SEC Clarifies Rules for Tokenized Stocks and Bonds

Hi! In today’s edition:

• 🏛️ SEC says tokenized securities are still securities

• 🏦 Fidelity prepares an Ethereum based digital dollar

• 🌍 World token spikes then fades on OpenAI rumors

• 🎙️ Bits + Bips debates gold’s surge and Bitcoin’s quantum risk

Today’s newsletter is brought to you by Fuse!

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SEC Draws a Clear Line on Tokenized Securities

U.S. regulators have removed a major source of ambiguity around tokenized stocks and bonds, and the message is straightforward: putting a security on a blockchain does not change what it is.

In new guidance released on Wednesday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said that tokenized securities fall fully under existing federal securities laws. Registration, disclosure, and investor protection rules still apply, regardless of whether ownership is tracked on a blockchain or in a traditional database.

The agency also clarified how different tokenized products should be treated. If a company itself issues or approves a tokenized version of its shares and uses blockchain records as part of its official ownership system, that can represent real equity. But many products on the market today do not meet that bar.

Third-party “tokenized stocks” often provide only indirect or synthetic exposure, meaning investors are not actual shareholders and may not have voting rights or legal claims on the issuer. The SEC made clear those products are still subject to securities and derivatives rules, especially when sold to retail investors.

The guidance arrives as exchanges and financial firms race to bring tokenized securities to market, and as lawmakers debate a broader crypto market structure bill. For now, the takeaway is simple: tokenization changes the format, not the rules. Anyone building or investing in these products will need to design them around existing law, not around technical novelty.

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Fidelity Enters the Stablecoin Race With an Ethereum-Based Digital Dollar

One of Wall Street’s biggest players is making its move into onchain money.

Fidelity Investments is preparing to launch its own U.S. dollar–backed stablecoin, the Fidelity Digital Dollar (FIDD), in the coming weeks. The token will run on Ethereum and be issued through Fidelity Digital Assets, with reserves held in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term U.S. Treasuries.

The launch follows the passage of the GENIUS Act, which gave stablecoin issuers a clear regulatory framework in the U.S. Fidelity says that clarity made this the right moment to bring a product to market. FIDD is designed for 24/7 settlement, onchain payments, and institutional transfers, and will be available to both retail and institutional clients.

The significance of the move wasn’t lost on observers. As NovaDius Wealth Management President Nate Geraci put it: “Fidelity Digital Dollar. Riding on Ethereum. If you don’t see where this is all heading, not sure what to tell you at this point.”

Fidelity is entering a crowded market dominated by USDC and USDT, but its arrival reinforces a broader shift. Stablecoins are no longer just a crypto-native product. They are becoming core financial infrastructure, and traditional asset managers now want a seat at the table.

World Token Spikes on OpenAI Rumors, Then Gives It All Back

World’s WLD token saw a sharp but short-lived rally after a report linked the project to a possible new social network aimed at fighting online bots.

The move started after Forbes reported that Sam Altman and OpenAI are exploring ways to build a “humans-only” social platform. One idea under consideration is using biometric verification to prove users are real people, potentially tapping technology developed by World Network, formerly known as Worldcoin.

On the news, WLD jumped roughly 40%, climbing from about $0.45 to a high near $0.63. The rally did not last. As broader crypto markets weakened, the token gave back most of its gains and was trading around $0.489 as of 5:30 a.m. ET.

The report did not confirm any formal partnership between OpenAI and World, a key detail the market quickly priced in. World has positioned its iris-scanning World ID system as a way to verify personhood online, but the project has also faced regulatory scrutiny in several countries.

Gold to $12,000 or ‘Sell Gold Today’? – Bits + Bips

Realpolitik is back, gold is ripping, and Bitcoin’s “digital gold” story hits a quantum snag.

In this episode of Bits + Bips, Austin Campbell, Ram Ahluwalia, Chris Perkins, and guest Charles Edwards debate what “realpolitik” means for markets, why gold is leading, and whether Bitcoin is lagging for a reason that is not just sentiment.

They also argue over a counterintuitive claim gaining traction on desks: that rate cuts can be bad for risk assets in a high-debt world, and that the biggest adoption blocker for Bitcoin may be a known unknown, the quantum threat, whether it is imminent or simply believed enough to cap upside.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

• 🤝 The White House plans to convene top crypto firms and major banks to break a deadlock over a digital-asset market structure bill, with debate centering on whether stablecoins should be allowed to offer yield-like rewards that banks argue could drain deposits.

• 🗳️ Crypto’s political influence surged as Fairshake, the industry’s main campaign finance group, amassed $193 million for upcoming U.S. elections with fresh funding from Ripple and venture giant Andreessen Horowitz, positioning it among the most powerful PACs in the country.

• 💳 Crypto exchange Bybit is preparing to roll out bank-style accounts with IBANs that let users hold and move dollars and other traditional currencies alongside crypto, partnering with smaller licensed banks like Georgia-based Pave Bank as it evolves into a global “neo-bank” while eyeing a future U.S. listing.

• 🇺🇸 World Liberty Financial’s USD1, the Trump-linked dollar-backed stablecoin, has climbed past a $5 billion market cap on institutional adoption and Binance integration, while the Official Trump memecoin has collapsed more than 93% from its peak as investor interest shifts from hype to utility.

• 🧱 Ethereum researchers are proposing Fork-Choice Enforced Inclusion Lists (FOCIL) for the upcoming Hegota upgrade as a way to make censorship much harder by letting multiple validators force valid transactions into blocks, reducing reliance on powerful middlemen that currently decide which transactions get processed.

• 📈 HYPE surged more than 60% in a week as trading activity exploded across Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 decentralized exchanges, where open positions topped $925 million amid growing demand for high-speed onchain futures tied to crypto and commodities like silver.

• 📉 Solana’s validator count has dropped below 800 as falling subsidies and rising operating costs push smaller node operators offline, even though user activity like trades and app usage remains steady at roughly 100 million transactions per day.

• 🚨 The U.S. Marshals Service is investigating a potential breach of government-controlled crypto wallets after blockchain sleuths linked more than $60 million in stolen digital assets to addresses associated with federal seizure accounts used for holding forfeited cryptocurrencies.

• 🔄 Optimism’s tokenholders approved a plan to use half of the Superchain’s net revenue to buy back OP tokens over a year-long pilot, formally tying the token’s value to real network usage across Ethereum scaling chains like Base and OP Mainnet.

• 📊 WisdomTree, a major U.S. asset manager, expanded its full lineup of tokenized investment funds to the Solana blockchain, giving both institutions and retail users regulated onchain access to stocks, bonds, and money market funds with faster settlement speeds.

• 🧪 Doppler, an onchain token creation protocol built by Whetstone Research, raised $9 million in seed funding to expand its role as the main launch infrastructure on Coinbase’s Base network, where it already handles the vast majority of new decentralized exchange token launches.

• 💳 Bleap, a self-custody finance app founded by former Revolut executives, raised $6 million to grow its stablecoin-based alternative to traditional banking, which lets users spend, save, and move money globally without handing control to a bank.

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