Welcome to another edition of the Money Code newsletter (fka The Weekly Stable), the essential source of stablecoin news coverage for global fintech professionals, brought to you by This Week in Fintech and Stablecon.

This week we cover:

• SoFi Launches First National Bank Stablecoin on Public Blockchain
• Shift4 Launches Global Stablecoin Settlement for Merchants
• Product launches, partnerships and funding news from Circle, Coinbax, Coinbase, Erebor, Intuit, JPMorgan, Klarna, Nodu, PayPal, Standard Chartered and more.

Want to master stablecoins and programmable money? Subscribe to our podcast for breakdowns, lessons and insights from the top builders in the space.

For feedback or suggestions, reply to this email, find Chuk and Stablecon online, or join the Stablecon community on Telegram. P.S. Get your tickets for Stablecon 2026 

Want to sponsor a newsletter? See our sponsorship information here.

🏆 Top Stories

SoFi Launches First National Bank Stablecoin on Public Blockchain

SoFi launched SoFiUSD, a fully reserved U.S. dollar stablecoin issued by SoFi Bank, N.A., making it the first U.S. national bank to issue a stablecoin on a public, permissionless blockchain. Initially live on Ethereum, SoFiUSD is backed 1:1 by cash held at SoFi’s Federal Reserve account and is designed for near-instant, 24/7 settlement at fractional-cent costs. SoFi is positioning itself not just as an issuer, but as a stablecoin infrastructure provider for banks, fintechs, and enterprises, including white-label issuance and settlement integration. Broader availability to SoFi members is expected in the coming months.

Why it matters:

Stablecoins are becoming regulated banking infrastructure. This is a structural shift in how stablecoins enter the regulated financial system.

• Bank-issued stablecoins go mainstream: A federally chartered, FDIC-insured bank issuing on a public chain sets a new regulatory benchmark others will be pressured to match.
• Infrastructure, not just a token: SoFi is selling bank-grade compliance, custody, and reserve management as a service, directly competing with non-bank stablecoin issuers and middleware.
• Fed account advantage: Holding reserves as cash at the Fed removes liquidity and credit risk, strengthening the case for bank-issued stablecoins in large-scale settlement.

Shift4 Launches Global Stablecoin Settlement for Merchants

Shift4 launched a global stablecoin settlement platform that lets merchants opt to receive payouts in stablecoins instead of traditional bank transfers. Hundreds of thousands of merchants can now settle 24/7 in USDC, USDT, EURC, or DAI across multiple blockchains, including Ethereum, Solana, Stellar, Polygon, Base, TON, and Plasma. The product is live and configurable directly from the Shift4 merchant dashboard.

Why it matters:Stablecoins are becoming a default settlement layer for payment platforms.

• Always-on settlement becomes table stakes. Shift4 is bypassing bank hours, batch windows, and cross-border delays, offering merchants near-instant access to funds globally.
• Payments companies, not banks, are driving adoption. Like Visa and Stripe’s earlier moves, Shift4 is embedding stablecoins as a settlement rail without changing the consumer payment experience.
• Stablecoins as a merchant choice, not a crypto product. Merchants do not manage wallets, keys, or blockchain ops; stablecoins show up as just another settlement option.
• Logical Progression: Shift4 is treating stablecoins less like a new payment method and more like a new settlement and treasury rail. Their pay-with-crypto acceptance product tested demand. Settlement is now upgrading the core. Payouts would complete the loop.

📺 Money Code Podcast 

No new Money Code episode this week for Christmas 🎄

Instead, we’re resurfacing one of our most popular episodes: a conversation with Cuy Sheffield, Head of Crypto at Visa on which stablecoin use cases are actually taking off and why.

If you’re thinking about your 2026 stablecoin or payments strategy, and you find yourself with some downtime once the holiday noise fades, this one is worth revisiting.

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

Subscribe on Apple, Spotify and Youtube, or search Money Code wherever you get your podcasts. 

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

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

📊 Market Trends

JPMorgan Forecasts Stablecoin Market to Reach $500–600B by 2028, Below $1T Expectations (read more)

Russia Becomes Europe's Largest Crypto Market with $376B in Transactions (read more)

Tokenized US Treasury Market Explodes to $7B, Up 50x Since 2024 (read more)

Venezuela Collects 80% of Oil Sales Revenue in USDT Amid Sanctions (read more)

💸 Fundraises and M&A

Coinbax Raises $4.2M to Bring Institutional Controls to Stablecoin Payments (read more)

Nodu Secures $1.45M to Build Stablecoin Infrastructure for Traditional Finance (read more)

Palmer Luckey's Digital Bank Erebor Raises $350M at $4.35B Valuation (read more)

🚀 Product Announcements & Partnerships

AWS Customers Can Now Pay for Services Using BNB Through Better Payment Network (read more)

BC Card Successfully Tests Foreign Currency Stablecoin Payments in Korea (read more)

Brazilian stock exchange B3 to launch its own tokenization platform and stablecoin (read more)

Circle Launches GLDC and SILC: Tokenized Gold and Silver Trading with USDC (read more)

First Institutional Stablecoin-for-Stablecoin Repo Executed on Public Blockchain by Solstice and Cor Prime (read more)

Intuit Partners with Circle to Integrate USDC Stablecoin Across TurboTax and QuickBooks (read more)

Klarna partners with Coinbase to receive stablecoin funds from institutional investors (read more)

MetaComp Partners with Stable to Enhance Cross-Border Payments via StableX Network (read more)

PayPal Partners with USD.AI to Enable Stablecoin-Based AI Infrastructure Funding (read more)

Shift4 Launches Stablecoin Settlement Platform for Global Merchants (read more)

Snail Games Develops Stablecoin Solution for Gaming Industry Payments (read more)

SoFi unveils SoFiUSD the first bank-issued stablecoin for enterprise payments (read more)

Standard Chartered Launches Tokenized Deposits with Ant International, Enabling 24/7 Treasury Management (read more)

SWIFT, JPMorgan and Deutsche Börse Successfully Test Unified Banking Token System (read more)

⚖️ Regulatory Developments

Abu Dhabi Regulator Approves TRON-based USDT as Accepted Token (read more)

China Considers Limited Stablecoin Testing in Free Trade Zones (read more)

China's Digital Yuan Expands to Singapore with New Cross-Border Payment Pilot (read more)

EU Council Approves Digital Euro Design with Online and Offline Versions (read more)

Ghana legalizes crypto trading with new law, plans to explore gold-backed stablecoins (read more)

Korean Lawmaker Warns: National Payment Sovereignty Requires Won-backed Stablecoins (read more)

NCUA Submits GENIUS Act Stablecoin Rules for OMB Review (read more)

South Korean Lawmakers Push Back Against Bank-Controlled Stablecoins (read more)

US Lawmakers Propose PARITY Act to Reform Crypto Tax Rules (read more)

📖 Reads of the Week

In Banks in the Age of Stablecoins: Some Possible Implications for Deposits, Credit, and Financial Intermediation, Jessie Jiaxu Wang, an economist at Federal Reserve, provides a technical policy analysis that models how payment stablecoins could reshape bank deposits, funding stability, and credit supply