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OKX is offering up to 7% on net-new deposits for U.S. users.

New users can earn up to 3,500 back in USAT (Tether's U.S. stablecoin) on $50K in deposits. No lockup, all assets qualify including stablecoins.

Existing OKX users can also get 4%. Compared to a 3% deposit match rate you might find on other exchanges, this is another level. Ends March 23

This content is not an offer/solicitation to buy, sell, or hold digital assets, which are subject to volatility & not FDIC-insured. Not financial/investment advice. Not all services and products offered in all regions, including certain states in the US. See OKX's US Terms & Risk & Compliance Disclosures. Terms and conditions apply.

Meet Brian Stern 👋

Brian is a standout operator in the Introduction.com community working at the intersection of institutional finance and digital assets.

Brian most recently spent time at Coinbase, where he served as Senior Manager of Institutional Operations, helping support and scale one of the most important onramps for institutional capital into crypto.

Now he’s stepping into a major new role.

Huge congrats to Brian Stern on becoming Chief Operating Officer, Digital at Clear Street 🚀

At Clear Street, Brian will be helping build the next generation of institutional financial infrastructure, bridging traditional markets and digital assets at a time when the lines between the two are rapidly converging.

Brian represents the Introduction.com community at its best. Operators who execute at a high level and step into bigger arenas as the market evolves.

Congratulate Brian on the role 👇

The Room is Closing.

The guest lists for our West Village residency are nearing capacity. This isn't a networking circuit; it’s a high-stakes gathering for the architects of the next cycle.

In a week of noise, these are the only two rooms that matter.

Dinner I: The Architects

Dinner II: The Engines

Strictly Invite-Only, intentional seating, zero "tourists," and the kind of candid, high-alpha dialogue that converts into rounds and long-term leverage. In a week of noise, these are the only two rooms that matter.

Access is earned. Take the first step.

Ark Labs

Ark Labs secured $5.2 million in seed funding to advance its Bitcoin-based financial infrastructure.

The capital will be used to scale an open execution layer that enables instant, programmable operations like escrow and conditional payments directly on Bitcoin.

This milestone allows Ark Labs to accelerate the integration of stablecoin and bitcoin liquidity for fintechs and financial institutions globally.

Huge shoutout to Angel Gonzalez and the team at Anchorage, along with Eddy Christian Ng and the team at Tether, for their participation in this milestone raise!

Stripe

Stripe has secured a strategic investment from Robinhood Ventures as part of a broader push to deepen the integration between global payment rails and retail financial services.

The partnership will focus on optimizing checkout flows and expanding the reach of Stripe’s infrastructure within the Robinhood ecosystem.

Huge shoutout to the teams at Robinhood and Stripe! It’s great to see two cornerstone members of the network doubling down on each other's success!

GSR

GSR has completed a $57 million double-acquisition of Autonomous and Architech, significantly expanding its institutional capital markets and treasury platform.

Following the deal, Autonomous will continue to operate under its existing brand to provide operational and financial launch support, while Architech will form the foundation of a new GSR Digital Asset Advisory unit.

This strategic consolidation allows GSR to offer a unified, full-stack solution for token design, liquidity strategy, and long-term treasury management.

Huge shoutout to Sofia Machado Lopes and the team at GSR for their hard work in closing these acquisitions and spearheading this massive push into institutional advisory and treasury infrastructure!

Cryptio

Cryptio raised $45 million in Series B funding co-led by BlackFin Capital Partners and Sentinel Global. The New York–based ERP provider will use the funds to launch new institutional applications, including Loan Management and Treasury Management, for regulated digital asset firms.

Unitas Labs completed a $13.33 million seed round led by Amber Group to scale its yield-generating stablecoin protocol. The funding is earmarked for infrastructure upgrades and risk systems to facilitate compliant institutional access and deeper DeFi integration.

MetaComp

Singapore-based MetaComp secured a Pre-A+ round backed by Alibaba and Spark Venture, bringing its total funding to $35 million. The group, which reached profitability in 2025, is focused on building a "Web2.5" payment and wealth platform that bridges fiat and stablecoin networks across high-growth corridors.

Corastone

Corastone added Fidelity Investments and Hamilton Lane as strategic investors in its private-markets operating platform, joining existing backers like Apollo and KKR. The platform utilizes a private permissioned blockchain to enable straight-through processing for institutional alternative investing.

VeryAI

VeryAI secured $10 million in a round led by Polychain Capital, with participation from the Berggruen Institute and Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko. The project is developing privacy-first identity verification infrastructure using palm vein biometrics to combat synthetic identities at scale.

SolanaFloor

The Jito Foundation has acquired the Solana-focused news and data platform SolanaFloor following its temporary shutdown earlier this year. The acquisition aims to restore independent on-chain reporting and research within the Solana ecosystem while maintaining the platform's editorial autonomy.

Clave

Turkish crypto exchange Paribu acquired the smart wallet platform Clave to integrate its biometric-based, non-custodial wallet technology. Clave's hardware-security-module (HSM) architecture will be utilized to simplify account creation and transaction security for Paribu’s broader user base.Apply Today

The current global economy is undergoing a massive structural shift as geopolitics force a transition from digital hype toward physical reality.

Saudi Aramco is leading this change by pivoting from simple oil extraction to global refining to protect its $100B+ annual profit. While the market currently sees a surplus of crude oil, the capacity to process it into fuel is at a 20 year low.

Aramco is essentially buying the kitchens to capture the crack spread which is the profit margin between raw oil and usable fuel. If crude prices drop due to oversupply, Aramco stays profitable by charging more for the refined gasoline and diesel the world still needs to function.

This focus on industrial essentials is mirrored by Michael Burry who is rotating capital out of overvalued tech and into deep value energy infrastructure. His recent moves into Halliburton and other energy heavy positions suggest a bet on physical scarcity rather than software growth.

This strategy anticipates that if underinvestment in refineries continues, then these infrastructure companies will see massive Q1 earnings beats. It is a play on reality because you cannot run a global economy on AI without the physical fuel that these giants control.

Circle Overtakes BlackRock in Tokenized Treasuries

Circle has surpassed BlackRock’s BUIDL as the top issuer of tokenized Treasuries as the RWA market hits a record $11B. Unlike traditional permissioned funds, Circle’s yield-bearing assets enable 24/7 atomic settlement and direct DeFi integration. This proves crypto-native liquidity is scaling faster than legacy "wrapped" finance, establishing government debt as the standard collateral layer for the on-chain economy.

World and Coinbase Partner for AI "Human Layer"

Sam Altman (World) and Brian Armstrong (Coinbase) are integrating biometric "Proof of Personhood" into on-chain commerce. By linking iris-scanned IDs with KYC infrastructure, the system verifies that high-value transactions are executed by verified humans rather than AI botnets. As autonomous agents scale, this "human-only" layer becomes the primary defense for protecting governance and retail ecosystems from Sybil attacks.

Visa vs. Coinbase: The Battle for AI Agent Payments

Visa and Coinbase have hit an architectural rift over how autonomous AI agents should settle payments. Visa is building a permissioned, fiat-integrated gateway for controlled spending, while Coinbase champions a permissionless model where agents own non-custodial wallets and interact via smart contracts. This defines the next decade: a choice between a centralized system of "AI budgets" or a sovereign economy where agents act as independent economic actors.

Mastercard Acquires BVNK in $1.8B Stablecoin Play

Mastercard acquired stablecoin platform BVNK for $1.8B to integrate stablecoin settlement layers directly into its global merchant network. By utilizing stablecoin rails, Mastercard bypasses SWIFT’s multi-day delays to offer near-instant, cross-border B2B settlement for enterprise clients. This move signals that legacy credit giants now view stablecoins—not traditional wire transfers—as the definitive future of global money movement.

U.S. Regional Banks Launch Tokenized Deposit Network

A consortium of U.S. regional banks is deploying a unified tokenized deposit network built on zkSync. The system uses zero-knowledge proofs to maintain institutional privacy while providing a regulated, FDIC-insured alternative to commercial stablecoins for instant treasury management. This is a defensive masterstroke; by tokenizing the $18T deposit market, banks can neutralize the capital drain into unregulated stablecoin providers.

Moody’s Integrates On-Chain Credit Ratings

Moody’s has integrated its authoritative credit data into the Canton Network, a privacy-enabled blockchain for institutional finance. This allows DeFi protocols to pull real-time, trusted credit scores directly into smart contracts to automate risk assessment for on-chain loans. By removing manual, off-chain friction, Moody’s is providing the "missing link" for institutional credit markets, paving the way for the total tokenization of private debt.

SEC Interpretation: Crypto Assets are Not Securities

In a massive shift for U.S. regulatory posture, the SEC has issued an updated interpretation clarifying that the majority of liquid crypto assets are not inherently securities. This move signals a departure from "regulation by enforcement" toward a framework that distinguishes between a capital-raising contract and the underlying digital asset, providing long-awaited legal air cover for domestic exchanges and token issuers.

Phantom Wins CFTC No-Action Relief for Regulated Derivatives Markets

The CFTC has granted milestone "no-action" relief to Phantom, officially clearing the path for self-custody wallets to facilitate access to regulated derivatives markets. By confirming that the wallet provider does not trigger traditional intermediary registrations, the commission has effectively legalized a direct bridge between decentralized user tools and the U.S. regulated futures and options ecosystem.

Schiff Pushes Ban on Prediction Market Bets Tied to War and Death

Following high-profile controversies regarding "insider" gains on military strikes, Senator Adam Schiff and a coalition of House Democrats have introduced emergency legislation to ban prediction market contracts tied to war and foreign casualties. The bill specifically targets "government gaming," proposing strict penalties for any official found using non-public intelligence to wager on geopolitical outcomes.

Argentina Joins Growing List of Countries Blocking Polymarket Access

Joining a growing list of nations concerned over "unregulated gambling" and political integrity, Argentina has officially moved to block domestic access to Polymarket. Regulators cited the platform's role in allowing speculative wagers on sensitive national security and election data as a primary reason for the nationwide geoblock.

Vietnam Pushes Local Crypto Exchanges as Hanoi Moves to Block Offshore Trading

In a push to reclaim sovereignty over its digital economy, Vietnam has begun blocking offshore crypto exchanges to funnel liquidity into locally licensed venues. The move is part of a broader strategy to ensure all VASP (Virtual Asset Service Provider) activity remains under the direct oversight of the State Bank of Vietnam for AML and tax compliance.

South Korea Fines Bithumb $24M Over AML Violations

South Korea's financial authorities have leveled a $24 million fine and a six-month partial suspension against Bithumb following a deep-dive audit into AML violations. The move serves as a stark warning to the "Big Four" exchanges in the region that the grace period for loose compliance documentation has officially ended.

The OKX campaign and related content is not (i) investment advice or recommendations, (ii) an offer, solicitation, or inducement to buy, sell or hold digital assets, or (iii) financial, accounting, legal or tax advice. Digital assets, including stablecoins and NFTs, are subject to market volatility, involve high risk, can lose value, and are not FDIC insured. You should consider whether trading or holding digital assets is suitable for you and consult your advisors for questions about your circumstances.

Certain cryptocurrencies, services, and products are not available to users located in the United States and may be restricted depending on the state in which you reside. See OKX's US Risk & Compliance Disclosures for more information. OKX INC. ("OKX US") operates under the OKX brand and is a federally registered money service business and a state licensed money transmitter (NMLS ID: 1767779). Users of OKX US are subject to the restrictions and terms contained in the U.S. Terms of Service. Foreign entities affiliated with OKX use the OKX brand to offer services and products to non-US users. US users are expressly prohibited from accessing any of those foreign products and services. © 2026 OKX.