Injective said Thursday it has filed a transfer agent registration with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, seeking to bring one of the core record-keeping functions of securities markets onto blockchain infrastructure.

Transfer agents are a core part of US market infrastructure, maintaining shareholder records and tracking changes in securities ownership. Injective, a layer-1 blockchain focused on decentralized finance and tokenized real-world assets, said bringing that function onchain would create a regulated pathway for issuing and managing tokenized assets.

Source: Injective

If approved, the registration would move Injective beyond blockchain infrastructure for tokenized assets and into the regulated systems that determine who legally owns a security. Injective said the approach could reduce delays and reconciliation between intermediaries.

“Tokenized securities and RWAs need compliant ownership records on infrastructure that settles in less than a second,” Injective wrote in an X post, adding that it aims to offer the capability at scale in the United States.

Injective did not identify the legal entity behind the application or provide a public SEC filing, and Cointelegraph could not independently verify the submission at the time of publication.

Related: Hackers tried to backdoor Injective NPM package to steal wallet keys

Capital markets infrastructure moves onchain

Traditional financial institutions have increasingly turned to blockchain to modernize the infrastructure underpinning capital markets. Beyond tokenizing assets, exchanges and market operators are applying the technology to market data distribution, securities issuance, settlement and other post-trade functions.

Nasdaq has been among the most active. Last month, the exchange partnered with onchain financial data network Pyth to distribute its proprietary TotalView market data to blockchain applications. Earlier this year, Nasdaq also partnered with Kraken and tokenization firm Backed to develop infrastructure linking traditional equities to blockchain networks.

Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, has also expanded its tokenization strategy through a partnership with Securitize to develop infrastructure for onchain stocks and exchange-traded funds designed to support 24/7 trading and instant settlement.

Meanwhile, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, the primary post-trade infrastructure provider for US securities markets, is preparing to launch its tokenized Collateral AppChain platform to automate collateral management and settlement across financial markets.

Magazine: Is Robinhood Chain’s success bullish or bearish for ETH the asset?

Ault Capital has developed a Cosmos-based Layer-1 network for tokenized assets and digital settlement after banking disruptions affected businesses under its leadership.

According to Ault Blockchain, the project seeks to reduce the role of traditional financial institutions in settlement while supporting decentralized trading and other onchain financial applications. The company has positioned the network as infrastructure for compliant businesses that may lose access to banking services despite operating within regulatory limits.

Built by Ault Capital Group, a subsidiary of Hyperscale Data, the blockchain will support tokenized real-world assets and institutional settlement. Its design combines the Cosmos Layer-1 architecture with Ethereum Virtual Machine compatibility, allowing developers to run smart contracts created for Ethereum.

The project comes as U.S. lawmakers debate banking access for crypto companies and other lawful businesses. Industry participants have used the term “debanking” to describe cases in which financial institutions restrict or terminate services for companies involved in digital assets.

Banking disruptions shaped the network

Ault Blockchain founder Todd Ault has linked the network’s design to banking problems faced by companies under his leadership. During the COVID-19 period, according to Ault, one business lost access to money held in its account and received a limited period to transfer the funds elsewhere.

Based on those experiences, Ault Blockchain has focused on creating settlement infrastructure that does not stop operating when a banking relationship ends. The company has described continued access as a central part of the project, rather than presenting the network only as a way to lower fees or process transactions faster.

As reported by crypto.news, Ault Capital launched the network’s public testnet in February, opening the Cosmos-based system for institutional onchain trading and settlement. The testnet also gave developers access to its EVM environment, which executes Ethereum-based smart contracts within the Cosmos architecture.

Ault Capital’s background differs from many teams developing new Layer-1 blockchains. The publicly listed corporate group operates across Bitcoin mining, artificial intelligence hardware and data centers, giving the project links to businesses that already use computing and digital-asset infrastructure.

Governance and token rules limit open access

Compliance requirements have also influenced how Ault Blockchain will operate. According to the company, governance will use a Wyoming DAO LLC structure, while participants must complete identity checks before taking part.

Voting rights will face additional limits intended to prevent control from becoming concentrated among a small number of participants, the company stated. Through its DAO-led framework, eligible members will oversee protocol rules, economic settings and long-term network upgrades using onchain governance.

Unlike many blockchain projects, Ault Blockchain does not plan to sell its native token through a public offering. The company expects to distribute tokens over an extended period under a schedule linked to mining-node participation and measurable network activity.

This model ties token allocation to contributions made inside the ecosystem instead of an upfront public sale. According to Ault Blockchain, the structure supports its plan to serve identified participants and regulated businesses seeking onchain settlement without depending entirely on traditional banking relationships.

Cardano has fallen 1.39% to $0.1628 as rising short positions have outweighed whale demand two days before the Van Rossem hard fork.

According to data from crypto.news, from July 16 showed ADA traded between an intraday low of $0.1611 and a high of $0.1664, extending its retreat from an early-July peak near $0.195. The decline came even as large holders accumulated ADA and Cardano prepared to activate its most important network update in years.

CoinGlass data placed ADA’s weighted funding rate at -0.0067%, indicating that traders holding short positions were paying those betting on a price increase. The long-to-short ratio stood at 0.58, while open interest rose 4% to $421 million as traders added new leveraged positions.

Those readings show that derivatives traders remained positioned for further losses before the upgrade, according to CoinGlass. However, the concentration of short bets also raises the risk of liquidations if ADA moves sharply higher.

Whale demand collides with bearish futures bets

Notably, wallets holding between 100,000 and 100 million ADA had increased their balances to the highest level since 2023. The accumulation is possible positioning by large investors before Van Rossem goes live.

Cardano’s governance approved the hard fork on July 13, according to Intersect, with activation scheduled for July 18. Intersect has also urged infrastructure providers to update their software before the network crosses the hard fork boundary.

Van Rossem is expected to lower execution costs, which would make transactions and applications cheaper to run on Cardano, according to Intersect. The update will also prepare the network for Leios, a later scaling upgrade intended to increase transaction capacity before the end of 2026.

The upgrade follows Vasil, which improved Cardano’s network performance and smart-contract efficiency when it activated on Sept. 22, 2022, according to Cardano’s official hard-fork record.

Despite the whale purchases, TradingView’s daily chart showed ADA holding below the Murrey Math resistance at $0.1709. Chaikin Money Flow remained slightly positive at 0.04, suggesting that buying pressure had not disappeared even as the token lost ground.

ADA faces liquidity pressure near $0.160

On the 4-hour chart, ADA had crossed above a descending trendline drawn from its July peak, but the move had not produced a sustained rally. TradingView’s Relative Strength Index stood at 46.92, below its moving average of 50.95, placing momentum on the bearish side of neutral without showing oversold conditions.

The same chart placed the nearest major Murrey Math support at $0.1465. A daily close above $0.1709 would instead clear the bottom of the indicated trading range and leave the $0.1953 pivot as the next visible resistance.

CoinGlass’s three-day liquidation heatmap showed the nearest dense liquidity pool between $0.160 and $0.161, directly below ADA’s market price. A larger concentration appeared around $0.170, closely matching the resistance shown on the daily chart.

Based on the heatmap, a drop below $0.160 could trigger leveraged long liquidations and expose the $0.1465 support. A move through $0.170, however, could force short sellers to close positions and strengthen the recovery attempt as Van Rossem goes live.

Morgan Stanley’s E*TRADE has begun offering spot cryptocurrency trading to eligible self-directed clients, adding Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana to a platform that previously focused on traditional assets. The firm says the rollout is powered by a partnership with crypto infrastructure provider Zero Hash, with additional tooling—particularly for moving assets in and out of the platform—expected later this year.

According to a Morgan Stanley financial supplement, the self-directed channel serves 8.6 million households and held about $1.56 trillion in client assets as of March 31. The company’s update positions E*TRADE’s customer interface to mirror how many investors already view stocks and ETFs—now alongside major cryptocurrencies—while the back-end custody and transfer mechanics roll out in stages.

Key takeaways

• E*TRADE spot crypto trading is now live for eligible clients, covering Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana.
• Trading fees are set at 50 basis points, while custody and transaction services are handled via separate Zero Hash accounts.
• Digital asset custody through this structure is not covered by FDIC or SIPC protections, and Morgan Stanley expects later to transition services to Morgan Stanley Digital Trust.
• Transfers of cryptocurrency on and off the platform are expected later this year, following the initial trading launch.
• The move follows a May pilot and fits Morgan Stanley’s broader digital asset push, including stablecoin reserve services and spot ETF launches.

How E*TRADE’s spot crypto offering works

In Thursday’s announcement, Morgan Stanley said E*TRADE clients can buy, sell, and hold spot cryptocurrencies through the firm’s self-directed platform. While the user experience is designed to keep crypto holdings visible alongside stocks and other investments, the company’s implementation relies on Zero Hash for key parts of the service.

Specifically, Morgan Stanley outlined that trades carry a 50-basis-point fee. Custody and transaction-related services are routed through separate Zero Hash accounts that, importantly, are not covered by FDIC or SIPC protections. That distinction matters to customers evaluating risk and protections versus what they may expect from traditional brokerage or bank-like coverage.

The firm also indicated it plans to transition digital asset services to Morgan Stanley Digital Trust—its national trust bank that is currently in organization. The staged approach suggests the trading experience can launch while some compliance and operational infrastructure continues to develop or be consolidated under Morgan Stanley’s trust structure.

From pilot to broader access

Thursday’s launch follows a pilot that began in May, when Morgan Stanley tested the service with a limited group of users before expanding access to eligible E*TRADE clients. Earlier coverage from Cointelegraph noted that the company was preparing its spot crypto offering with a constrained initial user base, which can be a practical way to validate trading flows, onboarding, and operational controls before scaling.

Another notable element of Thursday’s update is what’s not yet fully available: Morgan Stanley said transfer functionality for moving digital assets on and off the platform is expected later this year. For many investors, the ability to withdraw to external wallets—or to deposit from one—is as important as the ability to trade. Until transfers are enabled, the offering may function more like a trading-and-holding experience within the platform ecosystem.

Broader digital asset strategy: ETFs and stablecoin services

This E*TRADE expansion arrives as Morgan Stanley has been deepening its digital asset involvement across multiple channels. The firm has already moved into areas that reach beyond direct retail spot trading, including stablecoin reserve services and spot exchange-traded products.

In April, Morgan Stanley introduced a stablecoin reserve offering that allows issuers to hold assets backing their tokens in one of the firm’s money market funds while earning interest, according to earlier reporting by Cointelegraph in connection with the launch. Later that same month, Morgan Stanley also launched a spot Bitcoin ETF on NYSE Arca with a 0.14% management fee, which Cointelegraph reported at the time as the lowest-cost Bitcoin ETF on the US market. That ETF debuted as the first spot Bitcoin ETF launched by a major US commercial bank.

Cointelegraph also reported that during the ETF’s first six trading days it attracted more than $100 million in net inflows. At the time of writing, the fund reportedly had about $385 million in cumulative net inflows, based on SoSoValue data for the product.

Meanwhile, regulatory and product design details continue to evolve. In June, Morgan Stanley amended proposed spot Ether and Solana ETF filings to set management fees at 0.14%, after previously applying fees in January when first seeking to list the funds. The commonality of that fee level underscores a competitive intent in a crowded ETF landscape, where management expense ratios can influence investor flows.

What investors should watch next

With E*TRADE’s spot crypto trading now available, the next milestones for customers are likely operational rather than marketing-driven: the timing of deposit/withdrawal transfer capabilities later this year and the planned transition of services to Morgan Stanley Digital Trust. For traders, the fee structure is already defined, but the most practical question remains how quickly customers will gain full flexibility to move assets beyond the brokerage environment.

Former Fidelity fund manager George Noble has warned that an AI bubble crash could cause 17 times more damage than the dot-com collapse, which erased about $5 trillion from the Nasdaq.

According to Polymarket, the probability of an AI bubble bursting in 2026 has climbed above 17% after recently falling from 30% to 14%. Contracts using different resolution criteria placed the likelihood between 16% and 24% as traders weighed falling technology shares, revenue concerns, and weakness across global markets.

Noble tied his forecast to the large sums flowing into AI infrastructure, arguing that the financial fallout could extend far beyond technology companies if expected returns fail to arrive.

“The fallout from this could really be much more significant,” Noble said while discussing the rise in AI capital spending.

AI bubble odds have rebounded above 17%

Fresh pressure on semiconductor and technology shares has added to those concerns. The Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. stock futures fell on Thursday as AI-related anxiety spread from Asian markets, where SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics dropped almost 9%.

Both South Korean chipmakers plan to spend billions of dollars on semiconductor plants and AI capacity. Their declines came as investors questioned whether the revenue generated by AI services would justify the industry’s expanding infrastructure bill, according to the report.

IBM has added to the unease after its shares suffered their steepest daily fall since 1968, dropping almost 25% earlier this week. Market data cited in the report showed IBM closing another 2.7% lower at $211.20 on Wednesday, taking its decline over several sessions past 26%.

In its warning, IBM said spending on AI infrastructure was pulling corporate budgets away from software, contributing to weaker-than-expected revenue growth. The selloff erased tens of billions of dollars from IBM’s market value and weighed on other software and information technology stocks, according to the report.

A draft U.S. Treasury Department report has also examined how an AI downturn could move through the economy. Drawing on research from the University of Texas at Austin cited by NOTUS, the report found that AI companies have become more closely linked to the U.S. economy than internet companies were during the dot-com period.

Under the report’s downside scenario, disappointing productivity or profits could hurt private credit, chipmakers, cloud providers, electric utilities, and companies financing data centers. The Treasury did not predict an imminent crash, but it listed electricity shortages, financing limits, supply chain disruptions, and geopolitical tensions among the risks facing the sector.

Cash demands could expose inflated AI valuations

Ray Dalio has separately argued that liquidity, rather than weak technology, could break the AI boom. During a television interview reported by Bloomberg, the Bridgewater Associates founder explained that investors often mistake rising asset values for money they can readily spend.

Dalio used private companies to illustrate the risk: a business can receive a billion-dollar valuation after raising far less in actual capital, but shareholders cannot use that paper wealth without selling. In his assessment, stress would emerge if many investors attempted to turn those valuations into cash at the same time.

Bernstein and Cummings have pointed to another pressure building beneath the boom. In a recent Substack post, the economists wrote that the AI bubble was “still inflating,” while technology investment had reached nearly 5% of U.S. GDP, above levels recorded during the dot-com era.

Their analysis also found that large technology companies were committing enough capital to AI projects to reduce their cash reserves. Combined with Noble’s warning and Dalio’s liquidity concerns, those figures leave investors focused on whether AI earnings can catch up with the money already committed to the sector.

Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao has challenged Wall Street’s projected $700 billion AI spending wave by arguing that Bitcoin offers protection against inflation that artificial intelligence cannot provide.

On X, Zhao presented the difference between the two investment themes in a single line: “AI is great, but it does not protect you against inflation. Bitcoin does.”

CZ’s comment comes as investors weigh Bitcoin’s fixed supply against the rapid flow of capital into AI infrastructure. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon expects AI investment to reach $725 billion this year, while BlackRock executives see rising government debt and currency concerns strengthening Bitcoin’s long-term case.

Bitcoin’s case rests on fiscal pressure

According to BlackRock digital assets chief Robert Mitchnick, investors have recently paid less attention to Bitcoin as spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds recorded heavy outflows. Mitchnick believes that trend could reverse if concerns about U.S. borrowing and currency debasement intensify.

“And the more fear there is over the borrowing level and the risk of money printing, that is ultimately the most important, I think fundamental driver ahead.”

Bitcoin recently traded near $65,000 after recovering from an earlier decline. However, the cryptocurrency remained well below its October 2025 record of more than $126,000, which was reached during a period of strong inflows into BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF.

CZ’s inflation argument follows the same monetary case outlined by Mitchnick. While AI companies depend on future revenue from heavy capital spending, Bitcoin supporters view the asset’s limited supply as protection against the loss of purchasing power caused by monetary expansion.

Former Fidelity fund manager George Noble has raised a separate concern about the amount of money entering AI infrastructure. As reported by crypto.news, Noble warned that an AI crash could cause 17 times more damage than the dot-com collapse, which erased about $5 trillion from the Nasdaq.

“The fallout from this could really be much more significant,” Noble said while discussing the rise in AI capital spending.

AI spending keeps Wall Street divided

Despite those warnings, Dimon remains optimistic about AI because of the large investments moving through the industry and the strength of the U.S. economy. The JPMorgan chief described the spending cycle as difficult to stop while comparing it to a wave gathering force.

“We’re in a bull market. It’s like a little tsunami. When that kind of thing happens, it’s very hard to stop.”

Dimon has repeatedly criticized Bitcoin in previous years, although he has recently expressed concern about government borrowing and geopolitical risks over the next several years.

Polymarket traders have also assigned a meaningful chance to an AI downturn. According to the prediction market, one contract placed the probability of an AI bubble bursting in 2026 above 17% after the odds previously dropped from 30% to 14%. Other contracts using different settlement rules showed probabilities ranging from 16% to 24%.

Former White House economists Jared Bernstein and Ryan Cummings have added to the caution around AI valuations. Writing on their respective Substacks, they described the bubble as “still inflating” and argued that corporate AI spending is reducing cash reserves while technology investment consumes a larger share of U.S. gross domestic product than during the dot-com era.

Within BlackRock, Rick Rieder has indicated that the asset manager plans to reduce exposure to companies directly spending on AI while increasing holdings in businesses positioned to profit from AI demand. Bitcoin miner TeraWulf fits that second category after signing a 20-year agreement to host AI data-center infrastructure for Anthropic.