Binance said on Sept. 1 that it has launched options on U.S.-listed stocks and exchange-traded funds, with an initial lineup covering more than 1,000 underlying names. Eligible non-U.S. users can buy calls or puts from within their Binance accounts to express bullish or bearish views or hedge existing stock holdings. The product uses physical settlement, with shares received or delivered after exercise held in custody for users by U.S. broker Alpaca Securities. Binance said it does not directly execute these securities trades or hold the securities itself. Instead, Nest Trading Limited, a Binance affiliate regulated by Abu Dhabi Global Market, acts as the introducing broker and routes orders to Alpaca, a U.S.-registered self-clearing broker-dealer responsible for execution, clearing, settlement, and custody. The service is not available to U.S. users, and access in other jurisdictions depends on local rules and client eligibility. At launch, users can only open long option positions and must use limit orders. Binance also said users need to complete a suitability assessment and sign a risk disclosure before activating the service. The move follows the company’s June rollout of direct trading in more than 7,000 U.S. stocks and ETFs.

Pantera Capital partner Paul Veradittakit argues that the overlap between AI and crypto is no longer a loose narrative. In his latest essay, he breaks the market into four working layers: money and machine settlement, credit and capital, identity and control, and sovereign compute with real-time proofs. The premise is simple: once AI agents gain identity, memory, budget authority and the ability to settle transactions on their own, they stop being software helpers and start acting like customers. Veradittakit cites Franklin Bi’s "war for 8 billion customers" thesis, which expands the market from 8 billion people to the agents that work for them across coding, finance, procurement, sales and logistics. He also points to Gartner’s estimate that agents could influence $30 trillion in procurement by 2030, while Cloudflare says bots already make up more than half of HTTP requests. The piece names projects Pantera sees as already positioned across the stack, including Circle, Coinflow, OpenFX, Morpho, Ondo, World, TransCrypts, Alchemy, B3IQ, Orthogonal and Accountable, and pairs that with a broader read on bitcoin, tokenized equities, USDC growth, US regulation and recent product activity tied to Pantera’s portfolio.

Foresight News’ latest weekly Web3 roundup maps out the stories that drove discussion across the crypto market, split into three broad tracks: the rebound in token prices, the week’s most debated industry incidents, and a set of project-focused updates. On the market side, the publication said Bitcoin logged an intraday peak gain of more than 26% during the latest leg up, while spot ETF inflows, tightening ETH exchange balances and a new U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission proposal on public crypto token sales helped shape sentiment. ENA, LIT and PENGU were highlighted as some of the names that drew the most attention. The industry section moved from macro views to disputes and enforcement. Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, speaking at Bitcoin Asia 2026, discussed Bitcoin’s long-term path, tokenization and AI-driven financial infrastructure. Elsewhere, livestream allegations from Chinese influencer Dishi, scrutiny around the backer of WLFI, Machi Big Brother’s highly leveraged trade, a Shanghai police crackdown on an underground foreign-exchange operation involving virtual currencies, and workplace allegations against Hack VC all featured prominently. The project segment covered YZi Labs’ fourth EASY Residency cohort, Coinbase’s tokenized stock rollout on Base, and Entropy’s push into Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 market. Together, the list offered a snapshot of the themes that dominated the week in crypto.

Tokenized stocks moved into a new trading bracket in July 2026, with monthly volume reaching $18.2 billion, according to Binance Research. That was 4.4 times June’s figure and higher than the combined total of the previous six months. Decentralized venues accounted for $12.8 billion, while centralized exchanges handled $5.4 billion, showing that more activity was taking place in on-chain wallets and smart contracts rather than traditional brokerage rails. Binance’s bStocks emerged as one of the most active products in that surge. Launched on June 11, it had generated $10.4 billion in cumulative trading volume by Aug. 23, with more than 70% coming from on-chain markets. In July alone, bStocks posted $7.4 billion in DEX volume, equal to 85% of all tokenized-stock DEX trading for the month. Binance Research also estimated that bStocks’ market capitalization rose above $500 million on July 29, or about 27% of the global tokenized-stock market. The report argues that the product’s significance is not only in scale, but in timing. A large share of bStocks trading took place while U.S. equities were closed, and weekend prices reflected much of the gap seen at Monday’s open. Combined with Binance’s 1:1 conversion path between stock positions and tokenized exposure, bStocks created a route for U.S. stock risk to keep trading across exchange order books, self-custody wallets, decentralized exchanges and DeFi protocols after Wall Street’s closing bell.

At Bitcoin Asia, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, better known as CZ, laid out his view of what would define a true “Bitcoin Century” over the next 25 years. He said Bitcoin reaching $1 million would be an important milestone and added that he believes it could happen sooner than many expect. Still, he argued that price is not the main point. For Zhao, the bigger test is whether Bitcoin becomes widely used for payments and is broadly held in pensions, funds and national reserves. The conversation ranged across regulation, tokenized assets, sovereign crypto reserves, stablecoins and the intersection of AI with digital assets. Zhao said governments first need workable crypto regulatory frameworks, then should think about reserve strategies and bringing their own currencies on-chain through stablecoins. He pointed to activity in the United Arab Emirates, the United States, Japan, Hong Kong, Pakistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, while noting that progress varies widely by jurisdiction. On AI, Zhao said machine-driven commerce will use crypto, likely starting with stablecoins before expanding to Bitcoin and other assets. He also argued that AI trading will probably arrive before AI payments, because automated trading rewards speed and direct execution more immediately than consumer payment flows do.

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao said at Bitcoin Asia 2026 in Hong Kong that his policy advice to governments usually starts with four areas: establishing a crypto regulatory framework, setting up crypto reserves, issuing a domestic stablecoin, and advancing asset tokenization. He said many countries still have not created crypto reserves or launched their own stablecoins, and he encourages them to move faster. Reviewing progress across jurisdictions, Zhao described the United Arab Emirates as the current leader in crypto regulation. He noted that Abu Dhabi Global Market, or ADGM, has granted Binance a global license covering nearly its full product suite, though the UAE has not yet issued a major stablecoin. He also said the United States has made substantial progress on stablecoin and exchange oversight, with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, moving quickly on federal futures and derivatives licensing. Zhao added that Japan is active, Hong Kong is moving quickly, and Singapore is relatively conservative. He said Pakistan has pushed ahead on regulation but has been slower in implementation, with Binance still lacking a client-fund banking account there and no stablecoin issued. Kazakhstan, he said, is moving quickly, with strong local banking support for Binance and Binance Pay QR code payments already enabled.

Bitwise on Tuesday launched Automated Token Portfolios, a new product that lets eligible investors outside the United States hold Coinbase-issued tokenized stocks directly in their own wallets on Base. The offering builds on Coinbase’s tokenized-stock infrastructure, which went live a day earlier with four technology names, and packages those assets into rules-based portfolio strategies. Bitwise said it selects the portfolio constituents and target allocations, while Glider executes trades and handles rebalancing. The firms said they do not take custody of user tokens during that process. Although Bitwise announced three portfolio models, only Mag7X is currently active on Glider’s platform, while Robotics and AI Leaders are listed as coming soon. Mag7X is intended to equally weight Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Tesla, and SpaceX. At launch, though, the live strategy only holds the four tokenized stocks Coinbase currently offers — Apple, Alphabet, Meta, and Nvidia — each at 25%. Glider lists a 0.15% fee and says Coinbase is also providing an extra 10% incentive to the strategy. Access is limited to non-U.S. persons in eligible jurisdictions under Regulation S, and the tokens are issued by a Coinbase entity licensed in Abu Dhabi Global Market.

Protos reported that UAE police detained Binance employees at airports this summer, and one was held overnight in a Sharjah police station. According to the New York Times, police found the employees’ names on a corporate bank account Binance used for customer deposits and withdrawals. Binance said the staff were “promptly cleared and released” after inquiries tied to “third-party fund flows,” while describing other questions as routine. The report draws a parallel with 2023, when Reuters said Guangying “Heina” Chen controlled five Silvergate accounts used by Binance.US. Binance.US said it ran its own accounts; the SEC disagreed. Binance also holds a VARA licence in Dubai and full authorization from ADGM’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority, and Protos noted earlier investments and a 2025 pardon for CZ.