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The privacy blockchain Zano announced that Zenith has entered the implementation phase, with plans for a network transition in 2027, depending on the results of testing, analysis, and review. Zano has not yet announced an activation date, and the proposed operating parameters still require verification at the network level.Zenith will transition Zano from a hybrid PoW and PoS mechanism to a privacy-protecting pure PoS protocol, with the block time proposed to decrease from about 1 minute to about 15 seconds, and the recommended number of confirmations reduced from 10 blocks to 4 to 6 blocks, with a typical confirmation time of about 60 to 90 seconds. Zano co-founder and core developer Andrey Sabelnikov stated that Zenith is based on over 12 years of privacy research and aims to provide the network with the advantages of modern PoS while retaining the privacy protection that Zano users expect.PoW miners currently receive about 720 newly issued ZANO daily, which amounts to approximately 21,600 monthly and 262,800 annually. After the activation of Zenith and the end of PoW mining, this portion of issuance will be canceled; Zano will also launch the official Zano Forum for technical discussions and community support.

The FATF released a report stating that criminals are increasingly using stablecoins for illegal financial activities, calling on countries to accelerate the implementation of cryptocurrency anti-money laundering standards.

According to Fortune, global payment giant Visa is accelerating its layout of stablecoin infrastructure by launching the Visa Stablecoin Platform, which helps banks and fintech companies integrate stablecoin payment capabilities into existing payment and fund management systems.It is reported that the platform aims to provide stablecoin service support for approximately 15,000 financial institutions and over 200 million merchants globally, allowing businesses to use USD stablecoins for settlement, fund circulation, and financial management within traditional payment networks.Visa currently processes about $150 trillion in payment transactions annually and has handled stablecoin settlement business worth billions of dollars. The company hopes to further expand the application of stablecoins through the new platform. The Visa Stablecoin Platform will initially support the new stablecoin OUSD launched by the Open Standard Alliance, while continuing to be compatible with existing stablecoins supported by Visa, including USDC issued by Circle and USDG issued by Paxos.Visa believes that stablecoins are becoming an important component of future financial infrastructure, with advantages including: instant settlement, transactions that do not rely on traditional bank clearing cycles; low-cost transfers, reducing payment costs based on blockchain networks; and transparency and traceability, with on-chain transaction records providing higher verifiability. Visa has been continuously laying out its strategy in the stablecoin field. In 2020, Visa became the first global payment network to support USDC settlements; in 2025, the company launched a stablecoin settlement program to further promote stablecoins into the mainstream payment system.Meanwhile, Visa's competitors are also accelerating their entry into the stablecoin market. Mastercard recently launched a stablecoin settlement solution and collaborated with companies such as MoonPay and Paxos; American Express is also participating in the ecosystem development related to Open Standard. As traditional payment giants increasingly adopt stablecoins, stablecoins are gradually transforming from payment tools in the crypto industry to an important component of global financial infrastructure.

According to a report by businesswire, AI and tokenized financial infrastructure Alpaca announced the completion of a new round of financing totaling $135 million, led by Peak XV, with follow-on investments from Elefund, BNP Paribas's venture capital arm Opera Tech Ventures, and Unbound among others. To date, its total financing has reached $435 million.The new funds will be used to accelerate the construction of its AI-native brokerage infrastructure and API-first prime brokerage business, helping fintech companies, banks, brokerages, wealth management institutions, and crypto financial platforms to build investment products in both traditional and on-chain markets, and to connect with more global crypto exchanges, asset tokenization platforms, and financial institutions.

[July 16, 2026] -PhotonPay, the next-gen global financial operating system, today announced the opening of its São Paulo office, marking a pivotal expansion in Latin America following established hubs in Hong Kong and Dubai. Addressing regional payment frictions, PhotonPay integrates local Pix clearing, real-time FX, and AI-driven compliance into a unified OS. A core pillar of this expansion is the company’s global multi-asset wallet, which seamlessly bridges traditional fiat with regulated stablecoin infrastructure, significantly accelerating liquidity velocity for global businesses. Looking ahead, PhotonPay is set to set a new standard for connectivity across Latin America, delivering a seamless, compliant, and future-proof financial engine that empowers businesses to scale globally with ease.

The U.S. securities settlement infrastructure DTCC began live production trading of tokenized stocks and government bonds on Wednesday, advancing its tokenization work from a testing environment to actual operation. According to The Wall Street Journal, nearly 40 financial institutions and technology providers are participating, including JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, Vanguard, and the New York Stock Exchange.DTCC's subsidiary DTC custodies over $114 trillion in securities. The first day of trading covers use cases such as collateral, repurchase agreements, stocks, margin, and asset transfers, with tokenized assets including Microsoft and Circle stocks, Invesco QQQ Trust, SPDR S&P 500 ETF, iShares Short-Term Treasury ETF, and government bonds of various maturities.JPMorgan Chase will tokenize part of its QQQ holdings. DTCC stated that this is currently the initial limited production trading phase, with a full service plan set to launch in October, at which time institutions holding assets at the clearinghouse will be able to convert some securities into tokens. This service is built on DTCC's ComposerX platform, relying on the no-action letter granted to DTC by the SEC last December.

SBI Group, DigiFT, and Startale Group have completed a joint proof of concept, demonstrating the full lifecycle of tokenized securities using the Japanese yen stablecoin JPYSC in an Ethereum testnet environment, including instant settlement for fund subscriptions and automatic on-chain dividend distribution.SBI Group and DigiFT are advancing the tokenization of the SBI Japan High Dividend Equity Fund, which is managed by SBI Asset Management with an asset management scale of approximately $1.3 billion, making it one of Japan's major public equity strategies. The three parties completed two tests, one demonstrating the near-instant settlement of fund subscriptions using JPYSC, and the other automatically calculating and distributing dividends to eligible token holders' wallets via smart contracts after the allocation registration is completed.The three companies plan to explore the integration of tokenized Japanese stocks with institutional DeFi platforms and consider testing use cases such as collateralized lending and on-chain asset management with ecosystem partners like Morpho and Gauntlet.

BlackRock's revenue in the second quarter increased by 31% year-on-year to $7.1 billion, and adjusted operating income rose by 39% year-on-year to $2.9 billion, with AUM reaching $15.3 trillion and net inflows of $868 billion over the past 12 months.BlackRock has submitted two registration statements for tokenized money market funds to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), one of which aims to create a tokenized share class for existing funds on Ethereum, while the other is for a digital-native strategy. The AUM of BlackRock's iShares ETF platform exceeds $6 trillion, with net inflows of $178 billion in the second quarter. Its AUM related to digital assets is approximately $110 billion, with iShares Bitcoin Trust, Ethereum Trust, and BUIDL remaining the largest products in their respective categories. BlackRock also manages a $60 billion reserve for stablecoin issuer Circle. The company has raised its stock buyback plan for 2026 to $2 billion, having repurchased $450 million in stock in the second quarter.

According to The Block, the Tokenization platform Tradable, invested by ParaFi Capital, plans to migrate approximately $1 billion of private credit assets from the Ethereum Layer 2 ZKsync to the public blockchain Stellar. Tradable was established in 2024 and provides on-chain infrastructure for the full lifecycle management of private credit, compliance controls, and investor account opening. Last year, it tokenized approximately $1.7 billion and nearly 30 institutional-level private credit positions on ZKsync.This migration aims to leverage Stellar's user base and compliance and privacy features in the institutional tokenization field to provide high-quality on-chain private credit investment opportunities to traditional asset managers. Stellar has previously hosted RWA products and stablecoin pilots for Franklin Templeton, WisdomTree, Ondo Finance, Figure, and others.

According to The Wall Street Journal, DTCC will tokenize Microsoft stocks, SPY, QQQ, and U.S. Treasury bonds for Wall Street firms, with participation from institutions such as BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan Chase. The related companies plan to use the tokenized assets for collateral transfers, repurchase transactions, and stock trading.

According to official news, the decentralized derivatives trading platform Aster has announced the launch of spot trading for tokenized stock $SKHYB, and today it has started a week-long position and trading activity, sharing a prize pool of $15,000 in $SKHYB.According to the activity announcement, the Aster platform now supports bStocks assets as collateral for perpetual contracts. After enabling multi-asset mode, users can convert the deposited $SKHYB into collateral assets at up to 90% of market value. This means users can participate in trading in any perpetual contract market without having to sell the underlying stocks, aiming to leverage the advantages of multi-asset margin to effectively enhance users' capital utilization efficiency.It is reported that bStocks are tokenized securities issued by BTECH Holdings, which achieve a 1:1 peg with the underlying stock assets held by regulated custodians.

According to official news, the Gate gStocks section will launch 16 gStocks tokenized securities for spot trading on July 15 at 16:00 (UTC+8): VOOG (Vanguard S&P 500 ETF), IVVG (Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF), CATG (Caterpillar), BACG (Bank of America), LRCXG (Lam Research), COSTG (Costco), UNHG (UnitedHealth Group), GEG (General Electric), CVXG (Chevron), KOG (Coca-Cola), PGG (Procter & Gamble), HSBCG (HSBC Holdings), HDG (Home Depot), ARMG (Arm Holdings), NFLXG (Netflix), and GSG (Goldman Sachs). The gStocks tokenized securities products have a 1:1 fully backed native reserve and provide a one-stop solution for 24/7 securities trading.

Binance will add 10 bStocks tokens as eligible collateral assets on July 15, 2026, at 21:30. These include Applied Optoelectronics (AAOIB), Arm (ARMB), Broadcom (AVGOB), Alibaba (BABAB), Robinhood (HOODB), IBM (IBMB), Marvell Technology (MRVLB), Nokia (NOKB), Rocket Lab (RKLBB), and TSMC (TSMB). Eligible users can use these tokens as margin collateral, expanding the collateral options for margin trading.

According to the official announcement, OKX will soon open the first batch of tokenized US stock spot trading on July 16. Users can hold and trade the price exposure of the underlying stocks or ETFs in units of "shares," with assets named in the form of stock codes prefixed with "X" (e.g., XNVDA, XTSLA). Withdrawals and deposits can be made through the Solana and X Layer networks, supporting 24/7 trading, with trading pairs priced in USDT.It is reported that this product will trade year-round without breaks, with off-trading hours prices calculated based on the latest closing price plus market estimates; positions in spot, stock perpetual contracts, etc., will be unified in the same account, allowing direct trading with USDT without the need for a brokerage account; it supports automated trading strategies such as dollar-cost averaging and grid trading, with dividends reinvested at the issuer level and returned in the form of increased shares.

According to Coindesk, Giselle Lai, Director of Fidelity International for the Asia-Pacific region and Digital Asset Strategist, stated that the most attractive long-term use case for tokenized funds for large global institutions is not 24/7 liquidity, but balance sheet management.Lai pointed out that global institutions often need to hold cash in multiple jurisdictions, manage currency exposure, and meet regulatory requirements, while these bank deposits often do not generate returns. Compared to traditional account systems, tokenized tools can provide 24/7 interest, enhance fund transfer efficiency, and better serve institutional liquidity and collateral management needs.He also mentioned that current tokenized products are primarily applied in investment scenarios, with the most popular being tokenized money market funds that primarily use U.S. Treasury bonds as the underlying asset. What institutional investors are truly concerned about is not the "token" itself, but whether it can help asset management become faster and cheaper.

According to Cryptonomist, banking groups such as the American Bankers Association and the Independent Community Bankers of America are urging the Senate to further tighten the provisions related to stablecoin yields in the CLARITY Act. Previously, the Senate Banking Committee passed the bill on May 14, 2026, with a vote of 15 to 9, incorporating some amendments pushed by Senators Thom Tillis and Angela Alsobrooks. However, the banking sector believes that the existing text still does not completely close the incentive space for "class yields" related to stablecoins.The Independent Community Bankers of America previously estimated that if the bill does not further strengthen yield restrictions, stablecoins could lead to a loss of approximately $1.3 trillion in deposits from the banking system and reduce the lending capacity of community banks by about $850 billion, thereby affecting credit access for small businesses, agriculture, and families in underdeveloped areas.

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky posted on X that he has been quietly observing the tokenization of real-world assets, stating that most of it is noise, but real things are happening beneath the noise, and he shared his observations in a long tweet. The post quoted user @StarPlatinum_ regarding comments on the Robinhood Chain, which pointed out that the long-term focus of Robinhood Chain is on the RWA track, and cited Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev's statement from a week ago referring to meme coins as having no underlying utility assets.

According to South Korean media EToday, the South Korean government announced the "2026 Economic Growth Strategy for the Second Half of the Year," declaring that it will accelerate the advancement of three major "super projects": semiconductors, AI data centers, and physical AI, and plans to enhance industrial competitiveness through the construction of blockchain and digital asset ecosystems.According to the plan, South Korea aims to double its storage chip production capacity within the next five years and launch an AI chatbot and a unified AI education platform for the public in the second half of this year. Notably, the South Korean government proposed to advance large-scale demonstration projects for blockchain and digital asset ecosystems in the second half of this year and to initiate a pilot project for the tokenization of government bonds based on blockchain, exploring the linkage with the central bank's institutional CBDC to promote the upgrade of financial infrastructure. In addition, South Korea also plans to establish strategic investment accounts and a national growth fund to expand long-term capital support for strategic industries such as artificial intelligence, quantum technology, security, and blockchain.

According to CoinDesk, a wholesale digital market report supported by the UK Treasury lists Ripple as one of the core participants, planning to transition repurchase agreements (repo), UK government bonds (gilts), and funds from the regulatory sandbox to the real market within the next 12 months, with an expected annual increase of about £33 billion in output and £14 billion in tax revenue for the UK economy over the next decade.The report proposes a hybrid architecture that overlays a permissioned institutional network on top of a public chain, using BlackRock's tokenized money market fund BUIDL on Ethereum as an example, while also noting that the finality risk of settlements brought about by public chain restructuring remains to be resolved. The report also mentions Ripple's acquisition of Hidden Road (renamed Ripple Prime) and Santander UK's use of the Ripple blockchain for cross-border payments, suggesting that traditional finance and crypto institutions are converging.