BlackRock vs. Fidelity Crypto Battle, Trading NVIDIA Stock On Solana & More

Welcome back!

This is J264G and this week I’ve got these titbits for you:

• Crypto Battle: Fidelity outpaces BlackRock on SOL Spot ETF & stablecoin.

• Crypto Expansion: Interactive Brokers now offers Solana (SOL) trading.

• Onchain Equities: Remora is bringing onchain stock trading to Solana.

If you thought stablecoins were just a minor innovation, it's time to rethink that view ↓

Now, let’s jump right into this week’s newsletter!

Click on any underlined heading/hyperlink to learn more.

Spotlight

Onchain Equities

Stock trading on blockchains sounds like a no-brainer—fast, inexpensive, global, 24/7. 

Despite the promise, onchain stock trading hasn’t gained widespread adoption just yet.

Mainly, that's due to a mix of technical and market challenges:

• After-Hours Trading: Onchain equities rely on oracles to fetch real-time prices. But what happens when Wall Street’s closing bell rings, leaving no live prices for oracles to report? With no fresh price data, onchain stock markets either freeze trading or run on stale prices, leading to wild swings based on speculation. In short, true 24/7 price discovery for onchain equities remains a puzzle.

• Liquidity Constraints: The onchain user base remains considerably smaller compared to the user base of traditional finance. Mostly, this leads to shallow liquidity, which in turn means wider bid-ask spreads and price slippage. Trading can become costly or impractical if volumes are thin. During off-hours, liquidity is even more scarce, exacerbating the volatility issue.

• Trust & Transparency: Convincing traditional investors to trust an onchain representation of a stock is an uphill battle. Some tokenized stocks in the past were synthetic—not actually backed one-to-one by real shares. If an issuer simply creates a token that tracks a stock’s price without holding the actual stock, holders have no recourse or redemption right if the issuer fails​.

• Regulatory Roadblocks: Turning stocks into freely tradable crypto tokens blurs the line between traditional finance and digital assets—a red flag for many regulators. Many jurisdictions also view stock tokens as securities, meaning platforms need brokerage or exchange licenses to offer them. In 2021, Binance launched tokenized shares of Tesla, Apple, and others, only to halt the service amid regulatory scrutiny​.

Having said that, a new project on Solana is trying to break through these barriers: Remora Markets. 

The platform is gearing up for launch, and it will be interesting to see whether it can address the key challenges outlined above.

Will there be an effective mechanism to keep onchain prices tightly aligned with real-world prices? Can the team successfully persuade large institutional players to come onchain in order to overcome liquidity constraints? And with Remora still a relatively unknown brand, will users trust it over established platforms such as Schwab or Robinhood when it comes to trading equities? From what I can tell, Remora isn’t U.S.-based, which may allow it to work with more flexible jurisdictions and operate within innovative legal frameworks. That could open the door to acquiring new licenses and experimenting with alternative compliance models. 

Nonetheless, it’s still early days.

For now, onchain equities remain a work in progress—a promising idea still waiting for its “iPhone moment”.

Regardless, Remora’s entry into this space is a sign that the crypto industry hasn’t given up on that vision. After all, we might just bring Wall Street into the Solana era—one tokenized stock at a time.

Chart Of The Week

News Bites

Fidelity Forward: Fidelity has taken the lead over BlackRock by filing for a Solana Spot ETF, according to a 19b-4 form submitted by Cboe Exchange to the SEC. On top of that, Fidelity is reportedly planning to launch its own stablecoin—further deepening its push into crypto.

Money Markets: BlackRock, in partnership with Securitize, is expanding BUIDL, its tokenized money market fund, to Solana—further accelerating the onchain migration of traditional assets.

European Bitcoin: But that’s not all BlackRock has been up to. The asset manager has also recently launched its blockbuster Bitcoin Spot ETF in Europe: iShares Bitcoin ETP. Tickers: IB1T GY (Xetra) and IB1T FP (Euronext).

Crypto Guidance: The FDIC has dropped its 2022 requirement for banks to obtain pre-approval before engaging in crypto-related activities. The agency continues to work with the Trump administration and plans to issue further guidance to provide additional clarity for crypto stakeholders.

Stablecoin Rails: Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of NYSE, has signed an MoU with Circle to explore integrating USDC and USYC into its trading, clearing, and data infrastructure.

DEX Wars: PumpSwap, a new DEX from pump.fun, is quickly shaking up Solana DeFi. Since late March, it has claimed the second-largest market share—just behind Raydium—leapfrogging more established platforms such as Orca and Meteora.

Crypto Expansion: Interactive Brokers is expanding its crypto product suite to include Solana (SOL). Custody and trading will be supported through Paxos Trust and Zero Hash.

Caught In 4K

Weekly Take

Keks & Giggles

And that's a wrap!

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Talk soon!

J264G

_{DISCLAIMER
None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research. Lastly, please be advised that we discuss products and services from our partners from which our team members may hold tokens/equity.}