The Weekly Stable (Vol 7)

Hi stable subscribers,

I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve partnered with Nik and the This Week in Fintech team to take over as the Editor of The Weekly Stable. Going forward, I’ll be your guide to the latest news and critical analysis in the stablecoin market, delivered each week.

A Bit About Me

I’ve been immersed in crypto since 2017 and have spent the last few years building products at Paxos, a leading stablecoin issuer and blockchain infrastructure platform. I’m excited to bring my insights and experience to this newsletter. Want to know more? Check out my bio here.

What to Expect

My goal is to make The Weekly Stable your go-to resource for insights and understanding at the intersection of stablecoins, payments, and blockchain. Here’s what you can look forward to:

This Week’s Edition

Let’s dive into this week’s edition. Despite a turbulent crypto market and the market whiplash surrounding Trump’s strategic crypto reserve announcement, stablecoin adoption continues to gain momentum, particularly for cross border (Centi/Yellowcard, Nexo/Sphere, Bitwave and Thunes) and consumer card (MetaMask, Avalanche) use cases.

On the regulatory front, the new SEC continues to drop cases and we’re gearing up for new developments this month with the White House crypto summit tomorrow and the Senate Banking Committee’s review of the GENIUS stablecoin bill next week.

This industry moves fast, and I’d love to hear from you as we go. Your feedback, suggestions, and corrections(!) are always welcome. Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn here. 

(Find us online at linkedin/chuk-okpalugo, @thestablecon and linkedin/stablecon)

How Visa and Mastercard are driving stablecoin adoption

The proliferation of crypto/stable backed cards is hard to miss. Growth of firms like Rain and KAST as well as the recent launches by Avalanche Foundation and Metamask are growing evidence of demand to spend on-chain balances. 

These cards have great user experiences too. Low foreign exchange (FX) fees, credit options, rewards, and Apple/Google Pay integration, ensuring a seamless user experience. By tapping into Visa and Mastercard’s widespread acceptance, these cards let users spend on-chain balances effortlessly without the need for merchants to have to even consider accepting crypto directly. The stables are off-ramped and the merchants just get paid in fiat. This gets even better when card issuers, networks, payment service providers and merchants settle with each other in stablecoins.

This reliance on existing infrastructure and reduction of friction highlights that the Visa and Mastercard networks aren’t going away anytime soon, and in fact are helping drive stablecoin adoption by providing interoperability with traditional finance. Yes, two sided payment ecosystems like Block have a shot at replacing the value of the card networks but, this will take time, is only a small fraction of global ecommerce, and using the existing card system is the path of least resistance for consumers (who are ultimately the decision makers).

Being able to spend stables everywhere increases the utility of a stablecoin balance and grows overall adoption, even as the stablecoins are off ramped to fiat to pay the merchants. Spending with stables is one side of a key loop in the circular flow model, the other side to unlock is payroll with stables (see Rise, Deel, Remote). As we move towards a world where merchants hold stablecoin balances to pay for their liabilities and the stablecoins don’t ever get off-ramped, it becomes easier to see how stablecoin market capitalization starts to become a meaningful portion of the global money supply (i.e. trillions).

Sunday's strategic reserve shenanigans risks stablecoin momentum

Trump’s Sunday night announcement of a U.S. strategic crypto reserve sparked a $300 billion market rally. Hopes for a credibility-driven, measured exploration of options now feel lost. While I won’t dive into the merits of non-BTC assets here, the real concern lies in the $7M profit an anonymous trader reaped from a 50x leveraged trade on Hyperliquid. This blatant opportunism has ignited speculation of insider trading, casting yet another shadow (see $TRUMP) over the industry’s quest for legitimacy.

The administration’s enthusiasm for crypto is a victory worth celebrating, but credibility depends on facing the negatives head-on and holding bad actors accountable. Perceptions of grift, like this trade, threaten to unravel hard-won progress and stall the legislative momentum the industry needs. For now, stablecoins appear to have dodged scrutiny, but this episode underscores a harsh reminder: the stablecoin industry is basking in a fleeting post-election glow and without solid laws in place, this favorable window is increasingly at risk of closing.

Avalanche Foundation unveils the Avalanche Card, a Visa-integrated solution developed in collaboration with Rain, enabling users to spend AVAX, USDC, and USDT globally.

Aleo, the privacy focused Layer 1, integrates with Google Cloud to facilitate development of applications for confidential payments, medical records, identity, and more.

Bitwave launches the Bitwave Payment Network at On-Chain B2B Payments Day in Denver, enabling businesses to pay invoices and receive stablecoin payments quickly and cost-effectively, with features like automated AP/AR reconciliation and seamless ERP integration.

BVNK unveils an embedded wallet, bringing together fiat, crypto and stablecoin payments, with direct access to leading blockchains and local and international payment schemes.

Centi partners with Yellow Card to expand instant, low-cost remittances across 20 African countries, slashing fees by 85%. 

Chainlink, Hyperlane, and Celo launch OpenUSDT, a scalable stablecoin for the OP Superchain, enhancing USDT interoperability. Think of this as a bridged version of USDT with super powers, backed by USDT that’s natively issued on Celo (an OP stack L2). More details in the blog here.

MetaMask updates its previously announced card offering to add a sleek metal card, offering 3% USDC cashback on the first $10,000 spent annually, then 1% thereafter, in partnership with Mastercard.

MetaMask rolls out fiat off-ramps for 10 blockchain networks, partnering with Transak to simplify crypto-to-fiat conversions.

Nexo partners with Sphere to enhance cross border business payments

Stable Studios announced Stableguide a 200+ directory of stablecoin-focused companies, organized and curated specifically for builders, investors, and enthusiasts.

Wirex expands its stablecoin payment platform, Wirex Pay, to the U.S. partnering with Bridge to enable seamless, self-custodial payments. Integrated with Visa, it offers U.S. users real-time fiat-to-stablecoin swaps.

Aegis, a startup crafting a Bitcoin-backed stablecoin free from fiat ties, secures $2M in a pre-seed round led by Dewhales and Profluent Ventures.

Figure Technology Solutions and Sixth Street launch a joint venture, with Sixth Street investing $200M to unlock over $2B in liquidity for the non-agency mortgage market. Figure differs from most other new nonbank lenders in that it uses blockchain technology to track much of its lending operations. 

Chainalysis release 2025 crypto crime report: Stablecoins now occupy majority of all illicit transaction volume.

Federal Reserve researcher Chris Colson highlights stablecoins’ potential as a mainstream payment method.

Metro, a publicly-listed department store chain, partners with DTCpay to accept stablecoin payments in Singapore.

Tron gears up to launch a 'Gas Free' feature for Tether’s USDT, eliminating TRX fees for transfers, aiming to boost affordability amid rising gas costs.

Thunes CEO Floris de Kort affirms Thunes’ embrace of stablecoins in the cash-to-digital shift in emerging economies, connecting their proprietary network of bank accounts and mobile wallets with instant stablecoin funding and real-time stablecoins settlements.

Binance announces it will delist USDT in Europe along with other non-MiCA compliant stablecoins on March 31st, in line with the regulatory guidance.

Congressman Tom Emmer and Rep. Ritchie Torres launch the bipartisan Congressional Crypto Caucus to mobilize support for crypto-friendly policies in the U.S. House. Unlike the 2017 Blockchain Caucus, this group acts as a voting bloc to advance digital asset legislation, responding to voter demand for blockchain innovation.

SBI Holdings becomes a registered Electronic Payments Provider under Japan Financial Services Agency’s new framework and plans to be the first to list USDC. 

The SEC drops litigation against Consensys, the latest in a series of dropped or paused enforcement actions against crypto firms, including Uniswap, Kraken, Coinbase, Robinhood Crypto, Gemini and Tron Foundation.

Tether names Simon McWilliams as new CFO to spearhead its first full financial audit, signaling a major transparency push. The move sees ex-CFO Giancarlo Devasini shift to Chairman, amid growing regulatory scrutiny on the stablecoin giant.

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