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BitGo and Figure Execute First Blockchain-Native Equity Trades on Figure’s Alternative Trading System

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Nexo Partners with Bakkt for US Crypto Exchange and Yield Programs

TLDR:

  • BitGo Bank & Trust, N.A. serves as qualified custodian within Figure’s OPEN on-chain public equity network.
  • Figure’s OPEN network launched in February 2026, enabling equity issuance and trading on Provenance Blockchain. 
  • The BitGo–Figure integration separates custody from execution, preserving counterparty risk protections for institutions. 
  • Real-time on-chain settlement reduces reconciliation layers, lowering operational costs for broker-dealers and asset managers. 

Blockchain-native equity trading reached a new milestone as BitGo and Figure completed their first tokenized equity trades.

The trades were executed through Figure’s Alternative Trading System, operating on the Provenance Blockchain. BitGo Bank & Trust, N.A. served as the qualified custodian within Figure’s Onchain Public Equity Network.

The integration brings regulated custody and near real-time settlement to on-chain public equities, offering institutions a more efficient trading framework.

OPEN Network Brings Regulated On-Chain Equity Infrastructure to Market

Figure’s OPEN network launched in February 2026 as a regulated electronic trading venue. It enables companies to issue and trade equity directly on blockchain infrastructure.

Issuance, trading, and settlement are embedded into a single on-chain environment. This removes multiple intermediary layers that traditionally slow down public equity markets.

BitGo Bank & Trust, N.A. operates as a qualified custodian within the OPEN framework. The bank safeguards assets and provides regulated infrastructure for all participants.

Its custodian role ensures compliance with existing financial regulations for institutions. Consequently, regulated participants can access blockchain-native equity within a familiar oversight structure.

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The completed trades demonstrate how tokenized equities can function in a continuous on-chain environment. Settlement activity occurs in real time within a regulated framework on Figure’s ATS.

Trade records are also published directly on-chain, adding a layer of market transparency. This approach removes several reconciliation steps found in traditional market infrastructure.

Mike Belshe, CEO of BitGo, spoke directly to the partnership’s broader purpose for market participants.

At BitGo, our goal is to provide institutions the infrastructure and ability to trade, secure and build on anything on-chain. Our partnership with Figure moves the industry in that direction with BitGo operating as the independent trust layer to reduce risk, increase transparency and instill confidence in continuous markets.”

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Custody Separation and Cost Efficiency Support Institutional Participation

BitGo and Figure maintain a clear separation between custody and trade execution throughout their integration. This preserves the counterparty risk protections that traditional market structure depends on.

Institutions can therefore engage with blockchain-native equity without compromising governance standards. The model mirrors core principles from conventional finance while running on blockchain rails.

By cutting reconciliation layers, the integration reduces operational overhead for market participants. Capital efficiency also improves compared to traditional batch-based settlement systems.

Broker-dealers and asset managers can use this as a repeatable integration model. As a result, on-chain equity products become more accessible to a broader range of regulated institutions.

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Mike Cagney, Figure’s Executive Chairman, addressed how qualified custody makes institutional engagement more practical.

“Partnering with BitGo brings qualified custody and institutional-grade controls to the OPEN on-chain public equity network. With instant settlement on Provenance and the potential to meaningfully reduce market-structure friction and costs, this is a concrete step toward modernizing how public equities trade and settle.”

Together, BitGo and Figure have established a scalable framework for blockchain-native equity markets. The model combines blockchain efficiency with governance standards that institutions already recognize and trust.

 

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Polymarket acquires prediction market API startup Dome

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Polymarket acquires prediction market API startup Dome

Polymarket has acquired Dome, a Y Combinator-backed startup that is building a unified API solution for developers to access and build across multiple prediction market platforms.

Summary

  • Polymarket has acquired Y Combinator-backed startup Dome.
  • Dome offers a unified API for cross-platform prediction market access.
  • It has raised $500,000 from Y Combinator and $4.7 million in seed funding.

The acquisition was confirmed by both companies in a Feb. 19 post on X, though neither side shared details about Dome’s future roadmap within Polymarket or how the team will be integrated. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

According to details from Y Combinator, Dome was part of its Fall 2025 cohort and is developing a unified API for prediction markets through a single integration layer, where “developers can access live and historical data.”

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“Dome makes it simple to trade, embed market data into products, and deploy strategies across multiple platforms through one interface,” it said.

Dome raised $500,000 from Y Combinator and secured a further $4.7 million in seed funding, according to details shared on the X profile of co-founder Kunal Roy, who, alongside Kurush Dubash, previously served as founding engineers at Alchemy.

“We’re obsessed with prediction markets and want to have the biggest impact in the space. There’s no better place to do that than Polymarket.” Dubash wrote on X.

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Besides QCEX, a derivatives exchange and clearinghouse licensed by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which Polymarket acquired in a bid to re-enter the country, Dome marks the company’s first official acquisition focused on developer infrastructure.

Since it was greenlighted by the commission to operate an intermediated trading platform, Polymarket has secured multiple major partnerships with media brands like Yahoo Finance and Google Finance, alongside sports organizations such as Major League Soccer and the National Hockey League.

Last month, the company partnered with Parcl to launch a prediction market tied to real estate trends. It has also expanded onto the Solana blockchain through an integration with Jupiter and was recently added to the MetaMask mobile app, widening its retail distribution.

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Bitcoin May See Upside After AI Stocks Become ‘Silly Big’

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Cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin Price, AI

Bitcoin’s next major leg up could hinge on artificial intelligence stocks becoming excessively overvalued in the eyes of investors, according to macroeconomist Lyn Alden.

“It could be that the AI stocks eventually just peak, they get so silly big that they can’t get realistically much higher,” Alden told Natalie Brunell on the Coin Stories podcast published to YouTube on Thursday.

When an asset’s price rises to a level where further gains are harder to justify, capital often moves into other opportunities with more potential upside.

Cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin Price, AI
Lyn Alden spoke to Natalie Brunell on the Coin Stories podcast. Source: Natalie Brunell/YouTube

With Bitcoin (BTC) down almost 46% from its October all-time high of $126,100, Alden suggests it could be a beneficiary of that rotation.

Nvidia may be the “most important stock” in US, says exec

Some financial analysts are questioning whether the largest AI stocks will keep up their momentum in 2026. Albion Financial Group chief investment officer Jason Ware recently told Fox Business that he expects GPU chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA), the largest company on the Nasdaq stock exchange by market capitalization, to have “another great quarter,” but asked whether it will “be good enough.”

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“We all know they are the most concentrated, obvious winner in the AI build out. Can that growth continue in a way that supports the stock moving higher?”

Nvidia’s (NVDA) stock price is up 35.48% over the past 12 months, according to Google Finance, and Ware said that it is “probably the most important company and most important stock in America in the market.” 

The rise of investor interest in AI means that Bitcoin is now “competing for capital” in a way it never has before, Bitcoin developer Mark Carallo said on Thursday.

Bitcoin only needs a “marginal amount” of new demand

However, Alden said Bitcoin wouldn’t need a significant wave of capital to move higher. “It only takes a marginal amount of new demand to come in,” Alden said, adding that long-term holders essentially “put the floor in” as short-term traders rotate out.