Two of this week’s four stories showcase the same trend, but from different perspectives. BNY is moving $8.6 trillion in fund records onto blockchain because Wall Street believes the infrastructure is ready. Telegram is adding a non-custodial wallet for a billion users because its audience is ready. Both moves show that digital assets are becoming part of platforms people already use and trust.
The other two stories act as warnings. A $60 million liquidation at Trade.xyz shows that DeFi’s infrastructure still has risks. Paris Blockchain Week’s rebranding under new ownership too hints at where the industry’s conference circuit foresees the next growth cycle.
According to CoinDesk, BNY is launching a blockchain-based version of its transfer agency business, which manages fund ownership records across roughly $8.6 trillion in assets and 7.6 million investor accounts. The platform will create a single on-chain record of ownership, eliminating the need for several parties to maintain and reconcile separate databases. Baillie Gifford, BlackRock and BNY’s own Dreyfus unit are among the first clients, with Baillie Gifford using it for what it describes as the UK’s first fully native regulated tokenised fund.
BNY will keep its current systems running alongside the new blockchain platform for years, and the bank has openly discussed the cyber and smart-contract risks of blockchain. Still, the scale of this move is important. This is not simply a test. A custodian with $59 trillion in assets under custody is saying that on-chain record-keeping is ready for its main business. Tokenisation is already changing how investors access fund products in many markets. BNY’s decision brings this change into the core of Wall Street operations.
Decentralised perpetuals exchange Trade.xyz has agreed to cover approximately $60 million in trader losses following a pricing event that triggered mass liquidations across hundreds of leveraged positions, according to CoinDesk. The issue originated in the platform’s oracle system and was connected to a sharp move in a perpetual contract tied to an AI-related stock. Trade.xyz said it will reimburse eligible users and review its pricing mechanisms.
The decision to cover losses is notable. In most DeFi liquidation events, traders bear the consequences of leverage amid volatility, and platforms rarely step in. Trade.xyz’s response suggests a deliberate choice to protect its user base and its reputation over the short-term cost. That said, the episode itself points to a structural risk that has not gone away: perpetual contracts tied to traditional equities introduce price dynamics that on-chain oracle systems are not always built to handle cleanly. As DeFi expands into new asset classes, the gap between what platforms deliver and what their infrastructure can safely support is worth watching.
Telegram CEO Pavel Durov said the platform will add a native non-custodial Gram wallet to every version of its app this summer, according to The Block. Durov called it the largest rollout of a non-custodial wallet ever. Telegram already has over one billion monthly users, so the main question has been whether it would use this reach to promote its own features rather than third-party integrations.
This new wallet is different from the current Wallet in Telegram, which is run by The Open Platform and offers more financial features. The new wallet is built into the app and focuses on self-custody, so users keep their own private keys, and no one else controls their assets. Zero-fee transactions are planned. Durov has not shared a release date or a full list of supported assets yet, and the rollout will happen in two stages, with a web version already available. The message is clear: Telegram wants to be seen as a crypto-native platform, more than a platform that crypto users use.
Paris Blockchain Week has been bought by global events organiser Hyve Group and renamed Signal Week, according to BeInCrypto. The deal also included the AI conference RAISE Summit and the robotics event MACHINA Summit. Hyve’s goal is to create what it calls an AI SuperVertical. Signal Week will now cover more topics, including institutional finance, stablecoins, tokenisation, and AI-driven financial infrastructure. The next event is set for July 2027 in Paris.
The rebranding reflects something the conference circuit often picks up before the wider market does: where the serious money and senior executives are turning their attention. Blockchain-only events have been under pressure for several years. Adding AI, institutional finance and physical-world technology to the programme is a pragmatic response to where the audience is now. AIBC was at Paris Blockchain Week earlier this year, and the shift Signal Week is making replicates the convergence between AI and blockchain that has been central to AIBC’s own programming direction.
This week’s stories are all part of the same trend. Institutional infrastructure is moving on-chain, and mass-market distribution is following. DeFi is still dealing with risk management issues. The events industry is shifting its focus to AI as the next big theme. Each move is separate, but they all point in the same direction.
Watch this week’s AIBC News Round-up with Cyrielle Delmas for a concise breakdown of the key digital asset and emerging tech stories.
