Stablecoins In Finance

The SEC just classified stablecoins the same as money market funds. That happened yesterday. Almost nobody covered it. The Division of Trading and Markets released an FAQ on how broker-dealers should treat stablecoin holdings when calculating net capital. The answer: 2% haircut. Identical to money market funds. Why? Because stablecoin reserves are T-bills, cash, and short-duration government paper — the same assets sitting inside a government money market fund. Before this, firms were taking 100% haircuts. Treating every dollar of stablecoins on their books as worth zero. Not because rules required it — because nobody had said otherwise. Commissioner Peirce titled her statement "Cutting by Two Would Do" and asked what other rules need updating. When a Commissioner names her statement after how obvious the fix was, pay attention to the direction of travel. Stablecoins on Wall Street balance sheets just went from regulatory liability to money market fund equivalent. That makes tokenized securities settlement on blockchain rails commercially real for traditional firms. Not someday. Now. #stablecoins #fintech #payments #crypto #regulation

A new model in Payments is emerging: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐢𝐧 𝐒𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐰𝐢𝐜𝐡 Here's how it works: For decades, international payments have moved through a network of correspondent banks. Each transaction passed through multiple intermediaries, from local to international correspondents and back again, taking days and incurring fees at every step. This system worked, but it was slow, expensive, and opaque. A new model is emerging — The Stablecoin Sandwich — where blockchain replaces those intermediary layers to enable direct, near-instant settlement. Here’s how it works: → The sender initiates a transfer in fiat (for example, euros). → An on-ramp partner converts those euros into a stablecoin such as USDC. → The stablecoin moves across the blockchain, serving as the settlement medium. → An off-ramp partner converts the stablecoin into local currency (such as pesos or reais). → The recipient receives funds in their local account, often in under 30 minutes. → This hybrid flow combines the compliance and familiarity of traditional finance with the efficiency, transparency, and programmability of blockchain technology. The scale of this transformation is already visible. Stablecoin transactions now exceed $7 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 annually, surpassing 50% of Visa’s global network volume: https://bit.ly/49aC07G Stablecoins are becoming a fundamental layer for liquidity management, B2B settlement, and cross-border treasury flows. An entire ecosystem is forming around this shift: → 𝐄𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐞 & 𝐁2𝐁: BVNK, Bitwave, and Contact are helping global merchants manage stablecoin liquidity, compliance, and treasury operations. → 𝐁𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞: Polygon Labs, Aptos Labs, and Chainlink Labs are building the rails that connect traditional payment networks with blockchain-based settlement. → 𝐖𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐬 & 𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐬: Dfns and BitGo offer programmable, secure wallet solutions designed for enterprises managing large digital asset volumes. → 𝐏𝐚��𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐬: Mural Pay, Fipto and Noah are integrating stablecoin rails into existing payment stacks, bridging traditional and digital commerce. → An exciting one, Breeze is reimagining the 𝐌𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐝 (MoR) model with programmable, blockchain-enabled settlements that occur instantly. What's happening is not a replacement of the financial system, but an upgrade. Traditional bank accounts are evolving into wallets. Money movement is becoming programmable. Settlement is shifting from days to seconds. The Stablecoin Sandwich represents a new layer of global financial infrastructure, one that merges the reliability of banks with the speed and transparency of blockchain. Source: Fipto, CB Insights, Dawn Capital, and kudos to Arthur Bedel for this great update! 👌 Find this helpful? [𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁] Anything to add about this subject? [𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁] Nice story, Marcel. Next! [𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲]

US$27.6 trillion moved through stablecoins last year - more than Visa and Mastercard combined. Regulators are stepping in - but their approaches are very different. Still, 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺𝗲𝘀 are emerging: ·      Reserves: stablecoins must be fully backed 1:1 by safe, liquid assets - typically cash or short-term government bonds - to preserve value and ensure redemption. ·      Redemption rights: users must be able to cash out at face value, within timelines set by law - ranging from same-day (UAE, Hong Kong) to five days (Singapore). ·      Independent custody: backing assets must be held separately from the issuer’s own funds, often by regulated custodians or in trust, to protect users in case of failure. These shared principles reflect regulatory alignment on the minimum requirements for trust and stability in issuing and using stablecoins. 𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆’𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘃𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗹𝘆: ·      Who can issue: some jurisdictions restrict this to banks (Japan, South Korea), while others permit non-bank fintechs (US, EU). ·      Reserve rules: the US allows only cash and Treasuries; others like Japan and the UK permit a broader mix of safe assets. ·      Redemption timelines: these differ significantly - affecting liquidity and user expectations. ·      Cross-border limits: Some regimes block foreign-issued stablecoins unless they meet local regulatory standards (e.g. EU, UAE). 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀: ·      The US push is accelerating adoption - but puts pressure on non-US issuers to either comply with US rules or exit the market. ·      Asia’s bank-led models favour control and stability but may limit openness and cross-border scale. ·      UK–EU regulatory alignment will determine whether stablecoins can move freely between key markets - or remain siloed. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁: ·     Stablecoin regulation is unfolding much like the early days of card networks - built jurisdiction by jurisdiction, with each market defining its own rules on issuance, custody, reserves, and redemption. ·     Alignment may come, but not soon. Meanwhile, adoption is accelerating. Trillions are already flowing through stablecoins, and regulators are shifting from drafting rules to enforcing them. ·     For issuers and infrastructure providers, waiting for harmonisation is a risk. Competing in this space means navigating a complex patchwork of rules, or losing access to key markets. Opinions: my own, Graphic source and data points: EY 𝐒𝐮𝐛𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐲 𝐧𝐞𝐰𝐬𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫: https://lnkd.in/dkqhnxdg

Having built fraud systems transacting billions at Coinbase and Sardine, want to share something about the stablecoin gold rush that nobody's talking about. I’ve been a believer in on-chain finance since 2015, when Rob Witoff, Olaf and Brian Armstrong asked me to help build the most compliant, good-actor in the crypto industry: Coinbase. In 2025, the world is talking about stablecoins since Stripe acquired Bridge, and volumes exploded. However, This week, Airwallex's CEO, Jack had a thought provoking post on stablecoins which got the industry talking. Airwallex are a major player in cross-border money movement. And Jack’s point was that not all cross-border transactions need stablecoins. In particular, not in G10 currencies as FX spreads are thin and payments are already instant. But here's where it gets interesting… Artemis just released data showing 400% YoY growth in B2B stablecoin payments. The growth isn't happening where you think: ✅ Long-tail markets where traditional banking breaks down ✅ "Exotic" FX pairs that cost 5-8% in traditional rails ✅ Corporate treasury ops that need 24/7, instant settlement Everyone sees the Stripe-Bridge acquisition and thinks "should I be involved?" What they don't see: the compliance nightmare. I can tell you the risks are massive: - Global by default = some of those regions could be high risk - Sanctioned regions are nearly impossible to identify when recipients are just wallet addresses - Mixing on-chain and off-chain AML checks? Good luck. - Your KYC is only as strong as your weakest market or counterparty Often, stablecoins are treated as cash-like, but most payments and fraud ops teams aren’t set up to work that way, The companies that figure out compliance first can capture the stablecoin opportunity. The ones that don't will become cautionary tales. If you're building in this space, the fraud and compliance piece isn't optional. It's critical. Thoughts? 👇

A new stablecoin is coming - this time built by the banks. 21 major global financial institutions, including Bank of America, Citi, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, Deutsche Bank, UBS and Santander, are forming a joint company to launch a USD stablecoin in H1 2027. And this could become a serious competitor not only to Circle and Tether, but also to the emerging OpenUSD ecosystem. What’s different? Until recently, the stablecoin market was largely built outside traditional banking. USDT / USDC → crypto-native issuers OpenUSD → open fintech, payments and crypto ecosystem This new consortium → 21 major global banks The new stablecoin is expected to be 1:1 reserve-backed and available on public blockchains, targeting payments and digital asset settlement. This is a meaningful shift. Banks are no longer just providing accounts, custody and settlement infrastructure to stablecoin companies. They increasingly want to issue the money themselves. Stablecoins are moving from a crypto product to strategic financial infrastructure - and banks are moving from supporting that infrastructure to owning it.

How Fintechs Should Approach Stablecoins in 2026 In 2026, the most important thing for companies working with stablecoins will be controlling the stack underneath. If your company started using stablecoins in the past year, you probably found an all-in-one provider like BVNK or Privy. Wallets, compliance, on/off-ramps, licensing - bundled under one roof. This made sense. You could test stablecoin rails fast, open new payment corridors, find new business opportunities. But as volumes grew, the limitations showed up: ❌ Can't negotiate directly with liquidity providers ❌ Can't choose your own AML partner ❌ Third-party fees compound at scale You want more flexibility. But the platform that made it easy to start doesn't offer that. And now your margins aren't keeping up with your volumes. The black box is hurting your bottom line. That's why more fintechs are shifting to owning the stack. Providers like Fireblocks and Utila already give teams control over most core layers: ✅ MPC wallets with granular policy enforcement ✅ Integrated asset conversion tooling (ramps, swaps, bridges) ✅ Native compliance integrations you choose What makes Utila particularly interesting is the Utila Link network - giving teams flexibility to choose counterparties and negotiate terms directly across on/off-ramps, liquidity providers, yield venue and more. Still, licensing remains the hardest part. In many regions, full authorization takes 12+ months - and waiting that long isn't realistic. The most interesting models pair fast market entry with a path to autonomy: start under an existing licensed framework while building on infrastructure you'll own long-term. Solving this will be the key challenge for stablecoin infrastructure in 2026. Worth watching this space. #fintech #stablecoins

Stablecoins are being held primarily in their most anonymous form, contrary to a long held policy preference for less anonymity in who holds and moves money to prevent illicit finance activities. While around 7% of traditional money (US dollar cash+bank deposits) is held as cash, the most anonymous form, in the modern money stablecoin ecosystem around 70%-75% (of USDC & USDT) are held in the most anonymous form (self-custody wallets). Consequently, GENIUS & MICA regulatory frameworks will likely have only a modest effect in preventing illicit activity. My Per Jacobsson lecture at the Bank for International Settlements – BIS presents this new research with Kyle Calder, Wenxin Du, and Jeremy stein, and discusses policy implications. You can read more and watch the presentation here: https://lnkd.in/eG5wyhxB

🚨 Just in: For the first time, the Governor of the Banque de France is calling on European banks to move toward issuing euro-denominated stablecoins👇 The statement by Governor François Villeroy de Galhau was made on the sidelines of the Fintech Forum, held on October 9 and jointly organized by France’s financial supervisory authorities (ACPR and AMF). 🎯 Why it matters → Banque de France is among the most influential central banks in the eurozone, alongside the Bundesbank and the Banca d’Italia. This is the first time in an official speech that its governor has taken a stance in favor of euro stablecoins issuance, marking a notable shift in position observed in recent weeks. Here are the key takeaways👇 🎯 The need to tokenize commercial bank money, alongside the CBDC “While providing a CBDC is essential, it is not meant to cover all use cases in a tokenized economy. In addition, we need tokenized commercial bank money.” “That European banks take an interest in the U.S. dollar stablecoin market, why not, since that’s where the market currently is. But they should be equally focused on their natural market of tomorrow: euro-denominated stablecoins.” “In this regard, I welcome the launch of a first consortium of nine European banks, following the initiative of a pioneering French bank.” "The technical choice remains open, between tokenized deposits and euro-denominated stablecoins issued by banks. We may end up having both, but we must not end up with neither." 🎯 Strengthening oversight of the dual-issuing model in Europe François Villeroy de Galhau also called for tighter supervision of multi-issuance stablecoins, those issued by the same entity across multiple jurisdictions (such as Europe and the United States) while remaining fungible. In Europe, two examples follow this model: Circle with USDC and Paxos with USDG. “The rapid and potentially massive growth of stablecoins, most often backed by the U.S. dollar and supported by the new U.S. administration, could weaken our monetary sovereignty, which has been built around the euro.” “How should we respond? First, by strengthening the European regulatory framework, MiCA, which should more strictly regulate the multi-issuance of the same stablecoin within and outside the European Union, in order to reduce the risk of regulatory arbitrage in times of stress.” We’ll be following this topic in our weekly newsletters, which are released every Thursday and Friday to fintechs, banks, and asset managers (with over 15,000 readers). To subscribe to Blockstories, check the first comment below👇

Who will own agentic spending? Visa’s strategy map shows a company repositioning itself for a world where autonomous agents don’t just buy things. They manage spending across commerce, finance, travel, government, and cross-border flows. But, throughput is only one piece of the competitive moat; the rest is a bulletproof trust infrastructure. Three moves stand out. 1. Visa is turning fraud into a control layer, not a cost center Visa’s deepest strategic moves sit in Identity, Security & Fraud Prevention – building the permissioning layer for agentic spending. When software decides who can spend, how much, where, and under what liability, authentication becomes the bottleneck. Visa’s scale, roughly 258B transactions per year, gives it unmatched training data to provide decisioning for agentic transactions in real time. Visa is clearly building, partnering, investing, and acquiring to become the system of record for agent authorization, regardless of whether or not it owns the payment rail. They are betting that banks, merchants, platforms, and governments will plug into Visa for risk decisions, not just transaction routing. 2. Stablecoins are Visa’s wedge into programmable spending Visa’s stablecoin strategy aims to provide a currency that AI agents can easily use, enabling agent-managed spending across various categories, including cross-border transactions, treasury, payroll, travel, and government disbursements. By helping banks issue and settle stablecoins, Visa positions itself as the orchestration layer for programmable money, especially in emerging markets. 3. Open banking presents risk and upside In an agentic world, software routes spending across the cheapest, fastest, most programmable rails. That puts card networks under pressure from account-to-account systems. But it also creates an opening. If Visa owns authentication, limits, and liability, it can reinsert itself above the rail, even when cards aren’t used. The next 12 months of acquisitions and partnerships in agent orchestration and open banking become existential as Visa shifts from card network to spending infrastructure layer. The next payments winner will be defined by who agents trust to decide who gets to spend and under what rules. Visa’s bet is clear. Make authentication the product, and let every rail become distribution.

🔴 JUST IN: Spiko 🇫🇷 just became the first tokenized money market fund in Europe to accept stablecoin subscriptions and redemptions. No fiat conversion. No banking rails. Investors move directly in and out of regulated UCITS funds using USDC and EURC. The two funds concerned are the Spiko EU T-Bills Money Market Fund and the Spiko US T-Bills Money Market Fund, both sub-funds of the Spiko SICAV, domiciled in France and regulated by the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) – France. Until now, only two players globally offered this kind of access: BlackRock's BUIDL and Franklin Templeton's BENJI. Both US-based. Spiko just built the European equivalent, using Coinbase's stablecoin payment infrastructure as the rails. Paul-Adrien Hyppolite, Spiko's co-founder and CEO: "We are proud to be the first transfer agent to open UCITS funds to stablecoin subscriptions and redemptions. Crypto-native investors, fintechs, and organizations holding stablecoins deserve access to the same safe, regulated, yield-bearing instruments as any traditional investor." Océane Codjia, Head of EMEA Stablecoin Payments at Coinbase: "This partnership with Spiko is a meaningful step in demonstrating that stablecoins can operate at the heart of regulated financial infrastructure." The stablecoin market sits above 300 billion dollars in supply. Most of that liquidity has had no direct path into regulated yield products in Europe. Spiko just built one. 👉 Two questions worth sitting with: Does this become the template other European asset managers copy, or does Spiko keep a first-mover lead long enough to matter? And is the real demand coming from TradFi, or mostly from crypto-native players parking treasury in stablecoins?