👋 Welcome to the first edition of the Institutional Briefing!

Each Thursday, we’ll break down the most important shifts in tokenization, stablecoins, and the institutional adoption of digital assets — so you can stay informed and ahead of the curve.

If we may ask: As we celebrate our debut today, we’d love your feedback. There’s a one-question survey at the end — quick for you, invaluable for us.

In today’s edition:

• Citi partners with SDX to tokenize private equities

• Deutsche Börse expands into crypto spot trading

• Banque de France turns to Ethereum

• Coinbase launches new standard for internet payments

Deutsche Börse Expands into Crypto Spot Trading with 3DX

New trading venue: Deutsche Börse yesterday unveiled 3DX, a new crypto spot trading venue tailored exclusively to institutional clients. Operated by 360T — the group's FX trading subsidiary — 3DX debuts with support for multiple crypto-assets, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Solana (SOL).

Key Highlights:

• Built on existing FX rails: At its core, 3DX extends the infrastructure of 360T, one of Europe’s largest institutional FX platforms. More than 2,000 corporates and financial institutions use 360T daily to trade spot, forwards, and swaps. This same infrastructure now supports crypto.

• Streaming prices over order books: Rather than relying on a central order book, 3DX facilitates bilateral trading through executable streaming price feeds from selected counterparties, enabling tailored pricing and lower slippage.

• T+1 settlement, no pre-funding: Trades settle on a T+1 basis, eliminating the need to post capital in advance — a key departure from many crypto-native venues, where pre-funding remains standard.

• MiCAR-compliant, BaFin-regulated: 3DX is among the first crypto trading venues to launch under Europe’s new MiCAR regime. The platform is fully operated in Germany and registered with BaFin.

“Horizon 2026”: As a strategic pillar of Deutsche Börse’s Horizon 2026 roadmap, 3DX reflects the group’s broader ambition to digitize asset classes and consolidate trading, settlement, and custody across crypto-assets and tokenized securities into a seamless, integrated infrastructure.

• Crypto-assets: After acquiring Crypto Finance in 2021 and launching crypto derivatives on Eurex, 3DX now adds crypto spot trading with more assets and additional services in the pipeline.

• Tokenized securities: With Clearstream’s D7, which allows for same-day issuance and settlement of dematerialized securities, and 360X, a marketplace for tokenized alternative assets, Deutsche Börse has already begun shifting traditional instruments onto digital rails.

What’s next: The first institutional clients are expected to go live in the coming weeks, with additional tokens already under review. Deutsche Börse is also in discussions with prime brokers, market makers, and crypto-native liquidity providers. Over time, 3DX is expected to evolve into a modular platform — with additional features like risk management, clearing mechanisms, and alternative settlement options under consideration.

Banque de France is Showing the Way to Permissionless Blockchains

Ethereum demo: At the Point Zero Forum in Zurich, the Banque de France demonstrated a full end-to-end settlement of tokenized securities on Ethereum — executed entirely on-chain using a MetaMask wallet on the Sepolia testnet.

Collaboration with Singapore: The prototype is part of the Global Layer 1 (GL1) initiative led by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, with support from the ECB, IMF, and the Banque de France. The joint aim: prove that public blockchains can satisfy institutional compliance requirements.

GL1 in action: The system is powered by Ethereum-based smart contracts that enable regulated institutions to exchange tokenized assets under strict compliance constraints. Designed as a public-permissioned network, it combines the openness of public infrastructure with controlled access for KYC-verified participants.

This is how the demo worked:

• A participant connects a pre‑whitelisted wallet.

• The tokenised asset is wrapped in a contract that runs AML / sanctions checks.

• After validation, the asset is unwrapped and delivered to the counterparty.

Open source: According to our information, the Banque de France plans to release their smart contract code as early as next week. The goal is to seed a new technical standard for institutions looking to transact on public chains and accelerate adoption through reuse and collaboration.

A pioneer: The demo is the latest in a long line of blockchain initiatives from the Banque de France. Since 2020, the French central bank has run over a dozen wholesale CBDC pilots, including Project Jura (PvP FX with the SNB) and the DL3S interoperability trials for the Eurosystem.

1. Coinbase unveils x402 whitepaper — A new internet-native money protocol that lets agents pay with stablecoins over HTTP.

2. Stablecoins get a nod from the U.S. Treasury — But the report skips the hard questions on deposits, interest, and dollar dominance.

3. J.P. Morgan and MIT rethink payment tokens — A new report proposes compliance-ready standards for bank-issued tokens on public blockchains.