Hey, it’s Marc.
Today, major news broke that G7 banks are about to launch a stablecoin. They’re coming for Tether and Circle. More on that below.
Another story that caught my eye: Luxembourg’s sovereign wealth fund allocated 1% of its portfolio ($9M) to a BTC ETF. That’s first state-level Bitcoin investment in the Eurozone. But did you know that Norways and Switzerland’s Central Bank already hold 100s of millions in Strategy shares for indirect Bitcoin exposure? Wild.
The most conservative financial institutions on the planet are buying Bitcoin exposure through corporate proxies.
Let’s do the math: There are nearly 100 sovereign wealth funds globally, managing over $14 trillion.
If just 10% of global sovereign wealth funds allocate 1% to Bitcoin? That’s $140 billion in new demand.
For context: Bitcoin ETFs have pulled in $163B total since launch in January 2024.
Then: Coinbase and Mastercard are apparently in a bidding war for BVNK, a stablecoin startup backed by Visa and Citi (think of it as Bridge).
We just had them on the show:
“Crypto and traditional finance have been living in separate worlds, but they’ll fully merge. In the future, everything will be on-chain in some form, and the distinction will disappear.”
— Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev
This is a timely quote for another BIG story this week:
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) invested $2B in Polymarket, a crypto prediction market. Yes, ICE, the $80B parent of NYSE. Probably one of the biggest moments in DeFi history.
Also this week:
Softbank & Binance onboard half of Japan’s population to crypto
BNY Mellon pilots tokenized deposits
Galaxy has launched GalaxyOne, a unified wealth platform.
Kraken expands its U.S. equities platform 24/5
We’ll unpack all of these highlights below.
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Top Signals This Week
G7 banks launch a stablecoin
What happened: Ten of the world’s largest banks — including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Citi, UBS, and Deutsche Bank — are teaming up to launch a G7-backed stablecoin network that will issue bank-backed stablecoins pegged to the USD, EUR, JPY, GBP, CAD, and CHF. [ANNOUNCEMENT]
The message is clear: banks are taking stablecoins back. For the first time, the G7’s largest institutions are building shared rails for digital currencies that settle instantly across a unified blockchain framework.
So what? It’s the strongest challenge yet to Tether and Circle’s $245B duopoly. For years, banks dismissed stablecoins as risky. Now, they’re racing to reclaim the rails they once owned. The Genius Act made it legal for regulated firms to issue their own stablecoins, shifting money creation from banks to corporates and fintechs like Stripe, PayPal, and Circle, which now move trillions on-chain. Stablecoins processed $27.6 trillion in transactions in 2024, officially exceeding Visa’s and Mastercard’s annual payment volume. That’s transaction flow banks used to own.
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PayPay brings 70M users into crypto
SoftBank-owned PayPay, Japan’s largest cashless payment app, just bought a 40% stake in Binance Japan, instantly onboarding 70 million users — half the country’s population — into crypto [NEWS].
Why it matters: PayPay controls 67% of Japan’s QR code payments and handles one in every five cashless transactions. Now, users can buy crypto with PayPay Money, withdraw proceeds into their wallets, and access Binance Japan without ever leaving the app. It’s also the biggest distribution play Binance has ever pulled off — direct access to 60% of Japan’s adults through a single integration.
Wall Street’s $2B DeFi move
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the global leader in exchange operations and owner of the venerable New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), has completed a strategic investment of up to $2B in Polymarket, a decentralised prediction market platform. [ANNOUNCEMENT]
This is probably one of the biggest moments in DeFi history.
The message is clear: This deal is about data, distribution, and tokenisation. ICE will push Polymarket data to thousands of institutional investors globally.
So what? ICE is the plumbing of global finance. 13 exchanges, 6 clearing houses, $25T+ in annual trading volume. The immediate benefit? Exclusive data distribution. Global rights to sell Polymarket’s event-driven data to institutions. Immediate revenue stream. Hedge funds will pay for real-time probability signals on Fed decisions, elections, economic indicators. Bloomberg sells terminal data. ICE just bought prediction market data.
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Galaxy’s new super app
Galaxy has launched GalaxyOne, a unified wealth platform combining high-yield FDIC-insured cash accounts, crypto and equity trading, and institutional-grade investment products to help individuals manage and grow their portfolios seamlessly. [RELEASE]
Why it matters: Most retail investors still juggle siloed apps, stocks & ETFs, trading, crypto wallets, while professional platforms run on seamless, risk-aware infrastructure. A neobank app combining cash, crypto, and equities directly challenges Robinhood and traditional, fragmented finance apps.
BNY Mellon is exploring tokenised deposit
The world’s largest custodian with $55.8T in AUM, BNY Mellon, is actively exploring the use of tokenised deposits for enabling institutional client payments over distributed ledger technology (DLT) rails. [NEWS]
The message is clear: Existing payment rails are expensive, and institutions will switch to blockchain infrastructure if it saves cost and time for them.
Why it matters: BNY Mellon’s Treasury Services unit processes roughly $2.5T in payments each day, making the shift to instant, 24/7 settlement capabilities a systemic necessity. The move signals accelerating institutional blockchain adoption with major cost-efficiency gains up to 30%.
Kraken isn’t building a crypto exchange
Kraken expands its U.S. equities platform with stock transfers, lending, and 24/5 trading, a move that blurs the line between crypto and Wall Street. [RELEASE]
Why it matters: Legacy brokers sleep on weekends and settle trades in days. Kraken runs 24/5 and settles in seconds. The company’s now gunning for Robinhood’s retail base, Coinbase’s institutional users, and Wall Street’s liquidity, all while setting up for a potential $15B IPO in 2026.
News Flash
Citi invests in BVNK, deepening US banks’ stablecoin adoption. Link
Tokenised gold surpasses $3B as investors seek protection from weakening fiat.
MetaMask launches in-wallet perpetuals trading through Hyperliquid. Link
S&P has launched the Digital Markets 50 Index. Link
Grayscale launches first U.S. crypto ETFs with Ethereum and Solana staking. Link
Samsung Wallet integrates Coinbase in the US and Canada. Link
Morgan Stanley now guides $2T advisors on crypto portfolio allocations. Link
Walmart’s OnePay will offer Bitcoin and Ether trading, custody. Link
CME to launch 24/7 crypto futures and options trading. Link
BBVA enables 24/7 crypto trading via SGX FX integration. Link
That’s all for now, folks.
Take care
– Marc & Team
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