Blockchain & Web3 Weekly Bytes Edition #97

🏪 Fidelity Stablecoin, Morgan Stanley Wallet, Finality as a Service

Jan 31, 2026

Hello Blockchain Enthusiast,

Welcome to Edition #97 of Blockchain & Web3 Weekly Bytes. This week, major financial players moved closer to issuing money, managing wallets, and settling value directly on-chain. Fidelity confirmed plans for an Ethereum-based digital dollar. Morgan Stanley put leadership in place for its digital asset strategy while preparing a native wallet. Tokenized gold took a step beyond price tracking with on-chain yield.

TLDR – This Week at a Glance:

Fidelity confirmed plans for an Ethereum-based digital dollar
Morgan Stanley appointed new digital asset leadership and readied a native wallet
Tokenized gold moved beyond price exposure into yield models
Tech Spotlight: Finality as a Service explained in plain terms
Chart of the Week: Gold dominates reserves while Bitcoin enters the picture
Affiliate Spotlight: CoinLedger for clean crypto tax reporting

🧠 Weekly Trivia

Which system property guarantees that a blockchain transaction can never be reversed once confirmed?

A) Throughput
B) Deterministic execution
C) Economic finality
D) Data availability

*Answer revealed at the end 👇

📰 This Week’s Blockchain and Web3 Highlights

Fidelity prepares an Ethereum-based digital dollar: Fidelity confirmed plans to issue a blockchain-native dollar on Ethereum, positioning itself closer to settlement rather than pure custody or access.

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund expands indirect bitcoin exposure: NBIM’s indirect bitcoin allocation rose sharply in 2025, driven largely by holdings tied to Strategy and public crypto-facing firms.

Morgan Stanley appoints new digital asset strategy lead: The bank named Amy Oldenburg to guide its digital asset direction as ETF filings and an in-house wallet initiative take shape.

Yield-bearing tokenized gold enters on-chain markets: Theo launched a gold-backed token designed to generate yield, addressing a long-standing limitation of passive tokenized commodities.

Brave launches a multi-platform Web3 gaming experiment: Brave rolled out a browser-based heist game spanning X and Discord, testing engagement through competition rather than speculation.

Crypto payments adoption led by large enterprises: A PayPal-backed survey found that major merchants are adopting crypto at checkout, with reported year-over-year growth in transaction volume.

ZK-powered Bitcoin Layer 2 Citrea goes live: Citrea launched the mainnet using zero-knowledge proofs anchored to Bitcoin, introducing stablecoin support and off-chain batching.

🔦 Tech Spotlight: Finality as a Service Explained

Finality answers one simple question: when is a transaction done for good?

In traditional systems, settlement can take days and still unwind. In blockchains, finality defines the exact moment after which no rollback is possible.

Finality as a Service separates that guarantee from individual applications.

Instead of each app managing confirmations, timeouts, or risk models, specialized layers now provide final settlement assurances directly.

Where this already shows up:

Financial networks requiring deterministic settlement times
Tokenized assets where ownership transfer must be absolute
Payment rails that cannot tolerate reversals

The result is a cleaner system design. Applications focus on logic. Infrastructure handles certainty.

Takeaway: Finality is becoming an external service rather than an internal assumption.

📊 Chart of the Week: Gold Leads. Bitcoin Appears.

Central banks are adding gold at a steady pace, pushing it back to the center of global reserves.

Bitcoin now shows up for the first time, following a small allocation by the Czech National Bank. The amount is modest. The signal matters.

This is layering, not replacement.

Source: River

😂 A Little Blockchain Humor Break 🤣

Source: Naiive

This edition tracked decisions that now sit on balance sheets and settlement layers. Fidelity moved closer to issuing a blockchain-native dollar. Morgan Stanley lined up leadership and wallet infrastructure. Tokenized gold crossed into yield.

✅ Trivia Answer: C) Economic finality

Economic finality means a confirmed transaction cannot be reversed because doing so becomes economically irrational.

Thanks for reading. We’ll be back next week with more signals worth your time.

Thank you,
Blockchain and Web3 Insights

🌐 blockchainweb3insights.com
📩 Subscribe | 🤝 Stay Connected

Disclaimer:

This newsletter is for educational purposes only and is not financial, tax, or legal advice. Please do your own research or consult a professional before making decisions. Blockchain and Web3 Insights LLC may receive affiliate commissions, at no cost to you. Only trusted products and services genuinely valuable to readers are featured.

Blockchain and Web3 Insights LLC

9984 Scripps Ranch Blvd #1041
San Diego, California 92131
United States