Ondo Finance has launched an in-kind conversion route that lets approved institutions mint and redeem Ondo Stocks with underlying shares through Alpaca’s Instant Tokenization Network.

Ondo Finance said on Sept. 21 that the service is live on Ethereum and BNB Chain, adding a primary-market route alongside its existing cash-funded minting process. Access is limited to institutions approved by Alpaca case by case, and participants need active accounts with both companies before activation.

Ondo Finance lets institutions swap shares for tokens

For a mint, an approved institution transfers the underlying stock or ETF from its Alpaca account to Ondo’s Alpaca account through an internal book transfer. Ondo then issues the corresponding tokenized position on a supported blockchain. Redemption reverses the process, sending the underlying shares back to the institution’s Alpaca account after the tokens are redeemed.

Ondo said the integration removes the need for manual approval on each individual conversion. The company described the feature as a way for market makers to move existing inventory between traditional brokerage accounts and onchain venues without funding every token mint with separate cash.

The institutional route does not change the general terms for ordinary Ondo Stocks holders. Ondo’s current product documentation says the tokens are offered only to eligible non-U.S. persons through its platform and are unavailable there to U.S.-based clients. Ondo says its tokenized stocks provide economic exposure to referenced securities but are not themselves stocks, ETFs or ADRs and do not automatically give holders the right to receive the underlying securities.

Alpaca makes a similar distinction in its own tokenization disclosures. Its Instant Tokenization Network can create and burn tokens against brokerage-held shares, while third parties perform the tokenization. Alpaca states that tokenized assets generally provide economic exposure to equities and do not represent direct ownership of the underlying company unless a particular structure says otherwise.

The new Ondo arrangement creates a specific exception for institutions admitted to the conversion program. Approved firms can redeem their Ondo Stocks tokens through the ITN process and receive the corresponding shares back into their Alpaca accounts. Access therefore depends on institutional approval and the required accounts, not simply possession of the token.

In-kind conversion removes a separate cash step

Before this launch, an institution using Ondo’s cash-funded route could already own the underlying shares yet still need separate cash to mint matching Ondo Stocks tokens. Ondo said the new setup lets an approved participant contribute shares it already holds, removing the extra funding step.

The company said the model could reduce financing costs and timing mismatches when market makers need more tokenized inventory. Ondo described the expected outcome as “tighter spreads and deeper liquidity” in secondary markets, but it did not publish an independent spread study or post-launch liquidity figures alongside the announcement.

Alpaca describes ITN as infrastructure for instant in-kind minting and redemption against stocks held through brokerage accounts. Its platform says the network is designed to create and burn tokens against those shares without waiting for conventional settlement processes. Alpaca Clearing provides securities brokerage and custody and is a FINRA-regulated broker-dealer.

Conversions under the Ondo integration currently cover Ethereum and BNB Chain. Ondo Stocks themselves have a larger network footprint: Ondo’s product page lists Ethereum, BNB Chain and Solana, while its current website advertises more than 450 tokenized stocks and ETFs. The Sept. 21 in-kind announcement did not include Solana among supported conversion networks.

Ondo’s distributed asset value reaches $3.63 billion

Onchain data shows Ondo operating at a larger scale than the new conversion feature alone. RWA.xyz recorded $3.63 billion in distributed asset value for the Ondo platform as of Sept. 22, alongside 441 tracked products and 485,296 holder addresses. Monthly transfer volume stood at $1.58 billion.

The $3.63 billion figure covers RWA.xyz’s tracked Ondo platform assets and should not be treated as the value of Ondo Stocks alone. Network data on the same dashboard showed roughly $2 billion of Ondo assets on Ethereum, $407.1 million on BNB Chain and $300.6 million on Solana, with other Ondo assets distributed across several networks.

Ondo said in May that its tokenized stock platform had passed $1 billion in total value locked after launching in September 2025. At that point, the company reported more than 260 tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs and $18 billion in cumulative trading volume. By June, Ondo said cumulative trading volume had moved beyond $20 billion.

Distribution has expanded through exchanges, wallets and DeFi protocols. As crypto.news reported, Ondo extended a group of tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs to Hyperliquid’s HyperEVM, with 35 assets initially supported through that integration.

In related coverage, crypto.news reported that MetaMask had integrated more than 200 Ondo tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs earlier in 2026, giving eligible mobile users access from inside the wallet.

U.S. tokenization rules continue to develop

The launch follows a Sept. 17 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission order creating temporary, conditional exemptions for certain Tokenized Securities Venues. The framework permits qualifying venues to facilitate trading in tokenized National Market System stocks through permissioned automated market maker liquidity pools, subject to specified conditions.

Among the SEC’s conditions, a venue must verify that a tokenized NMS stock provides the same rights and privileges as the equivalent traditional stock. The framework requires notice to an underlying issuer for tokens created by an unaffiliated party, auditable public smart contracts and trading suspensions when the underlying stock is halted.

Ondo did not state that the Alpaca in-kind service operates under the SEC’s Innovation Exemption. Its current Ondo Stocks platform remains unavailable to U.S. persons through the main product unless registration or another applicable exemption permits an offering.

The company has pursued a separate U.S. regulatory path. In April, Ondo submitted a no-action request asking the SEC for assurance concerning a model where Ethereum would record tokenized security entitlements while Alpaca’s offchain books remained the official ledger. The proposal said underlying securities would remain within the existing brokerage and DTC custody structure.

Ondo described the Ethereum tokens as an operational layer over existing securities entitlements instead of a replacement for the regulated brokerage record.

Another infrastructure step came on Sept. 16, when DTCC confirmed that Ondo subsidiary Oasis Pro Markets had joined Fund/SERV as its first tokenization-platform member. DTCC said Fund/SERV processes transactions covering more than 85% of U.S. mutual fund activity, while Oasis Pro Markets is a U.S.-registered broker-dealer and FINRA member.

For the new Alpaca conversion route, Ondo has not announced a separate fee schedule, minimum conversion size, Solana activation date or timetable for opening ITN access more generally. Institutions seeking the service must maintain accounts with Ondo and Alpaca, complete the applicable onboarding process and request activation from both firms.

Ben Nadareski, CEO of Solana-based decentralized finance platform Solstice, said crypto markets are unlikely to return to the extreme boom-and-bust cycles as deeper liquidity brings stability to digital assets.

Speaking on Cointelegraph’s Chain Reaction show, Nadareski said liquidity across major crypto trading pairs has increased significantly, even during bear markets, reducing the conditions that produced sharp price swings seen in previous cycles.

He added that crypto is increasingly a market for institutional capital and household wealth rather than speculative trading.

“We don’t want to go through 2017. We don’t want to go through 2021. We don’t want to go through these massive fluctuations,” he said.

The comments come as institutional participation and deeper trading markets reshape crypto market structure, potentially tempering the volatility that defined earlier cycles.

A December 2025 report from blockchain analytics firm Glassnode and asset manager Fasanara Digital found that Bitcoin’s one-year realized volatility had fallen from 84.4% to 43%, which the firms attributed partly to growing market depth and institutional participation.

Daily Bitcoin spot volumes also increased to between $8 billion and $22 billion a day from $4 billion to $13 billion during the previous market cycle, according to the report.

Related: Bitcoin cycle bottom may already be in at $58K, says analyst James Check

Other industry participants have also argued that institutional capital is changing crypto cycles. 

In March, SkyBridge Capital managing partner Anthony Scaramucci said Bitcoin’s four-year cycle had been “muted” by institutional investors and spot Bitcoin ETF inflows, though he argued the traditional cycle had not disappeared entirely.

Nadareski says Solana stablecoins could push toward $100 billion

Nadareski, whose company operates within the Solana ecosystem, also predicted growth in the network’s stablecoin market.

He said that the value of stablecoins on Solana could rise above $50 billion and approach $100 billion over the next five years, citing growing adoption among fintech companies and Solana’s transaction speed and low fees.

Solana currently has about $16 billion in stablecoin market capitalization, according to DefiLlama.

Stablecoins have also become an increasingly significant source of liquidity across crypto markets. According to CEX.IO data, stablecoins accounted for 75% of total crypto trading volume in the first quarter of 2026, the highest share on record, while transaction volume surpassed $28 trillion.

Magazine: Kyle Samani predicts SOL flippening, claims ‘no one’ uses ETH

Cardano has gained support in the x402 software stack, allowing developers to build applications and AI agents that can pay for online services using ADA and Cardano native tokens.

According to documentation from the Cardano Foundation’s x402 implementation, developers now have the client, server and payment facilitator components needed to handle x402 transactions on the network, although the facilitator has so far completed an end to end transaction only on Cardano’s pre production network.

Cardano x402 support opens ADA to machine payments

The integration brings Cardano into an internet payment standard designed to let software purchase digital resources without going through a conventional checkout process.

x402 uses the HTTP “402 Payment Required” response, an existing web status code that had largely remained unused for payments. When an application or AI agent requests a paid resource, the service can return the price, accepted asset and payment instructions as part of the same internet request.

The client then prepares and signs the required transaction. A facilitator can verify the payment, submit it to the blockchain and confirm settlement before the requested service is delivered.

In practice, an autonomous agent researching a subject could purchase a single dataset, API request or piece of computing capacity when required instead of creating an account or signing up for a recurring subscription.

The model has been gaining ground as developers experiment with ways for autonomous software to pay for resources. A crypto.news guide to agentic payments published in June explained that x402 can let agents purchase data, computing resources and online services directly through web requests.

Coinbase originally introduced x402 in 2025 before the protocol was moved into an open standards effort. Its development has since attracted participation from companies across payments, cloud computing and blockchain infrastructure.

Cardano’s implementation gives developers another blockchain option when building services around the standard, alongside networks that already have x402 infrastructure.

Cardano developers build payment and settlement tools

Cardano Foundation engineers started their work with a specification accepted in June before developing the software required to make the payment process function across the network.

The implementation includes client side tools for initiating payments and server components that allow an online resource to request them. A separate facilitator handles payment verification and settlement.

Under the x402 model, the facilitator can check whether a signed payment satisfies the requirements set by the resource provider and submit the transaction to Cardano. The service does not need to hold the payer’s private keys to perform that role.

The first developer release supports TypeScript, while Python support is planned for a later stage.

A Cardano Foundation facilitator repository states that its implementation has been tested end to end on Cardano preprod using a real onchain transaction. The software has not yet been run against Cardano mainnet, leaving the current rollout at the infrastructure and testing stage rather than showing large scale commercial ADA payments by autonomous agents.

Developers can still begin incorporating the available software into applications while the mainnet infrastructure is prepared.

Other blockchain projects have already moved further into live deployments. Casper, for example, launched an x402 facilitator on mainnet in June as part of a toolkit designed for autonomous agents.

x402 adoption has expanded across crypto networks

Coinbase has continued building products around the protocol since introducing x402, while several blockchain networks have pursued their own integrations.

In July, Coinbase Business added support for USDC payments initiated by AI agents through x402. The company introduced developer tools at the same time that allow online services to add x402 payment acceptance.

Amazon Web Services had moved into the same area earlier in 2026. Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Payments integrated Coinbase x402 in May, allowing AI agents to pay for compatible services in USDC.

The system gave developers access to services covering search, data and backend infrastructure while letting agents make payments without requiring a person to complete each transaction.

XRP Ledger has emerged as another network testing the model at higher transaction volumes. AI related x402 activity on XRPL passed 1 million payments by July, alongside the launch of a Ripple backed hub bringing together agent tools, payment services and developer resources.

Subsequent data put the network above 1.4 million AI agent transactions, although transaction counts alone do not establish how many independent agents or commercial services are responsible for the activity.

Base and Solana have recorded significant x402 usage as well. Coinbase said in September that its developer platform had processed more than 100 million x402 payments across the two networks, while direct x402 functionality for some of its agent products remained under development.

ADA joins the competition for agent payment activity

Cardano’s entry gives developers the ability to build x402 payment flows around ADA and tokens issued on the network, placing its assets within the same machine payment framework being tested elsewhere in the crypto market.

The current implementation, however, does not establish that autonomous agents are already using ADA to purchase commercial services at scale.

Its facilitator documentation says the software has completed a real transaction on Cardano preprod but has not been exercised against mainnet. The implementation includes verification and settlement endpoints that check signed payments and submit valid transactions to the network.

Development has come as x402 usage increasingly extends beyond experimental agent transactions. Online services can use the protocol to charge individually for data, computing capacity, application programming interfaces and other digital resources, creating a pay per use model that software can interact with directly.

Some implementations have already turned that model into live services. The Graph enabled x402 payments for its Graph Gateway in May, allowing developers and AI agents to purchase individual onchain data queries using USDC.

Cardano’s available tooling now provides the pieces needed for developers to construct similar payment flows on its network. The facilitator has been implemented and tested on preprod, while a mainnet deployment remains a separate step that has not yet been completed.

Australia’s latest Intergenerational Report, outlining economic trends expected to shape the country over the next 40 years, spotlights artificial intelligence and four other large-scale transitions—but it notably does not mention crypto or digital assets. The Treasury’s assessment arrives as policymakers elsewhere in Australia continue to probe tokenization and “financial infrastructure” upgrades that could support the kind of automated systems now being discussed in AI policy.

Released by the Australian Treasury on Monday, the report argues that “agentic” AI—systems that can act more autonomously and coordinate tasks—has become significantly more capable and widely used, including outperforming humans on some benchmarks. In an emailed response, Coinbase Australia country director John O’Loghlen said the outlook’s focus on AI overlooks what he called the financial infrastructure those agents would require.

Key takeaways

• The Australian Treasury’s 40-year Intergenerational Report highlights agentic AI as a major economic transition, but does not reference crypto or digital assets.
• Coinbase Australia’s John O’Loghlen criticized the omission, arguing the report fails to address the financial rails needed for AI-driven agents.
• Treasury’s parallel “Financial Innovation Strategy” links agentic systems to faster, interoperable, programmable payment infrastructure.
• O’Loghlen pointed to regulatory clarity from the Digital Asset Platform framework while urging similar rules for stablecoin stored-value and tokenized markets.

Intergenerational planning: AI in, crypto out

The Intergenerational Report identifies five transitions expected to have a profound impact on Australia’s economy: geopolitical conflicts, an aging population, a shift to clean energy, industrial transformation toward services, and—prominently—new technology driven by artificial intelligence.

In the AI section, Treasury describes agentic AI systems as having advanced rapidly, becoming “significantly” more capable, more autonomous, and more widely used. The report also characterizes these systems as having surpassed human-level performance on some benchmarks, positioning AI not just as an incremental tool but as an operational shift that could change how economic activity is organized.

Yet the report’s scope, as presented in the public text summarized in the coverage, leaves out any explicit discussion of digital assets. That absence matters for market participants because policy roadmaps can influence how regulators prioritize infrastructure reforms, licensing categories, and interoperability standards—areas that have become central to tokenized finance.

Criticism from the industry: “the rails” for AI agents

Coinbase Australia country director John O’Loghlen responded directly to the omission. According to his emailed comments, the Intergenerational Report makes clear that Australia’s prosperity over the next 40 years depends on adopting new technology and boosting productivity, but “completely misses the financial infrastructure those agents will need.”

He also noted that previous Intergenerational Reports have not addressed digital assets, suggesting the new omission is consistent with a longer pattern rather than a one-off oversight. Still, the timing is notable: the same period has seen Australian institutions increase attention to tokenized finance and financial infrastructure upgrades.

One example referenced in the coverage is a digital finance estimate from Australia’s Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre, which projected that digital finance innovations could generate 24 billion Australian dollars (about $17.1 billion) in annual economic gains. While that figure is not tied to the Intergenerational Report’s conclusions directly, it strengthens the argument that tokenization-related policy has been moving alongside AI-focused planning.

Why the “Financial Innovation Strategy” matters for tokenized payments

Even though the Intergenerational Report does not mention crypto, Treasury has addressed tokenized finance indirectly through a separate publication: its “Financial Innovation Strategy,” released on Sept. 3. In that document, Treasury discusses how agentic systems could reshape transaction patterns by increasing automated and machine-to-machine payments.

According to the coverage, the strategy links these changes to the need for payment systems that are real-time, interoperable, and programmable. That is precisely the set of capabilities that developers and regulators often associate with tokenized payment networks—especially in contexts involving stablecoins, automated treasury flows, and composable financial services.

For investors and builders, this split between high-level macro planning and more technical financial-infrastructure policy is a meaningful signal. It suggests that while the Intergenerational Report frames “the why” of economic transformation, the operational groundwork may be covered elsewhere through targeted regulatory strategies and frameworks.

Regulatory momentum: from digital asset frameworks to stablecoins

In his comments, O’Loghlen argued that Australia has already moved in the right direction by building regulatory clarity. He referenced progress “in recent years,” including the Digital Asset Platform framework, which he said has provided necessary regulatory clarity.

However, he said the next step is not just to expand AI capability—it is to extend regulatory focus to the infrastructure that enables tokenized value transfer. In particular, O’Loghlen called for similar attention to the “tokenized stored-value facility framework” for stablecoins and clearer rules for tokenized markets.

The emphasis on “rails” is where the two parts of the story connect. Treasury’s financial strategy highlights interoperable, programmable payment systems as agentic AI increases automated transactions. O’Loghlen’s response argues that without defined rules for stablecoins and tokenized markets, the financial plumbing required for these systems may lag behind the pace of AI adoption.

In other words, the omission in the Intergenerational Report may be more than a wording choice. It can reflect how policymakers categorize digital assets—sometimes as a technical subset of financial innovation rather than a macro-economic driver—while the separate regulatory documents attempt to translate those capabilities into practical infrastructure standards.

Readers should watch whether Treasury’s financial-infrastructure agenda builds out toward stablecoin stored-value facilities and tokenized market rules, and whether future high-level economic reporting begins to integrate digital assets more explicitly alongside AI-driven automation. The immediate uncertainty is not whether agentic systems will increase demand for machine-to-machine payments, but how quickly the legal and technical frameworks for tokenized settlement can keep pace with that demand.

Bitcoin is rising, and spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) listed in the U.S. are pulling in money at a pace that rivals the period when the cryptocurrency traded at record highs.

On Monday, the ETFs registered a net inflow of $998.95 million, the largest since Oct. 6, 2025, according to data from SoSoValue. That was the day bitcoin hit a record high of roughly $126,200.

Monday’s inflow was also the ninth-largest since the ETFs began trading on Jan. 11, 2024. The flow was led by BlackRock’s IBIT, which pulled in $381.37 million, followed by Ark’s ARKB at $289.12 million and Fidelity’s FBTC at $238.84 million.

The inflow, the first three-day streak of gains for two weeks, reads as a vote of confidence from institutions, coming just days after bitcoin absorbed a one-two punch of a failed Senate cloture vote on the Clarity Act and a Fed interest-rate increase.

Whitehat operators have moved 52.37 BTC linked to the July Coldcard wallet exploit into an address associated with a recovery trust created to return rescued Bitcoin to verified owners.

Galaxy Digital Head of Research Alex Thorn said the Bitcoin came from the tracked Wave 2 cluster and footprints labeled AA, AU and AX, with the consolidation recorded in Bitcoin block 967,948. Thorn said the amount represented 2.8% of the exploit funds his team was tracking.

The destination transaction carried an OP_RETURN message pointing to “claim:cryptorecoverytrust dot com,” according to Thorn. Galaxy Research separately identified activity in the same block involving 20 inputs and 480 outputs and published transaction ID 38b524ccb8ca260ec705ab980982144857c477658fa39591870ee8cb09bcea47.

Coldcard recovery moves rescued Bitcoin into a trust

The transfer places part of the recovered Bitcoin under the Crypto Recovery Trust, a Wyoming statutory trust established to hold digital assets recovered from compromised wallets while ownership claims are checked.

Crypto Recovery Trust states that its role is to reunite recovered assets with their rightful owners through a formal claims process. Its website identifies the legal entity as the Recovered Digital Asset Statutory Trust of Wyoming and names Agentic Trace LLC as trustee.

The Digital Asset Recovery Trust, or DART, had already disclosed recovery work connected with the Coldcard incident before the latest consolidation. DART reported that it and independent whitehat researchers had secured just over 50 BTC from vulnerable addresses as of Aug. 17, moving the funds before malicious actors could reach them.

DART said recovered Bitcoin was placed in the trust instead of researcher-controlled wallets or operational accounts. Its process includes blockchain analysis, proof-of-ownership checks and sanctions screening before assets can be returned. Funds involving competing claims, sanctions restrictions or criminal proceedings may follow separate legal procedures.

The Sept. 21 movement provides a newer on-chain view of those recovery efforts. Thorn tied the 52.37 BTC specifically to previously identified exploit clusters, while describing them as whitehat-controlled funds. His 2.8% calculation refers to Galaxy’s tracked exploit total and should not be read as an official Coinkite loss figure.

Coldcard exploit began with a seed-generation flaw

The Coldcard incident began July 30 after attackers exploited weakened Bitcoin wallet seeds created by affected firmware. Coinkite’s current incident record explains that a firmware integration defect caused the seed-generation path to resolve to MicroPython’s Yasmarang software pseudorandom generator instead of the intended hardware random number generator.

Attackers did not need to remotely control the hardware wallets. Coinkite says they regenerated vulnerable private keys offline after the reduced randomness made affected seed phrases easier to search. The company describes the incident as a firmware seed-generation failure, not a remote takeover of Coldcard devices.

Independent technical research has traced the weakness to firmware changes dating from 2021. One public investigation estimated that older Mk3 devices could produce roughly 40 bits of effective entropy under affected conditions, while Mk4, Mk5 and Q models retained approximately 72 bits instead of the intended security level.

Early losses were smaller than the totals later associated with multiple attack waves. As crypto.news previously reported, the Coldcard firmware build error and first-wave Bitcoin losses involved roughly 594 BTC taken from around 500 wallets within approximately 25 minutes.

Later tracking identified additional wallets and attack waves. A separate crypto.news investigation into the five-year Coldcard entropy flaw and four attack waves estimated 1,816 BTC had moved from more than 5,200 addresses as analysts expanded the identified scope.

Loss estimates therefore vary depending on which attack waves, clusters and recovery transactions are included. Coinkite’s current security status page does not publish a single definitive total for all stolen Bitcoin.

Coinkite says firmware updates cannot repair old seeds

Coinkite released emergency fixes on July 31 for affected firmware lines. The company’s download archive shows Mk4/Mk5 version 5.6.0 and Q version 1.5.0Q as the first standard releases correcting future seed generation, while separate patches covered older Mk2/Mk3 devices and Edge firmware.

Security work continued after the initial patch. Current recommended standard releases are Mk4/Mk5 5.6.2 and Q 1.5.2Q, both issued Sept. 3. Edge users are directed to 6.6.1X for Mk4/Mk5 and 6.6.1QX for Q.

Coinkite stresses that installing fixed firmware does not change an existing seed. A wallet generated under vulnerable firmware can remain exposed even after the device receives the latest update because the weakness exists in the seed itself.

Users with affected seeds are instructed to generate a corrected replacement seed and migrate funds, unless they meet the company’s stated independent-dice exception. Coinkite says at least 50 fair, independent and privately recorded six-sided dice rolls added under the relevant workflow provide at least 128 bits of additional entropy, though users uncertain about the conditions are told to migrate.

Victims can submit ownership claims to the recovery trust

The recovery process now centers on verifying who controlled addresses from which whitehats swept Bitcoin. Crypto Recovery Trust lets claimants search for recovery information, track a submitted claim and provide additional supporting evidence through its website.

DART says the trust was structured to segregate recovered Bitcoin from researcher and operating funds while ownership is established. Attorneys from Steptoe’s national security practice advise the trustee, according to DART’s disclosure, because some returned assets may require sanctions, law-enforcement or competing-ownership reviews.

The whitehat researchers involved in DART’s earlier recovery work did not request a bounty, according to the organization. DART said other vulnerable assets and possible recovery leads remained under review after its August tally, leaving open the possibility that further Coldcard-linked funds could enter the claims process.

For wallets that still rely on seeds created under affected Coldcard firmware, Coinkite’s current instructions remain unchanged: install and verify a fixed firmware release, create a new seed under the corrected process, and move funds away from the vulnerable seed.

Anchorage Digital has selected LayerZero as its preferred interoperability partner for bank-issued stablecoins, with the Sept. 21 announcement naming Tether’s USAT as the first token to use LayerZero’s OFT standard.

LayerZero said stablecoins issued through Anchorage Digital Bank, N.A. will use its cross-chain infrastructure as the companies develop connections spanning Ethereum, EVM-compatible networks and Solana. The partnership covers Anchorage’s issuance platform, which currently supports tokens linked to Tether, Western Union, OSL Group and Falcon Finance.

Anchorage Digital makes LayerZero its stablecoin rail

Under the arrangement, LayerZero will serve as what the companies describe as the “preferred interoperability layer” for eligible stablecoins issued by Anchorage Digital Bank. The bank remains responsible for regulated issuance, while LayerZero supplies the messaging and token infrastructure needed to connect supported blockchain deployments.

LayerZero’s OFT, or Omnichain Fungible Token, standard lets issuers maintain a unified token supply while extending an asset to multiple blockchains. LayerZero explains that issuers retain control over their token contracts and can decide which chains to support, along with the security configuration used for cross-chain messages.

The company says its infrastructure currently reaches more than 170 blockchains. In a separate September update, LayerZero reported that its OFT standard had processed $280 billion in lifetime transfers and handled 87% of cross-chain transfer volume. Both figures are LayerZero’s own network statistics.

Access to 170-plus networks does not mean each Anchorage stablecoin will immediately trade on every connected chain. OFT issuers select individual deployments and configure pathways between supported networks. LayerZero’s announcement says future Anchorage-issued assets “will be designed to move seamlessly” across leading ecosystems but does not provide a deployment schedule for each token.

USAT becomes the first Anchorage-issued OFT token

Tether’s USAT is the first stablecoin in Anchorage Digital Bank’s issuance portfolio confirmed to launch with LayerZero interoperability. Tether introduced the U.S.-regulated dollar token in January, with Anchorage Digital Bank serving as issuer under the federal stablecoin framework. Tether itself is not the legal issuer of USAT.

As previously reported, Tether’s U.S.-regulated USAT launch through Anchorage Digital created a separate domestic product from the company’s global USDT stablecoin. USAT began on Ethereum before expanding to Celo, where it became available as a native asset during the summer.

Anchorage Digital Bank publishes monthly reserve attestations for USAT. Its first January report recorded 17.5 million redeemable tokens outstanding and $17.6 million of supporting reserve assets. The report identified Ethereum contract 0x07041776f5007aca2a54844f50503a18a72a8b68 as the original USAT contract.

LayerZero has an existing relationship with Tether infrastructure outside USAT. Tether announced an investment in LayerZero Labs in February, while LayerZero’s OFT system already powers USDT0, the omnichain version of USDT. In related coverage, USDT0’s LayerZero-based cross-chain architecture uses a unified supply model instead of separate bridge liquidity pools.

USDPT, USDGO and fUSD remain part of the rollout

Western Union’s USDPT sits among the other stablecoins named in the Anchorage-LayerZero announcement. Western Union launched USDPT on Solana in May as a U.S. dollar-backed payment token issued by Anchorage Digital Bank. The payment company designed it for settlement within its global network.

As crypto.news reported, Western Union’s USDPT launch on Solana was followed by a Bybit integration in June and a USDPT-backed Stablecard product in August. Anchorage currently publishes monthly USDPT reserve attestations covering May through July.

OSL Group’s USDGO is another Anchorage-issued stablecoin included in the partnership. USDGO launched on Solana with an initial $50 million mint in February. OSL reported that circulation passed $500 million in June, while a more recent Anchorage update says the token has since exceeded $1 billion in market capitalization after roughly six months.

Earlier crypto.news coverage documented USDGO passing $500 million in circulating supply, with Anchorage acting as issuer and OSL handling branding and distribution. Anchorage says reserves are backed 1:1 by high-quality liquid assets and covered by monthly independent attestations.

Falcon Finance’s fUSD completes the group named in LayerZero’s announcement. Falcon states that fUSD is issued by Anchorage Digital Bank for institutional treasury, settlement and collateral uses, with current contracts on Ethereum and BNB Chain. Its reserve model includes cash, short-dated U.S. Treasuries and qualifying money-market exposure.

The Falcon Finance fUSD launch with Anchorage Digital Bank took place in May. Falcon operates a separate rewards program for eligible institutions, while Anchorage handles issuance and reserve management.

LayerZero has not announced exact activation dates for USDPT, USDGO or fUSD OFT routes under the Anchorage agreement.

Anchorage operates under federal bank supervision

Anchorage Digital Bank received its national trust bank charter after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency approved its conversion from a South Dakota trust company in January 2021. The charter placed the bank under OCC supervision and came with capital, liquidity and compliance requirements.

The OCC issued a BSA/AML consent order against the bank in April 2022 after finding deficiencies in its compliance program. The regulator later terminated that order on Aug. 18, 2025, stating continued enforcement was no longer required.

Federal records show the OCC subsequently terminated Anchorage’s original 2021 operating agreement in February 2026. The bank continues to operate as Anchorage Digital Bank, National Association, and appears on the OCC’s list of nationally chartered trust banks.

LayerZero’s institutional stablecoin work extends beyond Anchorage. Earlier this month, BDACS chose its OFT system for KRW1, and crypto.news reported on the KRW1 stablecoin’s LayerZero cross-chain expansion across networks including Ethereum, Avalanche and Circle’s Arc.

For Anchorage-issued stablecoins, LayerZero has confirmed USAT as the first asset using the new interoperability arrangement. The companies have not published individual launch dates, destination-chain lists or contract addresses for planned OFT deployments involving USDPT, USDGO and fUSD.

Hana Bank has signed an agreement with Upbit Global to develop Travel Rule infrastructure for digital asset transfers, extending its work with South Korea’s crypto sector into transaction compliance and transfer technology.

DigitalToday reported on Sept. 22 that the two companies signed a memorandum of understanding at Hana Bank’s headquarters in Euljiro, Seoul, covering technical cooperation on digital asset transfers and systems designed to meet regulatory requirements.

The agreement will focus on technology needed to verify information about people sending and receiving digital assets, securely transmit the required data between service providers and connect financial institutions with virtual asset businesses in South Korea and overseas.

Upbit Global already operates Travel Rule technology through its subsidiary VerifyVASP. The system verifies sender and recipient information during virtual asset transfers while transmitting data required for compliance and protecting personal information.

Hana Bank and Upbit Global will test Travel Rule technology

Travel Rule requirements require virtual asset service providers to obtain and retain information about senders and recipients when processing covered transfers. Relevant information must then be securely passed to the service provider on the other side of a transaction.

Hana Bank and Upbit Global plan to jointly review how those requirements can be applied when digital assets move between different types of financial service providers.

Technical work will cover sender and recipient verification as well as secure information transmission. The companies intend to research and test infrastructure that could support transfers involving banks and domestic or overseas virtual asset service providers.

Regulatory information sharing forms another part of the agreement. Hana Bank and Upbit Global plan to respond jointly to changes in digital asset laws, regulations and institutional requirements while exchanging information related to compliance.

Travel Rule controls are already embedded in South Korea’s crypto transfer infrastructure. Upbit applies restrictions to deposits from exchanges that do not meet its Travel Rule requirements, while transfers involving personal wallets can require ownership verification.

The exchange has continued to apply those controls as it expands the assets available on its platform. In August, for example, its rules for incoming token transfers allowed the exchange to request evidence on the source of large deposits, while transfers from noncompliant exchanges could remain uncredited until additional checks were completed.

Hana Bank has expanded its digital asset business

The latest agreement adds another technical project to Hana Bank’s growing digital asset operations.

Hana Bank plans to use its experience in foreign exchange, payments and settlement to identify financial services that could be built around digital assets, according to DigitalToday.

The bank already has direct financial exposure to the company behind Upbit. In May, Hana agreed to acquire a 6.55% stake in Dunamu, Upbit’s operator, from Kakao Investments for roughly 1.003 trillion won, equivalent to around $670 million at the time.

Crypto.news previously reported that the Dunamu stake purchase drew scrutiny from South Korea’s Financial Services Commission over rules separating banking and commercial businesses. The planned transaction would make Hana Bank Dunamu’s fourth largest shareholder.

Hana Financial Group had separately reached a strategic agreement with Dunamu to develop a financial model connecting traditional banking and digital assets. Hana Financial TI had completed a proof of concept for a Korean won backed stablecoin using the XRP Ledger as part of the group’s blockchain work.

Digital asset custody is another area where the group has built infrastructure. Hana began working with BitGo on custody services in 2023 and later became a shareholder in BitGo Korea alongside SK Telecom.

BitGo Korea secured registration as a virtual asset service provider in August 2026. Hana holds a 25% stake in the business, with its role built around contributing financial sector experience to the custody venture. The registered custody business offers another connection between Hana’s banking operations and regulated digital asset infrastructure.

Korean banks are building stablecoin and settlement systems

Hana’s work with Upbit Global comes as South Korean financial institutions test several models for using blockchain in payments, settlement and regulated financial products.

In March, Hana Financial Group signed a memorandum of understanding with Standard Chartered Group covering digital asset initiatives. Their cooperation included potential work on stablecoins, tokenized deposits, custody and payment infrastructure, drawing on the two groups’ financial networks and technology capabilities.

Hana has separately worked with KB Financial Group and Shinhan Financial Group on infrastructure that could support Korean won pegged stablecoins and related digital payment systems. The Standard Chartered partnership expanded that work into cooperation with an international banking group.

Other South Korean financial companies are testing how blockchain assets could fit into existing settlement systems. Eugene Investment & Securities signed an agreement with blockchain company BEATOZ on Sept. 21 to test stablecoins for tokenized securities subscriptions.

The planned proof of concept will examine whether subscription, payment and settlement can be handled within one blockchain based process. Eugene built a tokenized securities platform in 2024 and is participating in Hana Financial Group’s consortium working on a won denominated stablecoin.

South Korea is preparing to bring tokenized securities into its regulated capital markets framework from February 2027. The first phase is expected to cover selected privately pooled money market funds, institutional bonds, certain unlisted shares and publicly offered fractional investment securities.

The stablecoin settlement trial will use Eugene’s existing tokenized securities issuance infrastructure to examine how stablecoins could be incorporated into that process.

South Korean authorities are still working through rules for other parts of the digital asset market. The Bank of Korea has supported a bank led structure for won denominated stablecoin issuance, while lawmakers and regulators have continued discussions over issuer requirements, reserves and supervisory responsibilities.

Hana Bank said its agreement with Upbit Global creates a cooperation model between a traditional financial institution and the virtual asset industry built around regulatory standards including anti money laundering requirements.