Crypto World
US credit card customers are saddled with $1.28T in debt
U.S. credit card balances reached $1.28 trillion by the end of the fourth quarter, marking a $44 billion increase in debt over the three-month period, according to data released Tuesday by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Summary
- The increase reflects growing reliance on credit cards as household finances remain under pressure.
- Balances are up 5.5% year-over-year.
- The figures are part of the Fed’s quarterly household debt report, which monitors credit cards alongside mortgages, auto loans, and student debt.
The figures represent the highest level of credit card debt on record for American consumers. The quarterly increase reflects growing reliance on credit cards as household finances face continued pressure.
Year-over-year data showed balances climbed 5.5% compared to the same period in 2023, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York report.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York releases quarterly reports on household debt and credit as part of its ongoing economic monitoring activities. The data tracks various forms of consumer debt including mortgages, auto loans, student loans and credit card balances.
Credit card debt represents one component of total household debt in the U.S., which includes multiple categories of consumer borrowing tracked by federal banking authorities.
Former SafeMoon CEO Braden Karony has been sentenced to 100 months in prison for stealing $9 million from the crypto platform’s liquidity pool in 2021 to fund a “lavish lifestyle.”
The sentence on Monday comes nine months after Karony was convicted by a federal jury on charges of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering in May 2025.
“Not only did Braden John Karony abuse his position as CEO, but he also betrayed his investors’ trust by stealing more than nine million dollars in digital assets from his company to fund his lavish lifestyle,” FBI assistant director James C. Barnacle, Jr. said.
Karony used the stolen proceeds to purchase a $2.2 million home in Utah, an Audi R8 sports car, a Tesla, a custom Ford F-550 and Jeep Gladiator pickup trucks.
“Karony lied to investors from all walks of life — including military veterans and hard-working Americans,” US Attorney Joseph Nocella, Jr. said, adding:
“Today’s sentence demonstrates that there are significant consequences for financial crimes. Our Office will continue to vigorously prosecute economic crimes that harm investors and weaken societal trust in the stability and security of digital asset markets.”
Karony was ordered to forfeit approximately $7.5 million, the Department of Justice said, while the amount of restitution to the victims will be determined at a later date.
Two SafeMoon execs convicted, one at large
SafeMoon’s former chief technology officer, Thomas Smith, pleaded guilty in February 2025 to conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud and is awaiting sentencing.
SafeMoon platform’s creator, Kyle Nagy, remains at large, the DOJ added.
Karony is one of many former crypto executives who have now been convicted and sentenced for crimes committed during the 2021-2022 market cycle, when retail market participation was at its peak.
Others who have been convicted include former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky, who are currently serving 25-year and 12-year sentences, respectively.
Related: Crypto PACs secure massive war chests ahead of US midterms
US President Donald Trump said on Jan. 8 that he wouldn’t pardon the former FTX boss, despite having pardoned former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao in October.
Bankman-Fried hasn’t given up, having asked a federal appeals panel for a new trial on Thursday.
Magazine: The critical reason you should never ask ChatGPT for legal advice
Robinhood has launched the public testnet for Robinhood Chain, a financial-grade Ethereum Layer-2 built on Arbitrum. Johann Kerbrat, SVP and General Manager of Robinhood Crypto, announced the testnet at Consensus Hong Kong on Wednesday, marking the first public development phase of a chain first teased at the company’s Cannes keynote last year.
In an interview with BeInCrypto in Hong Kong ahead of the announcement, Kerbrat outlined the company’s vision for the chain, including tokenized real-world assets, 24/7 trading, and a $1 million developer hackathon program.
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Why Build Its Own Chain
The testnet opens access to network entry points, developer documentation, and full compatibility with standard Ethereum development tools. Ecosystem partners, including Alchemy and LayerZero, are already building on the chain.
The launch comes at a critical moment. Robinhood disclosed $1.28 billion in fourth-quarter revenue on Tuesday, missing analyst expectations of $1.35 billion. Crypto transaction revenue fell to $221 million from $268 million the previous quarter as Bitcoin dropped 23% during the period. The company’s stock has slid from an all-time high of $154 in October amid the broader crypto downturn.
Robinhood first brought tokenized US equities to EU customers in July 2025 through a partnership with Arbitrum, offering commission-free tokens linked to more than 200 US stocks and ETFs. The product now covers over 1,000 stock tokens across the EU and EEA. But the company always intended to migrate to its own chain.
“It was a two-step process from the beginning. Arbitrum’s technology allows you to launch first on Arbitrum One and then migrate to your own proprietary chain,” Kerbrat told BeInCrypto.
The central motivation is customization. General-purpose Layer 2 networks handle compliance at the smart contract level, but Robinhood Chain embeds regulatory requirements directly into the chain layer. This distinction matters for tokenized securities, where minting and burning stock tokens must comply with different rules across jurisdictions.
The chain itself remains permissionless — anyone can build on it — but the products Robinhood develops on top are designed specifically for regulated financial services.
From Stock Tokens to Real-World Assets
Tokenized public equities were the starting point, but Robinhood’s ambitions extend well beyond listed stocks. Kerbrat said the company’s tokenization engine is designed to eventually support private equity, real estate, art, and other real-world assets.
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A key part of the value proposition is expanding trading hours. Robinhood’s stock tokens currently trade 24 hours a day, five days a week. The migration to Robinhood Chain is expected to enable 24/7 trading — removing the remaining gaps tied to traditional market schedules.
Instant settlement and self-custody are also on the roadmap, along with integration with liquidity pools and lending protocols. Together, these features represent a significant upgrade from the current tokenized stock product, which relies on Arbitrum One infrastructure.
Developer Ecosystem and DeFi Focus
In the near term, Robinhood is focused on attracting developers to build decentralized exchanges, perpetual trading platforms, and lending protocols on the chain. These are natural extensions of its existing brokerage and crypto products.
To jumpstart the ecosystem, the company is planning a series of hackathons across multiple geographies with a total prize pool of $1 million. Kerbrat said the focus will be squarely on financial applications.
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Asia-Pacific Expansion
The testnet launch at Consensus Hong Kong coincides with Robinhood’s deepening push into the Asia-Pacific region. Robinhood completed its $200 million acquisition of Bitstamp in June 2025, gaining access to the exchange’s more than 50 active licenses and registrations worldwide, as well as its institutional crypto-as-a-service business.
Kerbrat said the event provided an opportunity to meet Bitstamp’s Singapore-based clients in person. Through the acquisition, Robinhood now holds licenses in Singapore and Indonesia. It also acquired two smaller Indonesian companies to build a local presence.
Indonesia, with roughly 13 million crypto users, is a priority market. Kerbrat said early conversations with Indonesian regulators have been positive, with discussions centering on AML compliance and risk disclosures rather than resistance to the company’s entry.
Robinhood’s regulatory track record — spanning FINRA, New York DFS, MiCA in the EU, and MAS in Singapore — gives the company confidence in navigating different jurisdictions, Kerbrat said.
Diversifying the Revenue Model
The Q4 earnings miss underscores a persistent concern: Robinhood’s heavy reliance on transaction-based revenue, particularly from crypto trading. The company is working to diversify on multiple fronts.
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Staking, launched in the US in 2025, has reached approximately $1 billion in staked assets. The Robinhood Chain itself is intended to generate new forms of infrastructure-driven revenue over time.
On the trading side, Robinhood has invested in advanced tools to attract high-frequency and high-volume traders — a segment that provides a more stable revenue baseline even in softer markets, according to Kerbrat. The company also expanded its fee tiers from three to seven, with rates as low as 0.03% for high-volume traders.
The institutional channel is also growing. Bitstamp’s crypto-as-a-service offering lets banks, hedge funds, and family offices provide their clients with access to crypto. Kerbrat noted that institutions tend to enter the market during downturns, providing a countercyclical buffer.
Meanwhile, prediction markets have emerged as a bright spot. CEO Vlad Tenev said at a company event in December that prediction markets are Robinhood’s “fastest-growing product line by revenue ever,” with 11 billion contracts traded by more than one million customers.
What’s Next
The public testnet is the first phase of a multi-step rollout. Robinhood plans to migrate its existing stock token products to the chain before eventually transitioning to the mainnet. No specific timeline for the mainnet launch has been disclosed.
“Our vision hasn’t changed: we are building the financial superapp,” Tenev said in the company’s Q4 earnings statement.
CNBC’s Jim Cramer claimed the Trump administration may buy Bitcoin for a proposed U.S. Strategic Reserve, reportedly targeting a $60,000 entry price amid recent market volatility — a statement denounced by George Noble, former aide to famed investor Peter Lynch.
Summary
- Cramer suggested on CNBC that the U.S. government would buy Bitcoin at $60,000.
- The assertion drew backlash from George Noble, who called the claim “complete nonsense” and noted Cramer’s history of inaccurate market predictions.
- Treasury testimony and blockchain data confirm the government cannot legally buy Bitcoin with public funds; current holdings come only from criminal seizures, and wallets have remained unchanged.
Noble described Cramer’s assertion as “complete nonsense,” highlighting that the remarks came at a time when Bitcoin had fallen 52% from its October high, wiping out over $1.2 trillion in market value. “No source. No evidence. No documentation. Just ‘I heard,’” Noble wrote on X.com, criticizing Cramer’s history of inaccurate market predictions, including his prior calls on Bear Stearns and Silicon Valley Bank.
Citing Treasury testimony and blockchain analytics, Noble emphasized that the federal government has no legal authority to buy Bitcoin with public funds. A 2025 executive order limits government-held Bitcoin to assets obtained from criminal seizures, and blockchain firm Arkham reports government wallets holding 328,000 BTC have remained untouched for over a month.
“Zero on-chain evidence. Zero official confirmation. Zero legal authority,” Noble wrote, urging investors to question motives behind media narratives during market panic. He contrasted Bitcoin’s performance with gold, noting that while Bitcoin lost half its value, gold surged to $5,020 an ounce, highlighting its role as a stable store of value.
Noble concluded with a lesson from Lynch: “When someone tells you to buy during a panic, ask what they own. If they can’t show you receipts, they’re showing you the exit.”
The exchange underscores ongoing scrutiny over cryptocurrency commentary and raises questions about the influence of high-profile financial media figures on investor behavior during volatile markets.
TLDR:
- Saylor identifies regulatory support from five federal agencies as a major bullish signal for Bitcoin
- Banking sector adoption will legitimize Bitcoin, reduce volatility, and boost utility across markets
- MicroStrategy will not issue equity to buy Bitcoin if it decreases Bitcoin per share going forward
- Company maintains two to three years of dividend coverage for STRC to ensure creditworthiness stability
Michael Saylor addressed MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin strategy during the Q4 2025 earnings call on February 6. The founder identified regulatory support as a primary driver behind Bitcoin’s price appreciation.
He emphasized that favorable conditions from federal agencies create an unprecedented environment for digital assets.
Banking sector adoption represents another critical factor that could enhance Bitcoin’s legitimacy and reduce market volatility.
Regulatory Framework and Institutional Adoption Drive Bitcoin Growth
Saylor stated that “regulatory support is a fundamental catalyst for Bitcoin’s price rise.” He noted the current landscape is the most constructive ever, involving the Fed, Treasury, CFTC, SEC, and White House Digital Asset Lead.
He described “these five factors are a major bullish signal” for the digital asset market. Their coordinated approach marks a departure from previous uncertain regulatory stances.
The banking sector’s involvement constitutes the second major catalyst for Bitcoin advancement. Saylor explained that “as major institutions allow trading, custody, and Bitcoin-backed lending, it will legitimize the asset, reduce volatility, and boost utility.”
This integration brings traditional finance credibility to digital assets. Additionally, institutional participation should decrease price volatility over time.
Management views these developments as transformative for Bitcoin’s market position. The combination of regulatory clarity and banking infrastructure creates sustainable growth conditions.
Unlike previous cycles driven by speculation, current momentum stems from institutional validation. This shift represents a maturation phase for the entire digital asset industry.
The earnings call focused heavily on MicroStrategy’s evolving Bitcoin acquisition strategy. Analysts questioned various aspects of the company’s approach to managing its digital treasury.
Management addressed concerns about balancing Bitcoin yield with overall holdings growth. These discussions revealed the complexity of corporate Bitcoin adoption at scale.
Strategic Capital Allocation and Credit Quality Considerations
The company acknowledged executing dilutive transactions during the quarter. Management explained these moves aimed to eliminate problematic debt instruments and build USD reserves.
Credit quality improvement took priority over short-term Bitcoin per share metrics. Management stated that “going forward, equity would not be issued to buy Bitcoin if it decreases Bitcoin per share, unless it’s essential to defend the company’s credit.”
Tom Lee raised important questions about quantum computing threats to Bitcoin wallets. Management declined to advocate specific technical solutions but expressed support for community consensus.
They believe the network will address technological challenges through established governance mechanisms. This approach maintains the company’s focus on treasury operations rather than protocol development.
Analysts explored how capital allocation might shift under changing Federal Reserve leadership. Management outlined a responsive strategy tied to market conditions.
They monitor investor appetite for equity versus credit instruments closely. Capital market programs adjust based on actual demand signals rather than policy predictions.
Questions about STRC focused on reserve requirements and derivative product risks. Management explained they “target two to three years of dividend coverage” for reserves.
They actively monitor leveraged products built around STRC. The company “can’t lower the rate more than 25 basis points a month” according to management. Rate adjustments aim “to keep STRC between $99-101″ within acceptable trading ranges.
The credit rating achievement opened new institutional channels for MicroStrategy. Analyst Andrew Hart inquired about opportunities following this milestone.
Management reported positive market reception and expects increased institutional participation. Regarding convertible notes, the company would consider early refinancing one year before put events. However, management views existing converts as manageable rather than problematic.
Ethereum wallets have evolved fast—but permissions haven’t.
We went from single private keys to smart contract wallets, from EOAs to Account Abstraction, from manual signing to automation. Yet one core problem keeps resurfacing:
Wallet access is still mostly all-or-nothing.
ERC-8004 exists to fix that.
The Problem With Today’s Wallet Permissions
Most wallets today operate on a blunt security model:
If you give access to a bot, dApp, or automation tool, you’re often granting far more power than intended. That’s why:
Smart wallets became programmable—but permissions stayed primitive.
What ERC-8004 Proposes
ERC-8004 is a proposed Ethereum standard designed to introduce fine-grained, programmable permissions for smart wallets.
Instead of blanket approval, wallets can define explicit constraints, such as:
-
Who can act on behalf of the wallet
-
Which contracts can be interacted with
-
Spending caps per transaction or time window
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Allowed function calls
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Expiration times
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Gas or sponsorship rules
In plain English:
ERC-8004 lets you say “yes, but only like this.”
Why This Matters for Account Abstraction
ERC-8004 pairs naturally with ERC-4337 (Account Abstraction).
ERC-4337 changes how transactions are executed.
ERC-8004 pairs naturally with ERC-4337 (Account Abstraction).
ERC-4337 changes how transactions are executed.
ERC-8004 defines what is allowed to be executed.
Together, they enable:
Without a permission layer like ERC-8004, Account Abstraction wallets remain powerful—but dangerous.
The Automation & AI Angle
DeFi’s next phase isn’t more dashboards. Its agents.
Bots that:
But automation without constraints is a liability.
ERC-8004 allows:
-
Bots that can trade, but not withdraw
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Agents that operate only on approved protocols
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Limits that cap damage from bugs or exploits
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Time-boxed permissions that self-revoke
This is the difference between autonomy and recklessness.
Current Status: Early, But Inevitable
Important reality check:
That said, the direction is unavoidable.
As wallets become the control layer for capital, identity, AI, and on-chain automation, permission abstraction becomes mandatory, not optional.
Why ERC-8004 (or Something Like It) Will Win
Crypto doesn’t fail because of a lack of power.
It fails because power is unsafe to use.
ERC-8004 introduces:
In the long run, users won’t ask:
“Can my wallet do this?”
They’ll ask:
“Can my wallet do this safely?”
ERC-8004 is one of the first serious attempts to answer that question.
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Balancer’s security team had earlier posted a 20% one-time offer to the attacker behind the November exploit.
Balancer’s community approved a proposal to offer up to 10% as a bounty for information or returned assets tied to the decentralized automated market maker’s exploit in November, with the vote reaching quorum and passing in this round of governance.
Proposal BIP-908 passed unanimously in a Feb. 10 snapshot vote, with 100% of participants in favor and a quorum of 158%, although only nine votes were cast and a single vote represented over 76% of the total voting power.
The proposal, submitted by Balancer DAO executor Maxyz, sets the bounty at a maximum of 10% of the recovered value. It’s worth noting that the Balancer security team initially offered a 20% one-time whitehat bounty right after the hack, which this proposal cuts in half.
The November 2025 attack drained roughly $128 million from Balancer V2 pools by exploiting a rounding and precision bug in composable stable-pool math and using batch-swap mechanics to quickly extract funds. The losses affected several networks, including Ethereum, Polygon, Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, Sonic and Berachain.
As The Defiant reported earlier, Gnosis Chain, also affected by the Balancer hack, chose to implement a hard fork to return funds that had been frozen because of the exploit.
While recovery teams have already returned some funds, a significant portion still sits in attacker addresses.
Balancer is currently ranked 11th among DEXs by daily volumes, with just over $203 million traded in the past 24 hours.
HONG KONG — Robinhood launched its public testnet for its own Ethereum layer-2 blockchain on Wednesday with plans for broader launch later this year as the brokerage app aims to move more trading activity onchain.
The new network, called Robinhood Chain, is built on Arbitrum and is designed to support tokenized real-world assets, including equities, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and other assets. Developers will be able to publicly build on the network for the first time after six months of private testing, ahead of a future mainnet launch, the company announced at CoinDesk’s Consensus Hong Kong conference.
With the chain, Robinhood aims to allow users to trade 24/7 and self-custody their assets in Robinhood’s own crypto wallet. Users will also be able to bridge across different chains and to decentralized finance (DeFi) applications on Ethereum , the company said in a press release.
The timing comes as Ethereum’s core roadmap shifts more attention back to the base layer. Certain upgrades have already lowered transaction costs, and further improvements are expected to continue easing congestion, a development that weakens the case for layer-2s as a pure scaling necessity.
Robinhood’s approach suggests it is already operating under that assumption.
“I think Vitalik [Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum] was always pretty clear on this, that L2s were not just here to scale Ethereum,” said Johann Kerbrat, Robinhood’s senior vice president and general manager of crypto, in an interview with CoinDesk.
“For us, it was never really about scaling Ethereum or doing faster transactions,” Kerbrat added.
The move builds on Robinhood’s earlier steps into tokenization. Last year, the company rolled out token versions of U.S. stocks and ETFs for European users with dividend payments and extended market hours.
Those assets — almost 2,000 stocks and ETFs, according to data by Entropy Advisors on Dune Analytics — were initially issued on Arbitrum. However, the $15 million in total value of the equity tokens Robinhood minted is lagging behind leading issuers xStocks and Ondo Global Markets.
When rollups — ways of processing transactions on layer-2 networks to ease congestion on the base network — first gained traction, they were widely framed as Ethereum’s answer to high fees and limited throughput. As Ethereum’s layer-1 capacity improves, that narrative is giving way to a different one: layer-2s as customizable, application-specific environments that can embed features difficult to implement on Ethereum itself.
“What we wanted was the security of Ethereum, the liquidity that is available on EVM chains and the Ethereum ecosystem,” Kerbrat said. “But we were also wanting to have a way to customize the chain and to make it really optimized for traditional assets being tokenized.”
Rather than competing with other high-speed trading-focused rollups, Robinhood Chain is being designed around tokenized equities and other regulated financial products, where compliance requirements vary by jurisdiction.
“The complexity to recreate the entire financial system, and on top of that to bring more things on it, makes it that I think chains are going to specialize,” Kerbrat said. “You’ll see chains that are more specialized for payments, and you’ll see chains like ours that are going to be more specialized around tokenized equity.”
Buterin has recently argued that some rollups may need to accept different decentralization trade-offs, particularly when compliance or real-world assets are involved, a view that has stirred debate across the ecosystem.
For Robinhood, Kerbrat said, that shift does not materially change its strategy.
“It doesn’t really change anything for us,” he said. “We’ve always been building with the idea that there are different compliance requirements based on the jurisdiction, and all these things can be embedded into the chain.”
Robinhood first announced plans for its own blockchain in June 2025, positioning the project as part of a broader push into tokenization and onchain finance. Since then, development has largely taken place out of public view.
With the testnet now live, developers can access network entry points, documentation, and standard Ethereum development tools. Ahead of mainnet, Robinhood plans to expand testnet functionality to include test-only assets, including stock tokens, along with deeper integrations with its wallet and other onchain financial tooling.
Read more: Robinhood explains building an Ethereum layer-2: ‘We wanted the security from Ethereum’
TLDR:
- Doppler Finance and OpenEden integrate tokenized U.S. Treasuries rated AA+ by S&P Global onto XRPL
- USDO stablecoin regulated by Bermuda Monetary Authority offers yield-bearing options for XRP holders
- Partnership enables direct access to Treasury-backed yield through XRPL-native infrastructure gateway
- Collaboration aims to strengthen RLUSD adoption and expand real-world asset utility on XRP Ledger
Doppler Finance and OpenEden announced a strategic partnership on February 10, 2026, to expand institutional-grade real-world asset yield opportunities on the XRP Ledger.
The collaboration will integrate OpenEden’s tokenized U.S. Treasury Bills and regulated stablecoin into Doppler’s XRPL-native yield protocol. This partnership aims to provide XRP and RLUSD holders with access to Treasury-backed yield opportunities.
The initiative centers on making institutional financial products more accessible through blockchain infrastructure.
Integration of Tokenized Assets into XRPL Infrastructure
The partnership focuses on bringing OpenEden’s TBILL and USDO tokens to the XRP Ledger through Doppler’s yield protocol. TBILL represents tokenized U.S. Treasury Bills with an S&P Global rating of AA+.
Meanwhile, USDO operates as a yield-bearing stablecoin under prudential regulation by the Bermuda Monetary Authority. Both assets will connect to XRPL-native liquidity through Doppler’s on-chain gateway infrastructure.
OpenEden shared details about the partnership on social media platforms. The company emphasized the integration of institutional-grade RWA yield products into Ripple’s ecosystem.
The announcement mentioned RLUSD, which currently trades around $0.99, as a key component of the collaboration.
The technical integration will enable XRP and RLUSD holders to access U.S. Treasury-backed returns directly on-chain.
This approach removes traditional barriers that previously required institutional infrastructure for such financial products. The structure maintains regulatory compliance while expanding access to a broader range of participants.
The collaboration also addresses the growing demand for yield-bearing options within the XRP Ledger ecosystem.
By connecting real-world assets to blockchain infrastructure, the partnership creates new pathways for capital deployment. This connection bridges traditional finance instruments with decentralized ledger technology.
Ecosystem Development and Market Education Initiatives
Beyond product integration, both organizations plan to collaborate on research and educational initiatives. These efforts will explore how regulated tokenized assets can enhance XRPL’s functionality and liquidity depth. The partnership seeks to establish best practices for RWA implementation within blockchain ecosystems.
Speaking about the partnership’s vision, Rox, Head of Institutions at Doppler Finance, stated that “real-world assets will play a critical role in bringing institutional-grade financial infrastructure on-chain.”
The executive added that “by working with OpenEden, we aim to help make RWA-backed yield opportunities more accessible to XRP and RLUSD holders through transparent, XRPL-native structures.”
Commenting on the collaboration’s strategic direction, Jeremy Ng, Founder and CEO of OpenEden, explained that “the partnership with Doppler Finance reinforces our view that the next phase of on-chain finance will be driven by regulated, real-world assets integrated into native blockchain ecosystems.”
He further noted that “beyond access to Treasury-backed yield, our joint focus is on making regulated, institutional-grade RWAs composable on XRPL to support its evolution into a more robust financial settlement layer.”
The collaboration reflects a commitment to expanding blockchain finance’s practical applications. Both companies focus on connecting traditional financial instruments with native blockchain infrastructure.
This approach prioritizes transparency and accessibility while supporting long-term ecosystem development. The partnership positions RLUSD as a crucial stablecoin within the XRPL framework through enhanced utility and yield opportunities.
Crypto World
Hong Kong (HKSAR) to continue support of local digital asset community, chief executive says
HONG KONG — Hong Kong is a growing locale for Web3 and crypto innovation, its chief executive said on Wednesday.
John KC Lee, the chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, opened CoinDesk’s Consensus Hong Kong conference with a brief speech about the city’s work to grow its crypto communities and businesses.
“The HKSAR Government is committed to establishing Hong Kong as a global hub for innovation in digital assets,” he said in taped remarks. “That’s why over the past few years, Hong Kong has been actively building the regulatory framework to promote the steady and sustainable development of our Web3 ecosystem.”
Hong Kong is positioned to take advantage of both growing crypto efforts and its existing position operating close to China and the broader financial markets, Lee said.
“Under the unique ‘one country, two systems’ principle, Hong Kong is the only city that converges both the China advantage and the global advantage,” he said. “… What’s more, Hong Kong’s financial regulatory system is robust, and our financial market stands out for its deep liquidity, innovative products and world-class investor protection.”
More specifically, he pointed to Hong Kong’s efforts in crypto, including last year’s policy statement on digital asset regulation and stablecoin work.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority is close to issuing licenses for stablecoin issuers, he said, saying that the first licenses may come out in the next month.
Similarly, Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission is working to grow the region’s virtual asset market liquidity to further “facilitate the development of this vibrant area of growth.”
“Hong Kong is in a strong position in promoting Web3 development,” he said. “Hong Kong will continue to go all out to stay at the forefront of this pivotal shift in finance and technology. We welcome companies and institutions from around the world to join hands with us, and build a brighter digital future together.”
The Arbitrum-based network is designed to support tokenized real-world assets and other on-chain financial services.
Robinhood has launched the public testnet for Robinhood Chain, an Ethereum Layer 2 network built on Arbitrum, which has a total value locked (TVL) of over $2.3 billion.
The testnet enables developers to start building apps and infrastructure on Robinhood Chain, which the company said is designed to support tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), lending platforms, perpetual futures exchanges, and other on-chain financial services, according to a press release viewed by The Defiant.
Johann Kerbrat, Robinhood’s head of crypto, said in an exclusive interview with The Defiant that the testnet is an early step toward building a broader on-chain financial ecosystem.
“We think that it’s really going to accelerate all the development of on-chain financial services and all this tokenization future that we’ve been talking [about] for a long time,” Kerbrat told Camila Russo, founder of The Defiant. “So the testnet is really the first step to lay down the groundwork for an ecosystem that will help define all the tokenized reward assets that we’re planning on launching.”
The move comes as more financial firms adopt on-chain technology and begin integrating products directly on blockchain networks. One area seeing especially fast growth is tokenized RWAs. Distributed Asset Value has reached $23.8 billion, up about 11% over the past month, according to RWAxyz data.
According to the release, the testnet gives developers access to basic network tools, documentation, and Ethereum development software built on Arbitrum. Robinhood said some infrastructure providers are already connecting to the network, with more expected to join as testing continues.
Developers will also gain access to testnet-only assets, including stock tokens, along with direct testing through Robinhood Wallet in the coming months.
Kerbrat described Robinhood Chain as permissionless, meaning anyone can deploy applications. However, apps that appear inside the Robinhood app would still need to meet internal product requirements, he said.
Robinhood also plans to be one of the first major builders on the network, Kerbrat said, and ultimately wants to move more of its own infrastructure on-chain.
“The first developer to build on the chain is really going to be Robinhood,” he said. “And our vision is not just to have one or two products there, but to have the entire Robinhood infrastructure to be slowly replaced by the blockchain.”
Kerbrat revealed that early partners involved in the launch include Alchemy, LayerZero, and others, which are helping support the first phase of the public testnet.
“But the more we continue to build, the more we’re going to also launch our own products that are going to be either in partnership or directly revenue-made product,” he added. “But I think for us, the idea is that it’s not just a revenue chain only, but also something that other developers can actually build on top of.”
Robinhood has already rolled out tokenized stock products in Europe, with the offerings expanding quickly – Kerbrat said they grew from about 200 assets at launch last June to roughly 2,000 today.
“So we [grew] 10x in less than a year. And that really shows how flexible our tokenization engine is,” Kerbrat said. “And we think that coming from there, we are really going to be able to use this engine for anything.”
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