OVERVIEW

Fed To Big Banks: Your End Is Nigh 🪦

Before we dive in, here’s today’s crypto market heatmap:

And here’s a look at crypto’s total market and altcoin market cap charts:

NEWS
The Fed’s “Payment Innovation” Party Was Really a Funeral for Bank Control 🪦

Strip out the niceties and the academic fluff of Fed Gov. Waller’s speech, and you’ll find the real headline: the Fed just told commercial banks they’re about to lose monopoly power over payments. 🪦

Forget the PR spin about “collaboration” and “innovation.” Waller basically admitted that the old rails - the ones built by the same banks who’ve spent decades collecting rent on every swipe, transfer, and wire - are outdated.

The Fed’s now flirting with DeFi tech, AI integration, and tokenized money as part of its own systems. And here’s the kicker: they’re inviting crypto-native players into the tent. Not as guests - as co-architects.

The Subtext They Won’t Say Out Loud

You can dress it up in central banker monotone, but this line hit hard: “The DeFi industry is not viewed with suspicion or scorn.” Translation: the Fed sees the writing on the wall. The future of payments isn’t a Chase-branded debit card - it’s distributed ledgers, stablecoins, and programmable cash.

Waller pitched a new “payment account” idea - a sort of stripped-down master account that gives fintechs and payment startups direct access to Fed rails. 

In plain English: bypass the middleman banks. These accounts would connect directly to the Fed’s infrastructure, cutting out the traditional layers that have been skimming off every transaction since the Eisenhower era.

Who Wins When Banks Lose

• Fintechs & Stablecoin Issuers: Finally, they get to play on the main field. Imagine Circle or Stripe with direct Fed access instead of renting space from megabanks.

• The Fed: It gets to look “modern” while keeping ultimate oversight. A neat trick - innovation without ceding control.

• Crypto-Native Firms: Waller’s speech officially moved DeFi from “outsider threat” to “innovation partner.” That’s a tectonic shift in tone from the same institution that once lumped it all under “shadow finance.”

And for the banks? They’ll still exist - just with fewer toll booths to collect from.

But this is all just prototype and idea-land, still, it’s a crazy change in approach and future for DeFi and TradFi.🧠

RWA
October 21 Is Basically RWA Christmas 🎅

So everyone and their dog want in on RWAs. Case in point: today. 🐶 

There have been more than six major announcements all hitting RWA tokenization today. No big fanfare alerts, nothing trending on Stocktwits or CS - I just happened to see two and then metric crap ton more started popping up.

Which isn’t a huge surprise considering the RWA tokenization market hit $24 billion in 2025, up 380% in three years. 

And industry projections expect the broader tokenization market to reach $5.25 trillion by 2029. Some say $16 trillion by 2030. Standard Chartered says $30 trillion by 2034.

AlphaPoint + Polymesh: Infrastructure Play

Straightforward exchange-layer integration. $POLYX.X ( ▼ 1.14% ) native assets are now live on AlphaPoint's platform.

What it enables:

• POLYX deposits, withdrawals, custody, yield, and governance on AlphaPoint-powered exchanges

• Native Polymesh tokens (security tokens, RWA tokens) can be minted, issued, traded, and settled through APEX white-label exchange

• Built-in compliance, identity, and governance modules from Polymesh

• End-to-end workflow for regulated asset platforms without reinventing the wheel

Inveniam Chain: CRE Gets the Blockchain Treatment

Inveniam and MANTRA built a Layer 2 specifically for commercial real estate derivatives. First target: unlocking liquidity in a $27 trillion asset class that's painfully illiquid and data-starved.

What's under the hood:

• Built on $OM.X ( ▼ 2.91% )’s RWA-focused L1

• Connects to Inveniam IO's Proof of Origin, Proof of State, and Proof of Process

• Decentralized data management at the edge with real-time monitoring

• AI agents can surveil physical assets and prove data provenance via zero-knowledge proofs

• Interoperable across MANTRA, Ripple, Avalanche, Hedera, ZK Sync, and Ethereum

Pharos Network: AtlanticOcean Testnet Goes Live

Global RWA infrastructure with a name that sounds like a shipping company (which is kind of the point).

What shipped:

• AtlanticOcean testnet with PoS tokenomics model (1 billion total supply aligned with mainnet)

• Modular architecture decoupling consensus, execution, node, and storage layers

• Hybrid parallel execution using DAG-based and Block-STM V1 models

• Cache-friendly storage via PharosDB

• Expanded developer toolset for complex testing scenarios

Timeline: Q1 2026 mainnet launch targeting global, on-chain real-world asset finance.

U.S. Bank Avvance: Embedded Financing Gets APIs

Avvance is part of $USB ( ▲ 1.08% )’s suite of 40+ financial APIs and they want tokenization for programmable capital anywhere value moves, which is pretty much the planet.

What's new:

• Developer portal with API-driven integration options

• Low code to full headless customization for point-of-sale financing

• $300 to $25,000 loans with 3 to 60-month terms embedded directly into partner platforms

• Dedicated merchant portal with marketing materials, invoicing, pricing management, and transaction tracking

First partner: LendPro, a waterfall-based consumer finance platform for retailers.

Datavault AI: Swiss Precision Meets RWA Tokenization

Partnership with Max International AG to launch the Swiss Digital RWA Exchange in Zurich - where 70% of the world's gold refining happens.

What they're tokenizing:

• Unmined gold

• Copper

• Name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights

• Other illiquid assets

FG Nexus + Securitize: Nasdaq Goes On-Chain

One of the first Nasdaq-listed companies to let shareholders tokenize equity natively on Ethereum. Same rights as traditional shares.

What's being tokenized:

• Common stock: $FGNX ( ▼ 3.93% )

• Class A preferred stock (FGNXP) - the first dividend-paying, exchange-listed perpetual preferred share to go on-chain

• Securitize's fully-regulated stack: SEC-registered broker-dealer, ATS, and transfer agent services

• Instant settlement, automated compliance

• Tradeable on-chain through Securitize's regulated ATS

• Tokenized shares subject to same transfer restrictions as traditional shares

The land grab for RWA tokenization is happening now. 😱 

POLL
Take This Poll 👇️ 

Less than a week left!

Compared to prior polls, this one is damn close. 6 days left before it’s decided! ☝️ 

TOKENIZATION
DNS Domains Go Tokenized 🕸️

Oh look. Another tokenization story. 😐️ 

I swear, crypto news and social today is just one tokenization and/or RWA story after another. But this one isn’t about property, treasuries or commodities.

$ENS.X ( ▲ 0.44% ) just bridged the gap between traditional DNS domains and on-chain identity. Tokenized DNS domains on Doma Protocol now function as ENS names - no DNSSEC setup required.

Wut’s In A Name

• Traditional DNS domains tokenized on Doma behave like first-class ENS names

• Owners set wallet addresses and standard ENS records

• Chain-agnostic records work across Ethereum, L2s, Bitcoin, and Solana

• DNSSEC import flow remains fully available for non-tokenized domains

Domain registries use Doma to tokenize eligible DNS domains. Owner holds the token, connects to ENS, sets addresses and metadata. Done. The tokenized domain resolves like an ENS name from that point forward.

ENS has always played nice with the existing internet. DNSSEC import remains the canonical way to prove DNS domain control. Doma's tokenization adds a second path for registries that prefer on-chain verification.

TL;DR version: your .com can now work like your .eth without rebuilding your entire naming infrastructure.

Timeline

Now: Live on Ethereum testnet
Next: Mainnet rollout after feedback and testing
Later: Namechain implementation once the chain is live

No hard dates yet, but we’ll keep an eye out for them. 👁️ 

LINKS
Links That Don’t Suck 🔗

🤦 Streamer Sam Pepper Banned From Pump.fun, Kick After Injuring Girl With Firework Stunt

♊️ Gemini bullish on UK market as crypto adoption climbs to 24%, but says many still waiting on regulatory 'stamp of approval'

🌌 Galaxy Digital reports $505M Q3 profit on trading surge, institutional demand

🥷 Solana’s co-founder drops Percolator Perps DEX, dares devs to ‘steal’ it

Terms & Conditions 📝

Securities Disclaimer: STOCKTWITS IS NOT A TAX ADVISOR, BROKER, FINANCIAL ADVISOR OR INVESTMENT ADVISOR. THE SERVICE IS NOT INTENDED TO PROVIDE TAX, LEGAL, FINANCIAL OR INVESTMENT ADVICE, AND NOTHING ON THE SERVICE SHOULD BE CONSTRUED AS AN OFFER TO SELL, A SOLICITATION OF AN OFFER TO BUY, OR A RECOMMENDATION FOR ANY SECURITY. Trading in such securities can result in immediate and substantial losses of the capital invested. You should only invest risk capital, and not capital required for other purposes. You alone are solely responsible for determining whether any investment, security or strategy, or any other product or service, is appropriate or suitable for you based on your investment objectives and personal and financial situation. You should also consult an attorney or tax professional regarding your specific legal or tax situation. The Content is to be used for informational and entertainment purposes only and the Service does not provide investment advice for any individual. Stocktwits, its affiliates and partners specifically disclaim any and all liability or loss arising out of any action taken in reliance on Content, including but not limited to market value or other loss on the sale or purchase of any company, property, product, service, security, instrument, or any other matter. You understand that an investment in any security is subject to a number of risks, and that discussions of any security published on the Service will not contain a list or description of relevant risk factors. In addition, please note that some of the stocks about which Content is published on the Service have a low market capitalization and/or insufficient public float. Such stocks are subject to more risk than stocks of larger companies, including greater volatility, lower liquidity and less publicly available information. Read the full terms & conditions here. 🔍

Author Disclosure: The author of this newsletter holds positions in ADA, IMX, COPI, MIN, AGIX, ALGO, ZEC, XLM, and NEAR. 📋