Editor's Choice: News

TL;DR

• Bitso has launched xStocks in Argentina, starting with 10 tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs.
• Users can buy xStocks with USDC or USDT already held in their Bitso accounts.
• The first rollout includes AAPLx, AMZNx, GOOGLx, METAx, MSFTx, NFLXx, NVDAx, QQQx, SPYx and TSLAx.
• The launch gives Argentine users easier price exposure to Wall Street assets, but xStocks do not provide direct shareholder rights.

Bitso is bringing tokenized U.S. equities to Argentina through Kraken’s xStocks framework.

The Latin American crypto platform has launched xStocks tokenized equities for Argentine users, starting with 10 tokenized assets tied to major U.S. stocks and ETFs. Users can trade them with digital dollars already held in their Bitso accounts, without opening a brokerage account or going through a new verification process.

Simply put, Bitso is giving users in Argentina a crypto-native route to Wall Street price exposure.

Bitso Is Turning Digital Dollars Into A Stock Market Access Tool

The key change is access.

Argentine users can now buy tokenized exposure to Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, Netflix, Nvidia, Tesla, the Nasdaq 100 ETF and the S&P 500 ETF directly inside Bitso. The assets are settled in USDC or USDT, and positions start from as little as $5.

That matters because Argentina has long had strong demand for dollar-based savings and global market exposure. Traditional access to U.S. stocks can involve brokerage onboarding, currency friction and market-hour limits. Bitso is trying to collapse that workflow into a familiar crypto app.

Julián Colombo, Bitso’s general manager for South America, framed the launch around that gap, saying Argentina has “one of the most financially sophisticated populations in Latin America,” but that access to leading global companies has historically been reserved for a few. His point is the real story here: this is not only a product launch, but a distribution play for users who already hold digital dollars.

xStocks Give Price Exposure, Not Direct Share Ownership

The most important investor detail is what xStocks are — and what they are not.

Each xStock is designed to track the price of its underlying asset on a 1:1 basis and is backed accordingly. But holders get contractual economic exposure, not direct ownership of the actual stock. That means they do not receive the same shareholder rights that come with directly holding a traditional equity.

That distinction matters. Tokenized equities can make access faster and more flexible, but they also create a different legal and product structure from ordinary shares.

This is the same line the market is now trying to define across tokenized securities infrastructure: faster access is useful, but serious adoption also depends on rights, disclosures, governance, custody and market structure.

What Changed

Before this launch, xStocks already had traction across Kraken, onchain venues and institutional integrations. Now Bitso adds a major Latin American distribution channel and makes the product available directly inside one of the region’s most recognized crypto apps.

The user experience also changes. In this first Bitso rollout, the tokens operate inside the Bitso environment using the platform’s existing buy-and-sell flow. Users do not need a separate stock account, and the most traded tokens — AAPLx, NVDAx, TSLAx, SPYx, GOOGLx and QQQx — are available 24/7. The remaining four launch with 24/5 trading and are expected to move toward 24/7 availability over time.

That is the practical difference from traditional market access. The product is built around crypto-style availability and stablecoin settlement, not old brokerage hours.

Tokenized Equities Are Moving Into Distribution Mode

This launch also says something bigger about xStocks.

The product is no longer only about proving that tokenized U.S. equities can exist. It is now about where they can be distributed and how easily users can access them. Kraken says xStocks have already surpassed $25 billion in total transaction volume and more than 100,000 unique holders worldwide.

That pushes the category into a new phase. Tokenized stocks are moving through exchanges, wallets, onchain apps and execution platforms, including recent integrations focused on institutional trading workflows.

Val Gui, xStocks general manager, said Wall Street “shouldn’t be limited by geography.” That line captures the broader pitch: tokenized equities are trying to turn public-market exposure into a global, programmable product instead of a jurisdiction-bound brokerage experience.

Who It Affects Now

The first group affected is Argentine users who already hold USDC or USDT on Bitso and want easier exposure to global stocks and ETFs.

The second group is local fintech and crypto platforms. If Bitso sees strong demand, more platforms in Latin America may try to offer tokenized equities as part of their digital-dollar product stack.

The third group is tokenized asset issuers. Distribution through major regional apps can matter just as much as listings on global exchanges, because it puts the product in front of users with a clear local need: access to dollar-denominated global markets.

Why It Matters

This story matters because tokenized equities are starting to solve a real access problem, especially in markets where users already rely on stablecoins and digital dollars.

For Argentina, the pitch is easy to understand: users can get exposure to major U.S. companies without opening a traditional brokerage account or waiting for New York market hours. But the product also comes with limits. xStocks are not direct shares, do not carry full shareholder rights and remain subject to eligibility and jurisdictional restrictions.

The next thing to watch is whether Bitso users treat xStocks as a real investing tool or just another tradable crypto product. If adoption grows, Latin America could become one of the more important test markets for tokenized equities. If activity stays thin, the launch will still show distribution progress, but not yet prove mass demand.

The bigger signal is clear: tokenized stocks are moving from “available somewhere onchain” to “embedded inside apps people already use.” That is where the category starts to become more practical.

TL;DR

• Visa is adding Arc, Base, Canton, Polygon and Tempo to its global stablecoin settlement pilot.
• The program now supports nine blockchains, adding to existing support for Avalanche, Ethereum, Solana and Stellar.
• Visa says the pilot has reached a $7 billion annualized stablecoin settlement run rate, up 50% from the previous quarter.
• The real shift is that stablecoin settlement is moving from isolated pilots into multi-chain payment infrastructure.

Visa is expanding its stablecoin settlement pilot across five more blockchains, pushing one of the world’s largest payment networks deeper into onchain settlement.

The company said it is adding Arc, Base, Canton, Polygon and Tempo to the program, bringing total supported networks to nine. Visa also said the pilot has reached a $7 billion annualized stablecoin settlement run rate, up 50% from last quarter.

Simply put, Visa is no longer testing stablecoin settlement on one or two rails. It is building for a multi-chain world where banks, issuers and acquirers can choose the network that best fits their settlement needs.

Visa Is Moving Stablecoin Settlement Into Multi-Chain Infrastructure

The key change is scale.

Visa’s stablecoin settlement pilot already supported Avalanche, Ethereum, Solana and Stellar. The new additions expand that footprint into five very different ecosystems: Arc for programmable money, Base for consumer and Coinbase-linked activity, Canton for regulated institutional workflows, Polygon for high-throughput payments and Tempo for stablecoin liquidity and settlement.

That mix matters. Visa is not only adding more chains for coverage. It is adding chains that serve different parts of the payments market: regulated finance, consumer apps, fintech settlement, liquidity routing and merchant-scale payments.

Visa’s Rubail Birwadker framed the move around partner choice, saying clients are building in a multi-chain world and expect their options to reflect that. That is the useful takeaway: Visa wants to act as the common settlement layer across different blockchain ecosystems, not pick a single winner.

What Changed

The stablecoin story at Visa has moved quickly.

In December 2025, Visa launched USDC settlement for U.S. banks with an annualized stablecoin settlement volume above $3.5 billion. Now the company says the run rate has reached $7 billion, while the number of supported chains has more than doubled.

That does not make stablecoins the main settlement rail for Visa. Traditional fiat rails still dominate. But it does show that stablecoin settlement is becoming a real operating track inside the network, not just an innovation lab experiment.

It also connects with the broader stablecoin flow story: liquidity is no longer concentrated in one chain, one exchange or one use case. Payment firms now have to support a market where stablecoins move across many ecosystems at once.

The Five New Chains Say A Lot About Visa’s Strategy

Each new network adds a different angle to the pilot.

Base gives Visa proximity to Coinbase’s consumer and developer ecosystem. Polygon brings a long-running payments and enterprise blockchain footprint. Canton gives the program a privacy-focused institutional chain built for regulated finance. Arc strengthens the Circle and USDC angle. Tempo points toward faster stablecoin liquidity and settlement flows.

That is the more important story than the headline number. Visa is not only expanding capacity. It is mapping its stablecoin settlement layer onto the parts of crypto where payment activity, regulated assets and onchain commerce are already forming.

This also fits the same market-structure shift seen in tokenized collateral and trading workflows, where institutions are trying to make blockchain assets usable inside real financial operations instead of leaving them as isolated onchain products.

Who It Affects Now

The first group affected is issuers and acquirers working with Visa. More chain support gives them more flexibility in how they settle and manage liquidity, especially across regions and time zones.

The second group is stablecoin infrastructure providers. Visa’s expansion makes blockchain compatibility a bigger competitive issue. Networks that can offer speed, liquidity, compliance tools and reliable operations have a better shot at becoming part of payment flows.

The third group is banks and fintechs. For them, the value is not that users suddenly notice a blockchain in the checkout flow. The value is faster treasury movement, weekend availability and more settlement options behind the scenes.

Merchants and consumers may not see much change at the front end yet. That is part of the point. Visa is trying to make stablecoin settlement work under the hood without forcing the payment experience to feel crypto-native.

Why It Matters

This story matters because Visa is treating stablecoins less like a threat to card networks and more like a settlement layer it can plug into.

That is a major shift in the payments stack. Stablecoins are moving from exchange liquidity and crypto-native transfers into bank settlement, card programs and treasury operations. Visa’s $7 billion run rate is still small compared with its global payment volume, but the growth rate shows real demand from financial institutions, fintechs and payment providers.

The next thing to watch is usage by corridor and chain. If settlement volume spreads across the new networks, Visa’s pilot will look more like a genuine multi-chain payments layer. If activity stays concentrated on one or two chains, the expansion will look more like optionality than adoption.

The bigger signal is clear: stablecoin infrastructure is becoming part of mainstream payments. The competition now is not just which stablecoin wins, but which networks, custodians, banks and payment companies can make stablecoin settlement reliable enough for real money movement at scale.

TL;DR

• Trust Wallet has integrated Predict.fun into its in-app Predictions tab.
• Eligible users can now trade YES/NO outcomes on sports, politics, crypto prices and other real-world events without leaving the wallet.
• Predict.fun runs on BNB Chain, uses USDT, and says it has processed more than $1.7 billion in trading volume since launching in December 2025.
• The bigger shift is that wallets are becoming discovery and trading hubs, not just places to store tokens.

Trust Wallet is bringing another prediction market directly into its app.

The self-custody wallet has integrated Predict.fun into its Predictions tab, letting eligible users trade on real-world outcomes through BNB Chain without opening a separate app or creating a new account. Predict.fun markets cover categories such as sports, politics, crypto prices and broader global events.

Simply put, Trust Wallet is turning the wallet interface into a place where users can act on market views, not just hold assets or swap tokens.

Predict.fun Moves Event Trading Into The Wallet

The key change is access.

Prediction markets usually ask users to leave their wallet, connect to a separate platform and manage positions somewhere else. Trust Wallet is collapsing that flow into one mobile-native tab. Users open the Swap menu, select Predictions, choose a market, pick YES or NO, and confirm the trade from inside the wallet.

That matters because user friction is still one of the biggest blockers for onchain products. Prediction markets may be easy to understand as a concept, but the user experience can still feel too crypto-native for casual users. Putting the trade directly inside Trust Wallet lowers that barrier.

It also fits a wider trend where wallets are becoming front doors for onchain activity. The same shift is visible in crypto card and wallet products that turn self-custody into something closer to everyday financial access, such as crypto wallets moving into regular payment flows.

The Yield Feature Is The Main Product Twist

Predict.fun’s hook is not only event trading. It also routes collateral through DeFi protocols such as Venus, so funds can keep earning yield while positions remain open. Trust Wallet says that makes the model more capital-efficient than prediction markets where funds simply sit idle until an event resolves.

That is the strongest product detail in the announcement. Users are still taking event-market risk, but the protocol is trying to make locked capital more productive while trades stay open.

The design also creates a more complex risk profile. A user is not only betting on an outcome; they are also interacting with smart contracts, BNB Chain infrastructure, stablecoin liquidity and DeFi routing. That does not make the product bad, but it does mean the “easy wallet experience” sits on top of several moving parts.

What Changed

Before this integration, Trust Wallet’s Predictions feature already had multiple event-market providers, including Myriad and Polymarket. Predict.fun adds another BNB Chain-native venue to that lineup.

The difference is scale and product design. Predict.fun says it has processed more than $1.7 billion in trading volume, served more than 125,000 users and handled about 3.7 million transactions since its December 2025 launch. It also acquired Probable in March 2026, strengthening its position inside the BNB Chain prediction-market niche.

That gives Trust Wallet more than another tab integration. It gives the wallet access to a prediction market that already has meaningful user activity and a differentiated yield-bearing collateral model.

Who It Affects Now

The first group affected is Trust Wallet users who already hold USDT on BNB Chain and want a simpler way to access prediction markets.

The second group is prediction-market builders. Wallet integrations can become a major distribution channel, especially if users prefer trading events from an app they already trust rather than visiting separate websites.

The third group is compliance and risk teams. Trust Wallet says regional access is handled automatically at the vendor level, which means availability depends on the requirements of each integrated provider. That matters because prediction markets remain sensitive across jurisdictions, especially when they touch politics, sports or real-money outcomes.

That regulatory pressure is already visible across the broader sector, where prediction markets are emerging as a new risk surface for oracle design, market integrity and jurisdictional controls, as noted in Beosin’s 2025 AML report.

Why It Matters

This story matters because it shows how prediction markets are moving from standalone platforms into wallet-native experiences.

That changes the market. If users can discover, trade and track event outcomes from the same place they hold assets, prediction markets become easier to access and harder to ignore. But the trade-off is also clear: the simpler the front end becomes, the more important it is for users to understand what sits underneath — market resolution, smart contracts, stablecoins, regional access rules and DeFi yield routing.

The next thing to watch is whether Predict.fun activity grows inside Trust Wallet, not just whether the integration exists. If wallet-native access drives real volume, prediction markets may become a standard wallet feature. If usage stays niche, the integration will look more like a product experiment than a category shift.