$7 trillion investment firm Fidelity will reportedly roll out bitcoin trading for institutional clients in the coming weeks, according to Bloomberg. Citing a source who asked to remain anonymous, the publication revealed Fidelity’s cryptocurrency-focused spin-off, Fidelity Digital Assets, would be adding to the existing range of services. The source said the trading side will go live for Fidelity’s users in as little as a few weeks and will primarily target large-volume traders.

As part of a plan to digitize assets, Switzerland's stock exchange may issue its own tokens. Top executive Thomas Zeeb says tokens may eventually replace stocks and bonds. He discusses the role cryptocurrencies play… and what hurdles may have to be overcome along the way.

The currency.com platform allows for global investors to use BTC and ETH to actively trade over 150 instruments, including securities, commodities, indices, and shares. This number is expected to grow to 4,000 as development continues. The platform can be accessed in a variety of ways, ranging from web based clients to both IOS and Android apps.

In 2018, blockchain-based IoT security protocol Atonomi made headlines after securing $25 million in funding via an ICO. Since that time, the project has seen little development and the value of its token has dropped by 99%. Atonomi’s failure to register with the local authorities, combined with the lack of transparency regarding development, could result in a huge downfall for the firm.

The Blueshares STO provides prospective investors with tokenized traditional equity participation shares of Interprom Mining AG. The token/share ratio is 1:1, and investments are accepted both in fiat and cryptocurrencies: Euro, Bitcoin, Ether, and Tether. The token sale is expected to start May 6.

Serena Williams, one of the world’s most successful tennis players of all time, announced her VC firm Serena Ventures—which was secretly founded in 2014. She revealed in an Instagram post that she is an investor in cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. Some of Serena Ventures’ other investments include startups in areas such as fitness, clothing, food, and women’s health and community.

tZERO Chairman Patrick Byrne informed investors that the investment involving both Makara Capital and GSR Capital had missed its deadline. The $100 million raise was agreed upon in February and expected to close by mid-April. According to Byrne, tZERO is “not under any exclusivity with Makara or GSR and has retained advisors to pursue parallel alternatives.”

Widespread digitization of property in the massive $217 trillion real estate market could be transformative for the global economy. Property rights can be hard to prove in developing nations, where ownership can suddenly change hands unbeknownst to a home’s tenants. The immutable nature of blockchains guarantees property ownership, and token flexibility could potentially liquidate capital locked up in a home.

For the first time since the financial crisis in 2008, CEOs from America’s largest banks testified before the House Financial Services Committee of the United States Congress. In particular, Representative Warren Davidson (R-OH) inquired as to the banks’ current thoughts on the integration of blockchain and finance.

There’s been much discussion over the idea of tokenized stocks. DX.Exchange, for example, has been actively trying to tokenize many of the top stocks and bring them to the Ethereum blockchain. Although many of these ideas are still in the works, there’s now a tangible project that will bring the idea to fruition: Ambisafe will be releasing a new fund that will purchase SpaceX stocks and offer them to potential cryptocurrency investors.

BlockPark Technologies unveiled one of the more lucrative high tech real estate projects in the Las Vegas area, called the DT57 Towers. The development is located in downtown Las Vegas, and presents a unique investment opportunity utilizing the company’s proprietary decentralized property management software and unique real estate investment platform. The project is looking for accredited investors to purchase BLOK tokens through a security token offering (STO) sale.

TradeCloud serves the metals industry, with plans to extend its services to the energy and agricultural sectors. The combined trade value in the three markets is in excess of $8 trillion per year—one of the largest untapped ecommerce opportunities today. Major problems in the industry affect communication, price discovery, and allocation of services. TC is currently involved in building communities and connecting the industry through its secure blockchain platform.

According to recent data analysis by InWara, STOs experienced a notable surge in Q1 2019. With an increase of 130%—and a simultaneous drop in initial coin offerings (ICOs)—STOs are realizing their potential through real-world implementation… And the top four industries performing STOs were: 1) trading and investing (with seven); 2) the energy sector (with six); 3) financial services (with six); and 4) healthcare (with five).

According to a recent report released by the identity management firm Okta, 61% of high-profile digital companies around the world invest in blockchain technology. The survey included 1,050 IT security and engineering decision makers from global companies around the world… with more than $1 billion in revenue. These decision makers are those in charge of making technology purchasing decisions in these firms.

According to a job posting on USAJobs, an official government jobs portal, the SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets plans to hire the new legal expert in order to help develop a “comprehensive plan” to address crypto and digital asset securities. One of the key responsibilities of the new hire would be to apply their “knowledge of federal securities laws to digital asset securities and crypto matters.”

According to blockchain expert and professional tech researcher Gregory S. Mathew, the United Arab Emirates are the next superpower not only in the global economy, but in blockchain and crypto spheres as well. In fact, during Q1 2019, UAE based blockchain-crypto companies raised over $200 million in funds, according to a report by InWara.

San Francisco-based security token issuance platform Securitize has raised more than $12 million to date. It has created the digital securities protocol, designed for the life-cycle management of security tokens… And now, Securitize has joined Hyperledger, the open source collaborative effort that aims to advance cross-industry blockchain technologies.

Decentralized financial contracts platform Universal Market Access (UMA) has announced the launch of a tokenized version of the stock market. Through USStocks, an ERC-20 token, UMA will enable individuals to become partial owners of the largest 500 companies in U.S. financial markets.