🇺🇸 U.S. Bank’s New Digital Asset Unit, S&P Stability Assessments, SoloTex Joins Stocks Race, and More

Summary and Key Takeaways

1. BlackRock’s Larry Fink Teases Tokenized ETFs and Tokenization Engine

In case you missed it, the world’s largest asset manager has spoken (again)! From just talking about tokenization in 2022 on CNBC to actually tokenizing a money market fund in 2024 on Securitize (BUIDL), historically speaking, whenever Larry Fink says or does anything tokenization-related, the industry listens and is reactivated for another push forward. So what’s going on now? Two things coming together. 1) Their top crypto ETF $IBIT crossed $100B in AUM and 2) Larry Fink talks on BlackRock’s larger tokenization role.

Speaking once again on CNBC, Larry brings these two developments together, talking about the value proposition in tokenizing ETFs and bringing in crypto investors to more traditional products. It makes sense he and other asset managers want to tap crypto-native, younger investors as a new channel of inflows and creating onchain strategies to meet them in the digital ecosystem is the answer. How do you do that effectively? Through what Larry is calling the “re-potting” of traditional assets (bringing assets natively onchain) over time. Beyond MMFs, he’s thinking about all asset classes. The more assets come onchain the easier it is to create new strategies, rebalance portfolios, and conduct fund administration across the board. On that note, he shared their commitment to building their own tokenization tech - no surprise he’s bringing it in-house to control it all just like when BlackRock bought iShares in 2009 for their ETF business. We’d say that one paid off and tokenization will do so even more over the decades to come. Jason will be bringing all of this up and diving deeper on a panel he’s moderating at DigiAssets 2025 tomorrow around ETFs; featuring Matt Kunke, Lead Digital Assets Strategist at BlackRock.

2. S&P’s Stablecoin Stability Assessments are Coming Onchain

Another week, another S&P update because they’re on a roll. Last week we covered them for their new S&P Digital Markets 50 index with Dinari. Well they’re back with yet another partnership and this time it’s with Chainlink to put their Stablecoin Stability Assessments (SSAs) on multiple blockchains. Starting on Base, rather than full credit ratings, these assessments focus on giving a 1-5 score based on the stablecoin’s ability to keep its peg. Why does this matter? Onchain finance is all about programmability and automation thanks to smart contracts. There are a bunch of stablecoins out there and more to come. Say a DeFi lending protocol needs to decide which stablecoins to accept based on risk parameters, one of those could be S&P’s score and Chainlink’s DataLink will make it easier for smart contracts to read that. Remember the Terra Luna crash? Had someone tried depositing that algorithmic stablecoin into a lending protocol, it likely would’ve had a 4 or 5 score from S&P, reflecting its risk for depegging, and been rejected. These SSAs have been around since 2023, with some recent and notable stables they’ve rated including Circle’s USDC and EURC both at 2 (strong), SocGen’s EUR CoinVertible at 3 (adequete), and Ethena’s USDe at 5 (weak).

3. U.S. Bank Announces New Business Unit

U.S. Bank, the nation’s 5th largest bank, has been involved in the web3 space in terms of offering crypto custody services through a subcustodian, serving as Lynq Network’s cash custodian, and has participated in pilots and POCs like one with FIX protocol. However, last week’s news cemented their commitment to onchain innovation and that’s through their brand new Digital Assets and Money Movement organization. Led by USB 20-year veteran Jamie Walker, based on the press release it seems a large focus will be in how blockchain transforms payments alongside opportunities with tokenized assets. This is in line with another announcement from two weeks ago, where Anchorage selected U.S. Bank to custody the reserves backing Anchorage-issued payment stablecoins. Given USB serves a variety of clients from retail and SMEs to large corporations and government entities, one can imagine why money movement is so important, especially with the cross-border, FX advantages that instantaneous settlement can offer via stables. 

The goal for the new business unit is, of course, to innovate while generating revenue. What better way to do that than to enhance services for existing clients and even tap into new ones? Custody and stablecoins are just the beginning, with tokenized assets and onchain payments really enabling them to offer onchain financial services. From individual or SME loans to fund admin to corporate treasury management and beyond, it’ll all be faster and cheaper by bringing it onchain and clearly USB is about to start cranking out new use cases with their new Digital Assets and Money Movement business unit. POCs and pilots are over, they’re about to do this for real. Now the question is, of all possibilities, what will be the new team’s first product/service?

4. Tokenized Stocks are Coming to U.S. Retail Investors en Masse via SoloTex

Last week we covered Ondo’s acquisition of Oasis Pro coming to completion and how tokenized stocks have been a big theme this year along with some scrutiny around different structures. Herwig often points out the lack of onchain access for U.S. retail investors (at scale, not one at a time like Securitize and Superstate). The race for extending onchain access to American retail is something either Oasis Pro will power, Dinari could come to market with thanks to their broker-dealer approval earlier this year, or a new entrant to the race takes over. That entrant is SoloTex.

A partnership between Sologenic and Texture Capital, SoloTex was just approved by FINRA to offer U.S. investors access to tokenized stocks. To ensure that each token represents an actual share with voting rights, dividends, and all, the token is minted only after the platform’s clearing broker has the share in custody. Set to launch later this year, this could be the start for American investors to also reap the onchain benefits for stocks. Sologenic also has a DEX, positioning itself well to then add additional utility to these tokens. Who will ultimately get to market first? We’ll have to wait and see.

5. DigiFT is On a Roll: CMB International, UBS, Bybit

Shifting our attention to the other side of the world, DigiFT has been on a roll with notable issuers like UBS, Invesco, and most recently China Merchants Bank (CMB) International. CMBI is working with DigiFT to bring their $3.8B USD-denominated money market fund to onchain investors, specifically BNB Chain. According to BNB Chain’s article, the CMBMINT and CMBIMINT tokens (assuming one is Hong Kong and the other is Singapore) will be supported by DeFi applications like Venus and ListaDAO for added utility. Speaking of which, DigiFT also has an update on their distribution of UBS’s money market fund token and that is that uMINT will now be accepted as collateral for holders on Bybit, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges. Balancing compliance with innovation is something all institutions have to deal with to take advantage of DeFi, however it’s partnerships like these that will help mediate the transition. Eventually it won’t be TradFi vs. DeFi, it’ll just be finance.

This is not financial advice.

RWA Foundation & WALLY DAO Updates

The RWA Foundation introduced the RWA Pod as “A permissionless way for anyone to support RWAs using crypto with multiple RWA project tokens as yield.”

In partnership with PERQ, the RWA Pod allows you to deposit ETH, USDC, ARB, and S/ Sonic. Participants will receive tokens on multiple blockchain protocols related to RWA projects that the RWA Foundation has qualified and selected as Founding Members.

What’s the update this week? What’s the RWA Pod TVL? Hear directly from your RWA Pod Host Ray Buckton! 👇

Interested in watching the interviews with Rex from DRVN Will from Jade City? They’re now available on X and on YouTube, go ahead and check them out 👇!

STM.co Data

This is not financial advice.

Think Like Herwig

Hello readers,

Each week the heat for tokenization seems to add a few degrees. Larry Fink is once again on the PR path, telling Wall Street it’s ALL coming onchain and even hinting at their own tokenization engine. Meanwhile US Bank has a whole new digital asset division. Tokenized equities are “fully out-of-the genie’s bottle” and will get the same attention from regulators, media, and Wall Street incumbents next year as stablecoins did this year. Good for America seems to be the magic line and for the first time ever the SEC is actually encouraging folks to take meetings that aren’t just witch hunts designed to learn how the SEC can go after you. Put another way, if Coinbase Earn had launched with this current administration’s approach to crypto, it might have made Coinbase one of the biggest pseudo banks in the world today instead of being killed off in 2023. 

With the race for tokenization fully underway, I couldn’t be more excited about 2026. Basically every prediction I ever made on 300 episodes over the 6 years of the Security Token Show is coming true or will. No one pays attention to me like Larry Fink but you can almost certainly uncover some gold and insight about what else is coming if you go back and listen. I must say it is extremely validating because 7 years ago I was genuinely laughed at by everyone for even saying anything related to tokenization being the outright future of finance. We have some pretty big announcements ourselves to share soon too. Stay tuned!

Happy tokenizing, 
Herwig “Happy” Konings
CEO, Security Token Group 

Follow me on X / LinkedIn

Security Token Show Ends with 300 Episodes!

Check out the latest and final episode of the Security Token Show as well as the full catalog on Youtube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts & Google Podcasts.

Reports

RWA Tokenization: Key Trends and 2025 Market Outlook

Check out a report we contributed to: RWA Tokenization: Key Trends and 2025 Market Outlook. Led by Brickken, this report brings multiple parties together in diving into tokenization, with STM.co supporting with both data and some of the written sections.

What’s Inside?

✅ A Breakdown of Tokenization and Related Benefits
✅ Key advantages for issuers, investors, and institutions
✅ How the market is evolving and trends shaping adoption in 2025
✅ What’s next? Expert insights on regulation, DeFi integration, institutional involvement, and market growth

STM’s RWA Market Prediction for 2030

STM.co is proud to release a thorough report on our prediction on the tokenized real world asset market growth. This report explores the variety of opportunities within each asset class to capture value on-chain.

Tokenization can be applied to just about any object and asset type. Art, carbon credits, life insurance, and other sub $5 trillion asset classes weren’t even considered in estimates.

In order for STM to derive its 2030 market predictions, the following asset classes were evaluated: currency, M2/M3, real estate, commodities, public equities, private companies and funds, bonds, credit and lending markets.

This is not financial or investment advice.

Helpful Resources

• $30 Trillion by 2030 - STM

• Global Tokenized Real Estate Market Guide 2024 - STM

• TokenizeThis 2024: Highlights and Key Takeaways - STM

• TokenizeThis 2023: Highlights and Key Takeaways - STM

• State of Security Tokens 2023 - Q4 - STA

• State of Security Tokens 2023 - Q3 - STA

• State of Security Tokens 2023 - Q2 - STA

• State of Security Tokens 2023 - Q1 Extended - STA

• Real-World Asset Tokenization 2023 According to STM - STM

• Tokenizing an Asset in 3 Easy Steps - Security Token Show

• Rich Data in Private Assets - STM

• State of Security Tokens 2022 - STA

• State of Security Tokens 2023 - Institutional Edition - STA

• Tokenization for Institutions - What You Need to Know - STM, Arca (YouTube)