Oct 2, 2026
The US Securities and Exchange Commission proposed a regulatory framework that would permit investment advisers and regulated funds to self-custody crypto assets under certain conditions, while also allowing the use of state trust companies as custodians.
Cboe Global Markets and S&P Dow Jones Indices extended their exclusive licensing agreement for S&P 500 index options for 25 years through 2051. The agreement includes provisions for potential tokenized options products.
Chainlink released CCIP 2.0, allowing institutions to run or hire their own verifiers that must approve cross-chain transfers alongside Chainlink's default network, giving enterprises more control over security for token transfers.
Citigroup is expanding its partnership with Coinbase to allow the bank's institutional clients to accept stablecoin payments while settling in traditional fiat currency. The collaboration builds on their October 2025 partnership and enables merchants to process stablecoin transactions without directly holding crypto assets, with Coinbase handling the conversion infrastructure.
Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission and Accounting and Financial Reporting Council signed a new memorandum of understanding extending their cooperation on financial reporting and audit oversight to cover licensed virtual asset service providers, applying the same standards used for traditional securities firms.
Bitcoin mining company Riot Platforms completed voluntary early repayment of its $200 million secured credit facility with Coinbase Credit, releasing over 5,800 Bitcoin that had been pledged as collateral.
Circle Internet Group announced on September 25 that Chief Financial Officer Jeremy Fox-Geen will resign by the end of December 2026, following his role in steering the company's $1.2 billion IPO. The same day, co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire made related announcements about the company's direction.
Binance-owned CoinMarketCap acquired CoinGlass, a crypto derivatives data platform used by traders to monitor leverage, positioning and market risk. CoinGlass will continue operating independently with its brand, website, app, API and pricing unchanged.
ARK Invest tokenized its ARK Venture Fund (ARKVX), a closed-end interval fund with approximately $1.3 billion in net assets, enabling eligible investors to subscribe and redeem holdings onchain using USDC through a partnership with Securitize.
The Solana Foundation has hired former Binance chief marketing officer Rachel Conlan as chief strategy officer to oversee institutional partnerships and ecosystem growth, and former Polygon Labs executive Jamal Raees as general manager of payments to focus on stablecoins and tokenized deposits.
BlackRock introduced three investment portfolios as blockchain-based tokens through Ondo Finance, marking the asset manager's latest push into tokenized traditional finance. The portfolios are based on model strategies developed by BlackRock.
The New York Stock Exchange and crypto exchange Blockchain.com signed a memorandum of understanding to give Blockchain.com's 44 million users access to tokenized US-listed stocks and ETFs through NYSE's planned 24/7 digital trading venue.
Austrian banking group Raiffeisen Bank International is partnering with crypto brokerage Bitpanda to roll out bitcoin and crypto trading for its 18 million customers across Central and Eastern Europe, starting with Albania, Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Canada's six largest banks—Bank of Montreal, CIBC, National Bank of Canada, Royal Bank of Canada, Scotiabank, and TD Bank—are jointly exploring a Canadian-dollar tokenized deposit system to modernize the country's payments infrastructure.
21Shares listed Europe's first Zcash exchange-traded product on Euronext Paris and Amsterdam on September 22, trading as ZCASH with a 2.5% annual fee. ZEC spiked to an intraday high near $1,680, marking a new 10-year high and gaining 88% over the past week.
SoFi began settling debit and credit card transactions using its SoFiUSD stablecoin on Mastercard's global payments network, migrating its entire card program expected to process over $25 billion in annualized volume.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has given preliminary conditional approval to both Catena and Agora to establish national trust banks. The proposed banks would custody and manage digital assets, stablecoins, fiat, and securities, pending fulfillment of capital, liquidity, and preopening requirements.
Ondo Finance has introduced a feature allowing eligible institutions to directly convert existing shares and ETFs into tokenized equivalents on blockchain, or redeem tokens for underlying shares. The service is live on Ethereum and BNB Chain through integration with Alpaca.
The European Central Bank launched Pontes, a new settlement platform allowing wholesale tokenized assets to be settled using central bank money rather than private stablecoins. The system is designed exclusively for regulated financial institutions.
Pendle has opened a new market enabling DeFi users to trade fixed and variable yields on tokenized private infrastructure assets through the NGI+ token, bridging institutional-grade infrastructure investments with decentralized finance.
XRP Ledger's Batch V1.1 upgrade has maintained support from 30 of 35 tracked validators and is approaching activation on September 29. The feature allows up to eight transactions to be grouped together to succeed or fail as a unit, with Ripple reporting that asset managers and commercial projects are already preparing to use it following extensive security reviews.
Asset manager VanEck has rated Tokyo-listed Metaplanet as the only 'Bad' company for executive equity compensation among the 10 largest digital asset treasury firms, criticizing the Bitcoin treasury company's stock dilution practices despite recent reform efforts.
Coinbase filed with the CFTC through Coinbase Derivatives to list single-stock perpetual futures in the US, seeking to bring the popular crypto instrument to individual equities including Apple, Tesla, and Nvidia.
Grayscale's Zcash ETF (ZCSH) will undergo a 3-for-1 forward share split effective September 30, 2026, with shareholders receiving three post-split shares for every share held as of the September 28 record date. The move follows strong investor demand, with the fund attracting over $233 million in inflows since its August 25 launch.
London-based digital asset technology platform Haruko suffered a targeted cyberattack that compromised exchange API details, trading data, and funds belonging to 15 cryptocurrency clients. Attackers obtained an access token that exposed sensitive exchange API information used by hedge funds to trade on crypto exchanges.
Traditional banks have doubled their presence on the European Union's MiCA register to approximately 80 institutions in less than three months, now representing nearly 23% of all listed crypto-asset service providers, up from roughly 17% earlier this year.
The New York Stock Exchange has been testing Avalanche blockchain technology for approximately one year as part of its infrastructure development for tokenized securities, according to Ava Labs President Charley Cooper. The testing represents the exchange's exploration of blockchain solutions for its tokenization business.
Evernorth Holdings Inc., a digital asset treasury company preparing to list on Nasdaq under ticker XRPN, has disclosed a $30 million convertible note purchase agreement with South Korea's NH Investment & Securities. The financing is tied to Evernorth's merger with Armada and will support expansion of its XRP treasury operations.
Zcash price surged close to $1,600, while developers target November 5 for the NU7 upgrade that would cut block times to 25 seconds from 75 seconds. Grayscale announced a 3-for-1 forward share split for its Zcash ETF to improve accessibility.
Ondo Finance's broker-dealer subsidiary Oasis Pro Markets has joined DTCC's Fund/SERV processing network, which handles over 85% of US mutual fund transactions. This marks the first time a tokenization company has connected to the traditional finance infrastructure, though neither company specified which Ondo products will use the network or when transactions will begin.
The UK's Financial Conduct Authority has announced that crypto firms can apply for authorization from September 30, 2026 to February 28, 2027, ahead of the new regulatory regime taking effect on October 25, 2027. The authorization applies to overseas firms dealing, arranging, or safeguarding crypto assets for UK clients.
Payward, the parent company of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, announced plans to bring onchain perpetual futures markets on Hyperliquid to eligible U.S. clients using regulated infrastructure. The offering would utilize CFTC-regulated Bitnomial for deployment, clearing and settlement, with NinjaTrader Clearing carrying customer accounts, making it the first U.S.-regulated venue to offer such products.
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has expanded its Capital Connect investment marketplace to eligible individual users for the first time, allowing wealthy clients with at least $1 million in assets to access professionally managed investment strategies previously reserved for institutional clients.
U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs recorded $450.33 million in outflows on Tuesday, their heaviest single-day exit since June, following the Senate's 49-50 vote rejecting the Clarity Act crypto legislation. Bitcoin declined 3.8% to $75,748 after the bill failed to reach the 60 votes needed to advance.
Zcash gained about 20% over 24 hours after Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang disclosed that the crypto investment firm made an unspecified purchase of ZEC. The rally came as Zcash holders voted to preserve Bitcoin-style halvings and speed up block times to 25 seconds.
Circle's Arc Layer 1 blockchain went live on September 16, 2026, with over 100 applications and institutional validators including BlackRock, DTCC, Visa, and Mastercard. The company minted 10 billion ARC tokens at launch, with gas fees charged in USDC.
BitMEX co-founder Ben Delo and Tether investor Christopher Harborne each donated £36 million to Nigel Farage's Reform UK party within 24 hours, representing the largest single donations in British political history. The combined £72 million ($97 million) is intended to help the insurgent party prepare for the next general election.
Bitcoin Suisse announced plans to eliminate up to 60 of its 120 positions in Switzerland and close its Copenhagen development site as part of a strategic reorganization to expand international operations. The crypto financial services firm, founded in Zug in 2013, is shifting operations abroad.
Italian bank UniCredit is in discussions with external technology providers to build infrastructure for digital asset trading, custody services, and access to tokenized investment products as part of plans to expand its digital asset offerings.
Canada's Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) has locked in a 3% capital buffer until June 2028 and finalized new 2027 capital rules that provide relief for banks on cross-exchange crypto hedging positions, specifically for tightly matched qualifying Group 2a positions.
Nasdaq Inc. is investing $100 million in Payward, the parent company of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, valuing the firm at $21 billion. The deal will help build infrastructure for trading tokenized stocks, with Kraken set to distribute Nasdaq's tokenized securities that carry the same voting rights as traditional shares.
Nasdaq's venture arm is investing $100 million in Payward, the parent company of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, valuing the firm at $21 billion. Kraken will distribute tokenized Nasdaq-listed stocks that carry the same voting rights as traditional shares.
The Singapore Exchange (SGX) has obtained authorization from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission under Regulation 48.10 to offer bitcoin and ether perpetual futures to U.S. institutional investors. SGX reports cumulative trading volume of approximately 400,000 contracts and plans to launch dated futures and options within months.
Coinbase is partnering with fintech company Moov to help community banks adopt stablecoin payment capabilities, as the cryptocurrency exchange positions stablecoin payments as a major revenue growth driver beyond traditional trading operations.
U.S. Bank, the fifth-largest commercial bank in the United States, successfully completed a live cross-border payment pilot using its proprietary dollar-backed USBDC stablecoin on the Stellar blockchain. The transaction moved funds between the bank's North American and European entities while remaining integrated with existing risk and compliance management systems.
Jack Dorsey's financial technology company Block has submitted an application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish Builders Bank & Trust, a federally regulated national trust bank that would provide custody and fiduciary services for Bitcoin and stablecoins.
Block Inc. has applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish Builders Bank & Trust, an uninsured national trust bank that would provide a federal framework for custody of Bitcoin, stablecoins, and other digital assets.
Compound Foundation opened a permissioned lending market on September 8 that restricts access to institutional borrowers only, effectively splitting the protocol into separate retail and institutional liquidity pools with loan-to-value ratios up to 87%.
Canary Capital's TRXS began trading on Cboe on September 9, 2026, marking the first US exchange-traded fund that stakes Tron's TRX token for yield. The fund launched with $50.25 million in assets and stakes 90% of its holdings, though carries a 1.10% fee above competing staking funds.
Visa announced it will make more data available to companies lending on the blockchain, responding to strong demand for stablecoin-linked payment cards. The payments giant is pairing its settlement capabilities with expanded data services for the emerging crypto lending sector.
Visa announced it will integrate VisaNet settlement data with onchain lending infrastructure to help stablecoin-linked card issuers and fintech companies access working capital. The system uses payment and blockchain transaction records to automate lending decisions as demand for stablecoin cards increases.
Nine Swiss financial institutions including UBS, SIX, and TWINT launched a formal pilot test of CHFD, a stablecoin pegged to the Swiss franc, on September 8. The participants plan to test various use cases including automated transactions and settlement between financial institutions.
Strive purchased 1,375 BTC for approximately $109 million between Aug. 31 and Sept. 4, bringing its total holdings to 24,531 bitcoin. Separately, Blockstream CEO Adam Back invested $33 million in European bitcoin treasury firm Capital B, highlighting growing institutional adoption of bitcoin treasury strategies.
Brazil's largest banks including Itaú, Nubank, and Banco do Brasil have expanded their cryptocurrency offerings to as many as 28 assets after the country's crypto market reached R$505.5 billion ($98.7 billion) in 2025, up more than fivefold from 2020. The expansion comes as new regulations take hold in Latin America's largest economy.
Hong Kong-listed online gaming company Boyaa Interactive has purchased another 115 Bitcoin, bringing its total holdings to approximately 4,316 BTC. The company pivoted to Bitcoin accumulation strategy in late 2023.
DBS Bank and Citibank executed the first weekend USD payment between Singapore and the US using tokenized deposits via Swift's Digital Ledger, demonstrating 24/7 settlement capabilities for traditional banking infrastructure.
Paris-listed bitcoin treasury firm Capital B acquired 376 BTC for €25.3 million ($29.4 million), its largest single purchase in a year, bringing total holdings to 3,521 BTC. The purchase follows a $33 million investment commitment from Blockstream CEO and proof-of-work pioneer Adam Back.
Better Mortgage and Coinbase are offering bitcoin-backed mortgages that allow buyers to pledge bitcoin at a 250% ratio to fund home down payments, with the lenders able to reuse the collateral. Borrowers must still meet standard income and credit requirements for the main mortgage.
US spot bitcoin ETFs pulled in $987 million in net inflows for the week ending September 5, with BlackRock's IBIT capturing roughly 70% of flows. The week capped a three-week streak totaling $3.8 billion in inflows, signaling recovering institutional demand.
Pineapple Financial has migrated over $1 billion in residential mortgage records onto Injective, a layer-1 blockchain focused on financial applications. The milestone represents a significant step in the tokenization of traditional lending records by a conventional financial institution.
Hargreaves Lansdown, the UK's largest direct-to-consumer investment platform managing £172 billion, has begun offering bitcoin and ether exchange-traded notes to eligible retail customers through its Advanced Investing service. The move comes nearly a year after UK regulators reopened retail access to crypto investment products.
Zcash (ZEC) jumped approximately 20% to briefly top $1,000 on September 4, reaching its highest level in nearly a decade and lifting its market cap to roughly $17 billion. The rally was fueled by strong inflows into Grayscale's ZCSH ETF, which has crossed $400 million in assets.
Banco do Brasil invested in a $5 million digitally native structured note issued by Citi on Euroclear's blockchain-based infrastructure, marking the first institutional investment of its kind in Latin America and pioneering blockchain-based investment instruments in the region.
Payment services provider Bottomline is integrating Chainlink technology to bring its network of over 600 banking institutions and $16 trillion in annual payment volume onto blockchain networks. The partnership will enable banks to access blockchain-based cross-border settlement while continuing to use existing payment messaging systems.
ProCap Financial, led by Anthony Pompliano, sold approximately 50 Bitcoin to repurchase more than 2% of its outstanding shares, which were trading at roughly 40% below the company's net asset value. The transaction represents a strategic move to capitalize on the discount between share price and underlying Bitcoin holdings.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted preliminary conditional approval to both Revolut and a16z-backed OpenReserve to establish national banks in the US. Both companies plan to offer cryptocurrency services, though additional approvals from FDIC and Federal Reserve are still required.
The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted preliminary approval to OpenReserve Bank, a blockchain-based banking venture backed by Andreessen Horowitz, to operate as a federally licensed national bank. The bank, founded by former MoneyLion executives, aims to connect traditional banking with blockchain infrastructure and digital asset services while operating 24/7.
Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) and BlackRock-backed tokenization platform Securitize have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to develop regulated tokenized markets and digital asset infrastructure in Dubai.
Cari, a US tokenized deposit network targeting regional, mid-size, and community banks, has raised $32.5 million in the first tranche of its initial funding round, with all investment coming from banks. The funding was part of a week that saw $292.35 million in crypto and blockchain funding across 10 deals.
SoFi Technologies and Payward agreed to connect SoFi's banking network with Kraken's trading infrastructure. Kraken will list SoFiUSD stablecoin while SoFi will use Kraken Prime for crypto liquidity, expanding SoFi's real-time settlement system to digital assets.
Standard Chartered has rolled out deliverable spot trading in Bitcoin and Ethereum for institutional clients in the UAE, becoming the first global systemically important bank to provide the service in the region.
Laser Digital, Nomura's digital asset subsidiary, is partnering with Keyring Network to develop institutional-grade onchain fixed-income products for decentralized lending markets. The first markets are being prepared for Euler Finance, though neither company disclosed committed capital or fee terms.
Japanese publicly-listed company Remixpoint sold all of its Ethereum, Solana, XRP, and Dogecoin holdings on September 1 for ¥878.8 million ($4.47 million), realizing a ¥117.8 million profit as it shifts to a bitcoin-only cryptocurrency treasury strategy.