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US Designates Russia's A7 Network as a Transnational Criminal Organization
A7A5FinCEN
What's Next for Bitbank After SBI's Takeover?
SBI Holdings has completed its acquisition of Japanese crypto exchange Bitbank, making it a wholly owned subsidiary. The final share buyback closed on October 1, with Bitbank repurchasing shares held by MIXI and Ceres. SBI VC Trade President Tomohiko Kondo joins Bitbank's board, while Bitbank CEO Noriyuki Hirosue becomes an outside director at SBI VC Trade. Bitbank says the ownership change won't affect existing services, and customers can continue using the platform as usual. The deal is valued at roughly 46.7 billion yen and was completed in multiple stages.
2026-10-01
Flare CEO Calls XRP Price Drop 'Lunacy'
Flare co-founder and CEO Hugo Philion slammed XRP's muted reaction to a major XRP Ledger infrastructure breakthrough as "lunacy." Ripple has partnered with Brazilian market infrastructure provider CSD BR to integrate the XRP Ledger into its systems, starting with investment fund shares from BTG Pactual. Ripple executives estimate the first issuance could represent roughly $15 billion in market value. Yet XRP remains stuck near $1.51, essentially flat over the past week.
XRPInstitutional AdoptionPrice ReactionXRP Ledger2026-10-01
Ripple Brings Brazilian Fund Records onto the XRP Ledger
Ripple has teamed up with CSD BR, Brazil's central securities depository, to move Brazilian investment fund records onto the XRP Ledger, starting with BTG Pactual fund shares. CSD BR keeps the official ownership records, while the XRPL serves as an extra audit layer, letting authorized parties compare on-chain mirrored records in near real time. The project runs in a regulated, live environment with full KYC and anti-money laundering controls. Later phases could bring Brazilian real estate and agribusiness debt securities directly on-chain.
XRPtokenizationFund RecordsBTG Pactual2026-09-30
XRP Ledger Tapped for Brazil's $4 Trillion Securities Market
Brazilian market infrastructure provider CSD BR has integrated the XRP Ledger into its regulated securities infrastructure, initially serving as an additional record-keeping and audit layer for investment fund shares, with the first assets coming from banking giant BTG Pactual. Ripple executives say the project could eventually migrate part of Brazil's massive fixed-income market onto the XRP Ledger, calling it the first publicly disclosed integration of the ledger into core financial market infrastructure at this scale. CSD BR is authorized by Brazil's central bank and other regulators, with over 22 trillion reais in registered assets.
XRPSecurities InfrastructureInstitutional AdoptionBTG Pactual2026-09-29
Bitwise NEAR ETF Debuts on NYSE Arca — Will NEAR Price Get a Boost?
Bitwise's spot NEAR ETF (ticker: NRR) began trading on NYSE Arca on September 29, carrying a 0.75% management fee and plans to stake the fund's NEAR holdings, with staking rewards flowing back into the fund's net asset value. The ETF holds NEAR directly rather than through derivatives, meaning new share creation could translate into spot purchases of NEAR, giving U.S. investors a way to gain NEAR exposure through traditional brokerage accounts. NEAR had already climbed from roughly $2.62 on September 16 to nearly $5 ahead of the listing, and the article argues that actual inflows will be the real gauge of post-launch demand.
NEARInstitutional AdoptionNYSE ArcaNEAR ETF2026-09-29
Asset Managers Are Gearing Up for XRPL Batch—What Can It Actually Do?
The XRP Ledger is about to roll out its Batch feature, which lets 2 to 8 transactions execute atomically within a single ledger close across four execution modes, a setup aimed at asset managers. But the expected September 29 activation was pushed to October 9 after an emergency security fix in version 3.4.1 introduced the fixBatchV1_2 amendment. Despite RippleX saying institutions are preparing to use it, no public mainnet Batch transactions have appeared yet, so real-world adoption remains speculative.
XRPInstitutional AdoptionTransaction Batchingasset managers2026-09-29
Could Citi's 24/7 Dollar Transfers Slow Stablecoin Adoption in Japan?
Citi is expanding its blockchain-based Token Services to Japan, enabling institutional clients to make round-the-clock dollar transfers via tokenized bank deposits. Already live in seven markets, the service competes with a stablecoin payment initiative planned by Japan's three megabanks—MUFG, SMBC, and Mizuho—for launch by March 2027. Because Citi's tokens represent bank deposits rather than a standalone stablecoin, clients can handle cross-border payments without converting to stablecoins first, potentially dampening institutional stablecoin adoption in Japan. Still, stablecoins remain irreplaceable for retail payments, public-chain transfers, and digital asset settlement.
USDCInstitutional paymentsCross-border PaymentsCiti Token Services2026-09-29
FTIXX Lynq: Goldman's $100B Fund Connects to Crypto Rails
Goldman Sachs is opening its roughly $105 billion Financial Square Treasury Instruments Fund (FTIXX) to qualified U.S. institutions through the Lynq network, letting crypto-native trading firms park idle cash in the Treasury money market fund between trades. Notably, FTIXX is not tokenized and remains a traditional fund, with trades handled by SEC-registered broker-dealer tZERO Securities. The article notes that this integration differs from tokenized Treasury products like BlackRock's BUIDL, showing that traditional assets can plug into digital asset settlement and treasury workflows without going on-chain, offering a new angle for the RWA sector.
2026-09-29
Citi Clients Can Now Accept Stablecoin Payments via Coinbase—No Crypto Handling Required
Citi and Coinbase have deepened their partnership, enabling Citi's institutional clients to accept stablecoin payments through the Spring by Citi platform. Coinbase converts the tokens into fiat, and Citi handles settlement. Conversely, Coinbase leverages Citi's Virtual Account Wallet to power Coinbase Virtual Accounts, letting corporate clients auto-convert fiat to stablecoins. Both features launch first in the U.S., serving over 150 million stablecoin holders globally. This builds on their October 2025 collaboration, marking further integration between traditional banking and crypto payment infrastructure.
USDCpayments infrastructureinstitutional bankingStablecoin Payments2026-09-28
AlgoQuant Asset Management Taps Liquid Mercury to Strengthen Digital Asset Trading Infrastructure
AlgoQuant Asset Management has adopted Liquid Mercury's institutional-grade trading technology to expand its multi-strategy platform and improve execution across global digital asset markets. The partnership gives AlgoQuant access to deep liquidity, low-latency infrastructure, and professional trading tools to support its quantitative strategies around the clock. Liquid Mercury says its platform is highly customizable to meet institutional clients' specific needs. Both firms' executives welcomed the collaboration, saying the integration will help maintain precision and reliability in a fast-evolving digital asset market.
2026-09-28