Wall Street Now Runs Crypto Settlement and Tokenized Funds

Banks and asset managers now operate major parts of crypto settlement and tokenized funds. JPMorgan issues a dollar-denominated deposit token that settles on public chains, BlackRock manages a $2.4 billion tokenized Treasury fund, and Visa and Mastercard let card issuers settle in stablecoins.

JPMorgan’s Kinexys unit has moved JPM Coin toward native issuance on the Canton Network, a blockchain designed for regulated markets. Kinexys reports it has processed more than $3 trillion since the unit launched in 2015 and handles billions in volume daily. The bank appointed Oliver Harris to lead Kinexys; Harris described the aim of blockchain work as “not to dismantle the financial system’s back end, but to rebuild it from within.”

BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund, known as BUIDL, held about $2.4 billion in tokenized Treasury assets as of the second quarter of 2026, making it the largest tokenized Treasury fund at that time. The fund is tradable through a request-for-quote system on Uniswap under an allowlist managed by Securitize and is integrated into decentralized finance lending markets. In May 2026 BlackRock filed with the SEC to register two additional tokenized fund structures based on the same model. Larry Fink has described tokenization as “an upgrade to how asset management already operates.”

Card networks expanded settlement options to include stablecoins. Visa ran a pilot allowing select issuers and acquirers to settle daily obligations using Circle’s USDC instead of wire transfers; by April 2026 the pilot covered nine blockchains and reached a $7 billion annualized run rate. Mastercard supports settlement in USDC, Paxos-issued tokens including PYUSD and USDG, and Ripple’s RLUSD, and has added partners in the United States and Latin America. Payments processor Stripe added similar capabilities after acquiring Bridge in 2025. Reported stablecoin payment volume doubled year over year, with most growth in business-to-business transactions.

For retail users many of these changes are not directly visible. Investors can gain exposure to tokenized assets through familiar fund structures rather than setting up wallets and managing private keys. Payment apps can hold stablecoin balances behind the scenes while consumers see faster settlement times. Cross-border transfers that once took days can clear in minutes without changes to the user interface.

Several products put custody, compliance checks and permissioning back with regulated institutions. Bank-issued deposit tokens, tokenized funds managed by large asset managers and card-network stablecoin settlement rely on custodians, compliance processes and allowlists. Blockchains often perform the settlement step, while custody and regulatory controls remain with incumbent financial firms.

Regulation and compliance requirements have influenced product design. Stablecoin frameworks and bank compliance practices have led crypto firms to build legal, audit and reporting systems similar to those used in traditional finance. Reaching institutional scale now typically requires custody arrangements, banking partners and regulatory review before a product launches. In comments to Congress, JPMorgan argued that digital assets should be regulated by function rather than by the underlying technology.

Firms that adjusted products to meet custody, compliance and institutional risk frameworks have worked with banks and asset managers to scale blockchain settlement and tokenized funds.