The emergence of a new asset class

For years, the biggest knock against tokens was fairly simple: they don't do anything. Unlike equity, which entitles you to profits, most tokens sat in legal and economic limbo with governance rights in name, but no cash flows, no dividends and no enforceable claims. To avoid being classified as securities, projects had to deliberately strip their tokens of any economic value.

That is starting to change and the first stop is regulation. SEC Chairman Atkins has publicly endorsed DeFi and has directed staff to develop innovation exemptions in order to bring capital markets onchain. In parallel, the Clarity Act is advancing through Congress, offering a framework for tokens to be treated as legitimate financial instruments rather than regulatory grey zones. This would mean that for the first time, there is a credible path to tokens functioning as equity-like claims without triggering securities enforcement.

This regulatory shift has unlocked a wave of governance and value accrual redesigns across major DeFi protocols. Recently, Uniswap activated protocol fees and redirected them to token holders, Aave proposed redirecting 100% of product revenue to its token-governed treasury, and Morpho eliminated the equity-token conflict entirely last summer by restructuring its for-profit company into a nonprofit that owns all IP. Different models, same direction: tokens are becoming direct claims on productive economic activity.

Institutions have started to take note. BlackRock is purchasing UNI tokens alongside its integration of BUIDL (its tokenized fund) onto Uniswap, while Apollo entered a cooperation agreement with Morpho to acquire MORPHO tokens. These firms manage trillions of dollars and are certainly not buying tokens for speculation purposes. They are buying them because the governance structures, revenue models, and regulatory environment have matured to the point where these tokens represent something they can underwrite.

The speculative layer isn't disappearing, but it is being pushed more to the fringes. For protocols that get the model right, tokens are becoming equity-like claims on some of the most capital-efficient businesses ever built.

Also this week

• Crypto venture capital firm Dragonfly raises $650 million despite 'gloom of a bear market'
• Stripe-owned Bridge gains National Bank Trust Charter to boost stablecoin offerings
• Ripple's CEO says CLARITY bill has '90% chance' of passing by April
• Bitwise aims to offer prediction market ETFs for U.S. elections in 2026 and 2028
• SEC's Peirce and Atkins outline 'incremental' path forward for tokenized securities as agency readies innovation exemption
• CFTC claims exclusive federal authority over prediction markets in new brief, clashing with states

Relevant financial updates

• Magna*, a token management platform, has been acquired by Kraken for an undisclosed amount
• Novig*, a sports prediction markets platform, has raised $75mln in a Series B funding round led by Pantera Capital with investments from Multicoin Capital, NFX, and Forerunner Ventures at a $500mln valuation
• OneChain, a blockchain software development firm, has raised $67mln in a Series A funding round with investments from BitGo Capital, Pacific Bank, and East Bank.
• PRED, a sports prediction markets platform, has raised $2.5mln in a Seed funding round led by Accel with investments from Coinbase Ventures and Reverie.

*Underlying TBV portfolio position | Prices as per 20/02

Interesting things to read

• Why agents will need B2B payments and why stablecoins will get there first, by Sam Broner from a16z
• Bitwise's Matt Hougan breaks down why institutional DeFi isn't coming, but is already here, on the Rollup podcast

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