Here’s what happened in crypto today

Today in crypto, the NYSE and Blockchain.com teamed up to bring tokenized US stocks to crypto users, Raiffeisen expanded its Bitpanda partnership across 11 European markets and the US CFTC warned exchanges about manipulation risks in prediction market “mention” contracts.

NYSE, Blockchain.com team up on tokenized US stocks

The New York Stock Exchange and Blockchain.com have signed a memorandum of understanding that could bring tokenized US stocks and exchange-traded funds to Blockchain.com users through NYSE’s planned digital trading platform.

Under the proposed partnership, Blockchain.com would distribute tokenized equities and ETFs traded on NYSE’s digital alternative trading system, subject to regulatory approval. The companies also plan to exchange market data, with ICE Data Services distributing Blockchain.com crypto data and Blockchain.com incorporating certain ICE and NYSE feeds.

NYSE’s push comes as major crypto and traditional exchanges expand into tokenized equities. Kraken, Nasdaq, Binance, Coinbase and Robinhood are among the companies developing models that offer varying degrees of ownership and exposure.

The market is growing quickly. Tokenized stocks reached $3.14 billion in distributed value as of Wednesday, up more than 18% over the past month, according to RWA.xyz.

Raiffeisen to offer crypto trading across 11 European markets via Bitpanda

Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI), an Austrian banking group with operations across Central and Eastern Europe, is expanding its cryptocurrency push through a group-wide partnership with Bitpanda.

Bitpanda Enterprise will provide the digital asset infrastructure that RBI’s network banks can use to introduce crypto services, potentially reaching about 18 million customers, according to a joint announcement on Wednesday. Individual banks will determine their offerings and rollout based on local market and regulatory requirements, the companies said.

RBI CEO Michael Höllerer said the bank is seeing growing demand for crypto assets across its markets and is addressing it with Bitpanda.

“As a customer-centric bank, we are committed to meeting our customers’ needs in the best possible way,” he said.

A spokesperson for Bitpanda told Cointelegraph that the rollout remains at an early stage and will proceed gradually based on local market and regulatory requirements, with further details to come as individual markets are confirmed.

CFTC issues warning over risky prediction market ‘mention’ contracts

The top US derivatives regulator has warned that prediction market contracts tied to what a person says or does carry a heightened risk of manipulation, putting exchanges on notice as the industry faces increasing scrutiny over market integrity. 

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Market Oversight on Tuesday said it issued an advisory to some of its regulated entities, advising that there are only “limited circumstances” in which “mention markets” — event contracts based on whether an individual will say certain words, attend or appear at an event or interact with another person — can be listed consistently with the Commodity Exchange Act. 

“These contract types present a heightened risk of manipulation because their settlement turns on the discrete conduct of a person that may be neither independently generated nor externally verifiable,” the regulator said. 

The warning follows several cases involving traders accused of exploiting privileged information on prediction markets, including a former White House teleprompter operator who was ordered last month to return $107,539 in profits and pay a $65,000 civil penalty for trading contracts tied to US President Donald Trump’s speeches.