Markets Media Group’s eight-annual Women in Finance Asia Awards event was held Thursday, May 21, at Mandarin Oriental Singapore.

Congratulations to the winners!

Select photos from the eighth annual event, with more soon to come.

Euronext reported that primary markets activity had its best first quarter in three years, despite elevated market volatility.

Stéphane Boujnah, chief executive and chairman of the managing board of Euronext, said on the first quarter results on 20 May 2026 that the group reported its eighth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth. Boujnah highlighted that primary activity was supported by the largest ever defence IPO globally, when Czechoslovak Group floated on Euronext Amsterdam, and very active follow-ons.

Stéphane Boujnah, Euronext

“Combined with a solid IPO pipeline, this demonstrates that we provide the relevant solution for European and global financing needs,” said Boujnah.

Primary markets revenue was €52.3m in the first quarter of 2026, an increase of 12.8% compared to the same period last year. Euronext said it sustained its leading position for equity listings with 12 new listings, half of which were international, and that performance was supported by the contribution of Euronext Athens.

In April this year, Athens Exchange Group became Euronext Athens following its acquisition and integration. Euronext also opened a technology and support centre in Greece, positioning Athens as a financial and technology hub in Europe, which Boujnah said creates more opportunities for cost management efficiency in the group.

Boujnah said: “We also benefit from growing momentum in the Greek market, supported by the reclassification to developed market status.”

Euronext confirmed that the next step is the migration of the Greek market to Optiq, the group’s proprietary technology platform, which is planned for June 2027.

Volume-related revenue

Volume-related revenue was driven by high market volatility and successful expansion in the first quarter of 2026, according to Euronext.

Fixed income, currency and commodities (FICC) revenue grew 5.3% to €95.5m, which the group said was due to strong expansion in commodities trading and clearing, the successful launch of Euronext Nord Pool power futures and record foreign exchange and precious metals trading.

Boujnah said MTS cash markets reached a new record on 6 May in fixed income with close to €94bn traded in a single day. MTS operates regulated electronic platforms and market data services for the European fixed income market and supported daily transaction volumes of more than €54bn in 2025.

Giorgio Modica, chief financial officer of Euronext, said on the results call that there was a slight reduction of MTS cash volumes due to the impact of the conflict in Iran. The conflict triggered a temporary widening of the bid-offer spread, but this trend has fully reversed in May.

Giorgio Modica, Euronext

Modica said: “Further positive notes for the quarter are the triple-digit growth in volume from Portugal and Spain, improving the geographic diversification of our fixed income business.”

Euronext Nord Pool power futures in the Nordics and Baltics became fully operational on 16 March 2026, after the successful migration of 100% of open interest from Nasdaq Clearing to Euronext Clearing. In 2025 Euronext acquired Nasdaq’s Nordic power futures business.

Boujnah said the launch allows Euronext to capture benefits across the full value chain and represents a major milestone in the execution of the group’s strategic plan as it is now present in a new asset class.

“Participants were active from day one, demonstrating strong client confidence in this new and large offering,” he added. “Nord Pool strengthens European energy market infrastructure, supports greater market integration across the continent, and helps ensure that energy price discovery and risk management remains anchored in Europe.”

All Nordic and Baltic contracts are now available for trading on Optiq and cleared on Euronext Clearing. Euronext said clearing is enhanced by using Euronext Clearing’s value at risk (VaR) model, which improves capital efficiency for participants.

Camille Beudin, Euronext

Camille Beudin, head of strategic development and M&A at Euronext, agreed on the call that the launch of power derivatives has been “super strong.”

“Volumes have been growing nicely, and market share of around 90% has been very consistent since the launch,” Beudin added.

Equity markets revenue rose 28.1% to €138.9m driven by high volatility and resilient revenue capture. The performance was supported by the growing momentum on the Greek market and by the dynamic growth in ETFs. Boujnah said cash equity markets set a new record on 20 March of over €38bn traded in a single day, and momentum has continued in this quarter.

European CSD expansion

On 6 May 2026 Euronext announced the launch of the testing phase for the expansion of its European central securities depository for clients to onboard, test connectivity and validate operational readiness.

Euronext Securities aims to offer a CSD service for equities and ETFs in Belgium, France and the Netherlands, adding to its existing markets in Denmark, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Norway. The architecture is designed to deliver a single, harmonised platform for settlement and custody across multiple European markets, with streamlined corporate action management, enhanced transparency and reduced operational costs.

Boujnah said the CSD expansion is showing “real momentum” as leading custodians support the model and are getting ready to go live in September this year. Custodians including BNP Paribas’ Securities Services business, Citi Investor Services and CACEIS have expressed their support for new offering.

He described these partnerships as essential to shift issuance and custody to a new ‘fit for the future’ European CSD.

Pierre Davoust, Euronext

“Thanks to those partnerships, additional issuers have committed to transfer their issuance to Euronext Securities, and we have recorded the first listing on Euronext Amsterdam directly issued on Euronext Securities,” added Boujnah. “Now things are getting real and accelerating.”

Pierre Davoust,head of Euronext Securities, said on the results call that  a number of issuers have triggered the process to migrate to Euronext, and these are expected to take place after the summer. He expects more issuers to follow once this first wave of migration has been executed.

Repo clearing 

Boujnah said Euronext successfully kicked off client onboarding on its European repo clearing platform.

“New international participants, including European banks, American banks, and debt management offices are joining Euronext repo clearing services for the first time,” he added. “In parallel, more than 30 existing clearing members are expanding their scope beyond Italian debt to all European sovereign debt.”

In parallel, new international participants are joining Euronext repo clearing services for the first time. In July this year Euronext will introduce a sponsored access model for buy-side clients, which Boujnah said will complete the delivery of a fully competitive offering for repos.

Financials

Modica said: “This quarter delivered record results and double-digit growth in non-volume related activities, trading and clearing.”

Underlying revenue and income for the first quarter of 2026 was up 15.3% from a year ago at €528.5m. Non-volume-related revenue and income represented 56% of total revenue and income.

Source: Euronext

Advanced data solution revenue grew to €69.3m euros, up 6.5% compared to the first quarter of 2025. Modica added: “The number of retail investors looking at Euronext data has doubled in two years, and the momentum is not slowing down, signalling a revival of retail investor engagement in Europe.”

In March 2026 Euronext launched mini ETF options, which it said improves access to these products for retail investors and meets the increasing role of ETFs in European investors’ portfolios. Since the September 2025 launch of Euronext ETF Europe, the average daily value traded has risen by 84% to reach €1.6bn in the first quarter of 2026.

Boujnah will complete his third term at Euronext’s next general meeting in May 2027 and he said the supervisory board is managing the process to identify potential successors.

“The ambition is to identify the right person by the end of this year, so that some form of minimal transition period can be implemented in the first month of 2027,” said Boujnah. “I can tell you that I’m fully committed to the development of the business until the very last minute.”

Michael Selig, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, is optimistic that that U.S will pass the Clarity Act to provide a market structure framework for digital weeks in the coming weeks.

Selig spoke at City Week 2026, hosted by City & Financial Global, in London on 19 May 2026. He highlighted that the proposed bill has been approved by the Senate banking committee after being passed out of the Senate agricultural committee several months ago.

“We’re at the point where we are expecting a full vote on the floor in the Senate in the coming weeks, and once it passes the Senate we are optimistic ihat it will pass the House,” he added. “A similar version of the bill passed the House a year ago, so that’s something that we’re looking to get on the President’s desk in the next month or two.”

Once the Clarity Act has been enacted into law, the CFTC and its fellow U.S regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission, will be “very busy” implementing the statute, according to Selig. He said: “The law is going to involve the registration of new exchanges, called digital commodity exchanges, with the CFTC as well as a wide range of different intermediaries.”

Selig expects there will be custodians, centralized exchanges and different types of advisors in the digital asset ecosystem similar to the existing securities and commodity derivatives markets. However, he also predicted the development of new software programs and self-custodial products.

As a result, the CFTC is evaluating how to approach new technologies where there is not necessarily an administrator or person in the middle of transactions. Selig said the regulator is reviewing the activity itself and people engaging in transactions onchain, as opposed to the person who designs the contracts.

He used the analogy of driverless cars, where regulators do not prosecute Tesla for manufacturing the car that somebody uses to rob a bank.

“We’re certainly going to prosecute and bring civil penalties against the robbers, but we’re not necessarily targeting software developers who are building some of these new technologies,” said Selig. “We think it’s very important to have a place for self-custodial wallets and for onchain applications, and the software developers of those products should not be regulated like an intermediary or an exchange.”

In addition, the CFTC is “excited” to facilitate onchain derivatives and onchain margin trading for crypto assets. The regulator is working to accommodate the use of tokenized collateral by brokers and with clearinghouses to facilitate the movement of tokenized assets, which could include stablecoins, tokenized real world assets, like gold, or native assets like bitcoin or ether.

“That’s a big piece of work and we’re excited to start to see our exchanges utilize crypto as collateral and transact with customers using tokens,” added Selig. “We’re already seeing it in the prediction market space and some of our crypto derivatives platforms.”

The U.S administration passed the Genius Act last year to establish a new regime for payment stablecoins and the CFTC has set standards for their margin and  capital treatment, which Selig said is facilitating broader use of stablecoins within derivatives markets.

“We are working closely with prudential regulators to make sure we have the right regime in place for banks and trust companies, so we’re very excited about it,” said Selig.

He predicted that stablecoins are going to be a “massive” use case for blockchain rails, and have a lot of interest from traditional financial institutions in the U.S. who want to transact on 24/7, 365 days a year. In addition, Selig said the CFTC is going to create a space for prediction markets in the U.S and set the gold standard for their regulation.

“We’re just exploring the surface of what’s possible with blockchain technology,” said Selig. “AI can have autonomously transacting program agents to do your bidding on a blockchain trade  and that’s really interesting. It also creates a lot of risk, so we’re assessing that as regulators, but we’re excited to be at the kind of the new frontier finance.”

Bank of England

Sarah Breeden, deputy governor for financial stability at the Bank of England, also spoke about regulation of tokenized finance at City Week 2026 on 19 May 2026. She said in a speech that no single firm can build that ecosystem alone, so she is thrilled that Chris Woolard was appointed as the U.K. government’s wholesale digital markets in April this year. Woolard is a partner at EY and former interim chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority.

Breeden argued that tokenization has real potential to improve retail payments and wholesale finance as shared ledgers, updated near-simultaneously across all parties to a transaction, could make payments and settlement faster and cheaper, with fewer intermediaries, less operational risk, lower cost, and shorter settlement windows. Smart contracts allow greater customisation, conditionality and automation and atomic swaps can extend delivery-versus-payment (DvP) and payment-versus-payment (PvP) settlement to allow a broader range of assets to be monetised easily, including intraday.

“A mid-sized corporate treasury could invest excess cash overnight in tokenized securities for a fraction of a day, then sell them with near real-time settlement the next morning, widening cash management options,” she said. “ Global corporates hedging in derivatives markets could meet margin calls more easily using tokenized collateral, with 24/7 cross-currency transfers to the subsidiary receiving the call, settled in near real time.”

With the U.K. Treasury, the Bank will set out the conclusions of its design phase this year on a retail central bank digital currency, or digital pound. It will publish draft rules for systemic stablecoins next month and finalise them by year-end, in line with the U.S. timeline.

“One option, also set out in the consultation, would be temporary guardrails on the total amount of a coin that could be issued,” Breeden added. “Reviewed regularly, that approach could achieve the same aim at lower cost to the sector and allow a wider range of high-value payment use cases, including for corporates.”

Banking groups can issue stablecoins from a non-deposit-taking, insolvency-remote group entity, similar to requirements in the U.S. These stablecoins should carry branding distinct from the group’s deposits,to reduce confusion, and the risk of contagion to bank deposits, as stablecoins will not be covered by deposit insurance.

In wholesale payments and digital markets, the Bank is enabling live trading venues and settlement systems for the supply of tokenized assets, including for the U.K. government’s pilot issuance of a digital gilt instrument (DIGIT).

“We are ensuring no unwarranted frictions to demand for tokenized assets through their prudential treatment and collateral eligibility,” she said. “We are providing infrastructure for the cash leg to settle in central bank money, in our modernisation of the Bank’s own payments infrastructure.”

The Bank is upgrading its internal systems in 2027 to connect directly to tokenized asset ledgers. In order to enable tokenized wholesale transactions to settle in central bank money the Bank is developing new functionality in its newly upgraded Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) infrastructure, RT2.

Breeden said she often describes RT2 as a “parked Ferrari” as it makes it possible to settle tokenized transactions directly in sterling central bank money. The Bank has confirmed its commitment to delivering its synchronisation service in 2028. This will enable the conditional movement of a wider set of assets and transaction types, including on DLT, against movements in central bank money held in RTGS accounts. A report later this month will showcase the prototype and set out next steps.

“We are testing this with 18 firms in our Synchronisation Lab, which went live earlier this month, across use cases including settlement of house purchases, tokenized securities and FX,” added Breeden. “So that Ferrari is out on a test drive now, and will be racing round the City very soon.”

A consultation has also been published on extending RTGS’s settlement hours towards near-24/7 operation.  The Bank is on track next year to extend RTGS settlement hours from 12 to 16½ hours each working day, according to Breeden.

“We are now seeking feedback on moving after that to Sunday and some bank-holiday settlement, and to 22 hours a day, by early next decade,” she added. “We are also seeking views on going further in the longer term, to 22×7 or near-continuous 23.5×7 operation.”

Bank-FCA Digital Securities Sandbox 

Breeden argued that the central part of the work on tokenized assets is the Bank-FCA Digital Securities Sandbox (DSS), which launched in 2024 and runs until January 2029 . This lets firms operate under a modified legislative and regulatory framework for trading and settlement,  to remove legal barriers that might otherwise hinder the use of new technologies. The DSS also includes issuance limits for key digital securities markets, set high enough to allow meaningful activity while safeguarding financial stability.establish live U.K

Later this year 16 firms are preparing to launch from the sandbox with a route to permanent operation, including Euroclear, HSBC and the London Stock Exchange Group, according to Breeden,

“We think the DSS offers greater certainty, competition and innovation than narrower alternatives that grant targeted, temporary legal relief to individual firms for specific initiatives and support a broader range of business models and use cases,” she said. “It also gives firms and authorities a way to learn how best to enable the responsible adoption of distributed ledger technology (DLT) in financial markets and embed those lessons in permanent operations and regulation.”

In the Bank’s own lending operations, it will also consider whether tokenized assets should be eligible as collateral in the Sterling Monetary Framework (SMF), which Breeden said would backstop the ability to monetise them in private markets.

The Bank of England prudentially regulates and supervises financial services firms through the Prudential Regulation Authority. The PRA has clarified that the prudential treatment of UK banks’ exposures to tokenized assets will be the same as for their non-tokenized equivalents where the legal rights are identical and the underlying risks are comparable.

Breeden said: “For collateral eligible at central counterparties, our aim is likewise to support eligibility of tokenised versions of assets already accepted as collateral. We will engage with industry on the detail through a discussion paper later this year.”

Rising volatility tied to AI-related stocks, geopolitical tensions and Federal Reserve uncertainty fueled a sharp increase in US equities trading activity in FY2025, helping drive a double-digit jump in investment banking revenues, according to the Crisil Coalition Greenwich report Volatility and geopolitical uncertainty drove FY25 global markets revenues.

The Americas generated $34.9 billion in investment banking equities trading revenue in FY2025, up 23.8% year over year, making it the strongest-performing equities region globally, according to the report.

The report said higher trading volumes, increased client activity and growth in electronic execution helped fuel the expansion across cash equities, equity derivatives and prime services businesses.

According to Aamir Hazaria, Director of Competitor Analytics at Crisil Coalition Greenwich, volatility linked to tariffs and geopolitical developments played a major role in accelerating trading activity across US equity markets.

“In FY2025, increased market volatility driven largely by tariff-induced uncertainty and geopolitical tensions, led to record-breaking trading volumes in US equities and FICC markets,” Hazaria said.

Global cash equities revenues rose 17.4% year over year to $12.2 billion, driven by higher trading volumes and a 12% increase in client spend, the report said. The Americas were among the regions leading the acceleration in electronic trading volumes, according to the findings.

Nitin Agicha, Vice President in Market Structure & Technology at Crisil Coalition Greenwich, said the continued shift toward automated execution reshaped trading dynamics across US markets.

“Shifting execution from high-touch, human-intermediated models to automated i.e., low-touch has increased market liquidity, tightened bid-ask spreads, and compressed commission rates, while enabling brokers to handle higher volumes efficiently, thereby boosting overall trading activity and revenue,” Agicha said.

He added that advances in algorithmic trading systems also created opportunities for firms to deploy lower-risk trading strategies, further increasing volumes.

The report showed algorithmic and smart-order-router trading accounted for 43% of buy-side trading activity in FY2025, while portfolio trading rose to 39%.

US equity derivatives markets also saw strong growth as investors sought to hedge against volatility tied to macroeconomic events, Fed policy and geopolitical uncertainty.

Global equity derivatives revenues climbed 21.4% year over year to $24.7 billion. Single-stock options emerged as one of the strongest-performing segments, driven by volatility and dispersion among AI-related stocks, according to the report.

Agicha said the structure of US markets gave them an advantage over other regions in attracting derivatives activity.

“The US market’s superior liquidity and tighter bid-ask spreads, driven by advanced electronic trading platforms and a high concentration of popular tech stocks attracts both retail and institutional investors compared to other regions,” Agicha said.

He noted that retail participation had a particularly large impact over the past year, while AI-related themes, tariff uncertainty and geopolitical developments increased volatility in individual US stocks and created additional trading opportunities.

The report also pointed to rising activity in exotics derivatives in the US, including more complex positioning tied to tariff announcements and volatility-driven strategies.

Prime services and futures revenues rose 21.5% year over year to $34.5 billion, supported by elevated US equity valuations and continued strength in technology stocks, according to the report. Delta One trading revenues increased as volatility and short-selling activity created additional trading opportunities.

The report said futures activity was also boosted by client hedging demand and cross-asset repositioning tied to geopolitical uncertainty and AI-led sector rotation.

US equity markets are building infrastructure to accommodate 24-hour trading, and the options industry is watching with rollout with great interest for what it may portend for the overnight trading of puts and calls.

Traders Magazine sat down with Aniceto (Andy) Solares, Principal of Regulatory Policy at OCC, and Mike Hansen, Chief Clearing and Settlement Officer at OCC, on May 6 at the Options Industry Conference in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Andy, you moderated the ‘No Closing Bell: Reimagining Options in a Continuous Market’ panel at OIC. Where does the industry stand with regard to 24-hour trading?

Andy Solares, OCC

It was interesting to me to hear a strong appetite for a pause, or some kind of break every day.

That aligns well with the perspective from the OCC white paper published last year in which we proposed a phased model to 22.5 or 23.5 hours is probably best for US listed options.

But at the same time, we have a lot of market participants we need to consider. There seems to be different perspectives based on the camp you sit within: of the digital natives, more of the traditional finance or exchanges like we heard on the panel.

We’re in an exciting place, kind of an inflection point of how and where the market is going to transition. If we’re having this conversation in 12 months or 24 months, I think we’ll be there. But there’s a lot of critical work needed to get there.

Mike, what are your thoughts from the operational side?

First I’d like to take a step back to emphasize that OCC has been clearing on an overnight cycle  for more than 10 years now. We clear both index options and index futures through CBOE and CFE. So operationally, the pipes are in place, we know what we’re doing, and we know the risk management piece of it. So that’s all good.

The industry is taking baby steps. For example, some exchanges have already filed for extended trading hours —  two hours on the front end and a 15-minute session on the back end. I think that’s an eventual move to an expansion beyond that, based on the volume and the quality and liquidity of the markets in those times.

Mike Hansen, OCC

At this conference we’ve heard from market making firms who want to make sure there’s liquidity, because if there’s demand they’re going to be making markets.

We’ve also heard from an exchange operator that is taking a wait-and-see approach – they’re not going to rush to file anything now, they’re going to wait to see how it works. If the volume is there, they will want to participate eventually but for now they’re not going to.

We’re not going to be at 23/5 or 24/7 in the options market anytime soon. As a derivatives market, we follow the equities market, which will be the first mover. Options will move following that, but probably not at a full 23/5 cycle. I think we’ll have a first iteration with two hours on the front end and a curb session on the back end – we’ll expand our work from there if volume warrants.

What is OCC doing on a day-to-day basis with regard to extended-hours trading?

MIKE:

We’re agnostic in that we’re not pushing an agenda one way or the other. As a market utility, we have to serve our participant exchanges.

The gist of our white paper is that if we are going to expand trading hours, there are three or four things that need to be resolved by the industry, which spans OCC, DTCC, our clearing members, and participant exchanges.

We are evolving that conversation now internally, to develop our position for what it will take to move forward and evolve the system. We’ll identify the issues from OCC’s perspective, and propose how we can solve them. From there we want buy-in from the industry and make sure that we’re in line with their expectations.

ANDY:

From my perspective, I’ve been tracking a lot of the conversations in Washington, DC around how the Federal Reserve could facilitate opening their payment railways in and around-the-clock fashion as well. To what Mike said, when we put the white paper out, we identified a number of considerations, including staffing and liquidity.

Another big piece is going to be the movement of money, the movement of collateral. Right now, absent national payment railways being open, we’re taking a hard look at leveraging innovation, leveraging new technology, to see how money can move outside of legacy banking hours. And at the same time, we’re trying to see if the payment railways themselves can get to be around-the-clock a little bit faster than what they’ve put out as their plan.

MIKE:

I’m encouraged that the industry is working collaboratively. There are three options-specific committees that OCC participates in, which all met this week at OIC, and far and away this is the number one topic.

We have subcommittees of that group getting together to talk about logistics issues, corporate actions, things like that. We’re all acknowledging the need to work together and answer the questions that need to be answered.

Of the issues that need to be resolved, how are they connected and what’s most important?

MIKE:

They’re not dependent on one another, they’re all separate issues that we’ve identified and they all need to be solved. I don’t know that there’s any priority. From my personal perspective, I feel corporate actions is my highest priority, because already it’s very challenging for us and corporate actions are becoming more numerous and more complex. Now we have down times, maintenance windows where we can analyze proxy statements, come up with adjustments, post memos, and do all the work that has to be done. But the time for that is going to be compressed.

If you think about it, OCC is at the end of a string of events that we’re dependent on and we’re reacting to. The end piece is OCC posting a memo to our public site – that’s what people then adjust their trade parameters upon. So if we’re talking about ETF issuers, for instance, we’re dependent on that ETF issuer making the determination of a certain type of capital gains tax treatment. That’s not something that OCC decides. That then flows through all of these different events that leads to us determining how these options should be adjusted, this is how the memo should be written. That gets posted and it becomes official.

What have you learned about the industry’s appetite and readiness for extended-hours trading at OIC?

ANDY:

I was very surprised at walking out after the panel, how many people stopped me to say, it was very insightful that we tried to close out on the human dimension of it. That was powerful. We can talk about technology and we can talk about solutions, but we’re going to need people no matter what. So that was an amazing takeaway for me.

MIKE:

For me it reaffirmed what we’ve heard in previous conferences including at FIA in March. It’s just a continual solidification of this concept that this is going to happen. When it’s going to happen and how it’s going to happen are questions, but this is an eventuality for our industry. The equities market is in the midst of it right now, and it’s flowing into the options exchanges.

So whether you’re gung-ho about extended hours trading or resigned to it, it’s going to happen and we need to be prepared.

More broadly, what does clearing 70 million contracts a day look like from the only organization that sees the full market?

MIKE:

This is where I knock on wood – our day-to-day processing and our systems are working very well with these elevated levels of contract volume. We’ve avoided any sort of significant incidents or issues, and it’s not just us, it’s the entire industry.

Everything and everyone are connected and dependent on one another. The exchanges send their matched trades to the OCC. We consume those on a real-time basis, validating the trades as they come in, and at the end of the day, we balance down to the contract with each of our 18 exchanges.

Every single day we’re balancing 70 million contracts with the exchanges. Our clearing members come in throughout the day and after the close to move positions around and make  transfers, which has to be completed with their processing before we can move  on. Finally, another big component is that we have to have good pricing data in our system which we pull from our data vendors.

So those three things have to happen and balance before we can move on with our overnight processing cycle.

We‘re always testing our systems, we go two and a half times X volume for our high volume testing just to test and see how the system performs, and all of our high-volume tests have come back positive. So we’re not anywhere close to an edge of volumes straining the system or having production issues.

ANDY:

All of that is a testament to how OCC has invested in human capital. Mike’s team is astounding, and it’s a big reason why we have had such success amid increased demand and increased market activity.

]]> https://www.marketsmedia.com/occ-updates-on-overnight-markets/feed/ 0 ]]> https://www.marketsmedia.com/tokenization-is-buttonwood-tree-moment/ https://www.marketsmedia.com/tokenization-is-buttonwood-tree-moment/#respond Thu, 14 May 2026 21:38:20 +0000 https://www.marketsmedia.com/?p=154217

On 17 May 1792 a group of stockbrokers and merchants signed an agreement under a buttonwood tree on Wall Street that would become the founding document of the New York Stock Exchange. Matt Hougan chief investment officer at digital asset fund manager Bitwise Asset Management, compared living through tokenization as similar to being under that buttonwood tree.

He said in a broadcast on X: “We are at the moment when floor-based trading closed down  nd moved to digital. It is a once-in-a-few generations change.”

Hougan has a background in exchange-traded funds, and he compared the progress of tokenization to the ETF industry. Initially, people imagined that ETFs would only cover US equities, but the wrapper has evolved to include multiple asset classes and strategies, including active ones.

Matt Hougan, Bitwise

“You can put a lot of things in ETFs,” he added. “Tokenization is an incredible wrapper that allows financial assets to move around the world at the speed of light, makes it easy to borrow against them and makes them perfect collateral.”

He believes that every valuable financial asset could be tokenized but said the industry has not done a good job explaining why tokenization is important. Jim Hiltner, co-founder of Superstate, the financial technology firm for crypto capital markets, agreed on the X broadcast that the benefits of tokenization need to be framed correctly for different audiences.

For example, there is a lot of demand on digital asset rails that large asset managers are not servicing today. For compliance, operations and technology, they can do more with fewer people. Digital money and assets can settle atomically 24/7 on blockchains, so risk can be reframed based on how quickly collateral can move to support a position.

“The iPhone touch screen moment is happening,” said Hiltner. “We are unlocking access to products that were traditionally siloed and creating a seamless experience. I think the sky is the limit but question is how we get there.”

Regulated securities that are onchain are only available to qualified investors or institutions, so Hiltner argued that regulatory permissions are needed to create more democratized access.

The Clarity Act, the proposed U.S. legislation for digital asset market structure will be the next “watershed moment” for institutions to interact with more of the ecosystem, according to Hiltner. The Act was approved by the Senate Banking Committee on 14 May 2026. Hougan agreed that the Clarity Act will unlock investment into the infrastructure that powers tokenization. He highlighted that after the U.S. administration passed the Genius Act, a federal framework for stablecoins, there was a “huge” amount of investment in blockchains designed specifically to serve stablecoins.

Tokenized RWAs hit $30B milestone

Tokenized real-world assets just crossed $31.6B in total value, up 199% YoY with $21B in fresh capital.

US Treasury debt dominates at $15.4B, nearly half the entire sector.@Securitize, @OndoFinance, @Circle, and @FTI_US are leading the… pic.twitter.com/5MyzvqP5HF

— CryptoDep (@Crypto_Dep) May 13, 2026

Tokenized funds

The broader tokenized asset market is projected to reach $18.9 trillion by 2031 with the onchain market for tokenized real world assets currently over $30bn, according to Bitwise. Tokenized U.S. treasuries have surpassed $15bn, making yield-bearing funds the fastest-growing category. Fidelity International, JP Morgan and BlackRock have all recently announced plans to launch new tokenized money market funds.

Hiltner said Superstate has talked to a lot of allocators who are looking to tokenize investment grade, high yield or private credit funds that pay a spread on Treasury bills, but also have liquidity. On the demand side, he said large banks, asset managers, exchanges, clearing houses that move a lot of capital in the world are starting to interact with tokenized rails.

Jim Hiltner, Superstate

“That will be a big inflection point,” added Hiltner. “In addition, getting retail access, will really head us towards a multi-trillion dollar number.”

On 7 May 2026 Bitwise and Superstate said in a statement that they intend to transition investment management of the Superstate Crypto Carry Fund (USCC) to the asset manager. Upon completion of the transition, expected on 1 June 2026, USCC will be renamed the Bitwise Crypto Carry Fund.

This marks Bitwise’s entry into tokenized funds. For Superstate, the firm is stepping back from fund management to focus on FundOS, its infrastructure platform for onchain funds, which will continue to power USCC.

Hougan said each firm has specific expertise and focus. Bitwise is focused on crypto-related asset management and distribution while Superstate is the core infrastructure provider on tokenization. He added: “We are really honored to be taking over the investment management of USCC, and putting our distribution muscle behind building that business.”

Superstate is “extremely excited” for the partnership, according to Hiltner, which he described as a “massive” net benefit to both organizations and investors in the fund. He said: “We are not as plugged into traditional distribution, and we don’t have a large portfolio management risk team.”

The USCC fund has over $267m in assets under management, and Hiltner said he expects the fund to reach $1bn soon.

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René Kim, senior vice president of product delivery at DriveWealth, joined the financial technology platform last year.  The business provides brokerage-as-a-service, enabling the investing and trading experiences for digital wallets, broker-dealers, asset managers, and consumer brands. Kim discusses financial services industry’s rapid transformation, the role of technology in democratizing finance, the introduction of digital assets and prediction markets in investor portfolios and her own career. 

What made you want to move from UBS to DriveWealth ?

René Kim, DriveWealth

Throughout my career, I’ve maintained a focus on product development across a variety of roles in financial services. When considering my next move after my time at UBS and a long tenure at Charles Schwab, I focused on the work I enjoy most and where I could maximize my impact.  And, after relocating to New York from the Bay Area to join UBS, I wanted my next role to be in NYC. 

My goal was to remain deeply involved in product while securing a role with a broad purview across the entire business and product lifecycle. I sought a role at a fintech and smaller financial services organizations to observe and influence the business holistically.

Meeting the DriveWealth team and getting an understanding of their operations made it clear that they met all the criteria for my next endeavor. My current role at DriveWealth offers a wide scope where the product is intrinsically linked to strategy and execution, moving beyond just a delivery function. This combination made the decision to join DriveWealth an easy one.

What does your current role as senior vice president of product delivery involve?

I oversee product development, collaborating closely with our engineers and cross-functional teams to ensure consistent, efficient delivery of our product to our clients and their end customers. My responsibilities span the entire product lifecycle, with a keen focus on keeping client needs at the center of our decision making. 

A critical component of my role involves integrating the governance and risk management principles I honed at larger institutions into DriveWealth’s high-growth fintech and financial services environment. For instance, at Schwab, I served on and chaired various cross-functional committees that governed risk, product strategy, pricing and broader business decisions. I now apply that experience at DriveWealth to support our continued maturation as a company, particularly in areas like risk management, cross-functional decision-making, and responsible scaling.

A newer dimension of my role is my involvement in charting the future direction for DriveWealth, specifically supporting the development of our APIs and defining the next evolution of our products for both our clients and their customers. As a B2B2C leader in fintech and financial services, it is paramount that our platform remains modern infrastructure-driven, adapting continuously with leading technology and innovation. While the core principles of product development remain constant, the speed at which it is executed has accelerated significantly, a dynamic I find incredibly inspiring at DriveWealth.

What has been most useful from your experience at UBS and Charles Schwab?

I’ve been working in product development and management for the majority of my career. I draw on lessons learned from each stage of that journey, from my first role in financial services all the way through to my most recent ones at UBS and Charles Schwab.

One of the most valuable assets I leverage from my time at larger institutions is a deep grounding in the core disciplines of product management. This fundamental focus remains on understanding the customer need and building to address that need, aligning key stakeholders around a shared vision, and executing consistently to strengthen trust and accountability. What has profoundly changed is the speed at which we can now operate.

As we continue to innovate at DriveWealth by integrating AI and establishing new processes for embedding this technology into the software development lifecycle, I frequently revisit those core disciplines. The product side of the organization must maintain extreme clarity on the desired outcome and behavior. 

In some ways, this echoes the Joint Application Design (JAD) sessions I conducted earlier in my career: we would bring everyone together to align on the build, and then the engineering team would proceed to code. The significant difference is that what once took months can now be accomplished in days, thanks to AI and modern tooling. However, the underlying discipline—clearly articulating what you are striving to build for your clients—remains constant.

What are the biggest trends in your business?

The financial services industry is undergoing rapid transformation. At my previous firms, my focus was on the retail investor and helping clients across the wealth spectrum with their banking, financial planning, retirement and portfolio construction needs.  

At DriveWealth, I am following key market trends in order to focus on a different end-user. I’ve seen the powerful impact of technology in democratizing finance globally and reducing barriers to entry. Our clients are simplifying investing to reach new audiences. Through our platform, we offer innovative tools like fractionalization, round-up investing, and notional trading, providing a new approach for these users.

As we serve a global client base and provide access to millions of investors, DriveWealth is focused on the future of investing, including the role of digital assets and prediction markets in investor portfolios. We prioritize balancing traditional assets (ETFs, stocks, mutual funds, and bonds) with digital assets and emerging products to align with where the industry is headed.

How are you helping clients navigate digital assets and tokenization?

There is a tremendous amount of buzz and curiosity around digital assets, crypto, and tokenization, and we see that reflected in our conversations with clients every day.

Some of our clients approach us with a very clear roadmap, knowing precisely what they want to launch and when. Others are at a different stage: they constantly hear about digital assets, recognize the need to remain relevant and competitive, but are still determining the right offering for their clients.

At DriveWealth, our role is to be flexible in supporting these various starting points and educational in framing the opportunities and constraints. We help our clients and their end users understand how these products work in practice, the types of jurisdictional and regulatory considerations they may encounter, and the technical and operational realities of bringing digital assets, tokenization, or prediction markets to markets.

What advice would you give to women who want to work in finance?

I’ve spent my entire career in financial services. I started as a teller at a bank while I was in college and grad school, moved into data and analytics, transitioned into product and platform development across banking and brokerage, and wealth management. Along the way, also had the opportunity to lead the Global Data Office at Schwab.

For women building a career in financial services, especially in banking and wealth management, you have chosen an excellent path.

First, focus on the clear sense of purpose your work provides. You are in a position to genuinely help people achieve their financial goals, whether it’s making it through the week, saving for a child’s education, buying a home, or planning for long-term retirement security. Wake up every day knowing that your work has a real, tangible impact on people’s lives. This purpose is a powerful motivator.

Second, take advantage of the breadth of opportunities the industry offers. Don’t limit yourself. Financial services has an incredibly wide range of roles and career paths. Whether your strength lies in client-facing roles, management roles, product engineering, finance or marketing roles, there is a place for your unique skills. Be open to exploring different paths and don’t be afraid to transition, as I did from data and analytics into product development. The opportunity to build things and collaborate across an organization is incredibly rewarding.

How do you relax outside work?

As a longtime Californian now living in New York, I maintain a bi-coastal lifestyle to remain connected with family and friends on the West Coast. Moving to New York was an exhilarating new chapter that I embraced wholeheartedly. I have a deep appreciation for all genres of music, particularly Jazz, which is so readily available here in the city. I spend my evenings and weekends exploring new Jazz venues with friends, attending the theater, and finding the best long running routes in Manhattan.

The use of exchange-traded funds by institutional asset owners has grown at a faster rate than the general market, and nearly half expect to increase their ETF allocations over the next 24 months,

Brendan Powers, director of product development research at research provider Cerulli Associates, told Markets Media: “We’ve seen institutional asset owners double their use of ETFs over the last five years. They are starting from a smaller base relative to wealth management, but I think the driver is evolving use cases.”

Cerulli Associates and fund manager Invesco published a report on the use of ETFs by institutional asset owners in April this year. The survey, Inside Institutional ETF Adoption – How asset owners are broadening use cases, covered 31 institutional decision makers in North America with at least $1bn in assets under management and was carried out in the fourth quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of this year.

The research found that ETF assets under management of institutional asset owners, which includes public and corporate defined benefit plans, endowments, foundations, insurance general accounts, and health and hospital systems, reached approximately $337bn in 2025. Their holdings grew at a 14.4% compound annual growth rate between 2020 and 2025, outpacing the 5% rate of the broader U.S. institutional market over the same period.

Nearly half of the respondents expect to increase their ETF allocations over the next 24 months, while 16% of non-users also plan to begin using ETFs over that time. Primary factors for increased adoption of ETFs as core portfolio tools include improved liquidity, operational efficiency, an expanded menu of ETFs across asset classes, longer performance track records, the ability to deploy capital quickly in one diverse product and lower fees, according to the survey. In addition, ETFs make it easier to gain exposure to areas of the market that were historically difficult to access such as digital assets, bank loans and emerging markets.

Garrett Glawe, head of asset owner & consultant ETF specialists at Invesco, told Markets Media that the largest ETF users have historically been public pension plans, and they made up 17 of the top 25 users in the survey. Many of the large, sophisticated public pension plans internally manage funds and have the capabilities to trade stocks and bonds, so they can also easily trade ETFs.

Glawe said ETFs are also becoming a vehicle of choice for endowments and foundations, who are increasing their use at a faster rate than public plans, as smaller asset owners want to obtain their public market exposure more efficiently. He added: “They are building ETF portfolios for public market exposure, to spend more time in private markets where there are possibly more alpha opportunities.”

Active ETFs

Active ETFs gathered 31.2% of total ETF net flows during 2025, despite making up just 10.9% of total ETF assets, according to Cerulli. A recent study of asset managers offering ETFs by Cerulli found that 87% are developing transparent active ETFs.

The majority of assets are in index tracking strategies but there is an evolution towards the use of actively managed ETFs and more active use of products such as market-cap weighted or equal-weighted core equity ETFs, according to Powers. In particular, there is increased interest in active fixed-income ETFs as funds approach their three- and five-year track records. For example CalPERS, the California Public Employees Retirement System, has seeded an active high-yield ETF managed by JPMorgan.

“The growth in ETF assets was an ‘aha’ moment for us, as well as the interest in active management,” he added.

Powers stressed that it is still “very early innings” on the active management side. He gave the example of one asset owner who was searching for a high-yield bond fund manager and another looking for a small-cap equities manager.

“Both of them went through their typical search process and happened upon strategies they liked that were available in ETFs,” he said. “They both ended up using the active ETFs.”

The chief investment officer at a $1bn-$5bn foundation said in the survey that when they inherited the portfolio three and a half years ago, it was 100% active management and it had performed “very poorly.” The CIO said: “We fired almost all the U.S. public equity managers, and the thinking was let’s go 50% passive, 50% active…[With index tracking ETFs] you have daily liquidity and you’re paying probably like five basis points or something. It’s basically free.”

Glawe argued that ETFs are blurring the lines between active and passive. For example, asset owners can use Invesco’s equal weight factor ETFs in active ways to hedge against concentration in their public U.S. equity allocations. He said Texas Permanent School Fund and State of Wisconsin Investment Board have both put more $1bn into Invesco’s Equal Weight S&P 500 ETF to provide some balance to their portfolios.

Municipal Employees Retirement System of Michigan (MERS) is a long-term client of Invesco and the asset manager built three multi-factor ETFs for the scheme about five years ago, which now have an aggregate total of almost $2bn in assets. MERS now uses 40 to 50 ETFs and half of their total portfolio, inclusive of private market exposure, is invested in ETFs according to Glawe.

“Depending on MERS’ views of how they think factors will perform relative to beta, they can make adjustments at a click of a button rather than having to buy and sell individual securities,” added Glawe. “They are a very cutting-edge power user of using ETFs in very thoughtful ways and are blazing a trail.”

Glawe does not expect many other asset owners to reach the level of MERS, but he believes they are helping others to gain some comfort in using ETFs.

Co-manufacturing ETFs

The “power users” of ETFs have also co-manufactured desired exposures directly with ETF issuers. The report said any ETF issuers are willing to co-manufacture strategies, assuming institutional asset owners can provide the seed capital to do it, which is often hundreds of millions or potentially billions in assets.

For example, in late 2024 Finnish pension insurer Varma and Invesco partnered to create the Invesco MSCI North America Climate ETF (KLMN). It is the largest ETF launch by assets at $2.4bn, according to the report.

Glawe said: “This democratizes access to these new strategies. When we launch these new ETFs, they are available to everybody else trade at exactly the same price as the asset owner.

The only firms with more than $10bn in institutional asset owner ETF assets, as measured by year-end 2025 13F data, were BlackRock ($43.5bn), Vanguard ($37.7bn), State Street Investment Management ($19.7bn), and Invesco ($10.5bn) according to the survey.

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BlackRock filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for two new tokenized funds, showing that it is positioning itself as “one of the primary financial institutions monetizing the reserve, liquidity, and yield infrastructure underpinning the digital dollar system itself.”

On 8 May 2026 the asset manager filed with the SEC for two new tokenized funds, to add to BUIDL (BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund), the tokenized treasury fund it launched in March 2024. A year later BUIDL became the first institutional-grade onchain fund to reach more than $1bn in assets under management, and is now at nearly $2.5bn according to The Tokenization Insight newsletter.

BlackRock has filed to launch a tokenized version of the BlackRock Select Treasury Based Liquidity Fund (BSTBL); and BlackRock Daily Reinvestment Stablecoin Reserve Vehicle (BRSRV), a new blockchain-native tokenized money market fund.

The Tokenization Insight newsletter said BlackRock plans to launch more tokenized funds as the market has grown from roughly $100m in 2024 to approximately $15bn. The newsletter highlighted that competition has increased with tokenized funds from Circle, the stablecoin issuer, and Ondo Finance, the digital asset capital markets group, taking the number one spot from BUIDL.

However, BlackRock manages the Circle Reserve Fund, following the U.S. administration passing the Genius Act, the first federal framework for stablecoins. The reserves fund for Circle’s USDC stablecoin currently holds approximately $67bn of Circle’s $78bn reserve base, according to the newsletter.

“As US dollar stablecoins continue scaling globally, BlackRock increasingly appears to be positioning itself not simply as an asset manager participating in tokenization but as one of the primary financial institutions monetizing the reserve, liquidity, and yield infrastructure underpinning the digital dollar system itself,” added the newsletter.

Marc Baumann, founder of 51, which provides commentary on digital assets, tokenization and capital markets, said on X: “BUIDL already crossed $2B. now BlackRock wants to claim the rest of the idle pile.”

Đào Quang Trung, a crypto research analyst, said on X that BlackRock’s filing for two new tokenized funds is the starting gun for a new financial era: “The age of institutional capital flows operated entirely onchain.”

Quang Trung said BlackRock’s objective is clear: “Instead of letting billions in stablecoin capital sit idle, BlackRock is providing a pathway for institutions to capture U.S. Treasury yields directly on the blockchain.”

Franklin Templeton and WisdomTree are other managers who have made their funds compatible with the Genius Act.

“These major institutions do not view each other as zero-sum competitors; they are co-architects of a new reserve standard; for the global financial system,” added Quang Trung.

The analyst argued that we are witnessing a fundamental shift from “speculative stablecoins” to “reserve stablecoins.” Quang Trung said: “Blockchain is finally fulfilling its promise: Becoming the new infrastructure layer for the world’s monetary flow.”

RWA Llama said on X: “Genius drives mandatory demand. The 410% growth since 2025 accelerates. Three funds. Two TAs [transfer agents]. Two jurisdictions. Every channel covered. The BUIDL era was proof of concept. This is scale infrastructure.”

The Options Industry Conference took place May 5-7 in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Traders Magazine, a Markets Media Group publication, covered Day 1 and Day 2 of the event; we cover Day 3 here.

Institutional Innovation

The institutional innovation panel Thursday morning at OIC was about how institutions are increasingly using derivative-based ETFs and FLEX options (customizable contracts that allow investors to tailor the strike price, exercise style, and expiration date) to achieve precise risk-return outcomes.

It was noted that a decade ago the buy side was generally uninterested in hearing about options strategies ago, and as recently as five to six years ago there was still low awareness and enthusiasm. But there has been strong growth in recent years, touched off by the breakdown of the traditional 60/40 portfolio in 2021-22, as infrastructure has developed and the strategies have proven themselves as a way to dampen volatility and generate income.

Defined outcome ETFs can offer liquidity, tax efficiency, and transparency in a scalable ETF wrapper. RIAs are the core users of the product but foundations, endowments and pensions are among institutions getting involved.

An advisor being able to communicate an outcome to a client is invaluable — institutions have been tough to break in with in this regard as they tend to think of ETFs as liquidity placeholders. A big unlock will be institutional acceptance of asymmetrical payoffs and alternative sources of income in a wrapper that’s transparent compared with hedge fund returns and private assets.

The panel noted that in the early 2020s, there were only about three market makers in defined outcome ETFs and FLEX options, and trading was “by appointment.” The products remain in the high touch realm but there are many more brokers involved and more trades are being crossed electronically.

The products can expand further with more education provided to both retail and institutional, as well as more automation and infrastructure optimization that will lighten the currently heavy operational load.

Moderator: Sara Levin, WallachBeth Capital
Panelists: Sean Truett, BOX Options Market; Geoff Gaiss, TRAFiX; Burke Ashenden, Innovator; James Maund, Krane Shares

The Institutional Innovation panel at the Options Industry Conference

Event Contracts

The Event Contracts aka prediction markets panel was the last session of the three-day OIC, and strong interest in the topic earned it 60 minutes rather than 45 minutes for all other OIC panels.

Based on anecdotal observation, panel attendance on the last day of a conference is often down 50% or more, but this session had no drop-off from Tuesday or Wednesday.

The panel jumped right into regulation, or the lack thereof, for event contracts. It was noted that it must be made clear what’s a security and what’s a future, as the gray area between the SEC and the CFTC is impeding market development. Also, swap dealer registration rules need to be revisited, as the current framework and event contracts are centrally cleared.

The agricultural industry is in the ear of regulators, as they are a politically connected industry and they are asking tough questions about what new rules might mean for ag futures market.

Market operators are positioning themselves to offer prediction markets that relate to financial markets directly – there are no plans for sports or culture.

An opportunity, and a risk of prediction markets is long tail of products, which further out on the tail will offer limited price discovery and be more susceptible to market manipulation. Ultimately the onus will be on retail brokers to determine suitability for clients.

Data from prediction markets is becoming more accurate and valuable. To the question of whether they can serve institutional hedging needs, it was noted that the markets have evolved from a niche curiosity to a significant risk transfer mechanism, information from which can be valuable for investment firms.

Beyond that there were discussions on the jurisdictional question, and whether market participants can “pick their regulator” by calling their products either binary option swaps or security options. Tribal sovereignty is another consideration.

The event contract question may well end up with the Supreme Court.

The panel noted that legal certainty is a prerequisite for capital deployment – the worst outcome would be reactionary rulemaking that pushes event contracts offshore.

Moderator: Dawn Stump, Stump Strategic
Panelists: JJ Kinahan, Cboe Global Markets; Ryan Jachym, Goldman Sachs; Summer Mersinger, Blockchain Association; Thomas Plummer, Jump Trading

The Event Contracts panel at OIC.