When Wall Street Starts "Linking" Love: What Does Superstate's $82.5 Million Tell Us?

"The sharpest money on Wall Street is quietly changing tracks."

On January 22, Compound founder Robert Leshner's RWA tokenization asset management platform Superstate announced the completion of an $82.5 million Series B funding round. Once the news broke, both the crypto community and traditional asset management circles went viral—this is the largest on-chain asset management financing at the start of 2026, pushing Superstate's total funding over $100 million, with assets under management (AUM) exceeding $1.2 billion.

Money itself isn't rare; what's rare is the way it moves:

Bain Capital Crypto, Distributed Global, Haun Ventures, Brevan Howard Digital, Galaxy Digital... all "Old Money" with a "New Crypto Squad." They are not here to gamble on concepts but to obtain licenses, take positions, and seize dividends.

01 From "On-Chain Sovereign Bonds" to "Native Stocks": Superstate's Three-Step Jump

In 2023, Superstate's first SEC filing contained only one sentence: "Using Ethereum for auxiliary bookkeeping, issuing a super short-term government bond fund."

At that time, the market was still in a bear phase, and RWA (Real-World Asset) was just a "politically correct" term within a small circle—everyone knew on-chain needed risk-free rates, but no one dared to gamble on regulatory rhythms.

In February 2024, the USTB fund launched, and in just 10 weeks, AUM broke $100 million. The underlying assets were all 0–3 month US Treasuries, verifiable in real-time on-chain, with instant subscription/redemption, T+0 settlement.

By July, the USCC fund was further upgraded, employing a "spot long + futures short" arbitrage strategy, packaging basis gains into ERC-20 tokens, with net subscriptions reaching $430 million in half a year.

In March 2025, Superstate moved the "Transfer Agent"—one of Wall Street's heaviest compliance burdens—on-chain. Superstate Services LLC registered as a digital transfer agent with the SEC, effectively giving traditional stocks an on-chain "ID card" and opening the green light.

Thus, the Opening Bell platform was born:

• Supporting Solana-native issuance of SEC-registered stocks

• Stock tokens can be directly stored in wallets like Phantom, Backpack

• Can be used as collateral with DeFi protocols like Jupiter, Kamino, Drift

Galaxy, Exodus, Forward Industries, SharpLink Gaming are lining up to issue shares. "IPO no longer rings a bell but is minted on-chain."

02 Two Hidden Trends in 2026: Stablecoin "Floodgates" + Trustee DeFi Vaults

Why now? Because stablecoin scale has surpassed $220 billion, and on-chain "cash pools" are so large that they must seek risk-free yields.

In the past, institutions deposited dollars into Circle for a 4.3% reserve yield; now, swapping USDC for USTB instantly turns into an "on-chain reverse repurchase," which can also serve as collateral to leverage, increasing capital efficiency by over 30%.

On the other side, Trustee DeFi Vaults are replacing traditional brokerage accounts.

Brevan Howard, BlackRock, Franklin Templeton bundle government bond ETFs into "40-Act funds," then split into ERC-20 shares, with 24-hour risk control, multi-chain routing, and automatic clearing and settlement. Institutions only need one wallet address to complete "cash management + leverage lending + derivatives hedging."

Superstate is seizing this "floodgate" opportunity:

• Upstream holds SEC licenses, acting as "Digital Transfer Agents + compliant issuers"

• Midstream develops "on-chain stocks + government bond funds" assets

• Downstream connects wallets, exchanges, DeFi protocols, serving as the "on-chain distribution super-portal"

In short: moving Wall Street's "issuance, custody, settlement" stack onto the chain, then packaging and selling the "money-assets-leverage" on-chain to institutions.

03 How can ordinary investors share in the dividends?

It's harsh—early Superstate products are only open to qualified investors; retail investors can only watch behind the glass.

But don't be discouraged; dividends will spill over along the "institutions → gateways → retail investors" chain:

1. Wallet gateways: Backpack, Phantom now support direct purchase of USTB, starting at $100, with flexible deposits and withdrawals, offering yields of 4.5%–5.0%, ten times higher than bank savings.

2. Exchange gateways: Coinbase has launched USTB-USDC trading pairs, forming a "crypto version of Yu'ebao"; next, Opening Bell stock tokens will be supported.

3. DeFi gateways: Kamino lists USTB as collateral, with TVL surging by $280 million in a week; Jupiter Lend plans to launch a "USTB leverage pool," allowing retail investors to leverage $10,000 to control $30,000 in government bonds.

When on-chain risk-free yields surpass off-chain yields, when on-chain stocks can be traded T+0 globally, and stablecoins become the default cash—

"Retail investors may be a step late, but they will definitely catch the tailwind."

04 Risks and Regulations: The Grey Rhino Behind the Dividends

• Interest Rate Risk: If US Treasury yields fall below 3%, USTB's attractiveness diminishes, and funds may flow back to off-chain money market funds.

• Liquidity Risk: Currently, the average daily trading volume of Opening Bell stock tokens is only $8 million, with insufficient depth; a flash crash could happen with a 10% drop.

• Regulatory Risk: With the SEC's leadership change imminent, if RWA policies tighten, digital transfer agent licenses may face additional audits, sharply increasing compliance costs.

In short: Don't be blinded by high yields; position control and diversification remain the ironclad rules.

05 Final Words: When "Linking" Becomes Wall Street's New Infrastructure

$82.5 million is not the end but just the ticket for traditional asset management giants to "chain-ify" their operations.

By 2026, we will see:

• More IPOs directly on-chain, turning "bell ringing" into "minting"

• Stablecoin liquidity pools treating government bond ETFs as "underlying Yu'ebao"

• Retail investors able to buy interest-bearing stocks, on-chain dividends, and trade 24/7 through wallets

Superstate is just the first icebreaker; a true fleet of ships is still on the way.

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Follow the account; the next article will dissect "Stablecoin + Government Bonds" with 5 hidden strategies.