Moody's Flags Tokenization Tipping Point as BoE Treats Stablecoins as Money, KDDI Takes 14.9% Coincheck Stake

Crypto News

The TRUMP token slipped roughly 5% in early Thursday trading after Trump Mobile confirmed that its long-delayed T1 handset will finally begin shipping next week, ending months of speculation over the politically branded device. The handset, which industry observers say closely resembles a re-skinned HTC U24 from 2024, undergoes final assembly in the United States despite originating overseas. As a Mobile Virtual Network Operator, Trump Mobile does not manufacture devices in-house, mirroring the approach Solana took with its Saga phone. With the altcoin now down nearly 90% from launch, traders appear to be treating the shipment update as routine merchandise news rather than a meaningful catalyst.

Major US banks and financial market intermediaries view the transition to a digitized financial system as inevitable, with most expecting it to unfold slowly before reaching a tipping point that triggers rapid acceleration, credit rating agency Moody's said in a Tuesday report. Near-term tokenization activity will likely remain concentrated in simpler segments such as money market funds and short-term instruments running alongside legacy rails. Industry leaders consulted by the agency emphasized that broad asset tokenization will happen, with debate centering on pace and sequencing. The tokenized real-world asset market has expanded more than 420% since the start of 2025, now standing at $31.6 billion, and nearly every large bank has stood up a dedicated digital-asset team.

Monthly trading volume on Polymarket fell roughly 8.9% in April to about $10.2 billion, marking the prediction market's first month-over-month decline since August as rival Kalshi expanded its share. Kalshi's April volume surged 13% to approximately $14.8 billion, while the sector overall grew 12.4% to $29.8 billion. Tokyo-listed Metaplanet, meanwhile, posted first-quarter operating income of about $14.38 million on net sales of $19.5 million, an operating margin of 73.6% driven by tripled Bitcoin options revenue. The firm nonetheless booked an ordinary loss near $728 million after marking down its BTC holdings, with Bitcoin sliding roughly 24% during the quarter from $87,000 to about $66,000.

The Bank of England is treating stablecoins as "a new form of money" as it prepares to accept applications from prospective issuers by year-end, executive director of financial market infrastructure Sasha Mills said at the Financial Times Digital Asset Summit. The central bank is explicitly declining to pick winners between tokenized deposits, stablecoins and e-money, arguing end users should be able to choose interoperable alternatives. Systemic stablecoins widely used in payments will fall under BoE oversight, while smaller-scale issuers will be regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. The FCA's Matthew Long noted four firms have already been approved to operate in its regulatory sandbox, with a clear role envisioned for a GBP-denominated stablecoin.

Japanese telecom giant KDDI agreed to acquire a 14.9% stake in Coincheck Group through a $65 million share subscription, deepening its push into digital assets across one of Asia's most regulated crypto markets. KDDI will pick up 28.5 million newly issued shares at $2.28 each, with the deal expected to close in June. The companies also signed a business alliance spanning customer referrals, revenue sharing and referral fees, allowing Coincheck's trading, custody and staking services to flow through KDDI's consumer channels covering more than 72 million mobile subscribers. KDDI gains registration rights and the right to nominate one non-executive director, extending a Web3 strategy that began with its αU metaverse platform in 2023 and a HashPort partnership tying Ponta loyalty points to stablecoins.

Cryptocurrency platform Paybis became the first company in Latvia to hold both a MiCA crypto-asset service provider licence and a PSD2 payment institution authorisation, after Latvijas Banka issued the dual permits on May 12 to its EU entity SIA Paybis Europe. The MiCA permission covers custody, exchange, order execution, transfers and advisory services, while the PSD2 licence enables regulated payments and account transfers. Founded in 2014, Paybis serves seven million users across 180 countries and is now targeting business clients with a white-label crypto infrastructure stack covering on/off-ramps, swaps and stablecoin payouts via a single API. CEO Innokenty Isers said the combined authorisation supports a future-focused stablecoin offering connecting blockchain-based services with regulated payment rails.

Taken together, the day's headlines sketch a market increasingly defined by institutional plumbing rather than retail speculation. From Moody's signalling an approaching tokenization tipping point and the Bank of England formalising stablecoins as money, to KDDI embedding crypto inside Japan's largest telecom user base and Paybis locking down dual MiCA-PSD2 rails, capital and policy are converging on regulated stablecoin and tokenized-asset infrastructure. The drift away from DeFi-native experimentation toward bank-grade settlement, alongside Metaplanet's mark-to-market bear-market losses and TRUMP's fading momentum, underscores that this cycle's dominant narrative is institutional rotation onto compliant rails rather than another memecoin-driven retail wave.