Monday: Bullion meets crypto.
The precious metals move that began late last year is no longer just about traditional gold and silver.
Tether Gold, or XAUt, has now moved beyond $3.3 billion in market capitalization, which is a striking number by any measure.
Tether says there were 707,741 tokens in circulation at the end of the quarter, each backed by one troy ounce of physical gold, and that the growth reflects a broader flight to hard assets. In plain English, people still want gold — but they also want it in a form that fits the digital age.
I will be in Singapore next week, and I plan to raise this directly with some of the city’s bullion brokerages.
The APAC region has long had a highly developed bullion brokerage market, especially in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore, and it will be interesting to hear whether these firms see tokenized gold as competition, complement, or just another layer of distribution. Look out for my podcasts in the coming weeks, where I will be speaking with senior executives in the bullion sector about exactly this shift.
Will they begin to merge with the crypto startup world, or stick to their origins as long-standing bullion dealers which are synonymous with the region, and how will they do it and with what trading infrastructure? Let’s find out.
Tuesday: AI revolution causes staff cull – is it reliable?
Coinbase cutting staff because of AI feels like the sort of headline that is easy to read and hard to absorb properly.
It is one thing to talk about automation in the abstract; it is another when one of the best-known retail crypto firms in the world is shrinking its headcount and flattening management because it believes the technology has moved far enough to change the shape of the business.
This is clearly more than a cost-cutting exercise. It is a signal that firms now think AI is mature enough to take on a meaningful share of tasks that were once handled by people. Let’s not forget that Russian bank Sberbank laid off over 3,000 legal staff almost 10 years ago (a lifetime in terms of AI development) and replaced them with automated systems that carry out administrative legal tasks. This Coinbase direction takes this beyond just data entry and admin tasks though.
What Coinbase has done may be progress, but it is also a serious responsibility, especially when the work in question touches customer trading accounts, execution, operations, and service.
The question for me is not whether fintech becomes smarter, it plainly will, but whether companies know how to use that intelligence without exposing themselves to potential errors.
Once you start trusting autonomous automation with financial workflows, you are also making a statement about what kind of errors you are prepared to tolerate, what level of oversight you think is enough, and how much human judgment you are willing to remove from the loop. That is a huge development, and it is just the beginning.
Wednesday: Stablecoins as modern power
Today I caught up with Integral’s Rob Malin, who had been at The Full FX in Copenhagen last week, and he said the panel discussions were refreshingly sharp, not generic at all.
That matters, because too many conferences in this business recycle the same surface-level talking points. The topics that really matter are usually the ones that are a little uncomfortable.
One conversation that stood out in the discussion was the perspective of Dr. Nagendra Bharatula of the G-20 group based in Zug, Switzerland.
I know Zug fairly well myself, I have spent a fair amount of time there, often driving there from London, and it is one of those places that quietly sits at the intersection of finance, technology, and digital assets. It has that “crypto valley” reputation for a reason. You can feel that this is not just a town, but a node in a much bigger conversation about where the development of fintech is going, and the Swiss authorities use it as a showcase rather than rail against it.
What struck me most was the geopolitical angle. Dr. Bharatula’s point, as I understood it, was that the US has created a situation in which countries which the US is looking to dominate, such as Iran now have to settle in US Dollar-aligned stablecoins while the US continues to sanction them and apply pressure through the traditional financial system.
That is a very modern form of power. It is not just about armies, borders, or even traditional diplomacy anymore, it is about who controls the fiscal infrastructure and settlement channels.
That is exactly why I keep coming back to the idea that financial technology has to be developed benevolently. We have a moral and commercial responsibility to ensure that the methods of innovation must not be used as methods of domination.
This sits in the same broader debate we have been having for some time: the convergence of FX, digital assets, bullion, and settlement infrastructure are no longer separate universes. They are starting to overlap in ways that will matter a great deal over the next few years.
It is increasingly important to ensure that brokerages have the ability to control their own infrastructure and connect to markets that are in high demand, whilst giving customers access to a multi-product environment. Having a back-end which has comprehensive API connectivity to global markets and does not rely on being controlled by its vendor enables your brokerages to be benevolent as well as ensure the products in high demand are accessible via a user interface that you choose.
Thursday: London, meet the new engine room
Thursday in London’s financial district didn’t feel like a trading day; it felt like a pivot day.
At America Square, the usual style of gathering had been replaced by something more deliberate and, frankly, more technical.
What was particularly striking is that London’s role as the global nerve centre of electronic‑trading infrastructure is expanding in a new direction. The room wasn’t filled with the usual cast of liquidity providers and lead-gen vendors recycling familiar pitches – it was filled with software architects, data engineers, and infrastructure-focused executives. The people who design systems that actually move money, not just the graphics that advertise it.
For decades, the City has been the home of interbank dealers, the top tier of FX dealing, alongside countless liquidity houses, banks, and market access providers.
Now, to that heritage, something else is being bolted on: advanced tech.
Switzerland’s Incentage, for example, showed its AI‑agent‑driven payments and risk‑management platform to a room of brokers. These aren’t niche startups living off a single client; they’re organisations with global footprints, clear product roadmaps, and serious balance sheets.
And that changes the underlying narrative.
For too long, brokerage success was measured in how many golden‑ticket campaigns you could run, how many affiliates you could onboard, and how quickly you could onboard. The vehicle was churn: leads in, traders out, repeat.
Now, the engine is tech.
The firms crowding into America Square today are not here to sell campaigns; they’re here to sell capability. AI‑driven risk engines, low‑latency connectivity, API‑first architectures – the conversation has moved decisively toward how to build systems that absorb complexity and give brokers the tools to differentiate in a post‑spread‑war world.
Brokers who still see themselves as marketing‑heavy lead‑churning machines without comprehensive back-end core trading infrastructure will find it increasingly difficult to compete. Discerning traders expect super-app experiences — third-party tools, automated workflows, instant analytics. They are not asking for more banners. They are asking for more control.
And that control only comes if a broker has full ownership of its core trading infrastructure. That means a developed, robust API layer that can seamlessly connect trading interfaces, liquidity, risk systems, analytics, and external tools. Without that, you’re not building an ecosystem; you’re managing a patchwork of integrations that will eventually crack under pressure.
If London’s current gatherings are any indication, the future of brokerage is not going to be won on affiliate spend. It will be won on infrastructure spend.
The rest will be left chasing the tail while the real transformation happens behind the scenes in the code, in the data, and in the cables that run under the City’s streets.
Friday: Singapore here we come.
Today a bit of preparation took place before I head to the Finance Magnates Singapore Summit on Sunday evening. Singapore is a fascinating place to bring electronic trading companies together, especially given that it has a long established precious metals sector and precious metals have been huge contributors to volume for many brokers recently globally.
We will see what the Singapore-based bullion dealers will do to capitalise on this popularity and bring their user experience and vast expertise to the markets. Can brokers compete with these stalwarts? Let’s find out. I will be speaking to senior executives and we will publish these conversations here within the coming weeks.
For those going, see you in Singapore.
