Hi {{first_name|there}}, it's Marc.
Welcome to the Monday edition of the 51 Insights digital asset newsletter.
Here's what matters this week:
Let’s unpack. 👇
On the podcast
Zach Pandl ran currency strategy at Goldman Sachs and now leads research at Grayscale. Last month he told clients to buy bitcoin, even after a Fed hike and the failure of CLARITY. “It's a green light,” he told me. His reason: every big government has a debt problem, so money looks for what he calls “the third way.”
Or listen on Spotify.
THE BIG STORY / TOKENIZED STOCKS
Companies don’t want to be tokenized
What's going on here?
A transfer agent keeps the official list of who owns a company's shares. It's one of the dullest jobs in finance. This morning Morgan Stanley agreed to buy one, Vinyl Equity, and said the deal adds infrastructure for future tokenization. No price given; it expects to close in early 2027. Also this morning, NYSE named Avalanche's technology as the ledger for its coming tokenized stock platform. NYSE already has six transfer agents signed up, including Broadridge and Computershare.
The other route is going badly. OKXICE, half owned by NYSE's parent ICE, proposed trading tokens of big US stocks. Its November 5 notice lists 67 companies that objected, including Apple, Meta, Nvidia and JPMorgan. Of the 62 stocks it first proposed, 56 have said no.
What does this mean?
There are two ways to tokenize a stock. A venue can wrap your stock and give you 30 days to object. Or your transfer agent issues the token and you set the rules. Big companies are refusing the first. ICE, which owns NYSE and half of OKXICE, has a seat on both.
Why would a bank want the register? My read: Morgan Stanley at Work already serves about half the S&P 500. With Vinyl, Morgan Stanley could keep a company's shareholder list, issue its tokens and hold them for its own clients. Today most US shares sit at DTC, the industry's central depository, instead. So the real fight is over who keeps the official record.
Read the fine print on Avalanche. AVAX rose 8%, but NYSE will run its own private chain and choose who can take part. How much of that reaches the token is unclear. The platform still needs regulatory approval, and its clearing firm isn't named.
Why should I care?
If you're a CFO or general counsel, ask your transfer agent now what an issuer-sponsored token would take. Otherwise a venue can list you first.
What I'm watching: which large company picks the transfer agent route first. Late OKXICE objections can still post through Tuesday.
Since Friday
Monday · Coinbase gets its charter as Binance leaves four EU countries. The OCC made Coinbase's trust charter final, covering custody and payments, not deposits or loans. Binance will close affected EU accounts on December 31, and it still has no MiCA licence. As I wrote today, the market is splitting into offshore and licensed.
Monday · PNC takes USDC. In a limited pilot, corporate clients can receive USDC on Ethereum through Coinbase. It converts 1-to-1 into dollars in a PNC deposit account. The bank keeps the deposit and the client never holds the coin.
Friday · Treasury cuts off MEXC. FinCEN ordered US financial institutions to stop moving money to or from the exchange, citing at least $16 billion in illicit transactions. The order takes effect 30 days after it's published in the Federal Register. If your bank touches crypto flows, check for MEXC exposure before then.
Follow-up · Who won the crypto vote. Democrats took Congress, but on Stand With Crypto's tracker, an advocacy group's own grades, House winners so far split 242 pro-crypto to 106 against. Counting senators not up this year, it has 50 pro-crypto to 33 against.
The week ahead
Tuesday, November 10 · Inflation and the digital euro. US CPI at 8:30 a.m. ET, hours after Fed Governor Waller speaks in London. The ECB's Cipollone faces the European Parliament on the digital euro. eToro reports. Digital Asset Summit runs in London through Wednesday and Cantor Convergence through Thursday.
Wednesday, November 11 · Bonds shut, Korea's deadline, MSCI's list. US bond markets close for Veterans Day; stocks trade. Comments close on Korea's tokenized securities rules, which start in February. MSCI publishes its final list of non-operating companies, with Strategy and Metaplanet at risk of removal. The ECB publishes evidence on who holds stablecoins in the euro area.
Thursday, November 12 · USDC gets a new supervisor. The European Banking Authority takes over direct supervision of USDC's reserves, capital, liquidity and redemption plans. France's ACPR keeps governance. Figure and Nu report, and Gemini follows after the close. SEC Chair Atkins speaks at 10 a.m. ET.
Friday, November 13 · Producer prices. PPI at 8:30 a.m. ET. Twenty One holds its first earnings call.
Sunday, November 15 · Solana Breakpoint. Three days in London, through Tuesday.
Monday, November 16 · 13F day. Big investment managers file their third-quarter US holdings. Look for who bought or sold spot crypto ETFs.
👉Follow all the stories on 51insights.xyz
One useful read
Trump administration's embrace of "perp" futures sets off risk alarms for Wall Street stalwarts · Reuters. Perps never close. Wall Street worries about a Sunday crash when banks can't move cash. Tokenized stocks face the same test.
My question for the week: who keeps your company's shareholder list, and what are they building?
That’s all for now, folks.
Take care
– Marc & Team
PS: Your next client could be reading this.
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