Coindesk

The financial services industry is at a crossroads, with an indisputable trend of financial services moving into crypto. Digital assets built on the blockchain are transforming the financial ecosystem and shaping its future. Digital assets are no longer living on the fringe of the global financial system — they are becoming central to its future and to the movement of value through the capital markets and payments rails.The relatively small size of the crypto market pales to traditional financial markets, belying the enormous opportunity for digital assets and their growth trajectory. The total cryptocurrency market cap is approaching $3.8 trillion, approximating one segment of the MSCI World Index and dwarfed by the global market cap for equities, projected to reach...

In financial markets, startups have long sought to market themselves as "tech firms" hoping investors will value them with tech-company multiples. And often, they do — at least for a while.Traditional institutions learned this the hard way. Throughout the 2010s, many corporations scrambled to reposition themselves as technology companies. Banks, payment processors and retailers began calling themselves fintechs or data businesses. But few earned the valuation multiples of true tech firms — because the fundamentals rarely matched the narrative.WeWork was among the most infamous examples: a real estate company dressed up as a tech platform that eventually collapsed under the weight of its own illusion. In financial services, Goldman Sachs launched Marcus in 2016 as a digital-first platform to rival...

The Philippines Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it may take action against crypto exchanges including OKX, ByBit and Bitget for operating without appropriate registration and warned the public against using the platforms.In a notice dated Aug. 4, the commission also named Mexc, Kucoin and Kraken as being accessible without being registered and, in some cases, actively marketing their services to residents. Other platforms it didn't identify are also active in the country, it said.The agency's rules for the crypto sector came into effect on July 5. The regulations require firms to have the necessary authorization before offering crypto asset services, including appropriate anti-money laundering systems, suspicious transaction reporting and customer due diligence.In March last year, the agency blocked local...

The SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance issued a staff statement on Tuesday, declaring that properly structured liquid‑staking protocols and their receipt tokens generally do not constitute securities under U.S. law.This clarity has led to modest upticks in token prices and protocol activity. Lido’s governance token, LDO, rose by approximately 4.5%, from $0.88 to $0.92, before retreating to support. Similarly, Rocket Pool’s RPL token climbed 10.5%, reaching $7.28 from $6.59, before also giving up some gains.DeFiLlama data reveals that total liquid‑staking TVL stands at roughly $67 billion, with Lido dominating at $31.7 billion, maintaining a 47% market share. Despite the token price action, inflows to staking protocols remained stable, with no significant shift in capital rotation.Liquid staking tokens and governance tokens tied to...

Marex (MRX), a global financial services platform, has become the first clearing firm to integrate Kinexys Digital Payments, a blockchain-based settlement system developed by JPMorgan (JPM), through a collaboration with Brevan Howard Digital, the company said in a press release on Wednesday.The initiative is aimed at modernizing payment infrastructure and reducing settlement risk by leveraging programmable, always-on digital ledger technology, the company said.Kinexys is part of JPMorgan’s broader push into digital assets and allows for near-instant settlement through blockchain deposit accounts, marking a significant shift from legacy rails to 24/7 digital clearing mechanisms.Brevan Howard Digital, which joined the Kinexys network in 2024, has been collaborating with partners to develop a broader ecosystem for blockchain-based financial services. Marex’s adoption of the...