IOTA’s RealFi Ecosystem Aligns With a16z’s Vision for the Next Blockchain Era

Source: VeradiVerdict Compiled by: Zhou, ChainCatcher Summary Crypto as a Service (CaaS) is the "Software as a Service (SaaS) era" in the blockchain space. Banks and fintech companies no longer need to build crypto infrastructure from scratch. They can simply connect to APIs and white-label platforms to launch digital asset functionality within days or weeks, instead of the years that used to take. ( Note: White-labeling essentially involves one party providing a product or technology, while another party brands it for sale or operation. In the finance/crypto field, this refers to banks or exchanges using third-party trading systems, wallets, or payment gateways and then rebranding them.) Mainstream markets are accelerating adoption through three channels. Banks are partnering with custodians like Coinbase, Anchorage, and BitGo while actively exploring tokenized assets; fintech companies are issuing their own stablecoins using platforms like M^0; and payment processors such as Western Union (with $300 billion in annual transactions) and Zelle (with over $1 trillion in annual transactions) are now integrating stablecoins to enable instant, low-cost cross-border settlements. Crypto as a Service (CaaS) isn't actually that complicated. Essentially, it's Software as a Service (SaaS) based on cryptocurrency, making it a hundred times easier for institutions and businesses to integrate into the cryptocurrency space. Banks, fintech companies, and enterprises no longer need to painstakingly build internal cryptocurrency functionality. Instead, they can simply plug and play, deploying within days using proven APIs and white-label platforms. Businesses can focus on their customers without worrying about the complexities of blockchain. They can leverage existing infrastructure to participate in cryptocurrency transactions more efficiently and cost-effectively. In other words, they can easily and seamlessly integrate into the digital asset ecosystem. CaaS is poised for exponential growth. CaaS is a cloud-based business model and infrastructure solution that enables businesses, fintech companies, and developers to integrate cryptocurrency and blockchain functionality into their operations without having to build or maintain the underlying technology from scratch. CaaS provides ready-to-use, scalable services, typically delivered via APIs or white-label platforms, such as crypto wallets, trading engines, payment gateways, asset storage, custody, and compliance tools. This allows businesses to quickly offer digital asset functionality under their own brand, reducing development costs, time, and required technical expertise. Like other "as-a-service" offerings, this model allows businesses of all sizes, from startups to established companies, to participate in a cost-effective manner. In September 2025, Coinbase Institutional listed CaaS as one of its biggest growth areas. Since 2013, Pantera Capital has been committed to driving the development of CaaS through investment. We strategically invest in infrastructure, tools, and technology to ensure that CaaS can operate at scale. By accelerating the development of backend fund management, custody, and wallets, we have significantly enhanced the service tier of CaaS. Advantages of CaaS By using CaaS to transparently integrate encryption capabilities into their systems, enterprises can achieve numerous strategic and operational advantages more quickly and cost-effectively. These advantages include: One-stop integration and seamless embedding : The CaaS platform eliminates the need for custom development cycles, enabling teams to activate features in days rather than months. Flexible profit models : Businesses can choose a subscription-based fixed-price model for predictable costs, or a pay-as-you-go billing model to keep expenses in line with revenue. Either approach avoids large upfront capital investments. Outsourcing blockchain complexity : Enterprises can offload technical management while benefiting from a powerful enterprise-grade backend, ensuring near-perfect uptime, real-time monitoring, and automatic failover. Developer-friendly APIs and SDKs : Developers can embed wallet creation and key management functions, smoothly handle on-chain settlements, trigger smart contract interactions, and create a comprehensive sandbox environment. White-label branding and an intuitive interface : The CaaS solution is easy to customize, enabling non-technical teams to configure free infrastructure, supported assets, and user onboarding processes. Other value-added features : Leading providers bundle ancillary services together, such as fraud detection based on on-chain analytics; automated tax filing; multi-signature fund management; and cross-chain bridging for asset interoperability. These characteristics transform cryptocurrency from a technological novelty into a revenue-generating product line while maintaining a focus on core business capabilities. Three core use cases We believe the world is rapidly evolving towards a cryptocurrency-native environment, with individuals and businesses interacting more frequently with digital assets. This shift is driven by increasing user acceptance of blockchain wallets, decentralized applications, and on-chain transactions, which in turn benefits from continuously improving user interfaces, abundant educational resources, and practical application value. However, for cryptocurrencies to truly integrate into the mainstream and achieve widespread adoption, a strong and seamless bridge must be built to bridge the gap between traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi). Institutions seek the advantages of cryptocurrencies (speed, programmability, and global accessibility) while relying on trustworthy intermediaries to manage their underlying complexities: tools, security, technology stack, and liquidity provision. Ultimately, this ecosystem integration could gradually bring billions of users onto the blockchain. Use Case 1: Bank Banks are increasingly partnering with regulated cryptocurrency custodians such as Coinbase Custody, Anchorage Digital, and BitGo to provide institutional-grade custody, insured storage, and seamless spot trading services for digital assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum. These foundational services—custody, execution, and basic lending—represent the most readily achievable aspects of cryptocurrency integration, enabling banks to easily embrace customers without forcing them out of the traditional banking system. Beyond these fundamental elements, banks can leverage decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols to generate competitive returns from idle treasury assets or customer deposits. For example, they can deploy stablecoins into permissionless lending markets (such as Morpho, Aave, or Compound) or liquidity pools of automated market makers (AMMs) like Uniswap to obtain real-time, transparent returns that typically outperform traditional fixed-income products. The tokenization of Real-World Assets (RWAs) presents transformative opportunities. Banks can initiate and distribute on-chain versions of traditional securities (e.g., tokenized U.S. Treasury bonds, corporate bonds, private credit, or even real estate funds issued through BlackRock's BUIDL fund), bringing off-chain value to public blockchains like Ethereum, Polygon, or Base. These RWAs can then be traded peer-to-peer through DeFi protocols such as Morpho (for optimizing lending), Pendle (for yield sharing), or Centrifuge (for private credit pools), while ensuring KYC/AML compliance through whitelisted wallets or institutional vaults. RWAs can also serve as high-quality collateral in the DeFi lending market. Crucially, banks can offer seamless stablecoin access without losing customers. Through embedded wallets or custodial sub-accounts, customers can hold USDC, USDT, or FDIC-insured digital dollars directly within the bank's app (for payments, remittances, or yield-generating investments) without leaving the bank's ecosystem. This "walled garden" model resembles a new bank but with regulated trust. Looking ahead, major banks may form alliances to issue branded stablecoins backed 1:1 by centralized reserves. These stablecoins could be settled instantly on public blockchains while complying with regulatory requirements, thus connecting traditional finance with programmable money. If a bank views blockchain as infrastructure, rather than an accessory tool, it is likely to capture the next trillion dollars in value. Use Case 2: Fintech Companies and New Types of Banks Fintech companies and new-age banks are rapidly integrating cryptocurrencies into their core offerings through strategic partnerships with established platforms such as Robinhood, Revolut, and Webull. These collaborations enable seamless use and secure custody of digital assets, while providing instant trading of tokenized versions of traditional stocks, effectively bridging the gap between traditional finance and blockchain-based markets. Beyond partnerships, fintech companies can leverage professional service providers like Alchemy to build and launch their own blockchain infrastructure. Alchemy, a leader in blockchain development platforms, offers scalable node infrastructure, enhanced APIs, and developer tools that simplify the creation of custom Layer-1 or Layer-2 networks. This allows fintech companies to tailor blockchains for specific use cases, such as high-throughput payments, decentralized authentication, or RWA (Risk Weighted Authorization), while ensuring compliance with evolving regulatory requirements and optimizing for low latency and cost-effectiveness. Fintech companies can further deepen their involvement in the cryptocurrency space by issuing their own stablecoins and leveraging decentralized protocols on platforms like M^0 to mint yielding, fungible stablecoins backed by high-quality collateral such as US Treasury bonds. By adopting this model, fintech companies can mint their own tokens on demand, maintain full control over the underlying economic mechanisms (including interest accumulation and redemption mechanisms), ensure regulatory compliance through transparent on-chain reserves, and participate in co-governance through decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). Furthermore, they can benefit from enhanced liquidity pools on major exchanges and DeFi protocols, reducing fragmentation and increasing user adoption. This approach not only creates new revenue streams but also positions fintech companies as innovators in the field of programmable money and fosters customer loyalty in the competitive digital economy. Use Case 3: Payment Processor Payment companies are building stablecoin "sandwiches": a multi-tiered cross-border settlement system that receives fiat currency at one end and exports instant, low-cost liquidity in another jurisdiction, while minimizing foreign exchange spreads, intermediary fees, and settlement delays. The components of the "sandwich" include: Top Slice (Entry Point) : US customers send US dollars to payment providers such as Stripe, Circle, Ripple, or newer banks like Mercury. Filling (minting) : US dollars are immediately exchanged at a 1:1 ratio for regulated stablecoins—usually USDC (Circle), USDP (Paxos), or bank-issued digital dollars. Bottom Slice (Export) : Stablecoins are bridged or exchanged for local currency stablecoins—for example, aARS (pegged to the Argentine peso), BRLA (Brazil), or MXNA (Mexico)—or become central bank digital currency pilot projects directly (for example, Drex in Brazil). Settlement : Funds arrive in local bank accounts, mobile wallets or merchant payments on a T+0 (instant) basis, with total costs typically below 0.1%, compared to 3-7% through SWIFT + agent banks. Western Union, a 175-year-old remittance giant that processes over $300 billion in remittances annually, recently announced the integration of stablecoins into its ecosystem. Pantera Capital CEO Devin McGranahan stated in July 2025 that the company had historically been "cautious" about cryptocurrencies, concerned about their volatility and regulatory issues. However, the enactment of the Genius Act has changed this. “As the rules become clearer, we see a real opportunity to integrate digital assets into our business,” McGranahan said on the Q3 2025 earnings call. The result: Western Union is currently actively testing stablecoin solutions for Treasury settlements and customer payments, leveraging blockchain technology to eliminate the cumbersome processes of correspondent banking. Zelle, a bank-backed peer-to-peer payment giant (part of Early Warning Services, a consortium of JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and others), facilitates over $1 trillion in fee-free transfers annually within the United States via simple phone numbers or email addresses, currently boasting over 2,300 partner institutions and 150 million users. However, cross-border payments have been a previous challenge. On October 24, 2025, Early Warning announced a stablecoin plan aimed at bringing Zelle to the international market, offering "the same speed and reliability" overseas. As banks, fintech/new banks, and payment processors integrate cryptocurrencies in an intuitive, plug-and-play, and compliant manner (with as few regulators as possible), they can continue to expand their global reach and strengthen relationships. in conclusion CaaS is not hype—it represents a revolution in infrastructure that makes cryptocurrencies invisible to end users. Just as people don't think of AWS when watching Netflix or Salesforce when checking a CRM, consumers and businesses won't think of blockchain when making instant cross-border payments or accessing tokenized assets. The winners of this revolution are not companies that add cryptocurrencies as an afterthought to traditional systems, but rather institutions and enterprises that see blockchain as infrastructure, and the investors who support the underlying technology that underpins it all.

The crypto market has had a rough start to November. Bitcoin dropped back toward the $100,000 area, Ethereum slipped below $3,400, and major altcoins like Solana, XRP, and Cardano are all flashing red across the board. In total, more than $1 trillion in crypto market cap has been wiped out since October 6. So what

Bitcoin endured one of its sharpest selloffs of the year on Tuesday, knifing below the six-figure threshold and printing lows around the $99,000 area on major composites before rebounding. At press time, bitcoin (BTC) hovered near $101,700 after an intraday trough just above $99,000 on widely used benchmarks, marking a fall of roughly 6% day-over-day and the lowest print since June. The slide came as US equities limped into mid-week, with the Nasdaq up 20.9% year-to-date and the S&P 500 up 15.1% as of Tuesday’s close—gains that underscore how much bitcoin has lagged other risk assets during long stretches of 2025. That divergence, together with a growing body of ETF-flow data showing several straight sessions of net outflows from US spot bitcoin funds into early November, provided the macro backdrop for a fragile crypto tape. Independent tallies from Farside/SoSoValue and multiple outlets point to a roughly $1.3–$1.4 billion cumulative bleed over four trading days into November 3–4, led by BlackRock’s IBIT. Why Is Bitcoin Price Down? Into that context, Joe Consorti—Head of Growth at Horizon (Theya, YC)—argues the selloff is less a loss of conviction than a structural handoff of supply. In a video analysis posted late November 4 US time, he framed the day’s move as “one of its roughest days of the year, down more than 6 percent, falling to $99,000 for the first time since June,” adding that while equities would call that “the start of a bear market… for Bitcoin, though, this is typical of a bull market drawdown.” He noted that “we’ve already weathered two separate 30 percent drawdowns during this bull run,” and characterized the present action as “a transfer of Bitcoin’s ownership base from the old guard to the new guard.” Related Reading: CryptoQuant Head Reveals Reason Behind Bearish Bitcoin Trend Consorti anchored his thesis to a now-viral framework from macro investor Jordi Visser: bitcoin’s “silent IPO.” In Visser’s Substack essay—shared widely since the weekend—he posits that 2025’s rangebound price belies an orderly, IPO-like distribution as early-era holders access the deepest liquidity the asset has ever had through ETFs, institutional custodians and corporate balance sheets. “Early-stage investors… need liquidity. They need an exit. They need to diversify,” Visser wrote, arguing that methodical selling “results [in] a sideways grind that drives everyone crazy.” Consorti adopted the frame bluntly: “This isn’t panic selling, it’s the natural evolution of an asset that’s reached maturity… a transfer of ownership from concentrated hands to distributed ones.” Evidence for that churn has been visible on-chain. Multiple instances of Satoshi-era wallets and miner addresses reanimating this quarter—some after 14 years—have been documented, including July’s duo of 10,000-BTC wallets and late-October movement from a 4,000-BTC miner address. While not dispositive that coins are being market-sold, the pattern is consistent with supply redistributing from early concentrates to broader, regulated channels. Technically, Consorti cast the drop as part of “digestion,” not exhaustion. “The RSI tells us Bitcoin is at its most oversold level since April, when the last leg of the bull run began. Every drawdown this cycle, 30%, 35%, and now 20%, has built support rather than destroyed it.” He added a key conditional: “If we spend too much time below $100,000, that could suggest the distribution isn’t done… perhaps we’re in for a bull-market reversal into a bear market.” Macro, however, is intruding. The Federal Reserve cut rates by 25 bps on October 29 to a 3.75%–4.00% target range, but Chair Jerome Powell carefully pushed back on the idea of an automatic December cut, citing “strongly differing views” inside the FOMC and a “data fog” from the ongoing government shutdown. Markets promptly tempered their odds for further near-term easing. Consorti’s warning that bitcoin “is extremely correlated” to risk-asset drawdowns therefore looms large: if equities lurch meaningfully lower or funding stress reappears, crypto will feel it. Related Reading: Bitcoin Bull Run: Over Or Just Paused? CryptoQuant CEO Presents The Data If Visser’s “silent IPO” is right, ETFs are both symptom and salve. They have delivered the two-sided depth to absorb legacy supply but also introduced a new, faster-moving cohort whose redemptions can amplify downdrafts. That dynamic showed up again this week in the four-day string of net outflows concentrated in IBIT, even as longer-term assets under management remain enormous by historical standards. Consorti’s conclusion was starkly patient, not euphoric. “For every seller looking to liquidate their position, there’s a new participant stepping in for the long haul… It’s slow, it’s uneven, and it’s psychologically draining, but once it’s finished, it unlocks the next leg higher. Because the marginal seller is gone, and what’s left is a base of holders who don’t need to sell.” Whether Tuesday’s pierce of the six-figure floor proves the climactic flush—or merely another chapter in a months-long ownership transfer—will hinge on how quickly price reclaims and bases above $100,000, how ETF flows stabilize, and whether the Fed’s path from here restores risk appetite or starves it. For now, the most important story in bitcoin may be happening under the surface, not on the chart. At press time, BTC traded at $101,865. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com