Welcome back!

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

Bitcoin is back. And the thesis is beautifully simple. BTC is the best scarcity asset of the digital age: fixed supply, infinite demand.

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

Click on any underlined heading/hyperlink to learn more.

Wrapper Wars

To date, Robinhood says it has tokenised more than 190 US stocks.

But when a company's shares start trading in venues its own executives have never heard of, someone is going to object.

That moment has arrived for AMC Entertainment.

AMC chief executive Adam Aron and Robinhood chief executive Vlad Tenev are currently locked in a public dispute after the trading app launched tokenised shares of Aron's company. Aron took to 𝕏 to blast Robinhood's methods and threaten legal action, arguing that the synthetic instruments lack US securities registration, deny holders actual voting rights, and interfere with AMC's ability to raise capital.

Tenev brushed off the criticism.

The mechanics explain the friction. Robinhood's tokenised shares are issued in an offshore jurisdiction and don’t behave like real equities. They track the economic performance of the underlying stock, sure, but confer no shareholder rights, no voting rights, and no direct legal claim. Put simply: traders and investors hold a debt instrument, a wrapper, not the stock itself or the benefits that come with it.

A flare-up was bound to happen. It is reasonable that the CEO of a listed company would rather not see offshore derivatives of his stock trading wherever an app chooses to list them.

That said, tokenisation is not the problem. Wrappers, however, might be. But wrappers are a bridge, not a destination. They will matter only until exchanges issue tokenised securities that are backed 1:1 by legal shares, including the privileges and rights that come with them.

That is how innovation usually arrives. The first version is a workaround: awkward and contested, until the proper plumbing catches up. We are in the messy middle, where the quarrel between Aron and Tenev looks less like a scandal than a growing pain.

Trust the process. The complaints are real, and the current design deserves scrutiny. Yet, the direction of travel is hard to miss. Blockchains are faster, cheaper, and more transparent than the systems they will replace.

Tokenisation will win. The only open question is who builds the version that lasts.

Stablecoin Alliance: A consortium of 21 financial institutions, including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citi, and Deutsche Bank, are establishing a company this year to issue a dollar-pegged stablecoin in the first half of 2027. The group, which comprised just 10 banks when it was first unveiled in October 2025, also plans to expand into stablecoins tied to other G7 currencies, with the euro its immediate priority.

Stablecoin Bank: Erebor is getting fresh competition from OpenReserve, a blockchain-native de novo digital bank. The venture is working towards real-time settlement across fiat and blockchain rails, direct Federal Reserve connectivity, tokenised deposits, and payment-stablecoin infrastructure built around the GENIUS Act.

Going Onchain: The London Stock Exchange will bring its 100 largest stocks onchain through a partnership with Payward, the parent company of the crypto exchange Kraken. The tie-up marks one of the most significant moves yet by an established European exchange to embrace tokenisation.

G20 Statement: In the G20 Chair's Statement released last week by Scott Bessent, finance ministers and central bank governors from the 20 largest economies acknowledged the capacity of digital assets to support growth. As a result, they pledged to establish “clear pathways” for responsible innovation in the digital assets space.

Rule Change: The Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed overhauling its rules for transfer agents, largely unchanged since the late 1970s, to accommodate electronic and blockchain-based record-keeping. Under the proposal, transfer agents could use blockchains for the official record, while firms would be required to disclose how many tokenised securities they service and which platforms they rely upon.

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.}