After QNT, who will be the next hot "TradFi on-chain narrative" target?

BlockBeats news, September 28 — After holding a top position on the gainers list for several consecutive days, a tweet citing its 2013 bullish record on Bitcoin and advising investors to "buy at least 1 QNT" quickly spread, further amplifying market sentiment. According to statistics circulating in the market, QNT's single-day gain once exceeded 140%, with a cumulative four-day gain of over 400%, followed by a notable pullback from its highs.

However, social media was not the only driver of this rally. On the news front, what prompted the market to re-examine Quant was its partnership with The Clearing House, a major U.S. bank clearing institution.

On September 24, The Clearing House announced it had selected Quant to provide interoperability, orchestration, and transaction management technology for its On-Chain Money Initiative. The project aims to establish a network for financial institutions to clear and settle tokenized deposits, connecting existing payment systems such as RTP and CHIPS, and is expected to open to participating institutions in the first half of 2027.

Nevertheless, market opinions on QNT are clearly divided. Some analysts noted that The Clearing House selected Quant's Overledger technology rather than explicitly incorporating the QNT token into clearing, settlement, or collateral processes. In their view, this partnership undoubtedly constitutes a fundamental positive, but whether the token can derive direct value transmission from institutional business still lacks public contract details to support it — "the positive is priced in the moment it lands."

Meanwhile, Canton and its token CC deserve more attention. Unlike The Clearing House's focus on tokenized deposits, the narrative Canton carries is closer to securities custody, collateral management, and clearing networks. DTCC completed real production transactions of certain tokenized securities in July this year and plans to officially launch its Tokenization Service in October. For the market, CC's appeal lies in the fact that it corresponds not to a single bank or payment institution, but to the larger securities clearing and custody system.

This logic also has variables. Although Canton has a relatively clear institutional network positioning, whether large institutions will use CC through public networks in the future still requires validation through actual business deployment. In other words, DTCC's participation can strengthen Canton's narrative, but it cannot automatically equate to CC's demand having already materialized.

The following are other TradFi on-chain narrative projects worth watching, compiled by BlockBeats, with sources cited from project teams and the DTCC official website:

Chainlink (LINK)

In May 2026, DTCC announced that its Collateral AppChain will adopt the Chainlink Runtime Environment (CRE) and Chainlink data standards to provide pricing, valuation, asset transfer, margin calculation, settlement, and automated orchestration capabilities for collateral management. The platform is expected to go live in Q4 2026.

Collateral management is a high-frequency and complex segment of the traditional financial system. As tokenized assets, on-chain settlement, and 24/7 markets gradually advance, trusted data, asset valuation, and process coordination will become foundational requirements. Chainlink also disclosed that on-chain and off-chain revenue generated from its enterprise adoption will be converted into LINK and deposited into the Chainlink Reserve. Going forward, the scale of usage and related business flows after the Collateral AppChain goes live will be worth watching.

Ondo (ONDO)

Ondo's narrative centers on the issuance and distribution of tokenized assets. Its products include tokenized U.S. Treasury-related product OUSG, yield-bearing dollar asset USDY, and Ondo Stocks. According to Ondo's official website, Ondo Stocks already offers more than 450 tokenized stocks and ETFs, giving eligible non-U.S. users on-chain economic exposure to U.S. equities and ETFs.

Market attention on ONDO mainly revolves around the asset scale of tokenized securities, trading depth, cross-chain distribution, and DeFi composability. The ONDO token currently represents governance rights in the Ondo DAO, and holders can govern matters related to Flux Finance's markets, interest rate models, oracles, and reserves. The link between product scale, protocol activity, and the token's governance value will remain an important point of observation going forward.

Stellar (XLM)

In May 2026, DTCC and the Stellar Development Foundation announced that the two parties plan to connect tokenization services for DTC-custodied assets to the Stellar network, with the relevant assets expected to be available in the first half of 2027. The asset classes under evaluation by both parties include Russell 1000 constituents, major index ETFs, and U.S. Treasuries.

This collaboration provides a clear timeline catalyst for XLM. The market will focus on the scope of assets to be onboarded subsequently, the first batch of participating institutions, and the actual circulation of DTC-tokenized assets on the Stellar network.

XDC Network (XDC)

XDC's narrative centers on trade finance. In August 2026, SBI XDC Network APAC, TOPPAN, and Ginco were selected for an Osaka Prefecture-related project to test trade finance processes combining vLEI corporate identity with on-chain export factoring, with goals including improving KYB, transaction record management, and accounts receivable processing efficiency.

Trade finance involves corporate identity verification, credit credentials, accounts receivable, financing, and cross-border settlement. XDC's subsequent catalysts depend on whether the pilot further extends into the actual business processes of banks, export enterprises, and trade finance institutions.

Axelar (AXL)

Axelar's highlight is cross-chain interoperability. In 2023, J.P. Morgan Onyx, Apollo, and Axelar completed a proof of concept under the Monetary Authority of Singapore's Project Guardian framework, demonstrating the ability of tokenized asset portfolios to automatically rebalance and settle across multiple chains.

Axelar's enterprise page lists integration information for institutions including Onyx by J.P. Morgan, Deutsche Bank, and Mastercard. As traditional financial institutions simultaneously use public chains, private chains, and existing financial systems, cross-chain communication, asset transfer, and permission management will continue to be key needs. Going forward, attention can be paid to whether its institutional partnerships can form clearer production-grade businesses.