UK FCA Proposes Direct Dealing Model for Tokenised Funds

What a week for team Zodia Custody – four countries, five stages, one shared mission: setting the standard for digital asset custody 🌍 From Brussels to Dubai, London to Barcelona, our team joined key industry debates to discuss the future of finance. Here’s where we’ve been 👇 🇧🇪 Ami N., MD Luxembourg, spoke at the Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC) European Parliament event “Digital Finance and Industrial Transformation for a Competitive Europe.” On stage with experts from Euroclear, Ripple, The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) and Cardano Foundation, Ami discussed how tokenisation can fuel Europe’s entrepreneurial future. 🇪🇸 Gerry Afentakis, MD Europe, joined “Battle of the Custodians: TradFi vs. Crypto-Native", debating how traditional and digital custodians are converging to meet institutional standards, alongside Xavier Gomez (Vancelian), Amarjit Singh 💙 (EY), Kelly Pettersen (Wyden), and Alessandro Fuser (Crypto Finance Group). 🇬🇧 Sophie Bowler, our Chief Risk & Compliance Officer, joined the Association for Women in Cryptocurrency panel “Safeguarding Digital Asset Treasuries: Risk, Regulation and Resilience.” She spoke alongside Hannah Meakin (Norton Rose Fulbright), Luke Speight (Lockton), and Adrian M. (Grant Thornton), in a discussion moderated by Sarah Katz Downey (Lockton US). The focus: How regulation and trusted custody are the foundation of digital treasury management. 🇦🇪 Zane Suren 🚀, MD Commercial, MEA, joined the panel "Unlocking Bitcoin Yield: Strategies for Wealth Management Clients" alongside Karl Naim (XBTO), Romain Braud (Arab Bank Switzerland), and Dhivya Daniel (DD)(MetaWise), in a discussion on how private banks are creating compliant, yield-generating BTC strategies for wealth clients 🇬🇧 Dominic Longman, Head of Markets, spoke at ALFI - Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry London on a panel with Raoul Heinen (Linklaters), Robert Crossley (Franklin Templeton), Agnes Mazurek (Apex Group), and Julien Wolff (6 Monks), exploring how technology, tokenisation, and DLT are reshaping the fund industry and what that means for investors and service providers alike. One week, five conversations, one vision: a digital asset future that’s secure, compliant, and connected. #ZodiaCustody

Franklin Templeton expands Benji to BNB Chain — What does it signal for tokenized finance? 1️⃣ Franklin Templeton is expanding its Benji Technology Platform to BNB Chain, aiming to broaden access to tokenized investment products via a lower-cost, compliance-focused network. I think this is very telling about how serious traditional finance is about expanding the space. 2️⃣ Benji, the firm’s proprietary tokenization stack, has powered several onchain offerings since launching the first U.S.-registered mutual fund on blockchain in 2021: the Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund (FOBXX). Each share is represented by a BENJI token, with total locked value around $732M across multiple chains (notably Ethereum, Solana, Base, Stellar, Polygon, Arbitrum, Avalanche, and Aptos), and a significant share reportedly on Stellar. 3️⃣ BNB Chain has positioned itself as a hub for real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, supporting money market funds and credit instruments. This move follows Franklin Templeton’s recently announced collaboration with Binance, reinforcing its multi-chain strategy and intent to meet investors where they are while keeping security and compliance front-and-center. 4️⃣ Zooming out, tokenization’s momentum in traditional finance is building: from faster settlement and broader access to improved transparency. We’re also seeing early regulatory signals—like Nasdaq’s proposed rule change to enable tokenized versions of listed securities to trade alongside traditional ones as early as 2026 (pending approval). Yet material institutional adoption still faces hurdles: fragmented regulations, legal uncertainty around onchain assets, and concerns about enforceability and protocol reliability. Questions for the community: 1️⃣ Does a multi-chain approach (now including BNB Chain) meaningfully accelerate institutional adoption of tokenized funds? 2️⃣ How important are low fees and compliance-focused infrastructure versus network effects and interoperability? 3️⃣ Which barriers—regulatory harmonization, legal clarity, or tech maturity—must be solved first to unlock scale? Curious to hear how others see this shaping the next phase of RWAs and tokenized funds. Is this an inflection point or another incremental step? ***See more RWA breaking news and market insights on our telegram channel https://t.me/TokenizedRWA

💥 Strongly Recommended Post & Perspective #FranklinTempleton: Today, less than 10% of 8 billion consumers have ever interacted with anything remotely connected to digital asset wallets to store their tokens or cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, Ethereum, or our AMF-EU approved 4IR utility token. Likewise, most humans don’t know what a stable coin is and what purpose it serves in money transfers or swaps. Heck, most people are still yet to understand what blockchain is and to be honest, most people still don’t know how to utilise generative AI either. I had to explain generative ai tools the editor of a major UK magazine only 2 months ago. Even largest institutions became laggard in adopting novel technologies, so all this idea of being behind is understandable because technology is no longer linear, it is now exponential! Let me explain-we have entered the “4th Industrial Revolution “ 4IR where novel technologies such as AI, blockchain, IoT, 3d printing, genetic engineering, quantum computing, health, food, fintech, agritech and other technologies are all converging. The ultimate layer of this convergence is the Blockchain & AI. From here onwards, every human will ultimately own a wallet that stores all kinds of digital assets and even data, as we move towards only 2030. It maybe you could use a genetic engineering tool and store your health data in your wallet and use another asset such as 4IR tokens to pay for your health data from the genetic engineering tool. The possibilities from here onwards and how we will all make and leverage our incomes and daily financial transactions is still incomprehensible today, but will dramatically change tomorrow. For instance, we believe every neuron in our brains actually carries a knowledge of value that you can trade. Meaning trillions of neurons can ultimately be traded as assets too! That’s why we’ve created 4IRGPT.com. Like YouTube for video, we believe billions of prompts will be traded exponentially and the underlying token digital asset is 4IR. Just one of its utility applications. You can learn about more utilities of 4IR at 4IRtoken.com. Everything around us is all going to change 🤓 Morpheus thinks 🌿 differently 🌷

The bridge between traditional finance and digital assets is quietly being built in the Nordics. Two recent partnerships mark how distribution channels for crypto and digital assets are maturing, not through hype, but through structured financial collaboration: 🔹 Stackx.me & Tyr Markets: A collaboration that connects advanced trading infrastructure with retail-facing crypto access. By partnering with Tyr, Stackx.me moves one step closer to bridging professional-grade liquidity with consumer-level accessibility. 🔹 Pensum & K33: A partnership designed to give professional investors new access to digital assets, leveraging K33’s institutional-grade crypto expertise and Pensum’s position in traditional finance. It’s a signal that regulated wealth managers are no longer just observing the market; they’re participating in it. Together, these developments reflect a broader Nordic movement: Banks, brokers, and fintechs are creating new distribution rails for digital assets, from investor portfolios to everyday applications. Even Nordic banks like Lunar are exploring similar directions, blurring the line between banking, fintech and crypto finance. As regulation like MiCA unfolds across the region, such partnerships highlight how trust, infrastructure, and accessibility are converging to make digital assets a natural extension of the financial system, not an alternative to it. 🔗 Read more on Kaupr: Pensum & K33 partnership → https://lnkd.in/dwxnp5TC Stackx.me & Tyr Markets partnership  https://lnkd.in/dtc8uWu7

This article from Kaupr about the recent development in the Norwegian market for crypto asset service providers is worth reading on a Friday afternoon. Below, Kaupr highlights one of TÝR Markets' main value propositions to our clients, namely providing professional-grade liquidity into the Norwegian market. During the turmoil in the markets last Friday evening, spreads widened significantly on most of the Norwegian crypto exchanges and crypto trading platforms (spreads ranging from 5-20% among the various players), probably caused by market-makers pulling out of the market. TÝR Markets on the other hand doesn't rely on market-makers and has access to 80-85% of global liquidity, securing deep and broad liquidity at any times to our clients, even in challenging markets. The result? TÝR Markets being able to offer zero spread on all trades below NOK 100,000 to our clients throughout the entire Friday evening, and very low spreads on trades above NOK 100,000, all at a low commission of 0.35%. That's why we say "Why liquidity matters!". https://tyrmarkets.net/no

Sui to Launch Native Stablecoins With Ethena and BlackRock Backing The Sui Foundation, Ethena, and digital asset treasury firm SUIG have partnered to develop two proprietary stablecoins for the Sui ecosystem. Yesterday, they announced plans to introduce two native stablecoins, developed in partnership with Ethena and supported by BlackRock’s tokenized money market fund (BUIDL). The initiative aims to strengthen liquidity within the Sui ecosystem and reduce reliance on external stablecoins such as USDC and USDT. Details of the Launch USDi: A stablecoin backed 1:1 by BlackRock’s BUIDL money market fund, tokenized via Securitize. This structure ties the token’s value directly to traditional money market instruments. suiUSDe: A synthetic dollar modeled on Ethena’s existing USDe design, backed by a mix of crypto assets and derivatives. Both stablecoins will be native to Sui, designed for use across the chain’s decentralized applications and infrastructure. Implications for Sui and its native order book liquidity layer--DeepBook For DeepBook, Sui’s central order book, this could translate into more stablecoin-denominated trading pairs, tighter spreads, and greater market activity. Because USDi is backed by a money market fund, holders could indirectly access yields associated with those assets. This introduces a yield-bearing stablecoin option within the Sui ecosystem, which may influence how users allocate capital compared to traditional DeFi lending or yield products. https://lnkd.in/grDEgZ37

🚀 The future of finance is here, and it’s being tokenized! At the recent Digital Assets Summit in Singapore, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce emphasized the agency's openness to partnering on tokenized products. This acknowledgment signals a potential shift in regulatory attitudes towards tokenized assets, which are rapidly gaining traction in both the crypto and traditional finance sectors. Tokenization offers significant benefits, including enhanced market liquidity and operational efficiency. Major players like JPMorgan and BlackRock are already exploring this innovative approach, illustrating its growing acceptance among traditional financial institutions. Peirce’s comments reflect a recognition that tokenization could genuinely transform the value exchange systems underpinning our economy. As the tokenization market is projected to soar from $31 billion to $2 trillion by 2030, the implications for businesses and regulators are profound. As we look ahead, the SEC's willingness to engage with tokenized asset issuers could pave the way for a more innovative and compliant future in capital markets. Will this lead to a more balanced regulatory environment? Only time will tell. Read more about it here: https://ift.tt/0T8IJeH #Tokenization #DigitalAssets #FinanceInnovation

"Finance is evolving faster than ever — and this time, the innovation isn’t about crypto hype. It’s about bringing real-world assets on-chain through tokenization." 💠 The Financial System is Being Rewritten — One Token at a Time As someone who studies both science and finance, I’ve always been fascinated by how data, logic, and structure can redefine systems. And right now, that’s exactly what’s happening in finance through Tokenization — the bridge between real-world assets and digital markets. --- 🔍 What is Tokenization? Tokenization is transforming traditional assets — Treasuries, real estate, private credit, even commodities — into digital tokens recorded on a blockchain. Each token represents a fractional, verifiable claim on the asset — combining financial precision with blockchain efficiency. It’s the perfect mix of science and finance: decentralized ledgers (trustless systems) solving centralized inefficiencies (trust-dependent systems). --- ⚙️ How It Works (in simple quant terms) 1. The physical asset is held by a regulated custodian. 2. A smart contract issues digital tokens that represent proportional ownership. 3. On-chain oracles keep feeding data like NAV, prices, and yields. 4. These tokens can then be traded, staked, or used as collateral across digital financial platforms. Essentially, tokenization converts illiquid assets into programmable, liquid financial primitives — measurable, tradable, and transparent. --- 📈 Why It’s Exploding According to BCG, tokenized RWA markets may hit $16 trillion by 2030, potentially representing 10% of global GDP. And institutions are already all in: BlackRock’s $BUIDL fund (tokenized U.S. Treasuries) crossed $500M AUM within months. J.P. Morgan’s Onyx is pioneering tokenized debt transfers. Singapore, Switzerland, and UAE are testing sovereign bond tokenization frameworks. We’re witnessing the institutional validation of blockchain finance — not as a speculation tool, but as a global settlement layer. --- 💡 Why It Matters 🔹 Liquidity — assets that were non-tradable (like private credit) now move instantly. 🔹 Accessibility — anyone, anywhere, can own a fraction of high-value assets. 🔹 Transparency — blockchain ensures immutable records and auditability. 🔹 Efficiency — instant settlement, reduced costs, and automated compliance. 🔹 Programmability — dividends, coupons, and redemptions executed via code. For someone who believes in quantitative transparency and systemic efficiency, this is the most rational financial innovation since the introduction of electronic trading. --- ⚠️ The Road Ahead Yes, we still need standardization, regulation, and interoperability, but one truth stands out — > "The future of global finance won’t just use blockchain. It will run on it."

Recently, Kadena's Cesar Pereira said not all assets need to come onchain. Is he right? Kind of - the full picture is more nuanced 👇 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐢𝐫𝐚 𝐈𝐬 𝐑𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ✅ Pereira nails the fact that public equity markets are incredibly mature and sophisticated. NYSE, Nasdaq, and other exchanges already provide deep, efficient pricing and mature settlement infrastructure. Tokenizing Apple or Microsoft stock won't magically create more liquidity or better market formation. The existing infrastructure already works well for what it does. Pereira correctly identifies that private credit markets are far more viable candidates for near-term tokenization impact. But does that mean public equities won't benefit at all from coming onchain? 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐓𝐨 𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 🔍 Even mature public equity markets benefit significantly from tokenization. Enhanced compliance monitoring via programmable smart contracts means automatically enforced transfer restrictions, lock-up periods, and other regulatory requirements. Settlement speed can accelerate to T+0 vs today's T+2, dramatically increasing settlement times and potentially reducing counterparty risk. After all, Nasdaq just filed for equity tokenization and Superstate is moving tons of equity onchain. They're clearly not chasing liquidity - they're moving to minimize settlement risk. Not to mention the composability that tokenized equities enjoy. They can interact with DeFi protocols in ways traditional stocks never could, and while it's not in vogue today, the writing is on the wall. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐎𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 🚀 This is where Pereira and I completely agree. Private markets are fragmented with limited liquidity, high minimums, opaque pricing, and notorious difficulty with transfers. Thankfully, Fairmint is tackling these problems head-on with seven years of experience and $1 billion+ of private equity onchain. Private equity tokenization creates markets where none effectively existed before, meaning maximizing tokenization bang for market buck. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐀𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐇𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 📈 Despite the debate, tokenization is coming to both private and public equity markets. Centrifuge just launched tokenized S&P 500 on Base. Animoca Brands is tokenizing its equity on Solana Foundation Tokenized stocks on Ethereum hit $275M in September while the SEC is working with NYSE and ICE to shape crypto rules. Pereira is right that private markets will see more of the immediate benefits from tokenization. But that doesn't mean public equity tokenization won't deliver significant value through compliance automation, settlement speed, and composability. In my opinion, it's less of a question of "what should we tokenize?" and more about "what benefits matter most for this asset class?" - different assets, different use cases.

Another big week for digital asset adoption. The SEC weighed tokenized stock trading, Swift announced blockchain infrastructure with major banks, and Robinhood's CEO predicted tokenization will reshape global finance. This week's updates. 👇 1️⃣ Robinhood CEO says "Tokenization will eat the entire global financial system" Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev declared that "tokenization will eat the entire global financial system" in a post on X following his appearance at Token2049 in Singapore. https://lnkd.in/gs7uYZrg 2️⃣ Circle and Deutsche Börse collaborate to advance stablecoin adoption in Europe Deutsche Börse Group and Circle signed a Memorandum of Understanding to integrate USDC and EURC into Deutsche Börse's financial market infrastructure. https://lnkd.in/dfeQNugF 3️⃣ SEC weighs plan to allow blockchain-based stock trading The Securities and Exchange Commission is reportedly developing a plan to allow blockchain-registered versions of stocks to trade on cryptocurrency exchanges, marking a significant step toward integrating digital asset technology into traditional markets. https://lnkd.in/gdjeWTVf 4️⃣ Swift announces blockchain plan at Sibos Swift is developing its own blockchain to streamline transactions among global banks. The platform will facilitate transactions involving tokenized products and stablecoins, with Bank of America, Citigroup, and NatWest among the initial partners. https://lnkd.in/ePn7watg 5️⃣ Bridge launches Open Issuance stablecoin platform Bridge, acquired by Stripe in 2024, launched Open Issuance, a platform that allows any business to launch and manage its own stablecoin. Phantom (CASH), Native Markets (USDH), MetaMask (mUSD), and Dakota (DKUSD) joined as launch partners. https://lnkd.in/gdCcwKbH