Today in crypto, the London Stock Exchange launched a Microsoft-powered blockchain platform for private funds, marking the first such initiative by a global exchange, Thai banks have frozen millions of accounts, and Native Markets won a bid to create the USDH stablecoin.

London Stock Exchange launches blockchain platform for private funds

The London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) launched a blockchain-based infrastructure platform for private funds, making it the first major global stock exchange to use such a system.

The platform, called Digital Markets Infrastructure (DMI), supports the full lifecycle of digital assets, from issuance and tokenization to post-trade settlement. It was developed with Microsoft and runs on Microsoft Azure, the exchange said on Monday.

LSEG said the system was designed to provide interoperability between distributed ledger technology and traditional financial systems as part of its goal to become the first global exchange group to support clients across the “full funding continuum.”

Private funds are the first asset class to go live on the DMI, with plans for additional asset classes.

As part of the initial offering, private funds on the DMI will be discoverable by Workspace’s users, enabling general partners to interact with professional investors on these platforms.

Capital management firm MembersCap and London-based Archax, a Financial Conduct Authority-regulated crypto exchange, were the first clients onboarded. MembersCap conducted the platform’s debut transaction with Archax acting as a nominee for the Cardano Foundation.

Millions of Thais wake up to frozen bank accounts

Thai banks froze millions of accounts suspected to be “mules” for scammers over the weekend, with innocent people and businesses reportedly caught in the crossfire, leading Bitcoin advocates to jump on the news.

Local news reported over the weekend that banks froze three million accounts and imposed daily transfer limits on all bank customers, with the country’s central bank warning that more people could face freezes as authorities widen their investigation.

Some Bitcoin advocates used the news to promote the cryptocurrency, with tech investor Daniel Batten calling it “free Bitcoin marketing,” while the Thailand Bitcoin Learning Center’s Jimmy Kostro said, “this should be an international story. Thank god for Bitcoin.”

However, while crypto trading is popular in Thailand, the central bank has outlawed the use of cryptocurrencies for payments.

Native Markets wins USDH stablecoin

Native Markets, one of the teams that submitted a bid to issue the Hyperliquid crypto exchange’s dollar-pegged stablecoin (USDH), won the rights to the USDH ticker on Sunday, following a bidding war that was closely watched by the crypto community.

The Native Markets team will submit a Hyperliquid Improvement Proposal (HIP) for USDH, based on the bid submitted to the Hyperliquid community in the coming days, Max Fiege, founder of Native Markets, said in an X post. He also outlined the next steps:

“We will then start with a testing phase for mints and redeems of up to $800 per transaction with an initial group, to be followed by the opening of the USDH/USDC spot order book, as well as uncapped mints and redeems.”

Native Markets will also launch a USDH ERC-20 token, the token standard for the Ethereum network, alongside the HIP, Fiege said. 

Wall Street, Cryptocurrencies, Pakistan, Bitcoin Regulation, FATF, Stablecoin, Bitcoin Adoption, Bitcoin Reserve
Source: Max Fiege

The race drew mixed reactions and criticism from the crypto community and several crypto industry executives, some of whom called into question the trajectory of the entire stablecoin sector and how exchanges would handle stable tokens in the future.