The Last Look…
Posted by Colin Lambert. Last updated: February 2, 2026
DeFiance is futile. The convergence of DeFi and traditional finance is continuing with renewed momentum in 2026, even as the Clarity Act looks set for delays and potentially even failure.
Since the start of January, the cadence of announcements has picked up and every single launch or news involves a major, established infrastructure of Wall Street players. The NYSE said it’s launching a tokenised securities platform that will allow for 24/7 trading of digital versions of US stocks, just days after one of the world’s largest custodians debuted tokenised deposits as its latest planned offering in the digital asset space. Ripple’s $150 million strategic investment in LMAX’s long-term cross-asset expansion is another example worth citing, while both JP Morgan and UBS are in the process of exploring offering their clients the option to trade crypto.
On the other side of the divide, crypto companies are increasingly applying for banking licenses while the likes of Kraken and Robinhood are muscling in on the territory of stock exchanges by offering tokenised US stocks to retail clients in certain jurisdictions.
All of these are signs that blockchain technology, or at least, blockchain companies are becoming a part of traditional financial markets. Interestingly, FX is very much at the frontline of this transition, but like in most other cases, few people are actually considering the FX industry or indeed, FX prices that much. The dollar might be the largest tokenised asset in the world by value, but few headlines focus on what Wall Street 2.0 will mean for currency trading per se. Arguably, few people care about FX outside the FX industry, but we shall not be daunted: we will follow this trend (whether you want it or not.)
Last year has seen several well-publicised regulatory developments, such as the Genius Act, and many less-well known ones such as the December edict from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency that removed the restriction from banks engaging in crypto transactions on a riskless principal basis. In other words, as long as it’s an agency model, banks can allow their clients to trade crypto and other digital assets all day long.
This is related to the other less-publicised announcement from the SEC, which came in the form of a no-action letter and states that the DTCC can start a three-year pilot programme for tokenising securities including Russell 1000 stocks, ETFs and US Treasuries. This is going ahead in the second half of this year and it will pave the way for the DTCC custodying tokenised assets, while enabling 24/7, peer-to-peer transfer of tokenised entitlements within traditional market safeguards and legal structures.
At a time when financial markets are battling for the future, the currencies trading cohort is surprisingly quiet. But for how long?
The DTCC subsequently made a deal with the Canton Network about issuing tokenised securities in their privacy-focused ecosystem built for institutional investors and market participants. Meanwhile, it feels like 24/7 trading is becoming an inevitability.
One of the interesting shifts right now is happening around competition. At a conference last month, I was moderating a panel with the CEOs of two of the largest crypto exchanges in the world and they were clear: the NYSE and other TradFi stalwarts are very much rivals now. At the same event, many of the crypto OGs (that’s founders to you CL) were starting to wonder if all this institutional adoption is actually a good thing or not? The idea of competing against BNY in custody doesn’t fill all of these startups with joy.
Another shift is how tokenisation could change the world of collateral management and actually allow 24/7 trading to happen. Equally, look at how little movement or reaction there is from the FX industry. At a time when financial markets are battling for the future, the currencies trading cohort is surprisingly quiet. But for how long?
What does the ability to do repo on Saturday mean for FX? How will smart contracts gel with existing infrastructure? How will even more fragmentation impact trading? All of these and many more smarter questions are waiting to be resolved. Let us know if you have ideas!
