Monthly Review
21 Oaks Newsletter — September 2026
1 October 2026·3 min read
September moves tokenization from the pilot phase into regulated practice. With a temporary innovation exemption, the SEC opens onchain trading of US equities, and NYSE, Nasdaq (NDAQ) and Coinbase (COIN) respond within days with partnerships, stakes and a clearing approval. In AI, the center of gravity shifts from models to distribution: Nvidia (NVDA) buys Hugging Face for $13 billion, Meta and Alphabet bring AI agents into everyday use. In payments, Citi (C) integrates stablecoin payments into its corporate banking business. The CLARITY Act, by contrast, remains stuck in the Senate: for now, the regulators and not the legislature are setting the course, which brings speed but leaves legal certainty time-limited.
BREAKING
- SEC grants a temporary innovation exemption for onchain trading of tokenized NMS stocks, creating the first regulated path for tokenized US equities. Source
MORE
- SEC proposes the first comprehensive overhaul of transfer agent rules, explicitly accounting for blockchain registers. Source
- NYSE (ICE) partners with Blockchain.com to enable crypto users to trade tokenized US stocks and ETFs 24/7. Source
- Nasdaq (NDAQ) invests $100 million in Kraken parent Payward at a $21 billion valuation, while the London Stock Exchange (LSEG) brings the largest UK equities onchain with Payward. Source
- Coinbase (COIN) receives CFTC approval as a clearinghouse and launches Coinbase Clearing as USDC-native clearing, bringing exchange, broker and clearing for US derivatives under one roof. Source
- Robinhood (HOOD) combines AI trading agents, perpetual futures, weekend trading and prediction markets on quarterly earnings in a single app, while Coinbase (COIN) files for perpetuals on Apple (AAPL), Tesla (TSLA) and Nvidia (NVDA). Source
- Nvidia (NVDA) acquires the open-source AI platform Hugging Face for around $13 billion, combining its chip dominance with the central distribution platform for open AI models. Source
- Meta (META) and Alphabet (GOOGL) launch personal AI agents with Muse and CC that shop and book on behalf of users. Source
- Nvidia (NVDA) introduces software tools that allow companies to monitor autonomous AI agents and keep them within guardrails. Source
- ARK Invest brings its $1.3 billion venture fund ARKVX onchain via Securitize. Source
- Circle (CRCL) launches the Arc mainnet with BlackRock (BLK), Visa (V) and DTCC as validators and mints 10 billion ARC tokens. Source
- Citi (C) enables institutional clients to accept stablecoin payments via Coinbase (COIN), with settlement credited in fiat. Source
- Citi (C) and DBS settle a USD cross-border payment over the weekend via the Swift Digital Ledger using tokenized deposits. Source
- Alphabet (GOOGL) and Apple (AAPL) are actively recruiting stablecoin and tokenization experts for their own payment rails. Source
- Block (XYZ) applies to the OCC for a national trust bank charter for the custody of BTC and stablecoins. Source
- Deutsche Bank (DBK) is awaiting regulatory approval to launch institutional crypto custody solutions. Source
- Broadcom (AVGO) reports a boom in custom AI chips and Alibaba (BABA) presents its own AI accelerator, with both directly attacking market share from Nvidia (NVDA). Source
- Jensen Huang (Nvidia, NVDA) rejects new AI safety legislation. Source
- Amazon (AMZN) blocks Meta (META)'s AI agent Muse from making purchases on its retail platform, drawing the first platform boundary for agent-based e-commerce. Source
- US Senate fails to reach a majority for the CLARITY Act, further delaying the market structure framework for digital assets. Source
- CFTC warns prediction market operators about risky "mention" contracts on individual statements and calls for them to be restricted. Source
SPEAKERS’ CORNER
- The market processed two events that were initially negative for digital assets in a positive way: the decision against the CLARITY Act and the Fed's 25 basis point rate hike.
- We have repeatedly pointed out that we expect the crypto bear market that has persisted since 2025 to bottom out in the second half of 2026.
- The strong performance since August increasingly suggests that the low in Bitcoin & Co. has been reached.
- Inflows into US spot Bitcoin ETFs support this view as well: at just under $6.2 billion in August and September alone, the outflows of around $5.8 billion in the first half of the year have been fully offset.
- Our special AIF "21 Oaks Blockchain Horizon" also confirms this trend through increasing inflows.
Translated from the German original, which is the authoritative version. Read the German version
