#stablecoins

#stablecoins

Technologies tend to have a natural ceiling built into their utility and popularity. Once they've solved all the problems they can solve, their growth is effectively capped. As soon as all potato fans own a potato peeler, the peeler market's growth potential is largely tapped out. Indeed, the big question around AI at the moment is how many problems it will be able to solve. The market could already be overblown, or it could be practically limitless.

When PayPal launched almost three decades ago, the company made its name as one of the world's first fintechs. Now, PayPal faces a slew of competitors, from the payments colossus Stripe to Big Tech giants like Apple. "One of the challenges when you are at a certain scale and you've been around for a while is the very classic innovator's dilemma," Alex Chriss, the president and CEO of PayPal, told Fortune.

In a major regulatory win for the cryptocurrency sector, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has granted conditional approval for Circle Internet Group ( ) and Ripple to establish new national trust banks. The OCC also conditionally approved Paxos, BitGo, and Fidelity Digital Assets to convert their existing state trust licenses into national charters. These five approvals mark a significant step toward integrating digital asset firms into the federal banking system.

The recent crypto boom has been marked by blockchain companies working to expand their appeal to mainstream consumers. That now includes Aave Labs, the developer behind a popular decentralized lending service, which on Monday announced plans to launch an app in Apple's App Store and opened up a waitlist for interested users. Aave is well-known in crypto as a leading project in DeFi, or decentralized finance.

One of the largest deals ever for a stablecoin startup has fallen through. Coinbase has called off acquisition talks with the U.K.-based BVNK, a spokesperson for the crypto exchange confirmed to Fortune. It wasn't immediately clear why Coinbase iced the deal, which had gotten as far as the due diligence process and seen the crypto giant and BVNK enter into exclusivity in October, meaning the startup couldn't entertain offers from other bidders.

XRP was on a wild ride in August. The token hit $3.66 back then, riding a wave of optimism that had traders excited about altcoins again. Institutions were buying, retail was jumping back in, and everything looked bullish. Then reality hit. Profit-takers showed up first, locking in gains after the August peak. Trading volume started dropping off, the broader crypto market lost steam, and XRP couldn't hold the highs.

Zelle, the bank-owned service that facilitates consumer money movement, said it plans to expand its services internationally. Zelle will rely on stablecoins to enable cross-border money movement, according to a statement Friday from Early Warning Services LLC, Zelle's parent company. All Zelle network banks will have the option to provide the service, according to the statement. Financial-technology firms such as Wise Plc have long operated in the cross-border money-movement space, but the banks' scale gives them an advantage in the crowded market.

Modern Treasury, a payments infrastructure company valued at $2.1 billion, has acquired the stablecoin startup Beam, the companies announced Wednesday. The acquisition was an all-stock transaction worth about $40 million, according to a source familiar with the deal, who asked to remain anonymous while discussing private business discussions. Founded in 2022, Beam provides banks and other corporations with software to send and receive stablecoins, or cryptocurrencies pegged to underlying assets like the U.S. dollar.

Scott Lucas, JPMorgan's global head of markets digital assets, outlined the bank's approach in a CNBC interview, emphasizing an "and" strategy that balances existing financial infrastructure with emerging blockchain opportunities. On trading crypto, Lucas said that, "Jamie [Dimon] was pretty clear during investor day that we were going to be involved in the trading of that, but custody is not on the table at the moment," The bank has been experimenting with deposit tokens and stablecoins, tools that enable cash-like digital assets on distributed ledgers.

Almost one year after the fintech giant Stripe struck a $1.1 billion deal to acquire the stablecoin startup Bridge, two other big corporate players want to scoop up a stablecoin firm of their own. The U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase and the payments giant Mastercard have each held advanced acquisition talks to buy London-based BVNK, according to six sources familiar with the dealings, who asked for anonymity to talk about confidential business discussions.

There are those among us who like the idea of swiping and tapping their way through life, armed with a lifetime of digital information as they enter buildings, book online appointments and take train rides to work. Others are not so keen, fearing that big brother databases chock full of personal details will one day control their movements, if that is not happening already.

Last October, the payments giant Stripe announced a blockbuster $1.1 billion acquisition of Bridge, a little-known startup focused on the dollar-backed cryptocurrencies known as stablecoins. Long a feature of the insular world of blockchain diehards, the technology had yet to break into Silicon Valley. But Stripe's acquisition, alongside the thawing regulatory environment under the Trump administration, has catapulted stablecoins into the mainstream.

SWIFT - aka the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication - provides a messaging service that financial institutions use to move money around the world. The service is widely used but is slow because, as explained by ANZ Bank, SWIFT "doesn't actually move the money." "This means the instruction to pay and the movement of funds happen separately, often requiring a complex network of accounts and correspondent banks to enable a payment to be processed.

The Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) strategy has moved from an experiment to a consensus playbook for public companies seeking balance-sheet exposure. Digital Asset Treasuries are listed companies that accumulate tokens as treasury assets, using the stock market's financing power to steadily increase onchain holdings. In its half-year report, HTX research breaks down how the DAT strategy has become the industry standard, how perpetual aggregators ballooned, how stablecoins remain a dominant narrative, and more.

Zerohash, a crypto and stablecoin infrastructure company headquartered in Chicago, announced Tuesday that it had raised $104 million at a $1 billion valuation.