The Arrangement OKX — one of the world's largest crypto exchanges by derivatives volume — has integrated BlackRock's BUIDL fund as eligible margin collateral for institutional clients. Standard Chartered acts as custodian. This is the first time a globally systemically important bank (G-SIB) has served in a custodial role in an arrangement of this kind.

The informal deadline for the US Senate Banking Committee to schedule a markup of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act — the CLARITY Act — came and went on Friday 25 April without any action from Committee Chairman Tim Scott. The bill, which passed the House 294 to 134 last July, now faces an extended wait before it can move toward a Senate floor vote.

Time is almost up for European crypto-asset businesses operating under MiCA's transitional grace period. On 17 April 2026, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) issued a formal statement — document reference ESMA75-113276571-1679 — making clear that the transitional periods under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation will definitively end on 1 July 2026. There will be no further extensions.

On 21 April 2026, Atkins told an industry audience that the SEC was "on the cusp" of releasing a framework that would allow tokenised securities to trade directly on blockchain networks for the first time under formal regulatory cover. For an industry that has operated in legal grey areas for years, that statement represents a significant shift in the regulatory weather.

Lise received authorisation from French regulator AMF in late 2025, becoming the first institution in Europe licensed to operate a fully tokenised equity exchange. Unlike hybrid models that tokenise existing securities while keeping legacy infrastructure in place, Lise has built a single on-chain system that combines issuance, trading, settlement, and share registry. There is no parallel paper record, no T+2 clearing cycle, no intermediary custodian between the exchange and t

Is Tokenisation Safe, Legal, and Can Anyone Get Ripped Off? Founders Are Asking. The Answers Are More Complicated Than the Platforms Let On.

Digital Plumbing evolving The debate about whether tokenisation works has largely been settled. The harder question, the one that will define the next two years, is whether the financial system's underlying infrastructure can support a transition from carefully managed pilots to genuine production scale. From Proof of Concept to Production Problem 2025 was, by most measures, the year institutional tokenisation stopped being theoretical. The EU's MiCA framework became operat

On 2 April 2026, the International Monetary Fund published a formal note arguing that tokenisation is not an incremental improvement to financial infrastructure but a fundamental change in how trust, settlement, and risk management operate across the global system. That is worth pausing on. What the IMF Actually Said The note, entitled Tokenized Finance, was authored by Tobias Adrian, the IMF's Financial Counsellor and Director of its Monetary and Capital Markets Depar

US Congress Decided Tokenisation Is Inevitable - Now Comes the Hard Part.

Creating the token is the easy part. Getting it into investors’ hands is where the regulation lives. If you are a founder exploring tokenisation, one of the first questions you will ask is whether you are allowed to do it. The short answer is yes. But the fuller answer depends on what exactly you mean by “do it.” Tokenising your own equity, creating a digital token that represents shares in your company, is not, in itself, a heavily regulated act. It is broadly comparable to

Tokenisation is increasingly being discussed as a new way for startups to raise capital. By representing ownership rights digitally on blockchain infrastructure, investments could potentially become easier to manage, faster to settle and more accessible to a wider pool of investors. In our experience, for many founders however, the first questions are not technical. They are practical.

A clear guide to Understanding European Equity Token Rules at a time equity tokens are transforming how startups raise capital and how investors participate in ownership. Before diving into this world, it’s crucial to understand the European equity token rules that govern these digital assets. These rules ensure transparency, protect investors, and create a fair market environment.