Welcome back!

Here’s what I’ve got for you this week:

Stablecoins were the opening act. Tokenisation is the main event: after decades of patching an outdated financial system, we are finally rebuilding the pipes that move trillions of dollars, unlocking a faster, more open, and more efficient era of finance.

Now, let’s jump right into this week’s newsletter! 

Click on any underlined heading/hyperlink to learn more.

Financial Reset

Last week, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation launched a tokenisation pilot with close to 40 financial institutions, among them BlackRock, Vanguard, and JPMorgan.

The trial tests blockchain-based versions of MSFT, QQQ, SPY, and SHV, with each token fully backed by the underlying security held in custody, enabling holders to retain the same ownership, voting, and dividend rights as traditional shareholders.

At first glance, this may appear to be another incremental experiment with blockchain technology.

It is anything but.

Bitcoin ETFs allowed Wall Street investors to gain exposure to crypto without touching blockchain infrastructure. Tokenised equities reverse that direction of travel. Instead of bringing crypto into traditional markets, they bring traditional markets onto crypto rails.

That distinction matters because infrastructure tends to outlast products. Crypto ETFs changed how investors accessed assets, but they left the underlying machinery of financial markets largely untouched. Tokenised equities challenge that machinery itself. Settlement can become near instantaneous rather than taking days. Assets can move across borders without relying on layers of intermediaries. Financial products become programmable, allowing dividends, collateral management, and corporate actions to be executed automatically through software.

History suggests that the biggest technological shifts rarely involve entirely new inventions. The first iPhone did not invent the internet, digital photography, or portable music. It simply combined existing technologies into a product that made previous alternatives feel unnecessarily complicated. Few consumers looked back once they experienced the difference.

Capital markets may be approaching a similar inflection point. Stock exchanges, clearing houses, and custodians will not disappear overnight, just as desktop computers did not vanish after smartphones arrived. But once investors become accustomed to markets that operate continuously, settle in minutes, and integrate seamlessly with digital wallets, the existing system will increasingly resemble infrastructure designed for another era.

There is still considerable work ahead. Regulation must evolve, interoperability standards must mature, and institutions will need confidence that public blockchain networks can support global financial markets at scale. Yet, the direction of travel is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

The long-term prize extends well beyond tokenised shares. Tokenisation allows bonds, money market funds, commodities, and private assets to exist on the same programmable financial infrastructure, where ownership, settlement, collateral, and liquidity can flow continuously rather than through fragmented legacy systems. Bitcoin ETFs gave investors a new way to own crypto; tokenisation, however, may give the financial system an entirely new operating system.

Crypto Push: Bank of America has appointed Sonali Theisen to lead its global digital asset operations. In the role, she will oversee the design, development, scaling, and governance of the bank's digital assets platform. The appointment forms part of a broader leadership reshuffle aimed at advancing the bank's adoption of crypto and AI technology.

Citadel Accolade: Citadel Securities has invested $400m in the cryptocurrency exchange crypto.com at a $20bn valuation. The deal marks crypto.com's first institutional funding round in its decade-long history. The exchange said the capital will fund expansion into new asset classes, including tokenised securities and derivatives.

Night Owls: The London Stock Exchange plans to launch a separate nighttime trading venue in the first half of 2027. The platform will operate distinctly from its flagship daytime order book and is intended to capture retail and institutional investors drawn to round-the-clock markets.

Crypto Trading: E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley has completed its rollout of spot trading for Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana, enabling eligible clients to buy, sell, and hold the tokens. Trades carry a fee of 50 basis points, and holdings appear alongside clients' traditional portfolios.

Chinese Chips: tradeXYZ has launched pre-IPO perpetual futures for ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), the Hefei-based group that ranks as the world’s fourth-largest DRAM memory chip maker after rivals Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron.

Nippon Awakening: Circle and JCB, Japan's largest domestic card network, have signed a memorandum of understanding to explore using the USDC stablecoin across JCB's cross-border and everyday payments. The non-binding deal will begin with a proof of concept for JCB's internal fund transfers before extending to in-store payments for merchants and inbound tourists.

Stablecoin Platform: Visa has unveiled the Visa Stablecoin Platform, a product that enables banks, fintechs, and crypto firms to mint, move, and manage stablecoins within a single Visa-managed environment. The service launches in beta with support for Open USD (OUSD), the dollar-pegged token issued by the Open Standard consortium.

And that's a wrap!

You can reach me anytime over on 𝕏 or drop me a line.

Talk soon!

J264G

_{DISCLAIMER
None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research. Lastly, please be advised that we discuss products and services from our partners from which our team members may hold tokens/equity.}