Long gone seem the days when U.S. crypto companies faced existential debanking threats.
Yesterday, Kraken became the first crypto company ever to receive a "skinny" master account at the Federal Reserve, allowing it to hold reserves and settle directly in central bank money, without a bank in the middle. Lending, discount window access, and commercial banking activities remain off the table. Hence, "skinny."
For now, it's a pilot, while Fed Governor Waller finalizes the broader framework that could soon extend the same privilege to other applicants like Ripple and Anchorage Digital.
Almost immediately, banking lobbyist groups were out with statements stressing they're "deeply concerned" by the approval. For them, it’s been the second blow from the executive branch in a matter of hours, after Trump warned on social media that he won't allow banks to undermine America's "powerful crypto agenda" and told them to "make a good deal with the Crypto Industry" on the Clarity Act.
In today’s edition, we take you behind the scenes of:
WisdomTree's SEC exemption, and why it’s a structural turning point for the industry
AllUnity launches a MiCA-compliant CHF-denominated stablecoin
HIGH SIGNAL NEWS
Morgan Stanley files for a national trust bank charter. This would result in a new standalone entity, dedicated to digital assets. This type of banking license is particularly popular among crypto-native firms, as it allows them to offer regulated custody services and operate under a single federal license valid across all 50 U.S. states. 🇺🇸
Barclays is exploring a blockchain platform for payments and tokenized deposits. According to Bloomberg, the UK bank has been sounding out technology providers to develop the solution. 🇬🇧
Nasdaq seeks SEC approval for prediction markets. According to a regulatory filing, the US technology-focused exchange plans to roll out prediction-market-style options on a major stock index. 🇺🇸
Northern Trust launches a tokenized money market fund. The bank manages approximately $1.8 trillion in assets globally. As of now, its asset management arm is issuing a tokenized share class that represents a digital mirror record of the fund’s institutional share class using blockchain technology. 🏦
Clearstream, DTCC, and Euroclear propose an interoperability approach for tokenization. The three financial market infrastructures argue that the challenge is not purely technical: legal alignment and operational standards are just as critical. Without them, blockchain-based market infrastructure could ultimately cost more than traditional finance to operate. ⛓
Reminder: Today at 4:30 PM CET, we’ll host a 60-minute webinar on trends in digital assets infrastructure (onchain privacy, interoperability, etc.). We only have a few seats left. Register here.
TOP STORY
Continuous Liquidity: Why WisdomTree's SEC Exemption Is a Structural Turning Point
The news: Last week, WisdomTree received SEC exemptive relief from the forward pricing rule, the regulation that requires all U.S. mutual fund orders to be executed at the daily NAV strike. The exemption allows WisdomTree’s broker-dealer to trade its tokenized government money market fund 24/7 at a fixed $1 NAV on the secondary market. It’s the first relief of its kind.
Why it matters: The forward pricing rule has been a key structural barrier preventing U.S. mutual funds from offering continuous trading. With this exemption, the fund delivers real-time execution, T+0 settlement, and yield that accrues in proportion to how long you hold it.
“DeFi markets demand exactly what we now have: 24/7 liquidity and continuous accrual. Getting this exemption is a foundational piece to be in place for our work in DeFi integrations,” explained Maredith Hannon, Head of Business Development Digital Assets at WisdomTree.
The tokenized money market fund market has nearly tripled since early 2025 — but not all products are built the same way. A comparison of the top five by AUM, March 2026.
Interview: We spoke with Hannon about how the fund operates in practice and the use cases and clients WisdomTree is targeting. You can find our full interview here. Below are the five most important takeaways:
The fund structure remains. This is still a '40 Act Rule 2a-7 money market fund — the same framework used by Fidelity, Vanguard, and BlackRock for their traditional cash products. Fixed $1 NAV, transparent holdings, bankruptcy remote. The exemption only removes the forward pricing constraint in the secondary market.
Yield now accrues continuously. Investors start earning immediately and receive yield proportional to how long they hold the fund, instead of relying on a daily 4 p.m. snapshot.
The first clients are institutional. WisdomTree is targeting stablecoin issuers, corporate treasuries, hedge funds, and exchanges via WisdomTree Connect. Retail access via WisdomTree Prime follows later in 2026.
Other broker-dealers can plug in. WisdomTree's own broker-dealer handles trades today, but the exemption is designed to be open infrastructure. Any qualifying broker-dealer can participate.
DeFi integrations are the next step. WisdomTree is working with Aave Horizon and exploring integrations with protocols like Morpho to enable the fund as onchain collateral.
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Industry perspectives: Following our conversation with Hannon, we spoke with three key actors to understand where the market for tokenized money market funds stands today and where it is heading:
The onchain asset management perspective (Centrifuge), on how tokenized money market funds will look like in the future
The treasury management perspective (SAP), on whether corporate treasurers are ready to put tokenized money market funds to work.
The legal perspective (Kaiko), on whether other asset managers could replicate WisdomTree’s approach, and how it compares to Europe.
Jürgen Blumberg is Chief Operating Officer at Centrifuge, a leading infrastructure provider for onchain asset management. Before joining, Blumberg spent 15 years in the ETF industry, notably at Goldman Sachs and BlackRock.
Will every tokenized money market fund end up looking the same?
While today’s tokenized money market fund products each reflect different starting points, they are ultimately converging on the same objective: continuous liquidity. That is the real breakthrough. First-generation tokenized funds still settle once a day at NAV, which is functionally no different from a traditional fund. With 24/7 liquidity, the product finally delivers on what tokenization has always promised.
Zooming out, the fund wrapper itself may become less central in many contexts over time. What we expect instead is a new generation of tokenized wealth management solutions: composable portfolios that combine fund tokens with direct holdings of underlying instruments. In effect, this brings the economics of a Separately Managed Account (SMA) to ticket sizes that were previously impossible.
AI is part of that picture too. AI-driven portfolio management running natively onchain means genuinely personalized strategies can operate even for very small accounts. The cost structures that once confined SMAs to high-net-worth clients no longer apply. What matters instead is superior infrastructure: technology that can bridge blockchains and asset classes while providing access to deep liquidity.
Bernhard Schweizer is Head of SAP Digital Currency Hub at SAP, the enterprise software backbone of 400,000+ organizations worldwide. His work focuses on integrating stablecoin-based settlement directly into SAP's ERP systems.
Are corporate treasurers already standing in line for tokenized money market funds?
Honestly, not yet. Most corporate treasurers are still working through the basics: what a stablecoin is, how it differs from a tokenized deposit, and how to account for it.
Europe already has SEPA Instant, which is a highly efficient payment rail. So the case for moving treasury operations onchain has to be very compelling, and right now the experience isn’t plug-and-play enough. For a large enterprise, adopting this means supplier due diligence on new counterparties, custody decisions, infrastructure integration, treasury policy changes. We’re somewhere around Windows 3.1: the technology works, but you still have to assemble the pieces yourself.
That said, the direction is clear. What makes tokenized money market funds interesting for treasurers is their role as a holding instrument: every stablecoin you receive gets swept into a yield-bearing fund, and when you need to pay, you convert back.
But that only works if I can buy the fund onchain against stablecoins in an atomic transaction, at transaction costs that don’t eat into the yield. If swap fees exceed half a day’s worth of interest, it stops working as a short-term instrument. And if I have to off-ramp to fiat and wait a day for settlement, I’ve lost the entire advantage over a traditional money market fund. The infrastructure to make that seamless still needs to catch up with the product innovation.
Anne-Sophie Cissey is Chief Administrative Officer at Kaiko, a leading provider of digital assets market data, analytics, and indices. She oversees all administrative, legal, compliance, and operational functions.
Can other asset managers follow WisdomTree’s approach, and what’s the situation in Europe?
Yes, but it’s not straightforward. Other asset managers can apply for similar relief under Section 6(c) of the Investment Company Act, and WisdomTree has established valuable precedent.
However, each applicant must independently demonstrate compliance capabilities, obtain coordinated SEC and FINRA approvals, and maintain sufficient broker-dealer infrastructure for principal trading and 24/7 settlement. This is a significant undertaking, not a template you can simply file and receive.
In Europe, the path is even less clear. There is no equivalent exemptive relief mechanism. Achieving 24/7 trading at fixed NAV would require engagement with national competent authorities, ESMA coordination, and potentially legislative amendments to UCITS or MiFID II frameworks. Current European tokenized fund offerings still operate on traditional subscription and redemption structures rather than the continuous dealer-intermediated model WisdomTree now uses. For European institutions watching this closely, the regulatory path is more fragmented and likely more time-intensive than in the U.S.
AllUnity: Risk Manager, Frankfurt 🇩🇪
Barclays: Lead Product Owner, London 🇬🇧
BlackRock: VP - Business Audit-Digital Assets, London 🇬🇧
Fidelity Investments: Quant Developer (Digital Assets), London 🇬🇧
JPMorgan: Kinexys Digital Assets - Product Manager- Vice President, London 🇬🇧
Swift: Digital Assets Strategy Lead, Paris 🇫🇷
What’s the news?
Last week, AllUnity became the first regulated issuer in Europe to launch a Swiss franc-backed stablecoin under MiCAR.
It’s the second stablecoin issued by the joint venture formed by Flow Traders, Galaxy, and asset manager DWS, backed by Deutsche Bank, following the launch of its euro-denominated token, EURAU.
Behind the scenes: We spoke with Simon Seiter, Managing Director and CFO at AllUnity, to understand why the company chose the Swiss franc for its second stablecoin, and whether other currencies could follow.
Monetary sovereignty in the age of stablecoins (Oliver Wyman) — An overview of how stablecoins are reshaping monetary systems and the regulatory strategies emerging to address their impact on monetary sovereignty.
Stablecoins and monetary policy transmission (ECB) — A paper examining how stablecoin adoption may affect bank funding, credit supply, and the effectiveness of monetary policy, highlighting risks such as deposit substitution and weaker policy transmission.
Digital Transformation & Next-Gen Technology Study 2026 (Broadridge) — A study examining how financial institutions are accelerating digital transformation through AI, tokenization, and modern infrastructure.
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Disclaimer: The information provided in the Institutional Briefing by Blockstories does not constitute investment advice. Accordingly, we assume no liability for any investment decisions made based on the content presented herein.