Sep 22, 2026
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.
Robinhood Markets agreed to acquire minority stakes in Crypto.com and its prediction-markets spinout OG.com, valued at $5 billion, while adding OG.com's yes-or-no event contracts to its trading platform. The multi-year deal makes OG.com an infrastructure and clearing provider for Robinhood's prediction markets platform, with football event contracts already being routed to Crypto.com's CFTC-regulated exchange.
Laser Digital, Nomura's digital asset subsidiary, is partnering with Keyring Network to develop institutional-grade onchain fixed-income products for decentralized lending markets. The first markets are being prepared for Euler Finance, though neither company disclosed committed capital or fee terms.
Ripple has secured a multi-year sponsorship agreement with the University of Florida that will place the XRP logo on the field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, along with digital properties and signage. The deal expands XRP's presence in major U.S. college sports.
Webull is launching cryptocurrency trading services in Canada, partnering with Coinbase to provide crypto infrastructure and custody capabilities. The expansion adds Canada to Webull's existing crypto footprint in the United States and Australia.
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.
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.
Anchorpoint Financial, a joint venture between Standard Chartered, Animoca Brands, and HKT, has launched beta access for its HKDAP stablecoin pegged to the Hong Kong dollar. The launch marks the expansion of Hong Kong's stablecoin ecosystem a year after the city implemented its stablecoin licensing law.
Anchorpoint Financial, a joint venture between Standard Chartered, Animoca Brands, and HKT, has launched beta access for its HKDAP stablecoin pegged to the Hong Kong dollar. The launch marks the expansion of Hong Kong's stablecoin ecosystem a year after the city implemented its stablecoin licensing law.
Dubai-based maritime platform Shipfinex has partnered with Abu Dhabi's ADI Chain to tokenize approximately 35 commercial vessels worth $500 million, aiming to create new blockchain-based financing channels for shipowners in the $2 trillion shipping asset class.
Trump Media and Technology Group terminated its planned $1+ billion CRO treasury venture with Crypto.com and Yorkville Acquisition Corp, along with a related prediction market services agreement, citing updated corporate strategies.
Yellow Card, a global stablecoin infrastructure provider, has secured $40 million in strategic funding from investors including SC Ventures by Standard Chartered, Sony Innovation Fund, Polychain Capital, and Blockchain Capital. The company plans to use the capital to expand its Global USD Accounts product and stablecoin payment rails into Latin America, EMEA, and Asia-Pacific regions.
BNY, the largest custodian bank in the US, announced a partnership with Galaxy Digital to add cryptocurrency staking services to its digital asset custody platform, allowing institutional clients to earn staking rewards without moving assets off the platform, pending regulatory approval.
Mastercard has finalized its acquisition of BVNK, a London-based cryptocurrency infrastructure platform and Ripple partner, for $1.5 billion plus $300 million in earnouts. The deal expands Mastercard's capabilities in the stablecoin payments market, adding BVNK's infrastructure that processes $30 billion in annual stablecoin volume across 130 countries.
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.
Citadel Securities has made a $400 million strategic investment in Crypto.com, valuing the cryptocurrency exchange at $20 billion in what marks the platform's first institutional funding round since its founding in 2016.
SBI Holdings and the Solana Foundation announced a strategic collaboration to build an onchain financial market from Japan, with Solana Foundation taking a stake in SBI R3 Japan, which will be renamed SBI Solana Global. The venture will focus on stablecoin issuance and tokenization of real-world assets.
Ripple released the XRPL AI Starter Kit on Wednesday, enabling developers to build AI agents that can autonomously send and receive payments using XRP and RLUSD on the XRP Ledger. The launch coincides with Mastercard naming Ripple as a partner in its Agent Pay for Machines initiative.
Coinbase has taken over as the official USDC treasury deployer on Hyperliquid using the AQAv2 framework, potentially adding $200 million in annual revenue, while BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes warns the protocol's token burn model could lead to market share losses.
Coinbase Ventures purchased ENA tokens on the open market and announced a partnership with Ethena to develop onchain savings products, with a Coinbase integration set to roll out next week targeting their combined user base of over 100 million.
Fireblocks introduced 'Earn,' a new platform enabling institutions to generate yield on stablecoins through direct access to Aave and Morpho-based lending protocols, incorporating institutional-grade approval workflows and policy controls.
Ripple and Kyobo Life Insurance are piloting tokenized government bond settlement in South Korea, aiming to reduce settlement cycles from two days to near real-time as the country develops regulations for token securities.
Frankfurt exchange operator Deutsche Börse acquired a $200 million stake in Kraken parent company Payward, valuing the crypto exchange at $13.3 billion. The investment deepens ties between traditional finance and crypto markets, subject to regulatory approval.
Global asset manager Franklin Templeton announced the acquisition of CoinFund spinoff 250 Digital to create Franklin Crypto, a dedicated institutional crypto investment management arm targeting pensions and sovereign wealth funds.
European crypto asset manager CoinShares began trading on Nasdaq following completion of its $1.2 billion merger with Vine Hill SPAC, announced in September 2025. The listing positions the firm for U.S. expansion as institutional players consolidate market share.
NYSE parent company ICE has completed a $600 million direct cash investment in prediction market platform Polymarket, bringing its total commitment to nearly $2 billion. The investment comes as prediction markets have surged past $20 billion in monthly volume, driven by geopolitics and macroeconomic event trading.
Government-sponsored mortgage giant Fannie Mae will allow borrowers to pledge Bitcoin and USDC as collateral for conforming mortgages through a new program with Better Home & Finance and Coinbase, marking the first time digital assets can be used to back mortgages in the US housing finance system.
Franklin Templeton, managing $1.7 trillion in assets, partnered with Ondo Finance to tokenize five equity and gold ETFs, enabling round-the-clock trading through digital wallets. The move represents a major institutional push to bring traditional securities on-chain for crypto-native investors.