Coinbase Lands Federal Trust Charter

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Coinbase's federal trust charter is less a regulatory milestone and more a consolidation play: as institutional capital flows onchain, the exchange is positioning itself as the unavoidable infrastructure layer, leaving smaller custodians and would-be TradFi entrants competing on Coinbase's terms.

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In Today's Email:

• What Matters: Coinbase Lands Federal Trust Charter 👀 

• Founders Highlight: Dingaling of Predict.fun 👨 

• Deal Flows: OpenFX Raises $94M for Stablecoin FX Rails 💰️ 

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WHAT MATTERS

Coinbase Lands Federal Trust Charter

State of play: Coinbase has received conditional approval for a national trust company charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, positioning the exchange to offer custody and market infra services under a unified federal regulatory framework.

• The OCC charter streamlines oversight for Coinbase's institutional offerings, with the firm clarifying it will not take retail deposits or engage in fractional reserve banking.

• Coinbase joins a wave of crypto firms seeking the same designation, with Paxos, BitGo, Ripple, and Circle also having applied, and Stripe-owned Bridge gaining conditional approval last month.

• The approval arrives as Coinbase and other industry players push for the Clarity Act in Washington, a digital asset regulatory bill currently stalled in the Senate.

Why it matters: A national trust charter gives Coinbase federal regulatory standing to expand custody and institutional services without navigating a patchwork of state-level rules, raising the bar for compliance across the industry.

Our take: With a federal charter, Coinbase cements itself as the default institutional-grade infrastructure layer for digital assets, widening the moat against both domestic competitors and TradFi entrants moving onchain.

For builders and investors: Custody and market infra built on a federally chartered Coinbase becomes a safer integration point for institutional products.

BUILDER-INVESTOR HIGHLIGHT

Dingaling of Predict.fun

Intro: Dingaling is the Founder of Predict.fun, a fast-growing, decentralized prediction market protocol on the BNB Chain.

Previous background: Dingaling built his reputation as a prominent anonymous NFT whale and serial crypto entrepreneur before transitioning to public-facing leadership.

• He was an early force behind LooksRare and boop.fun, establishing himself as a key figure in NFT culture and onchain communities.

The big idea: Dingaling repositions prediction markets as information trading and risk hedging rather than gambling, building a skill-based platform where NFTs carry yield and users trade on outcomes rather than chance.

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INSIGHTS

Securitize Bets Big on Tokenized Equities

Securitize CEO and Avalanche President outline how tokenized real-world assets are moving from niche experiment to mainstream infrastructure, anchored by a landmark partnership with the New York Stock Exchange and a coming NASDAQ listing.

• Securitize will serve as the first approved transfer agent and tokenization platform on NYSE's new digital ATS, with its broker dealer arm as the first approved venue participant for instant stablecoin-settled equity trades.

• BlackRock's 2024 tokenization push, which produced the fastest-growing fund in industry history, shifted institutional conversations from "why tokenize" to "what to tokenize."

• Tokenized treasuries lead RWA adoption at $10-11B, with equities, ETFs, and bonds next, as the industry learned tokenization compounds value on already-liquid assets.

• Recent SEC and OCC guidance confirmed tokenized securities carry no additional accounting haircuts, clearing the last major blocker for broker dealer custody at scale.

• Securitize is going public at $1.25B via SPAC on NASDAQ under ticker "SECU," with the IPO framed as the launchpad to scale tokenized assets from billions to trillions.

DEAL FLOWS

OpenFX Raises $94M for Stablecoin FX Rails

Deal flows soared this week - we saw $800M+ in deals 💼 

Cross-border payments startup OpenFX has raised $94M at a $500M valuation, backed by Accel, Atomico, Lightspeed Faction, and Pantera, to scale stablecoin-powered FX infrastructure for large institutional transfers.

• OpenFX uses stablecoins as a bridge between traditional banking and digital rails, settling over 98% of transactions in under 60 minutes versus two to five business days in legacy forex.

• The platform targets high-value transfers in the $1M-$10M range where traditional order books break down and spreads reach 2-5%, processing over $45B in annualized volume, up from $4B a year ago.

• Fresh capital will fund expansion into Southeast Asia and Latin America, where stablecoin adoption is accelerating fastest among fintechs, neobanks, and payroll platforms.

Deal flows in the past week:

• Kulipa, $6.2M Seed Round

• The Better Money Company, $10M Seed Round

• Valinor, $25M Seed Round

• Midas, $50M Series A Round

• Keyrock, Undisclosed $ Series C Round

• P2P.me, $5.2M Public Token Sale

• ARO Network, $5M Strategic Round

• Predict.fun, Undisclosed $ Strategic Round

• Pumpcade, $1M Unknown Round

• Uniblock, $5.2M Unknown Round

• Latitude, $8M Unknown Round

• OpenFX, $94M Unknown Round

• Polymarket, $600M Unknown Round

QUICK BITES

• Bithumb stretches IPO timeline to 2028.

• Circle unveils plans for wrapped bitcoin token cirBTC.

• Pump.fun leads $1M pre-seed funding round into Pumpcade.

• Hyperliquid gains ground on CEXs as perps market share nears 6%.

• YZi Labs increases investment in prediction market startup Predict.fun.

• CFTC sues states in escalating fight for jurisdiction over prediction markets.

• Coinbase receives conditional approval for national trust charter from OCC.

• Telegram Wallet integrates Lighter to roll out in-app perpetual futures trading.

• Alabama gov signs bill creating legal framework for DAO-like nonprofit entities.

NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME

• Jussy’s read on DeFi Hacks in 2026.

• Tiger Research’s read on Stablecoin Issuance Market.

• Abhitej’s read on Why 70% of Prediction Market Users Lose Money.

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Disclaimer: All the information presented in this publication and its affiliates is strictly for educational purposes only. It should not be construed or taken as financial, legal, investment, or any other form of advice.