Welcome to another edition of The Weekly Stable, the essential source of stablecoin news coverage for global fintech professionals, brought to you by This Week in Fintech.

This week we cover:

• Episode 10 of Money Code: Deep Dive into Vaults with Tarun Chitra (Gauntlet)
• Cross River Bank Turns USDC Into a Core Bank Rail
• Klarna Partners with Bridge to Launch KlarnaUSD on Tempo
• U.S. Bank Pilots Stablecoin Issuance on Stellar
• Product launches, partnerships and funding news from Brale, Coins.ph, DeCard, Kraken, MoonPay, Opera MiniPay, Parfin, Paxos, Phantom, Polygon, Ripple, Stableport and more.

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📺 Money Code Podcast 

Ep 10: How Vaults Bring Transparent, Programmable Yields w/ Tarun Chitra (Gauntlet)

$670B later, onchain lending is becoming a new global yield layer, but most fintechs still don’t understand how it actually works.

We touched on this with Cuy Sheffield last week, but there’s a paradox at the center of it. Users want transparency and self-custody, yet the strategies that deliver competitive yield only work when parts of them stay private.

In this episode, Tarun Chitra (CEO of Gauntlet, one of the leading vault curators) breaks down how vaults work in DeFi, how they balance transparency with competitiveness, and what fintech builders should understand before offering “Treasury-plus” products.

We decode:

• How do you build a system transparent enough to trust… but private enough for strategies to actually perform?
• How can fintechs offer high-yield products without becoming 24/7 quant shops?
• What happens when autonomous agents start allocating across these vaults?

What you’ll get:

• A clear model for how curated vaults work, and why they’re becoming the safest way to deliver transparent yield.
• A simple 3-tier yield framework (prime / core / frontier) you can use to shape product strategy.
• A practical lens for picking the right stablecoins and protocols without blowing up your risk team.

Give it a listen and share your feedback by sending me a DM or replying to this email. 

Money Code is presented by Stablecon and Powered by BVNK

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Don’t forget to follow Money Code on X (@moneycodepod) and LinkedIn. 

🏆 Top Stories

If there's one underlying theme this week, it's that banks are increasingly getting more involved with stablecoins. From US Bank, the 5th largest US bank, to sponsor banks such as Cross River Bank, to fintechs with bank entities such as Klarna, the integration of stablecoins and the traditional financial system is progressing week by week.

Cross River Bank Turns USDC Into a Core Bank Rail

Cross River Bank has launched a stablecoin payments platform that lets approved partners send and receive USDC on Ethereum and Solana directly from bank accounts on its in-house core, COS. The system treats fiat and stablecoin flows as a single interoperable ledger, with 24/7 settlement, webhooks for reconciliation, and custody handled by enterprise-grade infrastructure. Use cases include network settlement, merchant payouts, on/off ramps, treasury movements, and program funding, with instant fiat funding via CRNow, FedNow, RTP, and wires.

Why it matters:

This is the first time a mainstream sponsor bank has made USDC behave like a native payment rail, accessible via a single set of APIs. The shift matters because it removes the fragmentation that has made stablecoin adoption operationally expensive:

• Unified fiat and stablecoin accounts: Dollars and USDC sit in the same bank account or FBO structure, sharing the same controls, permissions, and reporting. No multi-hop path across ledgers, custodians, and issuers.
• One API surface for all rails: ACH, wires, RTP, FedNow, and now USDC run through the same account framework.
• 24/7 dollar clearing: When USD and USDC are interchangeable inside the same account, liquidity decisions disappear. Funds clear instantly, without cutoff windows, because Cross River connects directly to both issuance endpoints: the Fed for fiat and Circle for USDC.
• Competitive Landscape shift: Existing and prospective CRB customers can meet their stablecoin send/hold/receive needs without having to partner with an additional player such as Bridge. This adds another competitive element to the stablecoin orchestration landscape from a state-chartered FDIC insured bank.

This sets the bar for other sponsor banks aiming to serve fintechs that want to support stablecoin flows. I’d expect others to follow suit over time. There are two other downstream effects to look out for here. 

Firstly, by enabling stablecoin support within a familiar environment, CRB has more influence on deposits. Here, stablecoins look more like just another rail, and as USDC is received they’ll like get quickly converted to fiat deposits that sit with CRB. 

Secondly, over time as more bank accounts become stablecoin-enabled, it’ll be interesting to see emergent domestic use cases where customers naturally opt for the stablecoin rail instead of, for example, wires to achieve faster and more reliable transfers.

The stage is set. Stablecoins are being integrated directly into the financial system.

Klarna Partners with Bridge to Launch KlarnaUSD on Tempo

Klarna introduced KlarnaUSD, a fully dollar-backed stablecoin issued via Stripe’s Bridge and launching on the Tempo blockchain in 2026. The token is in test mode today, making Klarna the first bank to commit to using the new payments chain. Klarna is targeting everyday payments and cross-border flows. 

Why it matters:

One of the biggest names in fintech is shifting to experiment more with onchain settlement rails:

• Scaled distribution: With 114 million users and $112 billion GMV, Klarna’s has a substantial global user and merchant footprint, giving it fertile grounds for adoption.
• Cross-border economics: One stated goal is to use stablecoins to drive savings in cross border transactions which then can be passed on users
• First Tempo win: This is a great logo for the Tempo team, who are still months away from a mainnet launch.

There are many questions about how any stablecoin might be incorporated, why Tempo, and how much cross border savings will actually drive the bottom line. Klarna is clear that this is the starting point, not a fixed architecture. Their CEO has already said on X that the company will test, iterate, and adapt based on what users value. Nothing is locked in: support for other chains or assets, including USDC, remains open. Klarna plans to experiment with passing cross-border savings back to users and eventually expand into a broader digital wallet model. This is an initial stake in the ground, not the final design.

U.S. Bank Pilots Stablecoin Issuance on Stellar

U.S. Bank is testing custom bank-issued stablecoins on the Stellar network, working with PwC and the Stellar Development Foundation. The pilot explores programmable money with built-in controls such as asset freezing, transaction reversal, and bank-grade compliance. The effort is part of the bank’s new digital assets division focused on stablecoin issuance, custody, tokenization, and on-chain money movement.

Why it matters:The fifth largest US bank is kicking off its digital-asset strategy, treating cash as the foundational primitive. Establishing a bank-issued stablecoin is step one, because the cash leg must exist before the bank can safely settle tokenized money market funds, equities, or bonds.

• Public Rails, Bank Controls: The bank wants stablecoins that live on open networks but preserve the safety, soundness, and compliance profile of tokenized deposits. How much the resulting product will look like one or the other remains to be seen,
• Why Stellar: Stellar offers bank-required controls at the protocol layer (freeze, clawback, reversibility) while still operating as a public chain with 99.99 percent uptime.
• Competitive Pressure: Major banks including J.P. Morgan, Citi and Bank of America are advancing similar efforts. U.S. Bank cannot sit out programmable money without risking strategic lag.

This is not the final design, only the first controlled step. The bank is intentionally testing, iterating, and positioning for a broader tokenization roadmap.

Read on for more of this week’s headlines:

📊 Market Trends

Major Shift in Stablecoin Market: $6B Exits as Industry Moves from Leverage to Real Yields (read more)

S&P Downgrades Tether (USDT) Stability Assessment to "Weak" Due to Increased Reserve Risks (read more)

Tether Becomes World's Largest Gold Buyer in Q3, Surpassing Central Banks (read more)

🚀 Product Announcements & Partnerships

America's fifth-largest bank US Bancorp tests stablecoin on Stellar (read more)

Bitget Wallet Launches Direct Stablecoin-to-Bank Transfers in Nigeria and Mexico (read more)

Cross River Bank Launches Unified Stablecoin Payment Infrastructure (read more)

DeCard Partners with Coin98 to Launch Crypto Visa Card for Southeast Asia (read more)

Frax Partners with Brale to Power frxUSD on a Best-in-Class Issuance Stack (read more)

Klarna Announces Launch of USD-Backed Stablecoin for 2026 (read more)

Kraken announce Kraken Ramp, a global on/off ramp product (read more)

Opera MiniPay Brings Stablecoin Payments to Local Rails in Argentina and Brazil (read more)

Phantom Unveils Cash Account (read more)

Polygon Partners with Stableport to Power Global B2B Stablecoin Payments (read more)

Stablecorp’s QCAD becomes Canada’s first compliant CAD stablecoin (read more)

Ronin and Coins.ph to Enable PHPC Stablecoin Payments Across 600,000 Philippine Merchants (read more)

Visa Partners with Aquanow to Enable Stablecoin Settlement Across CEMEA Region (read more)

World App partners with Bridge to add neobank capabilities (read more)

💸 Fundraises and M&A

Exodus to Acquire W3C Corp for $175M, Expanding into Crypto Payment Cards (read more)

Stablecoin issuer Paxos to acquire wallet startup Fordefi for more than $100 million (read more)

Tether Invests in Parfin to Expand Institutional Digital Asset Adoption in LATAM (read more)

⚖️ Regulatory Developments

Abu Dhabi Regulator Approves Ripple's RLUSD Stablecoin for Institutional Use (read more)

Bolivia to Integrate Crypto and Stablecoins into National Banking System (read more)

ECB Doubles Down on Warning That Stablecoins Could Pose Global Financial Risks (read more)

India to Launch Rupee-Backed ARC Stablecoin in Q1 2026 (read more)

Kyrgyzstan Launches $50M Gold-Backed USDKG Stablecoin on Tron (read more)

MoonPay joins rarified list of dual Bitlicense and New York Trust Charter holders (read more)

UAE Central Bank Takes Control of All Crypto and Blockchain Activities in Historic Law (read more)

UK's FCA Launches Dedicated Stablecoin Sandbox, Welcomes Crypto Innovation (read more)

🍻 Upcoming Events

• Wed 3 December, New York: Stablecon Salon vol 10
• Wed 3 December, San Francisco: Stablecon Salon vol 11

💬 Posts of the Week

📖 Reads of the Week

In The Future of Payment Infrastructure Could Be Permissionless, Rod Garratt of UC Santa Barbara and Michael Junho Lee of the New York Fed provide a policy-oriented explainer that gets to the heart of why stablecoins are innovative. Stablecoins’ real advantage is the permissionless settlement layer they ride on, charting how open, globally accessible blockchains enable universal access, programmability, and composability in ways FedNow-style systems cannot. 

In Stablecoins will transform everything — but commentators disagree on how, Byron Gilliam of Blockworks provides an opinion piece that contrasts alarmist, institutional, and academic views on whether stablecoins will trigger financial crises, hollow out banking systems, expand access to dollar public goods, or simply make payments cheaper. It’s a good synthesis of the current circulating discourse.

In FX On-Chain Is About Dollar Funding, Not Stablecoin Swaps, Borja Neira, provides a technical explainer that argues the real on-chain FX opportunity lies in rewiring the $80T+ synthetic dollar-funding engine built on FX swaps, not retail spot, showing how programmable ISDA/CSA contracts, tokenised wholesale money, and expanded PvP rails could reduce hidden dollar debt and settlement risk. This is a  valuable map for builders and policymakers focused on systemic-level FX infrastructure transformation.