Sergejs Svircenkovs

🚨 Breaking: Citi Ventures takes stake in London-based stablecoin infrastructure firm BVNK 👇 Citi has taken a stake in BVNK, a London-based stablecoin payments and infrastructure company, the firm confirmed to CNBC. This expands BVNK's investor list that includes: Visa and Tiger Global. The investment amount was not disclosed but the signal is clear: major U.S. banks are deepening their exposure to digital assets. Source: https://lnkd.in/gXTqVJuV ➡️ Why this matters While banks have strategic interest and priority in tokenized deposits, they also understand that stablecoin offers multiple revenue opportunities. So why not do both? BVNK stands out from a myriad of stablecoin startups with its early-to-market position and relatively large market share with cumulative payment volume surpassing $20B. The next big unlock for stablecoin comes when corporate treasurers make the switch to stablecoin via their EPR provider. And stablecoin orchestration platforms like BVNK is positioned to benefit. While many corporate treasurers may not be comfortable yet, it only takes one or two to start a trend. "This investment reinforces our mission to accelerate the global movement of money,” said Jesse Hemson-Struthers, Co-Founder and CEO of BVNK. "Stablecoins are seeing increased interest in use for settlement of on-chain and crypto asset transactions," said Arvind Purushotham, Head of Citi Ventures. "We were impressed by BVNK’s enterprise-grade infrastructure, and their proven track record." ✅ Want more business insights on digital assets and tokenization? Join 20,000+ readers at Tokenization Insight to get the latest market insights 👉 https://lnkd.in/eCZyphum

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When fintech giants start fighting, pay attention. Coinbase and Mastercard are in a $2B race for BVNK. Coinbase and Mastercard are in advanced talks to acquire BVNK, a London-based stablecoin infrastructure firm. Reports value the deal at $1.5 to $2.5 billion. BVNK builds the rails that connect banks and blockchains. It helps companies issue, manage, and move stablecoins securely across multiple networks. In simple terms, BVNK is building the plumbing for the next era of payments. Coinbase wants those rails to strengthen its institutional network. Mastercard wants them to modernise its global settlement systems. Both are racing to own the infrastructure of tomorrow. If this deal closes, it will change how cross-border money moves. It will redefine who truly controls the future of payments. Here’s what fintech leaders should learn from this: - Compliance and innovation must evolve together. - Stablecoin infrastructure is becoming the new global banking system. - Traditional finance and crypto aren’t competing; they’re converging. The infrastructure war has begun. This isn’t about trading tokens. It’s about owning the rails. I see this shift every day. Global banking networks are already adapting. Businesses that move first will lead the next decade of fintech. How do you see this reshaping the future of payments and banking? 👉🏽 Follow me, Lissele Pratt, for more insights at the intersection of fintech, compliance, and global payments. ♻️ Repost if you believe the next fintech wave is all about infrastructure.

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🚨 Bank of England governor: widely used UK stablecoins should have access to accounts at the BoE in order to reinforce their status as money Andrew Bailey, governor of the Bank of England, has written about stablecoins in the Financial Times today. He talks about two forms of money:  1️⃣ central bank money (cash, and reserve accounts held by banks), and  2️⃣ commercial bank money (bank deposits). Trust, he says, depends on confidence that a pound has the same value in whatever form it is held. But it should also be possible to have innovation in the form of money. Stablecoins, where widely used in the real economy, are intended to function as money. With this in mind: 1️⃣ Backing assets should be free of financial risk in terms of credit, interest and exchange rate risk. 2️⃣ Since risk free assets do not protect against operational risks, trust in stablecoins requires an insurance scheme, and a statutory resolution arrangement that ensures their holders are preferred creditors in any insolvency process. 3️⃣ The terms of exchange of stablecoins must be known, consistent and enduring. They must be the same for all holders and must be direct into other forms of money. He raises another issue: fractional reserve banking. Most of the assets backing commercial bank money are not risk free: they are loans to individuals and to companies. Trust in money has been supported and reinforced by bank regulation, deposit insurance and resolution provisions. We can separate money from credit provision, but it’s important to consider the implications. He asks: how do we ensure the link between money (in whatever form) and credit creation as an underpinning for economic activity? Confirming that the Bank of England will publish a consultation paper on the UK’s systemic stablecoin regime within the next few months, which will apply to those used in scale as money (i.e. for everyday payments or for settling tokenised core financial markets), he also confirmed that the BoE will set out that widely used UK stablecoins should have access to accounts at the BoE in order to reinforce their status as money. This, he says, will be a critical part of creating an advanced regime for stablecoins. 🤔 Thoughts? #BoE #stablecoins

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🚨 Breaking: IG Group Buys Australian Crypto Exchange for £87 Million 🚨 IG Group (LSE: IGG), the London-listed broker with over £2.9 billion in client assets and over 400,000 active clients, has announced the acquisition of Independent Reserve, a regulated Australian crypto exchange with 129,400 funded accounts and A$1.7 billion in assets under custody. The deal, valued at A$178 million (£87m) or 5x FY25 revenues, marks a bold step in IG’s crypto strategy, expanding its footprint across Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. Independent Reserve will continue to operate under its existing leadership, retaining a 30% ownership stake, with IG holding an option to acquire the remainder based on future performance. 🔑 Why this matters: ETFs & Retail Investing: IG has been expanding its multi-asset platform, offering ETFs, shares, FX, and now crypto, aiming to become a one-stop shop for retail and institutional investors. Crypto Growth: Independent Reserve generated A$35.3m in FY25 revenues, nearly doubling year-on-year, and serves an average of 116,000 monthly active customers. Strategic Expansion: The acquisition follows IG’s earlier £160m purchase of Freetrade (UK commission-free trading platform), strengthening its position in equities and ETF trading for younger investors. 🌍 With ETFs continuing to attract record inflows in Europe and the U.S., IG’s dual focus on low-cost ETF investing and regulated crypto trading positions it at the heart of the next wave of digital and traditional finance convergence. 📊 The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals from MAS (Singapore) and FIRB (Australia), with closing expected in early 2026. #IGGroup #ETFs #Crypto #DigitalAssets #RetailInvesting #Fintech #MergersAndAcquisitions #WealthTech #ARKInvest

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Samara Alpha Management, an institutional-grade digital asset manager, today released an update on the BTC+ Fund, a bitcoin-denominated diversified fund-of-funds that has been operating since July 2023. The Fund follows a market-neutral mandate, aiming to generate incremental returns in BTC terms while seeking to limit exposure to broad market direction. The BTC+ Fund invests across a range of arbitrage and relative value strategies, including global market making, statistical arbitrage, DeFi/CeFi yield opportunities, and multi-strategy overlays. As of June 30, 2025, the Fund reported a Sortino ratio above 4.0, with monthly drawdowns since inception contained to approximately 50 basis points. These results are consistent with the fund’s diversified and risk-managed framework. For BitcoinTreasuries.net companies, the Fund illustrates one potential approach to treasury management. Instead of holding bitcoin purely as a reserve, treasuries may consider strategies designed to generate additional BTC yield. Such outcomes depend on market conditions and risks, but they highlight how capital efficiency is becoming an important consideration for balance sheet deployment. “Corporate treasuries are beginning to recognize that holding digital assets is only the first step,” said Wilfred Daye, CEO of Samara Alpha Management. “The next phase is about capital efficiency — how holdings are deployed, and whether they can generate incremental yield without adding undue risk. The BTC+ Fund was designed with that objective in mind.” Samara Alpha has received third-party recognition, including Digital Asset Manager of the Year by FDI Insider and a shortlisting for Hedgeweek’s 2025 Global Digital Asset Manager of the Year Awards. While such recognition is not indicative of future results, it reflects growing industry awareness of Samara Alpha’s work in the digital asset space. Important Disclosures: The BTC+ Fund is offered under a 3(c)(7) exemption and is available only to qualified purchasers with a minimum investment of 1 BTC. Investments involve significant risks, including volatility, liquidity constraints, regulatory uncertainty, and potential loss of principal. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Any investment decision should be made only after reviewing the Fund’s private placement memorandum. #bitcoin Sylvanus Technologies Blockstone Capital #digitalassets

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Stablecoin market cap: $296Bn Percentage in USD: 97% EU GDP: ~5-6x UK GDP EUR stablecoin market cap (~€400-500m): 800x GBP stablecoin market cap (~£600k). If stablecoins become a dominant payment mechanism (together with its other use cases), the risk to smaller economies is quite clear.. #stablecoins

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UK Cryptoasset Business Council (UKCBC) - DeFi: A Strategic Opportunity for the UK Source: https://lnkd.in/gVGZrsMr #uk #defi #strategic #opportunity #uk Highlights: The aim of this short report is to provide a high-level perspective on the defining features of DeFi and provide input to the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) ongoing thinking on the subject. As a starting point, UKCBC’s members highlight three overarching key principles that should be considered at all stages of policy development 1. DeFi protocols are open-source software infrastructure, not financial intermediaries. Interface features such as the absence of control, custody or discretion over users’ funds means that DeFi applications do not pose the same risks as those associated with traditional financial intermediaries. 2. This new type of arrangement fundamentally changes the nature of the interaction between users and financial products and therefore their associated risks and subsequent mitigating frameworks. 3. Common standards and practices continue to be developed by industry. These help to mitigate emergent risks, and drive greater trust and transparency in the sector which the public sector can and should build on. In addition to the above, we also propose some high-level recommendations to ensure the UK’s approach to regulating DeFi is competitive with emerging global paradigms while preserving its status as a leader in international standard setting: 1. Regulation should be applied to intermediaries providing financial services, not software itself (‘Tech neutrality’). 2. Develop guidance regarding the concept of ‘control’ as it applies to DeFi protocols to promote clarity as to what constitutes a “truly decentralised” offering. 3. Intermediaries should be able to interact with, or facilitate a user interacting with, truly decentralised DeFi protocols, as their participation does not affect the decentralisation of the protocol itself. 4. Seek alignment with other forward looking jurisdictions to promote cross-border cooperation and market liquidity. 5. Update the UK tax framework to provide greater clarity over the treatment of DeFi activities. 

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How Modern Issuer Processors Turned 12-Month Card Launches Into 3-Week Implementations Brex, Ramp, Revolut, and Chime issue cards to millions of customers across dozens of countries. None of them built the infrastructure powering those cards. They're running on Marqeta, Lithic, Galileo Financial Technologies, and Paymentology, modern issuer processors that compressed what used to take 12 months and cost millions into 3-week implementations with pay-as-you-go pricing. Modern processors grew from near-zero in 2015 to 6.2% of issuer processing revenue by 2022, growing five times faster than legacy systems. The $48.6 billion global market hits an inflection point: by 2034, modern and legacy processors split evenly. The three-decade oligopoly is breaking apart. The 2025 unwinding of the $87 billion consolidation wave proves it—the combined entities weren't worth more than the sum of their parts. In my latest Payments Strategy Breakdown, I trace the complete evolution from legacy mainframes through API bridges to today's cloud-native platforms democratizing card issuing globally. Here's what you'll discover: The three generations that shaped today's market, from 1970s mainframes through Galileo's 2000 API bridge to Marqeta's revolutionary 2010 open APIs. Global champions capturing regional markets, Paymentology's 50+ countries, Pismo's $1 billion Visa acquisition, Pomelo's LatAm dominance, Pine Labs owning India and Asia. Why cloud-native architecture creates paradigm shifts, microservices, real-time processing, and the complete technology stack breakdown from network integrations to API layers. New business models legacy infrastructure made impossible, BNPL, flex-credit APIs, embedded vertical SaaS cards, crypto bridges, and gig economy instant payouts. Why Visa and Mastercard bet on modern processors, Fintech Fast Track, Start Path programs, and strategic investments prove infrastructure commoditization expands their addressable market. Strategic implications for every player, legacy processors facing existential threats, banks whose advantages evaporated, fintechs removing barriers, vertical SaaS enabling embedded finance. Companies spending resources maintaining infrastructure compete with companies focused on customer experience. Companies requiring 12-month timelines compete with 3-week launches. By 2034, the market splits evenly. That's 10 years away. Not enough time to wait. Read the full breakdown now. 7,000+ payments professionals got their copy this morning. Get your copy here -> https://lnkd.in/e_bCY7BA

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Sanctions alone are no longer enough. As Forbes reports, Russia has adapted—leveraging crypto mixers, DeFi protocols, cross-chain swaps, “shadow fleets” of tankers, local currency settlement, and even barter to bypass oversight. If sanctions fail, adversaries learn they can finance wars, fund cyber operations, and weaponize financial rails without consequence. That’s a direct threat to American markets, national security, and global trust in the financial system. Socure is leading the charge to close those gaps within our RiskOS platform. By linking wallets, devices, and identities, exposing inherited risk in BaaS, DeFi and fintech ecosystems, by stopping synthetic businesses and identities at day 0, we’re redefining compliance in the AI age. This isn’t about box-checking static lists. It’s about detecting obfuscation in real time—across payments, crypto, and trade—before American sanctions cease to work. https://lnkd.in/gHXEu_HU

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The Bank of England is reportedly set to grant exemptions to its planned stablecoin holding limits, allowing crypto exchanges and select businesses to hold larger token reserves. The move part of its upcoming Digital Securities Sandbox, will let firms use stablecoins for settlement, giving the BoE real-world insight into their use. The decision follows industry pushback against proposed caps of £10k–£20k for individuals and £10m for businesses, amid concerns the UK could fall behind the US and EU in fintech innovation. https://lnkd.in/eZwhzpQQ Meanwhile JP Morgan claim US stablecoins set to increase demand for US $ by $1.4 trillion...

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