institutional

Alex Gluchowski, CEO of Matter Labs, announced Prividium Commander at Money20/20 USA, pointing out that while most banks have tested blockchain, only a few have truly put it into production services. The crux of the issue lies in operational processes rather than the technology itself, including aspects such as issuance control, transfer processing, audit requirements, and compliance workflows.Prividium Commander is positioned as a unified control plane, allowing institutions to manage permissions, configure token functionalities, and set operational strategies all in one place, while also integrating with existing traditional financial systems of banks and being compatible with both public and private chain infrastructures. This product is built on Matter Labs' permissioned privacy blockchain platform, Prividium, which is based on ZK Stack technology, allowing institutions to run private chains on their own infrastructure and anchor transactions to Ethereum through zero-knowledge proofs, achieving Ethereum-level settlement finality without disclosing customer balances and transaction details.Matter Labs open-sourced the Prividium Core permission engine in September 2026, with the Deutsche Bundesbank being the first testing party. Cari Network has chosen Prividium to build a multi-bank tokenized deposit platform, with participants including regional banks such as Huntington and M&T Bank, planning to go live later in 2026. By mid-2026, Matter Labs had fully shifted its focus to the institutional privacy infrastructure of Prividium.

Coinbase Institutional posted on platform X that chip stocks have fallen by double digits in the past two weeks, marking the second significant drop since June, but Bitcoin has shown greater resilience in both instances.The institution believes that the market no longer views Bitcoin as a high-leverage proxy asset for tech stocks, and the correlation between Bitcoin and tech stocks may be changing.

Ethereum Institutional announced the appointment of David Duong as the head of the U.S. region, responsible for promoting collaboration with U.S. institutional investors to further engage institutions in the Ethereum ecosystem.David Duong previously served as the Global Head of Investment Research at Coinbase, focusing on cryptocurrency market research for institutional clients of the exchange, covering areas such as macroeconomic analysis, valuation models, and market structure. He has 17 years of experience in sell-side macro strategy research at HSBC, Santander Bank, and Deutsche Bank.

Ethereum Institutional announced the appointment of David Duong as the head of the U.S. region, responsible for promoting collaboration with U.S. institutional investors to further engage institutions in the construction of the Ethereum ecosystem.David Duong previously served as the Global Head of Investment Research at Coinbase, responsible for cryptocurrency market research aimed at institutional clients of the exchange, covering areas such as macroeconomic analysis, valuation models, and market structure, and has worked in sell-side macro strategy research for 17 years at HSBC, Santander Bank, and Deutsche Bank.

According to a confirmation from the German Savings Banks and Giro Association (DSGV) to the media, the German Savings Banks (Sparkassen) officially entered the cryptocurrency trading sector this Monday. Institutional clients participating in the first batch can now directly buy and sell digital assets such as Bitcoin through their existing official app.The trading service launched is supported by the securities service provider of the savings banks, Dekabank, and is jointly responsible for the custody of crypto assets with the Stuttgart Stock Exchange. The initial supported trading currencies include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Solana, and Polygon. In terms of fees, the service sets a low transaction fee of only 0.99 euros per order, and users are not required to bind a traditional securities account, which is clearly aimed at competing directly on pricing with emerging mobile banks like N26 and Trade Republic.In terms of the promotion schedule, the service does not have a unified national launch date but allows each savings bank to decide its own launch time based on its circumstances. Joachim Schmalzl, a member of the DSGV management, stated that there is strong interest in this business within the group, and it is expected that 30 to 40 institutions will follow suit each month, with the goal of covering most interested savings banks by the first half of 2027. He emphasized that the product is mainly aimed at clients who wish to independently buy, sell, and custody crypto assets, and the savings banks do not provide investment advice nor plan to conduct extensive proactive marketing in the initial phase.For a long time, due to the extreme volatility of cryptocurrencies, the German Savings Banks have maintained a cautious attitude towards them. Schmalzl pointed out that the decision to enter the market was the result of careful consideration, with the decisive factors being strong customer demand and the fact that Europe currently has a reliable regulatory framework, aimed at allowing clients with clear intentions to trade in a regulated compliance environment.However, DSGV still maintains a cautious tone in its statement, reiterating that cryptocurrencies are "highly speculative assets," and clients will be clearly warned of the risks of extreme price fluctuations and total loss when operating. The bank also emphasizes that for the long-term wealth accumulation of the public, traditional securities investments, savings plans, and financial consulting remain its core business.

Polygon announced the launch of Polygon CDK Besu, supporting banks and financial institutions to deploy private blockchains based on Hyperledger Besu, and connect to other blockchains and their liquidity through Agglayer from the outset. It currently supports deployment on the Ethereum mainnet.

JPMorgan Chase is expanding its JPM Coin dollar deposit token to the Ethereum mainnet, offering it to institutional clients. The token was previously launched in 2025 on Base, representing actual bank deposits and can be used for near-instantaneous peer-to-peer transfers and settlements around the clock.Currently, it is only available to JPMorgan Chase's institutional clients through Kinexys, not supported for public trading, and not open to retail clients. JPM Coin is a permissioned and regulatory-compliant bank currency, not a decentralized stablecoin.

Deutsche Bank is nearing the launch of institutional-grade cryptocurrency custody services, expected to begin serving institutional clients within weeks, initially targeting German companies and professional investors, supporting assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, with technology co-developed by Swiss digital asset infrastructure company Taurus.This service is not aimed at retail cryptocurrency trading applications, and the related plans still require regulatory approval. Deutsche Bank has also discussed the possibility of tokenized deposits, digital securities, and expanding to Asian financial centers by 2027.

Crypto podcast host Andy (@andyyy) posted a preview stating that a major AI product/feature will be released in the coming days, aimed at institutional-level on-chain asset management, with embedded risk strategies. It is reported that this product has already conducted pilot programs with several funds and asset management institutions.Andy previously accurately predicted the launch of the SEC's crypto exemption policy a week in advance.

According to Bloomberg, Ripple's main brokerage division, Ripple Prime, is launching perpetual contracts for real-world assets (RWA) aimed at institutional clients, covering over 100 reference markets including stocks, indices, ETFs, and commodities. This product is offered through Trade.xyz on Hyperliquid, continuing Ripple Prime's previous strategy of opening up cryptocurrency perpetual contract trading to clients.This arrangement supports cross-position margin sharing. Michael Higgins, CEO of Ripple Prime International, stated that this move helps institutions improve capital efficiency and position management. Clients can pair perpetual contracts with underlying assets for basis trading or use the contracts for directional trading to gain exposure to relevant assets during traditional market closures and on weekends.In the past year, the open interest of RWA perpetual contracts on several major trading platforms has increased from nearly zero to $9 billion. Higgins also mentioned that traditional hedge funds are "very close" to directly participating in the tokenized RWA market, with the key being the establishment of infrastructure that meets their counterparty and anti-money laundering requirements.

Citibank stated in its official insights report "Digital Frontier: Collateral in a Tokenized World" that as financial markets accelerate towards continuous, around-the-clock operations, collateral management is undergoing a structural evolution. Institutional-level tokenization is moving beyond isolated proof of concepts to establish scalable operational tracks on global banking, custody, and market infrastructure, making collateral a continuous liquidity and optimization engine.Citibank mentioned that combining tokenized assets with regulated on-chain settlement currencies can achieve instant atomic cash-to-cash transactions, eliminating multi-day gap risks and expanding the range of eligible collateral to include tools like tokenized money market funds. Global asset managers and asset owners will unify traditional and digital collateral into a single, continuously optimized inventory over many years of hybrid operating models, covering counterparties, custodians, and settlement venues.

Galaxy Digital Research Director Alex Thorn stated that over half of the BTC supply is located in addresses of unknown ownership. Despite the trend of institutionalization and centralized holdings in recent years, there is still a massive (possibly even the majority of) amount of Bitcoin being self-custodied by individuals.

Standard Chartered Bank announced that it has launched institutional custody services for Ripple's stablecoin RLUSD through its Dubai International Financial Centre branch, supporting the operation of this stablecoin on the XRP Ledger, allowing qualified institutional clients to use its digital asset custody infrastructure.Standard Chartered plans to extend the collateral mirroring model to institutional trading company LMAX Group, allowing clients to use RLUSD as trading collateral while the tokens remain held in the bank's custody. This model enables LMAX to confirm the value of qualified RLUSD holdings without requiring clients to transfer tokens, which Standard Chartered claims reduces transfer-related risks and helps institutions manage counterparty exposure.The issuer of RLUSD, Ripple, and LMAX Group announced a partnership in January 2026 to expand the institutional use of this stablecoin. Standard Chartered stated that the new collateral functionality still needs to meet conditions such as final documentation, testing, regulatory requirements, and internal approvals.

Coinbase Institutional stated that ETH rose by 71% in the third quarter, but on-chain indicators show that there are no obvious signs of overheating in its price trend.Data shows that the proportion of ETH supply in profit has moved out of the accumulation range, but it is still far below the warning zone, indicating that the current market has not reached the excessive rise state suggested by historical indicators.

TruGolf Holdings (TRUG), a publicly traded company on NASDAQ, announced that it has completed the acquisition of the Canadian asset tokenization company Polymath Research Inc. Polymath is a company focused on institutional-grade asset tokenization and is also the developer of the Layer 1 blockchain Polymesh, which is aimed at regulated assets. After the acquisition, Polymath will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of TruGolf, while TruGolf will continue to retain its original businesses such as golf simulators and the E6 platform, forming two business lines: golf technology and blockchain infrastructure.As of December 31, 2025, Polymath has issued tokenized assets worth over $132 million for more than 65 active issuers and has over 50 ecosystem partners. The two parties also plan to launch a device leasing tokenization and franchise rights fragmentation holding project in the first quarter of 2027. In addition, TruGolf received approximately $2.95 million in net proceeds from the exercise of B-round preferred stock warrants related to this transaction.

As the institutional market gradually develops towards the separation of custody and trading, Bitget is expanding its open custody and over-the-counter settlement infrastructure for institutional clients, providing more flexible asset custody, fund management, and trading access options.Currently, Bitget has partnered with institutions such as Copper ClearLoop, Cactus Custody Oasis, Fireblocks Off Exchange, OSL MirrorEX, Bitfire PrimeMirror, and Sygnum Protect to meet the differentiated needs of institutions in asset isolation, custody options, settlement efficiency, and liquidity access through diversified custody and settlement models.Bitget's CEO Gracy Chen stated that different types of institutions have varying needs for custody, settlement, and capital management. Bitget aims to allow institutions to choose solutions based on their operational models through open and compatible infrastructure, enhancing fund utilization efficiency and liquidity access capabilities while achieving asset risk isolation. This expansion is also an important part of Bitget's UEX strategy, with institutional services continuing to be a strategic focus to further enhance capital utilization efficiency and accelerate the integration of crypto assets with tokenized traditional financial infrastructure.

According to CoinDesk, Project Eleven, which focuses on defending against future quantum computing attacks, and the privacy-oriented proof-of-work blockchain Quantus plan to complete integration in the first quarter of 2027. This will connect Quantus to Project Eleven's institutional custody platform Strongpoint, allowing institutions to manage Quantus keys and approve transactions through hardware security modules, internal policies, and audit systems.The significance of this integration goes beyond a single chain. Networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum are unlikely to adopt the same post-quantum signature schemes or migration paths. Banks holding multiple assets may need to adapt to various new cryptographic forms simultaneously, without weakening control over transaction approval, signing, and auditing. Alex Pruden, co-founder and CEO of Project Eleven, stated that this transition could become a barrier for institutions adopting cryptocurrencies, as they have already prepared for post-quantum transitions outside of blockchain.Christopher Smith, co-founder and CEO of Quantus, believes that AI is accelerating everything, including quantum hardware and quantum software. The tail risk of sudden quantum attacks must be incorporated into all portfolio decisions, as it falls under fiduciary duty. The design of Strongpoint decouples the institutional control layer from the signature schemes used by the underlying blockchain. Even if different cryptography is adopted on-chain, custodians can still retain approval processes, hardware key storage, and audit trails. Quantus uses the post-quantum signature standard ML-DSA selected by the National Institute of Standards and Technology for key generation and transaction signing.

According to an official post from Chainlink, it has launched the institutional financing and collateral management solution Fulcrum, which separates financing agreement management from cash and collateral settlement networks, supports cross-chain repurchase (Repo) and 24/7 collateral movement, and will demonstrate with DTCC at Sibos 2026.Chainlink also stated that 40 new integrations were added in September, covering 24 users including Aave, Coinbase, Paxos, Monad, Tempo, and others.

According to The Block, Standard Chartered Bank's Singapore branch plans to provide custody services for specific crypto assets, stablecoins, and tokenized real-world assets to institutional investors.The bank stated that this service will expand its existing crypto asset custody business, which currently covers the UAE, Luxembourg, and Hong Kong.