Global Finance Enters the Integration Phase

In this episode, Jackson argues that the policy era of digital-asset innovation is evolving into something more decisive: a coordinated global integration phase. For the first time since the post-2008 reforms, major economies are aligning their regulatory structures around the same pillars — stablecoins, CBDCs, tokenized assets, and open-banking data rules.

Australia formally classified stablecoins and wrapped tokens as regulated financial products.
Canada confirmed it will publish a national stablecoin framework alongside its federal budget.
The UK and U.S. launched a joint working group to coordinate digital-asset oversight across tokenization, payments, and data governance.

Individually these events matter; collectively they mark the beginning of a harmonized rulebook for the emerging programmable financial system.

For investors, Jackson stresses the obvious implication: regulatory rails are no longer optional. They are now the foundation upon which XRP, Ethereum, stablecoin issuers, and tokenization networks will scale.

Wholesale CBDCs Take the Lead — Hong Kong Becomes the Case Study

One of the episode’s strongest insights comes from Hong Kong’s second e-HKD pilot, which Jackson identifies as a bellwether for global CBDC design. The results were unambiguous: participants overwhelmingly preferred wholesale CBDCs and tokenized deposits over retail CBDCs.

The pilot found that:

• tokenized deposits behave similarly to CBDCs,
• banks trust the deposit-token model more, and
• wholesale CBDCs align naturally with settlement-network requirements.

This confirms what many central banks are already signaling: the future of CBDCs will be wholesale first, supported by programmable settlement layers, AMMs, and interoperability frameworks such as Chainlink CCIP and Quant Overledger.

This shift also places renewed emphasis on assets like XRP — not as a retail currency, but as a potential conversion layer between siloed wholesale networks.

Private Sector Takes the Lead: Securitize, Western Union, Ripple, BlackRock

Jackson highlights that while regulators are now catching up, the private sector has already begun building the infrastructure.

• Securitize is preparing a $1.25B SPAC listing, marking the first major tokenization platform entering public markets.
• Ripple expanded XRPL’s tokenization capabilities through Luxembourg’s TBlocks Fund partnership.
• Western Union surprised markets by launching a stablecoin product on Solana, signaling a new competitive phase in global remittance.
• Broadridge disclosed that 60% of institutions are actively building tokenization systems.

For Jackson, these moves reveal a simple truth: tokenization is no longer a “future use case” — it is the core business model of next-generation financial infrastructure.

Digital Identity Becomes Policy Infrastructure

Jackson dedicates a significant portion of the episode to digital identity — not as a privacy topic, but as settlement infrastructure. Before programmable money can scale, he argues, programmable identity must exist.

Recent movements include:

• The OECD endorsing digital ID as public infrastructure.
• The EU Digital Identity Wallet scheduled for 2026.
• The UK shifting toward mandatory digital identity for corporate filings.
• Hong Kong’s CBDC pilot demonstrating that access to digital credentials is essential for wholesale settlement.

Digital ID becomes the missing connective tissue between CBDCs, tokenized assets, automated AML, and liquidity-pool access — a prerequisite for full-scale programmable finance.

Companies best positioned in this vertical include Okta, Thales, Microsoft, Polygon ID, and Worldcoin.

AI Begins Running the Financial System — Quietly but Rapidly

Another major theme Jackson surfaces is the rise of AI-driven financial infrastructure. Banks are moving far beyond simple analytics.

Examples include:

• RevoAI’s Bank 5.0, which monitors cross-ledger flows in real time.
• HSBC and Standard Chartered piloting AI-assisted compliance for tokenized assets.
• ECB and MAS publishing frameworks for AI-driven supervision.

Jackson characterizes this as the early stage of a broader shift toward AI-routed settlement, AI-managed liquidity, and automated regulatory reporting — all of which strengthen demand for oracle networks, interoperability frameworks, and tokenized-asset environments.

Assets that stand to benefit include Chainlink, TRAC, Quant, Palantir, NVIDIA, and XRP.

The Inevitable Portfolio — Assets Positioned to Win the Transition

Jackson concludes the episode by mapping the institutional landscape to a set of investable themes — the pillars of the “Inevitable Portfolio.”

Infrastructure & Tokenization

Ethereum • Polygon • Avalanche • Broadridge • Nasdaq • CME • Coinbase

Payments & Stablecoin Rails

XRP • Visa • Mastercard • PayPal • Western Union

AI & Compliance Infrastructure

Palantir • NVIDIA • IBM

Digital Identity Leaders

Okta • Thales • Microsoft • Polygon ID • Worldcoin

Interoperability & CBDC Connectivity

Quant • R3 (via HSBC, Standard Chartered)

Jackson’s conclusion is straightforward: the future financial system will not be built on one chain or one asset, but on an interconnected web of tokenized markets, programmable identity, stablecoin rails, AI-driven settlement, and interoperable CBDC networks.

Watch the Full Episode

To understand the mechanics behind wholesale CBDCs, tokenized deposits, XRPL AMMs, and XRP’s evolving role as a potential conversion asset, watch the full episode of The Macro.
Follow Lewis Jackson Ventures for ongoing institutional-grade coverage of tokenized assets, AI-driven settlement infrastructure, and the architecture of the new global financial system.

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