Happy Friday! Many in the US have just about made it to the start of a three-day weekend.

But before that, we hope you’re not tired of hearing about tokenization developments. Ben has the deets as a major crypto exchange looks to expand its presence there.

And Casey has more on how a week slow on data still turned out to be stimulating. Let’s do it:

Another TradFi-crypto bridge

Many continue to expect massive growth in stablecoin usage and the broader tokenization space — particularly with US legislation in the offing. 

The product-market fit of stablecoins in particular is becoming more and more evident. So it’s not surprising that banks are reportedly exploring the possibility of coming together to issue their own. 

“The prospect of a consortium of leading US banks entering the cryptocurrency market with a joint stablecoin demonstrates how crypto native products may now be driving the evolution of financial markets,” Mercuryo COO Greg Waisman said in an email.

Outside of stablecoins, demand has grown for tokenized money market funds (like BlackRock’s BUIDL), which essentially act as stablecoins with yield. 

Industry execs have debated which other tokenization sectors could boom in the months and years ahead. Blockchain tech could help improve investor access to private credit and private equities (SpaceX, Open AI, etc.). But perhaps publicly listed stocks are a better entry point for some?

Crypto exchange Kraken said yesterday it would soon offer tokenized US-listed stocks and ETFs to non-US investors as part of a “broader strategy to bridge TradFi and crypto.”

Developed by Backed, these are SPL tokens issued on the Solana blockchain that the company is calling xStocks. They’re backed 1:1 by the actual underlying shares, held in custody and issued following the Swiss DLT Act.

Kraken plans to start with tokenized versions of Apple (AAPL), Tesla (TSLA) and Nvidia (NVDA), as well as major ETFs like SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) and SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), a spokesperson told me.

A panel I moderated last month at the TokenizeThis conference featured Dinari chief business officer Anna Wroblewska. While some don’t believe as much in tokenized stocks given the ease of using brokerage platforms, she argued the familiarity of public stocks offers a more welcoming gateway for investors looking to move onchain.

Tokenized stocks also come with 24/7 trading, fast settlement and composability with other DeFi services. Plus, not all investors outside the US enjoy solid brokerage infrastructure access.

Dinari, which currently offers 100+ stocks and ETFs to customers in more than 70 countries, is focused on bringing the entire stock market onto the blockchain. Kraken too said it plans to “steadily expand both the range of tokenized assets and the jurisdictions where xStocks are available” — beyond the initial rollout in Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia.

“It’s very encouraging to see other players in the space beginning to understand the value and demand for tokenized public stocks,” Wroblewska said.

Dinari’s short-term focus is bringing its approach to the US, Wroblewska noted. In the longer term, the company hopes to help facilitate a global, pooled onchain secondary market for tokenized stocks and other real-world assets (RWAs).

“Imagine, for example, the cross-asset opportunities if the NYSE, the CBOE and the CME were all unified in one place that all market participants could access,” she explained.

It’s like BlackRock CEO Larry Fink wrote in a March letter to investors: “Every stock, every bond, every fund — every asset — can be tokenized. If they are, it will revolutionize investing.”

We won’t stop sharing developments in this realm.

— Ben Strack

This is how many Democrat members of Congress co-signed a letter to the head of the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section on Thursday. The lawmakers called for an “immediate investigation” into President Trump’s memecoin dinner with top $TRUMP holders, hosted on Thursday night outside of DC. 

Trump’s invitation to investors in his personal token raises concerns about corruption and ethics, the letter said. 

Happy Friday! It was a quiet week on the data front, but moves in global bond markets kept investors on their toes. Bitcoin rallied while equities sold off. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indexes are poised to end the week in the red ahead of Memorial Day weekend. 

Here’s a recap: 

• Initial jobless claims for the week ended May 17 came in slightly lower than expected — at 227,000 vs. 230,000. This is now the lowest level in a month. Continuing claims, on the other hand, were on the rise, coming in at 1.9 million for the week ended May 10. Similar to the data we’ve seen in the past few weeks, it’s a sign that while companies may not be significantly reducing their workforces, they’re also not doing much hiring. 

• The S&P flash manufacturing PMI for May came in at 52.3, higher than the projection of 50.1 and up from April’s reading of 50.7. The flash services PMI also rose in May, coming in at 52.3 vs. 50.8 last month. Both readings are a positive sign for business activity, but consumer prices are on the rise — reflecting tariff-related pressures. 

• New home sales for April grew 10.9% from the prior month, hitting 743,000 and beating projections of 695,000. This is the largest monthly increase since August 2022. The upward surprise comes even as mortgage rates continue to climb. The median price of new homes is now about the same as the median price of existing homes in the US.

— Casey Wagner