For years, most incumbents treated blockchain like any other enterprise technology project: a better database, a faster settlement layer, a more efficient back office.
We always felt that was looking at it through the wrong lens.
The real shift is not that financial firms use blockchain to make internal processes more efficient. It is that they start utilizing blockchain protocols to improve their own business offerings. These protocols are internet-native businesses in their own right: neutral, permissionless networks that any company can integrate and use as they see fit.
Now that (US) regulators are more constructive, we are starting to see businesses adapt. Robinhood’s announcement of last week is the clearest example to date. It launched Robinhood Chain on top of Arbitrum, an Ethereum Layer 2, introduced Stock Tokens in more than 120 countries, rolled out an onchain lending product powered by Morpho, and integrated perpetual futures on Lighter through Robinhood Wallet. Each of these networks has its own economics. More activity can mean more liquidity, more fees, more relevance and more value accrual. Robinhood owns the customer relationship. The protocols power the product.
To the user, this simply means a better experience: yield on dollars, 24/7 securities exposure, assets that can move across wallets and applications, and access to more advanced trading products. Most users may never know they are actually interacting with DeFi.
For Robinhood, this is an attractive extension of an already large business, as reflected in the roughly 4% stock gain after the announcement. But the more asymmetric impact may sit with the protocols underneath. For a protocol business, one such integration can multiply usage and revenue many times over, turning years of infrastructure and liquidity-building into a step-change in volumes as a large incumbent routes millions of users through it. That is what specialist blockchain VCs have been underwriting from the start: internet-native protocol businesses that can become embedded in the products of the largest financial platforms.
The winners may not always be the companies that own the customer interface. Increasingly, they may be the protocol businesses powering the financial products behind it.
The Weekly Satellite will be back again in August.
This week’s market
- BGCI Index 3.17%
- Bitcoin 3.94%
- Ethereum 3.78%
- Solana 3.77%
All figures are week-to-date as of today 15:30 CET
News
- Stablecoin firm Circle wins final OCC approval to open national trust bank (learn more)
- Sony Bank gets conditional OCC approval for US trust bank to issue dollar-backed stablecoin (learn more)
- Swift launches blockchain ledger for tokenized deposit pilot with 17 banks (learn more)
- Vanguard opens search for digital assets leader in sign of evolving crypto strategy (learn more)
- Polymarket files applications to offer regulated margin trading in US (learn more)
- SEC plans crypto rule changes for exchanges and broker-dealers in 2026 regulatory agenda (learn more)
- EU set to revise MiCA in 2027 to cover foreign stablecoin issuers (learn more)
- Ripple secures full MiCA CASP authorization for crypto services across 30 EEA countries (learn more)
- PayPal seeks to increase use of PYUSD stablecoin with native issuance on Polygon (learn more)
Relevant financial updates
- Paradigm, a crypto venture firm also investing in AI and robotics, has raised $1.2bln for its fourth fund
- Prime Intellect*, a company that provides computing power and specialized software tools that help companies build AI agents, has raised $130mln in a Series A round led by Radical Ventures with investments from Nvidia Ventures, Intel Capital, Dell Technologies Capital, Iconiq, and multiple other investors
- Gauntlet*, a DeFi platform that helps institutions and crypto firms allocate their digital assets, has raised $125mln in a Series C round led by SBI Holdings
- Coinone, a digital asset exchange, has received a $106mln strategic investment from OKX Ventures
- EDX Markets*, a digital asset technology firm that combines an institutional-only trading venue with a central clearinghouse, has raised $76mln in a Series C round led by SBI Holdings with investments from Citadel Securities, Fidelity Digital Assets, and 2 others
- Mercado Bitcoin, a digital asset exchange platform, has received a $20mln strategic investment from Tether
- KOR Protocol*, a platform that verifies, routes, and settles every creative transaction in the AI era, has raised $7.5mln in a Series A round led by Base with investments from 1kx, Blockchain Capital, Republic Crypto, Sfermion, and 2 others at a $100mln valuation
- M1X Global, a company that develops natively on-chain sovereign instruments compatible with programmable digital networks, has raised $5.5mln in a Seed round led by Paradigm with investments from Breed VC
*Underlying TBV portfolio position | Prices as per 10/07
Interesting things to read and listen to
- Solving the RWA Problem, by Figure executive board chair Mike Cagney (read here)
- Robinhood’s Plan to Make Onchain Finance Mainstream with Robinhood’s VP of crypto Johann Kerbrat on the Bankless podcast (listen here)