Lynq, a new digital asset settlement platform developed by Arca Labs, Tassat, and tZERO Group, has begun onboarding its first wave of institutional clients, including Crypto.com, Wintermute, GSR, Archax, and several over-the-counter trading desks.
The platform, launched in July, was built to support real-time settlement between crypto market participants and is pitched as an alternative to traditional bank rails — many of which disappeared after the closure of Silvergate and Signature Bank. Lynq’s design incorporates Tassat’s infrastructure, which previously powered Signature’s now-defunct Signet network, and tZERO’s broker-dealer capabilities for compliance and onboarding.
Lynq settles transactions using the Arca Institutional U.S. Treasury Fund (TFND), a tokenized money market fund issued on Avalanche. This setup allows trades to be completed instantly, 24/7, without relying on banks. It also includes an “interest-in-transit” feature, meaning counterparties earn yield on their intraday balances as they move funds between platforms.
The first group of users includes market makers and liquidity providers such as 1Konto, FinchTrade, JST Digital, and others. Lynq says about 50 clients are in some stage of onboarding, with names like B2C2 and Galaxy Digital also expected to join.
U.S. Bank is serving as the qualified custodian for cash held on the platform and will handle treasury operations.
The launch comes as traditional financial firms continue to test blockchain-based settlement tools. JPMorgan, for example, is working on a tokenized deposit system of its own, and several banks are exploring the use of stablecoins for internal transfers.
For now, Lynq is betting that a purpose-built, industry-driven network can fill the post-Signature gap for crypto-native firms that still need institutional-grade rails — and prefer to avoid legacy systems altogether.
Rayne Steinberg, CEO of Arca; Zain Saidin, CEO of Tassat; and David Goone, CEO of tZERO, jointly stated, “Lynq is an end-to-end settlement utility built by the industry, for the industry. Our goal is to provide a quality settlement service that can meet the liquidity, scale, and security needs of our digital asset clients, while maximizing capital efficiency for all network participants.”
