Wall Street Goes On-Chain, Vegas Takes Bitcoin

Welcome to our Crypto news in 10, a daily podcast bringing you the latest news about crypto in under 10 minutes.

Here's your quick preview for Saturday, January 24th: a big step from Wall Street as the New York Stock Exchange says it's building a twenty-four seven tokenized securities venue... U B S inches traditional wealth clients closer to direct Bitcoin and Ether exposure... Binance targets an E.U.-wide license through Greece... Main Street adoption pops in Las Vegas as shops start taking Bitcoin to cut card fees... and at Davos, BlackRock's Larry Fink makes the case for putting the entire financial system on a single blockchain. As for the market backdrop, Bitcoin is steady around the ninety thousand mark as traders look ahead to next week's Fed meeting — cautious, but very much engaged.

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Story one — the New York Stock Exchange is going on-chain. Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company, says it is building a tokenized securities platform. Pending approvals, it would let U.S. equities and E T F s trade around the clock with instant, blockchain-based settlement. Dollar-sized orders. Stablecoin funding. And round-the-clock trading.

Intercontinental Exchange is working with B N Y Mellon and Citigroup so tokenized deposits can move funds outside banking hours across its six clearinghouses — margin calls and collateral, available twenty-four seven. NYSE President Lynn Martin says the goal is to marry trusted market infrastructure with state-of-the-art technology and to support fully on-chain markets. If you're picturing fractional shares, immediate settlement, and continuous access... that's the idea. Regulators still need to sign off, but this is a watershed signal from the world's most famous stock market.

Story two — U B S, one of the world's largest wealth managers, is preparing to offer crypto investing to a slice of its private-banking clients. The initial rollout would start in Switzerland with direct access to Bitcoin and Ether, with a potential expansion to Asia-Pacific and the United States down the road. The bank is still selecting partners and hasn't given a launch date.

Strategically, this is U B S moving from blockchain pilots into client-facing crypto exposure — meeting rising demand from high-net-worth customers who want regulated access without leaving their primary bank. It's incremental, yes... but it's a meaningful nudge from a top-tier institution.

Story three — Binance is going for a MiCA passport via Greece. The exchange has established a presence in Greece and submitted a Markets in Crypto-Assets application to the Hellenic Capital Market Commission. If approved, a Greek MiCA license would let Binance market services across all twenty-seven E.U. countries under a single supervisory umbrella.

Binance already holds several national permissions in Europe. MiCA would consolidate that patchwork into one regime with common conduct and prudential rules for centralized platforms. It's a pragmatic path back to a broad E.U.-wide footprint — and a test of how heavyweight exchanges adapt to MiCA's new playbook.

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Story four — on the U.S. Main Street edge of adoption, Las Vegas businesses are taking Bitcoin at the register to avoid credit card fees and draw in crypto-paying customers. Local outlets report chains like Steak and Shake, and small shops — from a cane-juice cafe to kids' play venues — now accept Bitcoin via Q R code. Managers say they've been live for months and even field calls from people hunting for Bitcoin-friendly spots.

This trend rides a broader push from Square, which has been piloting Lightning Network payments and aiming for a wider twenty twenty-six rollout — bringing near-instant settlement and, in some cases, promotional zero-fee processing that undercuts the usual two and a half to three and a half percent card tolls. It's early, but it's a real-world test of whether crypto rails can win checkout share on cost and convenience... not just novelty.

Story five — tokenization took a victory lap at Davos. BlackRock C E O Larry Fink argued that updating finance to run on blockchain is necessary, and said a move toward one common blockchain could slash fees, reduce corruption, and democratize access.

The context matters: tokenized Treasuries, short-term funds, and on-chain collateral have been quietly growing — and now the New York Stock Exchange is building a tokenized trading venue. Fink's pitch — shared alongside other banking leaders — underscored twenty twenty-six as the year tokenization shifts from pilots to production, provided market-structure rules and data standards keep up. The through-line in all of this: if the cash leg moves as tokenized deposits or stablecoins, twenty-four seven tokenized markets become operational reality rather than press-release theory.

Quick market check before we wrap: Bitcoin is marking time near ninety thousand — call it high eighties to low nineties — after a choppy week. Traders are watching E T F flows, macro headlines, and, most immediately, the January twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth Fed meeting for a catalyst. Caution doesn't mean apathy — it usually means positioning.

That's the lineup: the New York Stock Exchange goes all in on tokenized markets... U B S edges wealthy clients into direct Bitcoin and Ether... Binance seeks an E.U.-wide license through MiCA... Vegas shops put Bitcoin to work at the counter... and BlackRock's chief makes the hard sell for a unified blockchain backbone. Keep an eye on next week's policy calendar — and enjoy your weekend building your watchlist for the week ahead.

Thanks for listening and see you tommorow!