The landmark US GENIUS Act could serve as a major catalyst for stablecoin adoption both domestically and abroad. But rather than simply boosting demand for dollar-backed digital currencies, it may unintentionally push capital into the tokenization market as investors seek yield on their holdings.

That was one of the key takeaways from a recent interview with Will Beeson, a former Standard Chartered executive and now founder and CEO of Uniform Labs, a developer of institutional liquidity solutions for tokenized financial markets.

A central provision of the GENIUS Act is its blanket ban on yield-bearing stablecoins, which prevents holders from earning interest on their digital dollar balances. According to Beeson, this restriction will accelerate the flow of capital into tokenized real-world assets (RWAs).

“With yield-bearing stablecoins off the table, institutions need a compliant way to earn yield while staying liquid,” Beeson told Cointelegraph. “Capital is already shifting.”

He noted that trillions of dollars in non-interest-bearing stablecoins are poised to enter digital finance. “Institutional holders aren’t going to sit on idle, depreciating assets. They’ll demand yield — and infrastructure that makes accessing it […] compliant,” he said, adding: 

“The next phase isn’t about holding idle stablecoins. It’s about programmatic access to risk-free yield, and the ability to move between cash and high-quality assets at will.”

Beeson’s view is shared by Aptos Labs’ Solomon Tesfaye, who told Cointelegraph that the GENIUS Act will benefit tokenization as much as it does stablecoins.

To meet this need, Beeson’s Uniform Labs is building Multiliquid, an institutional liquidity layer for tokenized markets that enables programmable, real-time conversion between tokenized assets, such as US Treasurys and money market funds, and stablecoins.

Multiliquid’s open-architecture design allows compliant issuers to integrate without commercial agreements.

While declining to name partners, Beeson confirmed that Uniform Labs is “working with a number of leading institutions, fintechs, and stablecoin issuers” ahead of its production launch later this year.

Before launching Uniform Labs, Beeson served as chief product officer at Libeara, a tokenization platform incubated by Standard Chartered’s SC Ventures.

Related: Tokenized money market funds emerge as Wall Street’s answer to stablecoins

Tokenization surge to broaden beyond private credit, government bonds

Although the GENIUS Act gives newfound legitimacy to stablecoins — and to digital currencies more broadly — “the next phase of digital assets is focused on asset tokenization,” wrote Sandra Waliczek, a member of the World Economic Forum’s blockchain and digital asset division.

Waliczek highlighted tokenization’s potential to level the investing playing field for asset classes like real estate and private equity, which have historically been restricted to wealthier investors.

“Tokenization changes this by enabling asset fractionalization, breaking assets into smaller, more affordable units,” she wrote.

So far, the nearly $26 billion tokenization market has largely centered on private credit and government bonds. But as Beeson noted, the disruption will extend far beyond those segments, encompassing “corporate bonds, credit and credit funds, commodities, equities, real estate funds, private equity funds, and ultimately private equity and real estate assets themselves.”

Related: GENIUS Act scrutinized for stablecoin yield ban as TradFi tokenization gains steam

]]> https://earlybirdsinvest.com/genius-ban-wont-stop-institutions-from-seeking-stablecoin-yield-ex-standard-chartered-exec/feed/ 0 52711 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/standard-chartered-bank-hit-with-2700000000-lawsuit-over-alleged-role-in-malaysian-sovereign-wealth-fund-fraud/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/standard-chartered-bank-hit-with-2700000000-lawsuit-over-alleged-role-in-malaysian-sovereign-wealth-fund-fraud/#respond Thu, 03 Jul 2025 13:48:10 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/standard-chartered-bank-hit-with-2700000000-lawsuit-over-alleged-role-in-malaysian-sovereign-wealth-fund-fraud/

Liquidators are reportedly suing the Singapore arm of Standard Chartered over allegations the British banking giant enabled fraud that caused more than $2.7 billion in losses.

The allegations are tied to the $4.5 billion embezzlement conspiracy carried out against the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad, known as the 1MDB scandal, which began back in 2009.

Standard Chartered “emphatically rejected” the claims made in the new Singapore lawsuit, according to a new Reuters report.

Liquidators from the financial services giant Kroll filed the suit, claiming that the British bank enabled the 1MDB fraud.

Standard Chartered allegedly ignored red flags and processed more than 100 intrabank transfers between 2009 and 2013, which contributed to hiding the 1MDB funds, according to three companies in liquidation associated with the scandal.

Explain the liquidators,

“According to this lawsuit, the transfers demonstrate serious breaches and control failings which ultimately enabled the theft of public funds by people operating at the highest levels of the Malaysian government during that period.”

Standard Chartered told Reuters any claims made by the companies were “without merit.”

Earlier this year, former Goldman Sachs employee Tim Leissner was sentenced to two years behind bars for playing a part in the multibillion-dollar heist.

Prosecutors say that Leissner and others who worked for the banking giant aided Malaysia in raising $6.5 billion for the nation’s investment fund through bond sales.

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Standard Chartered projected that tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs) beyond stablecoins could accelerate significantly over the next five years, driven by regulatory progress and a sharper focus on high-impact use cases, according to a June 20 report shared with CryptoSlate.

The bank’s report, titled “RWA Tokenisation — A Growth Opportunity,” highlighted that while stablecoins remain the dominant driver of blockchain-based RWAs, efforts to tokenize non-stablecoin assets like private credit, securitized debt, private equity, and commodities have trailed behind at around $2 billion.

According to the report, the gap stems largely from uneven regulations and early projects targeting areas with limited value from blockchain adoption.

Focus shifting beyond stablecoins

Geoffrey Kendrick, head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered, explained that the industry’s heavy reliance on stablecoins has overshadowed other tokenization prospects that could transform illiquid and hard-to-access markets.

Kendrick wrote:

“Non-stablecoin RWA tokenization has lagged for a number of reasons — regulatory uncertainty and focus on wrong areas being amongst them. However, as regulatory clarity emerges and if tokenizers focus on the right areas, then growth will come.”

The report singled out tokenized private credit as a notable early success, citing it as proof that blockchain can unlock real value by improving liquidity for assets traditionally considered difficult to trade.

It argued that the same logic can extend to private equity and niche commodities markets, where institutional investors are actively seeking better efficiency and transparency.

Regulatory patchwork persists

Despite the optimism, Standard Chartered cautioned that regulatory fragmentation remains an obstacle. Jurisdictions such as Singapore, Switzerland, the EU, and Jersey have developed clearer rules for RWAs, but others lag, while know-your-customer (KYC) checks continue to complicate cross-border adoption.

The bank’s research called for tokenization strategies that emphasize “areas of differentiation from off-chain assets” rather than replicating what already works well in traditional markets. By doing so, platforms and issuers could gain traction even in uncertain regulatory environments.

The report highlighted that tokenized private credit, structured debt, and corporate bonds have begun to expand steadily, with projections showing an accelerated climb starting from 2025.

It further suggested that if industry players leverage lessons from private credit and build robust compliance frameworks, non-stablecoin RWAs could emerge as the next major wave in the digital asset sector.

Mentioned in this article

Big news for the code!

falconx Burned by standard facility crypto investments!

A major step towards large-scale recruitment.
Stay tuned – the institution is here! pic.twitter.com/uag0nfeifg

– altcoiners.live (@alt_coiners) May 14, 2025

“The collaboration with Falconx highlights our commitment to moving forward with the Digital Asset Ecosystem,” said Luke Boland, Head of Fintech, ASEAN, South Asia and GCNA at Standard Chartered.

Partners expand beyond traditional banksNCLUDE products and services for asset managers, hedge funds, token issuers, and payment platforms.

Tackling the growing demand for institutional demand for digital assets, Borland is proud to provide a banking infrastructure that enables companies such as Falconx to provide world-class trading and financing solutions to institutional customers, as the institutional demand continues to increase.

Meanwhile, Matt Long, general manager of APAC and Middle East at Falconx, commented “.We are pleased to partner with Standard Chartered, one of the most advanced global banks in digital asset adoption. “Falconx supports the transaction and financing of some of the world’s largest institutions in the digital asset market, and this relationship strengthens our ability to provide robust banking and forex solutions to clients who rely on us to operate in the crypto market,” he added.

Explore: 10 coins with high returns: Crypto Forecast 2025

Partnerships established by Standard Chartered

The bank launched a spot trading desk for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) in June last year.

In August 2024, Crypto.com revealed its partnership with Standard Chartered, which has been designated by the bank to provide tailored banking and payment solutions to Crypto.com.

Support with Standard Charter Zodia Custody has announced a strategic partnership with renowned crypto lending platform Maple Finance. The UK multinational bank’s crypto-subsidiaries are in the process of acquiring some of the digital asset business supported by billionaire hedge fund manager Alan Howard.

Most recently, Standard Chartered announced the launch of a new entity in Luxembourg on January 9, 2025 to provide Crypto Custody Services.

Exploration: Bitcoin vs. Tesla: Standard Charter Picks BTC as TSLA crashes

Targeting institutional clients: Circle, Bitgo, Coinbase, Pax obtains US banking licenses

After US President Donald Trump eased cryptography regulations and restrictions, major crypto companies such as Circle, Bitgo, Coinbase and Paxos have filed applications for US banking licenses.

According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, these crypto companies are ready to leverage current US government custody capabilities.

Companies are currently pursuing a variety of banking licenses. It mainly depends on a specific business model. Some people are looking for National Trust or Industrial Bank Charters. Others are primarily focusing on more specialized licensing that allows for Stablecoin issuance and storage services.

“This represents a natural evolution for the crypto industry,” explains cryptocurrency analyst Sarah Johnson. “As these platforms mature and seek to serve a wider customer base, banking licenses provide the regulatory framework and customer protection needed to regulate scale within the existing financial ecosystem.”

Explore: 10 Best AI Crypto Coins to Invest in 2025

Post-Falconx and standard charter partners advancing the digital asset ecosystem of Institutional clients first appeared in 99 Bitcoin.

Standard Chartered has initiated formal coverage of Binance’s exchange token, BNB, and set out one of the industry’s most detailed long-term trajectories for the asset. In a research note shared with The Block, Geoffrey Kendrick, the bank’s global head of digital-asset research, argues that the token price could accelerate from roughly $600 today to $1,275 by 2025 and $2,775 by 2028, before “plateauing” through 2029.

BNB Could Spike By 360%

The path implies a gain of more than 360% from current levels and, crucially, situates the token in what Kendrick calls “a benchmark-like role” inside the wider crypto capital structure. “BNB has traded almost exactly in line with an unweighted basket of Bitcoin and Ethereum since May 2021 in terms of both returns and volatility,” Kendrick wrote. “We expect this relationship to continue to hold, driving the price from around $600 currently to $2,775 by end-2028.”

Related Reading

Standard Chartered’s broader outlook is unabashedly bullish on the majors: Bitcoin is projected to reach $200,000 in 2025 and $500,000 in 2028, while Ethereum is pencilled in at $4,000 and $7,500 over the same horizons. When those forecasts are translated into cross-asset ratios, they reveal subtle shifts in market share.

The BTC-BNB ratio—how many BNB one Bitcoin can buy—is expected to tick up from 157 in 2025 to 180 by 2027, then hold steady, implying that Bitcoin’s dollar appreciation is likely to outrun BNB’s. By contrast, the ETH-BNB ratio is seen slipping from 3.14 in 2025 to 2.70 in 2027, signalling that Ethereum may outperform BNB, but more gently than Bitcoin will.

Kendrick acknowledges that BNB “may underperform Bitcoin and Ether both in real terms and as measured by market cap in circulation,” yet he contends that its deflationary tokenomics and deep linkage to the world’s largest centralized exchange “support its long-term value.”

The research note scrutinises BNB Chain’s architecture. Its “proof-of-staked authority” model rotates just 45 validators every 24 hours—a sharp contrast to Ethereum’s million-plus validator set. Kendrick describes BNB Chain as “highly centralised relative to other chains,” adding that its developer activity has “stagnated” since the 2021 DeFi surge and now trails networks such as Avalanche and Ethereum.

Related Reading

Even so, forthcoming technical milestones are expected to expand the ecosystem’s resilience. Kendrick cites the recently completed Pascal hard fork and the looming Maxwell upgrade, due in June, as examples of “incremental but meaningful” incentives for developers.

On the demand side, the token’s fortunes remain tethered to Binance’s trading engine. Holders receive tiered fee discounts calculated on their token balance and 30-day volume—a mechanically enforced use-case that has so far “helped the BNB Chain retain activity even as competition from other ecosystems like Solana grows,” Kendrick notes. PancakeSwap, the dominant decentralised exchange on BNB Chain, amplifies that liquidity loop.

Meanwhile, regular token burns, coupled with the fixed-limit supply, underpin a structural deflation that Standard Chartered says justifies the premium BNB commands on its market-cap-to-GDP valuation screen—currently “rich” by the bank’s preferred metric.

At press time, BNB traded at $605.

Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

In an interview with CNBC’s Street Signs on February 27, Geoffrey Kendrick, Head of Digital Asset Research at Standard Chartered, offered insights on Bitcoin’s recent price decline and laid out a bold forecast for the world’s largest cryptocurrency. Despite near-term volatility, Kendrick expects Bitcoin to reach $200,000 this year and as high as $500,000 before the end of President Trump’s term.

Bitcoin Crash? No Problem!

Kendrick opened the discussion by noting the influence of political developments on investor sentiment: “So I think the Trump Administration will be positive medium term. So we came into January 20, hoping for quite a lot and you could argue there was already quite a lot of positivity priced in.”

He highlighted the immediate post-inauguration shift in regulatory stance—specifically, the removal of SAB 121, which he described as having “been hampering financial institutions.” Kendrick also addressed the lack of a widely anticipated strategic Bitcoin reserve, replaced instead by a “stockpile” approach. According to Kendrick: “The stockpile for me is okay because it legitimizes other sovereigns […] both within the US [and outside]. A number of US states are considering holding Bitcoin on their balance sheet.”

Still, markets have been rattled by fresh uncertainties. Kendrick pointed to ongoing trade war and geopolitical flashpoints: “Initiatives in the last couple of weeks have been very confusing for risk assets […] tariffs on and off. Canada, Mexico, EU […] obviously some potential positives coming around Ukraine and or the Middle East but nothing solid really on any of those and risk assets don’t like uncertainty.”

Within the crypto sphere specifically, he cited the Bybit hack, trouble with the Solana meme coin scams, and a generally “confusing” environment as contributors to the pullback. Kendrick underscored the cascading effect on Bitcoin.

When asked whether Bitcoin remains a genuine diversifier amid its correlation with equities, Kendrick maintained a nuanced view: “Certainly when we see large moves like we’ve seen in the last few weeks […] on the negative direction risk assets all trade together […] Medium-term, I think the diversification story is reasonable […] The use case for Bitcoin in particular is to diversify against risks around traditional financial markets.”

Kendrick also addressed the large outflows from the spot ETFs since Trump’s inauguration: “Even in the last week, we’ve seen about $3 billion of outflows in terms of ETFs […] we got to a net position of about $40 billion of inflows over the first 12 months of those ETFs in the US […] but in the last week or so we’ve seen $3 billion of outflows.”

He estimates that those who bought Bitcoin post-election in November are now “heavily underwater” to the tune of $2 billion in paper losses. This newer cohort of holders, combined with the sector’s still-robust retail participation, has amplified volatility: “It’s much more difficult for investors then to hold through losses […] when you see moves like we saw this week, you tend to get some panic selling.”

$200,000 Target Still In Play

He also reiterated the need for deeper institutional participation—citing banks like Standard Chartered and investment giants such as BlackRock—to improve custody solutions and reduce the frequency of such hacks like the Bybit one, leading to damaging headlines:

“As the industry becomes more institutionalized it should be safer […] hopefully we get some regulatory clarity in the US too […] that should add to that medium-term top side potential which for me is Bitcoin up to $200,000 this year and $500,000 before Trump leaves office.”

Looking ahead, Kendrick underscored that regulatory clarity—particularly around stablecoin rules and KYC—could trigger a wave of institutional and even sovereign capital inflows. He identified long-term public pension funds and sovereign wealth funds as pivotal market movers, referencing the Abu Dhabi Sovereign Wealth Fund’s purchase of 4,700 BTC-equivalent shares in the BlackRock ETF at the end of 2024:

“There’s that very long-term sector that is still to participate more […] and then also Sovereign so the only Sovereign that we know so far has bought the ETFs is Abu Sovereign wealth fund […] I’d expect more of that to come through this year as well.”

At press time, BTC traded at $81,428.

Featured image from YouTube, chart from TradingView.com