Digital securities gained further routes into established markets this week, with Eurex planning to bring them under its existing clearing framework and Morgan Stanley reporting use of DTCC’s tokenisation service.

Five global banks formed Singapore-based GL1 to advance common infrastructure and compliance standards. Binance’s breach findings highlighted a separate challenge for institutional adoption: revoking on-chain permissions when custody systems are compromised.

Read more on the week’s key developments:

1. Eurex Clearing brings digital securities into unified clearing framework

On 2 November, Eurex Clearing, Deutsche Börse Group’s central counterparty (CCP) clearing house, announced plans to integrate digitally native instruments with conventional securities under one clearing framework, rulebook and risk model. Eligible digital instruments, including European Stability Mechanism issuance, will become tradable through Eurex Repo’s GC Pooling segment, clearable by Eurex Clearing and acceptable as margin collateral. Eurex describes the arrangement as the world’s first hybrid CCP model.

The initiative connects with Clearstream, Deutsche Börse’s securities depository business, linking digital issuance and settlement with repo financing and collateral use. Participants would trade, clear and finance eligible digital instruments through existing clearing relationships and infrastructure, limiting the need for separate connections and legal arrangements. This would extend digital securities’ use beyond issuance and holding while keeping them within established liquidity pools and clearing risk controls.

2. Five global banks establish GL1 Org tokenisation standards body in Singapore

On 4 November, HSBC, Kinexys by JP Morgan, MUFG Bank, Societe Generale-FORGE and Standard Chartered announced the establishment of the Global Layer One Organisation (GL1 Org), a Singapore-based non-profit to advance common standards for tokenised financial markets. The move shifts the Monetary Authority of Singapore-convened initiative towards industry-led governance. The organisation will promote the GL1 Market Infrastructure Toolkit, covering controls for assessing digital market infrastructure, and the Programmable Compliance Toolkit, which sets out approaches to incorporating policy and regulatory requirements into digital infrastructure.

The founders bring experience in digital issuance, collateral transfers and tokenisation standards. HSBC’s Orion supports digital bond issuance and settlement, Kinexys’ Tokenized Collateral Network enables clients to transfer tokenised assets to meet margin obligations, and Societe Generale-FORGE developed its CAST framework through tokenised bond issuance. MAS deputy managing director Leong Sing Chiong said the authority looked forward to supporting the initiative’s next phase and broader industry participation.

3. Binance says on-chain permissions allowed transfers to continue after withdrawal suspension

Binance disclosed on 3 November that suspending withdrawals did not stop all unauthorised transfers during its 29 October breach because attackers’ permissions remained active on the blockchain. Its preliminary report said attackers accessed an internal wallet-signing service and initiated transactions outside the normal withdrawal workflow. They used Ethereum’s EIP-7702 mechanism, which allows accounts to delegate execution rights to smart contracts, to grant an attacker-controlled contract authority over a hot wallet. Approximately $6.34 billion in digital assets were affected, with around $2.85 billion frozen or intercepted, subject to reconciliation and price changes.

The wallet used multi-party computation (MPC), which distributes signing authority rather than relying on a single private key. Binance said this complicated revocation and required a specialised procedure, prolonging containment. For institutional custody providers, the incident highlights the need to track and revoke delegated permissions alongside shutting down withdrawal services.

4. LSEG gains digital depository approval to support UK gilt pilot

LSEG announced on 2 November that its Digital Securities Depository had received Gate 2 approval under the UK Digital Securities Sandbox to record securities issuance, maintain securities accounts and provide settlement services. It follows HSBC and ClearToken in obtaining approval for live depository activity within sandbox limits and conditions. The approval also covers a link to HSBC Orion, subject to settlement-finality designations for both institutions, to support the UK Digital Gilt Instrument (DIGIT) pilot. The pilot is expected by the first quarter of 2027.

Orion would serve as the issuance depository and LSEG as an investor depository, giving investors a choice of infrastructure through which to access the same instrument. LSEG intends its Digital Settlement House (DiSH) to provide the first cash settlement arrangement for transactions on the depository, including DIGIT, enabling delivery-versus-payment settlement.

5. Apollo launches European private credit platform with over EUR 10 billion in lending capacity

Apollo Global Management, a global alternative asset manager, launched European Credit Company (ECC) on 2 November with more than EUR 10 billion ($11.2 billion) in lending capacity. The platform focuses on European performing corporate and asset-backed credit, serving large and mid-market companies, financial sponsors and owners of infrastructure and real estate assets. Its investors include Apollo funds and affiliates, Abu Dhabi Investment Council, Athora, Norinchukin Bank, Standard Chartered and Aranda Principal Strategies.

ECC will source lending opportunities through its own origination, strategic partnerships with European financial institutions and access to Apollo’s European credit platform. Apollo president Jim Zelter linked its establishment to financing needs in energy transition and transmission, defence, and digital and traditional infrastructure. Moody’s reported on 27 October that its 2026 Insurance CFO survey found 57% of UK insurer respondents and 28% of continental European insurer respondents intended to increase private credit allocations.

6. Canton Strategic Holdings reports first tokenised share trades under SEC exemption

On 4 November, Canton Strategic Holdings, a Nasdaq-listed investor in the Canton Network, announced trades in tokenised common shares it had authorised for trading through TSV’s permissioned venue on the network. Existing shareholder Five North sold shares to DRW Cumberland, with Flowdesk providing liquidity on the Tradecraft protocol. The company described the transactions as the first under the SEC’s temporary, conditional September exemption allowing qualifying venues to trade tokenised US-listed shares through automated liquidity pools. The trades settled atomically on the Canton Network.

Fairmint, the company’s SEC-registered transfer agent, moved the seller’s holding from a brokerage account onto the company’s official on-chain shareholder register. The issuer said tokenised shareholders retain the same rights as holders of its Nasdaq-traded stock. The issuer-backed model contrasts with proposed trading of third-party-tokenised shares on OKXICE, the venue backed by OKX and Intercontinental Exchange. Companies including Walmart and Eli Lilly objected to such trading, according to its 28 October notice.

7. Morgan Stanley reports tokenising US stocks and Treasuries through DTCC service

Morgan Stanley said in a 3 November public statement that it was among the first banks to tokenise US equities and Treasury securities through the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation’s DTCC Tokenization Service (DTS), according to reporting published the following day. Launched on 28 October, the service creates tokenised representations of securities held at the Depository Trust Company (DTC), DTCC’s depository subsidiary. Morgan Stanley was among 20 participants signed up at launch, alongside Bank of America, Citi and JP Morgan.

DTS enables participants to convert existing DTC-held securities positions between conventional and tokenised forms while preserving ownership rights, investor protections and economic entitlements. DTC retains the official records, distinguishing this approach from issuer-sponsored shares recorded directly on a transfer agent’s blockchain register. Amy Oldenburg, Morgan Stanley’s head of digital assets strategy, said experience integrating tokenised securities with established market infrastructure would inform the development of the firm’s digital asset capabilities.

8. CME reports record October derivatives volume as Treasury trading rises

CME Group reported on 3 November that October average daily futures and options volume reached 30 million contracts, up 15% year on year and a record for the month. US Treasury futures and options rose 48% to 9.2 million contracts daily, substantially outpacing overall growth. Asia-Pacific volume across asset classes increased 15% to 2.3 million contracts daily, compared with 9% growth in international volume overall.

Treasury activity increased across maturities, with two-, five-, ten- and thirty-year futures each recording year-on-year volume growth of at least 50%. Trading took place against a Treasury-market rally, with the ten-year yield falling 35 basis points from September-end to 4.94% on 30 October. Activity also strengthened in the underlying cash market: CME’s BrokerTec platform reported a 50% year-on-year rise in cash Treasury average daily notional trading value to $120 billion.

9. FTSE Russell launches forward-looking rand rate for South Africa’s JIBAR transition

FTSE Russell launched FTSE Term ZARONIA on 3 November for contracts requiring the applicable interest rate to be known at the start of an interest period, supporting South Africa’s transition away from the Johannesburg Interbank Average Rate (JIBAR). Based on ZARONIA, the South African Rand Overnight Index Average, the benchmark combines transaction data with executable market pricing inputs. Its launch follows prototype testing and consultation with market participants.

Global JIBAR-linked derivative exposures still exceeded ZAR 98 trillion ($5.9 trillion), South African Reserve Bank (SARB) deputy governor Rashad Cassim said on 3 November. Overnight ZARONIA remains SARB’s preferred successor, with guidance on specific uses of the term benchmark forthcoming. SARB intends to use Term ZARONIA to determine Synthetic JIBAR, a temporary fallback for a narrowly defined group of legacy contracts that cannot readily be amended. JIBAR publication is scheduled to cease after 31 May 2027.

10. South Korea outlines T+1 securities settlement roadmap targeting 2028

On 2 November, Korea Exchange and Korea Securities Depository, alongside other securities industry bodies, published a draft roadmap to shorten settlement for shares, exchange-traded funds and exchange-traded notes from two business days after trading to one. The plan targets core clearing and settlement infrastructure upgrades by October 2027 and participating financial firms’ systems and workflow changes by the first quarter of 2028. At least six months of integrated testing would precede implementation, with the final transition date dependent on market readiness.

For custodian banks and other intermediaries serving foreign investors, the shorter cycle would compress trade confirmation, currency conversion and settlement funding across time zones. The roadmap includes automated trade and settlement information and simpler foreign-investor processing, with operating guidelines and implementation checklists due in December 2026. India completed its transition to T+1 equity settlement in January 2023, while Hong Kong is targeting the second half of 2028 for its cash securities market.