128: What dies first?
Wall Street just got tokenized. For real this time.
Hey, it’s Marc.
The biggest story this week was Kraken offering tokenized US stocks to users worldwide. That’s right. No brokers. No market hours. No borders.
We also released our top 51 AI x Blockchain companies. 🔥 Access here
This week’s top enterprise signals:
J.P. Morgan , Citi, Wells Fargo & others are exploring a joint bank-backed stablecoin – huge!
FIFA is launching its own blockchain
Google’s new “shop with AI” mode kills the checkout
OpenAI launched Codex, a new coding agent, and Claude launched Sonnet 4, its new flagship model.
Let’s unpack it.
👉 Get your brand in front of 30,000+ decision-makers — book your ad spot now.
Top Boardroom Reads This Week
AI
Top 51 AI x blockchain companies in 2025 (fiftyone)
Soft Power, Hard Compute: The AI Geopolitical Reset (Maja Vujinovic)
The second half of AI (Shunyu Yao)
Digital Assets
Stablecoins Whitepaper (Boston Consulting Group)
Asset Tokenization in Financial Markets (World Economic Forum & Accenture)
Stablecoins and the future of onchain finance (Maja Vujunovic)
Kraken to offer tokenized US stocks to users worldwide
Kraken will let non-U.S. clients trade tokenized versions of major U.S. stocks and ETFs—24/7—via a new “xStocks” product built with Backed and issued on Solana. This updates TradFi rails, opening global access to Apple, Tesla & co. as tokens, with instant settlement, composability, and onchain collateral use.
So what? This is about democratizing $120T, global equity markets. Most of it locked behind geographic barriers and legacy infrastructure. This could unlock massive US capital inflows. If you're a an incumbent and still ignoring tokenization: pay attention. Emerging players with no tech debt, global reach, and nothing to lose are coming for you. And they don’t wait. RELEASE, ANALYSIS
Circle fielding $5B bids from Ripple, Coinbase
Circle is rumoured to be exploring a $5B+ acquisition — with Coinbase and Ripple both in talks — while still pursuing its IPO. This isn’t just M&A drama, it’s a signal that stablecoins are the new enterprise battleground. Coinbase, soon S&P 500 royalty, and Ripple, flexing with its RLUSD launch, want control of a chunk of crypto’s $2T+ backbone.
So what? Coinbase acquiring Circle isn’t just a deal. It vertically integrates two of the most compliant, institutionally trusted entities in crypto, positioning Coinbase as the default infrastructure layer for US-regulated stablecoins. Coinbase could double its net income, just from stablecoin yield. NEWS
FIFA is launching its own blockchain for 5B+ fans
FIFA is launching a custom Layer-1 blockchain on Avalanche to power its FIFA Collect digital collectibles and next-gen fan engagement for over 5B fans.
So what? This is a $15B sports giant betting on proprietary blockchain rails over fragmented solutions, signalling a shift to scalable, enterprise-grade digital ownership. This is the first time that a sport brand is going full-stack in blockchain. By building a sovereign L1, FIFA can own the rails, data, and economics of digital engagement rather than cede control to marketplaces or platforms. RELEASE, ANALYSIS
Red Bull Racing puts 2025 F1 highlights onchain
Oracle Red Bull Racing launched an onchain collectible series with Gate.io and Abstract, turning 24 iconic F1 moments into tradable NFTs over the 2025 season — starting at the Monaco GP. F1’s fanbase hit 826M in 2024, with Gen Z and female fans driving growth, and Red Bull is using Web3 to move from “views” to “ownership.” By adding scarcity, artist collabs, and unlockable perks to each moment, this model upgrades passive fandom into an interactive, loyalty-driven funnel. For enterprises, this is more than hype: it’s a testbed for how brands can build persistent identity, collectibles, and value around moments, without owning distribution. ANNOUCEMENT
Google just rewrote the e-commerce funnel.
With its new “Shop with AI” mode, Google’s Gemini 2.5 lets users search, decide, and buy, without ever visiting a retailer’s website. That means no product page, no checkout, no redirect. Shopify’s stock dropped 5% on the news, but the real disruption isn’t payments, it’s intent. When transactions happen at discovery, SEO loses leverage, product pages become irrelevant, and AI agents, not brands, own loyalty. The entire $5.5T e-commerce stack is up for grabs. ANALYSIS
So what? For execs in retail, DTC, and SaaS: if your business depends on owning the funnel, this is your ChatGPT moment. Pay attention — or get disintermediated.
OPENAI launches Codex, your 24/7 AI dev agent
OpenAI rolled out Codex—a cloud-based engineering agent in ChatGPT for Pro, Team, and Enterprise users—that spins up isolated sandboxes of your repo, writes features, fixes bugs, runs tests, and commits pull requests in minutes (75% passed on internal SWE benchmarks).
So what? Routine tasks are now converted into on-demand services, freeing senior devs for high-impact work. RELEASE
We help companies like Avalanche, Near, or MoonPay with industry-leading thought leadership campaigns to attract institutional clients. Interested?
News Flash
OpenAI is buying Jony Ive’s design firm for $6.5B & pushes into hardware. Link
Anthropic introduced Claude Opus 4 and Claude Sonnet 4. Link
Windows integrates MCP, the USB-C of AI, into windows. Link
Gemini Advanced now integrates with GitHub. Link
Superstate’s Opening Bell puts public shares on Solana. Link
Xociety and Adidas launch limited NFT skins with in-game utility. Link
Shopify’s Roblox integration goes live. Link
Robinhood asked the SEC to let them put Wall Street onchain. Link
Top Vendors This Week
Enterprise:
Catena Labs: AI-native financial infrastructure and service provider
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