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NYSE picked OKX. Nasdaq picked Kraken. America's two largest stock exchanges are now both building tokenized equities through crypto-native settlement partners, and neither picked a bank.

Also this week, the SEC and CFTC signed a historic MOU to coordinate on digital asset oversight, with Chairman Atkins pushing for a unified framework including joint product reviews.

Here are our highlights this week:

* Nasdaq to build tokenized equities with Kraken

* ECB launches tokenization roadmap

* DATs’ shopping spree: BitMine bought 60,976 ETH (~$120M), while Strategy added 17,994 BTC ($1.3B).

* The CLARITY Act is still stuck over stablecoin yield, but Senators are crafting a compromise tying rewards to transaction activity. Polymarket odds of passage sit at 69%.

* Aon (one of the world’s largest insurance brokers) completed the first stablecoin insurance premium payment.

* ~50% of US spot Solana ETF assets are now held by institutional investors.

* USDT and USDC control 84% of a $312 billion stablecoin market. This week the ECB said: enough. Pontes launches Q3 2026, and it’s designed to make sure Europe’s tokenized markets settle in euros, not dollars.

and much more. Let’s jump in 👇

Top Boardroom Reads

* Securitize: A Deep Dive into Tokenized Products (Securitize)

* The Stablecoin Yield Debate (Congressional Research Service)

* Stablecoin Shocks (IMF)

* DLT Tokenisation in Financial Services (Central Bank of Ireland)

* The Next Era of Payments (KPMG)

The Friday newsletter only scratches the surface. A lot more is going on that we’ll tell you in our PRO briefings.

Top Signals This Week

Nasdaq to build tokenized equities

Payward, Kraken’s parent company, has partnered with Nasdaq to build an equities gateway connecting regulated tokenized equity markets with permissionless blockchain networks. The gateway is powered by Kraken’s xStocks framework, which has surpassed $25 billion in total transaction volume, including $4 billion settled on-chain since launching less than a year ago. Payward will serve as the primary settlement layer for Nasdaq’s upcoming equity token design, which preserves issuer control, regulatory compliance, and shareholder rights, targeting H1 2027 launch. [RELEASE]

Why this matters: NYSE chose OKX. Nasdaq chose Kraken. The two largest U.S. exchange operators are now both building tokenized equities through crypto-native settlement partners, NYSE targeting H2 2026 via OKX’s120 million users, Nasdaq targeting H1 2027 via xStocks’ $25 billion in live volume. Both follow the SEC’s January 2026 staff statement classifying tokenized equities the same as regular securities under federal law. The synthetic equity products already circulating on permissionless chains now need to be upgraded.

Read our full CEO notes on this topic👇

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ECB launches roadmap to build euro-anchored tokenized markets

The European Central Bank published the Appia roadmap on March 11, a dual-track initiative to build Europe’s tokenized wholesale financial markets entirely around central bank euro settlement. Track one, Pontes, is a DLT-based settlement layer connecting blockchain platforms to Eurosystem’s TARGET Services, launching Q3 2026. Track two, Appia, is the long-term ecosystem framework targeting a full blueprint by 2028. Starting March 30, the ECB will also accept DLT-issued securities as eligible collateral for central bank refinancing, first for the eurozone. [RELEASE]

Why this matters: The vast majority of stablecoin activity in Europe is USD-denominated. The ECB is building sovereign tokenized rails before dollar settlement becomes Europe’s default, and Pontes launching in Q3 2026 gives it a two-year head start as Europe’s only central bank settlement layer before the digital euro retail pilot begins H2 2027. The sequencing makes sense: MiCA set the regulatory frame, 12 European banks formed Qivalis, seeking EMI authorization from the Dutch Central Bank, to launch a euro stablecoin by H2 2026. Now Pontes gives them settlement rails. USDT and USDC control 84% of a $312 billion stablecoin market. This is the ECB’s counterbalance.

Listen to our podcast with Sveinn Valfells, to understand the European market 👇

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Citi issues first digitally native structured note on Euroclear’s D-FMI platform