Hi stable subscribers, 

Welcome to another edition of The Weekly Stable, the #1 source for stablecoin insights brought to you by This Week in Fintech.

Each week, over 85,000 fintech professionals rely on us for clear analysis, thoughtful perspectives, and steady coverage of the stablecoin space—going beyond the news.

This week we dive into Stripe’s stablecoin pilot and the shift in financial services it represents, as well as a round up of product launches, partnerships and regulatory news from BaanX, BitGo, Circle, Mastercard, Paypal, Ripple, Visa and more. 

Enjoy this week’s news below and let us know about any other feedback/suggestions you have.

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

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🏆 Top Stories

Stripe’s Stablecoin Pilot Isn’t Just a Product — It Signals a Shift in Who Owns Financial Services

Stripe just launched a new stablecoin pilot, allowing businesses outside the US, UK, and EU to hold, send, and receive dollars via stablecoins. The product is powered by Bridge, the cross-border payments company it acquired for over $1B last year.

At first glance, this may look like just another crypto feature. But it marks something bigger: the beginning of a new phase in global finance — one where blockchains become the foundation for rebuilding global financial services.

Unbundling and Rebundling Banking

Stablecoins unbundle the traditional bank account down to its two core functions: hold money and move money. Once reduced to those primitives, financial services become programmable, portable, and dramatically cheaper to deploy.

That unlocks the opportunity for acquirers, fintechs and infrastructure players to rebundle services — treasury, FX, yield, payments, lending — and deliver them globally, far more easily. No banking license required. What’s at stake is more than just payments: it’s control of deposits, cash flows, and end-user relationships.

Acquirers Become Banks

Stripe and MoonPay are leading the charge on the merchant side.

MoonPay, through its acquisitions of Helio (Solana’s leading crypto payments processor) and Iron (a stablecoin infrastructure startup), has already announced their intention to offer multi-currency wallets, yield-bearing products, and instant cross-border payouts. Stripe’s pilot could easily evolve to provide  similar capabilities, aimed at businesses in emerging markets.

With the recent partnership between Bridge and Visa, Stripe can more easily extend its card issuing services globally, opening the door for expense management and other workflow products.

The merchant dashboard becomes the primary financial interface, effectively turning Stripe and MoonPay into global merchant banks.

Wallets Become Financial Super Apps

On the consumer side, the same transformation is underway.

Exchanges and wallets like OKX, Kraken, and Coinbase are embedding stablecoin P2P transfers, rewards, and card programs into their wallet apps. Robinhood is layering on checking and savings accounts alongside its credit card. Apps like Revolut and Cash App already function as super apps — enabling users to hold, spend, save, invest, and send money globally, all within a single interface.

Here, distribution and UX — not bank licenses — become the real moat.

Card Networks Become Token Infrastructure

Even Visa and Mastercard are adapting.

Both card networks are leveraging their extensive distribution to 150M+ merchants to enable stablecoin/crypto backed card spend globally. In addition to the partnerships with Bridge mentioned above, Visa has partnered with BaanX, World and many other companies through Rain. Meanwhile, Mastercard has partnered with MetaMask, OKX, Kraken, Binance, Crypto.com, Binance and several others too. It’s a near perfect offramp that provides great utility to stablecoins.

Both are offering faster merchant payouts, leveraging stablecoins for faster settlement. They are also diversifying into infrastructure for banks and financial institutions for issuance (Visa Tokenized Asset Platform) and permissioned payments & settlement (Mastercard’s Multi-Token Network).

Visa and Mastercard clearly believe stablecoins and tokenization are here to stay and are positioning themselves to be a part of the new future.

The Bottom Line

The enabling conditions have finally aligned:

• Stablecoin market cap > $230B, with growing liquidity and utility
• Regulatory frameworks gaining clarity in the US, EU, Singapore, UAE, and more
• Maturing on/off ramps and orchestration APIs
• Improving compliance tooling (KYC, wallet screening, Travel Rule)

But the real driver is strategic urgency. There’s a land grab underway for consumers and merchants (or both in the case of Block, Paypal and MoonPay).

Stablecoins dramatically reduce the cost and complexity of building global financial services. Those who combine this new stack with trusted distribution won’t just win payments — they’ll redraw the financial map for the next decade.

For a deeper dive into the implications, check out my long form article: Stripe, Stablecoins, and the $100B Race to Rebundle Finance

🚀 Product Launches

Bybit enable up to 10% USDC cashback on their Bybit Card (read more)

Stripe Tests New Stablecoin Project (read more)

Bridge add support for Mexico and MXN to their platform (read more)

Mastercard Unveils End-to-End Stablecoin Capabilities, Will Launch Card With OKX (read more and here)

BitGo launches a new Stablecoin-as-a-Service product (read more)

Bridge and Visa partner to launch stablecoin card issuing product with Fuse Wallet and AirTM as initial customers (read more and here)

Januar introduces USD Accounts, enabling global USD payments via SWIFT alongside EUR and DKK accounts for businesses (read more)

Baanx and Visa have partnered to launch stablecoin-linked cards (read more)

World (the human identity focused ecosystem linked to Sam Altman) and Visa have partnered to launch crypto-backed cards (read more)

Solflare Launches Self-Custodial Crypto Card on Solana (read more)

OKX launches OKX Pay a crypto payment app (read more)

Ledger Live enables stablecoin yields directly from self-custody with new Kiln integration (read more)

Solstice Labs to launch yield-bearing stablecoin USX on Solana in Summer 2025 (read more)

💸 Fundraises and M&A

River Acquires Wind to Build the Super App for Global Citizens (read more)

Local stablecoin on ramp company Zar raises $7 million in round led by Dragonfly Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and VanEck Ventures (read more and here)

Ripple Is Said to Have Offered to Buy Stablecoin Rival Circle (read more)

Inco, a company focused on blockchain transaction privacy, has raised $5M from a16z CSX and others (read more)

Tether Boosts Stake in Juventus to Over 10% (read more)

⚡ Stablecoin Adoption 

PayPal to Pay 3.7% Annual Yield on Stablecoin PYUSD to Encourage Broader Use (read more)

Coinbase Introduces Free Conversion for PayPal's PYUSD as Stablecoin Competition Intensifies (read more, here and here)

USD1 reaches $1B in Market Cap, becoming the fastest stablecoin to reach the $1B milestone in stablecoin history (read more)

Citi released a new report on blockchain and stablecoins, predicting a base/bull case of $1.6T / $3.7T (read more)

Ether.fi Pivots to Become Neobank, Rolls Out Cash Cards in U.S. (read more)

Sonic will be upgraded from Bridged USDC Standard to native USDC and gain support for CCTP V2 (read more)

⚖️ Regulatory Developments

Circle Secures In-Principle Regulatory Approval from ADGM’s FSRA (read more)

Federal Reserve Board announces the withdrawal of guidance for banks related to their crypto-asset and dollar token activities (read more)

US Senate To Vote On Stablecoin Bill Before Memorial Day (read more)

Treasury Department shared its optimistic outlook in the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee’s (TBAC) report, which outlined several key drivers for rapid adoption and market growth for stablecoin (read more, report here)

The UK Treasury announced its approach to crypto regulation (read more and here)

Why America’s Biggest Crypto Company Is Trying to Stop a Pro-Crypto Bill From Passing (read more)

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This Week in Fintech

💬 Posts of the Week

📖 Reads of the Week

In The Stablecoin Wars, Christian Catalini, Lightspark Co-Founder, highlights the escalating competition in the stablecoin market, where new players challenge dominant issuers like Tether and Circle, as stablecoins shift from crypto trading tools to mainstream payment solutions.

In Stablecoins might unbundle banking (and then rebundle it) Blockworks argues that Stablecoins are unbundling banking by focusing solely on money storage and transfer, potentially disrupting traditional banks, but issuers may need to rebundle additional services like payments and banking to remain profitable, as competitive pressures and regulatory requirements could force them to emulate the institutions they challenge.

In Interest Bearing Stablecoins, Austin Campbell argues that banning interest-bearing stablecoins, driven by banks' fears of losing deposits, would harm consumers, hinder financial system reforms, and exacerbate issues from the 2008 crisis, proposing instead that banks pay fair interest, stablecoins be allowed to offer interest, and blockchain technology be mandated for banking settlements to enhance consumer protection and system efficiency.

Anthony Chan, investor at Velocity Capital, argues in Stablecoin B2B Payment is all about Workflows, not Payment itself that stablecoins in B2B payments should be integrated into comprehensive workflow solutions that address complex data validation, regulatory compliance, tax reconciliation, and multi-party approvals, rather than just focusing on efficient payment 

In A guide to stablecoins: What, why, and how, the a16z team round up various articles they’ve previously shared to provide a summary of stablecoin fundamentals and their promise.