Weekly Stable

Google Targets Banks with L1 Blockchain

New details shed light on managed infrastructure strategy

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

This week we cover the buzz over Google’s “announcement” of their layer 1 blockchain. Plus, product launches, partnerships and regulatory news from AAVE, Bitso, BVNK, Chainlink Labs, Circle, Dinari, Finastra, Kira, Rain, Ripple, Tazapay and more.

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🏆 Top Stories

Google Cloud’s Ledger Isn’t New, but Now Everyone’s Noticed

Google Cloud’s Universal Ledger (GCUL) was first announced in March, but resurfaced this week after a now viral LinkedIn post and reframed it as a competitor to Stripe’s and Circle’s L1 chains. The heightened attention comes from its positioning as “credibly neutral” infrastructure, inviting direct comparison to issuer-run networks.

Why it matters: The buzz is less about timing and more about framing. Does GCUL really compete with Stripe’s Tempo and Circle’s Arc? On the one hand, they are positioned as payment chains, on the other, their starting customer segments are very different. With attention now on GCUL, it’s worth clarifying what it is — and what it isn’t.

Origins & intent: Built after years of dismissing most blockchain hype, GCUL focuses on wholesale payments and settlement.
Strategic positioning: GCUL is a private, permissioned ledger delivered as managed infrastructure via Google Cloud APIs. It supports Python-based smart contracts, emphasizes compliance, and is pitched as neutral across issuers (vs Circle or Stripe), though it remains Google-controlled. Essentially, it’s Blockchain-as-a-service for banks and regulated FIs — a fully managed ledger that hides complexity and delivers Google-scale reliability through simple APIs.
CME validation & lock-in: CME piloted collateral and settlement on GCUL, but its 10-year cloud deal and Google’s $1B equity stake mean this is as much alignment as organic demand.
Customer wedge to FI segment: GCUL seems to be a bet to deepen GCP’s footprint in financial services. The pitch is for commercial deposit tokens, not stablecoins. Banks can simultaneously gain some of blockchains benefits while keeping money in the form that benefits them best.
Mental model: Think of it as “SAP for payments/settlement” — enterprise middleware for tokenized deposits and institutional plumbing, not a censorship-resistant financial rail. However there’s a large market for wholesale payments between banks as well as significant efficiencies for collateral, margin, settlement and fee payments in capital markets as the world moves toward 24/7 trading. This may very well be the approach that fits best with the constraints of regulated FIs.
Permissioned vs permissionless: In the long run, we can probably expect more innovation on public permissionless chains, but banks are likely comfortable with that tradeoff. They want control and predictability. They care less about the ability to quickly compose new barely tested functionality.

Bottom Line

There’s too much tribalism in crypto, and it seeps into stablecoins. Chain debates (L1 vs L2, Ethereum vs Solana) often reflect ideals about how things should work. Large enterprises, especially those with distribution like Google or major FIs, prioritize control, certainty in protocol governance, performance guarantees, and compliance — all without the integration headache. They want the benefits of blockchain without the drawbacks of permissionlessness. Google is betting that serving this demand is both a large use case and a powerful upsell channel for its cloud business.

Enterprises don’t want ideology, they want infrastructure that works — and Google wants to be the one managing it.

Read on for a round up of this week’s news:

🚀 Product Announcements & Partnerships

Bitso Business and BVNK partner to power faster payments across Latin America and Europe (read more)

Ripple partners with SBI to roll out RLUSD stablecoin in Japan by Q1 2026 (read more)

Ripple Secures Major Asia Deal as Linklogis Adopts XRPL for Trade Finance (read more)

Finastra and Circle Forge Strategic Collaboration to Bring Stablecoin Settlement to Cross-Border Payments (read more)

Stablecoins, Tokenization Put Pressure on Money Market Funds (read more)

Coinbase Sees Stablecoin Market Growing to $1.2T by 2028 (read more)

AnomaPay Launches as the First Global Stablecoin Router with Enterprise-Grade Privacy and Seamless Payments (read more)

BIT Mining Launches DOLAI: AI-Integrated USD Stablecoin on Solana (read more)

Japanese Giant Monex Enters Push for Nation’s First Yen Stablecoin Project (read more)

South Korea's K Bank Teams Up with BPMG to Develop Global Stablecoin Services (read more)

Chainlink Partners With SBI Group to Advance Tokenized Assets, Stablecoins in Japan (read more)

Rain Adds Support for Dinari’s USD+, Enabling Yield-Bearing Stablecoin Spending Across LATAM (read more)

How Citi Is Rethinking Digital Assets: Beyond Hype To Infrastructure (read more)

Aave Launches Horizon Platform for Institutional Stablecoin Borrowing (read more)

💸 Fundraises and M&A

Kira raises $6.7M in seed funding to expand its AI-driven payments and stablecoin platform in Latin America (read more)

Tazapay Secures Series B Funding from Ripple and Circle to Enhance Cross-Border Payment Infrastructure (read more)

⚖️ Regulatory Developments

Haycen Secures Stablecoin Issuance License in Bermuda (read more)

China’s cabinet to consider allowing RMB stablecoins for trade (read more)

Crypto's U.S. Policy Aims May Pivot on Resistance from Democratic Senator Warner (read more)

🍻 Upcoming Events

📖 Reads of the Week

Shan Aggarwal, Chief Business Officer at Coinbase, wrote an opinion piece in Coindesk arguing that stablecoins are emerging as core infrastructure for global money movement, comparable to cloud computing’s role in the digital economy, highlighting their ability to modernize payments, accelerate AI-native commerce, and unlock trillions in latent economic activity.

Stablecoin Infrastructure Wars by Stablewatch and Castle Labs reviews the competitive landscape for stablecoin-specific blockchains like Plasma, Codex, 1Money, Arc, Stable, and Monad

Watch: Coindesk’s exclusive interview with Tether CEO and Bo Hines

Stablecoins Will Not Save Western Union’s Past, but They Can Fund Its Future