TradFi & Fintech

Mark Zuckerberg has directed a small Meta team to build a standalone prediction-market app called Arena, according to the New York Times. The move puts the world's largest social network on a direct collision course with crypto-native platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi.

SoFiUSD, the first stablecoin issued by a US national bank, crossed $150 million in circulating supply on Tuesday as Bullish became the first centralized exchange to list the token.

Scottish asset manager Baillie Gifford has launched BAGEY, the first publicly available, fully native UK-regulated tokenized bond fund, with BNY providing custody and wallet infrastructure across Solana and Ethereum.

Intercontinental Exchange and OKX will build a U.S. broker-dealer to route OKX's customers into NYSE tokenized equities and ICE futures, pending regulatory approval.

The $1.78 trillion asset manager stands up a dedicated institutional crypto unit, extending a platform that already includes the BENJI tokenized money-market fund and a proposed pair of dividend-into-bitcoin ETFs.

Morgan Stanley's amended S-1 filings for its spot Solana and spot Ethereum trusts name BNY Mellon and Coinbase Custody as joint custodians, set a 0.14% sponsor fee, and reserve the tickers MSOL and MSSE on NYSE Arca. Both products include staking provisions.

Former New York governor Andrew Cuomo will co-chair a joint venture between OKX and NYSE owner Intercontinental Exchange with ICE futures-exchanges chief Trabue Bland. Cuomo has advised OKX on policy since 2022, spanning the exchange's $504 million DOJ settlement. The venture is the consumer-facing wedge of ICE's $25 billion strategic tie-up with OKX.

Coinbase announced plans for what it calls the first tokenized U.S. stocks backed 1:1 by actual shares, with automatic on-chain dividend distribution. The exchange described the product as 'no derivatives, no IOUs,' a direct contrast to the synthetic equity structures currently dominating on-chain equity trading.

BlackRock listed the iShares Bitcoin Premium Income ETF (BITA) on Nasdaq, overlaying a covered-call strategy on IBIT to generate monthly income while capping upside participation.

Binance has activated its tokenized-equity layer, converting live stock positions on its brokerage platform into BNB Chain tokens tradable around the clock. The first five bStocks include Nvidia, Tesla, Circle, Micron, and Sandisk.