In a move that could disrupt the crypto and stablecoin landscape, major U.S. banks are exploring the creation of a consortium-backed stablecoin, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The discussions involve some of the nation’s largest financial institutions, including J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo, as well as jointly owned entities such as Early Warning Services, which operates peer-to-peer payment system Zelle, and The Clearing House. The talks among banks remain at an early, exploratory stage, and any formal decision to move forward would depend heavily on legislative developments surrounding digital assets. The fate of the GENIUS Act, a bill that recently advanced in the Senate, is especially significant

R3 and Solana Foundation have partnered to bring regulated real-world assets onto a public blockchain.This collaboration will bring together R3’s private enterprise blockchain, which is used by regulated financial institutions, and the Solana public mainnet, the organizations said in a Thursday (May 22) press release.The combination of their capabilities will help regulated financial institutions meet the demand for tokenized real-world assets, according to the release.The R3 ecosystem of permissioned real-world asset networks currently has over $10 billion in regulated assets on-chain across its platforms, the release said.The Solana blockchain serves a range of use cases, including finance, NFTs, payments and gaming, per the release.Solana Foundation President Lily Liu said in the release that the collaboration of the two organizations “signifies that the future of capital markets will be built on public infrastructure.”“This is a major step forward for the institutional adoption of public blockchain,” Liu said. “R3’s decision to bring its regulated financial network onto Solana is a powerful validation that public blockchains have reached institutional readiness.”R3 Founder and CEO David E. Rutter said in the release that connecting the TradFi and DeFi ecosystems will make for “a strategic realignment for the entire industry.”“This is about adapting to deliver real-world utility, institutional-grade readiness and shaping the long-term future of regulated markets,” Rutter said.The tokenization of real-world assets is driving an on-chain revolution across capital markets, with blockchain technology enabling greater efficiency, liquidity and automation, PYMNTS reported in April.Tokenized real-world assets have the potential to make assets more liquid, accessible and efficient while enhancing transparency, security and global reach. Representing real-world assets on the blockchain — such as real estate, private equity and venture investments, fine art and collectibles, physical commodities like gold, fixed income instruments, intellectual property assets, and stocks and equities — can transform the way ownership of assets is recorded and enable new functions.It was reported Thursday that cryptocurrency exchange Kraken is set to start rolling out tokenized equities that will be available to customers in Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia in the coming weeks.These xStocks will trade on the Solana blockchain, will be backed by shares held by Backed Finance and will be redeemable for the cash value of the underlying securities

R3, a U.K. developer of blockchain technology for financial institutions, is teaming up with the Solana Foundation to bring the former's clients and their tokenized real-world assets to Solana.