Oct 1, 2026
El Salvador has launched Sivar, a national remittance and payments app built by Modveon on Coinbase's Base network, settling transfers from the US in stablecoins. The move represents a shift toward stablecoins for everyday payments, separate from the country's Bitcoin experiment.
Citigroup is expanding its partnership with Coinbase to allow the bank's institutional clients to accept stablecoin payments while settling in traditional fiat currency. The collaboration builds on their October 2025 partnership and enables merchants to process stablecoin transactions without directly holding crypto assets, with Coinbase handling the conversion infrastructure.
Canada's six largest banks—Bank of Montreal, CIBC, National Bank of Canada, Royal Bank of Canada, Scotiabank, and TD Bank—are jointly exploring a Canadian-dollar tokenized deposit system to modernize the country's payments infrastructure.
SoFi began settling debit and credit card transactions using its SoFiUSD stablecoin on Mastercard's global payments network, migrating its entire card program expected to process over $25 billion in annualized volume.
The European Central Bank launched Pontes, a new settlement platform allowing wholesale tokenized assets to be settled using central bank money rather than private stablecoins. The system is designed exclusively for regulated financial institutions.
Circle agreed to acquire cross-border payments processor Tazapay for $400 million in stock, marking Circle's largest acquisition since purchasing Poloniex in 2018. Tazapay processes over $25 billion in annual payment volume.
DBS Bank and Citibank executed the first weekend USD payment between Singapore and the US using tokenized deposits via Swift's Digital Ledger, demonstrating 24/7 settlement capabilities for traditional banking infrastructure.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas proposed a 12-month suspension on new payment system operator registrations and plans to enforce stricter controls on payment arrangements involving virtual asset service providers.
Payment services provider Bottomline is integrating Chainlink technology to bring its network of over 600 banking institutions and $16 trillion in annual payment volume onto blockchain networks. The partnership will enable banks to access blockchain-based cross-border settlement while continuing to use existing payment messaging systems.
Paxos-issued stablecoin USDG has launched natively on Mantle, with the Ethereum layer-2 network joining the Global Dollar Network as a partner. Mantle will receive a share of revenue generated from USDG usage on its network.
Bybit Pay has integrated with crypto payments infrastructure provider Mesh, allowing the exchange's 80 million users to make payments and fund accounts across more than 300 platforms directly from their Bybit balances without withdrawing assets.
Diameter Pay, a stablecoin payments infrastructure startup focused on cross-border transfers, has raised $10 million in Series A funding co-led by CMT Digital and Lightspeed. The company provides embedded payments infrastructure that routes cross-border transfers for banks using crypto rails.
Cari, a US tokenized deposit network targeting regional, mid-size, and community banks, has raised $32.5 million in the first tranche of its initial funding round, with all investment coming from banks. The funding was part of a week that saw $292.35 million in crypto and blockchain funding across 10 deals.
Twenty-one major financial institutions including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citi and Deutsche Bank announced plans to form a company this year to issue a dollar-backed stablecoin, with a market launch targeted for 2027.
Miami-based fintech Felix Pago closed a $200 million Series B round, with $87 million in equity led by Andreessen Horowitz and $113 million in debt. The company enables WhatsApp-based remittances to Latin America, settling most transfers in USDC without users directly handling crypto.
Bank for International Settlements General Manager Pablo Hernández de Cos told the Federal Reserve's Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium on August 28 that stablecoins do not credibly function as a payment method at scale, while tokenized deposits offer a more compelling case for harnessing blockchain technology in the financial system.
Dunamu, operator of South Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchange Upbit, has entered a strategic partnership with Visa to develop stablecoin-based payment systems, cross-border remittances, and AI-driven financial services. The roadmap unveiled in San Francisco includes OUSD-based business models and agentic commerce initiatives.
U.S. and international banks are reconsidering their stance on stablecoins, with JPMorgan holding preliminary discussions about launching its own digital dollar and global banks exploring consortium approaches. The shift comes as banks face growing competition from crypto companies in the payments space.
Major payment networks Visa and Mastercard have joined Rain and Fireblocks to launch the Agentic Payments Alliance, a coalition aimed at standardizing protocols and infrastructure for AI-powered autonomous commerce where AI agents can make purchases independently.
Visa is searching for a new stablecoin settlement and over-the-counter partner with cryptocurrency exchange licenses in the U.S., Canada, UK, and Singapore following Mastercard's acquisition of BVNK, the payments firm Visa had previously been working with.
The U.S. Treasury Department released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to implement the GENIUS Act, defining requirements for stablecoin issuers and exchanges, including federal licensing for payment stablecoin businesses and criminal penalties up to $1 million and five years in prison. The proposal opens a 60-day public comment period.
KuCoin Pay has announced a partnership with DCSPay, a payments platform by DCS Group that enables businesses to integrate stablecoin payments and fiat settlement. The collaboration leverages DCS Group's over 50 years of payments expertise to provide secure and compliant infrastructure.
SBI Digital Practice and South Korea's Nodeinfra have agreed to jointly develop a cross-border payment and settlement network between Japan and South Korea using Canton Network infrastructure, beginning with test tokens.
South Africa's draft Crypto Assets Manual proposes banning corporate cross-border stablecoin transactions and treating transfers to self-custody wallets as capital outflows, prompting warnings from industry leaders like VALR CEO Farzam Ehsani that the rules could drive crypto activity offshore and reduce regulatory oversight.
The U.S. Senate postponed a vote on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act until September after Democrats withheld consent needed to bring the crypto market structure bill to the floor before the August recess. Senate Majority Leader John Thune filed a motion to proceed, setting up a procedural vote when Congress returns.
Visa Inc. is integrating stablecoin funding and payout capabilities into its Visa Direct platform through a collaboration with blockchain infrastructure provider zerohash. Eligible clients will be able to use stablecoins for transactions through the payment network.
Circle announced 11 founding validators for its Arc blockchain public mainnet launching September 16, including BlackRock, Visa, Mastercard, DTCC, and SBI Group. The company reported Q2 revenue of $701 million with USDC circulation reaching $73.3 billion.
The Bank of Italy conducted a study testing 200 USDC remittances across 10 international payment corridors, finding that total costs varied widely from 0.3% to nearly 9% of the transaction amount, challenging assumptions that stablecoins are necessarily cheaper for cross-border payments.
The Bank for International Settlements reported Project Agorá completed $1 million in real-value cross-border payment trials, with 28 financial institutions settling transactions across six currencies in about 80 seconds.
PayPal is advancing its cryptocurrency initiatives by expanding its PYUSD stablecoin, implementing agentic AI payment systems, and adding biometric authentication, even as it absorbed an $81 million crypto-related loss while exceeding revenue expectations.
Visa presented its most detailed stablecoin roadmap to date during its fiscal third-quarter earnings call on July 28, 2026, outlining plans to integrate stablecoin capabilities across its payment network. The company reported $11.6 billion in Q3 revenue.
The Bank Policy Institute and The Clearing House Association filed joint comment letters expressing general support for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's proposed payment stablecoin requirements while calling for regulatory coordination.
The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency denied London-based payments company Wise's application for a national trust bank charter, citing deficiencies. Wise plans to resubmit a new application under the GENIUS Act stablecoin framework.
Ripple has made an undisclosed strategic investment in Notabene, which describes itself as the operator of the world's largest open network for regulated on-chain transactions. The companies plan to integrate RLUSD into Notabene Flow and explore how Notabene's payment authorization capabilities could complement Ripple Payments. According to Notabene, its broader compliance and authorization network facilitates more than $2 trillion in annualized transaction volume.
USDC issuer Circle Internet Group has signed separate strategic agreements with South Korea's major fintech platforms Kakao Group and Viva Republica (Toss operator) to explore stablecoin payment infrastructure, remittances, and tokenized finance as the country works to establish a digital asset regulatory framework.
Samsung Electronics revealed plans to integrate stablecoin support into Samsung Wallet during its Galaxy Unpacked 2026 event, aiming to transform the platform into a comprehensive financial ecosystem connecting payments, rewards, and digital assets for Galaxy device users.
Coinbase has introduced three offerings that enable businesses to accept payments from AI agents, expand agent-assisted crypto trading and help developers integrate x402 payments. The company also said agent traffic exceeded human traffic on Base documentation pages for the first time.
The BIS published research finding that USD-pegged stablecoins like USDT and USDC are largely unaffected by capital controls across 130+ economies, creating new channels for digital dollarization that challenge traditional monetary policy tools in emerging markets.
Korea's Internet & Security Agency (KISA) and the Ministry of Science and ICT have launched a project to build deposit token-based payment infrastructure, expanding the Bank of Korea's 'Project Hangang' CBDC pilot results into the private payment sector. The initiative was officially kicked off at a joint ceremony in Seoul on July 22, 2026.
Corporate finance platform Ramp has opened stablecoin accounts and payment capabilities to business clients, leveraging Stripe's stablecoin infrastructure with Bridge handling dollar conversions and Privy managing balance storage.
Tiger Global led a $180 million Series B valuing Augustus at $1 billion, funding its bid to become a federally chartered stablecoin clearing bank, Augustus Bank, N.A., with OCC conditional approval secured in May 2026.
Diaspora remittance platform LemFi is transitioning its cross-border settlement operations to stablecoin rails through a partnership with BVNK, replacing traditional multi-day correspondent banking with near-instant, lower-cost settlement.
U.S. regulators reached the GENIUS Act's one-year rulemaking deadline on Saturday without issuing the final regulations needed to fully implement the federal stablecoin framework signed into law by President Trump in July 2025.
European Central Bank board member Piero Cipollone warned on Friday, July 17, 2026, that unchecked growth of stablecoins—particularly dollar-denominated tokens—poses a risk to European banks' retail deposit base, speaking at a gathering of Italian cooperative bankers.
Payment processor Stripe and private equity firm Advent International have jointly offered to acquire PayPal Holdings for $60.50 per share, valuing the deal at approximately $53 billion. PayPal's stock surged 14-15% following the news.
The ECB selected 36 payment service providers from across the euro area for a 12-month digital euro pilot scheduled to begin in the second half of 2027. The selection includes major banks like Deutsche Bank and fintech firms like Revolut as the central bank moves from planning into testing.
JCB, Japan's largest bank card issuer with 140 million users worldwide, has announced a partnership with Circle to integrate stablecoin payment capabilities into its network, bringing cryptocurrency payments to regular retail stores.
Lawson, Japan's third-largest convenience store chain, will test accepting the JPYC yen-pegged stablecoin at its Tokyo Takanawa Gateway City location beginning early August, with merchant services provided by Netstars.
SWIFT has launched a blockchain-based shared ledger enabling 17 banks across six continents to pilot cross-border payments using tokenized deposits, marking the payment network's first live use of distributed ledger technology for 24/7 banking.
Stablecoin issuer Circle received final regulatory approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish a national trust bank, marking a landmark moment for cryptocurrency regulation. The company's shares jumped 7-8% following the announcement.
Adjusted stablecoin transaction volume reached a record $1.79 trillion in June 2026, up 63% from May's $1.1 trillion, according to Visa data. Circle's USDC accounted for approximately 70% of the volume, extending its lead over Tether's USDT.
A consortium of over 140 major financial and technology companies including Visa, Stripe, Mastercard, BlackRock, Coinbase, and Bank of New York Mellon launched Open USD (OUSD), a new stablecoin that shares reserve earnings with participants. The announcement caused Circle Internet Group shares to tumble 15% as the initiative directly challenges existing stablecoin leaders.
The European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation ended its transitional period on July 1, 2026, requiring all crypto service providers to obtain proper licensing. ESMA ordered unauthorized firms to wind down operations, leaving an estimated 10 million or more users searching for new compliant platforms.
Luxembourg's financial regulator granted Ripple preliminary approval for a Crypto Asset Service Provider (CASP) license under the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), allowing the company to offer regulated payment services across all 30 EU countries ahead of the July 1 deadline.
Mastercard unveiled Agent Pay for Machines (AP4M), a protocol enabling autonomous AI agents to send and settle payments, including microtransactions under $1. The platform is being developed with partners including Coinbase, Stripe, and Ripple.
Coinbase partnered with Cardless to launch a stablecoin-backed credit card, while Visa and Mastercard are preparing to enter the stablecoin market and compete over AI agent payment infrastructure, challenging the decade-long dominance of Tether and Circle.
Visa and stablecoin issuer Brale have launched a proof-of-concept testing SBC stablecoin settlement on the Canton Network's privacy-preserving blockchain. Separately, Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe are reportedly backing a new stablecoin platform that Coinbase is considering joining.
Mastercard is enhancing its stablecoin settlement functionality to support regulated stablecoins including Circle's USDC, Ripple's RLUSD, and SoFi's offerings for credit card transactions and cross-border payments. The expansion comes as payment giants Stripe, Visa, and Mastercard are reportedly backing a new stablecoin platform that Coinbase is considering joining.
MoneyGram launched MGUSD, a U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin on the Stellar blockchain, issued by Stripe-owned Bridge. The stablecoin will power services across MoneyGram's global network of 60 million customers and 500,000 retail locations.
The US Senate is advancing stablecoin legislation through the Clarity Act while blocking CBDCs, as Andreessen Horowitz urges the Treasury to establish uniform stablecoin regulations under the GENIUS Act to preserve token fungibility and enable payment innovation.
The Solana ecosystem experienced multiple infrastructure developments in early June 2026, with the Solana Foundation deploying a native recurring payments program, Phoenix Trade launching mobile trading access, and Solayer rolling out its Margin Trade perpetuals platform mainnet.
A House of Lords committee called on the Bank of England to reconsider proposed stablecoin restrictions that would cap individual transactions at £20,000 and business transactions at £10 million, warning the rules could stifle development of a sterling-backed stablecoin market.
Japan's Liberal Democratic Party panel proposed creating a legal framework for cryptocurrency ETF trading and promoting yen-denominated stablecoins for settlement in Asia, in recommendations submitted to the finance minister.
European Central Bank board member Isabel Schnabel stated that increased stablecoin use could reinforce the dollar's global dominance, undermine some nations' monetary policy autonomy, and diminish the role of the euro.
Mastercard received a BitLicense from the New York State Department of Financial Services, enabling the payments giant to conduct digital asset activities including stablecoin and blockchain-based settlement infrastructure under one of the strictest regulatory frameworks in the U.S.
SoFi Technologies made its U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin available directly within the SoFi app to its 14.7 million members, marking the first instance of a U.S. national bank-issued stablecoin embedded in a consumer banking app.
Tether announced plans to launch GEL₮, a stablecoin pegged to Georgia's national currency, in partnership with the Georgian government. This represents one of the first cases of a sovereign government directly partnering with a stablecoin issuer to digitize its national currency on blockchain infrastructure.
President Trump signed an executive order instructing the Federal Reserve and other regulators to review and modernize banking rules regarding payment system access for crypto and fintech firms within 120 days.
Crypto.com's Foris DAX entity received the UAE's first Stored Value Facilities (SVF) license from the Central Bank, allowing it to offer crypto payment services in the country. This marks the first time a Virtual Asset Service Provider has obtained payment provider authorization in the UAE.
The Senate's crypto market structure bill, known as the CLARITY Act, faces mounting pressure to advance after months of delays caused by negotiations over stablecoin yield provisions. Senator Thom Tillis signals readiness to move forward to hearings as available Senate floor time diminishes and political uncertainty around leadership grows.
BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, submitted a comment letter opposing a potential 20% cap on tokenized reserve assets in the GENIUS Act, which would limit products like its BUIDL fund. The firm urged the OCC to drop the cap idea and expand eligible assets.
Coinbase and Senate leaders finalized a deal on stablecoin reward provisions, resolving a standoff with the banking lobby. The compromise prohibits rewards that mimic bank deposits while allowing 'bona fide' transactions, clearing a key obstacle for the CLARITY Act's advancement.
The U.S. Treasury Department issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on April 8 requiring payment stablecoin issuers to implement anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance measures for secondary market transactions. The proposal sets new standards for combating illicit finance in stablecoin markets.
The Trump administration backed a proposal for stablecoin issuers to offer yield to investors, drawing pushback from the American Bankers Association which disputes White House claims that stablecoin yield doesn't threaten bank deposits.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong publicly supported passing the CLARITY Act after Treasury Secretary Bessent urged Congress to advance the crypto bill, reversing the company's earlier withdrawal of support over stablecoin reward provisions.
White House Council of Economic Advisers released analysis finding that banning stablecoin yield products would boost community bank lending by only 0.02% while imposing significant costs on consumers, countering banking industry lobbying efforts in the CLARITY Act debate.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation approved a proposed rule establishing federal oversight standards for stablecoin issuers, including reserve requirements limiting 40% of reserves at a single custodian. The proposal explicitly excludes stablecoins from deposit insurance protections.
Treasury's FinCEN and OFAC jointly proposed a rule on April 10, 2026, formally treating stablecoin issuers as financial institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act. Issuers must implement full AML/CFT programs with customer due diligence, suspicious activity reporting, and the technical capability to block or freeze illicit on-chain transactions, alongside mandatory OFAC sanctions screening.
Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott is expected to schedule a markup of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act in the final two weeks of April, with renewed optimism following revised stablecoin yield compromise language.
Stablecoin monthly transaction volume reached $7.2 trillion in February 2026, exceeding the $6.8 trillion processed by the US Automated Clearing House (ACH) network for the first time. Total stablecoin supply reached $315 billion in Q1 2026.
The US Department of the Treasury published an 87-page notice of proposed rulemaking seeking public comment on state-level regulatory regimes for stablecoins with market caps under $10 billion, marking the first formal implementation step of the GENIUS Act.
Senators and the White House have reached a tentative agreement to resolve the contentious stablecoin yield restrictions in the CLARITY Act, though the compromise has drawn mixed reactions from the crypto industry. Coinbase reportedly continues to oppose the updated draft language despite the agreement.
Circle Internet Group shares fell as much as 22% in their worst day ever after draft provisions in the CLARITY Act indicated potential limits on stablecoin yield distribution. The proposed legislation may restrict rewards on stablecoin balances, though analysts at Bernstein argue the selloff is overdone as restrictions target distributors rather than issuers.
The OCC released a 376-page proposed rule on February 25, 2026, marking the first substantive federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoin issuance under the GENIUS Act. The proposal covers licensing, 100% reserve backing, a two-business-day redemption window, a $5M minimum capital floor, and a strict prohibition on paying yield to holders.
The FDIC Board approved its first proposed rule under the GENIUS Act on December 16, 2025, establishing the application process for FDIC-supervised banks seeking to issue payment stablecoins through a subsidiary. The rule sets filing requirements, evaluation factors, processing timelines, and an appeals process, with safety and soundness as the primary criterion.
President Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law on July 18, 2025, making it the first federal legislation to regulate cryptocurrency in U.S. history. The law requires 100% reserve backing for payment stablecoins, designates the OCC as primary regulator for non-bank issuers, and explicitly classifies compliant stablecoins as neither securities nor commodities.
Amazon and Walmart are exploring launching their own U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins to streamline payments and bypass traditional banking systems. The move aligns with the pending GENIUS Act, which would provide a regulatory framework for such digital assets.