WisdomTree Rebrands Digital Assets Business

Asset manager WisdomTree has rebranded its digital assets business – formed in 2021 – to WisdomTree Onchain. It encompasses the WisdomTree Connect, WisdomTree Prime, Onchain Transfer Agency and Onchain Markets activities, as well as collaboration with MoonPay and minority investments in businesses, such as Fnality and a financial-institution-led global stablecoin project. The business continues to be led by Will Peck.

Coinbase and Citi Partner to Support Stablecoins for Merchant Clients

Coinbase and Citi have deepened their collaboration to extend Coinbase’s payments infrastructure to Spring by Citi, the bank’s institutional payment acceptance platform. This enables Citi’s enterprise merchant clients to accept stablecoin payments at checkout without the need to hold or manage digital assets directly. Coinbase’s infrastructure handles the automatic conversion of digital currency into fiat, while Citi serves as the bank of record to settle the funds.

This joint effort aims to address the operational and regulatory challenges businesses face when scaling transactions between traditional finance and digital assets. By pairing Coinbase’s digital asset infrastructure with Citi’s regulated banking rails, the system provides a unified path for moving between fiat and stablecoins. As a result, businesses can access these capabilities without needing to build or maintain separate banking and digital asset technology stacks themselves.

Circle’s Arc Layer 1 Blockchain Goes Live

Circle has executed the public mainnet launch of Arc, an open Layer 1 blockchain specifically engineered for financial markets, real-time money movement, and AI-driven economic activity. The new platform debuts with native integration into Circle’s full-stack infrastructure, which features the USDC stablecoin.

Arc distinguishes itself from traditional blockchains through several core design choices intended to power mainstream on-chain finance. Notably, network transaction fees are paid directly in USDC rather than a volatile native token. The blockchain also features instant, sub-second finality, opt-in privacy controls for confidential balances, and post-quantum cryptographic signatures.

Furthermore, it is uniquely built from genesis to support AI agents acting as economic entities, building on the Circle Agent Stack where USDC already commands 98.8% of agent-driven transaction volume.

To secure and operate the network, Circle has assembled a founding validator cohort composed of a number of influential entities in global finance. The lineup includes BlackRock, DTCC, Galaxy Digital, ICE, Mastercard, MoneyGram, SBI Group, Standard Chartered, Sumitomo Corporation, Visa and Worldpay.

Rather than merely connecting to the platform, these institutions will actively participate in the network’s deterministic consensus, ensuring Arc meets rigorous institutional security and regulatory standards from day one.

Standard Chartered and LMAX Group Expand Partnership to Include Digital Asset Custody in Luxembourg and DIFC

Standard Chartered Bank has expanded its partnership with LMAX Group to deliver digital asset custody and settlement services across Europe and the Middle East. Under the dual-jurisdiction agreement, the bank will provide secure custody infrastructure through its Dubai Financial Services Authority-regulated branch in the Dubai International Financial Centre and Standard Chartered Luxembourg. This expansion allows LMAX Group to leverage regulated custody solutions across two key international financial hubs to support its growing institutional client base.

The arrangement marks a significant milestone for the bank following its Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) authorisation in June. LMAX has officially become the first client to onboard Standard Chartered Luxembourg’s newly authorised digital asset custody platform. This regulatory alignment ensures that institutional clients can operate seamlessly within a trusted, compliant framework across different jurisdictions.

This development builds upon a successful collaboration established between the two firms earlier in the year. In July, the companies executed the industry’s first live digital asset prime brokerage trades by combining Standard Chartered’s banking and credit capabilities with LMAX Group’s institutional market infrastructure. The expanded custody agreement represents the next step in creating a fully connected, bank-grade digital asset ecosystem for global institutional investors.

Tokenovate Executes CDM-Native Intraday Repo on Canton Network

Tokenovate has executed and settled an intraday repo transaction on the Canton Network using the FINOS Common Domain Model (CDM), with the cash leg settled in Circle-issued USDC expressed as USDCx Reserve on Canton.

The transaction used CDM-native event and state management across the full repo lifecycle, covering trade representation, lifecycle processing, collateral movements and coordinated settlement of both legs. Conducted in a controlled environment, the workflow was aligned with established repo market documentation.

Tokenovate said the combination of CDM, tokenised cash and distributed ledger infrastructure could enable faster collateral mobility, intraday liquidity management and more automated settlement while maintaining standardised workflows across traditional and digital infrastructure.

The company has also joined the Canton Foundation as a General Member, giving it a role in the governance and development of the network as it expands its programmable post-trade infrastructure across repo, collateral, derivatives and securities markets.

S&P Global Leads Investment in Kaiko as Series B Reaches $110 Million

S&P Global has led a strategic investment in digital asset data provider Kaiko, extending the company’s Series B funding to $110 million as it expands its data infrastructure for tokenised markets. The round also includes BNP Paribas, Bpifrance, Broadridge, Canton Foundation, Coinbase Ventures, DRW Venture Capital, Nasdaq Ventures, Royal Bank of Canada, Stellar and Susquehanna Private Equity Investments.

Participating institutions will join a Kaiko-chaired Strategic Industry Working Group focused on shaping data and infrastructure for bringing tokenised financial products into production.

Kaiko provides institutional market data covering more than 150 digital asset exchanges and protocols. It is extending this into onchain capital markets, including delivering market data to smart contracts and standardising onchain activity for off-chain consumption.

The investment follows Kaiko’s acquisitions of DeFi infrastructure provider Cometh and digital asset data specialist Amberdata, alongside the recent launch of digital asset indices with S&P.

Following Restructuring, ConsenSys Focuses on ZK Layer 2 Network

A major corporate restructuring at Consensys Software, leading to the spin out of its consumer-focused MataMask wallet business, has also established a distinct entity (still called ConsenSys) focused entirely on institutional infrastructure based on the Linea zkEVM Layer 2 network.

Linea’s design features full Ethereum equivalence, allowing smart contracts, decentralised applications, and existing enterprise tools built for the Ethereum mainnet to run on Linea without any code modifications.

A zkEVM (Zero-Knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine) is an advanced blockchain infrastructure technology. It combines the processing environment of Ethereum with zero-knowledge cryptographic proofs to execute smart contracts off-chain while proving their absolute mathematical validity back to the main Ethereum blockchain. Essentially, it allows a network to process thousands of transactions rapidly and cheaply while inheriting the exact, uncompromised security of the main Ethereum network.

tZERO Announces New Funding; Working Towards Strategic Transaction

Blockchain financial infrastructure provider tZERO Group has announced a new funding round led by prominent investors Marc and Max Cohodes and including participation from existing investors Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) and Bill Fleckenstein, alongside support from its partner Dinari and other contributors.

Additionally, Neighborhood Intelligence has committed to funding its portion of the financing once tZERO announces a binding agreement for a strategic transaction, such as a merger, sale of assets or a SPAC transaction.

CEO Alan Konevsky notes that the funds will directly support operations and execution as the firm commercialises and expands its tokenised financial market infrastructure.

This strategic injection of capital is part of tZERO’s broader, long-term capital plan designed to power its next phase of growth. The company is actively working toward a major strategic transaction to ensure long-term capital stability and independence. At the same time, this funding will help tZERO scale its infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) offering, which connects tokenisation, trading, custody, and asset servicing to help financial institutions bring blockchain-based assets to regulated markets.

Vermeg and CBUAE Select MACH DLT for New Securities Depository

Technology provider Vermeg and the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) have selected Delta Capita’s MACH Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) to power a new Digital Asset Securities Depository (DASD).

This initiative is part of Vermeg’s broader mandate, awarded by the CBUAE in April 2026, to design and deliver an integrated conventional and digital Central Securities Depository (CSD) platform and unified collateral management solution for UAE government debt and Sukuk. The MACH DLT integration will enable native digital sovereign issuances, tokenisation of existing assets, and real-time T+0 settlement.

AMC, Robinhood Dispute Highlights Equity Token Market Debate

The CEOs of AMC Entertainment and Robinhood are publicly clashing over “tokenised stocks” trading on Robinhood’s blockchain. The conflict got its start when AMC CEO Adam Aron discovered that Robinhood was offering a digital token bearing the movie theatre chain’s name and tracking its stock price – all l without AMC’s permission or involvement.

Robinhood launched a product featuring third-party tokenised real-world assets, which includes synthetic tokens representing AMC and over 190 other companies. These tokens are designed to mirror the price movements of actual stocks on a blockchain, allowing traders to speculate on equity prices.

However, because these tokens are generated by a third party rather than sponsored by the actual companies, Robinhood does not need AMC’s permission to issue its tokens and buyers do not own actual shares of AMC.

AMC CEO Adam Aron used social media to cry foul, calling the practice “contemptible, outrageous, disgusting, detestable, inexcusable, and vile.” His primary arguments against Robinhood’s approach include: (1) it confuses investors; (2) token holders do not possess any voting rights in AMC; and (3) AMC’s ability to raise capital might be impacted.

Aron also issued a cease-and-desist demand and threatened to take the matter directly to the SEC.

 Robinhood has refused to back down. Robinhood’s Chief Legal Officer, Dan Gallagher (a former SEC commissioner), publicly dismissed AMC’s outrage, stating that the firm is fully aware of US. securities laws and effectively dared AMC to “send the lawyers.”

Whatever the details of this particular confrontation, the clash highlights a significant debate in the markets related tokenised equities and whether the best way forward is issuer-sponsored tokens or third-party tokens.

Like a bad horror-movie series, this one could run and run and might well lead to copycat actions. The SEC of late has tended to want to give the tokenisation space some tolerance to work out its own rules. But if enough negative noise erupts around third-party tokens, it may need to step in.