) but recovered to $17B within days, with Hyperliquid leading the rebound.

So what? The event exposed how geopolitical shocks can trigger systemic fragility in 24/7 crypto markets, but it also showed how far DeFi has come. While Binance froze trading and mispriced stablecoins, decentralized protocols like Hyperliquid, Aave, Ethena, and Solana handled record liquidations, redemptions, and transactions without breaking.

That’s the real headline: in crypto’s biggest stress test to date, permissionless infrastructure outperformed the world’s largest regulated exchanges.

👉Subscribe to our Crypto Treasury Alpha newsletter here.

BlackRock will tokenise everything

On Tuesday, the CEO of the world’s largest asset manager—$13.46 trillion in AUM—told Wall Street that BlackRock is building proprietary tokenisation technology to rebuild capital markets on-chain. [NEWS]

The goal? To onboard the next generation of investors.

“If we can tokenize an ETF, we can bring investors who start with crypto into traditional long-term products. Over the next decade, we’ll move away from traditional assets by repotting them in a digital form and keeping investors inside that ecosystem.” – Larry Fink

So what? BlackRock initially relied on specialised partners like Securitize for BUIDL’s issuance. Now it’s internalising the stack. The move signals BlackRock intends to weave tokenisation, issuance, and compliance directly into Aladdin, its flagship risk management and trading platform serving $13.4T in AUM. The shift from “owning assets” to owning the infrastructure of ownership has begun.

Ant Group builds on Ethereum

Ant Group, the owner of Alipay (1.4B users, $20T annual volume), launched Jovay Network, a high-performance Ethereum Layer 2 solution. [NEWS]

The goal? To turn the world’s largest fintech app into a global blockchain infrastructure provider.

What’s happening: Jovay is a high-performance Ethereum L2 targeting 100,000 TPS using a hybrid ZK + TEE design. It connects directly to AntChain, Ant’s private blockchain, which already manages $8.4B in tokenised energy assets — 15 million power devices including wind turbines and solar panels.

So what? Ant Group processes 1.5× Visa’s global volume and 15× PayPal’s. If even 1% of Alipay’s flows touch Jovay, it instantly becomes the largest on-chain payments network in history.

JP Morgan’s $1.5T bet

JPMorgan Chase just launched one of the largest private initiatives in U.S. history, a $1.5T, 10-year Security and Resiliency Initiative (SRI) to strengthen America’s economic backbone across defence, energy, and frontier technologies. [RELEASE]

So what? Most of the $1.5T plan fuels lending, underwriting, and advisory work for clients across critical sectors. But the real strategic edge lies in the $10B the bank will invest directly, buying stakes in cutting-edge manufacturing and frontier technologies. By tying its core business to national security priorities, JPMorgan isn’t just chasing profit; it’s locking in long-term relevance, influence, and political leverage in the next phase of U.S. industrial policy.

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Citi’s crypto custody

Citi just confirmed it’s launching crypto custody in 2026. They’ve been quietly building it for 2–3 years, writing code, lining up partners, getting regulatory clearance. They also invested in a stablecoin payment company, BVNK. [NEWS]

So what? Wall Street banks (State Street, JP Morgan, BNY Mellon and now Blackrock) are not just adopting stablecoins but have started building/ owning the infrastructure. The move comes after the SEC scrapped the SAB 121 rule in January, which previously forced banks to treat customer crypto as a liability, making custody economically unfeasible. Simply put, traditional banks are positioning themselves to fully capitalise on one of the biggest transformations in finance since electronic trading.

News Flash

* Stripe adds stablecoin payments for recurring subscriptions using USDC. Link

* New York launches city office for digital assets. Link

* Bhutan moves its national ID system from Polygon to Ethereum. Link

* CME launches CFTC-approved options trading for Solana and XRP. Link

* Morgan Stanley opens crypto fund access to all wealth clients. Link

* Cantor Fitzgerald considers acquiring Securitize in a SPAC deal. Link

* S&P Ratings brings real-time stablecoin risk data on-chain via Chainlink. Link

* US lawmaker moves to make Trump’s crypto 401(k) order law. Link

* French ODDO BHF launches Euro-backed stablecoin EUROD. Link

That’s all for now, folks.

Take care

– Marc & Team

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* Check out our AI newsletter, AI Operator, here.

* Check out our Crypto Treasury Alpha newsletter here.

Hi, it’s Marc. ✌️

“You cannot build a reputation based on what you are going to do. Trust must be earned over time. The track record matters.”

William Mougayar on why Ethereum’s 10-year record matters more than competitor speed claims.

William Mougayar, an early internet pioneer and one of the first to recognise the potential of Ethereum, has been in the technology business for nearly four decades. He met Vitalik Buterin in late 2013 and has had a front-row seat to the evolution of the blockchain industry ever since. He advised the Ethereum Foundation through its early growing pains, served as chairman of the Kin Foundation during Solana’s 35-cent days, and has spent four decades watching technology waves from Hewlett-Packard to peer-to-peer protocols.

His thesis: The general-purpose L1 wars are over. Ethereum won. What remains is specialization, consolidation, and the infrastructure layer maturing into a $700B capital base.

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🎧 Jump to the best parts

* (07:03) → The double-spend solution and programmable money: William traces blockchain’s lineage from 1990s Cybercash to Napster’s peer-to-peer revolution to Satoshi’s breakthrough, explaining why “if this, then that” logic with money attached changed everything.

* (17:05) → The first principles of blockchain: William argues that trust, decentralisation, and credible neutrality are far more critical than speed, explaining why institutions prioritise consistency and fairness over flashy performance metrics.

* (28:48) → Why Ethereum sacrificed L1 activity by design: The intentional shift to L2s wasn’t weakness—it was strategic expansion. “Ethereum is no longer just the L1. Ethereum is an ecosystem.” Why comparing Solana’s base layer to Ethereum’s base layer is intellectually dishonest.

* (34:40) → Debunking Solana’s narrative: DEX volumes, app revenue, L2 value extraction, capital turnover, and speed. William systematically dismantles each with data: Ethereum does 8.4B in DEX volume vs Solana’s 5B when L2s are included. Top 10 Ethereum apps revenue: $4B; Solana: $2B.

* (40:03) → A new valuation for blockchains: Why traditional metrics like P/E ratios and discounted cash flows fail to capture the value of public blockchain infrastructure, and why network effects and the flow of money are better indicators.

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We sat down with William Mougayar, author of The Business Blockchain and founder of the Ethereum Market Research Center, to cut through the noise and return to the first principles of what makes a blockchain valuable and enduring.

Why it’s important: As the Layer 1 landscape becomes increasingly competitive, narratives often diverge from fundamentals. With billions of dollars at stake, understanding the core tenets of decentralization, trust, and credible neutrality is crucial for investors, builders, instituions and enterprises. William provides a masterclass in separating hype from reality, drawing on his decades of experience in technology cycles.

Where to find

* X: @wmougayar

* Blog: https://wamougayar.xyz

* Research: https://ethmrc.com

🎙️ In our conversation, we discussed:

* Pre-Bitcoin digital cash and peer-to-peer technologies

* What made Ethereum’s smart contracts a revolutionary leap forward

* Why the “Layer 1” label is a misleading oversimplification for Ethereum

* The critical importance of credible neutrality and censorship resistance

* A detailed rebuttal of common anti-Ethereum arguments, particularly regarding Solana

* The flaws in using “revenue” as the primary metric for valuing a blockchain

* How value accrues to ETH through its role as a productive, foundational asset

* The evolution of valuation models from the early internet to today’s blockchain ecosystems

* What’s next for blockchain adoption, from institutional finance to consumer apps

Watch or listen now:YouTube • Spotify • Apple Podcasts

Recommended podcasts:

Recommended reports:

🙌 Work with us: We create pioneering thought leadership that helps digital asset and technology companies lead the conversation, earn trust and win business.

My biggest takeaways from this conversation:

1. The “general-purpose blockchain” game is over

Hey, it’s Marc.

Today, major news broke that G7 banks are about to launch a stablecoin. They’re coming for Tether and Circle. More on that below.

Another story that caught my eye: Luxembourg’s sovereign wealth fund allocated 1% of its portfolio ($9M) to a BTC ETF. That’s first state-level Bitcoin investment in the Eurozone. But did you know that Norways and Switzerland’s Central Bank already hold 100s of millions in Strategy shares for indirect Bitcoin exposure? Wild.

The most conservative financial institutions on the planet are buying Bitcoin exposure through corporate proxies.

Let’s do the math: There are nearly 100 sovereign wealth funds globally, managing over $14 trillion.

If just 10% of global sovereign wealth funds allocate 1% to Bitcoin? That’s $140 billion in new demand.

For context: Bitcoin ETFs have pulled in $163B total since launch in January 2024.

Then: Coinbase and Mastercard are apparently in a bidding war for BVNK, a stablecoin startup backed by Visa and Citi (think of it as Bridge).

We just had them on the show:

“Crypto and traditional finance have been living in separate worlds, but they’ll fully merge. In the future, everything will be on-chain in some form, and the distinction will disappear.”

— Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev

This is a timely quote for another BIG story this week:

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) invested $2B in Polymarket, a crypto prediction market. Yes, ICE, the $80B parent of NYSE. Probably one of the biggest moments in DeFi history.

Also this week:

* Softbank & Binance onboard half of Japan’s population to crypto

* BNY Mellon pilots tokenized deposits

* Galaxy has launched GalaxyOne, a unified wealth platform.

* Kraken expands its U.S. equities platform 24/5

We’ll unpack all of these highlights below.

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Top Boardroom Reads

👉Subscribe to our Crypto Treasury Alpha newsletter here.

* G20 Roadmap for Cross-border Payments (FSB)

* Digital Asset Outlook (State Street)

* The Ethereum Foundation’s Commitment to Privacy (Ethereum Foundation)

* The $135B Treasury Wave (Fiftyone)

* Stablecoin growth - policy challenges and approaches (BIS)

* How Stablecoins Are Eating Payments, with Chris Harmse (Fiftyone)

* The First RWA Unicorn IPO (Fiftyone)

🙌 Work with us: We create pioneering thought leadership that helps digital asset and technology companies lead the conversation, earn trust and win business.

Top Signals This Week

G7 banks launch a stablecoin

What happened: Ten of the world’s largest banks — including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Citi, UBS, and Deutsche Bank — are teaming up to launch a G7-backed stablecoin network that will issue bank-backed stablecoins pegged to the USD, EUR, JPY, GBP, CAD, and CHF. [ANNOUNCEMENT]

The message is clear: banks are taking stablecoins back. For the first time, the G7’s largest institutions are building shared rails for digital currencies that settle instantly across a unified blockchain framework.

So what? It’s the strongest challenge yet to Tether and Circle’s $245B duopoly. For years, banks dismissed stablecoins as risky. Now, they’re racing to reclaim the rails they once owned. The Genius Act made it legal for regulated firms to issue their own stablecoins, shifting money creation from banks to corporates and fintechs like Stripe, PayPal, and Circle, which now move trillions on-chain. Stablecoins processed $27.6 trillion in transactions in 2024, officially exceeding Visa’s and Mastercard’s annual payment volume. That’s transaction flow banks used to own.

Full analysis for PRO readers👇

PayPay brings 70M users into crypto

SoftBank-owned PayPay, Japan’s largest cashless payment app, just bought a 40% stake in Binance Japan, instantly onboarding 70 million users — half the country’s population — into crypto [NEWS].

Why it matters: PayPay controls 67% of Japan’s QR code payments and handles one in every five cashless transactions. Now, users can buy crypto with PayPay Money, withdraw proceeds into their wallets, and access Binance Japan without ever leaving the app. It’s also the biggest distribution play Binance has ever pulled off — direct access to 60% of Japan’s adults through a single integration.

Wall Street’s $2B DeFi move

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the global leader in exchange operations and owner of the venerable New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), has completed a strategic investment of up to $2B in Polymarket, a decentralised prediction market platform. [ANNOUNCEMENT]

This is probably one of the biggest moments in DeFi history.

The message is clear: This deal is about data, distribution, and tokenisation. ICE will push Polymarket data to thousands of institutional investors globally.

So what? ICE is the plumbing of global finance. 13 exchanges, 6 clearing houses, $25T+ in annual trading volume. The immediate benefit? Exclusive data distribution. Global rights to sell Polymarket’s event-driven data to institutions. Immediate revenue stream. Hedge funds will pay for real-time probability signals on Fed decisions, elections, economic indicators. Bloomberg sells terminal data. ICE just bought prediction market data.

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Galaxy’s new super app

Galaxy has launched GalaxyOne, a unified wealth platform combining high-yield FDIC-insured cash accounts, crypto and equity trading, and institutional-grade investment products to help individuals manage and grow their portfolios seamlessly. [RELEASE]

Why it matters: Most retail investors still juggle siloed apps, stocks & ETFs, trading, crypto wallets, while professional platforms run on seamless, risk-aware infrastructure. A neobank app combining cash, crypto, and equities directly challenges Robinhood and traditional, fragmented finance apps.

BNY Mellon is exploring tokenised deposit

The world’s largest custodian with $55.8T in AUM, BNY Mellon, is actively exploring the use of tokenised deposits for enabling institutional client payments over distributed ledger technology (DLT) rails. [NEWS]

The message is clear: Existing payment rails are expensive, and institutions will switch to blockchain infrastructure if it saves cost and time for them.

Why it matters: BNY Mellon’s Treasury Services unit processes roughly $2.5T in payments each day, making the shift to instant, 24/7 settlement capabilities a systemic necessity. The move signals accelerating institutional blockchain adoption with major cost-efficiency gains up to 30%.

Kraken isn’t building a crypto exchange

Kraken expands its U.S. equities platform with stock transfers, lending, and 24/5 trading, a move that blurs the line between crypto and Wall Street. [RELEASE]

Why it matters: Legacy brokers sleep on weekends and settle trades in days. Kraken runs 24/5 and settles in seconds. The company’s now gunning for Robinhood’s retail base, Coinbase’s institutional users, and Wall Street’s liquidity, all while setting up for a potential $15B IPO in 2026.

News Flash

* Citi invests in BVNK, deepening US banks’ stablecoin adoption. Link

* Tokenised gold surpasses $3B as investors seek protection from weakening fiat.

* MetaMask launches in-wallet perpetuals trading through Hyperliquid. Link

* S&P has launched the Digital Markets 50 Index. Link

* Grayscale launches first U.S. crypto ETFs with Ethereum and Solana staking. Link

* Samsung Wallet integrates Coinbase in the US and Canada. Link

* Morgan Stanley now guides $2T advisors on crypto portfolio allocations. Link

* Walmart’s OnePay will offer Bitcoin and Ether trading, custody. Link

* CME to launch 24/7 crypto futures and options trading. Link

* BBVA enables 24/7 crypto trading via SGX FX integration. Link

That’s all for now, folks.

Take care

– Marc & Team

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Hi, it’s Marc. ✌️

“Money should travel at the speed of the internet. Stablecoins make that possible.”

— Chris Harmse, Co-founder & CBO of BVNK

BVNK, a leading stablecoin payment infrastructure provider, just hit $20 billion in annual transaction volume with 320 employees.

In May, they partnered with Worldpay, which processes $2.3 trillion annually for 1M+ merchants, to enable stablecoin payouts across 180+ countries.

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🎧 Jump to the best parts

* (08:28) → The new financial stack: Chris outlines the six core ‘payment primitives’ (send, receive, store, earn, spend, comply) driving adoption and explains how companies can now build entire neobanks on top of stablecoin rails, reaching 200 markets instantly.

* (15:13) → The three catalysts behind the 2025 Stablecoin summer: Why did the market explode this year? Chris pinpoints the trifecta of regulatory clarity, massive payment volumes, and a critical mass of global users that created the perfect storm for enterprise adoption.

* (20:41) → Competing with giants like Stripe: As big players enter, Chris explains why fragmentation creates opportunity and how BVNK’s value proposition is to abstract away all complexity, making blockchain payments as seamless as using a credit card.

* (29:15) → Regulation, regions, and the next 3 years: Why LatAm, Africa, and Southeast Asia are leading adoption from the bottom up, and why regulatory clarity has turned from headwind to tailwind for global enterprises.

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We sat down with Chris Harmse, Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer at BVNK, to explore the surge in demand for stablecoins for payments and their transformative impact on global finance.

Why it’s important: Stablecoins have crossed $300B in supply, putting them on par with some of the largest U.S. retail money market funds and regional banks. Initiatives like Stripe’s Open Issuance, BVNK’s WorldPay partnership and Circle’s Payment Network CPN show that money movement on blockchains is hitting mainstream.

BVNK: Founded in 2021, BVNK is a London-based fintech company that provides a full-stack stablecoin operating system for businesses, enabling them to integrate stablecoin payments and treasury solutions into their operations. It has processed $20B+ in transactions and is valued at $750M, backed by top investors and enterprise partnerships across 180+ countries.

Where to find Chris Harmse:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisharmse/

X: https://x.com/chrisharmse89

Website: https://bvnk.com/about-us

🎙️ In our conversation, we discussed:

* Why traditional payment rails are broken and fragmented

* The evolution of stablecoins from niche to enterprise-scale

* Which use cases (payouts, commerce, treasury) are scaling fastest

* How BVNK differentiates in an increasingly crowded market

* Why regulatory clarity flipped the narrative in 2025

* The WorldPay partnership and its network effects

* How emerging markets are driving adoption from the bottom up

* Where value will accrue across the payments stack (issuers vs. distributors vs. L1s)

* Navigating the complexities of KYC and compliance in a blockchain world

* Future outlook: Regulation and enterprise adoption

Watch or listen now:YouTube • Spotify • Apple Podcasts

Recommended podcasts:

Recommended reports:

🙌 Work with us: We create pioneering thought leadership that helps digital asset and technology companies lead the conversation, earn trust and win business.

My biggest takeaways from this conversation:

1. Enterprise adoption has matured

1. Enterprise adoption has matured—the conversation shifted from education to execution

The pilot phase is over. Chris argues that enterprises no longer need stablecoin 101 - they’re architecting specific use cases. The traditional financial system, with fragmented domestic schemes and SWIFT-dependent cross-border rails, can’t compete with instant, 24/7, low-cost blockchain infrastructure.

“Two to three years ago, people were thinking about pilots. That has shifted to today where they’re going live and they’re doing billions and billions of dollars of TPV.”

Hey, it’s Marc.

Token2049, the world’s biggest crypto event, just wrapped in Singapore and this year felt different: stablecoin rails, tokenized treasuries, and prediction markets.

Meanwhile, SWIFT just picked Ethereum to build a blockchain with 30+ global banks. The same network that moves $150T a year is admitting crypto rails are the future.

Stripe just launched stablecoin-as-a-service. Every fintech, exchange, and enterprise can now mint its own stablecoin in a few lines of code. We’re heading toward a world where every major institution issues money. And nobody yet knows what the endgame looks like.

Also this week:

* Cloudflare that controls 20% of the internet launched Internet Money

* Visa Direct will start to prefund payouts with stablecoins

We’ll unpack all of these highlights below.

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Top Boardroom Reads

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* Inside Pantera’s $500M Solana Treasury Play, with Cosmo Jiang (51)

* The stablecoin duopoly is ending (Nic Carter)

* Stablecoins 2030 - Web3 to Wall Street (Citi)

* Crypto treasury in a world of wallets (Ubyx)

* The State of Wealth in 2025 (Fintech Prime Time)

* Fintech 101: The Tokenisation of Real World Financial Assets (Fintech Blueprint)

* Why crypto targets massive markets (Bitwise Asset Management)

🙌 Work with us: We create pioneering thought leadership that helps digital asset and technology companies lead the conversation, earn trust and win business.

Top Signals This Week

SWIFT’s picks Ethereum

SWIFT announced on Sept 29 it will launch a blockchain-based ledger with ConsenSys and 30+ major banks - JPMorgan, HSBC, Citi, BNP Paribas, Deutsche, Santander, Wells Fargo, BNY Mellon, and more. The system will enable real-time, 24/7 cross-border settlements using tokenised deposits and smart contracts. [RELEASE]

Why it matters: SWIFT moves $150T annually through 11,500 institutions. But settlements take 5 days with multiple intermediaries, hidden fees, and manual AML checks. Meanwhile, stablecoins scaled from $20B (2020) to $300B today, processing trillions annually. Banks are losing material cross-border payment share. SWIFT’s move is defensive but necessary.

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Stripe launches stablecoin-as-a-service

What happened: Stripe announced three new products that let any business launch, hold, and use stablecoins with just a few lines of code: [RELEASE]

* Open Issuance: Launch and manage your own stablecoin with reserves from BlackRock, Fidelity, and Superstate.

* Stablecoin Financial Accounts: Hold, convert, spend, and send stablecoins directly from a Stripe account in the US.

* On/Off-Ramp Infrastructure: Move between fiat and stablecoins with local APIs and stablecoin Visa cards in 15+ countries.

Why it matters: For a decade, Circle (USDC) and Tether (USDT) have controlled 85%+ of the $245B stablecoin market. Every challenger — from Terra to Binance’s BUSD, failed to dent that dominance. Stripe just changed the economics. Businesses, DeFi protocols, wallets, and even fintechs can now mint their own “house stablecoins,” capture yield, and own user float instead of passing profits to Circle/Tether. This could fragment the market and accelerate the decline of the old duopoly.

Our take: This isn’t just Stripe going after payments, it’s Stripe offering stablecoin infrastructure as a service. If neobanks, exchanges, and apps adopt Stripe’s rails, the next $200B in stablecoin growth won’t be captured by USDC or USDT but by thousands of custom issuers. Think of it as the Shopify moment for stablecoins: Stripe handles the messy compliance and plumbing; platforms keep the margin. For treasurers, that means yield opportunities. For marketers, it opens the door to brand-owned money. For Circle and Tether, it’s an existential challenge: the float is up for grabs.

Visa Direct will prefund payouts with stablecoins

What happened: At SIBOS, Visa announced a pilot for stablecoin prefunding on Visa Direct. Instead of parking fiat in advance, businesses can pre-fund Visa accounts with USDC or EURC. Visa treats those balances as “money in the bank,” unlocking faster global payouts and reducing working-capital drag. [Release]

So what? By allowing businesses to pre-fund accounts with stablecoins, Visa transforms frozen capital into liquid assets that can be moved in minutes, not days. Visa treating USDC and EURC as “money in the bank” for prefunding signals mainstream trust in stablecoins and enables near-instant cross-border payouts. But this also raises threats for regional banks to lose liquidity and fee-based income from correspondent banking services.

Our take: The real signal isn’t the pilot itself, but Visa treating USDC/EURC like deposits, effectively blurring the line between bank balances and blockchain balances.

Cloudflare launched Internet Money

Cloudflare announced NET Dollar, a US dollar–backed stablecoin designed to power instant, programmable payments for the agentic web. It is positioning its global network as a payments rail for machine-to-machine microtransactions, pay-per-use APIs, and fractional payouts. [RELEASE]

So what? With Cloudflare handling ~20% of all internet traffic, its entry into stablecoins is viewed as a potential turning point in the future of online payments. However, it needs open standards and interoperability (like Google’s Agent Payments Protocol/ Coinbase’s x402), otherwise the ecosystem risks siloing and fragmentation if every cloud/cloud-edge provider issues its own token.

Must watch: Execution. If developer and AI platforms adopt Cloudflare’s token for agent-driven payments and if creators see tangible value in new microtransaction models, it could become core web infrastructure.

Chainlink’s and UBS’ $100T tokenisation bridge

Chainlink and UBS just demonstrated how to manage tokenised funds for workflows like subscriptions and redemptions, directly from existing systems using SWIFT ISO 20022 messages via Chainlink Runtime Environment (CRE). Banks access blockchains through the same SWIFT infrastructure they’ve used for decades, no new key management or system upgrades required. [RELEASE]

So what? For years, the biggest barrier to institutional adoption of tokenised assets has been the massive operational headache of integrating them. This collaboration provides the “plug-and-play” solution, giving institutions blockchain’s speed, efficiency, and programmability without operational disruption.

News Flash

* Coinbase partners with Samsung to bring Coinbase One to 75M US Samsung Galaxy users. Link

* Stripe partnered with OpenAI for agentic payments. Link

* FG Nexus partners with Securitize to trade shares on Ethereum. Link

* Franklin Templeton’s Solana ETF is listed on DTCC as SOEZ. Link

* AlloyX launches tokenised money market fund RYT on Polygon blockchain. Link

* CME Group to offer 24/7 cryptocurrency futures and options trading. Link

* Animoca to offer tokenised equity on Solana for broader investor access. Link

* Telegram to let users trade tokenised U.S. stocks and ETFs in-app. Link

* Government shutdown delays SEC reviews of pending crypto ETF approvals. Link

* Tixbase becomes the ticketing partner for 2025 Copa América de Béisbol. Link

* Avalanche Treasury merges with $MLAC in $675M deal to expand. Link

That’s all for now, folks.

Take care

– Marc & Team

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Hi, it’s Marc. ✌️

“Solana is just faster, cheaper, and more accessible.

It maps perfectly to the same consumer demand cycle that made Amazon unbeatable.”

— Cosmo Jiang, General Partner at Pantera Capital

🚨 We just opened new sponsorship slots for our podcast. Want to reach 35k+ digital asset leaders? Contact us here.

🎧 Jump to the best parts

* (10:56) → Why “NAV per share” is the new “free cash flow per share: Cosmo explains how digital asset treasuries work just like banks or Amazon in its prime: execution and capital allocation matter more than hype. Investors should look at NAV-per-share growth, not token price, just as Amazon’s stock rewarded reinvestment before profits.

* (22:03) → Inside Solana Company (NASDAQ: HSDT): We break down how Pantera structured Solana Company to systematically acquire and stake Solana, combining a $500M PIPE, $750M in stapled warrants, and differentiated staking economics. Actionable takeaway: public vehicles can outperform ETFs when they compound yield and use capital markets tools (buybacks, convertibles) to increase tokens per share.

* (29:43) → Solana vs. Ethereum & Why Tokens Are Infrastructure Equity: Cosmo makes the case that Solana isn’t just “cheaper”, it’s a cash‑flow‑producing platform growing faster than ETH on incremental users, developers, and fees. He reframes tokens as ownership units in productive networks, not commodities. For investors, that means valuing Solana the way you’d value a high‑growth infra company, not a currency.

👉 Subscribe to our digital asset treasury newsletter for all the alpha!

We sat down with Cosmo Jiang, General Partner at Pantera Capital and Board Observer at Solana Company, to unpack the rise of digital asset treasury companies (DATs) and why Solana is at the centre of the next wave.

This isn’t just a copy of MicroStrategy. It’s a redesigned flywheel, engineered for speed, yield, and public markets scale.

Why it’s important: Digital asset treasury companies (DATCOs) have raised $20B in 2025 so far. July alone accounted for nearly $10B, making DATs (digital asset treasuries) the single largest category of crypto fundraising this year. While Bitcoin still dominates, increasing flows are moving to Ethereum, Solana, TON, and other altcoin-focused DATs.

Pantera: It is one of the original and largest institutional investors in digital assets. Its portfolio spans eight tokens, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and BNB across U.S., U.K., and Israeli companies. These include BitMine Immersion, Twenty One Capital, DeFi Development Corp, and Mill City Ventures III.

Where to find Cosmo Jiang:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cosmojiang

X: https://x.com/cosmo_jiang

Pantera: https://panteracapital.com/team/

🎙️ In our conversation, we discuss:

* Origin of digital asset treasuries (DAT)

* Why Solana beats Bitcoin and Ethereum on raw product-market fit

* What Pantera saw that made them launch a $1.25B SOL-native public vehicle

* Why public equities are the ultimate crypto onboarding funnel for institutions

* How Solana Company is engineered to maximize SOL per share

* Why most investors underestimate how active Solana already is

* Understanding MNAV and navigating market cycles

* Why Solana is becoming the default blockchain for payments, AI, and RWAs

* Debunking core crypto misconceptions for institutional investors

* The case for treating tokens like infrastructure equity, not software

* The rise of corporate chains and the multi-chain future

Watch or listen now:YouTube • Spotify • Apple Podcasts

Recommended podcasts:

My biggest takeaways from this conversation:

Hey, it’s Marc.

“There is room for both gold and Bitcoin to coexist on central bank balance sheets by 2030.” — Deutsche Bank, in a new report released this week.

Did you know that Norwegian and Swiss National Bank already have $700M+ of Bitcoin exposure by owning Strategy stocks?

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Then: Citi came out with a new report and estimated the stablecoin market size to grow up to $4T by 2030. [Full report]

🚨 We just opened new sponsorship slots for our newsletters & podcast. Want to reach 35k+ digital asset leaders? Contact us here.

Then: Hyperliquid just minted its own dollar. USDH went live this week with ~$2.2M in first-day trading, giving the exchange a native currency to power its markets. The timing is sharp: only a week earlier, Circle launched USDC on Hyperliquid with new cross-chain rails spanning 14+ blockchains. The stage is set for a showdown between “platform-native” and “network-native” money. [Read more]

Whereas, Tether seeks $20B raise at $500B valuation, rivaling OpenAI, among world’s most valuable private companies.

Also this week:

* House GOP pushes 401(k) access to crypto

* Vanguard, the $10T asset manager, to launch crypto ETFs

* CFTC moves to allow tokenised collateral in derivatives

* HSBC expands tokenised deposits to cross-border corporate settlements

* Morgan Stanley nears launch of crypto trading via E-Trade. Link

We’ll unpack all of these highlights below.

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Top Boardroom Reads

👉Subscribe to our Crypto Treasury Alpha newsletter here.

* A conversation with VP of Technology at Solana Foundation (51)

* $20B DAT Surge (51)

* Bitcoin vs. Gold: The Future of Central Bank Reserves by 2030 (Deutsche Bank)

* Stablecoins 2030: Web3 to Wall Street (Citi)

* How Bitcoin can Shape the Future of Wealth Management (Bitcoin Suisse)

* OpenAI + NVIDIA: $100B Bet on 10GW AI Infrastructure (51)

* Central bank money as a catalyst for fungibility: the case of stablecoins (ECB)

* Vitalik on L2s (Vitalik Buterin)

* Stablecoin for treasuries (BVNK)

* HYPE’s Damocles Sword (Maelstrom)

* Nasdaq TradeTalks: New Tech Is Driving Market Structure Evolution (DTCC)

🙌 Work with us: We create pioneering thought leadership that helps digital asset and technology companies lead the conversation, earn trust and win business.

Top Signals This Week

Vanguard goes crypto

Vanguard, the $10T asset manager, is about to roll out crypto ETF access across its platform, reaching 1 in 6 U.S. households. For years, Vanguard swore off Bitcoin ETFs, calling them “too volatile.”. In 2024, Vanguard’s head of ETFs, Janel Jackson, called Bitcoin “immature” and “without inherent value”. [NEWS]

Why it matters: Even a 1% allocation from its client base = $100B in flows, bigger than entire crypto ETF categories today. Once access goes live, crypto ETFs move from the edges of retail investing into retirement accounts, long-term portfolios, and passive allocations.

Our take: Vanguard’s CEO Salim Ramji literally built BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF before joining Vanguard. BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF IBIT is the most successful ETF in the company’s history: $80B in assets since its launch in Jan 05, 2024. He knows exactly what he’s walking away from. The timing isn’t coincidence: The SEC just introduced generic listing standards. Expect 100s of ETFs over the coming 8-12 months and an institutional inflow we’ve never seen before.

401(k)s open to crypto

On Sept 22, House Republicans pressed SEC Chair Paul Atkins to fast-track rules letting 401(k)s invest in Bitcoin, Ethereum, private equity, and VC. This builds on Trump’s Aug 7 executive order directing regulators to clear the path. [NEWS]

Our take: $9T sits in U.S. 401(k)s. Even a 1% allocation to crypto = ~$90B of new demand. For context, all U.S. spot BTC ETFs combined have ~$140B AUM today. This isn’t about retail traders, it’s about creating the largest long-term, dollar-cost-averaging inflow Bitcoin has ever seen.

CFTC greenlights Stablecoins for derivatives

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has launched a formal initiative to allow tokenised collateral, including stablecoins, into U.S. derivatives markets. The plan: let traders use tokenised assets like stablecoins and money market funds (MMFs) as margin in derivatives markets. [RELEASE]

Our take: This is the strongest signal yet that U.S. regulators will allow tokenised Money Market Funds (MMFs) and stablecoins as eligible collateral in the $600T global derivatives market (notional value). Collateral = the foundation of derivatives. Shifting from cash and Treasuries to tokenised instruments unlocks 24/7 liquidity, faster settlement, and lower capital costs.

Hyperliquid’s stablecoin

Hyperliquid just launched its own stablecoin, USDH, with ~$2.2M in early trading volume against USDC. Native Markets, which beat Paxos, Frax, and Agora in a validator vote, is rolling out USDH as a fiat-backed token issued on HyperEVM and bridged across the Hyperliquid stack. Reserves sit in cash and short-dated Treasuries, with transparency via oracles and a feedback loop funneling earnings into HYPE buybacks. [NEWS]

Our take: Stablecoin competition is no longer just Circle vs. Tether. Exchanges, L2s, and now trading platforms like Hyperliquid are pushing “house dollars” to own their settlement rails. USDH is an attempt to localise stablecoin utility, yield, and governance within the Hyperliquid ecosystem instead of letting profits flow out to external issuers like Circle (USDC).

HSBC pushed the tokenised deposit service (TDS) in Asia

HSBC just expanded its tokenised deposit service (TDS) to cross-border corridors (Hong Kong ⇄ Singapore) and is eyeing scale into the UK/EU. It has completed its first live USD transfer between Hong Kong and Singapore for Ant International and is pitching 24/7 instant settlement as a new baseline for corporate treasury operations.

So what? Stablecoins may have led the early race with speed and reach, but banks are striking back with their strongest asset: regulated deposits. By tokenising them, traditional financial institutions are creating digital money that delivers blockchain’s instant, programmable features with the safety, trust, and regulatory clarity only banks can offer. [ANNOUNCEMENT]

$100B Bet on 10GW AI Infrastructure

OpenAI and Nvidia signed a letter of intent: Nvidia may invest up to $100B in OpenAI to fund AI data centres using millions of Nvidia chips. [RELEASE] [See full story]

So what: It is Nvidia pre-paying one of its largest customers to ensure demand. It validates that compute scarcity = strategy, as Nvidia is investing $100B just to guarantee demand and erecting a formidable moat against rivals like AMD, Intel, and Google’s in-house silicon.

News Flash

* Strive acquires Smeler Scientific. Link

* Circle is exploring mechanisms to make USDC transactions reversible. Link

* Anthony Scaramucci backs AVAX treasury aiming to raise $550M. Link

* Morgan Stanley nears launch of crypto trading via E-Trade. Link

* Swarm to offer nine tokenised stocks on the Plasma blockchain mainnet. Link

* Forward Industries to tokenise stock, expanding Solana treasury and DeFi use. Link

* World Liberty Financial to launch debit card and trading app soon. Link

* Kraken and Legion launch the Yield Basis BTC protocol with merit-based sale. Link

* Plasma launched a neobank, Plasma One. Link

* Bank of Canada urges federal stablecoin rules to modernise payments, remittances. Link

* UAE signs global crypto tax deal, launches consultation to shape rules. Link

* China and South Korea launch CN and KRW stablecoins globally. Link

* PayPal invests in Stable blockchain to expand PYUSD usage globally. Link

* GSR proposes Digital Asset Treasury ETF. Link

* Grayscale crypto index fund approved for ETF. Link

That’s all for now, folks.

Take care

– Marc & Team

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