Karsten Wenzlaff, Advisor
August 26th, 2025
Karsten Wenzlaff is a Crowdfunding and Fintech Expert from Germany. He is Secretary-General of Digit[...]
Category Archives: Regtech, Compliance, Governance
Broadridge Adds On-Chain Governance To Tokenized Equities
Apr 7, 2026 | NCFA Fintech Market Activity | Capital Markets And Market Infrastructure, Digital Assets And Tokenization
Voting And Corporate Actions For Tokenized Shares
On April 6, 2026, Broadridge launched on-chain governance to tokenized equities. The platform now supports proxy voting, corporate actions, and disclosures across traditional and tokenized holdings inside the same workflows institutions already use.
Broadridge is bringing real scale into this launch. The company says its tokenization capabilities already process $8 trillion in tokenized assets per month. It also says its technology platforms process and generate more than 7 billion communications annually and support the daily average trading of more than $15 trillion in tokenized and traditional securities globally.
This is significant because governance is one of the harder parts of tokenized equity infrastructure. Issuing a tokenized share is one step. Running the rights attached to that share is another. Broadridge now gives issuers a single view across registered, beneficial, and tokenized holdings, which makes governance easier to manage across the cap table.
See: ECB Sets A Roadmap For Tokenized Finance Infrastructure
Broadridge already confirmed a real public company use case with Galaxy planning to use the capability for its annual meeting and shareholder vote in May with native tokenized shares on Avalanche.
The company is also extending a tokenized market stack that already has live operating volume. In January 2026, Broadridge’s distributed ledger repo platform processed $365 billion in average daily volume, with total monthly volume of $7.3 trillion, up 508% from January 2025. Broadridge isn't entering tokenization from the sidelines, but rather extending existing market infrastructure into tokenized ownership.
Institutions don't only need tokenized shares. They need voting rights, disclosures, and corporate action controls that work inside familiar systems. That also builds on tokenized money market fund infrastructure from Goldman Sachs and BNY, where the market has already started solving issuance and settlement in a more usable way.
For issuers, custodians, and market operators, it makes tokenized equities easier to use and track inside real workflows. If governance is streamlined institutions have less friction and fewer reasons to hold back.
Talking Point
If tokenized equities can now handle voting and corporate actions inside existing workflows, which part of the traditional equity stack faces pressure next?
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, artificial intelligence, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Monzo Exit Shows Challenge of US Retail Banking
Apr 6, 2026 | NCFA Fintech Market Activity | Banking And Credit
US Consumer Banking Demands Scale, Patience, and Costly Distribution
On Mar 31, 2026, Monzo said it will close its US business, stop onboarding new customers, and allow existing accounts to run until June. The closure will cut about 50 roles and allow Monzo to refocus on the UK and Europe, where it already has 15 million UK customers and a European banking licence.
We've seen this move before when in the midst of Covid-19, N26 exited the US and shut down it's service in 2021 impacting about 500,000 customers. Together with Monzo, that makes two major European digital banks have now reached the same conclusion. The US retail opportunity is large, but building from zero is expensive and slow.
What Broke The Case
It's not due to lack of ambition, but rather economics. Consumer retail banking gets costly fast when a firm has to build customer acquisition, trust, servicing, compliance, and product depth all at the same time.
And it's a very different job from selling infrastructure into merchants or enterprises. It also lines up with retail banking platform funding trends, where capital still matters but deployment discipline matters more.
See: Consumer Trust and Trends in US Digital Banking
Monzo and N26 both pulled back as the cost of building U.S. retail scale from zero outweighed the near term case for staying. Once growth takes longer than expected, the expansion case gets expensive fast.
Why Some Models Still Work
There are other ways in. Spanish bank Santander launched a US digital bank to help fund up to $30 billion in vehicle loans, backed by an existing US branch network with 409 branches and more than $45 billion in retail deposits.
Revolut is taking another route. In March 2026, Revolut filed for a US bank charter, named a new US CEO, and said it plans to invest $500 million over the next three to five years. The company is also making that push from a much larger base, with roughly 70 million clients across 40 markets.
An acid test question is whether the model enters the US with enough capital, enough time, and enough local operating advantage to survive the build.
For Canadian challengers, it's a reminder that the US isn't just a bigger version of home, but a heavier market to enter. The strategy only works if the economics can carry years of distribution cost and operating drag before retail scale pays back. That's why physical banking expansion in US growth markets still counts on some level. In retail banking, local presence, funding, and trust still work some magic.
Talking Point
Monzo’s exit shows how expensive consumer retail banking gets when a firm has to build trust, distribution, and scale from zero. For Canadian challengers, that is the real question. Not whether the market is big enough, but whether the economics can hold long enough to make sense.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, artificial intelligence, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Google Brings Quantum Crypto Migration Closer
Apr 3, 2026 | NCFA Insight | Digital Assets, Blockchain And Tokenization
New Quantum Research Shortens Timeline For Post Quantum Planning
On Mar 31, 2026, Google Quantum AI published new research on crypto security that says future quantum computers may break the elliptic curve cryptography used by cryptocurrencies with fewer qubits and gates than many people expected.
The research follows a recent hardware breakthrough of Google’s Willow quantum chip with a more practical claim about what future hardware could mean for today’s crypto security. Google’s research looks at the hard math that protects the public and private keys used by Bitcoin and Ethereum. It compiled two attack circuits, one using fewer than 1,200 logical qubits and 90 million Toffoli gates, and another using fewer than 1,450 logical qubits and 70 million Toffoli gates.
Based on the paper’s assumptions, Google estimates those circuits could run in a few minutes on a machine with fewer than 500,000 physical qubits, which is about 20 times less than earlier estimates. Google is saying the hardware threshold for breaking the cryptography behind today’s crypto keys may be much lower than the industry thought.
Bottom line is that the crypto industry may have less time than it thought to get ready for Quantum.
Bitcoin Looks More Exposed Than Ethereum
The paper doesn't treat every chain the same. Google says Bitcoin is more exposed to an attack during a transaction because public keys can become visible before settlement is final and the network approx. 10 minutes block gives an attacker more time to act. While Ethereum’s shorter block timing makes that specific early path less practical under the same assumptions.
See: BTQ Technologies Announces Quantum Safe Bitcoin Demo
The takeaway is that quantum pressure will hit networks differently, with exposure depending on key handling, wallet design, settlement timing, and how hard it is for a chain to coordinate an upgrade once the clock starts ticking.
Migration Needs to Start Early
Digital asset exchanges, custodians, wallet firms, and infrastructure providers can’t swap out cryptography overnight. They’ll need code changes, testing, governance, user education, and in some cases a messy transition across older systems that were never built for this kind of change.
Some firms have a much harder job than others. A Bitcoin holder reusing addresses and sitting on older wallet structures faces a different migration problem from a user operating through newer wallet tooling and faster transaction environments.
A custodian protecting large balances across older signing infrastructure has a bigger operational problem than a newer platform with cleaner architecture and fewer legacy constraints.
What Operators Should Do Now
- Wallet providers should reduce unnecessary key exposure and push users away from address reuse where wallet design and user flows still allow it
- Custodians should identify which signing flows, recovery processes, and long lived assets will be hardest to move
- Exchanges should review deposit and withdrawal design, especially where old wallet structures or slow user migration could turn into a bottleneck
- Protocol communities should stop treating this as a distant research file and start mapping what an orderly upgrade would actually require
See: DeFi Lending Data Exposes Leverage And Liquidation Risks
None of that is glamorous. However, it's the kind of work that determines who is will adapt clearly versus scrambling later on when the heat turns up at the risk of a user or investor base.
Takeaway
Google is already working towards a 2030 post quantum migration across its own systems. Google isn't getting their crystal ball out with a specific deadline for the crypto threat, but they do show it's no longer a distant research file for major infrastructure players. Teams that start early will have options. Teams that wait may end up trying to fix cryptography, user migration, and governance at the same time.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, artificial intelligence, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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NCFA Weekly Fintech Intelligence Mar 28-Apr 3, 2026
April 3, 2026 | NCFA Fintech Whisperer Weekly Intelligence | Capital Markets And Market Infrastructure, Payments And Market Infrastructure, Digital Assets Blockchain And Tokenization, Regulation And Policy
Image: Freepik
This live weekly NCFA intelligence page tracks financial technology developments that significantly affect how fintechs build, sell, raise capital, and operate under scrutiny. Coverage prioritizes Canada and includes global events that directly influence competitive conditions, market access, and execution realities across fintech sectors. This page will be updated throughout the week with market movers in a live format and then each week we'll close the prior week's contents in prep for the upcoming week, and continue on a rolling basis. (Missed prior week's Fintech Whisperer? (December 6-12, 2025, December 13-19, 2025, January 1-9, 2026, January 10-16, 2026, January 17-23, 2026, January 24-30, 2026, January 31-February 6, 2026, February 7-13, 2026, February 14-20, 2026, February 21-27, 2026, February 28-March 6, 2026, March 7-13, 2026, March 14-20, 2026, March 21-27, 2026).
Weekly Fintech Market Intelligence Mar 28 - Apr 3, 2026
Capital Markets And Market Infrastructure
SEC Sets Options Market Structure Roundtable For April 16
Apr 2, 2026, United States
- The SEC scheduled a public roundtable on options market structure for Apr 16, 2026 and published the full agenda and panelists.
- The agenda includes a data presentation from the Division of Trading and Markets Office of Analytics and Research, followed by panels on quote driven competition, customer experience, and growth challenges in listed options.
- The SEC named participants from exchanges, brokers, market makers, academics, and industry groups, including NYSE, Nasdaq, OCC, Citadel Securities, Interactive Brokers, Robinhood Securities, Schwab, and SIFMA.
The SEC is putting options infrastructure, customer outcomes, and market growth on the table in one public process. That gives exchanges, brokers, market makers, and vendors a clear read on where scrutiny may build next.
FCA And Bank Open Taskforce On Transaction And Post Trade Reporting
Apr 2, 2026, United Kingdom
- The FCA and Bank of England are seeking members for a new taskforce to shape their long term approach to harmonising transaction and post trade reporting.
- The taskforce will run through three working groups covering policy, strategy, and architecture.
- Its scope includes opportunities to harmonise reporting under UK MiFIR, UK EMIR, and UK SFTR, simplify reporting data, and assess how modern technology and data architecture can streamline the reporting stack.
- Appointments are for an initial 18 month period, with applications due by Apr 23, 2026.
The UK is opening a formal industry track to reduce duplication across major wholesale market reporting regimes. That puts reporting design, data standards, and regtech architecture back into play for firms that want lower operational drag in post trade infrastructure.
TSXV Removes Sponsor Requirement For Listings
Mar 31, 2026, Canada
- TSX Venture Exchange removed its requirement for a Sponsor, effective immediately.
- The Exchange removed Policy 2.2, Form 2G, Form 2H, Form 2I, and Appendix 2A from its Corporate Finance Manual.
- The change removes a longstanding listing process requirement tied to sponsor reports, transaction disclosure forms, and review procedure guidance.
Lower listing friction can help venture issuers reduce cost and timing pressure, but it does not remove the need for disclosure readiness, investor demand, exchange review, governance, and financing fit. Founders, issuers, dealers, advisors, and investors should track whether public venture market access becomes more usable or whether market conditions remain the bigger constraint.
Payments And Money Movement
ECB Sets A Comprehensive Payments Strategy For Europe
Mar 31, 2026, Europe
- The strategy moves beyond retail and now pulls wholesale, business to business, and cross border payments into one framework.
- Central bank money stays at the core of wholesale settlement, while tokenized deposits and stablecoins sit alongside it under strict design and regulatory conditions.
- The digital euro, Pontes, Appia, and cross border work now connect into one direction instead of running as separate tracks.
- Business payment execution still has gaps, especially where verification of payee isn’t fully embedded in ERP systems and where one mismatch can stall an entire batch.
Europe is locking in how this market runs. Central bank money anchors it. Private players still have room, but they’ll need to fit inside tighter rules and real interoperability. If you’re building for enterprise payments or settlement, this isn’t abstract anymore. You’ll need to design for it now.
Risk Compliance And Regtech
Japan FSA Revises AML And Terror Finance Guidelines
Mar 31, 2026, Japan
- Japan’s Financial Services Agency revised its AML and combating the financing of terrorism guidelines on Mar 31, 2026.
- The guidelines make board involvement explicit, requiring AML/CFT to be treated as a strategic issue with governance, reporting, staffing, and resource allocation led from the top.
- The revision sets operating expectations across enterprise wide risk assessment, customer due diligence, transaction monitoring, sanctions screening, outsourcing, data governance, IT systems, and group wide controls.
- The guidelines also tell firms to examine the use of new technologies, including AI, block chain, and RPA, to improve AML/CFT controls.
Japan is raising the AML/CFT baseline from policy and procedure into board level execution. Banks, brokers, payment firms, and regtech vendors now have a clearer supervisory benchmark for how risk assessment, controls, data, and technology need to work together.
AUSTRAC Finalises AML And Travel Rule Transition Timetable
Mar 30, 2026, Australia
- AUSTRAC finalised the transitional and amendment rules for Australia’s AML/CTF reforms and said the changes now set practical timeframes for businesses to update systems and processes.
- The travel rule applies to businesses that transfer or receive money, virtual assets, or property on behalf of customers, including financial institutions, remittance providers, and virtual asset service providers.
- Reporting entities have a 3 year transition period from Mar 31, 2026 to Mar 30, 2029 to move from current customer identification procedures to the new initial customer due diligence framework.
- Obligations for new virtual asset services, including travel rule requirements, are deferred until Jul 1, 2026.
Australia has moved AML reform into implementation with fixed dates and operating deadlines. Banks, remitters, VASPs, and regtech vendors now have a live timetable for travel rule compliance, customer due diligence changes, and system updates.
Digital Assets, Blockchain And Tokenization
CSA Opens Project Tokenization With Calgary And Toronto Workshops
Mar 31, 2026, Canada
- The CSA launched Project Tokenization in the Collaboratory to examine tokenized financial products and how tokenization fits within Canadian securities laws.
- The first phase covers stakeholder engagement, issue mapping, and targeted research, with later phases that could include a discussion paper or live testing of tokenized instruments and infrastructure.
- Workshops are scheduled for Apr 9 in Calgary and Jun 11 in Toronto, with an open intake for fintechs, issuers, financial institutions, custodians, marketplaces, and clearing agencies.
Canada now has a regulator run tokenization track with dates, intake, and a possible path to live testing. Builders have a direct way to shape how tokenized securities and market infrastructure are handled before rules harden.
Regulation And Policy
Canada Reopens Financial Services Channel With China
Apr 3, 2026, Canada and China
- Canada and China agreed to improve two way trade and investment, including in financial services.
- The visit produced a joint statement launching a Canada China Financial Working Group.
- Both sides also agreed to hold a high level economic and financial dialogue later in 2026.
Canada is putting financial services back into the trade relationship with China through a formal working channel. That creates a live policy lane for banks, financial institutions, and cross border market access discussions at a time when trade diversification is becoming more urgent.
CFTC Sues Three States Over Prediction Market Jurisdiction
Apr 2, 2026, United States
- The CFTC filed lawsuits against Arizona, Connecticut, and Illinois to challenge state actions against CFTC registered designated contract markets.
- The agency says Congress gave the CFTC exclusive jurisdiction over lawful event contracts under the Commodity Exchange Act.
- The CFTC expects to move forward with regulation after its recent prediction markets rulemaking notice.
The fight over prediction markets is now moving through both courts and rulemaking. That gives exchanges, brokers, and market operators a clearer read on where federal authority is likely to be enforced next.
OSFI Pins June 2026 Launch For Modernized Approvals Framework
Mar 30, 2026, Canada
- The remarks confirm a modernized approvals framework scheduled to launch in June 2026 to create efficiencies in how OSFI reviews banking applications.
- The discussion also references draft CAR revisions that propose lowering the risk weight on some business loans from 85% to 75% for small and medium sized businesses.
- The remarks tie resilience to growth capacity through calibrated capital treatment when risk weights match underlying exposure risk.
A defined approvals launch date plus explicit capital calibration examples give new entrants and regulated partners a clearer timeline for federal licensing planning and balance sheet capacity conversations.
Consumer Protection And Market Conduct
UK Regulators Form Taskforce On Motor Finance Claims Practices
Mar 30, 2026, United Kingdom
- The FCA, Solicitors Regulation Authority, Information Commissioner’s Office, and Advertising Standards Authority have formed a joint taskforce focused on poor motor finance claims practices.
- The taskforce targets claims management companies and law firms involved in misleading conduct, weak data practices, and problematic advertising.
Claims-driven customer acquisition now faces coordinated scrutiny across conduct, privacy, and marketing rules at the same time. Firms that depend on lead generation, claims funnels, or partner-driven acquisition will need tighter controls across the full chain, not just cleaner front-end marketing.
Conclusion
The competitive edge is moving away from pure speed and toward execution inside the rules. This week’s signals show regulators and market operators getting more specific about how reporting works, how tokenized products may enter the market, how approvals work, and how customer facing conduct gets judged. That creates real openings for fintechs that can align product design with compliance, data architecture, and institutional grade operations earlier. It also raises the cost for firms still treating regulation as something to solve after launch.
NCFA offers various curated resources to help founders and investors stay current on developments that impact fintech markets, subscribe to NCFA weekly newsletter updates, view a rundown of current fintech news and insights, or dive into the latest fintech industry research.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, artificial intelligence, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Canada vs Singapore: Different Tax Approach On Innovation
NCFA Insight | Innovation Policy And Funding
Canada Funds Build While Singapore Backs Growth
Canada and Singapore show two different ways to support innovation, and both compete to attract fintech, AI, and venture backed companies deciding where to build and grow. Singapore ranks among the strongest fintech hubs globally and remains especially prominent in Asia, which makes it a useful comparison for fintech policy, capital, and scale.
On March 26, 2026, Bill C-15 received Royal Assent, confirming stronger SR&ED support in Canada and adding more structure to the country's financial modernization agenda, including establishing Canada’s digital finance framework. Singapore combines tax relief with capital programs and AI incentives. For fintechs, AI firms, and other innovation led companies, the split affects where investment flows and where growth gets easier.
| Category | Canada | Singapore |
|---|---|---|
| Primary tax support | 35% enhanced SR&ED credit | 40% corporate income tax rebate |
| Core cap | Up to $6M of qualifying expenditures | Up to S$30,000 rebate |
| Additional incentive | Capital expenditures become eligible again | 400% AI deduction up to S$50,000 and S$1,500 minimum cash grant |
| Eligibility expansion | Taxable capital phase out widens to $15M to $75M and eligible Canadian public corporations can qualify | Firms with at least one local employee in 2025 can qualify for grant support |
| Capital programs | No new direct capital pool introduced in this package | New and expanded capital pools in the same policy package. S$1B Startup SG Equity, S$1.5B Anchor Fund, S$1.5B Financial Sector Development Fund |
| Best fit | Engineering heavy firms with high technical build cost | Firms prioritizing expansion, hiring, AI adoption, and capital access |
| What it solves best | Build cost recovery | Commercial growth support |
Canada Improves Conditions For Builders
Canada’s Bill C-15 SR&ED package benefits Canadian builders with heavy engineering, product, infrastructure, and technical development cost that arguably improves improves the case for keeping technical work in Canada. The benefit is strongest for fintech infrastructure, regtech, cybersecurity, AI, and data firms with deep product build requirements.
Tax support helps recover build cost. It doesn’t remove procurement drag, customer acquisition cost, distribution bottlenecks, startup visas or the need for growth capital. Firms can extend build runway. Commercial traction still depends on distribution, procurement, and growth capital.
Singapore Connects Tax Relief To Scale-Ups
Singapore’s company level tax benefits are smaller, but the package covers more of what companies need to expand. The package links tax relief to hiring, AI adoption, and capital access. That creates a stronger environment for companies that are past early product build and now need market reach, talent depth, and financing support.
Singapore’s National AI Impact Programme aims to support up to 10,000 enterprises and 100,000 workers over three years.
The Competitive Question
Canada improves build economics. Singapore provides more support for expansion and growth.
A company building core infrastructure, compliance tools, fraud systems, or AI models may gain real value from stronger SR&ED support in Canada. A company focused on enterprise sales, regional rollout, hiring, or capital access may still find stronger operating support in Singapore, a system built around expansion.
See: Canadian Innovation Leaves Again in Alphawave’s $2.4B Exit
Canada is more attractive now for engineering heavy firms. The harder question is whether companies can also scale here more easily. If not, Canada still risks producing valuable technology that may end up growing elsewhere.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, artificial intelligence, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Tokenization Finds Scale In Collateral And Cash
Apr 2, 2026 | NCFA Insight | Capital Markets And Market Infrastructure
Tokenization Designs Start To Split Across Use Cases
The market is no longer asking if tokenization works. It is deciding where it works first.
An OMFIF report on tokenization frameworks lays out how this market is forming. Not all tokenization is created equal. It breaks into different legal and operating models, and those models scale at different speeds. That aligns with what NCFA has already highlighted in how tokenized infrastructure is starting to change market operations.
In practice, the limits are already clear. On March 11, 2026, the European Central Bank confirmed Pontes will launch in Q3 2026 to enable central bank money settlement for DLT based transactions. The Eurosystem has also made clear that central bank money remains the anchor for settlement. Without trusted settlement, tokenized assets do not scale.
Three Tokenization Models
The OMFIF report separates tokenization into three models.
- Direct tokenization puts the legal asset on chain.
- Indirect tokenization issues tokens as claims on an underlying asset.
- Incomplete tokenization digitizes parts of the workflow without full on chain ownership or settlement.
Most activity today sits in indirect and incomplete models. Fully native on chain markets remain limited. These structures carry different rights the affects ownership, investor protection, and how claims hold up under stress.
Where Activity Is Actually Concentrating
The spread across asset classes is now visible in real issuance and product data. As shown below, activity clusters where structure, custody, and settlement align with existing market practice.
Slovenia’s €30m sovereign issue and the World Bank’s €100m digital notes sit alongside tokenized fund products like BlackRock’s BUIDL at about $1.8bn and Franklin Templeton’s Benji fund at about $865m.
Real asset platforms such as RedSwan and Toucan extend this into real estate and carbon markets.
Infrastructure layers like Broadridge’s distributed ledger repo platform process about $385.5bn in daily volume. Adoption follows existing workflows.
Illustrative examples based on OMFIF report data and public disclosures
Most of the activity is around collateral. Assets remain with custodians while ownership records update faster, improving how collateral moves across the system. Market data supports this. RWA.xyz shows tokenized US Treasuries at about $10B and $27.57B in distributed asset value, alongside $299.32B in stablecoins.
Franklin Templeton’s off exchange collateral program shows how this works in practice. Clients use tokenized money market fund shares as collateral while assets remain in regulated custody, which is similar to what NCFA covered in institutional tokenized money market fund adoption. Collateral efficiency and usable capital drive early adoption.
Settlement Sets The Pace
According to the OMFIF report survey, faster isn't always better. Only 16% of bond market participants prefer T+0. Most prefer longer cycles to manage liquidity and funding. The target is settlement on demand, not instant settlement. That's why central banks are focusing on the money leg. Without trusted cash rails, tokenized assets don't scale cleanly.
See: NCFA Fintech Whisperer | Weekly Fintech Intelligence
At the same time, fragmentation still limits how far the model can go. There are 72 blockchains in use across financial services, and assets don't move easily across them without shared standards. Policy adds another constraint. In 2022, the Basel Committee set very high capital requirements for some public blockchain exposures, making them costly for banks to hold.
Even so, infrastructure is advancing. DTCC is preparing tokenization services for DTC-custodied assets, with rollout expected in the second half of 2026. The focus is on collateral mobility, continuous access, and programmable assets within existing systems.
Tokenization already works at scale in market infrastructure. Platforms like Broadridge’s distributed ledger repo solution support high volume repo activity, with reported usage reaching about $385bn in daily volume and roughly $9tn monthly across thousands of trades. It reduces friction in collateral movement and short term liquidity without requiring full market redesign. This is where adoption is already real.
Takeaway
The market is not converging on one model. It is dividing across designs impacted by real constraints. Products that match existing legal structures and improve workflows will adopt first. Others will take longer.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, artificial intelligence, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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TCS Chicago Fintech Showcase At Morningstar Conference
Apr 2, 2026 | NCFA Fintech Market Activity | Wealth Investing And Trading
Canadian Fintech Opportunity To Reach U.S. Wealth Buyers
The Trade Commissioner Service at the Consulate General of Canada in Chicago is inviting Canadian fintech companies to apply for a Fintech Showcase focused on accessing U.S. institutional wealth and asset management buyers.
The showcase takes place during Morningstar’s June 17 and 18 investment conference in Chicago. The conference brings together advisors and other investment professionals. The agenda covers AI, private markets, retirement, and portfolio strategy. Those topics line up with current demand for better research, portfolio insight, and advisor productivity tools. View the agenda.
Selected companies will present in a four minute format to a senior audience across wealth and asset management. Evaluation focuses on business model, market opportunity, impact on wealth and asset management, investor outcomes, and presentation quality. Companies need a clear wealth use case, defined buyer, and measurable impact on investor outcomes.
See: Canadian OneVest Advances WealthTech Innovation
This is best suited for Canadian wealthtech and investment technology firms that help advisors, asset managers, and investment platforms research, manage, personalize, or report on investments, or expand access and reduce friction for investors. It is a weaker fit for broad consumer fintech, horizontal infrastructure, or products without a clear link to wealth, asset management, or investor outcomes.
The application deadline is May 17, 2026. Apply now if your product is revenue ready and built for institutional wealth and asset management buyers.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, artificial intelligence, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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