The Future of Finance is Onchain

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Introduction

Welcome to the Tokenized newsletter, brought to you by the creators of the Tokenized Podcast; Simon Taylor of Fintech Brainfood and Pet Berisha of Sporting Crypto, written by Jeremy Batchelder.

We are the newsletter for institutions that need help preparing for a Tokenized future.

We run through the headlines every week, what it means for you and a market readout. Always with an institutional, business-focused perspective. 

Join us every week as we meet your Tokenization needs.

Things to Know 👀 

💰 FDIC rescinds crypto notification requirements, allowing banks to engage in digital asset activities

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has reversed its previous stance on cryptocurrency, eliminating requirements for banks to notify the agency before engaging in crypto-related activities. The FDIC's new guidance clarifies that supervised institutions can engage in "permissible crypto-related activities" without prior agency approval.

The Tokenized Take:

• This change follows the guidance from the OCC earlier this month that removed restrictions on banks interacting with digital assets.

• There’s now just one major barrier left to banks getting into stablecoin settlement and Tokenization more broadly. Regulation.

• For every institution announcing a stablecoin project, there are another 100 writing their strategy.

• (And you should have them check out the Tokenized Pod to stay up to date)

🌐 STABLE Act of 2025 released

The House Financial Services Committee released the full draft text of the Stablecoin Transparency and Accountability for a Better Ledger Economy Act of 2025, establishing a regulatory framework for the payment of stablecoins. This is a notable competitor to the “GENIUS” bill which has been circulating. Here’s what you need to know about the STABLE Act.

Key Points:

• Only permitted payment stablecoin issuers can legally issue stablecoins - banks, credit unions, and approved nonbank entities.

• Issuers must maintain 1:1 reserves in highly liquid assets like cash, Treasury bills (<93 days), or money market funds.

• Stablecoins must be fully collateralized and interest/yield payments to holders are prohibited.

• A two-year moratorium on new algorithmically backed stablecoins

• States can certify their own regulatory regimes if they meet or exceed federal standards.

The Tokenized Take:

• The prohibition of yield-bearing stablecoins will have dramatic impacts on the future of stablecoins as many new issuers were looking to incorporate yield generation for stablecoin holders.

• Some legislators claim that enabling yield-bearing stablecoins would increase competition with bank deposits due to the reduced credit risk of treasury-backed stablecoins.

• If this legislation is enacted, we expect alternative "rewards" programs that incorporate cash-back features to proliferate as workarounds to this legislation.

🏦 ICE and Circle announce partnership to explore USDC integration across financial markets

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Circle to explore using USDC stablecoin and US Yield Coin (USYC) in new products and solutions. ICE plans to explore applications for Circle's stablecoins within its derivatives exchanges, clearinghouses, data services, and other markets.

The Tokenized Take:

• One of the world's largest exchange operators exploring digital currency integration. If they see it through, that makes the Tokenization of everything inevitable.

• It’s only an MOU at this stage, but given the institutional adoption, things could move quickly.

• The integration of USYC and USDC enables onchain assets to be used or converted into cash for margin. This makes collateral mobile for more derivatives trading, showing the real power of moving finance onchain.

📰 Some More News:

🏦 Tokenization, Stablecoins & Finance

• Blackrock expand BUIDL to Solana (Read more here)
  Circle hires banks for long-awaited IPO, expected to publicly file late April (Read more here)

• Trump backed World Liberty to launch USD1 stablecoin (Read more here)

• Ubyx to launch stablecoin offramp network via banks (Read more here)

• Mesh Launches Crypto Payments App on Shopify (Read more here)

• Circle to launch USDC in Japan (Read more here)

• Crypto Exchange Bitso Launches Stablecoin Business (Read more here)

• Robinhood announce Banking (Read more here)

🤑 Funding

• Chronicle raises $12M from Strobe, Brevan Howard (Read more here)

• French state bank Bpifrance plans €25 million crypto fund to invest directly in digital assets, and support French companies (Read more here)

• Sei Foundation explores 23andMe takeover (Read more here)

💼 Government & Policy

• Brazil Bars Major Pension Funds From Investing in Cryptocurrencies (Read more here)

• SEC Formally dismiss enforcement against Kraken, Consensys and Cumberland DRW (Read more here)

• NYAG & Galaxy Digital settle for $200m (Read more here)

Stablecorner ⚖️ → Wymoming & Fidelity Announce Stablecoins

In the last week, both Wyoming and Fidelity have announced plans to launch their own stablecoins. 

The Wyoming stablecoin, launched by Custodia Bank and Vantage Bank, is the first-ever stablecoin issued by a regulated bank. What makes it truly unique is that it's issued directly by a regulated bank that has the legal authority to create actual dollar deposits, unlike other stablecoins that are technically "synthetic dollars" backed by reserves.

Meanwhile, Fidelity Investments has revealed it is testing a US dollar-pegged stablecoin through its digital assets division, though there are no immediate plans for public release. This initiative aligns with Fidelity's recent filing to launch a tokenized Treasury fund, potentially using the stablecoin for settling Treasury-related transactions. 

In this week's podcast with guests Nabil Manji from Worldpay and Chris Harmse from BVNK, a key point about stablecoin issuance is discussed. 

“Issuing your own stablecoin doesn't really make sense unless you have a unique use case or source of distribution for it. “

As the hosts mention, there is already an alphabet soup of stablecoins issued by a variety of different issuers. This is reminiscent of the Wildcat Banking Era of the 19th century when banks would issue their own dollars, leading to interoperability issues because not all dollars were the same due to the credit risks of the issuing bank.

Legislation from the US around stablecoins will help drive standardization and unification of issued stablecoins, leading to a better user experience across the board. 

Ultimately, issuing a stablecoin doesn't help a business much unless they have a unique source of distribution to roll it out to, thereby being able to earn yield, increase the amount of deposits on their platform, or add some other value.

Simon’s Market Readout 💬 

Tweet of the Week 🐤 

From Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino 

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