Welcome back!

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

When Swift, the 50-year-old fax machine of global banking, is bullish about the onchain economy, the debate is over and the sceptics just haven't noticed.

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

Click on any underlined heading/hyperlink to learn more.

Ring Light

Nearly half of Gen Z now turns to social media for financial guidance. Millennials are not far behind, Gen X trails further, and boomers barely register. 

Read that gradient carefully. 

It is not a generational quirk but a map of where the next wave of retail capital will take its cues.

The regulated adviser, armed with disclosures and suitability forms, is losing the audience before the argument even begins. In their place stands the creator. Ask a university student where they learnt about market structure and many will not name a textbook or a bank. They will name TJR, a trader whose short clips of charts, setups, and swagger have built a following most asset managers would trade their compliance department for.

Whatever one thinks of the content, the distribution is undeniable.

Tokenised and crypto-native assets are the natural currency of this new age. They are born on the same screens where these investors already live: priced around the clock, divisible into fractions, and held in a wallet one swipe from the feed. A creator can highlight a token in sixty seconds, and the viewer can act on it before the clip loops.

That speed is both the opportunity and the danger. The winners will be platforms humble enough to meet young investors where they actually are, and serious enough to build guardrails into the experience itself, from clear risk labels on the clip to sensible limits in the wallet. Regulators, for their part, should stop pretending that promotion rules drafted for newspapers and cold calls can police a feed, and start writing rules for the channels investors actually use.

The financial adviser of the future will have a ring light, and if that glow can shift the focus firmly from trading to investing, it could draw more young people into genuine ownership than a century of glossy pension brochures ever did.

Stablecoin Expansion: The Trump administration is weighing a strategic plan to promote US dollar-backed stablecoins around the world. The aim is to reinforce the dollar's standing as the global reserve currency.

Stablecoin Investment: Binance invested $100 million in Circle and renewed its five-year USDC commercial agreement. The deal is aimed explicitly at expanding dollar-stablecoin access for trading and remittances in emerging markets.

Mass Tokenisation: CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said US markets must prepare for mass tokenisation and 24/7 trading. He argued that blockchain and AI could reshape finance more in the next decade than in several prior decades combined.

Tokenised Stocks: The New York Stock Exchange has signed a memorandum of understanding with Blockchain.com to distribute tokenised US stocks and exchange-traded funds. The products would reach Blockchain.com's 44 million account holders through a planned digital alternative trading system.

Crypto IPO: Speaking of Blockchain.com, the company filed confidentially for a US listing earlier this year. It is seeking to raise about $500 million in an IPO before year-end, at a valuation of between $4 billion and $6 billion.

Lazarus Hack: Crypto exchange Bitget has suffered a security breach in which about $350 million was stolen. Preliminary indicators and onchain analysis point to North Korea's Lazarus Group as the likely culprit.

System Overhaul: SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, in her final weeks at the agency, has called for a sweeping overhaul of anti-money laundering and know-your-customer rules. She argues that mass data collection has produced vast centralised databases that are vulnerable to hacks, phishing, and wrench attacks.

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.}