Warren Buffett is stepping down as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, with his son Howard Buffett set to assume the role. The SEC introduced a five-year exemption for trading tokenized US stocks, while Coinbase, S&P Global, Bastion, and dtcpay advanced their crypto and digital asset initiatives. Additionally, Grab is acquiring a majority stake in Atome Financial for $1.49 billion to expand into consumer lending.
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Warren Buffett Steps Down as Berkshire Hathaway Chairman
Berkshire's value proposition shifts from Buffett's capital allocation genius to how aggressively his successor deploys their cash reserves into traditional operating businesses.
Warren Buffett is stepping down as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, ending a tenure that began in 1970. The 96-year-old investor announced the transition in a Friday letter to shareholders, taking on the role of chairman emeritus while remaining on the board of directors. Howard Buffett, his son and a board member since 1993, will succeed him as chairman under a long-standing succession plan. The move follows Buffett's decision to step down as CEO late last year, handing executive control to Greg Abel. Abel now manages the day-to-day operations of the $1 trillion conglomerate, while Howard Buffett assumes the role of guarding the firm's culture and values. Berkshire shares are up 1% in 2026, trailing the of more than 11%, as investors weigh how the new leadership will deploy the firm's $365.5 billion cash hoard.
SEC Introduces Innovation Exemption for Tokenized Securities
Conditioning regulatory relief on full voting and dividend rights while barring synthetics anchors tokenized assets to actual corporate equity rather than parallel derivative markets.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission introduced a five-year innovation exemption allowing limited trading of tokenized U.S. stocks on venues. Chairman Paul Atkins announced the temporary framework on Thursday to give tokenized securities a regulated path without immediate formal rule changes. The policy applies only to tokens representing actual shares with full shareholder rights, such as voting and . Synthetic products that only offer price exposure fall outside the exemption and may require restructuring to enter U.S. markets. Qualified platforms must also implement KYC checks, trading limits, and volume caps while allowing corporate issuers to veto unauthorized tokenization of their shares.
Coinbase Files to Launch Single-Stock Perpetual Futures in US Market
Translating crypto's native perpetual futures contract into SEC-regulated equity markets threatens to shift US retail stock speculation away from traditional options exchanges.
Cointelegraph.com reports that Coinbase has filed with the Trading Commission to list single-stock perpetual futures in the United States. The proposed would provide traders with 24/5 exposure to individual without requiring ownership of the underlying shares. Unlike traditional contracts, these perpetual futures feature no expiration date. Coinbase plans to initially offer contracts tied to roughly 50 to 60 stocks, including Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, and Nvidia. The filing builds on an earlier Form 1-N submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Sept. 1 to register Coinbase Derivatives as a national securities exchange. The contracts remain pending regulatory approval.
S&P Global Acquires OpenZeppelin to Expand Tokenized Finance Risk Capabilities
Integrating smart-contract code auditing into traditional ratings frameworks establishes software security as a baseline prerequisite for institutional underwriting of tokenized financial assets.
Global agreed to acquire smart contract security firm OpenZeppelin for an undisclosed sum, bringing code auditing into the institutional ratings business. The transaction places OpenZeppelin as an independent unit inside S&P Global Ratings under co-founder and chief executive Demian Brener, who will report to ratings president Yann Le Pallec. S&P stated that the deal will not materially affect its financial results. OpenZeppelin's code libraries have underpinned more than $37 trillion in cumulative value transfers across , tokenized funds, and protocols since 2015. The firm has completed more than 900 security engagements and surfaced over 10,000 vulnerabilities before code deployment. S&P is buying the audit record and monitoring engine to establish a formal risk standard as traditional banks and managers migrate financial products onto networks. OpenZeppelin will maintain its brand, team, and open-source commitment, while its core libraries will remain permanently free and publicly available. Jefferies acted as financial advisor and Clifford Chance served as legal counsel to S&P Global, while FT Partners advised OpenZeppelin with Cooley as legal counsel.
Bastion Secures Conditional OCC Approval for National Trust Bank Charter
Replacing a patchwork of state licenses with a federal trust charter enables Bastion to package white-label issuance and custody into a single federally regulated counterparty.
Bastion secured preliminary conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for a national trust bank charter. The federal designation adds OCC supervision to existing state licenses held by the infrastructure provider. Operating under the name Bastion Platforms National Trust Company, the entity cannot accept or make loans. Instead, the charter consolidates stablecoin custody, wallets, payment infrastructure, and white-label issuance into a single federally regulated counterparty. CEO Nassim Eddequiouaq noted the transition of stablecoins into core financial infrastructure. The company previously acquired a New York trust charter in February 2025.
Grab Acquires Majority Stake in Buy-Now Pay-Later Platform Atome for $1.49 Billion
Phased earnouts tied to loan performance allow superapps to absorb high-yield consumer credit balance sheets without taking immediate upfront write-downs if default rates spike.
Grab Holdings Ltd. is acquiring an initial 60 percent controlling stake in Singapore-based buy-now-pay-later platform Atome Financial for $1.49 billion in cash. The transaction includes $260 million in primary growth and combines Atome's digital lending products with Grab's financial services business. Grab agreed to purchase the remaining 40 percent stake roughly two years after the first transaction closes, using a performance-linked framework tied to and with a floor of $2 billion and a cap of $4.5 billion. The two-stage structure is designed to de-risk capital allocation while allowing Grab to leapfrog the timeline for expanding consumer credit across the Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand. Grab plans to use its three digital banks to lower the cost of funding for Atome , targeting a combined gross loan of more than $6 billion by 2028. Following the announcement, Grab raised its broader 2028 targets to forecast $1.7 billion in group adjusted EBITDA and annual revenue growth of more than 30 percent between 2025 and 2028. The transaction is expected to close by the third quarter of 2027.
SBI Group Backs dtcpay in $25 Million Funding Round
Securing traditional bank-backed venture capital allows Singapore-licensed payment providers to bridge stablecoin settlement directly into mainstream merchant acquiring networks.
coindesk.com reports that dtcpay completed a $25 million Series A funding round backed by Japan's SBI Group. The Singapore-licensed payments company secured the strategic investment through SBI Ventures and the SBI-NTU-Kyobo Digital Innovation Fund. Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India anchored the raise earlier this year, alongside returning participants Genedant and Kwee Liong Tek. Dtcpay holds a Major Payment Institution license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore and provides digital-asset conversion, custody, and Visa-linked card services. The firm will deploy the capital to build an enterprise portal, upgrade its application, and grow its merchant network. Management withheld the company and details.
Surging institutional integration of digital assets and stablecoins alongside major private lending consolidation points to rapid modernisation of market infrastructure. Unresolved is whether regulatory approvals like Bastion's national trust charter will keep pace with these expanding crypto offerings.
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