OKXICE, the joint venture between OKX and NYSE owner Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), notified the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on 4 October that it plans a tokenised securities venue for 63 US-listed stocks. A day later the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) proposed a new category of crypto asset markets for leveraged, margined and financed retail crypto trading. Elsewhere, UBS agreed to hand its remaining fund administration business to Northern Trust and leave the activity, and Eurex said it will clear single-stock and dividend futures on Japanese equities from 2 November. Capitolis raised $220 million in equity and debt financing, including a Citi-led $120 million equity round, to fund its purchase of securities lending agent eSecLending. Read more on the week's key developments: 1. OKXICE files to trade tokenised shares of 63 US-listed stocks OKXICE filed its notice with the SEC on 4 October to launch a tokenised securities venue under the agency's Innovation Exemption. The venue would initially list tokens for 63 US-listed stocks, backed one-for-one by the underlying shares and carrying dividend and voting rights, trading around the clock in permissioned Uniswap v4 pools on OKX's X Layer network. Issuers have 30 days to decline before trading starts. On 6 October SC Ventures by Standard Chartered, Circle, Ripple and Qube Research & Technologies invested in OKX at a $25 billion pre-money valuation. The exemption caps Tier 1 stocks at 75 symbols per venue and limits daily trading in each to 0.25% of the underlying stock's prior month's average daily volume, according to OKXICE's public notice. At that ceiling the venue sits beside traditional exchange order books as a small, always-open window, and its value to ICE is a regulated route for OKX's users into US equities. The number of issuers that opt out will show whether listed companies accept third-party tokenisation of their shares. 2. CFTC seeks views on crypto asset market category for leveraged and margined retail trading The CFTC published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking on 5 October seeking views on two contemplated rules, Regulation Crypto Asset Transactions (CTX) and Regulation Crypto Asset Markets (CAM). Retail crypto trading that involves leverage, margin or financing would fall under CFTC oversight, and CAM would create a tailored subcategory of designated contract market (DCM) registration. CAMs would be barred from listing products open to manipulation and face proof-of-reserves requirements for omnibus customer accounts and CTX transactions would need futures commission merchants as intermediaries. Comments run for 60 days from publication in the Federal Register. The contemplated framework would fill part of the gap left when the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act stalled in the Senate in September. Spot trading in non-security crypto assets without leverage stays outside the CFTC's general market oversight apart from fraud and manipulation. Exchanges already registered as DCMs, including Coinbase, Crypto.com and Bitnomial, would remain subject to the existing DCM framework when offering futures, swaps or options. 3. UBS hands former Credit Suisse fund administration to Northern Trust and exits the business UBS agreed on 6 October to transfer the former Credit Suisse traditional and alternatives fund administration businesses in Luxembourg and Switzerland to Northern Trust. Its Swiss and Luxembourg management companies will also extend their existing administration contract with Northern Trust to cover the funds UBS still services. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2027, subject to regulatory approval, with migration phased over two years, after which UBS leaves fund administration. UBS chose Universal Investment as preferred third-party management company for Luxembourg white-label clients. The move repeats 2017, when UBS Asset Management sold its own Swiss and Luxembourg fund administration business to Northern Trust under a long-term servicing deal. UBS calls fund administration technology-led and scale-driven, and its exit leaves one fewer bank-owned administrator in two of Europe's main fund domiciles. For Northern Trust the deal consolidates a client it already services, so the main risk sits in the two-year migration. 4. Eurex brings central clearing to Japanese equity financing Eurex said on 6 October it will list single-stock futures and single-stock dividend futures on Japanese equities from 2 November, starting with 10 Nikkei 225 names and adding more through 2027. The contracts trade on Eurex's regulated market and clear through Eurex Clearing, with dividend futures in yen and single-stock futures in yen and US dollars. Traded together they replicate the return of an equity financing trade. Eurex says no other exchange offers centrally cleared contracts of this kind on Japanese stocks. Japanese equity financing includes substantial bilateral over-the-counter swap activity, onshore in yen and offshore in dollars. Eurex says a cleared futures alternative cuts the counterparty capital, margin and compliance costs those swaps carry for dealer banks, the same case Eurex has made with total return futures on European underlyings. Uptake depends on how fast dealers move swap books onto the new contracts. 5. Capitolis raises $220 million from bank investors to fund eSecLending purchase Capitolis announced $220 million of financing on 6 October, comprising a $120 million Series E at a $1.9 billion valuation and debt to be provided by First Citizens Innovation Banking, Hercules Capital and Pinegrove Venture Partners. Citi led the equity round, with Bank of America, Nomura and Tradeweb Markets joining existing investors Barclays, BNP Paribas, J.P. Morgan, State Street and UBS. The money will fund Capitolis' purchase of eSecLending, an agent lender for pension funds, insurers and asset managers. Capitolis was valued at $1.6 billion in 2022. Most of the investors are global banks, the borrowing side of securities lending. With eSecLending, Capitolis would add the asset owners on the other side of the loan, so banks would hold equity in a firm that also acts as agent for their lending counterparties. 6. Liquidnet opens SuperBlock targeted invitations for very large equity orders Liquidnet launched SuperBlock Targeted Invitations on 6 October, letting buy-side traders notify chosen counterparties of very large orders. Each invitation is backed by a live client order in Liquidnet. The tool extends the SuperBlock initiative launched in 2024, under which more than 1,500 SuperBlocks have traded globally. Liquidnet says SuperBlock delivered savings of 64.5 basis points, or $55 million, to buy-side members between January 2025 and June 2026. The $55 million is Liquidnet's own estimate, so it is a vendor claim until independent transaction cost analysis confirms it. The design choice that matters is the live-order requirement. Because every invitation is backed by a live order, recipients can act on it, and the sender decides who sees the order, which is designed to address the information leakage that keeps large blocks off venues. 7. Bloomberg automates Japanese government bond market-on-close trading with BlackRock Bloomberg announced on 4 October what it calls the first fully automated Japanese government bond (JGB) market-on-close trade, executed through a new workflow aligned to BB3P, the JGB closing reference rate. The workflow combines Bloomberg's bid/offer list trading with Rule Builder, its automation tool, inside its TSOX order and execution workflow. BlackRock collaborated on the protocol. Bloomberg already offers market-on-close trading in US Treasuries, Canadian government bonds, UK gilts and European government bonds. Market-on-close execution matters most to index-tracking bond funds, whose performance is measured against closing prices. Automating it removes manual order handling at the close and can help limit tracking error. With JGBs added, a desk running global sovereign index funds can trade the close in all its main markets on one Bloomberg workflow, which raises the cost of switching platforms. 8. State Street study finds 35% of institutions already manage or distribute digital assets State Street published its 2026 Digital Assets Study on 6 October. Of the institutional investors surveyed, 35% already manage or distribute digital assets and a further 28% have the provider relationships and infrastructure to do so if clients ask. Respondents expect the largest impact on custody (66%), payments (54%) and fund issuance (51%). State Street also reports that 84% plan tokenised versions of existing products, with ETFs and long-only funds the preferred vehicles. About 82% of asset managers plan to distribute digital assets to institutional investors. The study measures intent and readiness and surveyed 300 senior executives from asset managers, asset owners and wealth managers between 20 July and 19 August 2026. Its most useful finding is that respondents expect custody to change most, ahead of payments and fund issuance. That puts the pressure on State Street's own core business and on its custody peers, which are building digital asset services against that expectation. 9. ANDRA unveils issuer-sponsored tokenisation platform for ETFs ANDRA (Adaptable Network Designed for Regulated Assets) unveiled on 5 October an issuer-sponsored tokenisation platform for exchange-traded fund (ETF) issuers that runs alongside their existing settlement, custody and service-provider infrastructure. The platform is built on the Canton Network, and ANDRA says its subsidiary became registered with the SEC as a transfer agent on 4 September 2026. It has also convened an industry working group of issuers, authorised participants, market makers and administrators to work through settlement, compliance and possible pilots. ANDRA says its platform connects on-chain activity with the official records maintained by an ETF's transfer agent. The working group's agenda shows where the friction sits, in settlement between issuers, authorised participants and market makers. No issuer or live fund has been named. 10. Meritz Securities signs Ripple to study custody and tokenisation for Korea's new regime Meritz Securities disclosed on 7 October a strategic partnership with Ripple to explore how Ripple Custody and Ripple's tokenisation infrastructure can be applied to Korea's capital markets. Meritz chief executive Jang Won-jae and Ripple president Monica Long signed the agreement at Meritz's Seoul headquarters. No product, client segment or settlement asset has been confirmed. Korea's amended rules allowing tokenised stocks, bonds and funds take effect on 4 February 2027. The timing follows draft rules from Korea's Financial Services Commission that would require the Korea Securities Depository and at least two account management institutions on every registration ledger. A brokerage that wants to issue or hold tokenised securities needs custody and node infrastructure that fits that design. The agreement is exploratory with no production date, so it sits at the earliest stage of Korean preparation.
