Blockchain Integration in Financial Services

New technologies, AI and the Blockchain, are reshaping the way banks & financial institutions are operating, for the better…👇 Historically, traditional currencies have always been under the control of powerful authorities like governments and banks. However, 2009 marked a revolutionary change with the introduction of #Bitcoin, the first #cryptocurrency, designed to facilitate direct peer-to-peer transactions, bypassing traditional financial institutions and potentially creating a smoother, more equitable financial system. Banks face a strategic crossroads with crypto's rise: 👉Stay on the sidelines 👉Cautiously enter the market 👉Fully integrate crypto & blockchain services The path for Banks to stay ahead in the #blockchain revolution is complex yet straight forward: 🔸Technology Integration — Banks need to integrate blockchain into their operating models, leveraging a flexible IT infrastructure capable of adapting to the volatile crypto market. 🔸New Services: Institutions are branching out into crypto-related services, such as #custody, #trading, #payments to meet customer interest without full-scale market entry. 🔸Risk Management: With the #risks of hacks and operational risks from supporting various cryptos, banks must enhance security measures and choose supported currencies wisely. 🔸Internal Governance: Robust internal governance protocols and ongoing risk assessments will be essential. 🔸Legal and Regulatory Compliance: Banks must ensure that their crypto services comply with existing AML and KYC regulations. 🔸Customer-Centric Models: As crypto becomes more mainstream, banks must focus on customer-centric models that provide easy access to crypto services. So what’s the plan for banks to stay revelevant? 👇 🔸Adapting Business Models: New business models incorporating blockchain technology, can bring efficiency and new service offerings. 🔸Strategic Partnerships: Collaborations with FinTech can help traditional banks navigate the complexities of the crypto space — Zero Hash, Triple-A, MoonPay etc. 🔸Digital Currency Issuance: Some may consider issuing their own digital currencies, as seen with JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s JPM coin & Revolut which requires careful planning and infrastructure support. 🔸Investing in Infrastructure: Banks will need to invest in both #hardware and #software that can handle blockchain technologies. 🔸Educating Stakeholders: It's crucial for banks to educate their customers, stakeholders, and staff about the benefits and risks of cryptocurrencies. Banks' approaches to integrating blockchain into their operating models will determine their relevance in an increasingly digital financial marketplace. Source: https://lnkd.in/gs8n9E8V by Arthur D. Little & GFT Technologies ——— ✍️ Sign up to The Payments Brews ☕️: https://lnkd.in/g5cDhnjC 📥 Follow Connecting the dots in payments... & Marcel van Oost #payments #fintech #globalpayments #technology

The work on the Regulated Liability Network (RLN) continues. After the publication of the detailed POC report in 2023 a group of major U.S. financial institutions and industry organizations have come together this year to continue a second phase of the exploration of using shared ledger technology for settling transactions. In this proof-of-concept a Regulated Settlement Network (RSN) will simulate delivery-versus-payment transactions in a test environment to see if a shared multi-asset ledger could improve liquidity management and streamline settlement for domestic U.S. dollar-denominated instruments. The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) will be serving as Program Manager for the RSN PoC and released a detailed industry briefing: https://lnkd.in/eM6JTG3E. Important to note is that SWIFT Transaction Manager and the SWIFT Connector that has been part of the recent CBDC Interlinking sandbox project continues to play an important part in the RSN POC among other infrastructure components. This demonstrates that the ongoing build out of the SWIFT TM as part of the ISO 20022 migration is also an important building block for the industry in interconnecting existing market infrastructures with a tokenized future state. A further building block connected to the ISO 20022 adoption is the push for pre-validation of transactions. So, if “pre-validation” responses are collected through a connected ledger and the entire transaction chain is only executed after all validation requests have been successful then this is the core of the RLN.  More to think about has this evolves. #RLN,#RSN,#CBDC, #ISO20022, #SIFMA,#SWIFT

Wall Street firms are doubling down on digital assets. Last week's Q2 2025 earnings season exposed a clear divide: while some major banks and firms were relatively silent on digital assets, others positioned themselves as crypto pioneers. Recent legislative developments created more regulatory clarity and running room for financial institutions to explore institutionalizing digital assets, and the market leaders have been front running investments and partnerships and are wasting no time staking leadership claims in the space. Which firms are positioning, partnering, and investing to establish a lead? BlackRock has positioned itself as a leader in shaping the future of finance, with increasing involvement in digital assets, tokenization, and managing stablecoin reserves. Beyond the earnings rhetoric, what is BlackRock doing to drive this innovation? BlackRock's business relationships reveal the depth of their digital asset strategy. Their partnerships span cryptocurrency custody (Coinbase, Anchorage Digital), stablecoin backing (Ethena), and blockchain infrastructure (Injective). They've also invested in digital asset trading platforms like Flowdesk and fintech innovators including Upvest, Texas Stock Exchange, and Sokin; creating a comprehensive ecosystem for digital asset integration across trading, custody, and tokenization. Insights on other major players' digital assets strategies from CB Insights' Earnings Analyst agent insights on their Q2 earnings calls: → Citigroup emerged as another aggressive adopter, with CEO Jane Fraser expressing "high confidence and enthusiasm" about Citi Token Services' ability to provide "multi-asset, multi-bank, cross-border, always-on solutions without needing to partner with other banks." → BNY Mellon and State Street focused heavily on stablecoin infrastructure, with BNY serving as "reserve custodian for Société Générale's first USD stablecoin in Europe" and "primary custodian for Ripple's US stablecoin reserves." State Street's CEO highlighted how "tokenization of money market funds enables uses of these assets in a different way than originally anticipated." CB Insights' Earnings Analyst agent help identify these strategic pivots immediately after calls. Want insights analysis on the major tech firms announcing earnings this week? Comment "Mag7" below for free access to CB Insights' Earnings Analyst breakdown of each Mag7 Q2 2025 quarter and where they are headed.

📈The last week or so, I’ve been almost entirely focused on Capitol Hill—watching the drama around passage of GENIUS and CLARITY, digesting the Senate Banking Committee’s new digital asset market structure discussion draft, meeting with policymakers, and even testifying on AI crime. It’s been a whirlwind stretch for crypto policy, with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle laying down serious markers on everything from stablecoins to market oversight to illicit finance. But in the midst of all the policymaking, two stories broke that could, in the long run, prove even more consequential for the future of digital assets. Because at the end of the day, it’s not Washington that will decide the fate of crypto. It’s the market. 🏦 First, PNC Bank and Coinbase announced a major strategic partnership aimed at integrating digital assets into traditional banking infrastructure. PNC customers will gain access to Coinbase’s crypto custody and investment services through their existing banking relationship, a step that effectively blends institutional-grade blockchain services with mainstream consumer finance. The move signals growing demand from legacy financial institutions to offer secure digital asset solutions to their clients—aligned with the vision behind GENIUS, CLARITY and the Senate draft, which emphasize custody, compliance, and stability in digital asset markets. 📱Second, Telegram launched its self-custodial TON Wallet to more than 87 million U.S. users. The wallet—embedded directly within the Telegram app—enables peer-to-peer transfers, token swaps, staking, and zero-fee onramps through MoonPay. It’s a dramatic re-entry into the U.S. market for a project once sidelined by the SEC, which sued Telegram in 2019 to block its initial token launch. Combined, these developments show where the digital asset ecosystem is headed—toward convergence between fintech, crypto, and traditional finance, with real-world adoption happening in parallel to the legal clarity coming from legislation.

Reflecting on 2023, Provenance Blockchain Foundation's role in reshaping financial services has been nothing short of revolutionary, especially in asset tokenization and integrating blockchain with traditional finance. 🌐 2023 Highlights: 1️⃣ Figure Technologies' Innovations: A major player, Figure Technologies spearheaded financial solutions including a significant $308 million in HELOC securitizations. Their ventures into private funds and lending with DFS and DART contributed greatly to Provenance managing over $9 billion in real-world assets. 2️⃣ Hamilton Lane's Blockchain Integration: Hamilton Lane's integration of blockchain-native share classes in their sizable Private Assets Fund on Provenance marked a significant fusion of blockchain and traditional investment methods. 3️⃣ Strategic Partnerships and Innovations: From NovaWulf's unique approach in distressed asset management to Movement Mortgage's collaboration enhancing mortgage processing efficiency, Provenance showcased its versatility. Apollo Global Management, Inc.'s adoption of eMortgages further underlined blockchain's disruptive potential in the mortgage sector. 4️⃣ USDF Consortium's Digital Banking Foray: The introduction of the FDIC-backed digital token USDF exemplifies how blockchain can bridge the gap between conventional banking and digital finance. 🔍 Provenance Blockchain Zones & Forward-Look: The launch of Provenance Blockchain Zones, offering tailored blockchain solutions to financial institutions, was a game-changer. It's a strategic step towards blending public and private blockchain functionalities, prepping Provenance for future financial services innovations. 📈 Impact and Future Outlook: Provenance Blockchain's strides in 2023 highlighted the transformative power of blockchain in financial sectors. Its advancements in asset tokenization, efficient mortgage processing, and digital banking are pivotal in modernizing traditional financial services. Looking ahead, the continuous technological enhancement and ecosystem growth keep Provenance Blockchain at the forefront of financial innovation.

The technical challenges and opportunities in creating platforms for tokenized assets, based on Portal’s experience with decentralized finance solutions, are twofold. First off, according to Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the tokenization of financial assets on the blockchain will grow into a $16 trillion market by 2030 and will represent 10% of all financial assets. It’s a big opportunity. One main focus for tokenization companies is building a regulation-friendly platform that allows people from around the world to buy US securities easily. However, they acknowledge the challenges of regulatory uncertainty and user onboarding in the crypto market. There are two challenges that Portal addresses for them: Streamlined UX and DevX: With our solution, companies are able to abstract away all complexity from customers while customers maintain self-custody. The balance between operational efficiency, compliance, and a fantastic user experience is critical to driving utility.  Compliance/Security: Compliance + security are key parts of every tokenization platform, from issuing the token to custody and on-going utility and value. As a result, we’ve seen companies go to great lengths to have enterprise-grade infrastructure in order to build trust with institutions. Who are some tokenization platforms and industry players to keep an eye on? There are quite a few, with some being: - Superstate - Dinari - MetaWealth™ - Securitize - Parfin - Maple - Obligate - Centrifuge - Propy Title Agency - Steakhouse Financial - Mauve - And many more... Tokenization of financial assets, with the blend of a streamlined UX and robust security, presents a massive opportunity for enhancing liquidity while also democratizing investment and reducing barriers to entry.

Digital money and digital assets are becoming easier to transport across borders, as network interoperability stands to drive #web3 adoption of tokenized assets. The innovations are underway to interconnect and interoperate various public/ private blockchains with today's financial infrastructure, as evidenced by the recent technical collaboration between Chainlink-developed Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) and Swift. A report from Swift, the global financial messaging network, highlighted that its existing messaging standards, in conjunction with the Chainlink CCIP, have the potential to facilitate interoperability between traditional financial systems and emerging blockchain technologies. Full report is attached below. Swift collaborated with several major financial institutions on the experiments, including Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ), BNP Paribas, BNY Mellon, Citi, Clearstream, Euroclear, Lloyds Banking Group, SIX Digital Exchange (SDX) and The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC). Chainlink was used as an enterprise abstraction layer to securely connect the Swift network to the Ethereum Sepolia network, while Chainlink’s CCIP enabled complete interoperability between the source and destination blockchains.

Over the past year, we’ve seen overwhelming demand among institutions for onchain financial products and tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) due to the greater liquidity and accessibility they offer. Chainlink is at the center of this mega-trend, providing a growing collection of major financial institutions and market infrastructures access to the services they require to enrich RWAs with data, transfer RWAs cross-chain, and keep RWAs updated even as they move cross-chain. An example of this, ARTA TechFin—a leading Hong Kong-based financial institution—is developing cross-chain tokenized funds using multiple Chainlink services: CCIP for secure token transfers across public and private blockchains; Data Feeds for Net Asset Value (NAV) reporting; and Proof of Reserve for verifying the collateral backing on chain fund tokens. This collaboration is both a strong indicator of the growing institutional demand for onchain finance and Chainlink’s role as the foundation for the Internet of Contracts.

What's the most obvious thing that I expect to see happen this cycle that nobody is talking about? Banks in the US are going to start looking around, wondering why Coinbase gets to custody of all of the Bitcoin (and future ETH?) ETFs, earning all of the fees in the process. And they are going to want in on the action. Which means we might be closer to crypto regulation than people realize in the US (the upcoming election will certainly play a role). Some incumbents may have been incentivized to try to impede crypto in the past. But now that the cat is out of the bag, the incentive is more likely to flip to the other side. As this occurs, crypto and the financial system will slowly become integrated. My thesis is that this will take place across two phases: In phase 1 (currently underway), regulated asset managers and financial service providers will begin offering customers access to new crypto-based financial products such ETFs, SMAs, indices, tokenized securities, staking products, etc. In phase 2, the more agile incumbents will build "on top" of public blockchains and DeFi infrastructure — offering new financial services via familiar, regulated interfaces —while leveraging DeFi protocols and public blockchains under the hood. In this way, DeFi brings the tech. TradFi brings the distribution. Not only can the two win together, but investors that access these new financial products early (in phase 1) could benefit from institutional adoption of the underlying tech that is poised to come later (phase 2). The key takeaway? If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times: If you want to understand why crypto is unstoppable, you need to understand game theory, economic incentives, the core value prop of public blockchains, and the unwavering popularity of the space. ---- We covered this in detail recently for readers of The DeFi Report If you'd like to access our latest research, The Institutional Investors Guide to Ethereum, see the link in the first comment.

Excited to share groundbreaking developments in the world of finance and technology that are reshaping our future: 🌐 Israel and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange make strides with a $2.2 billion government bond tokenization, setting a new standard for transparency and efficiency. 🏦 FDIC Vice Chairman Travis Hill sheds light on tokenization, highlighting its potential to revolutionize banking with 24/7 operations and improved efficiency. 🔓 A looming cybersecurity threat as the top four custodian banks begin tokenizing over $108 trillion in assets, signaling unprecedented risks. 🔒 Polymesh Association launches Polymesh Private, offering financial institutions a private blockchain solution tailored for regulatory compliance and innovation in asset tokenization. 💸 Figure Technologies secures $60M to disrupt the crypto exchange market with a decentralized platform, signaling a new era for digital finance. 🏢 BlackRock's partnership with Securitize to tokenize $100m in real estate assets marks a monumental shift towards digital investment platforms, blending traditional assets with blockchain technology.