Daily Fintech Brief — 2026-07-28

Today’s brief

Circle acquires IBM blockchain patent portfolio to deepen onchain payments and infrastructure IP

The acquisition gives Circle a larger IP base around blockchain and payments infrastructure, which could help defend and expand products tied to stablecoins, settlement networks and enterprise onchain services.

xStocks expands beyond U.S. equities through GTN partnership, starting with Hong Kong-listed stocks

This deal broadens tokenized market access beyond U.S. stocks, potentially making cross-border equity exposure and around-the-clock onchain trading more available to institutional and non-U.S. investors.