European financial institutions should assess whether the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) can be extended into tokenized payments, Bank of Italy Deputy Governor Chiara Scotti said, as policymakers look for ways to keep euro-denominated settlement central to digital finance.

Scotti called a tokenized extension of SEPA an “important area for reflection” during a Monday speech at the Digital Assets and Monetary Policy Transmission workshop in Rome, saying Europe’s existing payments framework offers scale, shared standards and interoperability.

Her comments come as the Eurosystem prepares a pilot for Pontes, a distributed ledger technology settlement initiative designed to link market DLT platforms with TARGET Services and settle transactions in central bank money. The pilot is expected by the third quarter of 2026.

The European Central Bank (ECB) is also developing Appia, a longer-term roadmap for Europe’s tokenized financial ecosystem that is expected to conclude in 2028, as policymakers weigh how tokenized deposits, stablecoins and central bank money should coexist.

The ECB said it was exploring ways to bring central bank money onto DLT due to concerns over the adoption of a non-euro stablecoin, which may have “serious consequences for Europe’s monetary sovereignty,” such as diminishing the euro’s role and creating a dependency on foreign settlement assets.

Banca d’Italia, ECB, EABCN, and CEPR Workshop on‘Digital Assets and Monetary Policy Transmission.’ Source: Bank of Italy

ECB says stablecoin adoption may shift bank deposits

The ECB has previously outlined concerns related to widespread stablecoin adoption.

In a report published in November 2025, the ECB said that widespread stablecoin adoption may see households replace some of their bank deposits with stablecoin holdings, leading to significant bank deposit outflows.

“Significant growth in stablecoins could cause retail deposit outflows, diminishing an important source of funding for banks and leaving them with more volatile funding overall.”

In a working paper published on March 4, 2026, the ECB highlighted further risks, including that stablecoin adoption induces a “deposit-substitution mechanism, whereby funds shift from retail bank deposits to digital assets.”

Related: UBS partners with five banks for Swiss franc stablecoin sandbox

Later on March 23, Piero Cipollone, a member of the ECB’s Executive Board, said that both tokenized deposits and stablecoins need tokenized central bank money as a public settlement anchor for scaling Europe’s tokenized financial system, Cointelegraph reported.

Magazine: Crypto wanted to overthrow banks, now it’s becoming them in stablecoin fight

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.

Quick Summary

• First quarter adjusted earnings per share of 55 cents exceeded analyst expectations of 48 cents
• Revenue reached $1.68 billion, marginally surpassing the $1.67 billion consensus forecast
• Annual EPS outlook upgraded to $2.35–$2.40 range, previously $2.25–$2.30
• Company initiating $275 million accelerated stock buyback program
• Approximately 1% pricing adjustment implemented to counter elevated input costs from Iran situation

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Shares of DuPont (DD) advanced 1.6% to $46.15 during premarket hours on Tuesday following the specialty materials corporation’s announcement of first-quarter results that surpassed analyst projections and an improved annual forecast.

DuPont de Nemours, Inc., DD

The company reported adjusted earnings per share of 55 cents, comfortably exceeding the FactSet consensus estimate of 48 cents. Revenue climbed to $1.68 billion from $1.61 billion in the year-ago period, narrowly topping the $1.67 billion analyst forecast.

On a GAAP basis, DuPont recorded net income of $161 million, translating to 39 cents per share, a significant reversal from the $589 million loss, or $1.40 per share, reported in the comparable quarter of the previous year.

[[LINK_START_3]]https://twitter.com/Finsee_main/status/2051612567613645120?s=20[[LINK_END_3]]

It’s important to recognize that year-over-year comparisons require context. The company completed the separation of its electronics division, Qnity Electronics, which impacts historical comparisons.

Additionally, the first quarter results incorporate a three-cent-per-share benefit from discontinued operations associated with the sale of the Aramids business, which was finalized on April 1.

Company Elevates Annual Forecast

Management increased its full-year adjusted earnings per share guidance to a range of $2.35 to $2.40, up from the previous $2.25 to $2.30 projection. Revenue expectations were similarly lifted to $7.16–$7.22 billion from the prior $7.08–$7.14 billion range.

These updated targets exceed current Wall Street expectations, which call for $2.27 per share in earnings on $7.10 billion in revenue.

For the second quarter, the company projects adjusted EPS of approximately 59 cents on revenue of roughly $1.8 billion. This aligns closely with analyst expectations of 58 cents per share on $1.8 billion in sales.

Chief Executive Lori Koch emphasized organic revenue growth, improved profit margins, and double-digit adjusted earnings expansion as key achievements during the quarter. Chief Financial Officer Antonella Franzen explained that the revised annual outlook incorporates approximately 4% organic growth, including about 1% from pricing actions designed to mitigate increased input costs stemming from the Iranian conflict.

Capital Allocation and Divisional Results

The company unveiled plans for a $275 million accelerated share repurchase program commencing immediately. This initiative is part of a comprehensive $2 billion buyback authorization granted by the board in November, which featured an initial $500 million accelerated component.

From a segment perspective, the Healthcare & Water Technologies division delivered 6% year-over-year sales growth, accompanied by a 1.1 percentage point expansion in operating margins. The Diversified Industrials segment achieved 3% revenue growth, likewise recording a 1.1 percentage point improvement in profitability.

DD shares had declined approximately 9% since the outbreak of the Iran conflict on February 28, as market participants assessed the impact of elevated oil prices on production costs. Prior to Tuesday’s trading, the stock remained up 13% year-to-date and had appreciated 66% over the trailing twelve-month period.

The second quarter projection of 59 cents in adjusted earnings per share on $1.8 billion in sales represents the company’s latest near-term guidance.

CoinDesk Indices presents its daily market update, highlighting the performance of leaders and laggards in the CoinDesk 20 Index.

The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 2154.22, up 1.3% (+26.68) since yesterday’s close.

All 20 assets are trading higher.

Leaders: ICP (+5.2%) and LINK (+4.0%).

Laggards: LTC (+0.7%) and BNB (+0.7%).

The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally.

State Street Investment Management and Galaxy Asset Management (GLXY) have launched a tokenized fund designed to move a core piece of finance — cash management — onto blockchain networks, the firms said Tuesday.

The State Street Galaxy Onchain Liquidity Sweep Fund, trading under the ticker SWEEP, allows large investors to park stablecoins into a fund that generates yield, while keeping the ability to move in and out at any time. Unlike traditional money market funds that operate during market hours, the new structure runs continuously on blockchain infrastructure.

The market for tokenized funds has grown quickly over the past year, led by products like BlackRock’s BUIDL, which packages short-term U.S. Treasury exposure into a blockchain-based token. BUIDL has attracted billions of dollars, signaling that institutions are willing to hold tokenized versions of familiar instruments when the structure meets compliance and liquidity needs.

Other firms, including Franklin Templeton and now State Street with SWEEP, are building similar products, each experimenting with different blockchains and investor access models.

SWEEP launches on the Solana (SOL) blockchain, with plans to expand to Ethereum (ETH) and Stellar (XLM). Galaxy provides the underlying tokenization system, while Anchorage handles custody of digital assets and State Street oversees traditional securities held in the portfolio.

The move reflects a broader shift among large financial firms exploring how blockchain can update market plumbing. Today, moving cash between accounts or funds often involves delays, cut-off times and intermediaries. A blockchain-based system can, in theory, allow money to move instantly and around the clock.

The launch also deepens ties between State Street and Galaxy, which have worked together on digital asset investment products since 2024.

For State Street, which manages more than $5 trillion in assets, the fund signals a step toward offering traditional investment products in tokenized form. For Galaxy, it reinforces its push to build infrastructure that connects crypto markets with institutional finance.

Access to the fund is limited to qualified institutional investors, underscoring that, for now, the shift to onchain finance remains focused on large players rather than retail users.

Innovation City, a Ras Al Khaimah free zone focused on artificial intelligence and Web3, has unveiled what it calls the first blockchain-based digital business identity system. In a Monday release shared with Cointelegraph, the city said every company registered there will receive a sovereign, cryptographically verifiable identity issued on OPN Chain, the public blockchain infrastructure developed by UAE-based IOPn.

The release frames the initiative as converting a traditional business license from a static document into a dynamic on-chain asset, designed to reduce reliance on central intermediaries and to cut verification uncertainty across the free zone’s ecosystem.

The move aligns with a broader UAE push to replace traditional registries with blockchain-based identity systems and AI-driven workflows, a policy direction proponents say could streamline verification and digital operations for businesses operating in the United Arab Emirates.

Key takeaways

• Innovation City will issue on-chain, cryptographically verifiable business identities to its registered firms via the OPN Chain, covering more than 1,000 companies at launch.
• The onchain identity is intended as the native business registration primitive within the free zone, not merely an optional credential layered onto a traditional registry.
• OPN Chain uses a public validator network and a hybrid data model that stores core transaction data and proofs on-chain while handling sensitive or large datasets off-chain.
• The project emphasizes security through human-in-the-loop authorization for consequential actions and designs the agent layer with adversarial scenarios as a first principle.
• External adoption remains uncertain, with no specific banks, regulators, or exchanges named as current validators or acceptors of these onchain identities; questions persist about dispute handling and credential revocation when third parties are involved.

How the onchain business IDs work

Jimi Ibrahim, co-founder and chief operating officer of IOPn, told Cointelegraph that at launch the onchain identity framework is intended to extend across Innovation City’s client base of more than 1,000 companies, with immediate live utility within the free zone’s own digital ecosystem.

He described the core value not merely as issuing a digital certificate but as establishing a cryptographically verifiable business identity to be used for access and verification across Innovation City’s touchpoints, such as the business center and selected ecosystem services, with plans to broaden to partner providers in technology, marketing and legal services over time.

OPN Chain is presented as a public network where validator participation is open to institutions, infrastructure partners and governance-approved node operators. The system uses a hybrid data model in which core transaction data and proofs stay on-chain while sensitive or large datasets are handled off-chain, balancing transparency with privacy concerns.

Company registration under this framework is described as the native primitive within the free zone rather than an optional overlay on top of a conventional registry, distinguishing it from some digital-ID schemes such as Estonia’s e-residency example.

AI security and geopolitical risks

Recent exploits have highlighted how AI agents can be socially engineered to authorize transfers from wallets they control, underscoring the fragility of autonomous workflows. Ibrahim emphasized that every agentic workflow built on these identities will require human oversight for consequential actions, and that the agent layer is designed with adversarial scenarios as a core consideration from the outset.

The timing of the launch also intersects with regional tensions and new attacks affecting the UAE. Within this broader context, observers note that UAE investors have continued to allocate capital toward AI infrastructure, software and crypto-related assets, even amid volatility, according to data cited by Cointelegraph from eToro. Deutsche Bank researchers have also argued that the conflict may spur demand for AI rather than derail it.

Regulatory and market backdrop in the Gulf

The initiative sits within a wider policy push in the United Arab Emirates to move away from traditional registries toward blockchain-based identities and AI-enabled workflows. Government and industry watchers see potential benefits in streamlined verification, faster onboarding and more seamless cross-service operations, though practical adoption will hinge on external actors — banks, regulators, and service providers — recognizing and validating onchain credentials.

That context is underscored by the absence of named external banks or regulators currently recognizing Innovation City’s onchain identities, leaving questions about interoperability and dispute resolution when third parties are involved. The launch also arrives as the UAE seeks to attract AI and crypto investment, a dynamic reflected in investor behavior and market commentary cited by industry observers.

Uncertainties and next steps for external adoption

Key questions remain around how these onchain identities will be verified by external institutions such as banks and regulatory bodies, and how disputes or credential revocations will be handled when third parties are involved. The immediate utility is clear within Innovation City’s own digital ecosystem, but external integration will determine whether the model can scale beyond the free zone and become a broader standard.

As Innovation City pilots this approach, the next chapters will reveal whether the wider Gulf region and international partners will adopt similar onchain business identity primitives, and how issues of governance, data privacy and cross-border interoperability are resolved.

Readers should watch whether banks and regulators begin recognizing these onchain IDs outside Innovation City and how revocation or dispute handling will work as adoption expands.

TLDR

• Nvidia shares are hovering near $198, reflecting a 6.9% decline across the last five trading days after struggling to maintain the $200 threshold
• Manufacturing partner Foxconn disclosed 30% year-over-year April revenue expansion, attributing growth to robust AI server demand
• Wall Street’s consensus price target stands at $269.82, suggesting approximately 35% potential gains from present trading levels
• The stock carries a forward price-to-earnings multiple of roughly 22x, significantly lower than AMD’s 40x+ valuation
• The company’s May 20 earnings release is approaching; 48 analysts maintain “Buy” ratings on the shares

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Nvidia shares commenced Tuesday’s session at $198.51, marking a position approximately 6.9% beneath the level established five trading days earlier.

NVIDIA Corporation, NVDA

The chip giant’s shares escaped their $165–$195 consolidation zone last week amid semiconductor sector optimism, only to surrender those gains rapidly. The psychological $200 barrier continues to present challenges.

Market participants may need to exercise patience until May 20 — when Nvidia releases its quarterly results — before witnessing more definitive price movement.

“Nvidia’s current valuation appears reasonable, potentially even attractive,” observed Julian Koski, chief investment officer at New Age Alpha, highlighting the company’s impressive streak of 12 consecutive quarters delivering revenue expansion.

Foxconn, a critical Taiwanese manufacturing ally of Nvidia’s, provided encouraging signals Tuesday. The electronics manufacturer disclosed 30% April revenue growth versus the prior year, propelled by AI server systems and cloud networking hardware.

Foxconn indicated that “AI rack deployments should sustain their upward trajectory,” despite traditional tech hardware markets entering typical seasonal weakness.

This represents a significant indicator. Foxconn’s primary revenue generator has shifted to cloud and networking infrastructure — surpassing its longstanding reliance on Apple product assembly.

Valuation Metrics Compare Favorably Against Competitors

Trading at a forward earnings multiple hovering around 22x, Nvidia appears attractively priced relative to AMD, which commands a valuation exceeding 40x ahead of its quarterly report scheduled for Tuesday evening.

Analyst consensus points to an average price objective of $269.82 per FactSet data — representing roughly 35% appreciation potential from current price levels.

Among 54 Wall Street analysts monitored by MarketBeat, 48 assign “Buy” recommendations, four rate it “Strong Buy,” while only two maintain “Hold” positions. Zero sell ratings exist.

Morgan Stanley maintains a $260 price objective. Wolfe Research projects $275. New Street Research reduced its forecast from $307 to $275 while preserving its “Buy” stance.

Potential Challenges on the Horizon

Not every indicator points upward. CEO Jensen Huang conceded that Nvidia presently holds “zero market share in China,” a direct result of American export restrictions on cutting-edge semiconductor technology.

Additional concerns emerge around customer diversification efforts. Anthropic has reportedly entered discussions with chip newcomer Fractile, while Cerebras pursues public market listing plans — suggesting certain buyers are exploring alternative suppliers.

Regarding insider transactions, CFO Colette Kress divested 20,000 shares during March at $174.89, representing a 19.41% reduction in her stake. Board member John Dabiri similarly decreased his holdings that month.

Institutional capital, conversely, has flowed inward. PDS Planning expanded its Nvidia allocation by 3.5% during Q4. Multiple additional funds increased their positions throughout the third and fourth quarters.

Bernstein analysts characterized AI agent-driven semiconductor demand as escalating “off the charts,” with supply chains unable to satisfy requirements — a situation that directly reinforces Nvidia’s pricing authority.

Nvidia’s most recent quarterly disclosure, published February 25, revealed $1.62 earnings per share, exceeding analyst projections of $1.54. Revenue reached $68.13 billion, representing 73.2% year-over-year growth.

The semiconductor leader maintains a market capitalization of $4.82 trillion, a minimal debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, and established a 12-month peak at $216.82.

Attention now shifts entirely toward May 20.

Introduction

Reimagining financial primitives in a trust-minimized world

Decentralized Finance (DeFi) represents one of the most ambitious attempts to reconstruct the global financial system from the ground up. Built primarily on blockchain networks like Ethereum, DeFi replaces centralized intermediaries—banks, brokers, and clearinghouses—with transparent, automated protocols governed by code.

Where traditional finance relies on institutions to enforce trust, DeFi relies on cryptography, consensus mechanisms, and smart contracts. The result is a parallel financial system that is open, programmable, and globally accessible—yet not without its own structural vulnerabilities.

Replacing Traditional Banking Primitives

At its core, finance is built on a few fundamental primitives: custody, lending, borrowing, trading, and settlement. DeFi reconstructs each of these using blockchain-based infrastructure.

Custody Without Banks

In traditional systems, financial institutions hold and manage assets on behalf of users. DeFi replaces this with self-custody through digital wallets. Users maintain direct control over their funds, secured by private keys rather than institutional guarantees.

This shift eliminates counterparty risk tied to custodians—but introduces a new responsibility: the user becomes their own bank. There is no recovery mechanism for lost keys, no customer support desk, and no safety net.

Programmable Lending and Borrowing

DeFi lending protocols, inspired by early innovations in the ecosystem, allow users to lend assets and earn interest, or borrow against collateral, without credit checks or intermediaries.

Smart contracts automatically enforce loan conditions:

• Collateral is locked on-chain
• Interest rates adjust dynamically based on supply and demand
• Liquidations occur instantly when collateral thresholds are breached

This system replaces the bureaucratic processes of traditional banking with algorithmic efficiency—but also removes human discretion, often leading to abrupt and unforgiving outcomes during volatility.

Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs)

Instead of relying on centralized exchanges to match buyers and sellers, DeFi uses liquidity pools governed by automated market makers (AMMs). These pools allow users to trade assets directly from their wallets.

Liquidity providers supply capital to these pools and earn fees from trading activity, effectively becoming micro-market makers. This democratizes participation in financial markets, but also exposes participants to risks such as impermanent loss and volatile fee structures.

Yield Generation Without Intermediaries

One of DeFi’s defining innovations is the ability to generate yield without traditional financial intermediaries. Yield farming, staking, and liquidity provision enable users to earn returns by actively participating in protocol ecosystems.

Unlike savings accounts in traditional banks—where interest rates are centrally determined—DeFi yields are:

• Market-driven
• Highly dynamic
• Often incentivized by token emissions

This creates opportunities for significantly higher returns, but also introduces complexity and instability. Yield is not generated solely by underlying economic productivity; in many cases, it is subsidized by speculative incentives, raising questions about sustainability.

Risks in a Permissionless System

Despite its promise, DeFi is not a frictionless utopia. Removing intermediaries does not eliminate risk—it redistributes and, in some cases, amplifies it.

Smart Contract Failure

Smart contracts are immutable once deployed. A flaw in the code can lead to catastrophic losses, as exploits can drain funds within seconds. Unlike traditional systems, there is no central authority to reverse transactions or compensate users.

Audits and formal verification reduce risk but cannot guarantee safety. The system’s integrity ultimately depends on the quality of its code.

Liquidity Crises

DeFi markets rely heavily on liquidity pools. In times of stress, liquidity can evaporate rapidly, leading to cascading liquidations and extreme price slippage.

Because many protocols are interconnected, a failure in one can trigger systemic effects across the ecosystem—mirroring, and sometimes exceeding, the contagion risks seen in traditional finance.

Human Greed and Speculation

While DeFi is powered by code, it is driven by human behavior. Speculative mania, herd mentality, and short-term profit seeking often dominate decision-making.

This has led to:

• Rug pulls and fraudulent projects
• Unsustainable yield schemes
• Rapid boom-and-bust cycles

The absence of regulation allows for innovation—but also creates an environment where bad actors can operate with minimal resistance.

Bitcoin: A Store of Value, Not a Financial System

No discussion of DeFi is complete without addressing Bitcoin, the first and most recognized blockchain asset.

Bitcoin was designed as a decentralized store of value and a peer-to-peer payment system. Its architecture prioritizes security, simplicity, and immutability over programmability. As a result, it does not natively support the complex smart contracts required for DeFi applications.

This creates a fundamental distinction:

• Bitcoin functions as “digital gold.”
• DeFi operates as a programmable financial layer.

Efforts have been made to bridge Bitcoin into DeFi ecosystems through wrapped assets and sidechains, but these solutions often introduce additional trust assumptions—ironically reintroducing intermediaries that DeFi seeks to eliminate.

In this sense, Bitcoin sits adjacent to DeFi rather than fully within it: a foundational asset that provides value storage, but not the infrastructure for financial experimentation.

Conclusion

DeFi represents a radical rethinking of financial systems—one that replaces institutional trust with transparent, autonomous code. It reconstructs lending, borrowing, and trading into permissionless protocols that operate without centralized control.

Yet this transformation comes with trade-offs. Efficiency replaces oversight, automation replaces discretion, and accessibility replaces protection. The risks—technical, systemic, and behavioral—are not eliminated but reshaped.

The future of finance may not lie in the complete replacement of traditional systems, but in the convergence of both models: combining the resilience and innovation of DeFi with the safeguards and stability of established institutions.

For now, DeFi remains an evolving experiment—one that is simultaneously rebuilding finance and stress-testing the limits of decentralization.

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Toncoin (TON) is rallying as messaging app Telegram takes a more direct role in the token’s parent network and pushes for lower transaction costs, a shift that seems to be driving the move.

TON has rallied more than 36% in the past 24 hours, hitting a four-month high of $1.80, according to data from CoinDesk. It is the native token of The Open Network, a Layer 1 blockchain designed to integrate crypto payments and applications within the Telegram messaging platform.

The bullish sentiment has spread across the Telegram-linked ecosystem, with Notcoin gaining nearly 26%, Dogs rising more than 100%, and several smaller TON-based tokens posting even larger daily moves.

The market seems to be reacting to Telegram’s decision to replace the Ton Foundation as the driving force behind TON.

In an X post on Monday, Telegram founder Pavel Durov said that the messaging platform would become TON’s largest validator and take over as the driving force behind the ecosystem, with new developer tools, performance upgrades, and a refreshed ton.org expected within two to three weeks.

A validator is a specialized node or participant responsible for verifying transactions, ensuring network security, and maintaining the accuracy of a blockchain.

Becoming the largest validator is indicative of Telegram’s willingness to put its own weight behind the chain’s security and direction. This likely reduces one of TON’s biggest overhangs, namely the gap between the Telegram narrative and TON Foundation’s execution.

The story doesn’t end there. In the same X post, Durov said TON fees have fallen sixfold to near zero, after previously announcing that transaction costs would drop to 0.00039 TON, or about $0.0005, with most transactions eventually moving toward a fee-less model.

Near-zero transaction costs matter most for the kinds of products Telegram can actually distribute, such as on-chain tips, games, bot payments, mini-app transactions, collectibles, and small retail transfers.

A fee that looks irrelevant to a DeFi whale can still kill a consumer app if users are moving cents or dollars at a time. Fixed, tiny costs make TON more usable for high-frequency, low-value activity, broadening its appeal as a blockchain among existing users.

Various tracking sites put Telegram’s estimated monthly users at as much as one billion, though the company has not publicly claimed or denied those figures.

But TON’s fundamentals have failed to catch up to that hype in recent years. DefiLlama data shows TON captures just over $69 million in locked value across its decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, far below its 2024 highs near $800 million. Daily chain fees sit around $3,600, DEX volume around $29 million, and app revenue near $134,000.

Data from Tonstat shows shows daily active wallet activity on TON at just under 50,000, coming from around 136,000 unique wallets. That compares with roughly 700,000 daily activities across more than 2.2 million wallets during August and September 2024, according to the data.