A major US bank launches its own stablecoin (TWIF 5/29)

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This week brought a surprising development: SoFi launched its own stablecoin, SoFiUSD. Will other banks follow suit? More details below….

Please enjoy another week of fintech and banking news below.

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TD Bank launched its first agentic AI model for mortgage and HELOC applications, built by its in-house AI lab Layer 6 — cutting the pre-adjudication process from an average of 15 hours to under three minutes by autonomously classifying documents.

PingPong partnered with Visa to launch a Card to Account Payment Solution, enabling corporate buyers to settle any supplier invoice using their existing commercial credit card — even when the supplier doesn't accept cards.

Wall Street strategists report that U.S. funding markets are awash in liquidity, with $120 billion flowing into money market funds in May alone — a structural reversal from last year's funding strains that had forced the Fed to halt its portfolio runoff.

The WSJ chief economics commentator argues that stablecoins represent a modern form of private money with systemic risks — including incentives to "reach for yield" with riskier reserves — that could trigger run dynamics and spill over into broader markets and banks.

Mastercard received a BitLicense from the New York State Department of Financial Services, clearing the company to engage with digital asset payment and settlement infrastructure — including stablecoins and tokenized deposits — under one of the world's most rigorous crypto regulatory regimes. The payments network also asked Brazilian acquirers including Cielo to absorb a share of nearly $1 billion in losses tied to the collapse of Banco Master's fintech arm Will Financeira, which had issued Mastercard-branded cards.

Airwallex launched Airwallex Billing, a modular suite covering invoicing, subscription management, and usage-based billing — all with multi-entity support, global tax automation, and settlement in 20+ currencies from a single platform.

SoFi launched SoFiUSD — a dollar-backed stablecoin on Ethereum and Solana — becoming the first U.S. national bank to offer a proprietary stablecoin directly to retail customers on a public blockchain, with nearly 15 million members now able to buy, hold, and transact with it in-app.

Privy launched universal deposit addresses for stablecoins. Each user gets one persistent address that accepts crypto deposits across supported chains and settles funds into the token the user’s app expects.

Robinhood launched agentic trading in beta, allowing users to create a dedicated sub-account and connect AI agents to execute stock trades from a pre-loaded balance — alongside a new virtual credit card enabling AI agents to make payments.

Monzo entered the UK mobile market with a no-contract phone plan managed entirely in its app, offering three 5G tiers priced from £8–£20/month and a loyalty discount that reduces bills by 5% each year, up to 30% over time.

Hyperliquid expanded its HIP-4 outcome contracts beyond crypto price bets into real-world macro events like U.S. inflation and Federal Reserve decisions, positioning itself as a direct competitor to Polymarket but using its own validator set for settlement rather than an external oracle.

Block began rolling out USDC stablecoin payments to Cash App's nearly 60 million users in a phased launch — starting at 25% of the user base — marking a notable ideological shift for CEO Jack Dorsey, a longtime bitcoin-only advocate.

Whop launched Whop Cards, a Visa card that let platform merchants earn, spend, and manage money entirely within Whop — earning up to 5% cash back — without withdrawing funds to an external bank.

Increase expanded its instant payments platform to include push-to-card transfers, enabling companies to send payouts, disbursements, and refunds directly to eligible Mastercard or Visa cards.

Payment processor Rainforest is looking for a Partnerships Lead.

PPRO and Coinbase partnered to bring a full stablecoin payments suite to U.S. merchants and PSPs, giving eligible merchants access to 150 million stablecoin holders globally.