✔ Tokenized markets are moving toward real trading infrastructure
✔ Payment and settlement rails are getting institutional depth
✔ Apps are getting smarter as data and automation stack up

Ready for the signals? 🔎

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🚨 Featured Story of the Week:

How Mastercard and Visa Are Expanding Geographically in Onchain Finance in 2026

Beyond Mastercard’s acquisition of BVNK - which grabbed massive headlines - another story is what both payment giants have been quietly building across markets. So far in 2026, Mastercard is doubling down on localized access through regional partners, while Visa is scaling cross-border payment flows through infrastructure. It’s two very different strategies for owning onchain finance.

Breaking it down, the contrast shows up across four clear themes:

• Localized Access: Mastercard is leaning into region-specific launches and local distribution.

• Globalizing Flows: Visa is building rails designed to move value across corridors.

• Consumer vs Rail: Mastercard is showing up closer to the user. Visa is showing up deeper in the payment stack.

Two Different Maps: Mastercard is building destinations. Visa is building highways.

Check out the full breakdown and join the conversation on LinkedIn here »»

🚀 Startup Spotlight: Startale

Startale is building the infrastructure layer for onchain finance, with products spanning blockchain networks, stablecoins, developer tooling, and consumer-facing apps. Its role is increasingly important because it is trying to connect tokenized assets, payments, and user activity into one more usable financial stack.

The company made news this week after raising $63 million in Series A funding backed by SBI Group and Sony Innovation Fund. Strategically, that matters because it gives Startale both capital and distribution across finance and consumer ecosystems, while signaling that the next phase of onchain finance will be shaped by infrastructure players that can bridge institutional rails, tokenized assets, and mainstream user products.

Building something interesting in onchain finance? We’d love to feature you next- drop us a note at hello@whitesight.net 👋

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📢 We’re always seeking innovative voices in fintech to be our next guest feature!

With a community of 2100+ fintech enthusiasts, we’d love to amplify your insights. Reach out to us for features, sponsorships, or collaborations!

Drop us a hello here! 👋

Get Unlimited Access to Strategy Playbooks of Fintech Pioneers with WhiteSight Radar! 🚀

Unlock a treasure trove of fintech intel with a WhiteSight Radar subscription. See further with exclusive reports, industry trend breakdowns, and expert analysis on everything from Embedded Finance and Digital Banking to Open Finance and beyond.

Become a member and steer your business course with actionable intelligence on the winning strategies of leading companies like Apple, Stripe, Starling Bank, OakNorth Bank, Banco Inter, and Toast that propels your business to the forefront of fintech. (PLUS! More in our premium content pipeline - Amazon, Nubank, Grab, Wise, Shopify, Affirm, Mercado Libre… the list goes on!)

Supercharge your Fintech IQ with WhiteSight Radar, putting expert fintech intel at your fingertips! 🧭

Got to have Radar on my radar!

Edition 9: The week onchain finance turned from momentum into market structure »

Last Week’s Top Onchain Tea!♨️

• Capital is getting allocated
  ↳ BNP Paribas opened crypto ETN access to retail and private banking investors in France
  ↳ ParaFi Capital raised a $125M fund to back the next wave of onchain finance

• Public markets go onchain
  ↳ Franklin Templeton partnered with Ondo to bring tokenized stocks and ETFs onchain
  ↳ NYSE tapped Securitize to power its new 24/7 tokenized stock trading platform

• The market stack is changing
  ↳ ICE doubled down on Polymarket with a fresh $600M investment
  ↳ Coinbase and Chainlink launched live exchange data onchain to power trading at scale

• Regulated rails are deepening
  ↳ Visa joined Canton Network as a governance super validator
  ↳ Ripple entered the MAS sandbox to test RLUSD for trade finance

• Crypto apps are leveling up
  ↳ Trust Wallet launched AI agents that can automatically execute crypto trades
  ↳ Lido rolled out Vaults and Earn products as DeFi staking yields keep compressing

Now, for the ‘byte’-sized onchain buzz -

Onchain Money 💸

Stablecoins are moving closer to everyday payment flows.

• The News: Paysend partnered with BVNK to add stablecoin settlement across its consumer and enterprise payments stack. It gives the company an always-on settlement rail alongside its existing fiat network.

Implication: Stablecoins are being plugged into real payment infrastructure, not treated as a side experiment.

• The News: Tether-backed USDT0 went live on Tempo, a payments-first Layer 1 focused on omnichain USDT liquidity. The move extends stablecoin liquidity deeper into payments-native infrastructure.

Implication: Payment chains are starting to compete on stablecoin liquidity and usability, not only blockspace.

Onchain Assets 🏛️

Tokenized assets are expanding from standard wrappers into broader market exposure and new trading formats.

• The News: xStocks partnered with Fundrise to bring the newly public Fundrise Innovation Fund onchain through a tokenized asset called VCXx. That gives onchain investors another route into late-stage private market exposure.

Implication: The onchain asset menu is widening beyond Treasury products and blue-chip equities.

• The News: Wintermute launched 24/7 oil trading through OTC-style CFDs rather than the perp model popularized by exchanges like Hyperliquid. It is a more institutional trading format wrapped in crypto-native market hours.

Implication: Onchain-style markets are starting to absorb real-world commodities through structures that look more like traditional finance.

Onchain Markets 📈

Onchain market infrastructure is scaling fast, but regulation is arriving just as quickly.

• The News: Kalshi won approval to launch margin trading for professional clients, opening the door to more capital-efficient prediction market activity. At the same time, Washington sued the company, arguing its event contracts violate state gambling law.

Implication: Prediction markets are maturing into a bigger financial category, but the legal perimeter is still being fought in real time.

• The News: Bitpanda launched Vision Chain, a blockchain designed to connect EU banks and fintechs with tokenized assets under a more regulated framework. The pitch is clear: move tokenization out of pilots and into compliant financial plumbing.

Implication: The next market winners in Europe may be the platforms that make tokenized assets easy for regulated institutions to plug into.

Onchain Infra 🛠️

Infrastructure is getting more institutional, with trust and verification moving closer to the core stack.

• The News: Gems Trade adopted Fireblocks’ MPC infrastructure for digital asset custody, aiming to reduce single-key risk and tighten operational security across its exchange. The move targets the kind of infrastructure weaknesses institutions increasingly screen for.

Implication: Better custody is no longer a nice-to-have; it is a prerequisite for serious flow.

• The News: BlackRock’s tokenized BUIDL fund added Chronicle as a verification layer, bringing onchain visibility into the fund’s assets, valuation, and custody setup. It adds another trust layer around one of the biggest tokenized Treasury products in market.

Implication: Tokenized funds are moving beyond issuance into proof, transparency, and auditability.

Onchain Yield 🌾

Yield products are getting easier to access and more packaged for mainstream distribution.

• The News: BitMine launched MAVAN, its Ethereum staking platform, with ambitions to generate up to $300 million in annual yield. The product turns staking into a larger-scale institutional yield business.

Implication: Staking is being framed less like passive crypto income and more like a structured yield vertical.

• The News: Binance expanded Soft Staking to include ETH, letting users earn staking rewards directly from spot balances while keeping assets liquid for trading and withdrawals. It lowers the friction to participate in Ethereum yield.

Implication: The next growth leg for onchain yield is convenience, not complexity.

Onchain Lending 🏠

Lending is stretching in two directions at once: deeper real-world integration and fresh governance risk.

• The News: Fannie Mae partnered with Better and Coinbase to accept crypto-backed mortgages, allowing borrowers to use bitcoin or USDC-backed loans to fund a down payment on a Fannie-backed home loan. It brings crypto collateral into a major housing finance channel for the first time.

Implication: Crypto collateral is starting to enter mainstream credit markets, even if the structure is still more expensive than cash.

• The News: DeFi lender Moonwell faced a governance attack after an attacker reportedly spent about $1,800 on tokens to push a proposal that could put over $1 million at risk. The episode exposed how cheaply protocol control can still be contested.

Implication: Onchain lending growth still depends on governance hardening, not just TVL expansion.

And that’s a wrap 👋

We hope you enjoyed this edition of the Onchain Finance!

If you’re someone who likes to read think pieces, you will likely love our monthly blog, Fintersections, where our team members analyse the convergence of fintech with the world.

And lastly, to stay updated on everything fintech and web3, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter, and don’t be shy to show some ❤️

Thanks for reading Future of FinTech Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

✔ Stablecoins are scaling into everyday finance.

✔ Tokenized assets are gaining real market rails.

✔ Onchain infra is turning capital into code.

Ready for the signals? 🔎

Subscribe now

🚨 Featured Story of the Week:

Wall Street Goes Onchain: Nasdaq vs NYSE

How are the biggest exchange operators starting to position for tokenized markets? This week’s featured story looks at how Nasdaq and NYSE are approaching the onchain transition from very different angles. While both are moving toward tokenized securities, onchain settlement, and new market infrastructure, their strategies reveal two very different visions for how Wall Street may evolve.

Breaking it down, the contrast shows up across four clear themes:

• The Market Structure Play: Nasdaq appears to be building from the rule path first, focusing on tokenized securities design, issuer compatibility, and regulated market structure.

• The Ecosystem Expansion Play: NYSE looks to be taking a broader route, stretching into tokenized venues, stablecoin flows, tokenized deposits, and crypto-native distribution.

• The Partnership Layer: Both are partnering aggressively, but in different directions - Nasdaq toward equity gateways and post-trade modernization, NYSE toward money movement rails and institutional onchain infrastructure.

• The Bigger Signal: This is not one exchange copying the other. It is two giants heading toward the same destination through very different blueprints for the future of finance.

Check out the full breakdown and join the conversation on LinkedIn here »»

🚀 Startup Spotlight: Brahma

Brahma is building the infrastructure layer that helps apps and institutions move capital, automate transactions, and manage onchain accounts more seamlessly. By combining smart accounts, execution, and settlement tooling, Brahma is making crypto systems easier to use in real financial workflows.

The company made headlines this week after being acquired by Polymarket, which is using the deal to deepen its product stack and tighten the infrastructure behind its fast-growing prediction market platform. The acquisition signals that Brahma’s tooling is becoming strategically important as major crypto apps race to own more of their backend rails.

Building something interesting in onchain finance? We’d love to feature you next- drop us a note at hello@whitesight.net 👋

Pledge your access to fintech analysis and exclusive insights ⚡

Unlock Elite Access ⭐

📢 We’re always seeking innovative voices in fintech to be our next guest feature!

With a community of 2100+ fintech enthusiasts, we’d love to amplify your insights. Reach out to us for features, sponsorships, or collaborations!

Drop us a hello here! 👋

Get Unlimited Access to Strategy Playbooks of Fintech Pioneers with WhiteSight Radar! 🚀

Unlock a treasure trove of fintech intel with a WhiteSight Radar subscription. See further with exclusive reports, industry trend breakdowns, and expert analysis on everything from Embedded Finance and Digital Banking to Open Finance and beyond.

Become a member and steer your business course with actionable intelligence on the winning strategies of leading companies like Apple, Stripe, Starling Bank, OakNorth Bank, Banco Inter, and Toast that propels your business to the forefront of fintech. (PLUS! More in our premium content pipeline - Amazon, Nubank, Grab, Wise, Shopify, Affirm, Mercado Libre… the list goes on!)

Supercharge your Fintech IQ with WhiteSight Radar, putting expert fintech intel at your fingertips! 🧭

Got to have Radar on my radar!

Edition 8: The week onchain finance turned from momentum into market structure »

Last Week’s Top Onchain Tea!♨️

• Washington is drawing the lines while Wall Street moves onchain.
  ↳ SEC and CFTC clarified how US securities laws apply to crypto assets, giving tokenized finance a clearer regulatory framework.
  ↳ Nasdaq won SEC approval for tokenized securities, pushing regulated equities further onto onchain rails.

• Stablecoins are becoming a real global payments product.
  ↳ PayPal expanded PYUSD to 70 markets globally, deepening its cross-border stablecoin reach.
  ↳ Mastercard moved to acquire BVNK, tightening the link between onchain payments and fiat settlement rails.

• Crypto is slipping into everyday finance through familiar consumer apps.
  ↳ Nubank launched a crypto rewards tool in Brazil, bringing digital assets into a mainstream banking experience.
  ↳ Coinbase Asset Management and Apex Group launched a tokenized Bitcoin yield fund, making crypto investment products easier to access through structured formats.

• The next institutional wave is about earning yield and managing risk onchain.
  ↳ BlackRock’s staked Ether fund crossed $250M AUM in its first week, showing strong demand for yield-bearing crypto exposure.
  ↳ Anchorage Digital launched collateral management services on Atlas, adding more risk and financing infrastructure for institutional crypto markets.

Now, for the ‘byte’-sized onchain buzz -

Onchain Money 💸

Crypto payment rails are getting more local, embedded, and consumer-facing.

The News: Nubank launched a crypto rewards tool in Brazil, adding another on-ramp between digital assets and everyday retail users.

• Implication: Banks and fintech apps are making crypto feel more like a native product, not a separate investing app.

The News: Bitget Wallet launched bank transfer support in Bangladesh, enabling stablecoin payouts into local financial rails.

• Implication: Stablecoins get more useful when users can move seamlessly between onchain dollars and domestic bank systems.

The News: Bybit Pay brought QR-based crypto payments to Bolivia through Yape-style merchant flows.

• Implication: Crypto payments work best when they plug into familiar checkout behavior instead of asking users to change habits.

Onchain Assets 🏗️

Tokenized market access is starting to move through regulated rails, not crypto workarounds.

The News: The CFTC cleared a pilot that lets registered derivatives firms use crypto assets like Bitcoin, Ether, and certain stablecoins as collateral under supervised conditions.

• Implication: This is a step toward making onchain assets usable inside real financial plumbing, where crypto is not just held but posted, margined, and recognized inside regulated markets.

The News: Phantom received CFTC no-action relief that lets its wallet connect users to regulated derivatives access without being treated like a traditional broker, as long as it stays non-custodial.

• Implication: Wallets are inching closer to becoming front ends for regulated financial products, which could make tokenized exposure much easier to distribute at scale.

Onchain Market

Public-market crypto exposure is getting more ambitious, even as exchange listings stay fragile.

The News: Ripple-backed Evernorth filed for a Nasdaq debut through a SPAC merger, aiming to become a listed XRP treasury company with more than $1 billion in gross proceeds.

• Implication: Public investors are being offered more direct balance-sheet exposure to crypto assets, which could turn token treasuries into a new listed market category.

The News: Kraken reportedly froze its multibillion-dollar IPO plan despite earlier filing progress, choosing to wait for a better market window.

• Implication: Crypto market infrastructure is maturing, but public listings still depend on timing, sentiment, and how much volatility equity investors are willing to absorb.

Onchain Infra

The new infra race is about stablecoin throughput and safe machine payments.

The News: Tempo, backed by Stripe and Paradigm, launched its stablecoin-focused blockchain mainnet with support for AI-agent transactions and machine payment flows.

• Implication: Payments infrastructure is being rebuilt around stablecoins and automation, which points to a future where software can move money as easily as it calls an API.

The News: MoonPay Agents introduced a Ledger-secured AI agent setup, letting automated agents transact while keeping signing tied to hardware-wallet security.

• Implication: Agentic finance only scales if users trust the security model, and hardware-backed signing is an early answer to that trust gap.

Onchain Yield

Yield is splitting into two tracks: fast-moving token incentives and clearer regulated staking rules.

The News: Playnance launched GCOIN staking and said users locked more than 250 million tokens within hours of going live.

• Implication: Retail appetite for onchain yield is still strong, especially when token communities can turn staking into an immediate liquidity and loyalty event.

The News: New U.S. CFTC guidance clarified how staking and mining are treated under federal crypto rules, giving the sector a more defined regulatory footing.

• Implication: Clearer rules make staking easier to package into mainstream products, which is what institutions need before treating onchain yield as a real allocation bucket.

Onchain Lending

Credit is moving onchain from both directions: real-world loan pools and Bitcoin-backed finance.

The News: Figure launched Forge to bring private credit loans onchain, starting with tokenized exposure to real loan pools through its Provenance-based infrastructure.

• Implication: Private credit becomes more liquid and easier to distribute when loan exposure can be wrapped into standardized onchain instruments.

The News: Hashi launched on Sui with backing from BitGo and FalconX, aiming to let Bitcoin holders borrow, lend, and put BTC to work inside a finance protocol.

• Implication: Bitcoin is being pushed beyond passive holding into productive credit markets, which could unlock a much larger collateral base for onchain lending.

And that’s a wrap 👋

We hope you enjoyed this edition of the Onchain Finance!

If you’re someone who likes to read think pieces, you will likely love our monthly blog, Fintersections, where our team members analyse the convergence of fintech with the world.

And lastly, to stay updated on everything fintech and web3, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter, and don’t be shy to show some ❤️

Thanks for reading Future of FinTech Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

✔️ Banks file stablecoin trademarks and launch institutional staking ETFs.

✔️ Exchange partnerships unlock 24/7 programmable stock trading.

✔️ Federal agencies synchronize as states pass the first stablecoin laws.

Ready for the signals? 🔍

Subscribe now

🚨 Featured Story of the Week:

February Funding Roundup: Architecture for the New Money Era

How is venture capital quietly re-engineering global finance? Our February deep dive reveals a massive shift from speculative apps to the deep infra of the onchain economy. The focus has moved to building the stablecoin rails and compliance engines necessary for the next trillion dollars of institutional capital.

Breaking it down the five strategic themes:

• The Payments & Liquidity Play: Levl and Avenia are scaling stablecoin rails, while LayerZero unifies fragmented liquidity across chains.

• The Compliance Frontier: TRM Labs’ $70M raise highlights that institutional monitoring is now the bedrock of any regulated onchain strategy.

• The Credit Architecture: Platforms like STBL and Birch Hill are transforming onchain money into yield-backed, productive collateral.

• The Compliance & Control Play: Kresus and TRM are securing the “entry points” for institutions through secure wallets and control systems.

• Funding the Funders: Heavyweights like Dragonfly ($650M) and Pantera are reloading war chests to accelerate the next phase of blockchain-native startups.

Check out the full breakdown and join the conversation here »»

🚀 Startup Spotlight: Cryptio

Cryptio is bridging the gap between decentralized ledgers and traditional finance by providing a robust crypto ERP layer for the institutional world. By integrating directly with established systems like NetSuite and Oracle, Cryptio allows banks, exchanges, and corporations to manage digital assets with the same accounting rigor as fiat currency.

The firm recently reached a significant milestone by securing $45 million in Series B funding, capital that was largely provided by a syndicate of high-conviction crypto and fintech backers. The round saw heavy participation from crypto-native powerhouses like 1kx, BlueYard Capital, and Ledger Cathay, and will be used to accelerate Cryptio’s expansion into regulated loan and treasury management tools.

Building something interesting in onchain finance? We’d love to feature you next- drop us a note at hello@whitesight.net 👋

Pledge your access to fintech analysis and exclusive insights ⚡

Unlock Elite Access ⭐

📢 We’re always seeking innovative voices in fintech to be our next guest feature!

With a community of 2100+ fintech enthusiasts, we’d love to amplify your insights. Reach out to us for features, sponsorships, or collaborations!

Drop us a hello here! 👋

Get Unlimited Access to Strategy Playbooks of Fintech Pioneers with WhiteSight Radar! 🚀

Unlock a treasure trove of fintech intel with a WhiteSight Radar subscription. See further with exclusive reports, industry trend breakdowns, and expert analysis on everything from Embedded Finance and Digital Banking to Open Finance and beyond.

Become a member and steer your business course with actionable intelligence on the winning strategies of leading companies like Apple, Stripe, Starling Bank, OakNorth Bank, Banco Inter, and Toast that propels your business to the forefront of fintech. (PLUS! More in our premium content pipeline - Amazon, Nubank, Grab, Wise, Shopify, Affirm, Mercado Libre… the list goes on!)

Supercharge your Fintech IQ with WhiteSight Radar, putting expert fintech intel at your fingertips! 🧭

Got to have Radar on my radar!

Edition 7: The signals defining the new era of money, markets, and assets »

Last Week’s Top Onchain Tea!♨️

• Traditional giants pivot from observation to integration

↳ Wells Fargo filed a WFUSD trademark covering crypto wallets and tokenization, signaling a major move toward bank-issued stablecoins and digital payments.

↳ The SEC and CFTC signed a historic coordination agreement to harmonize digital asset oversight, ending years of jurisdictional overlap and providing a clear rulebook for US institutions.

• Global networks scale through regulated infrastructure and local rails

↳ Mastercard launched a massive Crypto Partner Program with 85+ firms to bridge digital assets with global payment networks and real-world merchant rails.

↳ Bybit introduced direct AED trading pairs funded via local UAE bank transfers, deepening the integration between crypto markets and regional sovereign currencies.

• Tokenized equities and futures bridge the gap for global traders

↳ Nasdaq and Kraken partnered to launch 24/7 programmable tokenized equities, allowing stocks to trade with the speed and flexibility of onchain assets.

↳ Coinbase secured regulatory approval to launch crypto and equity-index futures across 26 European nations, significantly expanding its institutional derivatives footprint.

• Institutional yield and AI-driven growth draw record capital

↳ BlackRock debuted its Staked Ether ETF (ETHB), allowing investors to capture both Ethereum’s price appreciation and its native staking rewards in one fund.

↳ Eightco (ORBS) secured $125M in institutional funding led by Bitmine, ARK Invest, and Payward to accelerate the development of next-generation AI and blockchain infrastructure.

Now, for the ‘byte’-sized onchain buzz -

Onchain Money

Stablecoin regulation is shifting from federal debates to state-level action and clarified insurance boundaries.

The News: Florida became the first US state to pass a comprehensive stablecoin regulatory bill, establishing a clear legal framework for issuers within the state.

• Implication: State-led regulation creates a laboratory for stablecoins; Florida’s move could force a federal standard as more states seek to attract digital dollar issuers.

The News: The FDIC officially ruled out deposit insurance for stablecoins under the Genius Act, confirming they will not be treated like traditional bank deposits.

• Implication: This draws a hard line between bank money and stablecoin money, pushing issuers to prove their stability through 1:1 reserves and transparency rather than government backstops.

Onchain Assets

The tokenization wave is turning into a licensed reality as global platforms secure the permits needed to move trillions onchain.

The News: Standard Chartered’s Libeara platform secured a Capital Markets Services (CMS) license in Singapore to facilitate institutional asset tokenization.

• Implication: One of the world’s largest banks now has a regulated green light to bring traditional securities onchain, legitimizing RWAs for the world’s most conservative wealth managers.

The News: BTC Markets is aggressively pursuing an RWA trading license to meet growing investor demand for tokenized real-world assets.

• Implication: Native crypto exchanges are evolving into multi-asset platforms, signaling that the future of trading is anything that can be tokenized.

Onchain Markets

Prediction markets and blockchain-based securities are becoming the new standard for institutional hedging and settlement.

The News: Prime brokers are moving to open Kalshi’s regulated prediction markets to institutional hedge funds for high-stakes event hedging.

• Implication: Prediction markets are graduating from retail ‘betting’ to professional ‘hedging’ tools, providing a more accurate real-time gauge of global risk than traditional polling.

The News: Swiss crypto bank Amina become the first fully regulated bank to join 21X for tokenized securities operating under the European Union’s DLT pilot regime, marking another step toward integrating digital asset infrastructure with traditional capital markets.

• Implication: The collaboration aims to address a key barrier to institutional adoption of tokenized assets by connecting regulated banks with the issuance and trading of tokenized securities.

Onchain Infra

The backend of the digital economy is being fortified with institutional-grade custody and advanced security layers.

The News: BitGo was named the primary custodian for StableX Technologies’ planned M-stablecoin crypto treasury.

• Implication: As corporate treasuries move onchain, the role of a ‘crypto vault’ becomes as critical as a central bank, with BitGo setting the gold standard for institutional safety.

The News: Shift Markets partnered with Guardrail to integrate advanced security infrastructure across its global exchange network.

• Implication: With exchange hacks becoming more sophisticated, “infra-level” security partnerships are becoming a mandatory requirement for any platform handling user funds.

Onchain Yield

The battle for yield is moving into automated DeFi vaults and regulated staking vehicles.

The News: Lido launched “earnUSD” stablecoin vaults, allowing users to automatically capture optimized yields across the DeFi ecosystem.

• Implication: Liquid staking is expanding beyond ETH; Lido is now positioning itself as the ‘yield layer’ for the entire stablecoin economy.

The News: Grayscale launched a dedicated Avalanche (AVAX) staking ETF to provide investors with a regulated path to staking rewards.

• Implication: The “ETF 2.0” era has arrived, where the value proposition is not limited to holding an asset, but capturing the network-native yield that comes with it.

Onchain Lending

Cross-chain protocols and liquidity glitches are testing the resilience of decentralized credit markets.

The News: Morpho Network collaborated with WheelX FI to bring cross-chain applications to its DeFi lending protocol, enhancing liquidity access.

• Implication: The future of lending is ‘chain-agnostic’; users will soon borrow and lend assets across multiple networks without ever realizing they are moving between blockchains.

The News: Aave experienced $27 million in liquidations following a rare price-feed glitch that triggered automated health-factor shutdowns. '

• Implication: While DeFi is efficient, this event serves as a reminder that ‘oracle risk’ remains the Achilles’ heel of automated lending, requiring even more robust fail-safes as the sector scales.

And that’s a wrap 👋

We hope you enjoyed this edition of the Onchain Finance!

If you’re someone who likes to read think pieces, you will likely love our monthly blog, Fintersections, where our team members analyse the convergence of fintech with the world.

And lastly, to stay updated on everything fintech and web3, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter, and don’t be shy to show some ❤️

Thanks for reading Future of FinTech Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

✔️ Sovereign debt and institutional portfolios officially migrated to the ledger

✔️ Prediction markets pivoted from niche betting to a regulated Wall Street asset class

✔️ The “Agentic Economy” arrived as AI-ready data infra met native onchain execution

Ready for the signals? 🔍

Subscribe now

🚨 Featured Story of the Week:

Adyen – The Unified Commerce Powerhouse

How did a single-platform strategy turn a fragmented payment stack into a €1.4 Trillion processing engine? Our latest deep dive into Adyen explores how the Dutch giant is moving beyond simple acquiring to dominate the next era of financial services.

Inside this premium report, we unpack the “Adyen Formula” for global scale:

• The Unified Advantage: How one platform manages online, in-store, and in-app payments to create a single source of truth for enterprise data.

• The Embedded Frontier: A look at Adyen’s expansion into Accounts, Capital, and Issuing—turning a payment gateway into a full-scale financial ecosystem.

• Agentic Commerce: Why Adyen is positioning its infrastructure for the future of AI agents that authenticate and transact without human intervention.

• Strategic Moats: How they use localization and bank-grade licenses to outpace competitors without adding merchant complexity.

One platform, every touchpoint: Discover how Adyen’s 'Unified Commerce' architecture is turning simple transactions into a high-velocity flywheel for Accounts, Capital, and Issuing.

Download the Full Report Here to see how Adyen is rewriting the rules of global commerce.

🚀 Startup Spotlight: KAST

KAST is building the next generation of borderless banking by turning stablecoins into a primary spending and savings layer for a global audience. Through its intuitive platform, KAST enables users to move value instantly and spend digital dollars via physical and virtual cards, effectively merging the high-yield benefits of onchain assets with the convenience of traditional fintech.

The firm recently solidified its position as a major player in the space by successfully raising $80 million in a fresh funding round, capital that will be used to scale its payment infrastructure and expand its card issuance services across emerging and developed markets alike.

Building something interesting in onchain finance? We’d love to feature you next- drop us a note at hello@whitesight.net 👋

Pledge your access to fintech analysis and exclusive insights ⚡

Unlock Elite Access ⭐

📢 We’re always seeking innovative voices in fintech to be our next guest feature!

With a community of 2100+ fintech enthusiasts, we’d love to amplify your insights. Reach out to us for features, sponsorships, or collaborations!

Drop us a hello here! 👋

Get Unlimited Access to Strategy Playbooks of Fintech Pioneers with WhiteSight Radar! 🚀

Unlock a treasure trove of fintech intel with a WhiteSight Radar subscription. See further with exclusive reports, industry trend breakdowns, and expert analysis on everything from Embedded Finance and Digital Banking to Open Finance and beyond.

Become a member and steer your business course with actionable intelligence on the winning strategies of leading companies like Apple, Stripe, Starling Bank, OakNorth Bank, Banco Inter, and Toast that propels your business to the forefront of fintech. (PLUS! More in our premium content pipeline - Amazon, Nubank, Grab, Wise, Shopify, Affirm, Mercado Libre… the list goes on!)

Supercharge your Fintech IQ with WhiteSight Radar, putting expert fintech intel at your fingertips! 🧭

Got to have Radar on my radar!

Edition 6: The signals defining the new era of money, markets, and assets »

Last Week’s Top Onchain Tea!♨️

• Legacy giants build the “Gold Standard” for digital custody

↳ Morgan Stanley selected Coinbase and BNY Mellon as its primary partners to provide institutional-grade custody for its expanding digital asset portfolio.

↳ SWIFT and BNY Mellon launched a joint blockchain-based payment ledger to synchronize global cross-border settlements with real-time transparency.

• Stablecoins evolve into global spending and savings rails

↳ Visa and Bridge expanded their partnership to roll out stablecoin-linked debit cards across more than 100 countries.

↳ Bybit and Tether deepened their collaboration to launch gold-backed stablecoin products, providing investors with a hedge against volatility using onchain precious metals.

• Exchanges and institutions collide to create hybrid “Super-Markets”

↳ NYSE and OKX partnered to integrate institutional-grade market data, allowing professional traders to bridge the gap between traditional equities and crypto markets.

↳ BitGo expanded its MiCA-compliant “Crypto-as-a-Service” across 30 European markets, providing the licensed backend for banks to launch digital assets without building their own stack.

• Prediction markets go mainstream

↳ Nasdaq submitted a filing for SEC approval to launch “Outcome Related Options” on the Nasdaq-100, bringing binary event-betting to the heart of Wall Street.

↳ DriveWealth and Kalshi integrated regulated event contracts into mainstream brokerage APIs, allowing retail investors to trade real-world outcomes alongside stocks.

Now, for the ‘byte’-sized onchain buzz -

Onchain Money

Stablecoin adoption is evolving from speculative trading toward a core function of the global banking system.

The News: Western Union and Crossmint partnered to support the USDPT stablecoin on Solana, enabling seamless cross-border transfers and digital asset network integration.

• Implication: The entry of a legacy remittance giant like Western Union into the Solana ecosystem suggests that stablecoins are finally displacing slower, traditional rails for global money movement.

The News: SoFi selected BitGo to provide the custodial infrastructure for its upcoming bank-issued stablecoin, bridging the gap between digital assets and consumer banking.

• Implication: Bank-issued stablecoins represent the next phase of “Onchain Money,” where FDIC-insured institutions lend their credibility to the blockchain to drive mass retail adoption.

Onchain Assets

Real-world assets (RWAs) are migrating to the ledger as major financial institutions shift from testing “digital twins” to launching live, interest-bearing onchain vehicles.

The News: Northern Trust launched a tokenized Money Market Fund (MMF) specifically designed for short-term Treasury portfolios to enhance settlement speed.

• Implication: Large-scale asset managers are prioritizing liquidity and efficiency; tokenizing the safest assets (Treasuries) provides the foundation for all other Onchain Assets to follow.

The News: Canada’s Scotiabank expanded its wealth offerings by adding a multi-crypto ETF via 3iQ, providing clients with diversified exposure to digital assets.

• Implication: Traditional brokerage platforms are no longer ignoring the demand for crypto, normalizing digital assets as a standard component of institutional and retail portfolios.

Onchain Markets

The competitive landscape for digital markets is shifting as platforms prioritize regional regulatory licenses to capture the next wave of institutional capital.

The News: Binance is pursuing five new licenses across Asia to capitalize on the rapid acceleration of crypto adoption in the APAC region.

• Implication: Regulation is becoming a competitive advantage; by securing local approvals, Binance aims to entrench itself as the primary gateway for Asian institutional “Onchain Markets.”

The News: BitGo Europe expanded its “Crypto-as-a-Service” across the EEA, providing the infrastructure for regional firms to offer regulated trading and custody.

• Implication: The standardization of market access across Europe allows any traditional financial firm to become a crypto player overnight without building the tech from scratch.

Onchain Infra

Blockchain data is being overhauled for the machine-learning era, turning raw onchain transactions into high-speed intelligence for AI-driven ecosystems.

The News: Sentio and Chainbase partnered to build AI-ready onchain data infrastructure, enabling real-time indexing and sophisticated analytics for developers.

• Implication: As AI agents begin to trade and manage funds, “Onchain Infra” must evolve from simple ledgers into “intelligent” data streams that can feed automated decision-making.

The News: Bitget launched its “Blockchain-as-a-Service” (BaaS) solution to simplify enterprise deployment of private and public ledger technology.

• Implication: Lowering the technical barrier for corporations ensures that the next generation of business logic will be built directly onchain rather than being retrofitted later.

Onchain Yield

Yield dynamics are reaching a tipping point as institutional-grade products like ETFs adjust their fees to compete for a growing queue of staking participants.

The News: BlackRock slashed its Ethereum ETF staking fee from 18% to 10% following internal warnings and market pressure to remain competitive.

• Implication: The fee war for “Onchain Yield” has officially begun; institutional investors will migrate to whichever provider offers the highest net return in a regulated wrapper.

The News: The Ethereum staking queue reached a record backlog as large investors chose to lock up ETH for passive rewards rather than selling on the open market.

• Implication: A massive supply crunch is forming; as more ETH is staked for yield, the available liquid supply drops, creating a structural tailwind for long-term asset value.

Onchain Lending

Regulatory breakthroughs in major financial hubs are finally unlocking the ability for licensed firms to offer Bitcoin and stablecoin-backed credit at scale.

The News: Strike secured a New York BitLicense, allowing the firm to offer Bitcoin-based financial services and lending to one of the world’s most regulated markets.

• Implication: Passing the “BitLicense” hurdle signals that “Onchain Lending” is ready for prime time in the US, opening the door for mainstream credit services backed by BTC.

The News: APX Lending received regulatory approval to offer USDC-denominated loans from coast to coast across Canada.

• Implication: Cross-border lending is becoming standardized; the ability to borrow against digital assets with full regulatory backing provides a critical tool for tax-efficient liquidity.

And that’s a wrap 👋

We hope you enjoyed this edition of the Onchain Finance!

If you’re someone who likes to read think pieces, you will likely love our monthly blog, Fintersections, where our team members analyse the convergence of fintech with the world.

And lastly, to stay updated on everything fintech and web3, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter, and don’t be shy to show some ❤️

Thanks for reading Future of FinTech Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

✔️ DeFi matured from sandbox to a $1T global liquidity utility

✔️ Regulators moved from “wait and see” to active enforcement playbooks

✔️ AI agents officially entered the payment flow with native infra

Ready for the signals? 🔍

Subscribe now

🚨 Featured Story of the Week:

Aave Crosses the $1T Rubicon

Aave, the decentralized lending protocol, officially surpassed $1 trillion in total lending volume. This milestone is a validation of decentralized liquidity pools as a mature alternative to traditional credit markets.

Driven by a aggressive push into institutional-grade services through Aave Arc and its growing V3 deployment, the protocol has proven that smart-contract-based lending can operate at the scale of global systemically important banks.

What it signals?

• The “Protocol-as-a-Bank” Model is Validated: Crossing the trillion-dollar mark proves that liquidity can be sourced and distributed globally without a centralized balance sheet.

• Institutional Adoption has Found its “Home”: A significant portion of this growth stems from Aave’s focus on compliance-ready features. The “Institutional Push” is a shift in user base. As traditional firms seek yield in a high-rate environment, Aave’s transparent risk parameters are becoming the gold standard for “onchain prime brokerage.”

• DeFi’s “Lindy Effect” is Peaking: In finance, longevity and volume breed trust. By handling $1T in volume without a major exploit of its core logic, Aave is cementing itself as a “too big to fail” piece of the onchain financial stack, making it the default starting point for any fintech looking to integrate onchain lending.

We broke down why Aave’s $1T milestone is a watershed moment! Decentralized lending has officially hit the scale and reliability of global banking infrastructure. Have a look.

🚀 Startup Spotlight: Infinite

Infinite is building the global settlement network for the stablecoin era. They provide businesses with turnkey APIs and SDKs to move money cross-border instantly, bypassing the high fees and T+3 delays of traditional SWIFT rails without forcing companies to manage the underlying crypto complexity.

The team, led by former product and tech leads from Coinbase and Sardine, has raised $6M in total funding to date, including support from Y Combinator and a suite of strategic fintech investors.

Building something interesting in onchain finance? We’d love to feature you next- drop us a note at hello@whitesight.net 👋

Pledge your access to fintech analysis and exclusive insights ⚡

Unlock Elite Access ⭐

📢 We’re always seeking innovative voices in fintech to be our next guest feature!

With a community of 2100+ fintech enthusiasts, we’d love to amplify your insights. Reach out to us for features, sponsorships, or collaborations!

Drop us a hello here! 👋

Get Unlimited Access to Strategy Playbooks of Fintech Pioneers with WhiteSight Radar! 🚀

Unlock a treasure trove of fintech intel with a WhiteSight Radar subscription. See further with exclusive reports, industry trend breakdowns, and expert analysis on everything from Embedded Finance and Digital Banking to Open Finance and beyond.

Become a member and steer your business course with actionable intelligence on the winning strategies of leading companies like Apple, Stripe, Starling Bank, OakNorth Bank, Banco Inter, and Toast that propels your business to the forefront of fintech. (PLUS! More in our premium content pipeline - Amazon, Nubank, Grab, Wise, Shopify, Affirm, Mercado Libre… the list goes on!)

Supercharge your Fintech IQ with WhiteSight Radar, putting expert fintech intel at your fingertips! 🧭

Got to have Radar on my radar!

Edition 5 brings you the onchain finance stories that shaped how money, markets, and assets moved this week »

Last Week’s Top Onchain Tea!♨️

• The great institutional ‘in-housing’ of digital assets

↳ Citi and Morgan Stanley expanded their digital asset footprint, scaling institutional custody, trading, and tokenization services to meet growing client demand.

↳ Barclays is exploring blockchain-based payments and tokenized deposits to streamline high-frequency settlement processes.

• “Tokenization-as-a-service” becomes the new standard for liquidity

↳ HashKey launched a one-stop RWA (Real-World Asset) tokenization platform, designed to help businesses bring tangible assets onto the blockchain.

↳ Coinbase expanded its platform to include Stock and ETF trading, moving beyond its crypto roots to become a comprehensive financial super-app.

↳ Kraken debuted tokenized stock futures for non-U.S. traders, allowing users to gain exposure to traditional equity markets using onchain collateral.

• Blockchain settlement rails picked up institutional momentum

↳ Deutsche Bank partnered with Ripple to enhance cross-border payments and settlement via blockchain.
↳ Robinhood’s Layer-2 testnet logged 4M transactions in its first week as it ramped its onchain infrastructure.

• The rise of high-stakes onchain utility

↳ Aave crossed a historic $1T in total lending volume, driven by a significant push into institutional-grade DeFi services.

↳ MetaMask and Mastercard launched a self-custody U.S. crypto card, enabling users to spend their onchain assets while earning rewards directly on the ledger.

↳ The Ethereum Foundation began staking 70,000 ETH, signaling a long-term commitment to network security and capital efficiency.

Now, for the ‘byte’-sized onchain buzz -

Onchain Money

From “Wait and See” to “Write and Enforce” 🛡️💵

The U.S. is establishing a formal playbook for how stablecoins must behave to earn their place in the banking stack, moving regulators into an active enforcement phase.

• The News: The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) unveiled the “GENIUS Act” rulebook, setting strict standards for payment stablecoin issuers regarding reserve transparency and operational resilience.

  • Implication: This signals the “banking-ification” of stablecoins; by providing a clear regulatory path, the OCC is preparing the ground for traditional banks to finally integrate stablecoin rails into their core settlement systems.

• The News: A new proposal from U.S. banking regulators seeks to restrict certain “stablecoin rewards” programs, targeting yield-bearing features that mimic unregulated interest-bearing accounts.

  • Implication: Regulators are drawing a hard line between payment tools and investment tools, forcing issuers to choose between being a high-utility medium of exchange or a highly regulated security.

Onchain Assets

Bridging Wall Street to the Web3 Ledger 🌉🏛️

Institutional tokenization is moving beyond the pilot phase as fund managers and sovereign hubs build the interconnected pipes needed for global digital liquidity.

• The News: WisdomTree received SEC approval to trade its tokenized fund, allowing the asset manager to bring real-world fund structures directly onto the blockchain for streamlined secondary trading.

  • Implication: SEC approval validates that onchain records can satisfy federal oversight, paving the way for a wave of traditional mutual funds to migrate toward 24/7 onchain settlement.

• The News: Hong Kong is launching a new digital bond platform designed to link with regional tokenization hubs, creating a cross-border network for digital debt instruments.

  • Implication: Fragmented “digital islands” are beginning to connect; Hong Kong is positioning itself as the primary router for institutional onchain capital flowing between East and West.

Onchain Markets

The Institutional Consolidation of the European Frontier 🇪🇺🏗️

Market players are securing their “European Passports” and beefing up infrastructure as the race for compliant, institutional-grade trading intensifies.

• The News: Gate secured a Maltese payments license, a strategic move that enables the exchange to expand its fiat-to-stablecoin gateways across the entire EU.

  • Implication: As MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets) kicks in, licenses are becoming the most valuable asset a player can own, turning “crypto exchanges” into “full-stack digital banks.”

• The News: Bitwise acquired staking infrastructure pioneer Chorus One, integrating institutional-grade validator services directly into its asset management suite.

  • Implication: Asset managers are vertically integrating to capture underlying network rewards, turning passive funds into active, yield-generating machines.

Onchain Infra

Giving AI Agents a Digital Wallet (and the Keys) 🤖💳

The next phase of the internet involves autonomous agents paying each other, and the infrastructure for “Agentic Commerce” is officially going live.

• The News: MoonPay launched a dedicated infrastructure suite specifically for AI agent crypto payments, providing the tooling for non-human entities to off-ramp and transact.

  • Implication: This solves the “last mile” problem for AI; by giving agents a way to pay for their own compute and data, we move toward a truly autonomous machine-to-machine economy.

• The News: Alchemy introduced autonomous payment rails for AI agents on Base, allowing developers to bake “payment logic” directly into their AI bots.

  • Implication: By lowering the barrier for agents to spend on Layer 2s, we will likely see an explosion of micro-services where AI acts as both the consumer and the provider in a closed loop.

Onchain Yield

The Great Institutional Migration Toward Network Rewards 🌏📈

Yield generation is becoming a game of scale and geography, with heavyweights moving into the APAC region to capture the next wave of staking demand.

• The News: Pantera Capital is leading a major buildout of Solana staking infrastructure across the APAC region, focusing on institutional-grade validator sets.

  • Implication: Large-scale capital is betting on Solana as the “high-frequency” yield engine of the future, targeting tech-forward markets in Asia to anchor their liquidity.

• The News: Flare and Xaman launched an integration enabling one-click DeFi access for over 2 billion XRP tokens previously sitting idle in self-custodial wallets.

  • Implication: By abstracting away the complexity of bridging and gas tokens, Flare is positioning itself as the “utility layer” for the XRP ecosystem, potentially unlocking $3 billion in dormant liquidity for onchain yield strategies.

Onchain Lending

Mortgages and UTA Loans - The Final Frontier of Credit 🏠🏦

Lending is maturing from simple crypto-backed plays to sophisticated credit products that include real-world assets and long-term fixed rates.

• The News: Rate unveiled “RateFi Mortgages,” a new product that allows borrowers to count their crypto holdings as reserves for traditional home loans.

  • Implication: This is a major step in wealth integration; by treating crypto as a legitimate reserve asset, the friction between onchain wealth and real property ownership is dissolving.

• The News: Bybit introduced fixed-rate Unified Trading Account (UTA) loans, offering up to 10x leverage with borrowing periods extending up to 180 days.

  • Implication: Fixed-rate lending brings predictability to a volatile market; this maturity is what sophisticated traders need to treat onchain markets like traditional treasury desks.

And that’s a wrap 👋

We hope you enjoyed this edition of the Onchain Finance!

If you’re someone who likes to read think pieces, you will likely love our monthly blog, Fintersections, where our team members analyse the convergence of fintech with the world.

And lastly, to stay updated on everything fintech and web3, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter, and don’t be shy to show some ❤️

Thanks for reading Future of FinTech Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

✔️ Stablecoins moved from “treasury idea” to day-to-day payments UX

✔️ Institutions leaned into onchain rails + regulated wrappers

✔️ Credit + market infrastructure kept filling in the gaps

Ready for the signals? 🔍

🚨 Featured Story of the Week:

Bridge Pushed Stablecoins Toward “Bank-Grade” Infrastructure

Bridge (Stripe-owned stablecoin infrastructure) received conditional OCC approval to organize a federally chartered national trust bank - a major signal that stablecoin plumbing was moving closer to traditional financial supervision.
Simultaneously, Bridge’s rails also showed up in mainstream distribution: Payoneer embedded stablecoin receive/hold/send powered by Bridge inside its global business payments platform.

Why it matters

This is not yet another “stablecoin partnership”- it connected regulated infrastructure + real distribution: Bridge aims to operate under a clear federal framework, while fintechs could ship stablecoin features to millions of businesses without building the stack themselves.

What it signals?

• A credible compliance lane is forming: Bridge says the charter path (once fully approved) would let it run stablecoin products under direct federal oversight, covering functions like issuance, custody, orchestration, and reserves management.

• Stablecoins are becoming a default fintech feature: Payoneer’s launch plan framed stablecoins as day-to-day operating money for global businesses-receive, hold, send - inside the same platform they already use.

  We broke down why Bridge’s conditional OCC trust-bank approval matters industry-wide: stablecoin infrastructure is moving closer to the regulated banking perimeter. It gives enterprises a cleaner compliance and audit path, makes stablecoin rails easier to embed into payouts and treasury workflows, and supports nationwide scale under one federal wrapper, speeding up mainstream adoption. Have a look.

🚀 Startup Spotlight: Brich Hill

Birch Hill is building institutional-grade onchain credit infrastructure for onchain lending and tokenized asset markets, with an emphasis on capital preservation, structured risk controls, governance, and real-time collateral risk monitoring.

This week, Birch Hill raised $2.5M pre-seed in a SAFE round co-led by ParaFi Capital and Castle Island Ventures, with participation from Nascent, FalconX Ventures, JST Digital, and Flowdesk.

Why it looks like early product–market fit: Birch Hill is launching institutionally curated lending strategies on Morpho and plans to expand to additional protocols such as Euler, positioning itself as a “compliant wrapper + risk engine” for institutions that want onchain yield without cowboy risk.

Building something interesting in onchain finance? We’d love to feature you next- drop us a note at hello@whitesight.net 👋

Pledge your access to fintech analysis and exclusive insights ⚡

Unlock Elite Access ⭐

What’s on the onchain menu today?

• 🏁 Onchain Highlights: Biggest moves across money, markets, and tokenization

• 🧩 ‘Byte’ Buzz: Onchain Finance updates, sorted by segment

• 🔗 Link Up: A curated set of reads worth your time

Sip on bite-sized onchain updates - fresh, sharp, and distilled to keep you ahead in just minutes. Subscribe now! 📨

📢 We’re always seeking innovative voices in fintech to be our next guest feature!

With a community of 2100+ fintech enthusiasts, we’d love to amplify your insights. Reach out to us for features, sponsorships, or collaborations!

Drop us a hello here! 👋

Get Unlimited Access to Strategy Playbooks of Fintech Pioneers with WhiteSight Radar! 🚀

Unlock a treasure trove of fintech intel with a WhiteSight Radar subscription. See further with exclusive reports, industry trend breakdowns, and expert analysis on everything from Embedded Finance and Digital Banking to Open Finance and beyond.

Become a member and steer your business course with actionable intelligence on the winning strategies of leading companies like Apple, Stripe, Starling Bank, OakNorth Bank, Banco Inter, and Toast that propels your business to the forefront of fintech. (PLUS! More in our premium content pipeline - Amazon, Nubank, Grab, Wise, Shopify, Affirm, Mercado Libre… the list goes on!)

Supercharge your Fintech IQ with WhiteSight Radar, putting expert fintech intel at your fingertips! 🧭

Got to have Radar on my radar!

Edition 3 brings you the onchain finance stories that shaped how money, markets, and assets moved this week »

Last Week’s Top Onchain Tea!♨️

• Stablecoins reached the “last mile” (payouts + business operations)

↳ Payoneer to launch a suite of stablecoin capabilities embedded within the Payoneer platform, powered by Bridge.
↳ Wirex launched stablecoin push-to-card payouts via Visa Direct, enabling stablecoin-funded disbursements to eligible cards globally.

• Asset managers brought onchain exposure into regulated products

↳ BlackRock started acquiring ETH to seed its upcoming Ethereum staking ETF.
↳ BNP Paribas AM piloted tokenized money-market fund shares on Ethereum under a permissioned model.

• Blockchain settlement rails picked up institutional momentum

↳ Deutsche Bank partnered with Ripple to enhance cross-border payments and settlement via blockchain.
↳ Robinhood’s Layer-2 testnet logged 4M transactions in its first week as it ramped its onchain infrastructure.

• Regulated crypto market expanded

↳ Crypto.com received conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to create a national trust bank in the United States.
↳ Coinbase expanded U.S. crypto-backed lending to support XRP, DOGE, ADA, and LTC.

Now, for the ‘byte’-sized onchain buzz -

Onchain Money felt very “payments-native” this week - cards, licences, and machine-to-machine checkout all tightened the loop from onchain balance!

• Quantoz became a Visa principal member for stablecoin cards - Quantoz partnered with Visa to issue virtual Visa debit cards for spending e-money and stablecoins, and to act as a BIN sponsor for fintech partners.
  ↳ Implication: stablecoin spending is sliding into regulated card issuance i.e. principal membership and BIN sponsorship, making “stablecoin accounts” behave like normal card balances.

• BVNK secured a MiCA CASP licence in Malta -BVNK obtained a MiCA licence from Malta’s MFSA, enabling it to passport regulated crypto-asset services across the EEA.
  ↳ Implication: Europe is rewarding firms that can run EUR rails + stablecoin settlement inside one compliance wrapper.

• XRPL shipped x402 payments for AI agents - an x402 “facilitator” went live on XRP Ledger, enabling AI agents to pay per-request using XRP and RLUSD via HTTP 402 “Payment Required.”
  ↳ Implication: agentic commerce is getting a native checkout pattern (HTTP-native micropayments) that can plug straight into onchain settlement.

Onchain Assets pushed deeper into capital-markets territory - tokenized equity started looking less like a demo and more like market structure.

• Figure debuted tokenized stock alongside a $150M secondary offering - Figure launched a tokenized stock product tied to an upsized $150M offering to expand its trading platform and digital-asset services.
  ↳ Implication: tokenized equity is being packaged with real liquidity events (offerings and distribution), not only tech rails.

• BitGo + Figure completed first tokenized equity trades on Figure’s ATS - the firms executed blockchain-native equity trades through integrated infrastructure on Figure’s FINRA/SIPC-member Alternative Trading System.
  ↳ Implication: regulated venues (ATS) are becoming the bridge for tokenized equities to trade with familiar compliance guardrails.

Onchain Markets focused on two institutional basics: 24/7 access and regulated, venue-ready infrastructure.

• CME announced 24/7 crypto derivatives trading starting May 29 - CME launched regulated crypto futures and options would trade 24/7 on Globex (pending regulatory review).
  ↳ Implication: continuous market hours are becoming table-stakes for regulated crypto, narrowing the gap with crypto-native venues.

• Antier launched a VARA-ready white-label crypto exchange stack for UAE/MENA - Antier introduced a compliance-forward exchange software suite designed for financial institutions entering regulated digital-asset markets under VARA-style requirements.
  ↳ Implication: exchange infrastructure is getting productized for licensing, making it faster for banks/brokers to launch regulated venues instead of building from scratch.

Onchain Infra was all about interoperability and 24/7 settlement, making movement across chains and between fiat rails less painfu

• Enso integrated Chainlink CCIP for cross-chain minting in production: Enso announced live deployments using Chainlink CCIP to move assets cross-chain and deploy them into strategies in a single transaction flow.
  ↳ Implication: cross-chain execution is shifting from bridges-as-a-risk to composable messaging + atomic execution as a product primitive.

• Lightspark + Cross River teamed up for 24/7 real-time fiat settlement - the partners combined Lightspark’s Bitcoin-native payments stack with Cross River’s multi-rail banking infrastructure.
  ↳ Implication: regulated banks are plugging into crypto-native infra to offer always-on settlement without waiting for bank hours.

Onchain Yield got more “asset-manager-grade” - staking yield was being operationalized as a product

• Bitwise to acquire staking provider Chorus One to deepen its onchain yield/staking strategy (Chorus One manages billions in staked assets).
  ↳ Implication: crypto asset managers want native yield capability in-house as staking becomes a core portfolio feature.

• Canary and Grayscale debuted their SUI ETF withstaking rewards (SUIS) - offering investors direct exposure to the token’s price along with the ability to earn staking rewards.
  ↳ Implication: ETFs are starting to blend spot exposure + protocol yield, pulling staking into familiar wrappers.

Onchain Lending expanded the collateral and credit toolkit - more ways to finance activity without dragging capital back into slow rails

• Voltage launched a USD-settled revolving credit line integrated with Lightning - Voltage Credit let businesses send Lightning-style payments with instant finality, while repaying the facility in USD from a bank account.
  ↳ Implication: credit is being embedded inside payment rails, letting firms use Bitcoin/Lightning without holding BTC balance-sheet risk.

• Franklin Templeton and Binance rolled out tokenized MMF shares as off-exchange collateral - eligible institutions could use tokenized money market fund shares as collateral for Binance trading.
  ↳ Implication: yield-bearing RWAs are becoming prime-broker-style collateral for 24/7 crypto market structure.

And that’s a wrap 👋

We hope you enjoyed this edition of the Onchain Finance!

If you’re someone who likes to read think pieces, you will likely love our monthly blog, Fintersections, where our team members analyse the convergence of fintech with the world.

And lastly, to stay updated on everything fintech and web3, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter, and don’t be shy to show some ❤️

Thanks for reading Future of FinTech Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

UAE-style regulated issuance, enterprise stablecoin settlement, and tokenized treasuries trading/serving as collateral all pushed the stack forward, while AI agents got their own payment tools.

✔️ Stablecoin settlement moved deeper into regulated and enterprise workflows

✔️ Tokenized treasuries looked more like collateral and trading inventory

✔️ Agentic wallets + automated payments pushed crypto UX into new default surfaces

Ready for the signals? 🔍

🚨 Featured Story of the Week:

Stablecoin Cards Go Mainstream: Quantoz × Visa 💳🪙

Quantoz partnered with Visa to become a direct Visa principal member, enabling it to issue virtual Visa debit cards and act as a BIN sponsor for third-party fintechs - so customers can spend regulated e-money/stablecoin balances anywhere Visa is accepted (including Apple Pay/Google Pay).

This matters because the “stablecoin moment” is shifting into a familiar distribution channel: cards, where compliance, settlement, and acceptance already exist - and stablecoins can ride that infrastructure into everyday spend.

What changes now

• Regulatory: Principal membership + BIN sponsorship puts stablecoin-linked spend inside the same governance, controls, and program standards used for mainstream card issuance.

• Market structure: Stablecoin balances start behaving like a spendable account layer, while merchants still receive local currency through existing card rails.

• Institutional adoption: Fintechs can launch card products faster because the “heavy lifting” (network access + issuing sponsorship) sits with regulated intermediaries like Quantoz.

How the runway was set

• Visa’s card playbook: Visa already rolled out stablecoin-linked card issuance via Bridge (Stripe company), letting developers issue cards funded by stablecoin balances via API.

• Mastercard’s parallel push: Mastercard positioned end-to-end stablecoin acceptance: wallet enablement, card issuing, and merchant settlement, through partners like OKX and Nuvei.

• Network-level expansion: Mastercard also partnered with Fiserv to support stablecoin-linked cards and merchant settlement in FIUSD across its acceptance footprint.

Stablecoin adoption is increasingly a distribution race, and cards are becoming the fastest bridge from onchain balances to everyday spending.

Thanks for reading Future of FinTech Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

🚀 Startup Spotlight: STBL

STBL is building stablecoin + yield infrastructure that lets ecosystems launch their own programmable, yield-sharing stablecoins, anchored to USST (its universal over-collateralized stablecoin backed by high-quality RWAs).

This week’s OKX Ventures investment and the X Layer partnership signaled strong product–market fit: institutions want regulated, tokenized collateral + programmable settlement, and STBL is positioning itself as the infrastructure layer that packages that into deployable “ecosystem-specific” stablecoins.

Building something interesting in onchain finance? We’d love to feature you next- drop us a note at hello@whitesight.net 👋

Pledge your access to fintech analysis and exclusive insights ⚡

Unlock Elite Access ⭐

What’s on the onchain menu today?

• 🏁 Onchain Highlights: Biggest moves across money, markets, and tokenization

• 🧩 ‘Byte’ Buzz: Onchain Finance updates, sorted by segment

• 🔗 Link Up: A curated set of reads worth your time

Sip on bite-sized onchain updates - fresh, sharp, and distilled to keep you ahead in just minutes. Subscribe now! 📨

📢 We’re always seeking innovative voices in fintech to be our next guest feature!

With a community of 2100+ fintech enthusiasts, we’d love to amplify your insights. Reach out to us for features, sponsorships, or collaborations!

Drop us a hello here! 👋

Get Unlimited Access to Strategy Playbooks of Fintech Pioneers with WhiteSight Radar! 🚀

Unlock a treasure trove of fintech intel with a WhiteSight Radar subscription. See further with exclusive reports, industry trend breakdowns, and expert analysis on everything from Embedded Finance and Digital Banking to Open Finance and beyond.

Become a member and steer your business course with actionable intelligence on the winning strategies of leading companies like Apple, Stripe, Starling Bank, OakNorth Bank, Banco Inter, and Toast that propels your business to the forefront of fintech. (PLUS! More in our premium content pipeline - Amazon, Nubank, Grab, Wise, Shopify, Affirm, Mercado Libre… the list goes on!)

Supercharge your Fintech IQ with WhiteSight Radar, putting expert fintech intel at your fingertips! 🧭

Got to have Radar on my radar!

Edition 3 brings you the onchain finance stories that shaped how money, markets, and assets moved this week »

Last Week’s Top Onchain Tea!♨️

• Institution-grade settlement rails go on-chain

↳ IHC and First Abu Dhabi Bank launched the dirham-backed stablecoin DDSC on ADI Chain under UAE central bank licensing.
↳ Visa began settling USDC stablecoin transactions on Ethereum for real-world payment flows.
↳ Fiserv launched INDX to move USD 24/7/365 for digital-asset firms via a single custodial account.

• Tokenized cash becomes tradable + usable as collateral

↳ BlackRock’s BUIDL tokenized MMF became tradable on Uniswap via Securitize’s compliance/whitelisting layer.
↳ Binance and Franklin Templeton activated tokenized money market funds as off-exchange collateral for institutions.

• Public experiments

↳ The Bank of England teamed with Chainlink to test settling tokenized assets alongside central bank money.
↳ Robinhood launched a public testnet for Robinhood Chain, an Arbitrum-based Ethereum L2 aimed at compliant tokenized finance.

• AI + agentic crypto payments stack

↳ Stripe introduced an AI-agent payment system using automated USDC payments on Base via x402.
↳ Coinbase introduced Agentic Wallets so AI agents could transact with configurable controls.

Now, for the ‘byte’-sized onchain buzz -

Onchain Money put stablecoins deeper into regulated banking rails!

• OKX snags EU payments license for stablecoin rails
  ↳ OKX secured a Payment Institution license in Malta to expand stablecoin payments and its crypto card push across Europe.
  ↳ Implication: stablecoin checkout and card products are becoming “license-first” utilities as EU compliance deadlines kick in.

• Japan’s megabanks test stablecoins for securities settlement
  ↳ Nomura and Daiwa launched a PoC with MUFG, SMBC, and Mizuho to use stablecoins for securities settlement inside Japan’s FSA sandbox.
  ↳ Implication: stablecoins are moving toward DvP-style settlement in traditional markets, not just remittances.

Onchain Assets kept tokenization inside familiar wrappers - sovereign-style issuance and regulated derivatives access.

• UK taps HSBC Orion for tokenized gilt pilot (DIGIT)
  ↳ HM Treasury selected HSBC Orion to run the UK’s digital gilt pilot, testing blockchain rails for government bond issuance/settlement.
  ↳ Implication: tokenized sovereign debt is edging toward “real issuance,” which upgrades tokenization from demos to market infrastructure.

• Thailand clears crypto as underlyings for regulated derivatives
  ↳ Thailand approved changes to let crypto/digital assets be used as underlying assets in the regulated derivatives framework.
  ↳ Implication: the “regulated perimeter” expands — more crypto exposure can move into licensed venues instead of offshore products.

Onchain Markets looked more like “licensed market access” - major players getting regulatory stamps.

• Blockchain.com gets FCA registration in the UK
  ↳ Blockchain.com was registered with the UK FCA to operate as a crypto asset business, enabling regulated brokerage/custody services in-market.
  ↳ Implication: UK market structure is increasingly defined by who can operate under FCA supervision - raising the bar for credible distribution.

• Animoca Brands secures VARA VASP license in Dubai
  ↳ Animoca received a VARA VASP licence to provide broker-dealer and management/investment services in/from Dubai for institutional and qualified investors.
  ↳ Implication: Dubai keeps pulling Web3 into a regulated hub model - licensing becomes a growth lever, not a constraint.

Onchain Infra shifted toward enterprise-grade rails - custody stacks and settlement plumbing for institutions.

• Ripple upgrades institutional custody with security + staking integrations
  ↳ Ripple expanded Ripple Custody via partnerships with Securosys (HSM security) and Figment (staking for ETH/SOL) plus compliance integrations.
  ↳ Implication: custody is bundling into a “full stack” (security + compliance + yield) that banks can adopt without building it all.

• LSEG plans an on-chain settlement platform (DSD)
  ↳ LSEG announced plans for a Digital Securities Depository (DSD) to support on-chain settlement connecting traditional and digital markets.
  ↳ Implication: major market infrastructure is now building for multi-chain settlement workflows, not just token issuance.

Onchain Yield packaged yield into safer wrappers!

• BitGo × 21Shares deepen staking + custody for ETPs
  ↳ BitGo and 21Shares expanded their partnership across the US and EMEA to support custody and staking services for crypto ETP products.
  ↳ Implication: staking yield keeps moving into broker-native/regulatory-friendly wrappers, widening access without validators or wallets.

• Bybit launches an institutional-style XRP Earn with Doppler
  ↳ Bybit partnered with Doppler Finance to bring XRP yield products to Bybit Earn (positioned as a staking alternative since XRP has no native staking).
  ↳ Implication: exchanges are productizing “compliant yield” for major assets - even when the base chain doesn’t support staking.

Onchain Lending pushed institutional participation without losing custody - TradFi capital meets DeFi rails.

• Morpho × Apollo: cooperation agreement around MORPHO exposure
  ↳ Morpho signed a cooperation agreement with Apollo, allowing Apollo affiliates to acquire up to 90M MORPHO tokens over 48 months (with restrictions).
  ↳ Implication: large asset managers are taking structured exposure to DeFi lending protocols - a signal that “onchain credit” is entering institutional portfolios.

• Anchorage × Kamino: tri-party model for borrowing against staked SOL
  ↳ Solana, Anchorage Digital, and Kamino launched a tri-party structure letting institutions borrow against natively staked SOL while keeping qualified custody.
  ↳ Implication: the “don’t move custody” constraint is getting solved - which is key for institutional-scale DeFi lending participation.

And that’s a wrap 👋

We hope you enjoyed this edition of the Onchain Finance!

If you’re someone who likes to read think pieces, you will likely love our monthly blog, Fintersections, where our team members analyse the convergence of fintech with the world.

And lastly, to stay updated on everything fintech and web3, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter, and don’t be shy to show some ❤️

Thanks for reading Future of FinTech Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

✔️ Regulated stablecoin frameworks are turning into live licensing regimes
✔️ TradFi is testing “crypto exposure inside the account you already use”
✔️ Compliance and market infrastructure are getting fresh capital and deeper integrations

Ready for the signals? 🔍

🚨 Featured Story of the Week:

Hong Kong flips stablecoin licensing “on” in March 🏛️🪙

Hong Kong’s Monetary Authority said it expects to grant the city’s first batch of stablecoin issuer licenses in March, with only a small number approved at the start. The move signals Hong Kong is shifting from consultation to live supervision, setting a clearer runway for regulated stablecoin issuance and distribution.

What changes now

• A real gate for issuers: “Issuer licenses” move stablecoins from broad policy talk to a concrete, regulated entry path - who can issue, under what controls, and with what backing expectations.

• Quality filter for market participants: Starting with “very few” approvals suggests a high bar early on, likely prioritizing governance, reserves, and risk management that can stand up to scrutiny.

• Faster institutional adoption path: Once licensing begins, banks, brokers, and fintechs can integrate with clearer counterparties - helpful for settlement use cases and tokenized market activity.

How HKMA set the runway last year

• The rulebook went live: The Stablecoins Ordinance regime took effect on 1 Aug 2025, making fiat-referenced stablecoin issuance a licensed activity in Hong Kong - turning “planned regulation” into an operating framework.

• Implementation details were published: Ahead of go-live, HKMA released the licensing approach, transitional arrangements, and supervisory expectations, giving applicants clarity on what “license-ready” looks like.

• Market testing started via the sandbox: HKMA launched a stablecoin issuer sandbox (2024) and publicly named early participants (incl. Standard Chartered HK, Animoca Brands, HKT, JD Coinlink, RD InnoTech) - a signal that HKMA has been pressure-testing use cases and controls before moving to approvals.

March is Hong Kong’s “issuer go-live” moment - licenses turn stablecoins from an idea into regulated balance sheets. After that, the winners are the tokens that can clear institutional onboarding, custody controls, and settlement workflows without extra legal gymnastics.

Thanks for reading Future of FinTech Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

🚀 Startup Spotlight: Prometheum

Prometheum is building a U.S.-regulated broker-dealer stack for digital asset securities - focused on bringing tokenized securities trading, custody, and settlement into an SEC-aligned market structure.

Why it matters for onchain finance: if tokenized securities are going to plug into mainstream capital markets, distribution needs regulated venues that institutions can actually onboard to. Prometheum is betting that compliance-first rails can unlock wider participation once the asset classification and listing pathways solidify.

Building something interesting in onchain finance? We’d love to feature you next- drop us a note at hello@whitesight.net 👋

Pledge your access to fintech analysis and exclusive insights ⚡

Unlock Elite Access ⭐

What’s on the onchain menu today?

• 🏁 Onchain Highlights: Biggest moves across money, markets, and tokenization

• 🧩 ‘Byte’ Buzz: Onchain Finance updates, sorted by segment

• 🔗 Link Up: A curated set of reads worth your time

Sip on bite-sized onchain updates - fresh, sharp, and distilled to keep you ahead in just minutes. Subscribe now! 📨

📢 We’re always seeking innovative voices in fintech to be our next guest feature!

With a community of 2100+ fintech enthusiasts, we’d love to amplify your insights. Reach out to us for features, sponsorships, or collaborations!

Drop us a hello here! 👋

Get Unlimited Access to Strategy Playbooks of Fintech Pioneers with WhiteSight Radar! 🚀

Unlock a treasure trove of fintech intel with a WhiteSight Radar subscription. See further with exclusive reports, industry trend breakdowns, and expert analysis on everything from Embedded Finance and Digital Banking to Open Finance and beyond.

Become a member and steer your business course with actionable intelligence on the winning strategies of leading companies like Apple, Stripe, Starling Bank, OakNorth Bank, Banco Inter, and Toast that propels your business to the forefront of fintech. (PLUS! More in our premium content pipeline - Amazon, Nubank, Grab, Wise, Shopify, Affirm, Mercado Libre… the list goes on!)

Supercharge your Fintech IQ with WhiteSight Radar, putting expert fintech intel at your fingertips! 🧭

Got to have Radar on my radar!

Edition 2 brings you the onchain finance stories that shaped how money, markets, and assets moved last week »

Last Week’s Top Onchain Tea!♨️

• Regulated Stablecoin Rails

⤷ Tether invested $100M into Anchorage, tightening its link to regulated U.S. stablecoin infrastructure.

⤷ BBVA joined Qivalis to build a regulated euro stablecoin designed to compete with dollar tokens.

• Crypto exposure moves into mainstream accounts

⤷ ING Deutschland enabled BTC/ETH/SOL ETPs inside ING-DiBa Direct Depot (taxed like direct BTC holding).

⤷ MetaMask added tokenized U.S. stocks/ETFs/commodities via Ondo Global Markets.

• Onchain markets get settlement-grade dollars

⤷ Circle partnered with Polymarket to move settlement to native USDC.

⤷ Fireblocks integrated Stacks to give institutions access to Bitcoin DeFi lending/yield.

• Trust stack gets funded and formalized

⤷ TRM Labs raised $70M at a $1B valuation to scale crypto compliance/intelligence.

⤷ Sumsub launched a Risk Intolerant Registry to spotlight crypto + fintech firms with strong security, anti-fraud, and compliance controls.

Now, for the ‘byte’-sized onchain buzz -

Onchain Money put stablecoins into more default flows last week, from YC checks to checkout buttons. Funding and payments both got faster rails.

• YC enables seed checks via stablecoins
  ⤷ YC startups can opt to receive funding in USDC on major chains.
  ⤷ Implication: stablecoins are becoming a standard option for treasury ops - especially useful for cross-border founders and faster settlement.

• Clover POS adds “Pay with Crypto” via Lydian
  ⤷ Lydian launched crypto acceptance on Clover devices, while merchants can keep local-currency settlement.
  ⤷ Implication: POS distribution is pulling stablecoin/crypto payments into familiar checkout flows without forcing merchants into crypto balance-sheet exposure.

Onchain Assets kept tokenization inside familiar wrappers, led by regulated distribution and mainstream asset formats. More access, less friction.

• DigiFT + Hines bring regulated real estate exposure on-chain
  ⤷ DigiFT will support tokenization and distribution of an indirect investment in a Hines-managed real estate portfolio.
  ⤷ Implication: tokenization is leaning into institution-friendly wrappers that prioritize compliant distribution and investor eligibility.

• Hang Seng launches gold ETF with Ethereum tokenized share class
  ⤷ A physical gold ETF debuted with tokenized units issued on Ethereum (with optional expansion to other chains).
  ⤷ Implication: tokenized fund units are showing up inside traditional ETF structures - helpful for secondary transfer rails while keeping conventional custody foundations.

Onchain Market turned the spotlight on custody, with new rules and bank-grade custody deals shaping market structure. Guardrails are becoming the default.

• CIRO rolls out a tiered crypto custody framework
  ⤷ Canada’s CIRO introduced risk-based custody guidance targeting hacking, fraud, governance weaknesses, and insolvency risks.
  ⤷ Implication: tighter custody standards can raise baseline protections, while also setting clearer requirements for platforms courting institutional flows.

• VersaBank to custody Stablecorp’s QCAD (CAD stablecoin)
  ⤷ VersaBank signed a definitive agreement to act as custodian for QCAD’s trust assets.
  ⤷ Implication: regulated custody arrangements strengthen the “reserve credibility” story for CAD stablecoins, useful groundwork for broader adoption.

Onchain Infra leaned further into enterprise integrations, with sharper security coordination across the sector. Infrastructure is optimizing for institutional ops.

• Cronos integrates Fireblocks for institutional trading workflows
  ⤷ Cronos added Fireblocks to support institutional-grade custody and operations on the network.
  ⤷ Implication: chains are competing on enterprise integrations that reduce operational friction for market makers and institutions.

• Coinbase expands automated threat intel sharing with Crypto ISAC
  ⤷ Continuous sharing of high-confidence threat intelligence is aimed at faster detection of sophisticated attacks.
  ⤷ Implication: security posture is turning into a shared industry layer, not a solo competitive advantage.

Onchain Yield gave staking new wrappers, from exchange-traded products to premium staking launches. Yield is being packaged for broader audiences.

21Shares lists JitoSOL staking ETP on Euronext
⤷ A regulated ETP gives investors exchange access to JitoSOL and its staking yield.
⤷ Implication: staking yield keeps moving into broker-native wrappers, widening access without wallet or validator management.

Tramplin launches premium staking on Solana
⤷ Tramplin publicly launched a Solana staking product backed by iTreasury Ventures.
⤷ Implication: staking products are getting more structured and segmented, with tighter positioning around savings-style outcomes.

Onchain Lending saw bank credit inch toward crypto collateral while drawdowns stress-tested onchain leverage. Lending is expanding, and liquidations still set the tone.

• Sberbank prepares crypto-backed loans, signals coordination with the central bank
  ⤷ Russia’s largest bank is moving toward loans secured by crypto collateral after a prior pilot and stated readiness to shape the regulatory framework.
  ⤷ Implication: crypto collateral is finding pathways into bank credit products where corporate demand and regulatory engagement line up.

• Crypto credit stress resurfaces after sell-off
  ⤷ Market drawdowns reignited scrutiny on liquidation dynamics and leverage feedback loops in crypto/DeFi credit.
  ⤷ Implication: resilience under stress is becoming a key adoption test for onchain lending venues and credit products.

And that’s a wrap 👋

We hope you enjoyed this edition of the Onchain Finance!

As a reward for making it this far, here’s a curated set of onchain resources to keep your curiosity (and conviction) topped up. Cheers to continuous learning!

🔗 Link Up! –

• Crypto Adoption: What Consumers Told Us in 2025 Report – Deutsche Bank Research

• Stablecoins Are Not Enough– Etherfuse

• Charting Crypto Q1 2026: Fresh Footing – Coinbase

If you’re someone who likes to read think pieces, you will likely love our monthly blog, Fintersections, where our team members analyse the convergence of fintech with the world.

And lastly, to stay updated on everything fintech and web3, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter, and don’t be shy to show some ❤️

Thanks for reading Future of FinTech Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

✔️ Stablecoins moved from “crypto tool” to regulated settlement instrument

✔️ Tokenization regained momentum as capital + distribution lined up

✔️ Trading, yield, and lending started to look deployable at scale

Ready for the signals that mattered in January? 🔍⚡

🚨 Featured Story of the Week:

UAE’s USDU Gets the Green Light 🟢🏁

The UAE Central Bank approved/registered USDU, making it the country’s first USD-backed stablecoin recognized under the Payment Token Services Regulation (PTSR). The token is issued by Universal Digital, a firm regulated in ADGM by the FSRA, giving institutions an onshore, rules-based route to use USD stablecoin settlement in the UAE.

What changes now

• Regulated USD settlement option: PTSR explicitly sets a framework for licensing/registration around payment token services and foreign payment tokens- USDU is the first major proof point that this pathway is operational.

• Institutional confidence boost: Being issued by an ADGM-regulated entity (FSRA) shifts stablecoin usage from “offshore workaround” to onshore-compliant settlement infrastructure.

• Foundation for tokenized markets: A locally recognized USD stablecoin can make issuance/secondary trading of RWAs and derivatives simpler by reducing fiat settlement friction (cut-offs, correspondent delays, reconciliation).

How this fits UAE’s broader playbook

The UAE has been steadily building rails for tokenized money and settlement:

• 2019: UAE + Saudi launched Project Aber to test wholesale CBDC rails for cross-border settlement.

• June 2024: The Central Bank published the Payment Token Services Regulation (PTSR) and later made it effective from 31 Aug 2024, creating formal rules for stablecoin/payment token services.

• June 2024: UAE helped launch mBridge MVP, pushing multi-CBDC cross-border settlement from pilot into early-adopter readiness.

• Jan 2026: The Central Bank registered USDU- turning the framework into a live, regulated USD stablecoin settlement option

If stablecoins are the new settlement layer, the UAE just signaled it wants to be where that layer gets regulated, issued, and scaled!

Thanks for reading Future of FinTech Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

🚀 Startup Spotlight: BlindPay

This edition, we’re shining a light on BlindPay, a startup building compliant infrastructure to help businesses move money on-chain without sacrificing regulatory clarity.

BlindPay is focused on making stablecoin payments and on/off-ramps usable for real businesses, bridging traditional finance expectations with blockchain-native rails. As onchain finance matures, platforms like BlindPay are tackling the unglamorous - but critical - plumbing that turns stablecoins into everyday payment tools.

BlindPay is working on the kind of infrastructure that quietly makes stablecoins usable in real-world payment flows.

Building something interesting in onchain finance? We’d love to feature you next- drop us a note at hello@whitesight.net 👋

Pledge your access to fintech analysis and exclusive insights ⚡

Unlock Elite Access ⭐

What’s on the onchain menu today?

• 🏁 Onchain Highlights: Biggest moves across money, markets, and tokenization

• 🧩 ‘Byte’ Buzz: Onchain Finance updates, sorted by segment

• 🔗 Link Up: A curated set of reads worth your time

Sip on bite-sized onchain updates - fresh, sharp, and distilled to keep you ahead in just minutes. Subscribe now! 📨

📢 We’re always seeking innovative voices in fintech to be our next guest feature!

With a community of 2100+ fintech enthusiasts, we’d love to amplify your insights. Reach out to us for features, sponsorships, or collaborations!

Drop us a hello here! 👋

Get Unlimited Access to Strategy Playbooks of Fintech Pioneers with WhiteSight Radar! 🚀

Unlock a treasure trove of fintech intel with a WhiteSight Radar subscription. See further with exclusive reports, industry trend breakdowns, and expert analysis on everything from Embedded Finance and Digital Banking to Open Finance and beyond.

Become a member and steer your business course with actionable intelligence on the winning strategies of leading companies like Apple, Stripe, Starling Bank, OakNorth Bank, Banco Inter, and Toast that propels your business to the forefront of fintech. (PLUS! More in our premium content pipeline - Amazon, Nubank, Grab, Wise, Shopify, Affirm, Mercado Libre… the list goes on!)

Supercharge your Fintech IQ with WhiteSight Radar, putting expert fintech intel at your fingertips! 🧭

Got to have Radar on my radar!

Edition 1 brings you the onchain finance stories that shaped how money, markets, and assets moved in January »

January’s Top Onchain Tea!♨️

• Tokenized Settlement Rails

⤷ Société Générale partnered with SWIFT to settle and tokenize bonds using both cash and stablecoins.

⤷ J.P. Morgan (Kinexys) plans to issue JPM Coin (JPMD) natively on the Canton Network to enable 24/7 institutional settlement.

• TradFi Goes Onchain

⤷ Fidelity Investments launched its first stablecoin Fidelity Digital Dollar (FIDD) on Ethereum.

⤷ Robinhood invested $45M in institutional crypto trading platform Talos, valuing it at $1.5B.

• Stablecoins in Daily Spend

⤷ OKX partnered with Mastercard to enable stablecoin payments for European cardholders with crypto-to-fiat conversion at checkout.

⤷ Maple Finance launched yield-bearing stablecoin syrupUSDC on Base, seeking to list it as collateral on Aave V3 Base.

• Onchain Access, Under Rules

⤷ The SEC clarified tokenized stocks remain subject to existing securities and derivatives rules even when issued on-chain.

⤷ Kraken rolled out DeFi Earn in Canada, the EEA, and most U.S. states, offering onchain yield via a centralized exchange experience.

Now, for the ‘byte’-sized onchain buzz -

Onchain Money saw licenses meet liquidity this month, as regulated rails and stablecoin payouts pushed onchain money closer to everyday utility.

• Ripple Secures EU Licensing
  Ripple obtained preliminary EMI clearance in Luxembourg to expand regulated crypto payment services across Europe.
  ⤷ Implication: Licensing momentum shows onchain payment rails are being shaped to fit regional regulatory frameworks, not bypass them.

• Visa Expands Stablecoin Payouts
  Visa partnered with BVNK to enable stablecoin payouts via Visa Direct for businesses.
  ⤷ Implication: Stablecoins are being embedded directly into global payment networks as an always-on settlement layer.

Onchain Assets got a second wind, as Wall Street capital and renewed exchange interest reignited the stock-onchain play.

• Binance Reconsiders Stock Tokens
  Binance explored a return to tokenized stocks after abandoning the product in 2021.
  ⤷ Implication: Improved regulation and infrastructure are reviving tokenized equities as a viable market again.

• Superstate Funds Wall Street Onchain
  Superstate, a tokenization platform building on-chain versions of traditional securities, raised $82.5M to scale its infrastructure for issuing and managing regulated real-world assets.
  ⤷ Implication: Investor capital is backing platforms that turn tokenization from pilots into production-grade market infrastructure.

Onchain Markets went “trade-first” as wallets pulled derivatives on-chain and public-market vehicles queued up for crypto M&A.

• Binance Wallet Adds Perps Trading
  Binance Wallet integrated Aster to enable in-wallet leveraged perpetual futures trading.
  ⤷ Implication: Exchanges are collapsing the gap between custody and trading, keeping users on-chain and in-app.

• Kraken-Backed SPAC Files IPO
  Kraken-backed SPAC KRAKacquisition Corp. filed for a $250M initial public offering.
  ⤷ Implication: The move represents another effort by the crypto exchange to grow its presence in public markets through a blank-check company targeting digital asset businesses.

Onchian Yield products evolved beyond basic staking, moving toward modular infrastructure and regulated investment wrappers.

• Lido Launches stVaults
  Lido introduced stVaults to let builders create custom Ethereum staking products using its infrastructure.
  ⤷ Implication: Staking is shifting from single-token yield to composable, institution-friendly infrastructure.

• 21Shares Launches JitoSOL ETP
  21Shares launched a JitoSOL-based Solana staking ETP for European investors.
  ⤷ Implication: Regulated yield products are making onchain rewards accessible through familiar investment vehicles.

Onchain lending shifted toward protocol-native and stablecoin-driven credit models.

• World Liberty Expands USD1 Lending
  World Liberty Financial launched its Markets web app to expand USD1 utility via Dolomite.
  ⤷ Implication: Stablecoin lending is being packaged into consumer-ready products beyond DeFi-native users..

• XRPL Advances Native Lending
  XRPL’s native lending protocol moved closer to activation through validator voting.
  ⤷ Implication: Ledger-level lending could attract institutions seeking simpler, built-in credit primitives.

And that’s a wrap 👋

We hope you enjoyed this edition of the Onchain Finance Brew!

As a reward for making it this far, here’s a curated set of onchain resources to keep your curiosity (and conviction) topped up. Cheers to continuous learning!

🔗 Link Up! –

• Stablecoin Payments: The Truth Behind the Numbers Whitepaper – BCG

• Crypto Adoption: What Consumers Told Us in 2025 Report – Deutsche Bank Research

• Global Crypto Regulation Report 2026 Report – PwC

• The 2026 Stablecoin Momentum Report Report – Zero Hash

If you’re someone who likes to read think pieces, you will likely love our monthly blog, Fintersections, where our team members analyse the convergence of fintech with the world.

And lastly, to stay updated on everything fintech and web3, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter, and don’t be shy to show some ❤️

Thanks for reading Future of FinTech Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.