The US Senate has approved Kevin Warsh as the newest governor of the Federal Reserve, with a vote on his confirmation as chair of the central bank expected this week.

In a 51 to 45 vote in the US Senate on Tuesday, lawmakers sided on party lines, with the exception of Democratic Senator John Fetterman, to approve President Donald Trump’s nominee. The chamber immediately followed by approving a motion to invoke cloture on a vote for Warsh as the next Fed chair, setting up a potential vote soon.

Source: US Senate

The vote confirmed Warsh as a Fed governor for 14 years, and is expected to lead to lawmakers voting on his nomination for a four-year term as Fed chair. He previously served as a Fed governor under former US Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama from 2006 to 2011.

Jerome Powell, whose term as Fed chair ends on Friday, has faced Trump’s repeated threats to fire him. His term as a Fed governor will continue until 2028, but the shakeup in the leadership of the US central bank has the potential to move markets amid concerns over changing interest rates and the Fed’s independence from the White House’s policies. 

Related: Federal Reserve chair nominee’s disclosure includes crypto and AI holdings

Warsh said in a 2025 interview that Bitcoin (BTC) was a “transformative” technology and “an important asset that can help inform policymakers.” During his confirmation hearing in the Senate Banking Committee, however, many Democrats questioned whether as Fed chair he could remain independent from the president’s policy agenda.

Crypto market structure bill markup scheduled for Thursday

The vote on the nomination came the same week that US lawmakers on the Senate Banking Committee will choose whether to advance a digital asset market structure bill expected to change oversight and regulation of cryptocurrencies. On Monday, the panel’s leadership released the text of its version of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY), that included a compromise provision on stablecoin yield that had long been a sticking point for many in the crypto and banking industries.

On Thursday, the banking committee will hold a markup on CLARITY, potentially setting the bill up for a vote in the full Senate.

Magazine: XRP ‘probably going to $12,’ Bitcoin ETFs add $1B: Market Moves

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

Key Highlights

• DTCC selects Chainlink infrastructure for tokenized collateral platform launching Q4 2026
• Chainlink Runtime Environment will enable data integration, valuation, and process automation
• Platform designed to accelerate collateral transfers across multiple blockchains and markets
• Initiative modernizes margining operations, settlement processes, and collateral efficiency
• Development signals growing institutional adoption of blockchain-based collateral solutions

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation is advancing its collateral infrastructure transformation by partnering with Chainlink. This collaboration will bring Chainlink’s Runtime Environment and standardized data protocols to DTCC’s upcoming Collateral AppChain. Production deployment is targeted for the final quarter of 2026.

Chainlink Technology Integration Powers New Platform

DTCC is incorporating Chainlink’s blockchain infrastructure into its digitally-native Collateral AppChain platform. The system is designed to streamline collateral transfers, pricing, and settlement operations throughout international financial markets. The initiative seeks to accelerate processing for both tokenized digital assets and conventional financial products.

The new platform will leverage Chainlink’s Runtime Environment to facilitate data integration, automated processes, and orchestration capabilities. DTCC will be able to consolidate asset pricing information, valuation metrics, margin calculations, and collateral transaction data within a unified infrastructure. This architecture minimizes the need for fragmented integrations spanning multiple institutions and asset categories.

DTCC has architected the AppChain as collective market infrastructure accessible to all collateral ecosystem participants. The platform will accommodate collateral suppliers, recipients, portfolio managers, custodial institutions, and triparty service providers. Consequently, the system could establish a standardized framework enabling near-instantaneous collateral operations.

Advanced Data Delivery and Process Automation Capabilities

Chainlink’s contribution centers on protected data transmission and automated workflow execution. The infrastructure will facilitate eligibility verification, asset valuation, margin calculations, optimization algorithms, and settlement completion. Additionally, the AppChain can deploy adaptable data components as new collateral applications develop.

DTCC indicated the integration will enable connections between collateral contracts and market information feeds. This encompasses pricing data, valuation metrics, and transfer records spanning various markets and blockchain networks. As a result, the AppChain is positioned to enable round-the-clock collateral administration across institutional platforms.

This development builds upon DTCC’s Great Collateral Experiment, which attracted significant industry focus. The organization is now transitioning the AppChain toward operational implementation. Chainlink’s infrastructure provides the platform with a data foundation engineered for institutional-grade operations.

Rising Institutional Interest in Tokenized Collateral Solutions

DTCC’s initiative emerges as prominent market infrastructure organizations expand their blockchain tokenization programs. Research conducted by Nasdaq revealed that 52% of institutions anticipate operational tokenized collateral management systems by late 2026. Numerous organizations continue experiencing daily challenges with settlement reconciliation and asset delivery.

Nasdaq, Intercontinental Exchange, Kraken, Securitize, and Backed have similarly progressed their tokenized securities initiatives. These programs focus on blockchain-enabled equities, exchange-traded funds, and on-chain settlement mechanisms. DTCC’s AppChain deployment aligns with an industry-wide transition toward automated post-trade operations.

DTCC presently maintains custody for approximately $114 trillion in liquid financial assets. This operational magnitude positions its AppChain initiative as highly significant throughout global financial markets. Concurrently, tokenized equity instruments have experienced substantial growth, with blockchain-based value now exceeding $1.4 billion.

 

Crypto investors keep making mistakes with their Anthropic investments, from paying 8,700% funding rates to buying tokenized securities of non-existent shares.

Indeed, a lawyer for Anthropic just clarified that, despite promises by promoters of blockchain tokens, it never legally transferred shares that supposedly back many tokens like perpetual contracts (perps), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), real world assets (RWAs), and memecoins.

Blockchain doesn’t fix stupid, and very few crypto AI investors were smart enough to read the fine print before purchasing.

Anthropic, the multi-hundred billion dollar maker of Claude AI, updated its webpage today to reiterate that unauthorized share transfers are void. 

The post states plainly, “Any sale or transfer of Anthropic stock, or any interest in Anthropic stock, that has not been approved by our Board of Directors is void and will not be recognized on our books and records.” 

The company named special purpose vehicles, forward contracts, and tokenized securities as offending asset classes. In essence, it told retail buyers to assume that many crypto tokens bearing Anthropic’s name are nonsense.

PreStocks, a Solana-based platform offering tokenized Anthropic exposure, enjoyed a 6X rally for its ANTHROPIC token over the past year from $235 to an all-time high of $1,409 shortly before the statement.

ANTHROPIC then crashed by 34% within hours of Anthropic’s legal notice and was still cratering as of writing time.

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ANTHROPIC tokens were never Anthropic shares

PreStocks, as its name suggests, marketed its product as pre-stock tokens “1:1 backed by SPV exposure to the underlying company shares.”

The catch was in the fine print, with the word “exposure” holding a comical amount of weight.

As investors learned this week, any actual share is recorded on Anthropic’s corporate ledger and only inside a legal entity, not on a blockchain.

PreStocks’ Solana-based ANTHROPIC token “exposure” was a database entry pointing to a contractual claim on an SPV that didn’t have Anthropic’s permission for subsequent transfers or resales. 

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Blockchain tokens on secondary markets like PreStocks were never Anthropic shares.

Crypto attorney Gabriel Shapiro noted that the company picked the most aggressive language available under Delaware corporate law. Treating transfers as void rather than voidable further stripped secondary buyers of equitable defenses.

Anthropic’s notice insists that real share transfers require board approval. 

Tons of places to buy fake shares

Anthropic’s list of unauthorized intermediaries named names.

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Offending resellers included Unicorns Exchange, Pachamama, Forge, Lionheart Ventures, Sydecar, Upmarket, Open Door Partners, Hiive. Many investors who bought Anthropic exposure through these entities is not, in the company’s view, an actual stockholder.

Podcaster Gwart highlighted the reckoning for crypto’s stupidity. “If you make an NFT of an Anthropic share and then Dario’s lawyers write a cease and desist letter destroying that share, you still have that share if it’s on the blockchain. What NFT is doing to the concept of asset, few understand.” 

The joke writes itself. An NFT can point to any contract, including a nonsense contract.

Thanks to leveraged degeneracy, Anthropic-branded crypto tokens implied Anthropic valuations well above $1 trillion, almost triple the $380 billion valuation at which the company raised its Series G three months ago.

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Read more: OpenAI to Robinhood: That’s not our stock, bro

Protos has documented the parallel speculation on Hyperliquid’s Ventuals perpetual contract. Traders there paid up to 8,700% annualized funding last weekend to be long Anthropic. Like many crypto traders, they were not buying actual shares in Anthropic. 

OpenAI told crypto investors the same thing

Anthropic is following a script OpenAI wrote. In its policy published last November, OpenAI declared that any attempted transfer of its equity without corporate consent is void.

The notice explicitly names tokenized interests in its equity, or in an SPV holding that equity, as the kind of arrangement that can be unwound.

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Protos has previously covered OpenAI’s public disavowal of Robinhood’s tokenized OpenAI shares last year. OpenAI’s rejection landed two days after Robinhood unveiled its product at the Ethereum Community Conference.

The pattern is obvious. Private-company tokenizations like NFTs and RWAs can replicate the user experience of trading a share, but it doesn’t necessarily replicate legal ownership of a share, which remains a mostly offline, off-blockchain contract. 

A token moves peer-to-peer in seconds. The underlying private security, by contract and corporate law, only moves with the issuing company’s permission.

Got a tip? Send us an email securely via Protos Leaks. For more informed news and investigations, follow us on X, Bluesky, and Google News, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

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The recently released text of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY) in the US Senate Banking Committee is raising some eyebrows among experts before a scheduled Thursday markup for provisions on housing and the lack of ethics language.

On Monday, three Republican lawmakers unveiled the text of the bill lawmakers will use to consider advancing crypto market structure legislation in the banking committee. It followed drafts released in July and September 2025, building upon discussions between crypto and banking industry representatives over stablecoin yield.

Text of CLARITY Act. Source: US Senate Banking Committee

However, the latest version includes provisions seemingly unrelated to crypto market structure. In the last pages of the legislation was a provision on housing called the Build Now Act, which, according to a section-by-section summary of the text, was aimed at creating “a pilot program to incentivize housing development of all kinds in certain Community Development Block Grant participating jurisdictions.”

According to Senators Tim Scott, Cynthia Lummis, and Thom Tillis, the bill reflected “continued negotiations with Democratic colleagues,” signaling bipartisan support in Thursday’s markup. However, some Senate Democrats, including Kirsten Gillibrand, said that they would not vote for market structure on the floor without clear provisions on ethics to address potential conflicts of interest.

“We have worked too hard on this bill to give up now,” Senator Angela Alsobrooks, who sits on the banking committee and announced the stablecoin yield compromise with Tillis, told Cointelegraph. “My hope is to get to a bipartisan markup on Thursday with a compromise on ethics.”

Related: Seven Democrats seen as ‘key’ to advancing CLARITY Act: Galaxy

The CLARITY Act is expected to give the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) more authority in overseeing and regulating digital assets, in a shift of roles usually handled by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The Senate Agriculture Committee passed its version of the bill in a January markup, but the legislation must pass the banking committee, full Senate, and reconcile in the House of Representatives before potentially being signed into law.

What‘s in the bill?

CLARITY explicitly prohibits paying interest or yield on payment stablecoins, with the exception of “rewards or incentives based on bona fide activities or bona fide transactions that are not economically or functionally equivalent to the payment of interest or yield on an interest-bearing bank deposit.”

The bill also included language from the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, legislation proposed to protect developers from money transmitter requirements. The advocacy organization DeFi Education Fund said in a Monday X post that it was “encouraged by the direction of recent negotiations” over the bill, noting the software developer protections.

Lawmakers did not include any provisions on ethics related to Democrats’ concerns over US President Donald Trump’s crypto ventures, such as his memecoin and his family’s World Liberty Financial business.

“This bill puts investors, our national security and our entire financial system at risk – and it will turbocharge Donald Trump’s crypto corruption,” said Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren in response to the bill. “In just one year in office, the President and his family have raked in at least $1.4 billion in gains from crypto deals alone, and yet this bill stunningly includes zero provisions to prevent that.”

The Senate Agriculture Committee voted along party lines to advance the bill in January, but the legislation would require 60 votes to pass the Senate even if the same were to happen in the banking committee on Thursday. When stablecoin payments legislation, the GENIUS Act, was under consideration in the Senate in June 2025, many Democrats joined with Republicans to pass the bill in a 68-30 bipartisan vote.

Magazine: Guide to the top and emerging global crypto hubs: Mid-2026

Alternative investment vehicles such as exchange-traded funds (ETFs), led by BlackRock’s IBIT, hold sway over bitcoin’s price. That is well known by now.

But another ETF from the betting world has been moving in lockstep with bitcoin’s BTC$80,714.26 cycles since 2020, with an interesting pattern that, to the naked eye, appears to show leading signals for BTC trend changes.

That ETF is the NYSE-listed Roundhill Sports Betting & iGaming ETF (BETZ). The fund debuted in June 2020 and has since attracted only $98 million in net inflows. As of Tuesday, it had roughly $50 million in assets under management, which is paltry compared to the billions of dollars in the IBIT fund.

The 90-day correlation coefficient between the two assets was 0.73 at press time, according to data from TradingView. Meanwhile, the 365-day coefficient stood at 0.91. That translates into an R² of approximately 0.83, implying that over 80% of the variation in the two assets’ movements is statistically linked. Talk about moving in lockstep!

But here’s where it gets interesting. If you overlay the ETF price on BTC’s price chart, a clear pattern emerges, in that the fund tends to hit major peaks and bottoms a couple of weeks ahead of bitcoin market turnarounds.

The blue line represents bitcoin, and the white line, the BETZ ETF.

The betting ETF peaked in September 2021, and by the time BTC followed in November, it was already declining. The ETF’s eventual bottom in September 2022 also preceded bitcoin’s by three months.

A similar pattern played out last year, when the ETF peaked in August, two months before BTC.

While the correlation between the two asset is far from definitive causation, the consistency of these timing offsets across multiple cycles is difficult to ignore. It strengthens the broader argument made by several leading observers, including Ray Dalio, that bitcoin continues to behave more like a risk-sensitive macro asset than a traditional safe-haven instrument.

For traders, the take away is clear: The ETF is more like a complementary sentiment and liquidity proxy rather than a standalone predictor of BTC trends.

The fact that the BETZ ETF has, in recent days, decoupled from rising BTC prices may be an early signal worth monitoring, its just a noise in a relationship that has historically held but not guaranteed to persist.

Monaco, May 12, 2026 — Following the resounding success of its 2025 edition, WAIB Summit Monaco proudly announces its return on June 9–10, 2026, at the prestigious One Monte-Carlo, located in the heart of Monaco’s iconic Casino Square.

Recognized as one of the world’s most exclusive summits for Web3, Artificial Intelligence, and Digital Assets, WAIB Summit Monaco 2026 will once again convene 2,000+ global attendees, including visionary founders, family offices, institutional investors, venture capitalists, regulators and policymakers, global brands, and thought leaders shaping the future of technology and innovation.

Building on the global momentum surrounding the Monaco Formula 1 Grand Prix, the summit uniquely blends cutting-edge innovation, luxury, and elite networking—transforming Monaco’s peak international spotlight into a gateway for the future of finance and the internet.

A proven global impact

The 2025 edition of WAIB Summit Monaco featured:

• 150+ speakers from leading global organizations, including Microsoft, Coinbase, OKX, B2C2, and AS Monaco, alongside many other world-class brands and institutions
• 50 top global KOLs with a combined audience of 6+ million followers
• 2,000+ international attendees
• Over 1.3 million social media impressions

This momentum firmly established WAIB Summit Monaco as a landmark event for influence, investment, and impact across the Web3 and AI ecosystem.

What to expect in 2026

WAIB Summit Monaco 2026 will deliver an expanded program of curated experiences and exclusive side events—bringing together top global exchanges, financial institutions, and public sector leaders including BNP Paribas, Natixis, CoinShares, Franklin Templeton, Kraken, KuCoin EU, the European Commission, the European Parliament, and representatives from the Governments of Liechtenstein and Monaco—alongside leading global family offices and institutional asset managers, designed to foster innovation, collaboration, and capital formation at the highest level:

Featured speakers

Policy & government

• Peter Kerstens — Adviser, European Commission (DG FISMA)
• Ondrej Kovarik — Former Member of the European Parliament
• Dr. Clara Guerra — Director, Government of Liechtenstein

Financial institutions & asset management

• Rafael Mastroberardino — Franklin Templeton
• Julien Clausse — Head of Asset Foundry, BNP Paribas
• Ramzi Amairi — Director, Tech Coverage – Fintech & Digital Assets, Natixis
• Elie Naba — Innovation Manager, ABN AMRO
• Julien Busnel — Institutional Sales, CoinShares AM

Investment & family office

• Lucius Czerlau, Marquess of Tihany — Principal, Czerlau Family Office
• Paul Infante Moñozca — Moñozca Family Office

Web3 & infrastructure

• Ada Vaughan — Head of DeFi, Stellar Development Foundation
• Kean Gilbert — Head of Institutional Relations, Lido
• Dayana Aleksandrova — Social & New Media Lead, WalletConnect

Global exchanges

• Georg Harer — Co-CEO, Bybit EU
• Sabina Liu — Managing Director, KuCoin EU
• Nenter Chow — CEO, BitMart
• Dorian Vincileoni — Head of Regional Growth, Kraken
• Ajinkya M Tulpule — Director and Chief Operating Officer, HashKey Europe

Family offices VIP dinner at yacht club de Monaco

WAIB Summit Monaco is where family offices meet institutional providers. Hosted in the iconic Yacht Club de Monaco, this highly curated private gathering brings together 20+ single and multi family offices, private wealth leaders, institutional providers, government representatives, and selected founders for trusted, high-level dialogue on the future of Web3 and digital assets. Designed for quality over quantity, the experience convenes 80 carefully selected participants in an intimate setting where capital allocators, institutions, and policymakers can engage in meaningful conversations, exchange insights openly, and build strategic relationships away from crowded expo halls and transactional networking.

WAIB Summit Monte Carlo awards

Honoring excellence and breakthrough innovation across Web3, AI, and Digital Assets—celebrating the pioneers shaping the future of the decentralized economy.

VC & startup pitching sessions

A high-impact platform where selected Web3 and AI startups present groundbreaking innovations to leading venture capitalists and strategic investors. Participating VC partners include Draper University, CV VC Labs, funders.vc, Gini Capital, and MonacoTech.

AI film festival

A celebration of AI-driven filmmaking, positioning artificial intelligence as a new creative engine for cinema and storytelling—exploring the evolving relationship between the creator and the created. The festival brings together filmmakers, artists, AI creators, and philosophers to collaborate and showcase new forms of creative expression.

AI film fest 24H hackathon

The AI Film Fest 24H Hackathon is a 24-hour AI filmmaking challenge open to all on-site attendees, exclusively powered by Alibaba Cloud. The Alibaba Cloud team will be on-site to deliver a tool demonstration and creative briefing before the challenge begins. Participants will then have 24 hours to create a 1–3 minute AI-generated short film. All submissions will be reviewed by the official jury, who will select Gold, Silver, and Bronze winners.

AI film awards jury members

• Anthony Bourached — Associate Professor of Machine Learning & Creative AI at UCL
• Vincent Lowy — Former Head, ENS Louis-Lumière
• Nicholas Shoolingin-Jordan — Director of Netflix’s Series
• Andrew McNamara — Generative AI Lead, Cinesite

Official Website: https://aifilmfest-monaco.com

The Moon party

An unforgettable closing celebration beneath the Monaco and Monte Carlo night sky, set on the beach along the Riviera coastline, bringing together founders, investors, and visionaries.

Tickets & access

Official tickets for WAIB Summit Monaco 2026 are now available.

Early-bird rates are available for a limited time.

Website: https://waibsummit.com

Tickets: https://app.moongate.id/e/waibsummitmonaco2026

About WAIB Summit

WAIB Summit (Web3 and AI Summit) is a global platform connecting thought leaders, investors, family offices, and innovators shaping the future of decentralized technology and artificial intelligence. Hosted in Monaco, following the Monaco Formula 1 Grand Prix weekend, WAIB Summit blends Monaco’s timeless elegance with the vision of the digital age.

Media contact:

joseph@waibsummit.com

This is an excerpt from CoinDesk newsletter ‘Daybook.’ Sign up here, if you haven’t already.

Bitcoin’s BTC$80,748.77 rally stalled in the $80,000–$82,000 range, where it has largely traded since last Wednesday. While fund flows continue to point toward an eventual breakout, macro risks, particularly inflation, suggest caution.

The U.S. is scheduled to report its consumer price index (CPI) for April at 8:30 a.m. ET. According to FactSet, the median estimate is 3.7%, up from 3.3% in March. If that proves correct, it would mark the largest increase in the CPI since January 2024 and be well above the trailing 12-month average of 2.7%.

Analysts are worried that such a reading, especially against the backdrop of what President Donald Trump described as an “unbelievably weak” U.S.-Iran ceasefire and still-elevated oil prices, could trigger risk aversion, potentially weighing on asset prices.

“Markets are entering a highly sensitive period where geopolitics, inflation risks and central bank expectations are colliding,” said Lukman Otunuga, head of market research at global trading broker FXTM. “The combination of elevated oil prices, uncertainty around the Iran conflict, and critical U.S. economic data could drive heightened volatility across commodities, currencies and global equities in the days ahead.”

Still, the reaction could also depend on the core CPI print, which excludes the volatile food and energy component. The core reading is forecast to have increased to 2.7% year-on-year from 2.6% in March.

It’s also possible that higher inflation is already priced in, which may be why the rally stalled in the first place.

Beyond inflation, another key development is XRP and Solana’s (SOL) proximity to major supply zones. XRP briefly tested $1.50 today, a price where breakouts have repeatedly proved short-lived since February. The same applies to SOL, which has once again approached resistance near $97.

Institutional demand for these tokens is heating up. On Monday, the U.S.-listed spot XRP ETFs pulled in $25.8 million in investor funds, the most since Jan. 5. Bitcoin and solana ETFs also continued to attract money, while ether ETFs lost $16.9 million.

In traditional markets, WTI crude futures jumped over 3% and Nasdaq futures dropped over 0.7%, both pointing to risk aversion. Stay alert!

Read more: For analysis of today’s activity in altcoins and derivatives, see Crypto Markets Today . For a comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”

What’s trending

Today’s signal

The chart shows XRP’s daily price swings in candlestick format since January.

The cryptocurrency tested resistance at $1.50 early today and has since pulled back. Over the past three months, recovery rallies in the token have been cut short by persistent selling pressure above $1.50.

A decisive break above that level could trigger a much stronger rally as more traders start buying in, adding momentum to the move higher.

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) will integrate Chainlink infrastructure into its collateral management platform ahead of a planned fourth-quarter 2026 launch as it aims to support near real-time movement, valuation and settlement of tokenized collateral across financial markets and blockchains.

DTCC said its Collateral AppChain platform is designed to serve as shared infrastructure for institutions including custodians, triparty agents and collateral managers. The blockchain oracle provider’s technology will automate processes including margining, collateral optimization and settlement.

Nasdaq said that its research found 52% of firms expect to manage live tokenized collateral by the end of 2026. Yet, 70% of the investment banks, custodians, prime brokers and asset managers survey report settlement matching and delivery issues daily, reflecting the reliance on manual processes that continue to challenge efficiency.

The integration is intended to connect collateral agreements with pricing, valuation and asset movement data across markets, with the goal of enabling 24/7 collateral management workflows and improving capital efficiency, in the fourth quarter of 2026, according to DTCC’s announcement.

Chainlink is a decentralized oracle network that connects blockchains to real-world data, enabling smart contracts to function securely and accurately. DTCC currently custodies $114 trillion in liquid assets from stocks to exchange-traded funds.

Earlier this month, the company announced plans to pilot trading of tokenized securities in July ahead of a targeted October launch. The initiative involves more than 50 firms across traditional finance and digital assets, including BlackRock, Circle, Anchorage Digital and Fireblocks.

Source: Chainlink on X

Related: Veteran investor bets on Ethereum as AI agents drive tokenization demand

Biggest market infrastructure firms expand blockchain and tokenization efforts

DTCC’s rollout comes as some of the world’s biggest exchange and market infrastructure companies expand tokenized securities trading and settlement initiatives.

In March, Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, signed an agreement with tokenization platform Securitize to develop infrastructure for tokenized securities trading and onchain settlement. The initiative includes plans for blockchain-based shares and exchange-traded funds designed to support 24/7 trading and instant settlement.

Days earlier, the US Securities and Exchange Commission approved Nasdaq’s proposal to pilot trading of tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds alongside traditional securities on the same exchange infrastructure. The program will initially cover select Russell 1000 stocks and major index-tracking ETFs.

Also in March, Nasdaq partnered with crypto exchange Kraken and tokenization company Backed to develop infrastructure for blockchain-based equities trading.

Data from RWA.xyz shows tokenized stocks have grown from roughly $511 million in distributed onchain value a year ago to more than $1.4 billion today, an increase of about 180%.

Magazine: Guide to the top and emerging global crypto hubs: Mid-2026