# February 2026
Construction Blockchain Newsletter
Welcome to this month’s Construction Blockchain Newsletter. This month’s tracks blockchain’s shift from speculation towards governed infrastructure across finance and industry. In the news section, the common thread is regulated experimentation and tighter oversight: stablecoins edging into supervised trials, banks testing tokenised instruments on public rails under permissioned access, and authorities and policymakers reinforcing reporting and compliance—alongside reminders that stablecoins can also carry geopolitical and legislative risk when policy coalitions fracture. The research digest focuses on what can be engineered and verified in construction delivery: smart-contract automation for IPD financial administration, scan-to-BIM progress evidence triggering payments, and a five-year mapping of the field that highlights where maturity is real and where adoption constraints still dominate. The events agenda points to three different “signal types” in March—expo, finance summit, and institutional conference—each useful for a different purpose (vendor scanning, compliance and tokenised money, or market-structure narratives). Finally, the knowledge update highlights structured upskilling via the Oxford Fintech Programme, relevant to practitioners seeking a credible grounding in tokenisation, payments, and governance.
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Construction Blockchain
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World & Blockchain
Worldwide
Revolut to test stablecoin in UK trial
A convergence in the financial system is taking shape. It’s quieter than the hype cycles and far more durable: banks are adopting blockchain infrastructure, and blockchains are evolving to the needs of regulated institutions and global enterprises. The result isn’t a replacement for the old system or a wild leap into a new one – it’s a convergence.
Europe
BNP Paribas pilots money market fund tokenisation on public Ethereum (permissioned access)
BNP Paribas says its Asset Management arm has issued a tokenised share class of an existing French-domiciled money market fund, recorded on the public Ethereum network via its AssetFoundry™ platform. Crucially, it uses a permissioned access model: only eligible, authorised participants can hold or transfer the tokenised shares, aiming to combine public-chain resilience and ecosystem maturity with regulated-fund controls. The bank frames this as a limited intra-group experiment testing end-to-end processes (issuance, transfer agency, tokenisation, wallet operations, and connectivity), and positions it alongside an earlier Luxembourg issuance conducted on a private blockchain—suggesting BNP Paribas is deliberately comparing operating models rather than betting on a single architecture.
Asia
Iran, sanctions, and stablecoins: report links central bank activity to large USDT flows
A Guardian investigation citing findings from crypto-analytics firm Elliptic reports that Iran’s central bank appears to have channelled at least c.$507m in Tether (USDT) through accounts Elliptic assesses to be under its control. Because USDT is dollar-pegged and highly liquid, the report argues it may form part of a deliberate strategy to bypass the global banking system under sanctions pressure, potentially to facilitate trade or stabilise the rial. The story also politicises the issue domestically in the UK by noting public advocacy of Tether by Nigel Farage.
North America
US policy volatility: White House “could drop” crypto market-structure bill after Coinbase row
Reporting cited by Cointelegraph suggests the White House is considering withdrawing support for the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act after Coinbase pulled its backing, allegedly without warning administration officials. The flashpoint is said to be stablecoin “yield”/rewards language, where banking interests reportedly want tighter constraints, while Coinbase argues the draft would undermine DeFi and broader on chain finance use cases. The episode is a useful reminder that “regulatory clarity” remains politically fragile: even industry aligned bills can stall quickly when coalitions fracture or the banking lobby exerts pressure.
Africa
Ghana Legalizes Crypto While Ghanaian Village Shows Bitcoin’s Potential
Ghana’s parliament made headlines at the end of last year as it passed the Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP) bill, which establishes a legal framework for regulating bitcoin and crypto assets as well as crypto service providers. According to a press release from the Bank of Ghana, the Bank in conjunction with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will issue regulatory instruments and directives in the coming months as part of their mission to “create a safe, transparent, and innovative virtual asset ecosystem.”
Research & Development Digest
This monthly Research Digest features some notable papers produced or suggested by our academic and industry Members and Partners that we hope will be of interest.
Blockchain & Integrate Project Delivery (IPD)
Integrated project delivery with blockchain: An automated financial system
Elghaish F; Abrishami S; Hosseini M R, 2020.
This paper proposes a blockchain-enabled financial platform to address a persistent barrier to Integrated Project Delivery (IPD): transparent, tamper-resistant administration of reimbursable costs, profit, and shared savings, where profit is typically deferred until project completion. The authors develop a framework that encodes the three core IPD financial transactions as smart-contract functions, aiming to reduce ambiguity, prevent unauthorised changes, and give all parties a common, auditable view of entitlements. A proof of concept is implemented and validated using an IPD case project on a Hyperledger Fabric environment (IBM Blockchain Cloud), and the study reports on practicality, usability, and the completeness of required blockchain components. The contribution is positioned as moving beyond conceptual discussion towards empirical feasibility, while recognising that deeper BIM data integration and fully operational prototypes remain future work.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103182
Construction Payment Automation Through Scan-to-BIM and Blockchain-Enabled Smart Contract
Elsharkawi H; Elbeltagi E; Eid M S; Alattyih W; Wefki H, 2025
This study develops and tests a payment automation workflow that links verifiable site progress to automatic payment execution. It integrates scan-to-BIM (reality capture to produce near-real-time as-built information) with blockchain-enabled smart contracts, using a “chain-link” mechanism to securely relay off-chain progress data on-chain. The goal is to reduce payment delays and disputes that arise from manual measurement, documentation, and approval cycles. The approach is implemented on a real case study using periodic site scans captured with a 360° photogrammetry/3D scanning camera, converted into BIM outputs (e.g., Revit), and then translated into quantities and completion states that trigger contract conditions in an Ethereum-based smart contract. The authors argue that tying payments to independently verifiable progress provides a more transparent basis for valuation, improves trust, and accelerates release of funds, while also enabling granular progress tracking.
https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15020213
Idrissi Gartoumi K, 2024
This review maps how blockchain technology (BCT) research has developed in construction management from 2017 to 2023, treating the field as relatively young but fast-expanding. Using a mixed-methods approach, it analyses 237 documents through scientometric techniques (to characterise publication trends, influence, and diffusion) and thematic analysis (to classify application themes and track their evolution). The results organise construction-related blockchain applications into eight thematic categories, and the paper highlights recurring implementation challenges alongside “critical success factors” and related enabling technologies. A key emphasis is that many proposed applications focus on automation and dispute-related problems (including the handling of claims and trust deficits), yet deployment barriers remain substantial. The review is mainly valuable as a structured research map: it consolidates what has been studied, where the concentration of effort sits, and which gaps—technical, organisational, and governance—still constrain practical adoption.
Events Agenda
Crypto Expo Europe 2026
Dates: 1–2 March 2026 (Bucharest, Romania)
A large Eastern European crypto and blockchain expo-style conference aimed at practitioners, startups, investors, and service providers. The programme typically mixes market commentary, product showcases, and partner networking rather than deep technical workshops. The organisers position it as a regional hub event, with a substantial exhibition floor and a broad “Web3” scope (trading, exchanges, infrastructure, and applications). If your objective is business development in CEE, lead generation, or surveying vendors, it is plausibly useful; if you want rigorous research content, you should expect a lighter academic footprint and more commercial signalling than peer-reviewed substance
London Blockchain Finance Summit: Payments & Digital Currencies
12 March 2026 (London, UK)
A finance-led, one-day summit focused on the real deployment of digital money: stablecoins, CBDCs, tokenised cash, treasury and settlement, and the regulatory perimeter around these instruments. It is pitched at the intersection of banks, fintech/PSPs, enterprise users, and regulators, so the framing is more “market structure and compliance” than “ideology”. Expect sessions on how tokenised liabilities and stablecoins affect payment rails, liquidity management, and operational risk, with an emphasis on what is implementable under current rules rather than speculative roadmaps. For enterprise architects, it can be useful for understanding integration patterns and governance constraints.
Digital Asset Summit (Blockworks) — New York 2026
24–26 March 2026 (New York City, USA)
Blockworks’ flagship institutional event targets allocators, market infrastructure, and policy—think ETFs, custody, trading venues, stablecoins, and how legislation or agency positions shape investability. The event is explicitly framed around “public market activity” and institutional adoption rather than grassroots crypto culture. In practice, you should expect senior buy-side and sell-side voices, plus compliance and legal perspectives, alongside large industry sponsors. It is typically strong for mapping narratives (what institutions claim they are doing) and for networking, but you should be cautious about mistaking panel confidence for empirical evidence of adoption at scale.
Knowledge Upgrade
Oxford Fintech Programme (Saïd Business School)
Online: A 7-week executive programme that includes digital assets/tokenisation within the broader fintech landscape (payments, market structure, strategy). It’s not a “hands-on Solidity” course, but it’s credible if you want institutional/strategic grounding.
