Minnesota has enacted a law that allows banks and credit unions in the state to offer cryptocurrency custody services, with the law expected to take effect on Aug. 1, 2026.

 

The bill, HF 3709, was signed into law on Friday by Minnesota state governor Tim Walz, with the state legislature’s website stating that cryptocurrency custody services may now be offered and performed in the state.

 

While this is a significant milestone for crypto adoption in the state, the law also requires banks and credit unions interested in offering crypto custody services to submit a written notice detailing their risk management frameworks to the Minnesota Commissioner of Commerce at least 60 days before commencing such services.

 

The Minnesota Commissioner of Commerce will serve as the primary regulator, overseeing crypto custody services offered by banks and credit unions in the state.

 

Banks and credit unions interested in offering crypto custody services are also required to maintain a comprehensive written policy covering their internal controls, security, risk management, and compliance frameworks, while also segregating their clients’ assets from institutionally owned assets.

 

According to Representative Bernie Perryman, one of the primary sponsors of HF 3709, the legislation aims to establish a trustworthy framework that enables financial institutions to work with and safeguard Minnesotans' crypto assets, especially as crypto becomes more mainstream.

 

“House File 3709 is about ensuring that Minnesota-based financial institutions are allowed to evolve alongside their customers and members rather than forcing Minnesotans to rely on unregulated, out-of-state or offshore providers for services that are already in use today,” Perryman said in a March press release.

 

The passage of HF 3709 comes just a few weeks after the Minnesota governor banned the use and ownership of crypto kiosks and ATMs across the state, citing their growing use in fraud.

 

With the passage of this bill, Minnesota now joins Wyoming, New York, and Virginia, which have passed similar bills that allow banks and credit unions to offer crypto custody services.

 

 

Galaxy Digital has finally gotten what it spent years working toward: full regulatory clearance to operate as a licensed crypto business in New York State. The New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) granted GalaxyOne Prime NY, a wholly owned subsidiary of Galaxy Digital Inc. (Nasdaq: GLXY), both a BitLicense and a Money Transmission License on Monday, May 18. The move gives the firm direct, regulated access to the most capital-dense institutional market in the United States.

 

For Galaxy, it is a landmark. New York-based registered investment advisors, hedge funds, and family offices can now tap Galaxy's full suite of digital asset trading and custody products through a regulated state-licensed entity. The firm currently manages roughly $9 billion in client assets across its digital asset business, and executives have made no secret of their ambitions to grow that number substantially by pushing deeper into institutional channels.

 

A License That Has Eluded Many

The BitLicense, introduced by NYDFS back in 2015, remains one of the toughest regulatory hurdles in the global crypto industry. The application process involves extensive compliance documentation, capital reserve requirements, anti-money laundering controls, and cybersecurity standards that have tripped up or outright deterred dozens of firms over the years. Some companies, including Paxos and Gemini, have opted instead for a New York Banking Law charter, which carries similar compliance expectations but a different legal structure. Either way, the NYDFS does not make it easy, and the framework has drawn persistent industry criticism over its cost and complexity.

 

Galaxy is only the second company to receive a BitLicense in 2026. Jack Mallers' bitcoin payments firm Strike picked up its approval from NYDFS in March, putting Galaxy in small company. The broader licensed cohort includes the likes of Coinbase, Robinhood, Circle, and PayPal, firms that have become fixtures of mainstream digital finance. Galaxy's inclusion in that group signals how far the company has come from its earlier profile as a more speculative crypto-native outfit.

 

Novogratz Makes the Case Directly

Galaxy founder and CEO Mike Novogratz did not mince words about what the approval means strategically. "New York is home to the deepest pool of institutional capital in the country, and digital assets are no longer sitting at the edge of those allocations," he said in a statement released Monday. "Galaxy was built to meet that demand, and now we can better serve New York's institutions directly."

 

Galaxy has spent the better part of the past three years repositioning itself as a serious financial services operator. The company expanded into data center infrastructure, now operates the 1.6 gigawatt Helios campus in Texas, and has built out a broad product lineup spanning trading, asset management, investment banking, and custody. The New York license slots into that picture as a missing piece that was always going to matter.

 

50 Licenses and Counting

With NYDFS now in the fold, Galaxy's regulatory footprint stretches past 50 licenses worldwide. The company has offices across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, and has been methodically acquiring the permissions it needs to operate as a multi-jurisdictional institutional platform. That kind of regulatory breadth is not cheap or quick to build, and it increasingly functions as a competitive moat against crypto-native upstarts that lack the compliance infrastructure to serve sophisticated institutional clients.

 

The timing is notable. Galaxy reported a net loss of $216 million in the first quarter of 2026, driven largely by softer digital asset prices, though the number came in better than what analysts had expected. The stock has continued to trade under pressure. But the BitLicense announcement is a longer-game move. Institutional clients in New York represent a structural revenue opportunity that does not turn on any single quarter's price action. Getting licensed to serve them directly, rather than through workarounds or third-party arrangements, changes the calculus considerably.

 

New York regulators, for their part, have signaled that the BitLicense framework is not going away. Enforcement activity has continued into 2026, and the NYDFS has made clear it sees itself as a baseline standard-setter for crypto businesses operating in the state. For Galaxy, that means the hard work of getting licensed is also a signal to institutional counterparties that the firm has been through the scrutiny and passed. In New York's financial culture, that matters.

 

Payward, the parent company of the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, has partnered with Franklin Templeton, the leading global investment management company, bringing traditional financial products on-chain.

 

The partnership, which aims to converge traditional finance and digital asset markets and expand the utility of tokenized assets, leverages Franklin Templeton’s decades of experience as a global investment manager and leader in the tokenization space, alongside Payward’s crypto-native trading, custodial, and on-chain infrastructure.

 

Since tokenization is at the center of the partnership, the companies will explore launching several new actively managed investment strategies on xStocks, Payward’s tokenized asset platform. As a result, the two companies are expected to introduce tokenized yield-focused products and equities available to institutional clients through Kraken’s Prime and over-the-counter services. To offer the best investment experience, these tokenized products will be transparent, flexible, and programmable.

 

“Payward and Franklin Templeton are building toward a model of finance where the distinction between traditional assets and digital infrastructure no longer holds,” said Arjun Sethi, Co CEO of Payward and Kraken.

 

“The convergence between these two worlds is only going to deepen, and what collaborations like this one unlock is a new class of products that would not have been possible even three years ago: assets that carry the credibility of multi-decade managers and the programmability of digital infrastructure.”

 

BENJI Integration to Follow

Part of the partnership plans will involve integrating BENJI into Kraken's infrastructure. BENJI is a digital token created by Franklin Templeton that represents ownership of, or shares held by, an investor in a regulated money market fund. It is what investors actually hold and trade on-chain.

 

By integrating BENJI into Kraken, Franklin Templeton makes it easier for institutions to access and use the BENJI money market fund within its trading and custody systems, increasing capital efficiency and the fund's utility.

 

“The focus should be on making on-chain assets more functional for the full range of market participants once they are there,” said Sandy Kaul, Head of Digital Assets and Innovation at Franklin Templeton.

 

“By expanding the utility of BENJI and exploring new tokenized products, our work with Payward reflects the growing need to serve both digital native and institutional customers with solutions built for how capital increasingly moves on-chain.”

 

 

Charles Schwab, the United States based brokerage and banking firm, has launched Schwab Crypto, a spot crypto trading platform that provides direct access to Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) trading, along with educational content and support from experienced professionals for users.

 

 

“We know our clients want to conduct more of their financial lives at Schwab. With Schwab Crypto, clients who want direct access to the asset class can trade it alongside their other investments, while benefiting from the service, education, and research they expect from us,” said Jonathan Craig, Head of Retail Investing at Charles Schwab.

 

The spot trading platform will provide direct trading in BTC and ETH, with more cryptocurrencies to be added in the future as the platform expands. Traders will also be able to view and trade both crypto and non crypto products across all of Schwab’s platforms, including its website, Schwab Mobile, its mobile app, and thinkorswim, its advanced trading platform, with 24/7 professional support available to traders.

 

Through Schwab Coaching, its educational program, Charles Schwab will provide in depth digital assets education and resources, including insights and commentary from the Schwab Center for Financial Research and crypto focused content, all aimed at helping investors understand the digital assets market and how digital assets fit into a broader investing strategy.

 

How Schwab Crypto Works 

Through Charles Schwab Premier Bank (CSPB), Schwab clients will be given a separate crypto account for the purpose of trading on Schwab Crypto, the retail trading platform. However, this account will remain linked to the clients main brokerage accounts, with CSPB serving as the primary custodian of all client digital assets.

 

Paxos, a leading blockchain infrastructure company regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, will be responsible for handling all trade execution and subcustody services.

 

Regarding Paxos’s role, Joe Vietri, Managing Director and Head of Digital Assets at Charles Schwab, said, “Paxos is a strong partner for blockchain infrastructure. Their regulatory standing and digital asset expertise will help us deliver the seamless, integrated experience our clients expect from Schwab.”

 

 

After months of gridlock and four hours of pointed debate, the Senate Banking Committee voted 15-9 to advance the Clarity Act, sending one of the most consequential pieces of financial legislation in recent memory toward a full Senate floor vote. Two Democrats joined all Republicans on the panel in support, a small but symbolically meaningful show of bipartisan backing that industry advocates say could prove decisive when the bill eventually needs 60 votes to pass the full chamber.

 

For the digital asset industry, the vote felt like a long time coming. The bill, formally titled the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025, has been kicking around Capitol Hill for well over a year. The fact that it cleared committee at all, given the partisan atmosphere that dominated much of Thursday's hearing, was seen by many in the space as a genuine win.

 

Rules of the Road, Finally

At its core, the Clarity Act tries to solve a problem that has dogged the crypto industry since its earliest days: nobody could quite agree on who was in charge. The SEC and the CFTC have spent years in an uneasy standoff over which agency has jurisdiction over which digital assets, leaving companies in legal limbo and pushing some development offshore. The bill would draw a cleaner line, classifying digital assets as either securities or commodities and assigning oversight accordingly.

 

The market responded before the committee even finished voting. Coinbase surged more than 8% on the session, as investors bet that regulatory clarity could finally unlock the broader institutional participation that has been sitting on the sidelines. Galaxy Digital climbed over 6%. Strategy, the largest corporate bitcoin holder, was up 7%. Bitcoin itself ground higher, hitting session highs near $81,500.

 

"For too long, regulatory uncertainty has sent talent, investment, and innovation overseas, strengthening foreign competitors while leaving American builders without the certainty they need to compete," said Blockchain Association CEO Summer Mersinger, who called the committee vote a "defining moment." Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse was blunter: "If the largest economy in the world is going to lead on crypto, and it must, this is the moment."

 

Still Some Runway Ahead

Thursday's vote was a milestone, but it is not the finish line. The bill still needs to be reconciled with a separate version approved by the Senate Agriculture Committee, and the full Senate will require 60 votes to pass it, meaning a significant number of Democrats will have to come on board. The House passed its own version of the legislation last year, so the two chambers will also need to hammer out a unified text before anything heads to President Trump's desk.

 

The largest outstanding issue is an ethics provision intended to limit government officials, including the president, from profiting off crypto. Democrats have made clear they will not move forward without some version of it, while White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt has said the administration will not tolerate language targeting a specific officeholder. Both sides appeared at least open to finding common ground, with Cody Carbone of the Digital Chamber telling reporters that a deal on the ethics provision is likely a prerequisite for getting the bill to a floor vote at all. The window, several lawmakers noted, is probably August.

 

A Framework Built to Last

What makes the Clarity Act different from the patchwork of guidance and enforcement actions that have defined crypto policy for the past decade is its ambition. It does not try to pigeonhole digital assets into frameworks designed for equities or futures contracts decades ago. It builds something new, with defined registration pathways for digital commodity exchanges, brokers, and dealers, as well as clear definitions covering blockchain applications, protocols, and smart contracts.

 

Ji Hun Kim, CEO of the Crypto Council for Innovation, put it plainly after the vote: "Clear durable rules will help drive greater institutional and retail adoption, support innovation, create more high quality jobs in the U.S., protect Americans, and ensure that our country leads when it comes to digital assets policy and innovation."

 

The GENIUS Act, which passed the full Senate 68-30 last year, showed that comprehensive crypto legislation can attract broad support once the details are sorted. The Clarity Act is a harder lift, covering more ground and touching more competing interests. But Thursday's committee vote suggests the political will is there, and the industry is watching closely.

 

"Durable, lasting digital asset policy must be built on a bipartisan foundation," Mersinger added. By that measure, the Clarity Act is not finished yet. But for the first time in a long while, it looks like it might actually get there.

 

Why This Matters for the Future of Digital Assets

Let's be clear about all of this: Thursday was a great day for anyone who believes that digital assets have a meaningful role to play in the future of finance. I am certainly one of those. Not because the Clarity Act is perfect, and not because it's done, but because it signals something important that has been missing for years: the U.S. government is starting to treat this industry like it's here to stay.

 

The case for optimism goes beyond this single vote. The GENIUS Act passing 68-30 last year proved that stablecoin legislation could attract real bipartisan support. Institutional investment in Bitcoin ETFs has steadily matured. Major financial players who once dismissed crypto as a fringe asset are now building infrastructure around it. The underlying technology, particularly in DeFi and tokenization, keeps advancing regardless of what Washington does. What regulation does is create the conditions for all of that to compound. It clears the path for pension funds, endowments, and large asset managers who have been sitting on the sidelines waiting for legal certainty before committing serious capital.

 

That said, the Senate still has to close the deal, and that is not a given. The remaining sticking points on the ethics provision and law enforcement concerns are real, not just noise. Lawmakers like Senator Kirsten Gillibrand have been consistent that they will not deliver Democratic votes without meaningful conflict-of-interest guardrails, and that is a fair position. The 60-vote threshold means the bill needs to be genuinely bipartisan, not just technically so.

 

On timing, the realistic window is narrower than it might appear. Industry insiders, including Cody Carbone of the Digital Chamber, have pointed to August as a likely deadline if the bill is to move this year. Congress typically slows through the fall ahead of elections, and the legislative calendar fills up fast. That gives negotiators roughly ten to twelve weeks to reconcile the two committee versions, finalize the ethics language, and lock down the 60 votes needed for a floor vote. It is achievable, but it requires both parties to decide they want a deal more than they want a talking point.

 

If it does pass, the long-term impact will be substantial. Clear rules attract capital. Capital attracts builders. Builders create products that bring in users. That cycle, running inside a legitimate regulatory framework and anchored in the world's largest economy, is how digital assets stop being a niche and become infrastructure. You know...that "mass adoption" that people have been talking about for years? Well, this could be it. It might not look like how we all imagined, but what ever really does? Thursday was one huge step in that direction. The Senate now needs to finish what it started and we need to come together to make sure they all know that they need to do just that. Let's get it done.

 

The U.S. Senate confirmed Kevin Warsh as the next chair of the Federal Reserve on Wednesday, handing President Donald Trump a long-sought win and putting one of the most crypto-sympathetic figures in recent memory at the helm of the world's most powerful central bank.

 

The final tally was 54-45, and it wa a bit too close for comfort. In fact, it was the most partisan confirmation vote for a Fed chair in modern history, with only Pennsylvania Democrat Sen. John Fetterman crossing the aisle to support Warsh's nomination. The near party-line split underscores just how politically charged the Federal Reserve has become under Trump, who spent much of the past year publicly haranguing outgoing Chair Jerome Powell for not cutting rates fast enough.

 

A Confirmation That Almost Wasn't

Getting Warsh to this point was a rocky path. The nomination process stretched over months, at one point stalling entirely when Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) refused to let the confirmation advance until the Justice Department dropped a criminal investigation into Powell. That probe, led by DC U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, centered on alleged cost overruns at the Fed's Washington headquarters. A federal judge had ruled the investigation was essentially a pretext to pressure Powell into cutting rates or resigning.

 

The DOJ eventually closed the probe, clearing the path for Warsh. Though Pirro left the door open to reopening the case if the Fed's inspector general turns up evidence of wrongdoing. For now, the drama is over, and Warsh has his confirmation.

 

What Warsh Means for Crypto

Warsh isn't exactly a crypto maximalist. He has, at times, referred to certain digital asset projects as fraudulent or worthless. But his disclosed investments tell a deeper story. Earlier this year it emerged he holds positions in Polymarket, the decentralized prediction market, and Solana. He has also stated that Bitcoin "does not make me nervous," a phrase that might seem understated but represents a meaningful shift from the posture of most previous Fed leadership.

 

During his Senate confirmation hearing in April, Warsh told Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) that digital assets are "already part of the fabric of our financial services industry" and affirmed he believes they should be incorporated into America's broader financial ecosystem. That was enough for Lummis, one of the most vocal pro-crypto voices in Congress, who said after the vote that digital asset holders "finally have a leader at the Fed who is ready to deliver."

 

The CFTC's chairman Mike Selig, who has defended prediction markets against a string of state-level lawsuits this year, also welcomed the Warsh confirmation, saying he looked forward to working together. That kind of interagency alignment on digital assets would represent a notable departure from the fragmented, sometimes hostile regulatory environment crypto has dealt with in recent years.

 

Juan Leon, a senior investment strategist at Bitwise, put the significance plainly: "Kevin Warsh is the first Fed Chair to endorse Bitcoin and describe it as a useful signal for policymakers, reflecting a shift in institutional legitimacy for crypto. While he's known as an inflation hawk, his stated belief that rates can move lower as a result of AI-driven productivity gains provides a plausible path to more accommodative liquidity conditions for crypto assets."

 

Rate Cuts: Don't Hold Your Breath

Here's where things get complicated. Trump has made no secret of what he expects from Warsh, having reportedly joked earlier this year that he'd sue him if rates don't come down. But market expectations have shifted sharply, and not in the president's favor.

 

Fresh inflation data released Tuesday showed consumer prices rose 3.85% in the 12 months through April, the highest reading since May 2023 and well above the Fed's 2% target. Traders are pricing in essentially no rate cuts for the rest of the year; some are even calling for a hike, largely because energy prices have climbed sharply following escalating tensions in the Middle East that have snarled tanker traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.

 

Warsh himself has signaled some openness to easing, particularly if AI-driven productivity gains help cool inflation over time. But he's also a known inflation hawk from his first stint at the Fed between 2006 and 2011, when he was among those who felt post-crisis quantitative easing had gone too far. It's not entirely clear which Warsh shows up to that first FOMC meeting on June 16-17.

 

And it's worth noting: Warsh is just one of 12 votes on the Federal Open Market Committee. Even as chair, he doesn't have unilateral authority over rate decisions. Powell, for his part, will remain on the Fed's Board of Governors after Friday, when his term as chair expires, retaining his FOMC vote. It's an unusual arrangement, last seen nearly 80 years ago, and Powell has been explicit about his motivations: he wants to protect the institution from what he has described as "unprecedented" legal and political pressure.

 

A New Era, With a Lot of Asterisks

Warsh also takes the helm at a Fed dealing with serious internal turbulence. Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook is locked in a legal fight with the president, who is trying to remove her on allegations of mortgage fraud, a case now making its way toward the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Warsh will have to divest significant holdings, as he's set to become the wealthiest Fed chair on record, with a portfolio well north of $100 million.

 

Bitcoin barely reacted to the confirmation news, trading around $79,500 in the hours following the Senate vote, according to CoinGecko. But the longer-term implications could be meaningful. Whether or not rate cuts materialize, Warsh's ascent signals a growing institutional acceptance of digital assets at the highest levels of American financial policy. For a sector that has spent years fighting for legitimacy, that's not nothing.

 

Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic recently secured $120 million in a Series D funding round led by One Peak, with participation from Nasdaq Ventures, Deutsche Bank, and the British Business Bank. The company is now valued at $670 million.

 

 

According to Elliptic, the funding will be used to accelerate its mission to deliver enterprise-grade on-chain analytics to some of the world’s largest financial institutions, including banks, fintech companies, crypto companies, and government agencies.

 

“As digital assets become more embedded in the global financial system, institutions need trusted infrastructure to manage compliance and risk at scale. Elliptic’s platform plays an important role in providing that infrastructure, helping firms navigate digital asset adoption with confidence and integrity,” said Gary Offner, Senior Vice President and Head of Nasdaq Ventures.

 

Among Elliptic’s expansion plans is scaling its native artificial intelligence compliance system for enterprises. Leveraging its years of experience building one of the most comprehensive and diverse datasets and its ability to process more contextual information per second than competitors, Elliptic plans to build an enterprise-grade compliance system that allows compliance teams to do more with less: alerts resolved in minutes rather than hours, human judgment reserved for where it genuinely matters, and compliance costs falling as volume grows.

 

“As institutional adoption of digital assets accelerates, the demand for scalable compliance solutions has never been higher. Elliptic pioneered the use of blockchain analytics to meet this challenge and has cemented its status as a global leader, screening over 1 billion transactions a week for more than 700 customers in 30 countries,” said Charlotte Lawrence, Managing Director of Direct Equity at the British Business Bank.

 

This capability will also benefit stablecoin and tokenized asset companies that process billions of dollars in transactions. In 2025, about $33 trillion in transactions were processed by stablecoin companies. By leveraging its data intelligence infrastructure, Elliptic enables these companies to meet enterprise-grade compliance requirements in real time, an operational necessity for crypto exchanges that handle and move billions of dollars in crypto daily.

 

About Elliptic 

Elliptic is a London-based blockchain analytics firm that specializes in tools for financial crime risk management, anti-money laundering (AML), transaction monitoring, wallet screening, investigations, and threat intelligence across the global crypto ecosystem.

 

Elliptic currently serves over 700 clients across 30 countries, supports more than 65 blockchain networks, and screens about 1 billion blockchain transactions each week. It has partnered with leading industry players, most recently the layer 1 Solana and the Tempo blockchain networks.

 

 

Foris DAX Middle East FZE, the UAE entity of the cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com, has received the Stored Value Facilities (SVF) license from the Central Bank of the UAE.

 

The announcement, made on Monday, marks a notable milestone for the crypto exchange, as it is the first Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) in the Emirates to receive the license.

 

 

With the Stored Value Facilities license now secured, Crypto.com can partner with the Dubai Department of Finance, allowing UAE residents to pay government fees with virtual assets, with all transactions settled in UAE dirhams or other stablecoins approved by the UAE central bank.

 

As the only virtual asset provider holding the SVF license in the Emirates, any other entity seeking to offer virtual asset payment services in the region will first need to be onboarded by Crypto.com.

 

“To be the first VASP to receive this license is an incredible achievement and proves our strong commitment to compliance and to advancing the regulated digital assets ecosystem in the UAE,” said Eric Anziani, President and COO of Crypto.com.

 

“We are continuing to expand our presence in this forward-thinking, digitally savvy market and remain committed to offering innovative products and services that are convenient and seamless for digital asset holders,” he added.

 

The new SVF license comes about a year after Crypto.com received a full VASP license from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), allowing it to offer crypto derivatives products, including futures, perpetual swap contracts, and contracts for difference (CFDs).

 

Derivatives trading continues to grow, accounting for about 70-75% of total crypto trading volume. In 2025, global crypto derivatives trading volume reached approximately $85.7 trillion, with analysts projecting the market to continue expanding significantly.

 

The State of Crypto in the United Arab Emirates

The UAE, over the last few years, has emerged as one of the foremost crypto jurisdictions. According to the World Crypto Rankings 2025 report by Bybit and DL Research, the UAE leads the entire Middle East and North Africa region in crypto adoption, ranking fifth globally behind Singapore, the United States, Lithuania, and Switzerland.

 

To position itself as a major crypto hub, the UAE has introduced several crypto-friendly policies, including exemptions from VAT and personal income tax on virtual assets and crypto trading. 

 

The country has also passed legislation that brings all virtual asset entities, including DeFi protocols, stablecoins, tokenized real-world assets, decentralized exchanges, wallets, bridges, and supporting blockchain infrastructure, under the authority of the Central Bank. The move effectively gives the digital asset ecosystem a recognized legal framework under federal law.

 

 

Global crypto asset manager Bitwise will be taking full control of Superstate’s Crypto Carry Fund (USCC), a tokenized private fund that provides qualified purchasers with exposure to crypto-based strategies.

 

The announcement, made via a Bitwise press release, will see the asset manager transition into the role of investment manager of the fund, with the fund renamed the Bitwise Crypto Carry Fund. Although Bitwise will assume management of the fund, Superstate will continue to operate the fund’s on-chain infrastructure, ensuring no disruption during the transition process.

 

 

"Capital markets are moving on-chain. It's happening fast, and tokenized investment strategies are a core part of this platform shift," said Hunter Horsley, Bitwise CEO.

 

"Traditional and crypto native institutions are increasingly using tokenized funds to benefit from their 24/7 trading, utility in decentralized finance, transparency, and efficiency. We're thrilled to join Superstate's best-in-class infrastructure with Bitwise's track record in crypto asset management to continue to expand access to the full range of opportunities for investors in crypto."

 

This partnership between Bitwise and Superstate will see Bitwise deepening its presence in the tokenized fund market, with Superstate taking a step back from tokenized fund management to focus on FundOS, its platform used to manage on-chain tokenized funds.

 

The transition is expected to be completed by June 1, 2026, with the fund’s ticker USCC remaining unchanged, as well as its smart contract and token address.

 

USCC and the Tokenized Funds Market

USCC is Superstate’s tokenized private fund that provides qualified investors exposure to crypto basis and cash and carry trading strategies, allowing them to earn yield from the persistent premium of crypto futures prices over spot prices.

 

The fund currently has assets under management exceeding $267 million, with over $100 million of the fund’s assets being deployed across notable decentralized finance platforms, including Aave and Kamino. Investors include hedge funds, venture capital firms, high-net-worth crypto users, and blockchain protocols.

 

The tokenized funds market has also grown remarkably, with the global tokenized and real-world assets market reaching $33.5 billion. The market is projected to reach $18.9 trillion by 2031 and has attracted several notable traditional finance companies, including BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and JPMorgan. 

 

 

Payward, the parent company of the crypto exchange Kraken, has filed an application with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) seeking to establish a national trust company.

 

If approved, the OCC will grant Payward federal fiduciary powers under the U.S. Trust Powers statute to establish the Payward National Trust Company (PNTC), allowing Payward to provide custodial services to institutional clients and individuals seeking regulated bank level custody and trust services for digital assets. Payward aims to leverage its existing infrastructure, risk management systems, compliance programs, and regulated affiliates to deliver institutional grade, secure, and compliant custodial services.

 

Speaking on the OCC application, Arjun Sethi, Co CEO of Payward and Kraken, said, “Our long held belief has always been that the right path forward for digital assets runs through robust, transparent regulation. A national trust company provides the certainty institutions require and establishes the infrastructure to build the next generation of custody. This is not about being first. It is about getting the framework right so markets can scale with clarity, interoperability, and a long term vision for what clients will demand as these systems mature.”

 

The OCC application builds on the regulatory foundation that Payward has already established through Kraken Financial, one of its entities. Through Kraken Financial, Kraken achieved several milestones, including becoming the first crypto company to receive a Wyoming Special Purpose Depository Institution charter. This allowed Kraken Financial to operate as a separate entity and become the first digital asset bank to gain access to the Federal Reserve payment system.

 

“Kraken Financial and what we are building with the OCC are complementary pillars of Payward’s regulated banking strategy aimed at advancing an efficient and accessible digitally native financial system,” said Arjun Sethi, Payward and Kraken co CEO.

 

“Our Wyoming SPDI and Federal Reserve master account represent a genuinely unique foundation, and the addition of a national trust company expands what we can offer our clients under an evolving U.S. regulatory framework.”

 

Kraken Joins Race to Offer Custodial Services

Payward is not the first crypto company to file an application with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, as companies like Ripple, BitGo, Stripe, Crypto, and Coinbase have also filed, with some receiving conditional approvals to provide custodial services.

 

Morgan Stanley Digital Trust also filed an application with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in February of this year, seeking approval to provide digital asset custody, with the application currently pending.

 

 

OpenTrade, an institutional-grade stablecoin yield platform used by fintechs and exchanges, has raised $17 million to scale its stablecoin yield infrastructure.

 

The capital was raised in a strategic funding round led by Mercury Fund and Notion Capital, with other investors including a16z Crypto, AlbionVC, and CMCC Global also participating in the round, bringing the total funds raised to more than $30 million.

 

 

As part of its expansion efforts, the new funding will be used to scale OpenTrade’s permissioned and permissionless blockchain infrastructure, as well as support the growth of its Curation+ investment services. The funding will also be used to expand OpenTrade’s engineering, asset management, and trading teams, while building a dedicated customer support team to serve its growing client base.

 

OpenTrade was initially designed to provide plug-and-play infrastructure that enables financial institutions, including fintechs, exchanges, and neobanks, to offer multicurrency dollar and euro-denominated stablecoin yield products without having to build their own investment, custody, or infrastructure systems.

 

However, as the stablecoin yield market expanded, companies began seeking additional capabilities. Asset issuers started looking for distribution channels through decentralized markets. Non-custodial wallets and platforms also began seeking ways to enable users to earn yield without directly handling funds, all without having to build stablecoin yield infrastructure or internal investment teams from scratch.

 

To meet this demand, OpenTrade expanded its infrastructure to include its permission protocol layer and Curation+ services. Curation+ is a suite of sophisticated vault curation services designed to create and manage complex investment strategies, removing the operational burden associated with yield generation.

 

This infrastructure, together with OpenTrade’s broader platform, is currently used by companies including Littio, Midas Kripto, and Glim to deliver stablecoin yield products without having to build infrastructure or investment teams from the ground up.

 

“As we grew, it became clear that our infrastructure could also serve non-custodial platforms, treasuries, and asset issuers that all need the same thing: a safe, scalable way to connect stablecoins to diversified yield strategies,” said David Sutter, OpenTrade’s CEO.

 

“This raise allows us to scale that infrastructure and support a much broader range of use cases without compromising on risk management or quality of execution.”

 

OpenTrade recently surpassed $200 million in total value locked, or TVL, after processing more than $250 million in transaction volume last year. The team expects this volume to reach $1 billion by the end of the year and has already processed more than $300 million in transaction volume this year.

 

 

Global payments giant Visa has partnered with the decentralized onchain bank WeFi to enable crypto based payments while allowing users to maintain full custody of their digital assets.

 

The partnership will initially focus on exploring ways in which WeFi’s onchain banking infrastructure can be leveraged to scale stablecoin based payments in selected markets.

 

“As interest in digital assets grows, our focus is on making these new models practical at scale by connecting them to payment experiences people already trust,” Mathieu Altwegg, Visa’s Head of Product and Solutions in Europe, said. “This collaboration demonstrates how Visa’s global network interacts with onchain models.”

 

The partnership is significant as it represents a shift in custodial practices, where users often hand over their digital assets to cryptocurrency exchanges. Since WeFi offers self custody, users will be able to maintain full control of their assets while leveraging Visa’s global payment rails and using digital assets to make payments anywhere Visa is accepted.

 

The rollout will take place one region at a time, with Europe, Asia, and Latin America among the first beneficiaries, while expansion continues into additional markets depending on regulatory approvals and partnerships.

 

“People expect money to work seamlessly across borders without unnecessary complexity. We see this partnership as a way to work with Visa’s capabilities as we continue to develop WeFi’s debanking offering across key regions,” said Maksym Sakharov, WeFi co founder and CEO.

 

What is WeFi? 

WeFi is a blockchain based decentralized on chain bank (deobank) founded by Maksym Sakharov and Reeve Collins, a co founder of Tether.

 

Through its mobile first, simple interface, WeFi provides financial services to more than 1.4 billion unbanked people worldwide, allowing them to maintain full custody of their digital assets while facilitating crypto based payments and cross border transfers.

 

Since its launch last year, WeFi has grown significantly, serving more than 150,000 users across over 80 countries. To support crypto based payments, WeFi has partnered with industry players including LayerZero and has announced integrations with companies such as Binance and Visa.