$1.5B Crypto Deal Reshaping Finance, Fidelity’s Big Moves Into Crypto & More

Welcome back!

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

• Crypto Shakeup: Kraken to acquire Ninja Trader for $1.5 billion.

• Tokenize Everything: Fidelity to tokenize its Treasury Digital Fund.

• New Entrant: Titan launches private beta on Solana to rival Jupiter.

The crypto industry is seeing more support from BlackRock lately—and I’m here for it!

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

Click on any underlined heading/hyperlink to learn more.

Spotlight

Under Pressure

Legacy financial institutions thought they had time—but the onchain economy just showed up early with party hats and stablecoins.

In today’s financial landscape, the question isn’t why someone would leave their conventional finance provider behind, but why stay? The once-sturdy pillars of legacy finance—slow processes, high fees, and limited hours—are being chipped away by agile, innovative crypto alternatives that are faster, cheaper, and accessible around the clock.

Why maintain a high-fee brokerage account with Schwab when platforms such as Robinhood or Phantom enable you to trade crypto on-demand, with minimal costs? These players are redefining market access, offering powerful trading tools in your pocket, without the friction, overhead, or limited working hours of traditional financial service providers.

Why wrestle with the clunky user experience of a traditional bank when super apps such as Grab and GCash let you pay for services in stablecoins—instantly, securely, and at a fraction of the cost? These apps operate 24/7 and are already integrated into users’ daily lives, making financial transactions as easy as booking a ride or ordering food.

And why settle for a corporate bank account that lags behind enterprise needs, when platforms such as Nubank, Mercury, Brex, and Squads offer a full suite of tools for precise, granular financial management and competitive yields on USDC? Users are waking up to the reality that they can earn meaningful returns on their assets while maintaining flexibility and access. 

The financial services industry is experiencing a seismic shift toward decentralisation, user empowerment, and borderless finance.

For legacy financial institutions, the implications are stark and unavoidable. Unless they evolve, integrate crypto rails, and offer onchain solutions that meet the demands of this new generation of users, they will be relegated to irrelevance. 

The golden age of the onchain economy isn’t on the horizon—it has arrived.

Chart Of The Week

News Bites

Crypto Shakeup: Kraken, one of the largest centralised crypto exchanges, has entered an agreement to acquire Ninja Trader—the leading U.S. retail futures trading platform—for $1.5 billion. Cue: Crypto is increasingly eating traditional finance.

Tokenize Everything: Fidelity Investments has filed paperwork revealing a new share class of its Treasury Digital Fund (FYHXX) that leverages blockchain technology as a transfer agent. Apart from that, the asset manager is in the process of establishing a statutory trust—Fidelity Solana Fund—potentially laying the groundwork for a future Solana Spot ETF.

Solana ETF: Speaking of ETFs, Volatility Shares just launched two Solana Futures ETFs, giving traditional finance investors dedicated ETF access to SOL for the first time. This move is another strong signal that Solana Spot ETFs could be on the horizon.

Solana Futures: Solana (SOL) futures have officially gone live on CME, the world’s largest derivatives marketplace. This opens the door for major hedge funds to trade SOL—yet another sign that Solana Spot ETFs might be just around the corner.

New Entrant: Titan, a new platform for spot trading i.e. token swaps on Solana, has just launched its private beta. The team promises the best prices by aggregating routes from Jupiter and DEXs such as Lifinity, Stabble, and more.

Oi Mate! With the launch of VGBP, the first-ever token pegged to the British Pound Sterling (GBP), the pound officially joins USD and EUR on Solana. Well fancy that, the Brits have officially come onchain—crikey!

Solana Onboarding: Polymarket, a decentralised prediction market platform, now lets users place bets using Solana tokens—finally enabling the Solana ecosystem to get in on the action.

Network Resilience: For Solana’s network to become more robust, it needs a diverse set of validator clients. Sig, a new validator client from Syndica, just shared its latest progress updates, mostly revolving around the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM).

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.}