Wall Street is racing toward tokenized equities and 24/7 trading, but many institutional investors are wary of the instant settlement model.

Tokenization refers to representing traditional assets such as stocks on blockchain networks. In theory, the approach could modernize market infrastructure that dates back decades, allowing securities to move and settle instantly while potentially enabling 24/7 trading.

That vision has gained momentum in recent months. Both ICE, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, and Nasdaq, have recently announced large partnerships with native crypto exchanges, aimed at bringing tokenized stocks to market.

But for many institutional traders, the shift raises practical concerns about liquidity, financing and how markets function day to day.

“Institutional investors generally do not like instant settlement,” said Reid Noch, vice president of U.S. equity market structure at TD Securities. While the technology could streamline the back end of markets, he said, forcing trades to settle immediately would create new frictions for professional investors.

The current U.S. system settles stock trades one business day after execution, known as T+1 settlement. That delay allows brokers and trading firms to net positions and manage funding throughout the day. Instant settlement, by contrast, would require transactions to be fully funded before they occur.

“No one really wants to be prefunded,” Noch said. If instant settlement became the standard across the market, trading firms would need to arrange financing throughout the day, potentially increasing costs and reducing liquidity at key moments.

The impact could be especially visible during periods of heavy activity, such as the market close when large volumes of trades are executed simultaneously. Balance sheet constraints could make those periods more expensive for investors, spreading liquidity more unevenly throughout the trading day.

Retail traders, however, may embrace tokenized markets more quickly. Many of the proposed benefits — such as holding shares directly in digital wallets or trading outside traditional market hours — are aimed at individual investors rather than large institutions.

Retail already accounts for roughly 20% of U.S. equity trading volume, though in certain stocks the share can rise to more than half of daily activity. In highly speculative “meme stocks,” retail participation has at times exceeded 90%.

Tokenized trading venues could particularly appeal to international retail investors seeking access to U.S. stocks when American markets are closed, Noch said. For those investors, opening accounts with crypto platforms may be easier than navigating the requirements of traditional brokers.

Over time, institutional investors may follow if liquidity shifts to tokenized venues. “If retail liquidity migrates there and becomes meaningful, institutions won’t really have a choice but to participate,” Noch said.

Still, the transition carries risks. One concern is market fragmentation if multiple versions of the same stock exist across different blockchains or tokenized platforms. That could weaken the transparency and price discovery that underpin the U.S. equity market.

“Generally, most companies only have one stock,” Noch said. “If suddenly there are multiple tokenized versions with different rights or liquidity profiles, that could create confusion about what investors actually own.”

Despite those concerns, industry momentum continues to build. Exchanges are already exploring longer trading hours, with some proposing nearly round-the-clock markets within the next few years.

Tokenization could ultimately become part of that shift — modernizing infrastructure behind the scenes while gradually reshaping how investors access stocks. But for now, the technology may advance faster among retail traders than the institutions that dominate today’s markets.

Key Takeaways

• Samsung (SSNLF) has partnered with Nvidia (NVDA) to create advanced ferroelectric NAND flash memory technology.
• A Physics-Informed Neural Operator (PINO) AI model was created in collaboration with Georgia Institute of Technology researchers.
• This AI-driven PINO model accelerates ferroelectric NAND performance analysis by more than 10,000 times versus conventional approaches.
• Traditional chip design software (TCAD) requires 60 hours for each simulation — this new AI technology completes the task in less than 10 seconds.
• Samsung previously revealed that ferroelectric NAND technology reduces power usage by 96% versus traditional NAND chips.

A groundbreaking collaboration between Samsung and Nvidia is pushing the boundaries of memory chip technology with potential implications for AI infrastructure.

The partnership brings together Samsung, Nvidia, and academic researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology to develop a specialized AI model known as a Physics-Informed Neural Operator (PINO). This innovation aims to accelerate the development timeline for ferroelectric NAND flash memory.

Unlike traditional silicon-based chips, ferroelectric NAND utilizes ferroelectric materials capable of retaining data without continuous power input. This characteristic positions the technology as a promising solution for creating more energy-efficient computing systems.

Samsung SDI Co., Ltd., 0L2T.L

Samsung has invested heavily in ferroelectric NAND research over recent years. The company published research in Nature journal demonstrating how this technology achieves a remarkable 96% decrease in power consumption when compared to conventional NAND memory.

That efficiency gain carries significant weight. As AI computing demands continue escalating energy requirements, a near-total reduction in memory-related power draw represents a substantial advancement.

However, development speed has remained a persistent challenge. Engineers rely on Technology Computer-Aided Design (TCAD) software to simulate and optimize critical performance metrics like threshold voltage stability and long-term data retention.

Traditional TCAD processes demand approximately 60 hours to complete a single operation. This extended timeframe creates a significant barrier to rapid iteration and improvement.

The newly developed PINO model eliminates this constraint by completing identical analyses in fewer than 10 seconds.

Strategic Alignment Between Industry Giants

Nvidia represents Samsung’s most significant memory chip customer. Their established commercial ties create a logical foundation for expanded research and development cooperation.

Currently, SK Hynix dominates the supply of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips to Nvidia. Samsung has actively pursued opportunities to expand its market share in this segment, making deeper collaboration on emerging memory technologies a strategic priority.

Micron Technology (MU) represents another major player in the HBM market, supplying memory components for AI accelerators.

The PINO research has been published and made accessible to the broader scientific community. Development is now transitioning toward commercial implementation, with Samsung anticipated to continue its Nvidia partnership through subsequent ferroelectric NAND development phases.

Financial Position Analysis

Samsung’s financial foundation appears robust. The company generated $234.73 billion in trailing twelve-month revenue while maintaining a 13.07% operating margin.

With a debt-to-equity ratio of merely 0.06 and a current ratio of 2.33, the balance sheet demonstrates strong capitalization and significant capacity for continued long-term research investment.

The stock trades at a P/E ratio of 28.43, positioning it toward the upper end of its historical valuation range. Technical indicators show RSI levels in overbought territory, a factor short-term traders may wish to monitor.

Institutional ownership remains minimal at 2%, with no documented insider transactions recorded during the previous twelve months.

Neither company provided official statements in response to media inquiries regarding the partnership.

TLDR

• Wedbush Securities boosted Micron’s price target from $320 to $500, highlighting memory pricing strength beyond initial forecasts
• Contract prices for DRAM and NAND memory are experiencing dramatic increases, with certain agreements showing gains exceeding 100%
• The company’s high-bandwidth memory production for 2026 has completely sold out, with demand now stretching into 2027
• Analysts anticipate earnings per share to jump more than 460% with revenues projected to double in the upcoming quarterly report
• Among S&P 500 technology stocks, Micron received the highest growth factor rating with an A+ grade, matching Broadcom’s score

Micron Technology (MU) is approaching its March 18 quarterly earnings announcement with significant momentum, fueled by upgraded analyst ratings, elevated price projections, and strengthening memory chip pricing dynamics.

Micron Technology, Inc., MU

Shares advanced 9.45% during the previous trading week, with an additional 1.4% uptick in Friday’s premarket session following Wedbush Securities’ decision to increase its price objective to $500 from $320. Analyst Matt Bryson maintained his Outperform recommendation, emphasizing that pricing trends have “moved well ahead of expectations.”

According to Bryson’s analysis, Micron’s own fiscal Q2 projections suggested approximately 30% growth in average selling prices. However, actual market conditions appear significantly more robust. Throughout January, DRAM and NAND contract negotiations indicated pricing gains exceeding 50% for the first calendar quarter of 2026. More recently, certain transactions have demonstrated percentage increases reaching triple digits.

Traditional market patterns show memory demand weakening following Chinese New Year celebrations, yet Bryson observed no such softening this cycle. “Rather if anything we’ve seen evidence of a continued lift in requirements and even tighter supply dynamics,” he wrote.

Bryson emphasized that with both earnings forecasts and price objectives trending upward, and Micron currently valued below historical peak earnings multiples, maintaining a bullish stance remains justified.

Wall Street’s Optimism Intensifies

Wedbush’s upgraded outlook represents just one voice in a growing chorus. Financial institutions including Citi, Susquehanna, and Aletheia have similarly elevated their price projections recently. Aletheia established the Street’s most aggressive target at $650, projecting that Micron could produce $150–$200 billion in cash flow spanning FY26 through FY27 while evolving into a dominant force among global semiconductor manufacturers.

The consensus expectations ahead of the earnings release reflect substantial optimism. Projected earnings per share growth exceeds 460% compared to the prior year period, while revenue estimates anticipate more than doubling. Multiple analysts forecast gross profit margins could achieve unprecedented levels.

While one prominent analyst has expressed valuation concerns following the stock’s substantial appreciation over the trailing twelve months, the overwhelming majority of Wall Street maintains a bullish perspective, reflected in the Strong Buy consensus rating.

High-Bandwidth Memory Demand Creates Multi-Year Visibility

The foundation of the optimistic investment thesis centers on high-bandwidth memory technology. HBM serves as a critical component within AI accelerator systems, and Micron’s production capacity for 2026 has already been completely reserved, with customer orders now extending throughout 2027.

This exceptional forward visibility substantially mitigates the cyclical volatility that has traditionally characterized memory semiconductor investments. Additionally, it suggests pricing leverage will persist considerably longer than historical industry cycles have demonstrated.

In a separate development, a recent growth factor assessment of S&P 500 technology constituents positioned Micron at the summit, awarding an A+ rating shared only with Broadcom (AVGO). AI-related companies including Palantir (PLTR) and AMD secured A ratings, while Nvidia (NVDA) received an A- grade. Conversely, Apple (AAPL) and Cisco (CSCO) both earned D- ratings at the lower end of the spectrum.

Micron is scheduled to release Q2 FY26 financial results on March 18.

Bybit is reportedly planning to enter the compliant US market via this potential partnership.

The popular Chinese crypto news channel Wu Blockchain reported earlier today that two of the industry’s giants, Coinbase and Bybit, are in talks for some sort of investment partnership.

Although the currently available information is quite limited and there’s no official response from either party, it’s reported that Bybit’s valuation could match OKX’s after the most recent funding event.

Exclusive: Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US, is in talks with Bybit, the world’s second-largest offshore exchange, for an investment partnership. Bybit hopes to use this opportunity to enter the compliant US market. Three sources confirmed this news to… pic.twitter.com/SXBJnbDOQG

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) March 14, 2026

Citing three sources that confirmed the information, the report further indicated that such a collaboration would enable Bybit to enter the compliant US market.

It would follow several notable deals in the cryptocurrency space, such as Coinbase’s acquisition of the derivatives giant Deribit. As reported during the summer of 2025, the Wall Street-listed exchange purchased Deribit for $2.9 billion as the derivatives market was exploding.

More recently, OKX received a massive nod from the Intercontinental Exchange. The entity behind the New York Stock Exchange acquired a minority stake in the cryptocurrency exchange, putting its valuation at an impressive $25 billion following the latest investment round.

According to Wu Blockchain, Bybit’s valuation should be similar to OKX’s, meaning somewhere around $25 billion.

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CoinMarketCap and CoinGecko data show that all three trading platforms – Coinbase, OKX, and Bybit – are placed within the top five of their trust lists, with some of the highest scores in the industry.

In a broad reassessment of anti-money-laundering (AML) in crypto, Ana Carolina Oliveira, chief compliance officer at Venga, argues that crypto is not uniquely to blame for illicit flows—yet it cannot escape accountability. Traditional finance still experiences illicit activity at a rate that is at least twice as high, with estimates suggesting that more than 90% of such cases go undetected. Blockchain’s immutable ledger offers a potential advantage: when wrongdoing occurs, the trail is visible from end to end. The challenge, Oliveira argues, is not to demonize crypto but to evolve the AML system so it covers both CeFi and DeFi, across borders and regulatory regimes. The EU’s AML Regulation 2024/1624 is a meaningful step, but it is not a substitute for robust, practical guardrails across the industry.

Key takeaways

• Traditional finance still generates illicit flows at a higher rate than crypto, with estimates indicating AML activity is at least twice as prevalent in fiat systems and a sizable portion goes undetected.
• AML frameworks for crypto must move beyond checkbox compliance and toward ongoing, enforceable safeguards that cover both centralized and decentralized finance ecosystems.
• The Travel Rule envisions a SWIFT/IBAN-style identification regime, but implementation remains industry-led and costly due to multi-jurisdictional compliance requirements.
• Blockchain’s pseudonymity presents enforcement challenges, particularly when self-hosted wallets and mixers obscure origins; data-sharing across platforms and regions is crucial.
• Progress hinges on a balance: regulators and industry must collaborate to establish global standards and guardrails that preserve innovation while closing loopholes that criminals exploit.

Tickers mentioned:

Market context: The ongoing regulatory push in the EU and other jurisdictions continues to shape the crypto landscape, with institutions seeking clearer risk-management frameworks and more predictable compliance pathways. As liquidity and risk sentiment shift, robust AML infrastructure could accelerate mainstream adoption by reducing friction and boosting user trust. At the same time, the debate over privacy versus transparency intensifies as onchain analytics mature and cross-border data-sharing norms emerge, influencing how firms design their compliance tools and workflows.

Why it matters

For users, coherent AML rules that are consistently enforced across borders reduce the friction associated with moving value between wallets, exchanges, and custodians. When compliance is predictable, consumers gain confidence that legitimate activity won’t be stymied by opaque processes or inconsistent regional rules. For builders and exchanges, the message is clear: interoperable, standards-based tools that can operate across CeFi and DeFi guardrails will be essential. Fragmented systems create choke points, raise costs, and invite circumvention as firms juggle divergent requirements from different regulators.

From a market perspective, credible AML measures can enhance the legitimacy of digital assets in the eyes of traditional financial institutions, insurers, and corporate treasuries. They also raise the bar for risk management, potentially attracting capital that was previously wary of regulatory ambiguity. Regulators, meanwhile, face the dual challenge of safeguarding the financial system while avoiding stifling innovation. The EU Regulation 2024/1624 offers a framework, but practical, cross-border enforcement will require continued dialogue and shared technical standards across jurisdictions.

Ultimately, the aim is to recast crypto compliance as a global, cooperative endeavor rather than a patchwork of national rules. By aligning on information sharing, screening, and verification standards—without eroding the permissionless and borderless nature of blockchain—regulators and industry players can reduce illicit activity without hamstringing legitimate activity. As the discourse evolves, the emphasis shifts from “doing something” to doing the right things consistently, everywhere, every time.

What to watch next

• Regulatory milestones around the EU AML Regulation 2024/1624, including guidance and enforcement timelines, expected in 2025–2026.
• Wider industry adoption of a crypto SWIFT-style information exchange as referenced in regulatory and industry discussions.
• Developments toward global AML standards for cross-border digital assets and increased inter-regulator cooperation to close jurisdictional gaps.
• Advances in onchain analytics, wallet screening, and real-time transaction monitoring that can be scaled across exchanges and custodians.

Sources & verification

• Regulation EU 2024/1624 — EU legal text and official summary.
• Travel Rule advisory — Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) advisory on cross-border crypto transfers.
• Crypto SWIFT system — discussion of a SWIFT-like data exchange for digital asset transfers.
• Universal blockchains buckling under real-world demands — Cointelegraph article on blockchain interoperability challenges.
• a16z to Senate drop the ancillary asset loophole — Cointelegraph article examining regulatory gaps and potential fixes.

Toward a global AML framework for crypto: aligning guardrails with the onchain reality

Crypto does not exist in a legal vacuum, and the AML challenge is not simply a matter of deploying sophisticated screening tools. It is about building a shared operating environment where information travels with the same speed and reliability as value. Oliveira highlights that while the Travel Rule provides a SWIFT/IBAN-style identification framework, its practical implementation has been left to industry participants navigating a maze of national and regional laws. The result is a fragmented approach that can create safety gaps. The EU’s Regulation 2024/1624 adds momentum, but it also underscores a larger truth: one-off regulations cannot by themselves close the door to illicit finance. Real progress will require disciplined, cross-border collaboration on data standards, technology interfaces, and governance protocols that tie together exchanges, wallet providers, and financial institutions alike.

At the core of the argument is the recognition that blockchain’s immutability can be a tool for uncovering illicit activity, not a justification for lax controls. Pseudonymity on-chain is a feature that complicates identity verifications, particularly when funds pass through self-hosted wallets or mixers designed to obfuscate provenance. The path forward, therefore, is not to dismantle privacy but to implement scalable, privacy-preserving analytics and screening that preserve legitimate user privacy while revealing illicit patterns. In this sense, the crypto sector’s AML posture must evolve from a narrow checklist to a holistic system—one that integrates continuous feedback loops, clearer typology mapping, and robust information sharing across exchanges and geographies.

Two recurring themes run through Oliveira’s analysis. First, the public sector cannot delegate all responsibility to private actors. While the industry must bear a large portion of implementation cost and technical work, regulators must set enforceable standards and provide clear guidance on how to achieve them. Second, a global, minimum-standard framework—implemented across jurisdictions—could reduce the cost of compliance and improve the effectiveness of anti-money-laundering efforts. The industry’s experience with multi-jurisdiction compliance will be a bellwether for whether such a framework can be realized in a way that respects the speed and openness that define digital assets. The discussion is no longer about whether crypto requires AML safeguards, but how to design safeguards that are comprehensive, interoperable, and enforceable worldwide without undermining innovation.

As the dialogue continues, industry participants must demonstrate the willingness to share information that proves problematic activity and to adopt best practices that reduce criminal adaptability. The overarching goal is to create a crypto space where legitimate users enjoy faster, cheaper, and more transparent transactions while criminals lose access to the same networks. In short, AML for crypto should be about clarity, cooperation, and consistency—an architecture that scales with global finance rather than one that fragmentizes it. If these principles are adopted, the market can move toward greater resilience and trust, enabling broader participation without compromising security.

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Bitcoin has crossed a historic threshold: 20 million of its 21 million total supply has now been mined. The milestone leaves fewer than 1 million coins remaining to be extracted over the next 114 years, according to available data. The achievement underscores how close Bitcoin is to its absolute supply cap.

The extended timeline to extract the final 1 million BTC poses a critical challenge for miners. After the last halving around 2140, miners will depend entirely on transaction fees rather than block rewards to sustain operations—a fundamental shift that may force many current participants out of the industry before the network reaches completion.

Sources: Decrypt | Bitcoin Magazine | Yahoo Finance

This article was generated automatically by The Defiant’s AI news system from publicly available sources.

Moreover, the overall negative streak stretches out to March 5.

The demand for the spot XRP ETFs in the United States has seemingly evaporated as the funds have not seen a single day of net inflows for over one whole week.

Nevertheless, the underlying token managed to post some gains over the past week before it was halted at $1.45.

XRP ETFs See Investor Exodus

The exchange-traded funds tracking the performance of the cross-border token enjoyed their initial honeymoon period that lasted roughly a month, in which they attracted over $1 billion in cumulative net flows. However, they began to slowly disappear from investors’ radar. The first two warning signs were observed on January 7 and 20 when $40.80 million and $53.32 million were pulled out of the funds.

January ended with another mass withdrawal of $92.92 million on January 29, and the overall month was just slightly in the green – $15.59 million; a figure significantly lower than the $666.61 million seen in November and $500 million in December.

February picked up the pace, as the total monthly inflows stood at $58.09 million. However, more warning shots were seen as there were days with zero net inflows. Such trading days returned in the previous week – SoSoValue shows $0.00 reportable inflow data for March 11 and March 13. Moreover, the other three trading days were in the red, with $18.11 million leaving the funds on Monday, $3.88 million on Tuesday, and $6.08 million on Thursday.

This negative streak extends to the previous business week. In fact, the funds have not seen a green day since March 4.

XRP Price Ascent Halted

Despite the investor exodus, XRP’s price fared rather well in the past week, jumping from a Monday low of $1.34 to a multi-week peak of just over $1.45. However, it was stopped there and now struggles below $1.40.

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Its most recent price moves have been contained in a relatively tight trading range, which has prompted many analysts to suggest that there’s a big move in the making. Ali Martinez, for example, noted a few days ago that XRP’s Bollinger Bands have been squeezing, hinting at a major breakout soon.

He doubled down earlier today, saying that XRP’s current triangular consolidation is approaching its tipping point, with a 30% price move brewing.

$XRP is consolidating in a triangle, hinting at a 30% price move. pic.twitter.com/lgjOWKUBHU

— Ali Charts (@alicharts) March 14, 2026

Sky, the successor to MakerDAO, is off to a strong start this month, with its total value locked (TVL) climbing to $7.52 billion, a 38% increase since March 1, according to DefiLlama.

This makes Sky the fourth-largest decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol by TVL, trailing Aave, Lido, and EigenCloud. The sUSDS savings pool alone accounts for approximately $6.5 billion in deposits and has attracted nearly $1.3 billion since the start of the month.

As DeFi yields have dried up in the wake of the market downturn, Sky’s fixed 3.75% savings rate is higher than stablecoin supply rates on major protocols like Aave and Morpho. For example, supplying USDT or USDC on Aave’s Ethereum markets currently yields less than 2%.

“Yield is definitely the main factor, but it’s also one of the lowest risk, liquid yield sources in DeFi,” Sam MacPherson, CEO of Phoenix Labs, told The Defiant.

Sky founder Rune Christensen also emphasized that users are prioritizing safety amid the market turbulence.

“Honestly, it’s the classic story of how Sky, just like Maker used to, always does better in bear markets because it’s just focused on a solid product that can be trusted to be stable and deliver good returns,” Christensen told The Defiant.

The SKY token has rallied alongside the surge in TVL. The token is up approximately 4% over the past seven days and 12% over the past month, according to CoinGecko.

The token remains about 26% below its all-time high, per CoinGecko, with a market capitalization of roughly $1.7 billion.

Brazil’s leading cryptocurrency and fintech industry groups have warned that expanding a financial transaction tax to stablecoin operations could harm innovation and violate existing law.

In a joint statement shared with CoinDesk, industry associations ABcripto, ABFintechs, Abracam, ABToken and Zetta said recent discussions about extending a tax on financial operations (locally known as Imposto sobre Operações Financeiras, or IOF) to stablecoin transactions raise legal and economic concerns.

The organizations represent more than 850 companies across Brazil’s financial technology, virtual asset and market infrastructure sectors, the statement reads.

The debate centers on a levy applied to certain financial transactions, including foreign exchange operations. According to the associations, applying the tax to stablecoin transactions would conflict with Brazil’s current legal framework and harm the country’s crypto industry.

They argue that the Constitution defines the IOF as applying only to the settlement of currency exchange transactions involving the delivery of national or foreign fiat currency. Stablecoins, they said, do not meet that definition.

Brazil’s Virtual Assets Law, enacted as Law No. 14,478 in 2022, explicitly states that virtual assets are not considered national or foreign fiat currency, the statement says. The industry groups say this distinction means stablecoins cannot legally be treated as instruments representing foreign currency under the IOF rules.

As a result, the organizations say any attempt to extend the tax through a decree or an administrative rule would be unlawful. Under Brazil’s constitutional framework, new taxes or expanded tax triggers must be approved through the legislative process.

“In this context, any expansion of tax incidence on operations with stablecoins through a decree or administrative rule is illegal, since acts of this nature cannot create or expand a tax triggering event,” the document reads.

The groups also cautioned against conflating monitoring rules from Brazil’s central bank with taxation policy. They said oversight of digital asset transactions does not automatically justify applying the IOF tax to those activities.

Industry representatives argue that policy missteps could damage a rapidly expanding sector. Brazil has emerged as one of the world’s largest crypto markets, with an estimated 25 million people participating in the ecosystem.

Brazil’s stablecoin adoption

The associations said the country’s crypto sector has grown alongside a broader wave of financial innovation, including fintech platforms, digital payments, and blockchain infrastructure. They also noted that similar taxes on stablecoin transactions are not widely used in other major economies.

Stablecoin usage in Brazil has surged dramatically in recent years, turning the country into one of the largest markets for the assets in Latin America and globally.

Dollar-pegged tokens like Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC now dominate crypto activity as Brazilians use them to hedge volatility in their fiat currency, the real (BRL), move money across borders at lower cost, and provide liquidity for trading.

Brazil’s crypto market, according to an auditor at Brazil’s tax authority, Receita Federal, is moving between $6 and $8 billion per month, with 90% of that being stablecoin flows.

Not all of them are U.S. dollar stablecoins, as BRL-pegged stablecoins are gaining traction. Trading in tokens linked to the Brazilian real reached about $906 million in the first half of 2025, according to Dune data.