Luis Cuello @TrenchWeb3 has spent nearly a decade in institutional finance. He brought that experience to the Canton Track at Proof of Talk. The Founder and CEO of Minted @tryMinted started at BNP Paribas and Johnson & Johnson, made the full jump to Web3 in 2020, and advised OKX on institutional trading infrastructure. Now he's building the Ownership Abstraction Layer at Minted, with mUSD and smUSD as Canton-native institutional stablecoins designed for the GENIUS Act era and the legal protections institutional allocators need. The Canton Track at Proof of Talk was the right room for the work. Minted joined Proof of Talk 2026 as a Gold Partner, alongside its commitment to the Proof of Excellence program, and Luis took the stage to share what it takes to build payment and yield infrastructure institutions actually use. Thank you, Luis, for being with us.

Options are often taught as strategies. On an institutional trading desk, they’re tools to express a view. FalconX Senior Derivatives Trader Bohan Jiang shares how institutional traders approach options, volatility, and mispricings in crypto markets. Tune in on @TheMarketHuddle:

Over the past month, there has been no shortage of headlines about struggling exchanges. Some of the founders involved are people I’ve crossed paths with. This is a sobering reminder of how unforgiving every crypto downturn can be. Most conversations today focus on which exchange survives or which project fails. But after spending the past month in the US and Europe meeting with Wall Street traders and institutional clients, I came away with a different perspective. What surprised me is that the institutions many people see as the backbone of market liquidity aren’t exactly having an easy time either. Many are going through painful adjustments of their own. A few observations that stayed with me: 1. The scars from last year’s 10.10 market shock are still healing The decline in crypto liquidity wasn’t temporary, but structural. Comparing notes with several institutional trading firms, even the largest venues have generally seen liquidity decline by around 30-40% since the market turmoil. Lower liquidity isn’t just about lower trading volumes. It also raises the cost of trust. Higher volatility, more fragmented liquidity and greater sensitivity to market manipulation have made institutions much more cautious about deploying capital. One lesson has become very clear: don’t overestimate how quickly markets recover, and don’t underestimate how long it takes to rebuild confidence. Everyone is repairing balance sheets. That process takes time. 2. Long-term conviction hasn’t disappeared, but the playbook has changed Despite a difficult market, institutional interest in digital assets hasn’t gone away. If anything, more firms are quietly preparing for the next cycle while prices remain subdued. The biggest change is how they think about crypto. It’s no longer viewed as a standalone speculative asset class. It’s increasingly becoming one component within a broader global portfolio. Multi-asset strategies, tokenized real-world assets, cross-asset collateral and hedged portfolios are becoming standard discussions. That also helps explain why some of the crypto trading volume lost over the past year is being replaced by equities, FX and commodities. Institutions aren’t leaving. They’re evolving. They’re optimizing for more stable, diversified return profiles rather than relying on pure crypto beta. Platforms built only around crypto trading may find it increasingly difficult to meet those changing needs. 3. More than ever, institutions want peace of mind From FTX to the more recent incidents across the industry, every exchange crisis has reinforced the same lesson: safety is the minimum requirement for staying at the table. When I speak with institutions and VIP clients today, the conversation is no longer just about generating alpha. Asset security, risk management and capital efficiency now matter just as much. They don’t want to put all their eggs in one basket. At the same time, they don’t want their capital sitting idle or becoming fragmented across different platforms and accounts. What they are looking for is fairly straightforward: transparent third-party custody, clear risk controls and an account structure that allows capital to move flexibly when opportunities arise. This is also why products such as rToken are attracting more attention from professional investors. The same position can provide market exposure, be pledged to access liquidity and be used as margin. The goal is not to take more risk with the same capital. It is to make every dollar work harder while keeping safety at the centre of the equation. ------- The financial industry has always rewarded scale and trust, and crypto is no different. I’ve often told our team that many offshore exchanges outside the top 10 group may not survive the next few years. But even being among the largest players is no reason to become complacent. Bear markets are uncomfortable, but they have a way of forcing everyone back to fundamentals. The companies that emerge stronger won’t simply be the ones that cut costs or survive another cycle. They’ll be the ones that manage short-term risk while continuing to build infrastructure, discover genuine product-market fit and solve real customer problems. That’s what we’re focused on. And I believe that’s where the industry’s next chapter will be written.

The future of capital markets will be onchain. Today, FalconX announced the acquisition of @bloxroute, a leader in blockchain trading and networking technology. As more financial assets move onchain, institutions need infrastructure that supports 24/7 trading, capital efficiency, and risk management across markets. By combining bloXroute's networking technology with FalconX's institutional trading platform, we're accelerating the development of new trading, financing, and prime brokerage capabilities. As onchain and traditional markets continue to converge, we're building the platform for the next generation of institutional capital markets.

Kalshi Is Starting to Surpass Polymarket For years, Polymarket has been the most recognizable prediction market platform, especially among crypto-native users. But @Kalshi is catching up fast—and starting to lead in several key areas. 🏀 Sports Since July 2024, sports have reportedly represented: • 80% of Kalshi’s trading volume • 39% of Polymarket’s trading volume Sports are frequent, familiar, and easy to understand, making them a strong entry point for mainstream users. 🏦 Institutional capital In May 2026, Kalshi completed a $1 billion financing round at a $22 billion valuation. It also reported that institutional trading volume grew 800% in six months. This suggests Kalshi’s growth is no longer just driven by retail attention. ⚖️ Regulation Kalshi’s CFTC-regulated structure gives institutions and traditional financial partners a clearer path to participate in the U.S. market. Polymarket still leads in crypto-native culture, global reach, and political-market attention. But Kalshi may be pulling ahead in the part of the market most likely to become: ✅ Institutionalized ✅ Regulated ✅ Mainstream The real question is no longer just who attracts more attention. It is who becomes financial infrastructure. Next: Is the endgame of Kalshi vs. Polymarket an attention market—or financial infrastructure? Watch the markets. Access the future. Powered by Paimon Finance.

🚀 Why is Kalshi growing so fast? Kalshi isn't just another prediction market—it's building regulated prediction market infrastructure for mainstream finance. Three key drivers: 🏛 Regulation: CFTC-regulated, making it far more accessible to institutions, brokers, and traditional traders than crypto-native alternatives. 🏅 Sports: The perfect onboarding use case. Since July 2024, sports have accounted for 80% of Kalshi's trading volume, vs. 39% for Polymarket. 💰 Institutional Capital: In May 2026, Kalshi raised a $1B Series F at a $22B valuation. Institutional trading volume grew 800% in 6 months, while annualized trading volume jumped from $52B → $178B. The story is no longer just about sports. 👉 Sports are the entry point. Financialized real-world events are the endgame. 📷 Watch the markets. Access the future. Powered by Paimon Finance

Japan just cleared the path for spot crypto ETFs on the Tokyo Stock Exchange! The law passed reclassifies Bitcoin and about 105 other tokens as financial instruments, the same legal category as stocks. It opens the door to crypto ETFs by 2027 and puts Japan's crypto tax on a path from as high as 55% down to a flat 20%. For the largest pool of household savings outside the United States, that is a major change in access. This week, SBI Financial Services and gC Labs, a subsidiary of the gaming company Gumi (@gumi_pr), launched a fund called SBI Crypto Fund I, with Daiwa Securities (@DaiwaSecGroup) and Yamada Securities among the backers. The ¥3 billion vehicle, about $18 million, is a private placement closed to ordinary retail. It holds Bitcoin and major altcoins using staking and hedging, and Gumi says it is meant to build a track record before the ETF era arrives. The exchange side is already scaling. SBI VC Trade (@SBIVCTrade), the group's own platform, recently passed 2 million accounts, roughly double a year ago, and has listed regulated stablecoins including $USDC and Ripple's $RLUSD. Nomura's Laser Digital (@LaserDigital_) is moving into institutional trading and custody, bitFlyer (@bitFlyer) runs one of the country's largest licensed exchanges, and Daiwa now lends yen against Bitcoin and Ether.