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- > Crypto treasuries begin rippling
- > Digital asset regulation Down Under draws nearer
- > JPMorgan’s rocky Bitcoin relationship turning a corner
On October 28, three major crypto projects made their Wall Street debut, led by Bitwise’s Solana Staking ETF (BSOL), a fund offering spot exposure to SOL along with staking rewards.
According to ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, BSOL generated roughly $56 million USD in first-day trading volume, the highest of any ETF launch in 2025, following in the footsteps of 2024’s record-breaking Bitcoin funds.
Litecoin (LTC) and Hedera (HBAR) were the two other coins to hit the market in TradFi form, joining the futures-based XRP and DOGE funds unveiled in September.
Interestingly, as the US Government is shut down, communication between the SEC and fund issuers is likely limited. Rather, new products are launching thanks to a recent ‘generic listing framework’ drummed up by the SEC. This allows ETFs that meet certain requirements to bypass the necessity for direct SEC approval, doing away with the bottlenecks and delays that have previously plagued spot crypto fund launches.
Meanwhile, across the Pacific, Hong Kong officially launched the APAC region’s first spot Solana ETF on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Crypto treasuries begin rippling
Digital asset treasuries (DATs) have captured the community’s attention for much of 2025. The trend, kick-started by Michael Saylor’s Strategy and later popularised by the US Federal Reserve, has emerged in waves tied to specific crypto projects. While Bitcoin remains the most popular decentralised treasury asset, both Ethereum and Solana have seen buying sprees from corporate investors.
So, it was really only a matter of time until XRP, a top-five cryptocurrency by market cap, found its way into a company’s DAT.
News dropped last week of a publicly traded firm eyeing off a $1 billion USD XRP treasury purchase. The business, Evernorth, finalised the deal on Wednesday, with the goal of going public and building what may be the world’s largest corporate XRP reserve.
While Evernorth will operate as an independent entity, the team behind XRP is set to be involved in the project. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse will serve as an advisor, and Evernorth will participate in the XRP Ledger protocol as a node operator.
The new firm’s CEO, Aneesh Birla – who himself has ties to Ripple – emphasised that Evernorth will be more than just a treasury strategy.
‘As we capitalize on existing TradFi yield generation strategies and deploy into DeFi yield opportunities, we also contribute to the growth and maturity of that ecosystem,” he added. “This approach is designed to generate returns for shareholders while supporting XRP’s utility and adoption.’
The big question now is whether Evernorth’s decision to prioritise XRP as a strategic treasury asset will ripple across the sector — or if the treasury trend will remain dominated by BTC, ETH, and SOL in the near term.
Digital asset regulation Down Under draws nearer
2025 has been a year of evolution for the cryptosphere, with several of the world’s largest financial markets exploring new, purpose-built regulatory frameworks for digital assets.
Following an extensive review, the Australian Treasury has unveiled new guidelines that overhaul parts of Australia’s crypto regulatory framework.
Stablecoin regulation has been a point of emphasis in Europe and the United States, and was something the Aussie regulators were quick to address. Simply, firms issuing pegged assets will require specific licenses, providing operational clarity to what has traditionally been a grey area for local innovators.
Firms offering crypto wallets will also require a license, as will companies that allow customers to stake Ethereum to generate yield.
For now, it’s unclear if and when this framework will come into print, although many are hoping for an early 2026 approval.
There will be at least one round of revision, with input from major Australian crypto players addressing potential issues with ASIC’s guidance. Primarily, some in the industry believe there are still gaps in national crypto legislation, with Swyftx’s response stating the current draft requires further ‘simplifying and clarifying’. Concerns remain around how the regulators will police digital asset platforms sourcing international liquidity, which is vital to ensuring Aussies can trade crypto with minimal slippage and spreads.
In addition, calls have been made for clear legal divisions of power between the Treasury and ASIC, with the existing framework operating on a somewhat delegatory basis.
The Australian crypto community has largely embraced the Albanese government’s intent to regulate the digital asset industry. But as you’d expect with emerging, transformative technology, there are still some kinks to iron out.
JPMorgan’s rocky Bitcoin relationship turning a corner
JPMorgan is one of the biggest faces in finance, managing in excess of $3 trillion USD worth of assets. For context, this is larger than the entire market cap of Bitcoin.
So yeah – they’re a pretty big deal.
However, unlike their competitors BlackRock, who has embraced digital assets as part of its product offerings, JPMorgan has largely remained staunch in its crypto opposition…until now.
As corporates steadily begin filling their coffers with coins like BTC, JPMorgan unveiled plans to support Bitcoin and Ether as loan collateral by the end of 2026. This means that major clients can acquire credit lines and other financial services purely using cryptocurrency.
It was only a few years ago where banks and financial managers like JPMorgan viewed crypto as the enemy, a technological innovation sent from the sky to derail existing economic systems.
Now, digital assets are becoming more and more ingrained in the very framework that underscores the financial world.
One only has to look back at some…choice quotes from JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon to see how sentiment is shifting across the TradFi universe.
Years ago, Dimon compared Bitcoin to a ‘pet rock’, bemoaning its lack of purpose and claiming that if ‘[he] was the Government, [he’d] shut it down’.
Admittedly, the financial goliath’s position had been steadily easing of late, with Dimon somewhat paradoxically endorsing BTC by comparing it to smoking earlier in the year.
‘I don’t think we should smoke, but I defend your right to smoke…I defend your right to buy Bitcoin, go at it.’
Well, thanks, I guess?
Ben Knight
