The PALM Partners were tasked with bringing Nigerian Cocoa to local markets.

 

Those familiar with the Palmyra Network by Zengate will know this blockchain company has the reputation of bringing real world products to market with blockchain transactions.

 

Zengate’s open source blockchain tracking and traceability solutions allow producers to comply by new EUDR and USDA compliance laws coming into affect that require importers to prove the products line of traceability from farm to table. They started with Sri Lankan Tea in 2021-2022 live on the stage at Rare Evo, next up was Greek Olive Oil sold on their dApp Palm Pro. Now Dan Friedman (creator of Zengate) is deploying the newly graduated 1st class of Palm Partners to bring the freshly onboarded Nigerian Cocoa to local markets like bakeries and restaurants near you.

 

Now if you weren’t familiar with the Palmyra Network, after reading that, your barely scratching the surface on whats being built on PALM.

After diving into what Dan and the Zengate team have built you could say its a multi layered assault on the traditional commodities market. The Palm Partners is an affiliate program primarily aiming to onboard farmers, producers, and co-ops with online blockchain tracking and traceability solutions built by Palm.

 

The secondary objective of the Palm Partners is to onboard buyers for the high quality un-adulterated products from the newly onboarded producers.

 

With metric tons of pure cocoa ready to be sold from PALM’s recent Nigerian Cocoa Expansion the Palm Partners have a product that practically sells itself.

 

The Partners program has members from all 6 continents, so the possibility of a PALM’s Cocoa coming to your local markets isn’t low. The 1st class of PALM Partners hitting the streets and selling Nigerian Cocoa on the local market level is just the next step in opening up a whole new real world marketplace built on Web3.

 

The cryptocurrency use case is seen on the producer side by certifying traceability of the product on the blockchain and using ADA or the PALM token to pay for transactions that assign tracking logs using a platform created by Zengate called trace.it allowing farmers to trace batch whole fields, acres/hectares of product with immutable records for step by step, farm to table traceability.

 

Zengate have also open sourced these traceability solutions on Github search “The Winter Protocol”.

 

One Partner told me he had positive feedback from initial restaurant and bakery leads, saying one stated “I have a hard time finding good chocolate, and sometimes the chocolate I get sucks, and it makes me mad.”

 

Big chocolate distributors are known to water down pure chocolate with additives like TBHQ, or tert-Butylhydroquinone, or PGPR, or Polyglycerol polyricinoleate, and wax. It’s no surprise boutique bakeries can’t find premium chocolate.

 

With the power of PALM these Cocoa Farmers can bring pure cocoa straight from the farm to the bakery. No more middle men mafias adding stuff you can’t spell to pure ingredients you should be consuming pure.

 

Olive oil is another example of a product that is highly adulterated before coming to domestic markets. When PALM sold olive oil on the PALM Pro dApp they were able to bypass middle men who would have watered it down with canola and other seed oils. Those lucky customers claimed in reviews “it was the best olive oil they had ever had” and “pure olive oil provides a truly magical cooking experience.”.

 

I’m sure the Nigerian Cocoa will not disappoint. I doubt any of us have actually experienced real pure cocoa.

 

The Sri Lankan Ceylon Tea cigars were a big hit at Rare Evo. Also the Zambian Honey brought by onboarded producer K B Curry, founder of Nature’s Nectar, left PALM booth attendees at Caesars Palace buzzing about the ability of this cryptocurrency company to bring real world product transactions to the blockchain.

 

Zengate and PALM have a history of delivering and its certainly easy to assume the PALM Partners will move a lot of Cocoa thus making more real world commodity transactions on the blockchain.

 

The Palm Partners 2nd class will be convening sometime in 2026 and if you are interested in bringing blockchain adoption to your local producers go to the www.palmyraecosystem.com website for more info.

 

To stay up to date with when Zengate and Palmyra will be bringing more products to the blockchain, join the Discord. Also stay tuned if your interested in joining the Palm Partners 2nd class. And if you want to purchase Pure Nigerian Cocoa go to www.palmyraecosystem.com/cocoa-us

 

 

The New York Stock Exchange is imagining a world without a closing bell.

 

NYSE, through its parent company Intercontinental Exchange, is building a blockchain-powered platform that would allow stocks and ETFs to trade 24/7 in tokenized form. If regulators sign off, it would be one of the clearest signals yet that traditional finance is no longer just experimenting with crypto infrastructure, it is actively rebuilding around it.

 

The pitch is straightforward but far-reaching. Take real stocks and ETFs, represent them as blockchain tokens, and let them trade continuously. No market open. No market close. No waiting a day for settlement to finish in the background.

 

For an institution that has defined how markets work for more than 200 years, this is a radical shift.

 

This Is Not a Side Project

This is not NYSE dipping a toe into crypto.

 

ICE is designing a separate trading platform that merges NYSE’s core matching technology with blockchain-based settlement, custody, and clearing. Orders still look familiar, bids and asks meet in an order book, but what happens after execution is where things change.

 

Instead of the standard T+1 settlement cycle, ownership could move almost instantly onchain. Stablecoins are expected to handle funding, allowing trades to clear at any hour without relying on traditional banking rails. Investors may also be able to place dollar-based orders instead of buying whole shares, making fractional ownership the default rather than an add-on.

 

Structurally, it starts to resemble how crypto markets already operate, just wrapped around regulated assets.

 

Why Tokenized Stocks Are a Big Deal

Tokenized stocks are not new, but they have mostly lived at the edges of the financial system.

 

What changes here is credibility. When the NYSE moves toward tokenization, blockchain stops looking like an alternative system and starts looking like core infrastructure.

 

Tokenization allows equities and ETFs to trade globally, settle instantly, and operate without the friction built into traditional market plumbing. It removes time zone barriers. It compresses settlement risk. It turns stocks into programmable financial objects.

 

For investors who already trade crypto around the clock, the idea that equities shut down every afternoon feels increasingly outdated.

 

Crypto Trained the Market to Expect 24/7

This move did not come out of nowhere.

 

Crypto markets have normalized nonstop trading. Platforms like Robinhood and Coinbase are already pushing toward tokenized equities and extended hours. Asset managers are testing onchain settlement in private markets and fund structures.

 

Meanwhile, traditional clearing and settlement remain slow, expensive, and operationally complex. Blockchain promises efficiency, but only if institutions are willing to rethink the system rather than patch it.

 

NYSE’s entry into this space suggests legacy exchanges see the risk clearly. If liquidity, trading volume, and investor attention move onchain elsewhere, exchanges that stay static risk being left behind.

 

Regulation Decides Everything

For now, all of this lives in proposal form.

 

Tokenized stocks are still securities. That means U.S. securities laws apply, even if the assets settle on a blockchain. Continuous trading raises hard questions around surveillance, volatility controls, investor protections, and systemic risk. Stablecoins add another regulatory layer.

 

How regulators respond to an NYSE-backed tokenized market will likely shape how far and how fast tokenization spreads across public markets.

 

What Happens If This Actually Works

If this platform launches and gains traction, it could reshape how markets function.

 

Stocks that trade nonstop would change liquidity patterns and price discovery. Global participation would increase. Settlement could become faster, cheaper, and more transparent. Post-trade infrastructure might finally catch up with the digital age.

 

There are tradeoffs. Continuous markets can amplify volatility. Liquidity could fragment across venues. Retail investors may face more noise and fewer natural breaks.

 

Still, the direction feels unmistakable.

 

Crypto infrastructure is no longer sitting outside the financial system. It is being welded into it.

 

The NYSE is not turning stocks into memecoins. But it is signaling that the future of equities looks more onchain, more global, and far less dependent on a bell ringing at 4 p.m. Eastern.

 

The wall between crypto markets and traditional markets is thinning fast, and one of the oldest institutions in finance just acknowledged it.

 

Vitalik Buterin is not really talking about price right now. That alone makes his latest message stand out.

 

While much of the crypto market remains fixated on ETFs, flows, and whether this cycle has one more leg left, Ethereum’s co-founder is pointing somewhere else entirely. In his view, 2026 should be the year Ethereum starts actively reversing what he sees as a slow drift away from self-sovereignty and trustlessness.

 

It is not framed as a dramatic pivot or some shiny new roadmap. It is more like a reminder. Ethereum, according to Buterin, has spent years getting bigger, faster, and easier to use, and in the process it has quietly accepted compromises that would have felt uncomfortable in its earlier days.

 

Now he wants to unwind some of that.

 

Ethereum Got Easier, and That Was Not Free

There is no denying Ethereum’s growth. Rollups work. DeFi runs real money. Institutions are here. The network feels permanent in a way it did not a few years ago.

 

But ease comes with dependencies. Many users do not run nodes. Many apps rely on the same handful of infrastructure providers. Wallets often default to custodial or semi-custodial setups because it is simpler and users are afraid of losing seed phrases.

 

None of this is accidental. It happened because it worked. It brought users in. It made Ethereum usable.

 

But Buterin’s argument is that convenience has slowly started to crowd out something more important. If Ethereum depends too much on trusted intermediaries, even friendly ones, then it starts to look less like a trustless system and more like a decentralized brand layered on top of familiar structures.

 

That, in his view, is a problem worth addressing head-on.

 

Self-Sovereignty Is Not Just a Slogan

When Buterin talks about self-sovereignty, he is not being abstract. He is talking about very practical things, like how people actually control their assets.

 

Seed phrases remain one of crypto’s most unforgiving design choices. Lose it and your funds are gone. For many users, that risk pushes them straight into custodial solutions, which defeats the point.

 

Ethereum’s push around account abstraction and social recovery wallets is meant to change that dynamic. The idea is not to make users memorize better passwords. It is to give them safer ways to stay in control without handing the keys to someone else.

 

This is where Buterin tends to sound almost stubborn. He does not accept that usability and self-custody have to be opposites. He sees bad wallet UX as a solvable design problem, not a reason to abandon the principle.

 

Running a Node Should Not Feel Like a Hobby Project

Another issue that keeps coming up is verification. Ethereum is designed so anyone can independently verify the network’s state. In practice, most people do not.

 

Instead, users and apps lean on centralized RPC providers, cloud services, and hosted endpoints. It works. Until it does not.

 

Buterin has been blunt about this. If Ethereum becomes a network where only a small group of actors can realistically verify what is happening, then decentralization starts to thin out where it matters most.

 

This is why there is so much emphasis on lighter nodes, better data availability, and zero-knowledge tech. The goal is not academic elegance. It is making verification cheap and accessible enough that it becomes normal again.

 

In other words, Ethereum should be something you can check for yourself, not something you take on faith.

 

Privacy Is Still Missing From the Default Experience

Despite years of progress, privacy on Ethereum remains optional and often awkward. Many transactions leak more information than users realize, simply because they rely on centralized relayers or analytics-heavy infrastructure.

 

Buterin has been pushing the idea that privacy should feel boring. Not exotic. Not advanced. Just there.

 

If private transactions require special effort or deep technical knowledge, most users will skip them. That creates a network where surveillance becomes the default state, which cuts directly against the idea of permissionless participation.

 

The renewed focus here is about making privacy part of the base layer experience, not something bolted on later for power users.

 

Thinking Past the Current Cycle

One of the more interesting parts of Buterin’s recent comments is how long-term they are. He talks openly about quantum resistance and cryptographic upgrades that may not matter for years.

 

That is not the kind of thing that drives usage next quarter. It is the kind of thing you worry about if you think Ethereum should still be around in 20 or 30 years.

 

The same mindset shows up in his thoughts on stablecoins and financial infrastructure. Relying entirely on centralized issuers and traditional banking rails might be convenient now, but it introduces fragility over time.

 

The message is subtle but consistent. Ethereum should not optimize only for what works today. It should optimize for what survives stress.

 

Less Hype, More Backbone

There is also something missing from this conversation, and it feels intentional. Buterin is not talking about memecoins, viral apps, or chasing narratives to pump activity.

 

Instead, he keeps circling back to resilience. Can Ethereum keep working if major providers go offline. Can users still transact if key companies disappear. Can the system hold up under pressure.

 

That focus might feel boring to parts of the market. It is also probably why it matters.

 

Why This Year Matters

Ethereum is no longer trying to prove that it works. It already does. The question now is what kind of system it wants to be as it becomes harder to change.

 

By framing 2026 as a year of recommitment, Buterin is effectively asking the ecosystem to slow down just enough to check its foundations. Not to undo progress, but to make sure that progress did not quietly hollow out the original mission.

 

Whether developers and users fully follow that lead is an open question. Ethereum is too big to move in one direction all at once.

 

Still, when its most influential voice says the next phase is about trustlessness, self-sovereignty, and resilience, it is worth paying attention. Not because it promises a price move, but because it says something about where Ethereum thinks its long-term value really comes from.

 

Stay Connected

You can stay up to date on all News, Events, and Marketing of Rare Network, including Rare Evo: America’s Premier Blockchain Conference, happening  July 28th-31st, 2026 at The ARIA Resort & Casino, by following our socials on X, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

World Mobile’s Network Builder Launch Signals a New Era for Community-Owned Telecom

 

World Mobile officially brought its long-anticipated Network Builder platform online on January 8, 2026, marking the next major phase of its decentralized sharing network. The rollout, led by World Mobile CEO and Founder, Micky Watkins, launched with 50 Hexes, telecom franchise NFTs, available for auction across the United States.

 

Interest was immediate. Within 12 hours of launch, half of the 50 hexes already had opening bids. Some of the largest early markets included Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Kansas City, and Tampa, Florida. Smaller markets also saw fast activity, stretching from Kodiak Island, Alaska, down to rural Alabama, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, and the North Carolina coast.

 

One of the more notable early bidding areas was Lake Travis outside Austin, Texas. Seven hexes covering the entire popular vacation area were bid on early and aggressively. Anyone familiar with Lake Travis knows cell service there is almost nonexistent. South Lake Tahoe also appeared on the auction board, another high-end vacation destination with notoriously poor coverage. In both cases, the issue is not demand, but infrastructure. Large telecom companies have little incentive to invest in difficult or geographically challenging areas when existing profits are already strong elsewhere.

 

Within 22 hours of the auction launch, all 50 hexes were claimed. Just 26 hours later, those sales were set to finalize, effectively laying the groundwork for a new nationwide mobile network option. The real-world functionality is what stands out. Individuals in smaller markets can start their own telecom franchise with opening bids as low as $90. Larger markets commanded higher prices, with Pittsburgh reaching $16,775 and Tampa closing at $2,535.

 

Network Builders begin at level one. After selling 1,000 phone plans, they advance to level two, unlocking the ability to buy, sell, and install hardware such as transmitters. Local Network Builders are responsible for onboarding customers, opening storefronts, running advertising, and expanding hardware coverage within their purchased hex. Owning land inside a hex is an advantage, as it allows builders to host transmitters directly on their own property.

 

Telecommunications deserts are just as real as food deserts, and World Mobile’s platform is designed to address that gap. By lowering the cost of entry and decentralizing ownership, the company is aiming to bring lasting infrastructure to underserved areas that traditional telecoms have ignored.

 

Mainstream crypto adoption suddenly feels closer. World Mobile storefronts are expected to open within weeks in several major U.S. markets, offering a real-world product that consumers will use without needing to understand crypto at all. Everyone needs a phone. The question is whether American consumers are ready for a new cellular provider opening in their neighborhood.

 

Given the current state of the U.S. telecom industry, the answer may be yes. Network Builders, the investors who purchased these franchises, will be offering half-off discount on the first month of service to customers who switch to World Mobile. In the current economy, saving money matters. So does the idea of switching to a service built locally, not by a massive corporation, but by a neighbor operating a local franchise of what aims to become a major telecom player.

 

From a business perspective, Network Builder resembles opening a fast-food franchise, but at a far more accessible price point for entrepreneurs. It represents a blockchain powered alternative for small town America, where large telecom companies have long prioritized profit over infrastructure, often charging full price for poor service while offering perks like bundled streaming subscriptions to mask the underlying issues.

 

Instead of that model, World Mobile positions itself as a community-built network with real accountability and improved service. It will be worth watching how the first group of Network Builders performs and where the next World Mobile franchises open across the United States. If Network Builder delivers at scale, World Mobile will have done more than launch a new cell service. It will have shown that blockchain-backed, community-owned infrastructure can compete where legacy telecom has stalled. 

 

The second auction of 50 hexes is expected to begin soon. Those interested in future launches and auction updates should stay connected through the World Mobile Discord  and Telegram groups.

 

 

 

Trump-Backed World Liberty Financial Rolls Out DeFi Lending Platform

 

World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture tied to President Donald Trump and his family, has crossed another big milestone in its effort to turn a stablecoin and decentralized finance products into a real business. The firm quietly rolled out World Liberty Markets, a new on-chain borrowing and lending platform built around its flagship stablecoin, USD1, and it’s already pulled in tens of millions in assets from early users.

The launch puts World Liberty right into one of the most competitive and risky corners of crypto: decentralized lending. This is where you can earn interest by supplying assets or borrow against your holdings without going through a bank or broker. It’s the plumbing that makes much of DeFi tick, and it’s also where huge liquidations and smart contract exploits have regularly happened. The difference here is political gravity: this project is backed by one of the most polarizing figures in modern American business and politics.

 

What World Liberty Markets Actually Offers

World Liberty Markets isn’t reinventing DeFi. The way it works is familiar if you’ve used other decentralized money markets: you supply assets to earn interest, and you can borrow against collateral you’ve locked up. At launch, supported assets include the company’s own USD1 stablecoin, its governance token WLFI, Ethereum, tokenized Bitcoin, and major stablecoins like USDC and USDT. Once you deposit, you can take a loan out in any of those supported assets based on how much you’ve put up as collateral.

The platform is built with the infrastructure of an existing DeFi protocol called Dolomite, which means World Liberty didn’t have to write an entire lending stack itself. Think of it as a branded front door and dashboard on top of established smart contract mechanics.

In the first week or so, the protocol showed some early traction, with roughly $20 million in supplied assets moving through it. That number is small compared to big DeFi players, but it’s eye-catching because of how recent the launch was and the fact that USD1 supply is growing quickly.

To jump-start liquidity, World Liberty is dangling a very high yield on USD1 deposits, along with a “reward points” program for larger suppliers. World Liberty was announced on X, writing that “WLFI Markets is built to support the future of tokenized finance by providing access to third party and WLFI-branded real-world asset products, supporting new tokenized assets as they launch, and creating deeper and wider access to USD1 across all WLFI applications. It’s designed to provide future access to WLFI’s broader RWA roadmap.”

 

Betting on USD1

Behind all this is USD1, World Liberty’s dollar-pegged stablecoin that has really become the center of the project’s story. Since its debut in early 2025, the coin has ballooned into one of the larger dollar stablecoins by market capitalization, trading alongside names people actually recognize and use every day. It’s backed by cash, short-term Treasuries, and things like dollar deposits through professional custody arrangements, and it aims to be redeemable at parity with the U.S. dollar.

That backing and that promise of redemption put USD1 in the same product category as USDC and USDT, which dominate the stablecoin market. But stablecoins only become useful when there are places for them to be spent, lent, traded or borrowed, and until now USD1 had mostly been used as a tradable asset with some big institutional deals. The lending launch is the first real step toward making it function like money in crypto’s own financial ecosystem.

World Liberty has been aggressively pushing USD1 into major venues, including listings on big exchanges and use as collateral or settlement assets in large trades. That has helped it grow in circulation fast, and have enough liquidity that a lending market now makes sense. Because USD1 is tied so directly to World Liberty’s broader business, how well the lending product does could be a big factor in whether USD1 becomes sticky in the market or remains a speculative novelty.

 

From On-Chain Products to Traditional Finance

This lending rollout comes at a moment when the company is also trying to pull USD1 and its associated services into the regulated financial world. A subsidiary of World Liberty has applied for a national trust bank charter with U.S. regulators. If approved, that would allow the entity to issue and custody stablecoins and digital assets under federal supervision, provide conversion between fiat and stablecoin, and generally operate more like a regulated institution rather than a pure DeFi startup.

That’s a trend you’re seeing across crypto right now. Regulators have started to outline formal frameworks for stablecoins through new legislation aimed at reducing risk and improving disclosure. Projects that tie themselves to those frameworks stand to get easier access to traditional players like banks, exchanges and institutional clients. But it also subjects them to a lot more scrutiny than the wild west of DeFi.

 

Will it succeed?

Here’s the hard truth: decentralized lending markets are notoriously volatile and complex. You can get liquidation events overnight if collateral values tumble. Smart contracts have flaws and exploits. Incentives can attract short-term capital that leaves as soon as the rewards stop. That’s all before you even factor in political risk, regulatory noise, or questions about reserve transparency.

Then there’s the optics of the thing. World Liberty is connected to Donald Trump and his family, who have been publicly associated with this project since the beginning. That’s drawn critics who say there are conflicts of interest embedded in how the venture promotes itself and how big deals get structured. Whether you see that as a feature or a bug, it certainly makes this different from your run-of-the-mill DeFi launch.

For anyone watching this space, the next few months will answer big questions. Will World Liberty Markets continue to draw real deposits once the initial incentives slow down? Will borrowing activity pick up in ways that look organic rather than promotional? Can USD1 maintain its peg and redemption promise under pressure? And how will regulators respond if this trust charter application moves forward?

One thing is clear: if a political figure’s name is going to be tied to a crypto product that interacts with both decentralized users and regulated finance, people in the market will watch every data point, every rate change, every on-chain metric and every regulatory filing with extra attention.

 

Whether it pans out or not will matter to traders, developers, regulators and probably a whole lot of voters too.

 

Stay Connected

You can stay up to date on all News, Events, and Marketing of Rare Network, including Rare Evo: America’s Premier Blockchain Conference, happening  July 28th-31st, 2026 at The ARIA Resort & Casino, by following our socials on X, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

Wyoming Launches the First State-Issued Dollar Stablecoin

 

Wyoming just crossed a line that many in crypto have talked about for years but few thought would happen this soon. The state has announced the official launch its own U.S. dollar stablecoin, live across seven major blockchains, making it the first U.S. state to issue a blockchain-based digital dollar at scale.

The move is not symbolic. It is operational, multi-chain, and designed to be used.

Wyoming just provided one of the strongest validations yet that blockchain technology can be beneficial to the financial system and it is here to stay.

 

What Wyoming actually launched

The new stablecoin, known as the Frontier Stable Token (FRNT), is a dollar-pegged asset issued under Wyoming state authority. Unlike private stablecoins that usually start on a single network, this one launched simultaneously across seven blockchains, including Arbitrum (ARB), Avalanche (AVAX), Base, Ethereum (ETH), Optimism (OP), Polygon (POL), and Solana (SOL) networks.

That decision matters. It signals that Wyoming is not picking winners in the blockchain wars. Instead, it is meeting users and developers where they already are.

The token is backed by U.S. dollar reserves and short-term Treasuries, with a buffer above one hundred percent backing. In plain terms, the state is trying to build something boring, stable, and trustworthy. In stablecoins, that is a feature, not a flaw.

 

Why this is different from every other stablecoin

Until now, every major stablecoin has come from the private sector. USDT, USDC, and others dominate because they were fast, global, and useful, not because they were government-issued.

Wyoming’s move flips that script without turning it into a federal project. This is not a central bank digital currency. It is a state-issued stablecoin built under existing law, with public oversight and clear rules around reserves and transparency.

That distinction is important. It shows there is a middle ground between unregulated private money and a top-down federal digital dollar. Wyoming is effectively saying states can innovate here too.

For crypto, this is a quiet but powerful endorsement. A U.S. state is not just regulating stablecoins. It is issuing one.

 

Why Wyoming was able to do this

This did not come out of nowhere.

Wyoming has spent years building a reputation as the most crypto-forward state in the country. From digital asset custody laws to DAOs and special-purpose depository institutions, the state has consistently taken the approach of learning the technology and writing laws around it, rather than trying to ban it into submission.

The stablecoin project is the logical next step. Instead of just attracting crypto companies, Wyoming is now exporting crypto infrastructure.

It also shows a level of comfort with blockchain that most governments still lack. Launching across multiple chains, managing reserves, and coordinating public and private partners is not trivial. Wyoming treated it like a real financial product, not a pilot experiment.

 

Why this is good for the stablecoin industry

Stablecoins already move more value than most people realize. They are the backbone of crypto trading, global remittances, and on-chain finance. What they have often lacked is public-sector legitimacy.

Wyoming’s stablecoin helps close that gap.

It sends a message that stablecoins are not just tools for exchanges and traders. They are payments infrastructure that governments can use, oversee, and improve. That matters for banks, fintechs, regulators, and institutions that have been watching from the sidelines.

It also strengthens the case that stablecoins are not a threat to the dollar, but an extension of it. This token is explicitly dollar-backed, designed to move dollars faster and more efficiently, not replace them.

 

The bigger picture

The launch itself is only the beginning.

Over time, a state-issued stablecoin opens the door to faster government payments, real-time settlement for contractors, easier cross-border transactions, and new ways to move money without relying on slow banking rails.

Just as importantly, it creates a reference point. Other states now have a working example to study, critique, and potentially copy. That alone raises the odds that stablecoin innovation in the U.S. accelerates rather than stalls.

Adoption will still matter. Liquidity, exchange access, and user experience will determine whether this becomes widely used or remains a niche tool. But the foundation is there, and it is far more serious than anything seen before from a state government.

For years, crypto advocates have argued that blockchains are better infrastructure for money. Faster settlement. Fewer intermediaries. More transparency. More programmability.

Wyoming just put that argument into practice.

By launching a fully backed, multi-chain dollar stablecoin, the state has shown that crypto is not just compatible with public finance, it can improve it. That is a meaningful moment, not just for Wyoming, but for the entire stablecoin ecosystem.

 

This is what progress in crypto often looks like. Quiet, practical, and suddenly very real.

 

Stay Connected

You can stay up to date on all News, Events, and Marketing of Rare Network, including Rare Evo: America’s Premier Blockchain Conference, happening  July 28th-31st, 2026 at The ARIA Resort & Casino, by following our socials on X, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

Crypto in 2026 Feels Quieter, More Confident, and Increasingly Hard to Ignore

 

Crypto enters 2026 without the drama that once defined the start of a new year. Prices are steady but not euphoric. The timelines are calmer. The noise has faded. And yet, beneath that surface calm, the industry feels more focused and more self-assured than it has in a long time.

This does not feel like a market losing relevance. It feels like one that has stopped trying to prove itself every day.

After a tough reset in 2025, crypto is no longer driven by momentum alone. It is being shaped by infrastructure, regulation, and a growing sense that digital assets are slowly becoming part of the financial background rather than a constant headline.

 

The Reset Did What Cycles Are Supposed to Do

The pullback that closed out 2025 forced a hard reset across the industry. Excess leverage was flushed out. Projects built purely on narrative struggled to survive. Capital became more cautious, and in many cases, more serious.

Entering 2026, the market feels leaner and more selective. Bitcoin and Ethereum remain central, not because they promise overnight gains, but because they sit at the core of a system that is gradually being integrated into global finance.

Volatility has not disappeared, but it feels more tied to real catalysts. Flows, macro conditions, regulatory developments. This is no longer a market reacting to every rumor or viral post.

For investors who think in cycles rather than weeks, this is often the phase where foundations quietly form.

 

Institutions Are Acting Like They Are Here to Stay

Institutional involvement is no longer a future narrative. It is an active force shaping how crypto evolves.

ETFs, custody platforms, tokenized funds, and on chain settlement tools are becoming familiar concepts inside traditional finance. What stands out is how little of this activity is happening in public. Much of it is operational, slow, and deliberate.

That shift is noticeable at industry conferences and in private meetings. The energy is different. Fewer grand predictions. More conversations about compliance, liquidity, risk frameworks, and long term deployment. More handshakes, fewer hype decks.

Institutions do not move quickly, but when they start building infrastructure, they tend to stay.

 

Regulation Brings Structure, Not an End

Regulation is still controversial, but the tone has softened. Clearer rules are beginning to replace uncertainty, especially around stablecoins, custody, and reporting.

For many market participants, this clarity is not restrictive. It is enabling. It allows companies to plan, investors to allocate, and builders to focus on execution instead of interpretation.

Crypto does not need to be unregulated to grow. It needs to be understood. 2026 feels like a step in that direction.

 

Stablecoins and Tokenization Quietly Gain Momentum

One of the strongest signals for crypto’s future is how little attention some of its most important developments receive.

Stablecoins are increasingly used for payments and settlement, especially in cross border contexts where traditional systems are slow and expensive. This is not a speculative use case. It is a practical one.

Tokenization is following a similar path. Real world assets like funds, bonds, and private credit are being tested on chain. The goal is efficiency, transparency, and liquidity, not buzz.

These are the kinds of changes that rarely reverse once they gain traction.

 

DeFi and AI Settle Into Useful Roles

DeFi is no longer trying to reinvent finance overnight. It is focusing on doing specific things better. Automation, interoperability, and capital efficiency are the priorities now.

AI, meanwhile, is becoming part of the background. It shows up in analytics, trading strategies, monitoring tools, and security systems. Less hype, more utility.

This maturation may feel less exciting, but it is exactly what long term systems tend to look like before they scale.

 

A Market That Feels Like It Is Setting Up

Crypto in 2026 does not feel like a peak. It feels like a setup.

Builders are still building, even without constant attention. Institutions are committing resources, not just headlines. Regulators are engaging instead of reacting. Investors are meeting in person again, comparing notes, and thinking beyond the next quarter.

The industry feels more grounded, but also more aligned.

 

A Sharper Outlook Beyond 2026

What makes 2026 particularly interesting is not what happens this year, but what it enables next.

If infrastructure continues to solidify, regulation continues to clarify, and real usage keeps expanding, crypto may enter its next growth phase from a position of strength rather than speculation. The next cycle, whenever it arrives, is likely to be driven less by hype and more by inevitability.

Markets tend to move fastest when most people are no longer watching closely. Crypto may be entering that phase now.

It does not need to shout. It just needs to keep working.

 

And if it does, the years beyond 2026 may end up being the ones that finally justify everything that came before.

 

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U.S. FDIC Moves to Define Stablecoin Rules, Bringing Washington Closer to a Real Framework

For years, stablecoins have lived in an uncomfortable gray zone in the U.S. financial system. Big enough to matter, but never quite official enough to be fully welcomed. That may finally be changing.

On December 16, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation took a significant step by proposing the first formal rules for stablecoins under the recently passed GENIUS Act. It is the clearest signal yet that Washington intends to treat certain stablecoins less like an experiment and more like financial infrastructure.

This is not a sweeping overhaul overnight. But it is a meaningful start.

 

What the FDIC Is Actually Proposing

The FDIC’s proposal focuses on process before product. Rather than setting hard capital or reserve requirements immediately, the agency is laying out how banks can apply to issue stablecoins through regulated subsidiaries.

In simple terms, the rule defines how a bank asks permission, what information regulators expect to see, how long the FDIC has to respond, and what happens if an application is rejected.

Under the proposal, banks would submit detailed applications covering governance, risk management, compliance controls, and operational readiness. The FDIC would have set timelines to review submissions, determine whether they are complete, and issue approvals or denials. There is also an appeals process, which is notable in a space where regulatory decisions have often felt opaque.

There is even a temporary safe harbor for early applicants, giving institutions a window to engage before all GENIUS Act requirements fully take effect.

None of this is flashy. That is the point.

 

Why the GENIUS Act Changed the Conversation

The FDIC’s move only makes sense in the context of the GENIUS Act, which passed earlier this year after years of stalled crypto legislation. The law created a new category for payment stablecoins and, crucially, decided who gets to supervise them.

Under the act, stablecoins designed for payments are no longer left floating between agencies. The FDIC is responsible for stablecoin-issuing subsidiaries of insured banks, while other regulators handle different corners of the market.

The law also sets the broad expectations. Stablecoins must be fully backed, redeemable at par, and supported by transparent reserves. They are not treated as securities, and they are not left entirely to state regulators either.

That clarity alone has shifted the leading question from “Is this allowed?” to “How does this work in practice?”

 

A Quiet but Important Shift

What stands out about the FDIC proposal is how procedural it is. This is not Washington hyping innovation or trying to pick winners. It is regulators building guardrails, slowly and deliberately.

That may frustrate parts of the crypto industry that hoped for faster approval paths or broader access for nonbank issuers. But for traditional financial institutions, this kind of rulemaking is familiar. It reduces uncertainty, and uncertainty is often the biggest barrier to participation.

Banks have been hesitant to touch stablecoins directly, not because they lacked interest, but because the regulatory consequences were unclear. This proposal begins to close that gap.

 

What Comes Next

The current proposal is only the first layer. The FDIC and other agencies are expected to follow with rules covering capital, liquidity, reserve composition, and ongoing supervision.

Those details will matter. A lot.

Too strict, and stablecoin issuance could remain concentrated among a small number of players. Too loose, and regulators risk recreating the same fragilities they are trying to prevent.

There is also the question of how these U.S. rules will interact with frameworks emerging in Europe and Asia. Stablecoins move across borders easily. Regulation does not.

 

Why This Matters Beyond Crypto

Stablecoins are no longer just a crypto market issue. They sit at the intersection of payments, banking, and monetary policy.

If regulated correctly, they could make settlement faster, cheaper, and more resilient. If handled poorly, they could introduce new forms of run risk into the financial system.

The FDIC’s proposal suggests regulators understand that tension. This is not an endorsement of stablecoins, but it is an acknowledgment that they are not going away.

After years of debate, enforcement actions, and regulatory silence, the U.S. is finally starting to write the rulebook. Slowly. Carefully. And very much on its own terms.

 

That alone marks a turning point.

 

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JPMorgan Takes Money Markets Onchain With Ethereum Launch

 

JPMorgan Chase is stepping deeper into blockchain finance, this time with a product that looks very familiar to Wall Street.

The bank has launched a tokenized money-market fund on Ethereum, marking one of the clearest signs yet that large financial institutions are moving beyond experiments and into real onchain products designed for investors.

The fund, called My OnChain Net Yield, or MONY, is a private money-market vehicle issued by JPMorgan Asset Management. It is seeded with $100 million of the bank’s own capital and is aimed squarely at institutional clients and high-net-worth investors, not crypto traders chasing volatility.

In simple terms, it is a traditional money-market fund, but the ownership lives on a blockchain.

 

A Familiar Product, Delivered Differently

Money-market funds are among the most conservative products in finance. They invest in short-term, high-quality debt and are used by institutions to park cash, manage liquidity, and earn modest yield.

JPMorgan is not changing that formula. What it is changing is how the fund is issued, held, and transferred.

Instead of relying solely on traditional fund administration systems, MONY issues digital tokens on Ethereum that represent ownership in the fund. Investors can subscribe using cash or stablecoins and receive tokenized shares that can be held in compatible digital wallets.

The pitch is efficiency. Blockchain settlement can be faster, more transparent, and easier to integrate with other digital financial tools. For large investors managing billions in cash, shaving time and operational friction matters.

 

Why Ethereum, Why Now

Ethereum has become the default blockchain for large financial institutions experimenting with tokenization. It offers a mature ecosystem, deep liquidity, and a growing set of standards for issuing real-world assets onchain.

Timing also plays a role. Tokenized funds have gained momentum over the past year as interest rates remain elevated and investors search for safe yield options that can operate alongside digital assets.

Stablecoins now move enormous sums across blockchains, but they typically do not pay interest. Tokenized money-market funds fill that gap, allowing capital to stay onchain while earning yield backed by regulated assets. That combination is proving difficult for institutions to ignore.

JPMorgan has framed the move as a response to client demand rather than a bet on crypto prices. The goal is infrastructure, not speculation.

 

Growing Appetite for Tokenization and Real-World Assets

Behind JPMorgan’s move is a surge in client interest that has been building quietly.

“There is a massive amount of interest from clients around tokenization,” said John Donohue, who leads liquidity at JPMorgan Asset Management. The firm expects to be a leader in the space and to give investors the same range of choices on blockchain that they already have in traditional money-market funds.

That demand is arriving as the regulatory picture in the U.S. begins to look more settled. Policymakers have taken steps this year to clarify how digital asset activity fits within the existing financial system. New rules around dollar-backed stablecoins and clearer signals on oversight of blockchain-based products have reduced some of the uncertainty that previously kept large institutions cautious.

Those changes have encouraged banks and asset managers to move faster on tokenization initiatives across funds, securities, and other real-world assets.

The market reflects that shift. The total value of tokenized real-world assets reached roughly $38 billion in 2025, a record level. Tokenized money-market funds have been particularly attractive to crypto-native investors, offering a way to earn yield without leaving the blockchain or converting assets back into traditional cash accounts.

 

 

A Crowded Field Is Taking Shape

JPMorgan’s launch places it alongside a growing group of large financial firms experimenting with tokenized funds.

BlackRock operates the largest tokenized money-market fund, with assets already measured in the billions. Goldman Sachs and Bank of New York Mellon have also outlined plans to issue digital tokens tied to money-market products from major asset managers. At the same time, crypto exchanges have begun rolling out tokenized stocks and other securities in select markets.

What was once a collection of pilot programs is turning into a competitive landscape.

 

The Quiet Bet Behind the Headlines

There is a longer-term bet embedded in JPMorgan’s move. If financial assets increasingly live onchain, money-market funds could become core building blocks of a new financial stack.

Tokenized cash can be used as collateral, settle instantly, and plug into automated systems that move value without waiting for bank cut-off times or settlement windows.

That future is still taking shape, and it will not arrive overnight. But moves like this bring it closer, one conservative product at a time.

For JPMorgan, MONY is not a moonshot. It is something more deliberate. Take a product Wall Street already trusts, put it on new rails, and see where efficiency leads.

 

That approach may end up being the most convincing case yet for blockchain finance inside traditional markets.

 

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Cardano Is Quietly Doing the Right Things, and That Matters More Than Hype

 

Cardano rarely gets the same loud attention as some other chains, and honestly, that might be part of the point. While much of the market jumps from trend to trend, Cardano keeps moving in a slower, more deliberate direction. Lately, that approach is starting to pay off in ways that actually matter.

Two recent developments stand out. One is institutional exposure through a major crypto ETF. The other is a meaningful upgrade to Cardano’s DeFi infrastructure through better oracle data. Neither is flashy, but both are important, especially if you care about where this ecosystem is headed over the next few years, not the next few days.

 

ETF Inclusion Is Not About Hype, It’s About Legitimacy

 

Cardano being included in the Bitwise 10 Crypto Index ETF is easy to brush off if you are only watching price charts. It is not a spot ETF for ADA, and it is not going to send the token flying overnight. But that misses the bigger picture.

This ETF trades on a major U.S. exchange and gives traditional investors exposure to a basket of top crypto assets. Cardano is in that basket. That alone says something. It means ADA is viewed as part of the core crypto market, not a fringe experiment or a temporary narrative.

For a lot of capital out there, this kind of access is the only acceptable way in. Pension funds, advisors, retirement accounts, and conservative investors are not setting up wallets or using decentralized exchanges. They buy ETFs. And now, whether people realize it or not, some of that capital has exposure to Cardano.

It does not flip a switch overnight, but it changes the conversation. Cardano moves from being “one of many altcoins” to being a recognized piece of the broader digital asset landscape.

 

Better Oracles Are the Kind of Upgrade That Actually Matters

 

The Pyth Network integration might not get mainstream headlines, but from a technical and ecosystem perspective, this is a big deal.

DeFi lives or dies on data. If price feeds are slow, inaccurate, or unreliable, everything built on top of them suffers. Pyth is designed to solve that problem by delivering real time market data directly from professional trading firms. That is the kind of infrastructure serious financial applications need.

By approving this integration, Cardano is making it easier for developers to build more advanced DeFi products without worrying about shaky inputs. That lowers risk, improves execution, and makes the chain more attractive to teams who want to build things that actually work at scale.

This is the kind of progress that does not pump a token overnight, but it quietly raises the ceiling for what the network can support.

 

Cardano’s Strategy Is Methodical, and That’s the Point

Cardano has always frustrated people who want instant results. Development takes longer. Decisions move through governance. Features roll out carefully. That pace can feel painful in a market driven by speed and speculation.

But there is another way to look at it. Cardano is building like it expects to still be around years from now.

Institutional access through ETFs and stronger DeFi infrastructure through better oracles are not short term plays. They are foundational moves. They make the ecosystem more resilient, more credible, and more usable.

 

That does not mean ADA price will go straight up. Nothing in crypto works that way. But it does mean Cardano is improving its position while others chase the next narrative.

 

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Crypto CEOs Join CFTC’s Innovation Council as Market Structure Overhaul Picks Up Speed

Caroline Pham is heading into her final stretch as acting chair of the CFTC, but she is not easing her way out. Instead, she has pulled together a new CEO Innovation Council, bringing in a mix of crypto founders and leaders from major financial institutions. The timing feels intentional. Markets are shifting fast, the technology is shifting even faster, and she clearly wanted this group in place before she hands off the job.

The council itself is an unusual gathering. On one side are Tyler Winklevoss from Gemini, Arjun Sethi from Kraken and Shayne Coplan from Polymarket. On the other, executives from CME Group, Nasdaq, ICE and Cboe. It is not often you see these people sitting on the same advisory panel, let alone one created this quickly. According to the commission, the entire list came together in about two weeks, which says a lot about how much urgency Pham applied.

She thanked the group for agreeing to join so quickly, noting that the commission needs their experience as it tries to prepare for what comes next. The council will focus on the areas where the rulebook is changing as fast as the products themselves. Tokenization. Prediction markets. Perpetual contracts. Crypto collateral. Around the clock trading. Blockchain market plumbing. Basically all the things that traditional derivatives systems were never built to handle.

 

Here is the full list of names:

Shayne Coplan, Polymarket
Craig Donohue, Cboe
Terry Duffy, CME Group
Tom Farley, Bullish
Adena Friedman, Nasdaq
Luke Hoersten, Bitnomial
Tarek Mansour, Kalshi
Kris Marszalek, Crypto.com
David Schwimmer, LSEG
Arjun Sethi, Kraken
Jeff Sprecher, Intercontinental Exchange
Tyler Winklevoss, Gemini

 

All of this is happening as the agency prepares for new leadership. President Trump’s nominee, Mike Selig, is expected to be confirmed soon. When he steps in, he will inherit an agency already deep into crypto policy work that accelerated under Pham. Just this week, the CFTC launched a pilot for using crypto collateral inside derivatives markets. A few days before that, Bitnomial began offering leverage spot crypto trading with her support.

Pham has only been in the acting role for a short time, but she treated crypto as a top priority, pushing several initiatives that line up with the administration’s goal of positioning the United States as a leading hub for digital assets. Over at the SEC, Chairman Paul Atkins has been doing something similar through Project Crypto, which has been absorbing much of the agency’s energy.

 

What comes next will land in Selig’s lap. But with this council now in place, he will walk into a job where the industry and the regulators are already in the middle of a much bigger conversation about what the future of market structure should look like.

Why Bitwise Is Thinking Bigger About Crypto, and Why the Timing Matters

The crypto industry is moving into a new phase, and Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan believes the shift is much larger than the market realizes. His view is that the combination of regulatory changes, institutional interest, and the rise of on chain financial infrastructure is creating an environment that could redefine how global markets function.

What is striking is not just his optimism, but the level of detail behind it. Hougan is not talking about the next bull run or a temporary upswing. He is talking about a structural change that could reshape how assets move and how financial services are delivered.

 

A Regulatory Turn That Few Saw Coming

For years, regulation has been the main obstacle standing between crypto and traditional finance. That has started to change in a very real way. In a recent address, Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins presented a plan known informally as Project Crypto. Instead of focusing primarily on enforcement, the initiative outlines a path for integrating traditional markets with public blockchains.

Hougan called this the most optimistic regulatory stance he has ever seen and said it forced him to revise not just the scale of crypto’s potential, but the timeline as well. His point is straightforward. The market has not fully absorbed what a cooperative regulatory regime could unlock. Investors have priced in caution for so long that they have not adjusted to the possibility of acceleration.

 

Three Areas Where the Biggest Winners May Emerge

Hougan identifies three categories where he sees the strongest potential.

1. Layer 1 blockchains and core crypto networks.
If financial activity continues to move on chain, the blockchains that support settlement, tokenization, stablecoins, and decentralized financial rails could see massive growth. Hougan mentions networks like Ethereum, Solana, Cardano, Avalanche, Aptos, Sui, NEAR and others. His view is that the right approach is not to pick a single winner, but to build a diversified basket of networks that are gaining real world usage.

2. Decentralized finance protocols.
With clearer regulatory treatment, DeFi could move from a niche set of applications to the backbone of a new financial system. Protocols that automate trading, lending, borrowing, derivatives, and stablecoin issuance could scale far beyond their current user base. Hougan believes that once regulatory friction drops, institutional participation could flow in rapidly.

3. Financial super apps.
This is one of the most ambitious parts of the projection. Hougan believes new platforms will combine traditional finance and crypto into a single interface. Instead of having brokerage accounts in one place, bank accounts in another, and crypto apps somewhere else, users could interact with all financial assets through one unified system. He thinks a company in this category could become the largest financial services firm in the world, potentially passing a one trillion dollar valuation.

 

Why a Ten to Twenty Times Expansion Does Not Sound Unrealistic

Hougan has consistently argued that crypto could deliver ten to twenty times growth over the next decade. His reasoning is not based on hype. It is based on the idea that crypto is entering a period where cycles driven by halving events or speculative trading matter less than structural factors. He believes the “four year cycle” narrative has lost relevance. What now matters is the maturation of the asset class and the integration of crypto with global finance.

In his view, the size of the market today reflects years of hesitation driven by legal uncertainty. Once that uncertainty lifts, capital could move faster than analysts expect. Institutions that have been watching from the sidelines may feel more comfortable allocating real budget to crypto infrastructure, tokens, or tokenized assets.

 

What Could Go Right, and What Could Still Undermine This Vision

There is no guarantee that the optimistic scenario plays out. Hougan acknowledges both sides.

What could go right:

• Regulatory clarity could remove the largest barrier to institutional adoption.

• Layer 1 networks with real usage could become the settlement layers of a digital financial system.

• Super apps could reduce friction for everyday users, pulling millions more into on chain ecosystems.

• The industry could attract capital at a scale closer to major traditional asset classes.

What could go wrong:

• Regulatory implementation may move slower than expected, or shift again under new political leadership.

• Some networks or protocols may fail to scale, or may lose out to competitors.

• Macroeconomic conditions could suppress risk assets even if fundamentals improve.

• Volatility could remain a psychological barrier for mainstream investors.

 

What This Means for Investors, Builders, and Policymakers

If Hougan is right, the industry is not just entering a new market cycle. It is entering the early stages of a long transformation in how financial markets operate. Investors who once tried to time cycles may need to rethink their approach and focus more on diversified exposure to infrastructure. Builders may find themselves working in an environment that is more supportive than anything they have experienced so far. Policymakers may influence the shape of global finance for decades based on decisions they make in the next few years.

 

It is possible that crypto still has years of volatility ahead. It is also possible that the industry is standing on the edge of the most meaningful phase of its development. Hougan’s message is that the market may be thinking too small. He believes the shift underway is not incremental. It is transformative.

 

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