Crypto Exchanges, Custody & Digital-Asset Infrastructure

A 50/50 joint venture between OKX and ICE, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, has filed to launch 24/7 tokenized US stock trading under the SEC's proposed five-year innovation exemption, the first major attempt by anyone to use that exemption. The initial list will have 63 stocks, including Strategy, Apple, Nvidia, Coinbase, Robinhood, Circle and major banks. Trading would run continuously, 24/7 365, through Uniswap liquidity pools on OKX's X layer and in USDC, USDG and USDT pairs, with users holding assets in self-custodial wallets subject to identity verification, AML and KYC. Unlike Robinhood-style representations, the tokens must be backed one for one by an actual share held through a registered broker dealer, and investors would receive dividends and voting rights just like on any stock. Companies have 30 days to object to having their stock tokenized.

Strategy added 334 bitcoin for $28.7 million while spending $176.3 million to buy back its STRC preferred stock, a sum roughly six times larger than its latest bitcoin purchase. The bitcoin purchase was funded with $15.7 million from issuing and selling MSTR shares and $13 million from Strategy's flexible USD cash pool, while the STRC buyback was funded with $154.1 million of its USD cash pile and $22.2 million of interest earned on its dollar holdings. Strategy now holds $4.88 billion in protected USD reserve and $833.4 million of flexible USD cash, and has spent about $64 billion in total on bitcoin at an average cost base of $75,440.70. Separately, a joint venture between OKX and Intercontinental Exchange, the parent of the New York Stock Exchange, has filed to offer 24/7 tokenized US stock trading under the SEC's proposed five-year innovation exemption, with an initial list of 63 stocks including Strategy, Apple, Nvidia, Coinbase, Robinhood and Circle. Trading would run continuously through Uniswap liquidity pools on OKX's X Layer in USDC, USDG and USDT pairs, with assets held in self-custodial wallets and backed one-for-one by actual shares held through a registered broker-dealer. Bloomberg Terminal has also begun carrying Hyperliquid data, and the Independent Community Bankers of America is suing the OCC over national trust bank charters granted to crypto companies. Ethereum Layer 2 network Blast will shut down with an October 26 withdrawal deadline, after assets on the network fell from $2.2 billion to $32 million and its token lost 98% of its launch value, while the IMF approved funds for El Salvador after a waiver for its bitcoin breach.

Crypto asset exchange operator BACKSEAT announced on October 5 that it has obtained a SOC 2 Type 1 assurance report, dated the same day, following an independent third-party assessment of the security posture and internal controls of its custody business, which handles the safekeeping and management of crypto assets. According to the company, this is the first such acquisition by a domestic crypto asset exchange operator in Japan, and it described the move as part of preparations for the anticipated lifting of the ban on crypto asset ETFs in Japan. The assessment was based on the Trust Services Criteria, covering five areas: security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy. President Keiji Maeda explained that in the United States, Hong Kong, and elsewhere, major operators serving as custodians for ETFs have obtained SOC 2 reports, and said this acquisition marks a milestone in gaining objective third-party evaluation. The company said it has been preparing for the realization of domestic ETFs in anticipation of revisions to the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act and other laws, and indicated it plans to provide custody services for a crypto asset market platform in which financial institutions and others will participate. Domestic crypto asset ETFs are expected to be permitted in January 2028.

XRP has claimed the top spot in trading volume on South Korea's cryptocurrency market, surpassing Bitcoin and Ethereum, according to CoinMarketCap. The surge in local activity has kept the token's price within a $1.45 to $1.52 range even as broader global markets face pressure. The ranking marks a notable shift in South Korean trading preferences, where XRP now leads both major cryptocurrencies by volume.

Tom Lee, head of research at Fundstrat and chairman of Bitmine, said in an interview with Coinage that Ethereum will set a new all-time high and surge above $5,000 before the end of this year, and he sees the potential for it to reach $60,000 within the next few years, citing past price cycles in which it climbed from below $100 at the end of 2018 to nearly $4,900 in 2021. Lee noted that Ethereum has risen about 80% from its June low near $1,500 to around $2,700 by the end of September, even as the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 0.25% on September 16, bringing the target range to 3.75%-4% by a 12-0 vote. On the institutional side, money has flowed in through spot Ether ETFs in the United States, with September 22 recording net inflows of $162.2 million, the third consecutive day of positive flows, as BlackRock's Ethereum fund took in $88.1 million and Fidelity's fund added $33.6 million. Lee also pointed to Robinhood's decision to build Robinhood Chain on Ethereum, which attracted as much as $2.1 billion in tokenized assets in its first two months, with $1.5 billion deposited into applications running on the network. At the same time, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued an innovation exemption on September 17 that allows certain tokenized versions of US-listed shares to trade on blockchain networks, after the draft Clarity Act failed to advance in the Senate by a vote of 49-50.

Clearpool's community has approved, with 97.16% voting in favor, an expansion onto the XRP Ledger and the full migration of its native CPOOL token to a new asset, CLEAR. The institutional credit marketplace is bringing infrastructure to XRPL for financing working capital in the real fintech sector, with the platform providing technology rails and smart contracts, credit manager Cicada Partners auditing borrowers and underwriting risk, and Ripple joining the pools as a limited partner. Financing will be conducted exclusively in the dollar stablecoin RLUSD, giving the coin its first organic circulation among institutional investors, while custody provider Hex Trust will provide additional security and compliance bridges. The 1:1 token migration is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2026, with the initial supply of the new CLEAR asset rising to 1.125 billion tokens from CPOOL's previous supply of one billion, and 70% of the new supply distributed to current holders at launch to protect against dilution. Half of all fees collected by the platform will go to the open market to buy back and permanently burn CLEAR, and the product relies on the ledger's native standards XLS-65 and XLS-66, which are still being tested on Devnet awaiting approval from 80% of validators before full deployment on the XRPL mainnet.

According to August cryptocurrency trading statistics released on the 2nd by the Japan Cryptocurrency Business Association, spot trading volume among its 30 member firms came to 764.35 billion yen, up 13.4% from the previous month and marking the first increase in two months. Margin trading volume was 746.54 billion yen, up 19.0% month on month, bringing combined trading volume to about 1.51 trillion yen. Compared with the same month a year earlier, spot trading fell 61.9% and margin trading fell 36.4%, well below year-ago levels. Breaking down spot trading volume by coin, Bitcoin accounted for 462.9 billion yen, or 60.6% of the total, followed by Ethereum at 139.2 billion yen and XRP at 102.7 billion yen, with the top three coins making up 92.2% of the total. Customer deposits at the end of August stood at 3.51 trillion yen, up 22.2% from the end of the previous month and the highest level in seven months, since the end of January.

Coinbase Global CEO Brian Armstrong said Citigroup has partnered with Coinbase to enable stablecoin payments for large institutional clients, calling the tie-up proof the crypto giant "has come a long way" since 2012. Under the partnership, Citi's institutional clients, including multinational corporations, will be able to accept stablecoin payments from customers at checkout through the bank's merchant-processing services, while Coinbase customers can use Citi's banking capabilities and automatically convert incoming cash into stablecoins. Armstrong recalled that getting a bank to work with Coinbase at its founding was "nearly impossible," and thanked Citi for the arrangement. Stablecoins are a key and rapidly growing revenue component for Coinbase, which shares interest income on reserve assets backing USDC with Circle Internet Group and monetizes customer balances on its platform; USDC held in Coinbase products hit an all-time high of $20 billion in the second quarter, more than 30% of all USDC in circulation. Coinbase shares finished Friday down 3.32% at $183.

Hitachi announced on October 5 that it began offering its Digital Asset AML Platform, a service that monitors money laundering risks in transactions involving crypto assets and stablecoins, on October 1. The service is intended for use by financial institutions and crypto asset-related businesses. In July, Hitachi published the results of a proof of concept conducted with 17 companies, including financial institutions and crypto asset-related businesses, and announced plans to offer the service starting in October. The new service combines information suspected of links to crime or sanctions targets with analysis powered by AI and machine learning to identify signs of suspicious transactions. It evaluates the counterparty's wallet before a transaction, continuously monitors after the transaction for newly emerging risks, and can also check the circulation status of stablecoins and other assets after issuance. Because crypto assets can be transferred across multiple wallets and exchanges, information held by a single company alone may make it difficult to grasp suspicious fund movements. The new service also uses risk information gathered by each business to help detect signs that would be hard for any one company to find on its own.

BNB Chain has become the first blockchain to surpass $1 billion in total tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds. According to Token Terminal data, the market value of tokenized stocks and ETFs rose about 17% from $2.87 billion in August to $3.35 billion in September. As of October 2, the overall market stood at $3.7 billion, with BNB Chain accounting for $1.1 billion, or roughly 30%, followed by Ethereum at $828 million and Solana at $738 million. In January, Ethereum held about 48% of the market, while BNB Chain accounted for just 13%. In a report dated September 29, Binance Research said the number of holders on BNB Chain had reached 1.8 million, noting that Binance's bStocks, launched in late June, is driving the growth.

Bybit announced a collaboration with Franklin Templeton that lets eligible traders use Benji-issued money market fund shares as off-exchange collateral on the crypto platform, extending the asset manager's push into tokenized finance. Franklin Templeton shares trade at US$32.81, with a year to date share price return of 37.86% and a 1-year total shareholder return of 44.68%, while shorter-term momentum has faded with the 30-day share price return down 5.53% and the 90-day share price return down 4.73%. The company is building on its earlier tokenized funds and blockchain enabled products, including the BENJI tokenized money fund, by adding 3.2b of digital asset AUM and acquiring 250 Digital, and by embedding tokenized funds into partner wallets such as MoonPay and Payward. A widely followed narrative pegs fair value at $35.50, above the last close of $32.81, while the stock trades at 22x earnings, below the US Capital Markets industry on 39.7x and peers at 35.9x but above the fair ratio of 12.8x. Franklin Templeton's story could still shift if fee pressure from large platforms intensifies or if integration across its expanded credit and digital franchises stumbles.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday approved a Cboe BZX rule change allowing the exchange to list six triple-leveraged exchange-traded products from Volatility Shares, a first-of-its-kind step that could expand leveraged exposure to the world's largest cryptocurrency. The products target three times the daily performance of bitcoin, ether, gold, silver, crude oil and natural gas, with the bitcoin and ether products providing leveraged exposure through futures rather than directly holding the cryptocurrencies. The decision does not mean the products are immediately available for trading, as registration requirements must still be completed before shares can be publicly offered. Bitcoin traded at $84,860.5 as of 01:29 ET, little changed over the past 24 hours, after briefly climbing above $87,000 earlier in the week. The approval adds another potential route for investors seeking cryptocurrency exposure after the SEC separately proposed changes to crypto custody rules this week, a proposal that was a major focus for Bitcoin markets on Friday.

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation announced the DTCC tokenization service on May 4, 2026, a platform designed to bring Russell 1000 components, ETFs, and US Treasuries onto distributed ledgers. With over 50 firms including BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Circle, Ondo, and Nasdaq participating, the service moved into limited production in July 2026 following a December 2025 SEC No-Action Letter. DTCC CEO Frank La Salla said tokenization will significantly change how markets operate by bringing new levels of liquidity, transparency, and efficiency to investors, while Brian Steele of the DTCC added that the service is designed to provide systemic scale where deep liquidity already lives. The infrastructure shift extends beyond the DTCC: Nasdaq secured SEC approval on March 18, 2026, under Release 34-105047, to facilitate tokenized settlement on the same order book, ticker, and CUSIP as traditional assets, NYSE Arca followed with rule change SR-NYSEARCA-2026-45 effective April 29, 2026, and the broader NYSE received approval for its own related filings on April 17, 2026. The SEC issued a five-year conditional innovation exemption on September 17, 2026, specifically for tokenized NMS stocks, while the CFTC clarified through Staff Letter 25-39 and an updated FAQ on September 24, 2026, that tokenized collateral may be used for derivatives margin. The tokenized asset market tracked by rwa.xyz stood at approximately $38.6 billion as of late September 2026, up from $2 billion in 2022, with tokenized Treasuries accounting for $14.7 billion to $15.65 billion of that total, led by BlackRock's BUIDL at $2.70 billion, Circle's USYC at $2.60 billion, and Ondo's USDY at $2.23 billion. A June 1, 2026, Citi report estimates a base case of $5.5 trillion in tokenized assets and $1.9 trillion in stablecoins by 2030, though it warns of a messy period in which tokenized and legacy systems operate side by side.

Metaplanet acquired former Siiibo Securities, which handles privately placed corporate bonds, for 210 million yen and changed its name to Metaplanet Securities in July; the subsidiary securities firm recounted the two months leading up to the acquisition. On September 29, the Financial Services Agency announced it would support a pilot program using stablecoins for trade settlement, with six companies participating: TradeWaltz, NTT Data, Mizuho Bank, MUFG Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, and Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking. On September 28, Coinbase announced on X that it will soon offer a service allowing users to open Pokémon card packs on smartphones. On October 2, Metaplanet corrected a total of four documents including previously filed annual securities reports, revising a statement that CEO Simon Gerovich indirectly holds a majority of voting rights in shareholder MMXX Ventures Limited to clarify that he does not hold a majority. On September 30, KDDI, au Coincheck Digital Assets, and HashPort announced they will begin offering the crypto asset wallet αU wallet as a mini app within the au PAY app.

BNY Mellon, a major U.S. financial institution, is in talks with Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, over a partnership in financial infrastructure, CoinDesk reported on October 2. The partnership could span a wide range of areas including crypto-related products, custody, asset management, trading and settlement, but the talks are ongoing and it is not certain whether an agreement will be reached, and both companies declined to comment to the outlet. In addition to operating Kraken, Payward provides infrastructure through its Payward Services business for financial institutions, giving banks and exchanges the foundation to embed trading and settlement functions into their own services. BNY Mellon handles custody, administration and clearing for institutional investors, and on January 9 announced the launch of a tokenized deposit feature that reflects customer deposit balances on a blockchain. Payward announced a partnership with Nasdaq on March 9 to connect regulated stock markets with blockchain-based markets, and on September 10 it announced an expanded partnership including a $100 million investment agreement by Nasdaq's investment arm. According to CoinDesk, the proposed partnership with BNY may include elements similar to the infrastructure collaboration in Payward's recent agreement with Nasdaq, but the specific services and start date have not been disclosed.

Block CEO Jack Dorsey urged users on Wednesday to opt in to Cash App's new Bitcoin bonus feature, writing "turn it on" while quoting the platform's announcement. The feature lets users earn weekly rewards of up to 2% in BTC annually simply by holding Bitcoin in the app, with rewards funded directly and no lockup, lending, staking, or moving of users' BTC, keeping holdings available for withdrawal at any time. The bonuses are taxable, and users must opt in through the Bitcoin tab in the app to become eligible. Cash App serves as Block's primary consumer-focused ecosystem, and its second-quarter volume grew 17% year over year to $56.5 billion, driven by the Visa-powered Cash App Card and buy-now-pay-later credit, while Consumer Lending origination volume grew 59% year over year to $18.9 billion. Block has also placed a significant bet on Bitcoin's utility as a medium of exchange, deploying payment capabilities within its Square point-of-sale system.

Bitcoin held below $85,000 on Friday after briefly topping $87,000, with a new U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission proposal on crypto custody adding to expectations of broader institutional participation. The cryptocurrency was trading at $84,612.4 as of 21:55 ET, down 0.35% after reaching an intraday high of $87,219, its first move above $87,000 since Sept. 23. The SEC proposed changes to custody rules that would allow investment advisers and funds to directly hold certain digital assets when a qualified third-party custodian is unavailable, subject to safeguards, with the proposal entering a 60-day public comment period following publication in the Federal Register. Bitcoin also drew support from softer U.S. economic data, as September nonfarm payrolls rose 29,000 against expectations of 90,000, prompting declines in Treasury yields and the dollar. The move triggered about $142 million of Bitcoin short liquidations over 24 hours, compared with roughly $29 million in long positions, according to Coinglass data. Separately, Strategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor detailed how the company finances its Bitcoin-focused business, with its STRC preferred shares carrying a 12% annualized dividend rate and a shareholder vote scheduled for Oct. 28 on a switch to daily dividend accruals, while Supercycle Finance said it plans to raise up to $75 million through a proposed offering, with most proceeds intended for Bitcoin purchases.

The US economy added just 29,000 jobs in September, well below expectations of 89,000, while the unemployment rate rose to 4.2% against an expected 4.1%, a miss that host Scott Melker said weakens the case for further Fed rate hikes and points toward cuts. Prior months were revised sharply lower, with July cut by 31,000 to 10,000 and August by 29,000 to 133,000, leaving combined employment 60,000 lower than previously reported, and wage growth slowed to 0.1% monthly and 3% annually. Separately, the SEC proposed dedicated custody rules that would let registered investment advisors, investment funds and business development companies hold crypto assets directly under federal securities law, with state-chartered trust companies able to serve as permitted crypto custodians and client assets segregated from the trust company's own assets. In other news, Fiserv launched the Roughrider stablecoin, a bank-to-bank settlement token on Solana serving a North Dakota network of more than 90 banks and credit unions, and the Ethereum Foundation launched zero-knowledge APIs, built with the Open Anonymity Project, that let users pay for AI models without revealing identity. Near Intents was hit by a 3.8 million dollar exploit, with no customer funds lost, and another Trump meme coin dinner was advertised for top token investors.

SMBC Nikko Securities and blockchain development company Nethermind announced on October 2 that they will jointly develop a DeFi platform for domestic investors. Uniswap Labs, Base, and the Nyx Foundation will also take part, aiming to build a usage environment compliant with laws and regulations. The development targets are a liquidity provision protocol and a proprietary liquidity pool called "DeFi Gateway," which will incorporate AI-driven asset management functions, anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing measures, and investor protection mechanisms, with completion scheduled for mid-2027. SMBC Nikko Securities will lead dialogue with regulators and provide expertise in compliance and risk management, while Nethermind will lead technical development, including AI and smart contract security. Uniswap Labs will support protocol integration, Base will support deployment on its network, and the Nyx Foundation will advise on market-making strategies and hook design.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs in the United States recorded net inflows of $2.65 billion in September, the second-largest monthly inflow since October 2025, according to data from The Block. The inflows were down from $3.52 billion in August but remained well above levels seen throughout the past year. Meanwhile, spot Ether ETFs attracted $832.43 million in September, compared with $1.85 billion in August, marking the second-largest monthly inflow since August 2025. Inflows into Bitcoin ETFs continued on the first day of October at $102.7 million, while Ether ETFs saw outflows of $55.4 million. Dominic John, an analyst at Zeus Research, told The Block that the ETF inflows indicate institutional demand has not faded and point to a more sustainable recovery, adding that traders will watch ETF inflows alongside key U.S. economic data. The jobless claims report on October 8 will provide another set of data on the U.S. labor market, while inflation data and Fed commentary could shift interest rate expectations.

PayPay announced on September 30 that it has begun a partnership with Binance Pay, the payment feature of cryptocurrency trading app Binance, through the cross-border payment network HIVEX. Overseas Binance Pay users will now be able to pay for dining, shopping, lodging and other purchases at PayPay merchants across Japan, and merchants will receive their sales proceeds in Japanese yen rather than in crypto assets. Binance Japan users residing in Japan are not covered. HIVEX is a cross-border payment network developed by Silicon Valley-based TBCASoft, which began commercial rollout in 2023, and PayPay has been connecting overseas payment services from Taiwan, China, Hong Kong and elsewhere to its merchant network since that year. With the addition of Binance Pay, which has roughly 48 million users, a payment route has now been established running from Binance Pay through HIVEX and PayPay to merchants.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, has proposed new rules that would make it easier for investment advisers and regulated funds to hold crypto assets on behalf of clients. The SEC announced the proposal on Thursday, October 1. It sets out a specific framework for the custody and safekeeping of crypto assets by registered investment advisers, investment companies, and business development companies. The proposal would open the door to self-custody of crypto assets under certain conditions, and would also allow state-regulated trust companies to act as custodians of crypto assets for clients and regulated funds. SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said existing regulations cannot adapt quickly enough to the rapid expansion of digital assets, which has now grown into a market worth several trillion dollars. The move comes after the Clarity Act, a bill aimed at establishing a broad regulatory structure for the crypto market, stalled in the Senate in September. The SEC will accept public comments for 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. Meanwhile, the crypto market is beginning to recover, with Bitcoin up more than 40% from its July low.