{
  "id": 672871,
  "title": "Crypto Long & Short:",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/12/crypto-long-short",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-08-12T14:51:12.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "CoinDesk",
    "slug": "coindesk",
    "url": "https://www.coindesk.com/coindesk-indices/2026/08/12/crypto-long-and-short"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Our weekly Crypto Long & Short newsletter focuses on insights, news and analysis for professional investors. The views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect CoinDesk or its affiliates. This week's topic is the mismatch between capital speed and market timing. When capital cannot move quickly enough, markets suffer.\n\nGeopolitical tensions have amplified the issue: institutions have capital but it is trapped in systems with batch processing, cut-off times and settlement cycles. As risk re-prices by the minute, collateral does not, leading to liquidity shortages, wider spreads and sharper price moves. This is not just volatility, but a market infrastructure problem.\n\nDigital asset markets operate 24/7, but institutional infrastructure was built for fixed market hours. Collateral is split across venues, custodians, asset classes and jurisdictions. Companies still pre-position capital for settlement that may take days. They manage exposure around operational cut-offs that make little sense in continuous markets.\n\nLMAX Group processed $300 billion in a week, including $60 billion in gold. Some institutions were forced out of positions overnight due to slow asset movement. The root of the problem is slow settlement, where cash, collateral and trades can take days to transfer value. Stablecoins can address this by allowing cash-like value to move quickly and programmatically. They are not a marginal improvement but a game-changer for institutions still reliant on T+1 or T+2 settlement.\n\nStablecoin market capitalization is now $320 billion, with record on-chain transfer activity. The real significance is that regulated institutions are treating stablecoins and tokenized cash as settlement infrastructure. Tokenization addresses the movement of assets, making collateral more portable and allowing trapped capital to be put back to work.\n\nThe challenge lies in execution: upgrading infrastructure without downtime, implementing intraday risk models, and creating settlement mechanisms for institutional scale. Firms that solve these operational and engineering hurdles will set a new competitive standard in the market.",
  "summary": "In this week's Crypto Long & Short, LMAX Group's Jenna Wright argues that markets break down not from too little capital but from capital stuck in the wrong place, trapped by settlement cycles while risk reprices by the minute. She makes the case that stablecoins and tokenization are quietly becoming the plumbing that lets money move as fast as the risk it supports.",
  "key_points": [
    "Geopolitical tensions trap capital in batch processing systems",
    "Institutional infrastructure built for fixed market hours",
    "Stablecoins address slow settlement, become settlement infrastructure"
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}