institutions

According to News1, the Korean National Tax Service is piloting the custody and management of seized virtual assets by entrusting them to private cryptocurrency custody institutions for the first time, with plans to run a trial until the end of this year.Major custody institutions in Korea, such as KODA, KDAC, Hecto WalletOne, BDACS, and InfiniteBlock, are all prepared to participate. Although the budget for this pilot project is only about $5,800, the industry believes that obtaining a reference case from the "Korean National Tax Service project" is of symbolic significance.

Former Hong Kong Stock Exchange President Li Xiaojia stated at the second Caixin London Atlantic Dialogue that China can export productivity and financial services to regions such as the Global South to expand the influence of the renminbi. Chinese financial institutions can issue credit loans in these countries through financial technologies such as blockchain.

This week, the cryptocurrency market has reached a critical turning point, with market sentiment significantly improving. BTC successfully broke through $82,000, reaching a nearly three-month high, and firmly established a key support level at $81,000.On May 5, the U.S. spot BTC ETF recorded a net inflow of $467 million, with BlackRock contributing $251 million; on May 6, the ETH ETF also saw inflows exceeding $170 million for three consecutive days. The continued strength in capital indicates that institutional allocation has shifted from "experimental attempts" to strategic "core asset allocation."Against this backdrop, Gate has continuously optimized its institutional-level service system. With the SuperLink architecture and excellent cross-platform capital scheduling capabilities, Gate provides high-performance matching and deep liquidity support for institutional investors. To address the core demands of professional investors for compliance, security, and asset diversification, the platform offers a one-stop custody solution covering crypto assets, CFD contracts, perpetual contracts, and spot tokens.At the same time, Gate has built a comprehensive derivatives matrix covering stocks, metals, indices, foreign exchange, and commodities, helping global institutions achieve efficient strategy execution and risk management in a structural bull market.

Eric Trump, son of U.S. President Donald Trump and co-founder of American Bitcoin, stated at the Consensus conference that traditional financial institutions are changing their attitudes towards Bitcoin. He cited JPMorgan as an example, noting that the institution was still "diminishing" Bitcoin 18 months ago, but now allows clients to use Bitcoin holdings as collateral to apply for home loans.Eric Trump also mentioned that traditional financial institutions like Merrill and Charles Schwab have begun to embrace Bitcoin. He stated that these institutions have realized they cannot continue to fight against industry trends, and thus have started to support the Bitcoin ecosystem. He also revealed that American Bitcoin's current goal is to become the lowest-cost Bitcoin acquirer in the industry.

During the 2026 Hong Kong Web3 Carnival, the "RWA & Payments 2026" summit, co-hosted by StableStock, Mask, and BenPay, was held in Hong Kong, with MYBX invited as an official partner.According to reports, the MYBX team communicated with institutions such as Bitget Wallet, Cobo, Aleo, Conflux, and CREGIS during the summit regarding RWA asset clearing, payment protocol interoperability, and trading infrastructure, and discussed topics such as high-concurrency matching, atomic clearing, and on-chain payments in conjunction with the MYBX 2.0 trading system.

According to CoinDesk, Angus Fletcher, head of digital assets at State Street Bank, stated at the Consensus Miami conference that in light of the recent surge in DeFi attack incidents, institutional investors are looking for improvements in blockchain security. He pointed out that the young crypto industry needs to find solutions now before trillions of dollars in real-world assets are put on-chain.Fletcher believes that the interoperability between blockchains needs to be clearly defined and understood, and institutional clients need to understand the legal ownership and rights of cross-chain tokens. Dennis Bree, head of Morpho, stated that April could be the month with the most hacker attacks in DeFi history, and regulators are conducting more due diligence on the security of collateralized assets.

According to ETHNews, Ripple Prime has joined the tokenization pilot working group of the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) in the United States, with participating institutions including BlackRock, JPMorgan, HSBC, Anchorage Digital, Bank of America, BitGo Bank, and others.The report states that the working group aims to promote the infrastructure and industry standards related to tokenized securities, covering various market roles such as custodians, asset management companies, brokers, trading venues, application providers, and back-office service providers.DTCC previously stated that it plans to initiate limited production trading of tokenized assets in July 2026 and to fully commercialize related services in October 2026. This plan will support tokenization services for major index ETFs, Russell 1000 index constituents, and U.S. Treasury securities, among other assets.

According to the Wall Street Journal, citing informed sources, Anthropic plans to jointly invest $1.5 billion with several Wall Street institutions to establish a joint venture, with Anthropic, Blackstone Group, and Hellman & Friedman each contributing $300 million, and Goldman Sachs contributing $150 million.The company will help private equity firms and their portfolio companies integrate and adopt AI tools to enhance operational efficiency. Informed sources said the announcement is expected to be made as early as Monday.

Dragonfly partner Haseeb Qureshi stated that retail investors have significantly exited the current crypto market, and institutions are becoming the market bottom and supporting Bitcoin prices. He pointed out that Bitcoin is being viewed as a mature asset with sustained growth potential over the next 15 to 20 years, while altcoins need to have a clear narrative to attract retail attention again.He also mentioned that the core of the crypto industry still revolves around money and financial scenarios, with areas such as DeFi, stablecoins, exchanges, and RWA having strong user stickiness. With the involvement of AI technology, future agents may take on intermediary roles in trading, thereby enhancing overall adoption, and low-risk preference users may become the main source of incremental growth.

According to the latest weekly report released by Gate, in the past week (from April 20 to April 26), driven by the easing of geopolitical tensions and rising expectations for interest rate cuts, BTC rose from $68,000 to above $77,000, with market sentiment remaining "cautiously optimistic." ETF funds continued to see net inflows, indicating that institutions are steadily increasing their positions amid fluctuations, with capital accelerating towards high liquidity assets and deep trading platforms.There was a noticeable rotation of on-chain funds: PancakeSwap's trading volume approached $36 billion, the supply of USDT was nearly $200 billion, while USDe saw a net outflow of about $2 billion; in the DeFi sector, Aave's lending balance decreased, with liquidity shifting towards Spark. In terms of derivatives, the funding rate for BTC remains negative, while the activity and volatility of options have increased. The market will pay attention to the FOMC interest rate meeting and the volatility effects brought by the unlocking of OP, SUI, and ENA.Against this backdrop, Gate continues to strengthen its institutional service capabilities, providing high-performance matching, deep liquidity, and multi-exchange strategy support to meet high-frequency and arbitrage demands. At the same time, through a comprehensive asset security and custody system, combined with a one-stop solution for spot, contract, and multi-asset trading, it helps institutions execute efficiently and lay out robust strategies in a volatile market.

According to official news, OKX Onchain OS released the Agent Payments Protocol (APP) yesterday. Subsequently, ecological participants from various fields such as public chains, infrastructure, and AI expressed their support on the X platform.Currently, the publicly supported institutions include more than twenty entities such as Paxos, Solana, RootData, Aptos, Pharos Network, Nansen, Sui, 0G Labs, HeySorin AI, Corbits, QuickNode, Otto AI, Ethy AI, AltLayer, pieverse, Optimism, Surf AI, KITE AI, Mesh, Sahara AI, Teneo Protocol, Zerion, Alibaba Cloud, Uniswap, and others.It is reported that the Agent Payments Protocol (APP) is an open payment protocol aimed at the commercial behavior of AI Agents, designed to support Agents in expanding their capabilities from payment to complete business processes.

According to Jinshi reports, multiple institutions have conducted forward-looking analyses on the future interest rate path of the Federal Reserve. Wells Fargo and ING both expect the Federal Reserve to cut rates by 25 basis points in September and December. ANZ believes the Federal Reserve may restart the rate cut cycle at the September meeting. Goldman Sachs and Bank of America pointed out that economic growth faces downside risks, which may prompt the Federal Reserve to cut rates later this year.

According to CoinDesk, 21Shares Chief Investment Officer Adrian Fritz stated that the spot Bitcoin ETF continues to attract inflows, reinforcing Bitcoin's core position in institutional asset allocation, even as prices remain fluctuating below $80,000. Adrian Fritz pointed out that since the beginning of this year, Bitcoin ETFs have accumulated nearly $2 billion in funds, with sources including retail investors, institutions, and hedge fund arbitrage and options strategy trading.As traditional asset management institutions like Morgan Stanley accelerate their layouts, crypto assets are being more widely incorporated into multi-asset portfolio allocations. Bitcoin's current daily trading volume has exceeded $50 billion, and liquidity levels are approaching those of large tech stocks like Nvidia. The ETF mechanism simultaneously provides liquidity in both primary and secondary markets, gradually giving it "institutional-grade asset" attributes.Although the market is still suppressed by macro and interest rate environments, Adrian Fritz believes that ETF inflows have shifted from being driven by speculation to structural demand. He expects that with improvements in geopolitical conditions, continued inflows, and short covering, Bitcoin is likely to challenge the $100,000 mark within the year. Meanwhile, the differentiation among altcoins is intensifying, and the market is shifting towards a logic of asset selection that emphasizes fundamentals and cash flow.

Paul Frambot, co-founder and CEO of Morpho, tweeted that he has been in intensive contact with several large institutions over the past week to understand the current DeFi situation. The main conclusions are twofold:The interest of institutions in DeFi will not disappear, as the fund distributors will not leave. The massive assets under management (AUM), payment, and lending businesses are migrating en masse to on-chain, and fintech companies hope to fully go on-chain, leaving institutions with no choice.Nevertheless, institutions have completely lost trust in the liquidity pool model. They want to have control over the code, risk management, and compliance, allowing them to flexibly choose the necessary parts while accessing a globally compatible liquidity network.Paul Frambot believes that the commitment to open financial systems will not fail, as it will create tremendous value for all participants.

Morpho CEO Paul Frambot posted on X, stating that over the past week, he communicated with several large institutions to understand their views on the current DeFi situation. The core conclusions are as follows.First, institutional interest will not disappear. The reason is simple: distribution channels will not vanish ------ massive assets under management (AUM), payment, and lending operations are moving on-chain. Almost all fintech companies aim for full on-chain integration. For institutions, this is not a question of "whether" but "a must."Second, they have lost trust in the pool/hub model. Institutions and distributors want to control everything, including control over the code, control over risks, and control over compliance. At the same time, they also want flexibility, meaning the ability to isolate their own business and connect to a global liquidity network that is compatible with them.