Digital asset market update — 9 September 2026

Jack Dorsey's Block, Inc. has applied to the OCC to establish Builders Bank & Trust, an uninsured national trust bank, aiming for a federal framework for digital asset custody including Bitcoin and stablecoins (The Block, Bloomberg). This move signals a continued trend of crypto-native firms seeking federal banking charters to integrate into traditional financial systems. Separately, ZKsync developer Matter Labs open-sourced Prividium, a DLT platform's permissioning engine for financial institutions, which is currently being tested by the Bundesbank (The Block).

In the realm of stablecoins and payments, Visa reported its stablecoin settlement volume surpassed a $20 billion annualized run rate, representing a 15x year-over-year increase. Visa is now encouraging blockchain lenders to leverage this data to extend credit to stablecoin card issuers (CoinDesk, The Block). Circle is also acquiring cross-border payments firm Tazapay for $400 million, a deal expected to provide crucial regulated 'last-mile' infrastructure bridging stablecoins with local banking systems (CoinDesk). South Korea's budget office projected that stablecoin adoption could save merchants up to $3.8 billion annually, while also cautioning about potential risks to banks' roles and token peg stability (CoinDesk).

Regarding asset management, Strive's SATA perpetual preferred stock is nearing a $1 billion market cap, with CEO Matt Cole noting 70% of capital raised this week came from SATA sales, and the firm added 1,375 bitcoin to its holdings (The Block, CoinDesk). DeFi Development Corp. closed an $11 million CHAD offering to grow its Solana treasury, with CHAD being a Variable Rate Series C perpetual preferred stock offering a 13% initial annual dividend (The Block). Simultaneously, Bitcoin ETFs are still $1 billion shy of breaking even for the year 2026 (CoinDesk).

Notable security incidents included a $320 million hack of the Bitcoin-linked Liquid Network, with whitehat hackers returning 3,400 of 4,000 BTC, though $47 million remains outstanding (CoinDesk, Bloomberg). Cronos executed a blockchain rollback to recover $111.2 million following an exploit, but $9.19 million had already left the chain and remains unrecovered (CoinDesk, The Block). Separately, Ethereum announced quantum resistance as a top priority with a 2029 deadline, aiming to protect the network before quantum computing threats materialize (CoinDesk).

The continued pursuit of regulatory clarity and institutional infrastructure development will be a key area for monitoring.