BlackRock Inc. signaled its growing ambition to bring digital technology to mainstream institutional finance, filing to launch a new share class of its $150 billion money market fund that is registered on a blockchain. The world’s largest asset manager submitted paperwork to the US Securities and Exchange Commission this week to create a blockchain-based share class — labeled DLT, an acronym for distributed ledger technology — for its BlackRock’s BLF Treasury Trust Fund, a cornerstone of cash management. DLT will seek to utilize blockchain technology to record share ownership or streamline certain fund operations for the money market fund, which invests in high-quality, short-term US Treasury securities. Bank of New York Mellon Corp. will manage the sale of these shares as an intermediary, for a minimum of $3 million. BNY, one of the world’s largest custodians of traditional assets, will play a role in representing the ownership of the shares through the technology, a process known as tokenization. These will simply mirror the fund ownership and will be nonbinding. Bryan Armour, director of passive strategies research at Morningstar said, “This is a step toward incorporating blockchain technology in investments, but it’s not a new strategy or a fully tokenized offering.”
Webull Pay to use Coinbase’s institutional grade Crypto-as-a-Service platform to offer users staking capabilities, stablecoin rewards, custody, trading execution and access to USDC
Webull Pay partnered with Coinbase in a deal that enables Webull Pay’s crypto services to run on Coinbase’s institutional-grade infrastructure. The agreement aims to offer staking, stablecoin rewards, and more trading options starting next month. Coinbase will provide its Crypto-as-a-Service (CaaS) platform to support Webull Pay’s crypto operations. The agreement also covers trading execution, custody, staking capabilities, and access to USDC, Coinbase’s dollar-backed stablecoin. For Webull Pay, the move delivers a critical backend upgrade using infrastructure already used by major financial institutions. The companies now aim to offer a secure, seamless user experience, which is expected to allow Webull Pay to scale with the evolving crypto market. The platform expects the new offering to enable users to gain access to deep liquidity, tight spreads, and the potential for yield through staking and USDC rewards. Beyond the domestic rollout, Coinbase and Webull Pay are also exploring joint efforts to extend their services globally. That would bring Webull Pay-branded crypto offerings to new markets, riding on Coinbase’s existing global infrastructure and compliance frameworks. The deal reportedly includes access to Coinbase’s USDC rewards program. Users who hold USDC through Webull Pay will automatically be enrolled in the loyalty scheme unless they opt out.
DMind.ai’s open-source Web3-native expert AI model excels at complex crypto topics such as DeFi protocols, tokenomics and smart contracts, and outperforms general-purpose at just 10-30% of their token cost
DMind.ai is an open-source AGI research lab aiming to create a robust, transparent AI infrastructure for digital finance, starting with Web3, which includes cryptocurrency, DeFi, and real-world asset tokenization. The goal is to create open AI models, benchmarks, and datasets rooted in deep, expert-curated knowledge, supported by a global open-source community. The goal is to empower developers, builders, and researchers across the digital financial ecosystem by sharing tools and research. DMind-1. Fully open-source and built on the robust Qwen3-32B model, DMind-1 is fine-tuned specifically for the nuanced world of Web3: Expert-Level Understanding: DMind-1 excels at complex crypto topics such as DeFi protocols, tokenomics, smart contracts, and strategic investment planning. Enhanced Accuracy and Reasoning: It demonstrates significant improvements in Web3 task accuracy, expert-level reasoning, and provides reliable, precise interactions. Cost-Effective Excellence: Impressively, DMind-1 outperforms larger, general-purpose, general-purpose models on Web3-specific tasks—all at just 10-30% of their token cost. DMind.ai also launched the “DMind Web3 Benchmark,” the first comprehensive evaluation standard designed exclusively for Web3-specific reasoning and domain expertise. The benchmark quickly made waves, skyrocketing to the #1 spot on Huggingface’s dataset rankings shortly after release. This open-source evaluation suite contains thousands of expert-reviewed questions spanning nine core areas – from blockchain fundamentals and infrastructure to DeFi, NFTs, DAOs, token economics, security, and more. The benchmark provides precise domain-level scoring, empowering precise model comparisons and fostering deeper community insights.
Card issuance platform Highnote partners BVNK to enable customers around the world make stablecoin-based funding for US-based card programmes in real-time and 24/7 basis
Card issuance and embedded finance platform Highnote has enlisted BVNK to launch real-time 24/7 stablecoin-based funding for card programmes. The partnership means that Highnote subscribers around the world can fund US-based programme accounts instantly in USD, without being constrained by standard banking hours. This, says the firm, streamlines a critical operational step for global fintechs and enterprises that need to move fast, letting them transfer programme funds using stablecoins, automatically converted to dollars, and deposited in sponsor bank accounts in real-time. “Our subscribers are building real-time financial products for a global user base, and until now, they have had to operate within the limits of U.S. banking hours,” says John Macilwaine, CEO, Highnote. “This new capability eliminates that barrier, giving them true around the clock control over how and when to move money.”
Tether aims to launch stablecoin in US within a year; significant as Tether tokens represent 70% of the stablecoin market, and is currently dominant on offshore exchanges, emerging markets and decentralized finance protocols
Tether is preparing to launch a U.S.-based stablecoin as soon as this year, as its CEO ramps up his presence in Washington to shape crypto regulation. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino revealed that the company is working on plans to issue a new dollar-pegged stablecoin in the U.S. as soon as this year. The move comes as Tether, once accused of being a criminal’s ‘go-to cryptocurrency’ – rebrands itself as a partner to American lawmakers and law enforcement. “A domestic stablecoin would be different from the international stable coin,” Ardoino told. “It depends on the timeline of the final legislation… but we are looking at that by the end of the year, or early next year at the fastest,” he said. Tether, whose tokens represent 70% of the stablecoin market, is currently dominant on offshore exchanges, emerging markets and decentralized finance protocols, where fiat banking access is constrained or unreliable.
EY launches blockchain complex contract manager featuring public chain deployment, zero-knowledge proofs, and automated compliance checks
Ernst & Young (EY) has launched the EY OpsChain Contract Manager (OCM), a blockchain tool designed to simplify complex business agreements. The OCM, which is operational on the Polygon proof-of-stake blockchain, uses zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP) to ensure contract confidentiality without compromising efficiency. This feature allows parties to verify information accuracy without revealing sensitive details, safeguarding critical contract terms and transaction specifics. The OCM can automatically validate contract terms through real-time checks, ensuring policy adherence and promptly notifying users of discrepancies. This development is part of EY’s ongoing commitment to blockchain technology, which it has previously introduced to enhance transparency and accountability in government operations. EY has also collaborated with industry leaders like ConsenSys and Microsoft to develop the Baseline protocol, a suite of blockchain tools for enterprises. The integration of Polygon with EY’s blockchain services further solidifies its position in the blockchain ecosystem.
Endless’s on-chain AI platform combines Stability’s image generation tech that lets users transform simple sketches into high-quality, stylistically consistent images for building Web3 apps
Endless Web3 Genesis Cloud aims to accelerate the adoption of decentralized artificial intelligence (AI) by integrating Stability AI’s image generation capabilities with its robust Web3 infrastructure. Supported by academic resources from the University of Surrey, Endless bridges Web2 and Web3 ecosystems, offering a one-stop platform for building Web3 applications with a Web2-level user experience. Its modular framework enables efficient AI application development, facilitating the rise of hyper-intelligent AI agent systems. Endless’s custom Sketch-to-Image workflow enhances its product offering. Utilizing Stability AI’s technology will initially target high-demand, pain-point-intensive use cases, showcasing the enhanced user experiences enabled by technical synergies. Key applications include: Streamlined Content Creation: By integrating Stability AI’s “sketch-to-image” functionality with Endless’ on-chain AI infrastructure, users can transform simple sketches into high-quality, stylistically consistent images. This lowers the creative barrier, encouraging broader participation while boosting efficiency for professional creators through AI-driven style learning and automated complex draft generation. On-Chain Assetization and Trading: Creators can leverage Stability AI’s AI-generated content (AIGC) tools to produce works efficiently, then use Endless’ to mint these creations as on-chain assets, such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), ensuring verifiable ownership and seamless trading. Endless’ community-driven token incentives further motivate creators to contribute high-value content to the platform.
IBM offers unified security and governance risk solution for agentic AI use cases that validates compliance standards against 12 different frameworks and includes automated red teaming to help enterprises detect and fix vulnerabilities and misconfigurations
IBM is announcing the industry’s first software to bring AI security and AI governance teams together and provide a unified view of enterprises’ risk posture. The new capabilities enhance and integrate watsonx.governance and Guardium AI Security to help clients keep their AI systems, including agents, secured and responsible at scale. Watsonx.governance is IBM’s end-to-end AI governance tool and Guardium AI Security is IBM’s tool for securing AI models, data, and usage. IBM is enhancing the integration of IBM Guardium AI Security and watsonx.governance, providing enterprises with the first unified solution to manage security and governance risks associated with AI use cases. The integration supports users’ processes to validate compliance standards against 12 different frameworks. IBM is also introducing new capabilities to Guardium AI Security through a collaboration with AllTrue.ai, including the ability to detect new AI use cases in cloud environments, code repositories, and embedded systems –providing broad visibility and protection in an increasingly decentralized AI ecosystem. Once identified, IBM Guardium AI Security can automatically trigger appropriate governance workflows from watsonx.governance. IBM watsonx.governance can now monitor and manage AI agents across their entire lifecycle, from development to deployment. Evaluation nodes can be built directly into agents, allowing users to carefully monitor metrics like answer relevance, context relevance, and faithfulness – and help identify the root cause of poor performance. IBM watsonx.governance Compliance Accelerators provide select pre-loaded regulations, standards, and frameworks from around the globe, enabling users to identify relevant obligations and map them onto their own AI use cases. IBM Consulting Cybersecurity Services is introducing a new set of services that brings together data security platforms, like IBM Guardium AI Security, with deep AI technology and domain consulting.
Specialized blockchains are shaping the future of DeFi attracting robust ecosystems and offering developers more freedom to innovate in areas like algorithmic credit scoring, IP rights management, and tokenized commodities
Specialized blockchains like Berachain, Story (IPfi), Unichain, Monad, and MegaETH are leading a wave of specialized blockchain launches designed to serve diverse decentralized finance applications. These chains challenge the notion that a handful of general-purpose networks can support all use cases and declare that the future is not one monolithic chain to rule them all. Financial institutions are entering DeFi with expectations shaped by decades of traditional finance, and the demand is clear: performance-optimized platforms catering to high-speed trading, tokenized intellectual property, and sophisticated real-world asset markets. Critics warn that a highly fragmented landscape could dilute liquidity and create inefficiencies, making it harder for assets to flow seamlessly across different platforms. However, emerging data from beta deployments indicates that specialized networks can attract robust ecosystems, offering developers more freedom to innovate in areas like algorithmic credit scoring, IP rights management, and tokenized commodities. Experiments in liquid staking, real-world asset tokenization, and hybrid on-chain/off-chain data verification further validate the need for these chains as key infrastructure layers for the next wave of institutional DeFi. The long-term viability of this multi-chain paradigm will depend on whether interoperability frameworks can facilitate frictionless asset movement and whether institutions gain confidence in the governance and security of specialized chains. The future of blockchains is not monolithic; it’s modular, specialized, and taking off. As the market evolves, it’s crucial to develop seamless user interfaces and robust interoperability mechanisms that abstract away technical friction.
Robinhood proposes RWA tokenization framework and exchange for traditional assets, integrating offchain trade matching with onchain settlement and featuring hybrid blockchain architecture, instant settlement, and comprehensive compliance standards
Robinhood has submitted a proposal to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a federal framework for tokenized real-world assets. The proposal introduces the Real World Asset Exchange (RRE), a blockchain-based trading platform that modernizes securities infrastructure by integrating offchain trade matching with onchain settlement. The proposal aims to simplify compliance for broker-dealers and asset managers across the US and reduce regulatory uncertainty. The RRE will treat tokenized assets as direct representations of their traditional counterparts, allowing regulated brokers to manage these assets within existing compliance systems. The platform will support 24/7 trading of tokenized assets under established regulatory protections, with offchain trade matching for speed and onchain settlement for finality and auditability. The proposal could redefine the U.S. tokenization landscape and pave the way for other financial institutions to enter the market confidently.