Standard Chartered and cryptocurrency exchange OKX are piloting a new program allowing institutions to use crypto assets and tokenized money market funds (MMFs) as collateral.

Announced on April 10, the collateral mirroring program enables off-exchange collateral usage while enhancing security by placing custody with a globally systemically important bank, according to a joint statement from the companies.

The pilot has been launched under the regulatory oversight of the Dubai Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority, with Standard Chartered acting as a regulated custodian in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).

The program launched in collaboration with crypto-friendly asset manager Franklin Templeton and features Brevan Howard Digital among the first institutions to trial the new capability.

OKX clients to gain access to assets by Franklin Templeton

As part of the collaboration, OKX clients will have access to onchain assets developed by Franklin Templeton’s digital assets team.

“We take an authentic approach, from directly investing in blockchain assets to developing innovative solutions with our in-house team,” Franklin Templeton’s head of digital assets, Roger Bayston, said, adding:

“By ensuring assets are minted onchain, we enable true ownership, allowing them to move and settle at blockchain speed — eliminating the need for traditional infrastructure.”

According to the announcement, Franklin Templeton will be one of the first in a “series of MMFs” that are expected to be offered under the program by Standard Chartered and OKX.

Standard Chartered backs tokenized funds

In the crypto lending industry, collateral is any blockchain-based asset used to secure loans from a lender as a security measure when taking out a loan. By allowing borrowers to pledge those assets, the lender guarantees that the loan is going to be repaid.

Despite the high volatility of digital assets, Standard Chartered’s Margaret Harwood-Jones, global head of financing and securities services, is bullish on crypto collaterals as a major step in the evolution of institutional crypto services.

A visual of the crypto lending process with collaterals and deposits. Source: CoinRabbit

Related: Xapo Bank launches Bitcoin-backed USD loans targeting hodlers

“Our collaboration with OKX to enable the use of cryptocurrencies and tokenized MMFs as collateral represents a significant step forward in providing institutional clients with the confidence and efficiency they need,” Harwood-Jones said, adding:

“By leveraging our established custody infrastructure, we are ensuring the highest standards of security and regulatory compliance, fostering greater trust in the digital asset ecosystem.”

According to Ryan Taylor, group head of compliance at Brevan Howard, the program is another example of the ongoing innovation and institutionalization in the crypto industry.

“As a significant investor in the digital assets space, we are thrilled to partner with industry leaders to further grow and evolve the crypto ecosystem globally,” he noted.

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The crypto industry has welcomed the confirmation of American businessman and former US Securities and Exchange Commissioner Paul Atkins as chair of the agency.

Atkins’ approval has taken months. He appeared before the Senate on March 27 to explain his intended approach to securities regulation in the United States, as well as his views on digital assets. 

Atkins will replace acting Chair Mark Uyeda as head of the agency, which began unwinding a number of court cases and enforcement actions against cryptocurrency firms when President Donald Trump took office. However, these actions don’t amount to clear guidance — yet.

Now that Atkins is ready to take the helm, the blockchain industry is hoping for the guidance they’ve been wanting for years. So, who is Paul Atkins, and what can the industry expect?

Senator Cynthia Lummis celebrated the confirmation. Source: Cynthia Lummis

Paul Atkins wants to provide guardrails for the crypto industry

An alumnus of Wofford College and Vanderbilt, Atkins has a long career in finance. He initially worked at Davis Polk & Wardwell before serving on the staff of two former chairmen of the SEC from 1990 to 1994.

Notably, under Chairman Richard Breeden, he assisted in efforts to decrease barriers to entry to capital markets for small businesses and middle-market companies.

After working at PwC and Coopers and Lyband, Atkins joined the SEC again as commissioner at the appointment of former President George W. Bush.

At the SEC, Atkins focused on improving financial services compliance with SEC regulations. He worked with law enforcement agencies in cases where investors were harmed. This included the Bennett Funding incident, a $1-billion Ponzi scheme by the leasing company in which 20,000 investors lost much of their investments. 

After leaving this role as commissioner, he founded and led Potomak Global Partners, a consultancy for banks and financial services firms. 

Ahead of his 52–44 confirmation vote — largely along party lines — Atkins faced a grilling from the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. At the hearing, Atkins said the “top priority” of his tenure as chair would be to “provide a firm regulatory foundation for digital assets through a rational, coherent and principled approach.”

Related: Trump’s pick for SEC chair makes it out of committee

He said that the current “ambiguous and non-existent regulation of digital assets” harms innovation and the sector. More broadly, he claimed that world industry wants to invest in America, but “the current regulatory environment for our financial system inhibits investment and often punishes success.”

Congressman Tom Emmer said of Atkins’ nomination, “It’s gonna be great,” stating that the former chair, Gary Gensler, under ex-President Joe Biden, had “set a pretty low bar.” Emmer said the SEC could soon provide the clarity the industry expects: “We need stablecoins. We need market structure. We need to have clarity and certainty in the system.”

Faryar Shirzad, chief policy officer at Coinbase, said the confirmation was the “dawn of a new era.”

Source: Faryar Shirzad

SEC actions under Uyeda point to further crypto priorities 

While no one has a crystal ball, recent analysis from Cointelegraph shows that the recent dismissals of court cases and enforcement actions may indicate the future direction of crypto regulation — or lack of regulation — by the SEC. 

Related: US gov’t actions give clue about upcoming crypto regulation

The dismissal of cases revolving around “the unregistered sale and offer of securities under the Securities Act of 1933 and acting unregistered as a broker, dealer, clearing agency and exchange” suggests that the SEC may not consider the assets involved as securities.

This idea is bulwarked by recent statements from the SEC that proof-of-work mining, pooled mining and dollar-backed stablecoins are not subject to securities laws. On the whole, this suggests that the SEC does not consider cryptocurrencies to be subject to securities law. 

Crypto agenda could be hamstrung by recent SEC dismissals

One point of friction in Aktins’ ascension to SEC chair is the recent spate of dismissals of SEC staff. The Trump administration’s efforts to cut certain types of government spending through the temporary committee of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have not spared the securities regulator. 

As reported by Politico in March, a combination of different buyout and dismissal programs will effectively get rid of 10% of the agency’s 5,000-strong workforce in the coming months. One source mentioned in the report suggested the total could be closer to 15%.

DOGE leader Elon Musk — who himself has run afoul of the SEC numerous times throughout his career — is reportedly seeking further cuts to the SEC’s already lacerated budget and staff.

A group of prominent securities law professors known as the “Shadow SEC” has raised the alarm about the recent cuts, saying, “Diminishing the SEC’s staff will lead to chaotic financial markets, longer review times for registration statements, and weakened enforcement capabilities.”

Creating a new framework for digital assets, especially from scratch, could take longer if the agency is bleeding staff and expertise while Musk wields a scythe in Washington. 

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Opinion by: Roman Cyganov, founder and CEO of Antix

In the fall of 2023, Hollywood writers took a stand against AI’s encroachment on their craft. The fear: AI would churn out scripts and erode authentic storytelling. Fast forward a year later, and a public service ad featuring deepfake versions of celebrities like Taylor Swift and Tom Hanks surfaced, warning against election disinformation. 

We are a few months into 2025. Still, AI’s intended outcome in democratizing access to the future of entertainment illustrates a rapid evolution — of a broader societal reckoning with distorted reality and massive misinformation.

Despite this being the “AI era,” nearly 52% of Americans are more concerned than excited about its growing role in daily life. Add to this the findings of another recent survey that 68% of consumers globally hover between “somewhat” and “very” concerned about online privacy, driven by fears of deceptive media. 

It’s no longer about memes or deepfakes. AI-generated media fundamentally alters how digital content is produced, distributed and consumed. AI models can now generate hyper-realistic images, videos and voices, raising urgent concerns about ownership, authenticity and ethical use. The ability to create synthetic content with minimal effort has profound implications for industries reliant on media integrity. This indicates that the unchecked spread of deepfakes and unauthorized reproductions without a secure verification method threatens to erode trust in digital content altogether. This, in turn, affects the core base of users: content creators and businesses, who face mounting risks of legal disputes and reputational harm. 

While blockchain technology has often been touted as a reliable solution for content ownership and decentralized control, it’s only now, with the advent of generative AI, that its prominence as a safeguard has risen, especially in matters of scalability and consumer trust. Consider decentralized verification networks. These enable AI-generated content to be authenticated across multiple platforms without any single authority dictating algorithms related to user behavior.

Getting GenAI onchain

Current intellectual property laws are not designed to address AI-generated media, leaving critical gaps in regulation. If an AI model produces a piece of content, who legally owns it? The person providing the input, the company behind the model or no one at all? Without clear ownership records, disputes over digital assets will continue to escalate. This creates a volatile digital environment where manipulated media can erode trust in journalism, financial markets and even geopolitical stability. The crypto world is not immune from this. Deepfakes and sophisticated AI-built attacks are causing insurmountable losses, with reports highlighting how AI-driven scams targeting crypto wallets have surged in recent months. 

Blockchain can authenticate digital assets and ensure transparent ownership tracking. Every piece of AI-generated media can be recorded onchain, providing a tamper-proof history of its creation and modification. 

Akin to a digital fingerprint for AI-generated content, permanently linking it to its source, allowing creators to prove ownership, companies to track content usage, and consumers to validate authenticity. For example, a game developer could register an AI-crafted asset on the blockchain, ensuring its origin is traceable and protected against theft. Studios could use blockchain in film production to certify AI-generated scenes, preventing unauthorized distribution or manipulation. In metaverse applications, users could maintain complete control over their AI-generated avatars and digital identities, with blockchain acting as an immutable ledger for authentication.

End-to-end use of blockchain will eventually prevent the unauthorized use of AI-generated avatars and synthetic media by implementing onchain identity verification. This would ensure that digital representations are tied to verified entities, reducing the risk of fraud and impersonation. With the generative AI market projected to reach $1.3 trillion by 2032, securing and verifying digital content, particularly AI-generated media, is more pressing than ever through such decentralized verification frameworks.

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Such frameworks would further help combat misinformation and content fraud while enabling cross-industry adoption. This open, transparent and secure foundation benefits creative sectors like advertising, media and virtual environments.

Aiming for mass adoption amid existing tools

Some argue that centralized platforms should handle AI verification, as they control most content distribution channels. Others believe watermarking techniques or government-led databases provide sufficient oversight. It’s already been proven that watermarks can be easily removed or manipulated, and centralized databases remain vulnerable to hacking, data breaches or control by single entities with conflicting interests.

It’s quite visible that AI-generated media is evolving faster than existing safeguards, leaving businesses, content creators and platforms exposed to growing risks of fraud and reputational damage.

For AI to be a tool for progress rather than deception, authentication mechanisms must advance simultaneously. The biggest proponent for blockchain’s mass adoption in this sector is that it provides a scalable solution that matches the pace of AI progress with the infrastructural support required to maintain transparency and legitimacy of IP rights. 

The next phase of the AI revolution will be defined not only by its ability to generate hyper-realistic content but also by the mechanisms to get these systems in place on time, significantly, as crypto-related scams fueled by AI-generated deception are projected to hit an all-time high in 2025. 

Without a decentralized verification system, it’s only a matter of time before industries relying on AI-generated content lose credibility and face increased regulatory scrutiny. It’s not too late for the industry to consider this aspect of decentralized authentication frameworks more seriously before digital trust crumbles under unchecked deception.

Opinion by: Roman Cyganov, founder and CEO of Antix.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.