ARK Invest has challenged a16z crypto’s view that traditional financial institutions will mainly adopt controlled blockchain systems rather than decentralized finance.

ARK director of research Lorenzo Valente called the argument “overly bearish and simplistic” in a response on X. He argued that public blockchains have already gained more traction than earlier private blockchain projects and that institutional finance will increasingly depend on infrastructure created by crypto-native companies.

A16z sees institutions choosing control over open access

The debate began after a16z crypto published an essay titled “TradFi doesn’t want DeFi. It wants blockchains.” The firm argued that banks and asset managers will adopt blockchain features when they reduce costs, improve settlement or expand distribution without giving up control.

Under that model, institutions may use tokenization, programmable money and atomic settlement while limiting open access and pseudonymous participation. A16z described the emerging system as “programmable financial infrastructure” built around regulatory, risk and governance requirements rather than today’s fully permissionless DeFi model.

The firm did not argue that open networks will disappear. Its thesis says institutional blockchain systems and crypto-native DeFi can develop in parallel, with open networks continuing to create technology that regulated firms later adopt.

ARK argues public networks have already proved their value

Valente’s counterargument centers on adoption already taking place on public blockchains. Tokenized funds, stablecoins and other financial assets increasingly operate on networks such as Ethereum rather than isolated private systems.

As previously reported, tokenized real-world assets had crossed $29 billion by April 2026. Tokenized US Treasury products alone reached about $13.4 billion, while more than 40 major financial institutions had launched or developed products using public blockchain infrastructure.

That growth supports part of ARK’s case, although institutional projects are not purely permissionless. Products can use public networks while placing restrictions on investors, wallets, custody and transfers. This allows firms to use shared blockchain infrastructure without adopting every feature associated with open DeFi.

DeFi protocols are gaining institutional connections

Recent institutional activity also shows that the dividing line between DeFi and traditional finance is becoming less clear. Standard Chartered has forecast that $4 trillion in stablecoins and tokenized assets could move onchain by the end of 2028, with established DeFi protocols handling much of that activity.

As reported by crypto.news, the bank identified Aave, Compound and Morpho as potential beneficiaries as institutions move more assets onto blockchain networks. BlackRock’s BUIDL fund has also gained DeFi utility by serving as collateral and connecting with onchain markets.

Other blockchain ecosystems are adding controls directly to decentralized infrastructure.However, XRP Ledger developers have been working on permissioned trading and lending features designed for regulated institutions while maintaining onchain settlement.

Permissioned networks remain a competing model

Traditional finance is also putting capital into systems designed specifically around institutional privacy and control. Canton Network has attracted banks and market infrastructure companies by offering permissioned access and privacy-focused settlement tools.

A crypto.news analysis previously examined the growing competition between Canton’s institution-focused model and Ethereum’s open infrastructure. The two approaches show that financial firms are testing both controlled systems and public blockchain rails rather than following one clear model.

The dispute between ARK and a16z therefore centers less on whether traditional finance will use blockchain and more on which infrastructure will carry the activity. A16z expects institutions to reshape blockchain technology around existing controls. ARK argues that public networks and DeFi protocols have already built liquidity and infrastructure that financial firms will find increasingly difficult to avoid.

Tokenized stock products are continuing to gain traction even as wider crypto markets fluctuate. According to data aggregator Token Terminal, the total market capitalization of tokenized stocks climbed to a record $2.3 billion on Wednesday, reflecting renewed demand for blockchain-based access to equities.

The Ethereum ecosystem led the distribution of tokenized-stock market value with a 34% share, followed by BNB Chain at 30% and Solana at 23%, Token Terminal said in an X post. As more platforms expand “multi-asset” offerings, the shift highlights how tokenized equities are increasingly being treated as a mainstream bridge between traditional finance and onchain infrastructure.

Key takeaways

• Tokenized stocks reached a record $2.3 billion market capitalization, signaling stronger institutional-style exposure to equities onchain.
• Ethereum remains the largest venue for tokenized stocks by share (34%), with BNB Chain (30%) and Solana (23%) close behind.
• Kraken’s xStocks and Binance’s bStocks are among the biggest contributors to tokenized-stock market value, while Ondo Finance remains the top issuer.
• Despite rapid growth in tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), stocks still represent only about 5.5% of the overall tokenized RWA market.

Tokenized stocks hit a new high as access expands

The record figure—$2.3 billion—adds to a broader pattern of capital moving into tokenized versions of traditional financial instruments. Token Terminal’s breakdown points to a multi-chain race for distribution, with Ethereum still setting the pace for market share.

The issuer landscape also shows where liquidity is concentrating. Token Terminal data indicates Ondo Finance is the largest tokenized stock issuer, with $955 million in onchain equities. Two other large products—Kraken exchange’s xStocks and Binance’s bStocks—account for substantial portions of tokenized-stock market value, at $507 million and $334 million respectively, according to Token Terminal’s figures.

For investors, the practical appeal of tokenized stocks is often tied to two features: fractional ownership and the potential for faster, more continuous trading compared with traditional market schedules. For platforms and developers, these same characteristics support a broader product strategy—bringing familiar asset classes onto blockchain networks without requiring users to interact directly with settlement layers.

Which chains and products are driving tokenized-equity adoption

Token Terminal’s chain-level shares show a distribution that is increasingly difficult to ignore. Ethereum’s 34% share underscores that tokenized equities still find deep liquidity on the network with the longest track record for onchain asset issuance and trading. However, BNB Chain’s 30% share indicates that large centralized exchange ecosystems are successfully positioning themselves as distribution channels for tokenized financial products.

Solana’s 23% share suggests that speed and low fees—often associated with the network’s design—remain a meaningful part of the user experience for tokenized assets. Together, the three networks account for 87% of tokenized stock market share in Token Terminal’s dataset, implying that competition for tokenized-equity flows is currently concentrated rather than fragmented across dozens of chains.

On the product side, Kraken and Binance stand out for the scale of their tokenized equity offerings. Token Terminal’s numbers place Kraken’s xStocks as the largest single category contribution ($507 million), ahead of Binance’s bStocks ($334 million). These figures reinforce how exchange-led distribution can materially accelerate adoption by lowering friction for retail and active traders.

Push toward traditional assets keeps widening the onchain map

The tokenized-stock surge sits inside a larger expansion of crypto platforms adding regulated-style investment products to blockchain rails. Binance, for example, has been moving toward a multi-asset platform model. Earlier coverage noted that Binance opened zero-commission trading for eligible users in tokenized stocks—covering more than 7,000 US tokenized stocks—beginning June 1, as part of that strategy.

Coinbase has also signaled its intent to compete in traditional asset access. The exchange rolled out commission-free US stock and ETF trading with 24/5 availability in December 2025, according to its own update on its system changes. While these developments differ in implementation details from tokenized onchain equity products, they contribute to the same competitive direction: mainstream crypto platforms seeking to offer familiar “traditional” instruments in an exchange-like experience.

Kraken’s progress has likewise been rapid. Earlier reporting described Kraken launching access to 11,000 US-listed stocks and ETFs through xStocks in April 2025, positioning it as one of the first major crypto-native platforms to do so. That reporting also stated that cumulative xStocks trading volume exceeded $25 billion within about eight months of launch—an indicator of how quickly demand can build when liquidity and product choice meet user access.

Beyond stocks, tokenization efforts are showing up in other asset classes tied to traditional finance. For instance, in April, Bitget launched a proxy offering related to the pre-initial public offering phase of Elon Musk’s SpaceX. In January, Bitpanda outlined plans to expand its offering to include roughly 10,000 stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Earlier coverage from Cointelegraph also documented these moves as part of the broader push to bring traditional exposure onto blockchain-connected platforms.

Tokenized RWAs keep growing, but stocks are still a minority

Even with tokenized stocks hitting new highs, broader tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) remain dominated by fixed-income and cash-like instruments. Binance Research, in a June report, found that the tokenized RWA market surged 589% from early 2025 to June 2026. The growth was led by government bonds and money market funds.

In the same period, tokenized precious metals reportedly attracted about $1.5 billion in value, rising 39% during the timeframe. Those figures point to an increasingly diversified tokenized-assets landscape rather than a market focused exclusively on equities.

Still, stocks are a small piece of the total pie. The source data indicates that stocks account for roughly 5.5% of the $34 billion tokenized RWA market capitalization. In other words, tokenized stocks may be expanding quickly, but most tokenized RWA capital continues to flow into categories such as US Treasury debt.

According to RWA.xyz data cited in the report, about $15 billion in tokenized US Treasury debt is the largest segment—44% of the RWA market. Tokenized commodities represent a smaller share at $4.5 billion (13%). For readers, this matters because it helps explain why tokenized-stock headlines—while important—should be interpreted within a market where fixed income and cash-management-style products are currently the primary growth engines.

Going forward, investors should watch whether tokenized stocks can convert broader RWA growth into more sustained equity share, and whether chain distribution changes as exchanges scale their product offerings. The key unknown is how quickly tokenized equities can expand from a niche slice of RWAs into a larger allocation category without running into liquidity fragmentation or regulatory friction across jurisdictions.

Cryptocurrency markets struggled broadly in the second quarter of 2026, with declines across stablecoins, spot trading and derivatives, but prediction markets reached record highs.

Spot trading volume across the top 10 centralized exchanges (CEXs) fell to $1.95 trillion in the second quarter of 2026, a 27.9% drop from $2.7 trillion in Q1, according to CoinGecko’s latest Crypto Industry Report published Thursday.

CEX perpetual futures volume also declined 10% to $12.7 trillion, while the stablecoin market slipped 1.6% to $305.1 billion. In contrast, prediction markets recorded their strongest quarter on record with $113.8 billion in notional volume.

The divergence highlights the growing role of prediction markets, with sports and politics emerging as the sector’s biggest drivers. Polymarket’s World Cup winner market alone has attracted more than $3.3 billion in trading volume, while contracts tied to the 2028 US presidential election rank among the platform’s largest markets, according to Polymarketscan data.

Source: Polymarketscan

Binance extends dominance despite bear market as DEX activity falls

Despite the bear market, Binance extended its dominance, with a 38.7% market share in Q2. In contrast, MEXC saw the biggest slump among spot CEXs, with trading volume more than halving from $275.2 billion in Q1 to $121.2 billion in Q2.

DEX activity also weakened during the quarter, with the top 10 spot DEXs processing $408.9 billion in volume, down from $556.4 billion in Q1. Uniswap strengthened its position as the leading DEX, holding a 41.2% market share despite a 21.4% drop in volume to $168.5 billion.

Source: CoinGecko

The declines came as the broader crypto market weakened, with total market capitalization falling 12.6% to $2.1 trillion during the quarter. April also marked a record month for hacks in decentralized finance (DeFi), highlighting ongoing security concerns across decentralized platforms.

Kalshi holds lead as prediction markets expand

Prediction market activity peaked in June, coinciding with the start of the FIFA World Cup, as monthly notional volume — the total value of all contracts traded — reached an all-time high of $50.7 billion, up 91.9% from the average of the previous five months.

Kalshi, the largest prediction market platform, maintained its lead over the quarter with a 58.9% market share, while Polymarket lost share from 35.8% to 30.2%. Robinhood-backed Rothera Markets climbed to fourth place.

Related: Czech Republic tells ISPs to block Polymarket after gambling blacklisting

The growth has drawn regulatory attention. In the US, regulators and states have clashed over whether prediction markets should be treated as financial markets or gambling platforms, with lawsuits involving platforms such as Kalshi escalating in 2026.

Authorities in other jurisdictions have also moved to restrict prediction markets, citing concerns including gambling rules, market integrity and potential insider trading risks.

Magazine: Has Bitcoin bottomed for this cycle? Analysts say ‘not yet’

Introduction

Credit is one of the most important pillars of the global economy. It enables individuals to buy homes, businesses to expand operations, and entrepreneurs to turn ideas into reality. Yet traditional credit markets remain slow, expensive, and often inaccessible to billions of people worldwide due to geographical limitations, rigid banking requirements, and outdated infrastructure.

Blockchain technology is transforming this landscape by introducing decentralized, transparent, and programmable credit markets. Instead of relying solely on banks and centralized financial institutions, blockchain enables borrowers and lenders to connect directly through smart contracts, creating a more efficient and inclusive financial ecosystem.

As decentralized finance (DeFi) continues to mature, blockchain-based credit markets are emerging as one of the most promising innovations capable of reshaping how capital flows across the globe.

What Are Blockchain-Based Credit Markets?

Blockchain-based credit markets are decentralized platforms where users can lend, borrow, or access credit using blockchain technology instead of traditional banking systems.

These platforms automate lending agreements through smart contracts, removing many intermediaries that typically increase costs and processing times.

Borrowers can access liquidity by providing collateral or, increasingly, through reputation-based lending models. Lenders earn yield by supplying digital assets into lending pools, where capital is allocated automatically based on transparent rules.

Everything—from interest calculations to loan repayments—is recorded on-chain, providing unprecedented transparency.

How They Work

A typical blockchain credit market follows a simple process:

1. Capital Providers Supply Liquidity

Investors deposit cryptocurrencies or stablecoins into lending pools.

2. Borrowers Request Loans

Users borrow assets by locking collateral or meeting protocol-specific credit requirements.

3. Smart Contracts Execute Loans

Instead of paperwork or manual approval, smart contracts automatically manage:

• Loan issuance
• Interest calculations
• Repayment schedules
• Liquidation rules
• Risk management

4. Lenders Earn Yield

Interest payments are distributed automatically to liquidity providers based on their contributions.

Why Blockchain Credit Markets Matter

1. Global Financial Inclusion

Traditional banks reject millions of borrowers due to geography, lack of documentation, or limited credit history.

Blockchain allows anyone with an internet connection and a crypto wallet to participate in global lending markets.

This opens financial opportunities for underserved populations worldwide.

2. Faster Loan Processing

Traditional loans can take days or even weeks.

Blockchain loans can be issued within minutes because smart contracts automate approvals and settlements.

3. Lower Costs

Removing intermediaries significantly reduces:

• Administrative fees
• Processing costs
• Cross-border transfer expenses
• Settlement delays

This benefits both borrowers and lenders.

4. Transparent Risk Management

Every transaction is recorded on-chain.

Investors can verify:

• Outstanding loans
• Pool liquidity
• Collateral levels
• Historical repayments

Transparency reduces information asymmetry that often exists in traditional finance.

5. Programmable Finance

Loans can include automated conditions such as:

• Dynamic interest rates
• Auto-repayment mechanisms
• Revenue-sharing agreements
• Milestone-based funding
• Tokenized collateral

This flexibility enables entirely new financial products.

The Rise of On-Chain Credit Scoring

One of the biggest challenges for decentralized lending has been undercollateralization.

Most DeFi loans today require borrowers to deposit more collateral than they borrow.

However, blockchain-native credit scoring is beginning to change this.

Protocols are developing reputation systems based on:

• Wallet history
• Repayment behavior
• On-chain transaction activity
• Governance participation
• Identity attestations
• Verifiable credentials

Instead of relying solely on traditional credit bureaus, future lending decisions may increasingly be based on verifiable blockchain activity.

Institutional Adoption Is Growing

Major financial institutions are beginning to recognize blockchain credit infrastructure.

Tokenized treasury products, real-world assets (RWAs), and on-chain lending protocols are creating bridges between traditional finance and decentralized finance.

Institutional lenders can now deploy capital more efficiently while benefiting from transparent risk monitoring and automated settlement.

As regulatory frameworks mature, institutional participation is expected to accelerate.

Challenges Still Ahead

Despite rapid innovation, blockchain credit markets face several obstacles:

Regulatory Uncertainty

Many jurisdictions are still developing rules for decentralized lending and digital assets.

Smart Contract Risks

Software vulnerabilities can expose lending protocols to exploits if not properly audited.

Identity and Reputation

Building secure, privacy-preserving decentralized identity systems remains an ongoing challenge.

Market Volatility

Crypto collateral can experience significant price fluctuations, increasing liquidation risk.

User Experience

Simplifying wallets, onboarding, and risk management remains essential for mainstream adoption.

The Future of Blockchain Credit

Several trends are likely to define the next generation of blockchain lending:

• AI-assisted credit risk assessment
• Zero-knowledge identity verification
• Cross-chain lending markets
• Tokenized real-world collateral
• Reputation-based unsecured lending
• Decentralized business financing
• On-chain corporate credit markets
• Embedded DeFi lending inside fintech applications

Over time, blockchain credit markets may evolve beyond crypto-native users and become foundational infrastructure for global digital finance.

Conclusion

Blockchain-based credit markets are redefining how capital is created, distributed, and managed. By replacing manual processes with transparent smart contracts, they make lending faster, more efficient, and more accessible to people around the world.

While challenges such as regulation, security, and identity remain, innovation is advancing quickly. As decentralized identity, tokenized real-world assets, and AI-powered risk assessment continue to mature, blockchain credit markets are poised to become a key component of the future financial system.

The evolution of credit is no longer limited to traditional banks. It is moving on-chain—where transparency, programmability, and global accessibility are creating a more open and inclusive financial ecosystem.

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Ledger said is bringing its hardware security model to the fast-growing world of AI agents with the launch of Ledger Agent Stack, an open-source toolkit that allows autonomous software to interact with crypto wallets without ever controlling private keys.

The toolkit lets AI agents read wallet balances, analyze portfolios, prepare transactions and propose payments, but requires every sensitive action to be explicitly approved on a Ledger hardware device before it can be executed.

This is the first product release under Ledger’s 2026 AI roadmap, as the hardware wallet maker bets that human oversight will become a critical security layer as AI agents take on increasingly complex financial tasks.

“Agents propose. Humans approve,” the team wrote in their press release shared with CoinDesk. “Crypto wallets have protected billions on this standard for years,” said Ian Rogers, Ledger’s chief human agency officer, in the press release. “Ledger Agent Stack allows your agent to use these wallets just as easily as humans.”

President Donald Trump said in January he had no plans to pardon Bankman-Fried. He has cleared Binance founder Changpeng Zhao and Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht, along with other white-collar offenders.

Bankman-Fried ran two companies at once. FTX was a crypto exchange, which holds customer money the way a broker does and is not supposed to touch it. Alameda Research was a trading firm he also owned. He moved billions of dollars in FTX customer deposits to Alameda, which spent the money on trades, venture investments, political donations, and Bahamian real estate, while FTX’s software exempted Alameda from the rules that would have forced it to cover its losses like any other trader.

The facade was blown open after CoinDesk obtained Alameda’s balance sheet in November 2022 and found that most of what the firm counted as assets was FTT – a token FTX had created itself and could issue at will.

The collateral propping up Alameda was, in effect, something its sister company had invented. Further cracks emerged after the prominent exchange Binance said, days later, it would sell its FTT holdings, leading to a rapid collapse in FTT prices.

Customers rushed to pull their deposits, and FTX could not return the money because it was no longer there. The exchange filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, 2022, just over a week after the story ran.

The global market capitalization of tokenized stocks rose to a record $2.3 billion on Wednesday, as more investors sought exposure to blockchain-based equity products.

The Ethereum network boasted the largest market share, at 34%, followed by BNB Chain with 30% and the Solana network with 23%, data aggregator Token Terminal shared in a Wednesday X post.

The largest increase came from Kraken exchange’s xStocks, which accounted for $507 million worth of tokenized stocks and Binance’s bStocks, with $334 million. Ondo Finance remained the largest tokenized stock issuer with $955 million in onchain equities, according to Token Terminal data.

More crypto platforms are bringing traditional investment products onto blockchain rails, in many cases opening up assets to investors outside of the United States. Tokenized stocks can also provide investors with fractional ownership and around-the-clock trading.

The world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance, opened zero-commission trading to over 7,000 US tokenized stocks for eligible users on June 1, as part of its strategy to become a multi-asset platform. Coinbase rolled out commission-free US stock and ETF trading with 24/5 availability in December 2025. 

Source: Token Terminal

In April, crypto exchange Bitget launched a proxy offering tied to the pre-initial public offering (IPO) phase of Elon Musk’s aerospace manufacturing and space transportation company, SpaceX.

In January, Vienna-based crypto exchange Bitpanda shared plans to expand its offering to include about 10,000 stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). 

Kraken launched access to 11,000 US-listed stocks and ETFs through xStocks in April 2025 as one of the first major crypto-native platforms. The cumulative trading volume of xStocks exceeded $25 billion within about eight months of launch. 

Related: NYSE parent ICE pushes ‘level playing field’ for 24/7 onchain perps 

Tokenized RWAs surge despite crypto market pullback

The market for tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) surged 589% from early 2025 to June 2026, led by government bonds and money market funds, according to a June report from Binance Research.

Tokenized precious metals also attracted about $1.5 billion in value, rising 39% during the period.

The market for tokenized RWAs is becoming more diversified.
Source: Binance Research

However, stocks remain a small fraction of the broader tokenized RWA market, accounting for only about 5.5% of the $34 billion RWA market capitalization. 

Tokenized RWA market overview, all-time chart. Source: RWA.xyz 

About $15 billion in tokenized US Treasury debt represents the largest segment, or 44%, of the RWA market, followed by $4.5 billion in tokenized commodities, accounting for 13%, according to data provider RWA.xyz. 

Magazine: The 5 types of real world assets being tokenized fastest onchain

The implication does not stop there. According to Imran Lakha, founder of Options Insights, dealers hold a “net long gamma exposure” above $70,000. It means the dealers, who strive to maintain market-neutral exposure while making money from the bid-ask spread, would short or sell into strength above 70,000 to stay neutral or hedged.

“That hedging acts like a brake, capping how fast BTC can run once it gets up there,” Lakha said, adding that ether (ETH) isn’t as exposed to dealer gamma dynamics and can rip much faster.

Bitcoin was recently changung hands near $64,100, down nearly 1% since midnight UTC. Other major cryptocurrencies, including ether, XRP (XRP) and solana (SOL) nursed similar losses, while Nasdaq 100 index futures fell 0.5%.

“As always, there is a risk of a sudden sell-off amid financial market shocks, which could send BTC or global stock indices into a tailspin, but waiting for such moments is a thankless task,” said Alex Kuptsikevich, the chief market analyst at FxPro. “In such conditions, buying in a quiet market at less than half of peak levels looks like a perfectly reasonable tactic for the coming days or weeks.”

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.”