The role of benchmark indexes is to describe and measure markets. Providing transparent rules, documented governance, independent oversight and clear procedures under stress requires rigor and discipline. Index providers adopt these disciplines voluntarily, drawing on standards refined over decades in other asset classes.

A new report from the Index Industry Association examines how digital asset indexes are evolving to meet these expectations — and must keep evolving as stablecoins and tokenized assets enter the picture. Transparency is rarely the loudest part of a market, but it tends to be the part that lasts.

Principled Perspectives

One market, not two: CoinDesk’s Dave LaValle on crypto and TradFi converging

The conversation about crypto in client portfolios has shifted in the past six months, and advisors who still think in terms of the old framework risk being caught flat-footed. In a new interview with The Wealth Advisor, Dave LaValle, president of CoinDesk Data & Indices, laid out why.

The clearest signal came from Wall Street. “The Morgan Stanley team launched their bitcoin ETF in early April, and a little bit more than a month in, and they’re over $230 million in assets,” LaValle said. “To amass $230 million in basically a month, it’s kind of insane.”

He framed crypto as a disruptive technology that needs two things to take hold: the tech itself, which exists, and regulatory clarity. The GENIUS Act has set a framework for stablecoins backed by U.S. Treasuries, and the CLARITY Act, addressing market structure, could reach a vote “sometime in the next month or two.”

The crypto industry is pushing back against a new tax law in the state of Illinois that enacts a 0.2% tax on businesses transacting or storing crypto for customers in the state, but it may be too late to change it in the short-term.

The law enacts a 0.2% tax on “receiving any digital asset business activity,” according to the text of the bill, which defined digital asset business activity as “any single occurrence of exchanging, transferring or storing a digital asset as part of a business or on behalf of a customer.”

The tax applies to firms that are based in Illinois or provide services to residents of the state with total gross receipts of at least $100,000. The tax is expected to raise around $60 million, said a person following the process.

The provision was added last-minute to Illinois’ broader budget bill, according to two people following the matter, and was approved by Governor J.B. Pritzker on June 16, according to the bill’s status page. The legislation creates a roughly $56 billion budget for the 2027 fiscal year and also includes new taxes on fantasy sports, social media and other areas, ABC 7 reported.

A spokesperson for Polymarket said the company looks forward to addressing the claims.

“This action runs counter to the CFTC’s established framework for regulating prediction markets,” the spokesperson said in a statement emailed to CoinDesk.

So far, the states that have filed such a challenge against the prediction markets have met with counter suits from the CFTC, where Chairman Mike Selig has taken an aggressive legal stance defending his agency’s authority as the sole regulatory power over events contracts, which he says falls directly into the CFTC’s authority over U.S. derivatives.

And Trump has recently backed him up.

“It is critically important that the CFTC’s exclusive authority over Prediction Markets is maintained, and that they will thrive,” Trump posted on his social media site, Truth Social. “Under my leadership, we are setting ‘rules of the road’ that are the Gold Standard for the States.”

He asserted that his state-level political foes (offering names including Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker) are “SCUM” who shouldn’t be allowed to set the rules.

“It is a major Industry, and we must protect it,” Trump wrote. “Mike Selig, CFTC Chairman, and respected by all, is doing a great job.”

The CFTC has sued eight states — most recently New Mexico — and leapt into other court matters involving the sector.

Strategy has returned to the spotlight after QCP estimated its current liquidity runway for dividend payments at about seven and a half months.

According to market maker QCP, Strategy’s current liquidity position could support dividend payments for roughly seven and a half months, raising the possibility that the company may need to sell additional Bitcoin if alternative funding sources become less attractive.

The warning comes shortly after Strategy completed several balance-sheet transactions. QCP noted that the company repurchased nearly $1.5 billion of convertible notes due in 2029 while also raising about $200 million through sales of MSTR stock. Part of those proceeds funded another $100 million Bitcoin purchase, continuing the company’s long-running accumulation strategy.

Dividend obligations have become a focus

Attention has increasingly turned to how Strategy plans to manage future payout commitments tied to its capital structure.

In its market note, QCP argued that potential Bitcoin sales could emerge as one option if the company seeks to maintain dividends while continuing to operate its treasury strategy.

Those concerns surfaced after Strategy disclosed a sale of 32 BTC earlier this month, the first known reduction of its Bitcoin holdings. The transaction drew criticism from some crypto investors because Executive Chairman Michael Saylor has long promoted a buy-and-hold approach to Bitcoin ownership.

Addressing the sale in a June 13 interview, Strategy CEO Phong Le said the transaction was not driven by a need to raise cash for dividends. Le explained that the company conducted the sale to test internal procedures, generate tax losses that may offset future tax liabilities, and reduce potential market shock around future sales if they ever become necessary.

Le also rejected suggestions that Strategy lacks other financing options. According to the CEO, the company can still access equity issuance and preferred-stock financing to support its capital structure.

At the same time, Le acknowledged that management would evaluate both Bitcoin sales and share issuance based on financial outcomes rather than ideology. He said Strategy would choose whichever approach improves Bitcoin exposure per share for common shareholders.

Critics question the economics of new purchases

Separate criticism has come from Euro Pacific Capital chief Peter Schiff, who recently argued that Strategy’s model has become less effective than it was when MSTR stock traded at a substantial premium to the value of its Bitcoin holdings.

Schiff contended that earlier stock offerings increased Bitcoin exposure on a per-share basis because investors were willing to pay well above net asset value. In recent comments, he argued that issuing shares at lower valuations to purchase additional Bitcoin can dilute shareholders even as the company expands its overall Bitcoin reserve.

His remarks followed Strategy’s purchase of 1,550 BTC for approximately $101 million in early June. Schiff claimed the transaction reduced Bitcoin exposure per share and described the outcome as a “negative Bitcoin yield.”

Despite those concerns, Strategy has continued adding to its holdings. On June 15, Saylor disclosed another purchase of 1,587 BTC for roughly $100 million, bringing the company’s total Bitcoin holdings to 846,842 BTC.

The company also increased its dollar reserves to about $1.1 billion, providing additional liquidity while keeping its Bitcoin acquisition program in place.

Another point of debate involves Strategy’s STRC preferred shares. Schiff has argued that if those securities trade below their intended level, the company could face pressure to increase dividend payments, issue additional shares, or draw on cash reserves to meet obligations.

Beyond new revenue opportunities, the model gives FIFA more visibility into who ultimately attends its events. In the traditional ticketing ecosystem, much of that information is controlled by secondary marketplaces.

“The actual administrator of those tickets, FIFA, has no idea who the people are buying,” Carbonaro said. “That data sits with SeatGeek, StubHub, Ticketmaster, Vivid Seats.” He argued that FIFA Collect’s RTB and RTT system gives FIFA greater insight into how ticket rights change hands within its own ecosystem, rather than relying on third-party platforms that typically control the customer relationship.

With RTBs and RTTs, FIFA can better track how fans move through the ticketing process while keeping personal information offchain and using blockchain records as a verification mechanism.

That data component may ultimately prove as valuable as the ticketing functionality itself. Sports organizations increasingly view direct fan relationships as strategic assets, particularly as AI tools make first-party data more valuable.

Whether FIFA’s ticketing model becomes a template for future tournaments remains to be seen. Critics could argue that introducing tradable purchase rights simply creates another layer between fans and tickets.

Either way, the World Cup offers a glimpse of where blockchain adoption may be heading next. Instead of asking consumers to embrace crypto, projects like FIFA Collect are attempting to hide it altogether. And for Avalanche, that may be the most important test of all.

Blockchain.com is widening its tokenized real-world assets lineup through a partnership with Ondo Finance, adding 173 tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to its marketplace. The expansion takes Blockchain.com’s catalog of tokenized traditional assets to more than 430 offerings spanning Ethereum, Solana and BNB Chain.

In a Wednesday announcement, Blockchain.com said the newly listed products include tokenized exposure to private-company shares, actively managed ETFs, US Treasury-related offerings, and covered-call income strategies—highlighting SpaceX’s SPCX token among the additions. It also added themed baskets linked to areas such as AI infrastructure, energy, robotics, autonomous vehicles and quantum computing, alongside income-focused products from Global X and other issuers.

Key takeaways

• Blockchain.com expanded its tokenized stocks and ETF catalog by 173 items via Ondo Finance, bringing total offerings to 430+ across Ethereum, Solana and BNB Chain.
• The new list ranges from private-company shares and active ETFs to Treasuries and covered-call strategies, with SpaceX’s SPCX token called out by name.
• Blockchain.com says the assets are available immediately, using Ondo’s routing and liquidity infrastructure to support trading across all 173 listings at launch.
• Tokenized equities have accelerated this year: RWA.xyz data cited by the company shows distributed value is up to about $1.57 billion, roughly fivefold from around $330 million a year ago.
• Regulatory momentum for DeFi-style access to US equities has become a focal point after a US SEC proposal was described by Galaxy’s Alex Thorn as a potential “unlock” for tokenized stock trading.

Blockchain.com’s Ondo partnership grows across major chains

Blockchain.com’s latest move reinforces its strategy of bringing institutional-style market access into crypto rails. The firm positioned the onboarding as an “immediate” availability update, stating that Ondo’s routing and liquidity infrastructure supports trading across all 173 new tokenized assets from the time of launch.

Ondo is described by market-data provider RWA.xyz as one of the larger tokenization platforms by asset value. According to RWA.xyz figures cited in the announcement, Ondo has roughly $3.8 billion in distributed assets across 267 tokenized products. While those figures are platform-level totals rather than limited to equities, they underscore the scale of the infrastructure now being leveraged for broad catalog expansion.

What’s new in the 173-token slate

While tokenized equities have largely focused on making public-company shares transferable on-chain, Blockchain.com’s additions widen the scope of what investors can hold in token form. Among the specific categories it highlighted are:

• Private company shares, offering on-chain exposure beyond traditional publicly listed equities.
• Active ETF exposure, indicating continued demand for tokenized access to strategies managed by ETF issuers.
• US Treasury products, bringing fixed-income exposure into the same trading ecosystem.
• Covered-call strategies, which aim to generate income by holding an underlying asset while selling call options.
• Themed baskets tied to sectors such as AI infrastructure, energy, robotics, autonomous vehicles and quantum computing.

Blockchain.com singled out SpaceX’s SPCX token as one of the additions. That comes as tokenized SpaceX-related products have already drawn significant retail and institutional attention, even as the sector has encountered execution problems in some launches.

Tokenized equities keep climbing—though competition is intensifying

RWA.xyz data cited alongside Blockchain.com’s announcement suggests the tokenized equities segment has been gaining traction. The report referenced by the article places tokenized equities at approximately $1.57 billion in distributed value, up nearly fivefold from about $330 million a year ago.

The same data set referenced the variety of assets now circulating on-chain, including tokenized shares of public companies, ETFs, and private-firm equity. It also mentioned several large holdings by value, naming Strategy, Circle, Nvidia and Exodus shares as examples.

That growth has also attracted more rivals. Earlier this month, Exodus launched a marketplace for more than 200 tokenized stocks, ETFs and other real-world assets, also through a partnership with Ondo Finance—illustrating how Ondo-linked distribution is becoming a common foundation for new onchain “tradfi-like” trading experiences.

Beyond dedicated tokenized stock platforms, mainstream crypto venues have also pursued high-profile tokenized equity themes. Binance, for instance, said its tokenized IPO offering tied to SpaceX drew more than $557 million in USDC deposits from users seeking exposure to the listing.

SpaceX hype meets real-world frictions—and regulatory change could matter

Alongside growing interest, the SpaceX IPO storyline revealed operational and allocation challenges that have periodically constrained tokenized offerings. According to the earlier coverage referenced in the article, several exchanges—including Binance, Bybit, Bitget Wallet and MEXC—were reported to have canceled tokenized SpaceX offerings and refunded users after failing to secure share allocations. Those products, the article notes, relied on Kraken-owned xStocks for distribution and settlement infrastructure.

The reporting also pointed to the IPO’s reported oversubscription, citing Reuters coverage that demand for a $75 billion offering had reportedly reached more than four times that level and attracted more than $250 billion in investor demand. For tokenization firms and their partners, these dynamics highlight a recurring tension: onchain distribution can be fast, but underlying access to shares can remain constrained by traditional market mechanics.

At the same time, regulatory discussions may shape how these products evolve. The article references a US Securities and Exchange Commission proposal described by Galaxy head of research Alex Thorn as “one of the biggest unlocks yet for tokenized stocks.” Thorn’s comments were tied to the SEC’s proposal to rescind two National Market System rules, which he argued would remove “one of the biggest structural barriers to tokenized US equities trading in DeFi.” The linked SEC proposal appears to frame the issue as a rule change within market structure regulation, though the ultimate impact for onchain trading will depend on how the SEC proceeds and what replacement frameworks—if any—follow.

For investors using onchain equities platforms, the immediate practical takeaway is straightforward: more tokenized stock and ETF listings are now arriving through established infrastructure, but the sector’s next test will be whether liquidity, settlement reliability and regulatory clarity can keep pace with demand. Watch for how exchanges and wallet providers handle upcoming high-profile offerings—especially those that require constrained allocations—and for any follow-through from the SEC proposals that could expand the ways tokenized equities can be integrated into DeFi trading.