[███░░░░]: Introducing the Global Access Protocol: Compliant DeFi for Tokenized Assets

Welcome to the TAC's Progress Bar, where we combed through 243 relevant tokenization news stories from the week, analyzed the key stories on our weekly podcast, then distilled what you need to know into a few hundred words in this newsletter. Delivered to your inbox in time for Friday happy hour in NYC (usually).

Imagine being able to access ALL assets onchain without onboarding into multiple issuers (over and over and over again) and use them all across DeFi. This is the experience Commissioner Atkins has regularly referred to as the "Super App" and we've been cooking on the Global Access Protocol (GAP) to enable just that.

After months of tireless work, feedback from leading DeFi and infrastructure protocols, and extensive outreach with regulators including the SEC's Crypto Task Force, the Digital Securities Initiative and the Tokenized Asset Coalition are unveiling a Model Regulatory Framework for tokenized securities on permissionless blockchains. GAP embeds compliance directly into the smart contract layer, using Regulated Zones, privacy-preserving identity credentials, and real-time transaction monitoring, without sacrificing the openness, composability, and self-custody that make DeFi valuable. This is the infrastructure we believe will unlock trillions of dollars of securities onchain. The lite paper and full White Paper are live now here.

The goal of this announcement is to open up the lite and white papers to the public. Nothing more. More info to come and thanks to everyone for all the input so far.

Onto the Progress Bar.

The regulators are cooking, and this week they were cooking deliciously like the French. Between the SEC teasing a DeFi trading exemption and Treasury's first Genius Act proposal, it was a big week.

📈 RWA market cap was up 1% WoW to $27.6 billion
🏆 Biggest RWA winner: USDY added 10%, second week in a row as the top gainer
🏆 Biggest network winner: Ethereum creeping towards $16 billion in asset value

📈 Stablecoin market down slightly to $299.3 billion
🏆 Biggest stablecoin winner: DAI added $500M (yes, legacy DAI, not USDS)🏆 Biggest network winner: Ethereum

📈 Onchain risk free rates:

• Short term treasuries (1m): 3.68%
• Aave / DeFi: 3.11% (up from 3.03% last week)

Stories we're tracking this week

• The SEC signaled an innovation exemption for tokenized securities trading under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. This could give DeFi protocols a sandbox period to facilitate trading of tokenized securities without ATS or broker-dealer registration. A welcomed surprise and we're anxiously awaiting the full details.
• The Treasury Department issued its first regulatory proposal implementing the Genius Act, establishing principles for state-level stablecoin regulation. Issuers under $10B can opt into state oversight if the regime is substantially similar to the federal framework. Above $10B, you're in OCC territory.
• VEDA published a letter to the SEC arguing that vaults should qualify as qualified custody under Rule 206(4)-2, the rule requiring RIAs to hold assets with a qualified custodian. Their argument: the code itself prevents misappropriation, commingling, and insolvency exposure, accomplishing the rule's core policy objectives.
• Gabriel Shapiro published a deep analysis of tokenized securities via Lex Node, arguing that every implementation to date has added a messaging layer on top of the underlying security rather than achieving true digital-native ownership. A must-read primer on UCC, DGCL, and what real onchain securities need to look like.
• Valinor raised a $25M seed round led by Castle Island Ventures to build blockchain-powered private credit infrastructure. Congrats to Connor and Lily.
• Midas raised a $50M Series A to build instant liquidity infrastructure for tokenized assets, launching alongside an instant redemption facility. Congrats to Dennis and team.

The Wrath of Cannes

This week on The First Trillion, Johnny recapped his trip to RWA Summit in Cannes, including the panel he moderated on DeFi primitives for RWA adoption. The conversation went deep on why the loop trade breaks down for illiquid assets, what structured term financing and on-chain hedging could unlock, and whether the end user of DeFi is a human or a machine (spoiler: both, at different layers). Charlie and Johnny then broke down the SEC's innovation exemption, Treasury's Genius Act proposal, VEDA's case for vaults as qualified custody, and Gabe Shapiro's provocative analysis of tokenized securities.

The episode is available below and we've summarized it for you here.

Stay ahead of the curve

Be sure to follow us on X, LinkedIn, and Spotify for real-time updates, behind-the-scenes insights, and the occasional hot take that didn't make it into the Progress Bar or the TACo Time episode or summary.

Until next time,

The TAC Team