BIS Tokenizes Cross-Border Payments, CFTC Drops Gemini Case, Crypto Cards Hit $7.8B

Crypto News

The Bank for International Settlements published findings from Project Agorá on Wednesday, detailing a working prototype that lets seven central banks and more than 40 regulated financial institutions settle cross-border wholesale payments within seconds. The two-year initiative uses a two-layer blockchain architecture combining tokenized central bank reserves with tokenized commercial bank deposits, enabling atomic settlement in which every balance update either succeeds or fails together. The platform is now advancing to live transactions across selected currencies and participants. Project organizers said the approach preserves the two-tier banking model and could compress timelines on a cross-border market projected to handle $320 trillion annually by 2032.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed an extraordinary joint motion alongside Gemini on Thursday seeking to vacate the January 2025 consent order that closed its case against the exchange. The agency now concedes the original 2022 complaint "should not have been filed" under current enforcement standards and described the exchange as a "fraud victim" whose whistleblower account was "known to be lacking in credibility." Gemini had paid a $5 million civil penalty and accepted a permanent injunction over allegations it misled regulators about Bitcoin futures manipulation risks. CFTC Chair Michael Selig, appointed in December 2025, has led a sweeping recalibration of crypto enforcement priorities since taking office.

Monthly transaction volume on crypto-linked debit and credit cards has climbed roughly 230% over the past twelve months, with cumulative spending reaching $7.8 billion this month. Visa now captures approximately 90% of crypto card transactions through partnerships with onchain-native firms including Jupiter Global, the payments arm of Solana's leading DEX. The surge reflects rapid stablecoin integration into everyday spending — OKX cardholders in Europe directed 26% of January transactions toward groceries, 18% toward restaurants and 13% toward online shopping. The trend signals digital assets are increasingly complementing rather than displacing entrenched payment networks like Visa and Mastercard.

Tokenized commodities platform Streamex partnered with Solana-based automated market maker Orca to launch a permissioned secondary market for trading the gold-backed GLDY token. Accredited investors who complete identity verification and accreditation checks can trade through compliance-gated liquidity pools that operate around the clock. Eligibility data updates onchain in real time, and investor wallets remain frozen until users pass verification. Orca has processed more than $500 billion in cumulative trading volume since launch. Both companies positioned the deployment as a template for trading tokenized stocks, bonds, real estate and additional commodities — extending a regulatory clarity push that has lifted the tokenized real-world asset market well past $30 billion.

Federal prosecutors charged Google security engineer Michele Spagnuolo with commodities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering for allegedly placing Polymarket bets on Google's most-searched-individuals contracts using internal nonpublic search data. Spagnuolo reportedly routed around $3.8 million in USDC into a Polymarket account, profiting more than $1.2 million on wagers placed hours after accessing Google's internal trending tool. The defendant attempted to obscure the trail by funneling winnings through a swap service and a privacy mixer before depositing funds at an Italian payment processor. The CFTC also filed a parallel civil action, marking the second high-profile insider-trading arrest tied to prediction markets in recent months.

The crypto industry's expanding political war chest delivered decisive primary wins this week, with Fairshake spending $6.5 million to unseat veteran House Democrat and crypto critic Al Green in Texas. The Fellowship super PAC, backed by Tether and Cantor Fitzgerald, contributed $500,000 to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's primary upset over a sitting Republican senator. Newer vehicles like the Blockchain Leadership Fund — seeded by Anchorage Digital and Chainlink — joined the spending wave, while several Republican House candidates received six-figure backing across competitive districts. The pattern signals a partial pivot away from the industry's earlier bipartisan posture as the sector positions for the 2026 midterms.

A single thread runs through this week's developments: the institutional and political architecture around digital assets is hardening simultaneously on the regulatory, infrastructure and capital-formation fronts. Central banks are operationalizing tokenization for trillion-dollar settlement flows, regulators are dismantling enforcement actions launched under prior leadership, payment rails are absorbing stablecoins into daily commerce, and crypto-aligned capital is rewriting U.S. primary outcomes. Even the Polymarket case underscores how prediction markets have matured into a venue serious enough to attract federal insider-trading scrutiny. The dominant narrative of this cycle is integration — not insurgency — as decentralized finance and traditional capital markets converge.