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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 90,000 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 acquisition of Privy, as well as a round up of product launches, partnerships and regulatory news from Ant International, Coinbase, Deutsche Bank, Noah, OpenTrade, PayPal, Societe Generale, Turnkey, Uber, World Chain and more.

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

(Find us online at Chuk’s socials and Stablecon socials, or join the Stablecon community on Telegram) 

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Turnkey provides secure, scalable, and programmable crypto infrastructure for embedded wallets and onchain transaction automation.

Leading teams like Bridge (a Stripe company), Magic Eden, World, Alchemy, and Polymarket leverage Turnkey to integrate crypto wallets into their apps, automate complex signing workflows at scale, and implement granular policy controls.

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🏆 Top Story

Stripe Acquires Privy: Building the On-Chain Banking Stack

Stripe has made its second crypto-native acquisition: Privy, the embedded wallet infrastructure company. The deal terms were undisclosed, but chatter on X hints at a 10-figure valuation. Like their previous acquisition of Bridge, Privy will continue to operate independently.

In Stripe’s 2024 Annual Letter, they made a bold declaration: “Stripe’s platform will be the best way to build with stablecoins.” This acquisition shows they’re executing against that roadmap, and fast.

Why Privy?

Privy provides embedded, non-custodial wallet infrastructure via API. Instead of relying on standalone wallets like Metamask or Phantom, Privy lets developers embed wallets directly into their apps, whether it's a marketplace, game, or fintech platform. Their customers include loyalty app Blackbird, payroll firm Toku, and NFT marketplace OpenSea.

Privy isn’t just a set of APIs, it’s a battle-tested product with a Stripe-like developer experience, a customer-obsessed team, and strong credibility in the crypto builder ecosystem. Industry voices consistently highlight their execution quality.

While some might argue that Stripe could’ve built this in-house, that misses the point. Building a v1 is easy. Polishing the details—handling edge cases, evolving with customer needs, supporting production workloads—isn’t. Stripe chose to buy speed, credibility, and product-market fit.

What Stripe Gets

This is more than a tech acquisition. Stripe is acquiring:

• A top-tier team with crypto-native product DNA
• A developer-first embedded wallet platform
• A broad crypto native customer base
• Momentum today, not in 18 months

As I’ve said before, stablecoins reduce the cost of launching financial products. In this land grab, speed matters. Stripe is racing to arm the builders of Fintech 3.0, and Privy helps them do it faster.

What Privy Gains

For Privy, the upside is enormous. Stripe offers:

• Distribution to a massive base of fintech and enterprise developers
• A global reputation for reliability and compliance
• The capital and support to continue executing independently

It’s a major boost in both reach and resourcing.

BaaS 2.0: On-Chain Banking via API

This deal fills a critical gap in Stripe’s emerging “Bank in a Box” stack: one built not on traditional bank custody, but on non-custodial crypto rails.

Here’s the shift: In traditional fintech, holding customer balances (fiat or crypto) requires sponsor banks, custodians or you have to take custody yourself. With non-custodial wallets, platforms can avoid legally holding customer funds, and sidestep complex licensing and banking integrations.

This effectively enables a powerful model of Regulatory Arbitrage as a Service:

• Bridge provides compliant fiat on/off ramps for customers from 100+ countries (via Lead Bank)
• Privy enables embedded self-custody wallets
• All through a Stripe-grade developer experience

This is “Banking as a Service” reimagined, built for global scale, with no dependency on holding funds or bank partnerships and therefore no Synapse-style bankruptcy risk. Just programmable, permissionless financial infrastructure.

Use Cases Unlocked

This unlocks a broad set of use cases, especially in emerging markets and global B2B fintech:

• Merchant acquirers can enable stablecoin accounts and settlement with limited licensing burden
• Marketplaces can create seller wallets instantly
• Gig platforms can hold balances for freelancers without becoming financial institutions
• Global businesses can convert, hold, and deploy USD locally to hedge FX risk

As M0 put it: “Everything is a Bank.” Stripe is giving developers the tools to build those banks via API.

Stripe’s On-Chain Stack

Stripe is assembling the infrastructure for Fintech 3.0. Here’s where they stand:

Core capabilities (Fintech 2.0):

• 🟢 Payment Acceptance
• 🟢 Financial Accounts (Treasury, Card Issuance)
• 🟢 Revenue and Billing
• 🟢 Identity, Risk, Fraud
• 🟢 Embedded Finance
• 🟢 Multi-currency support and licensing

On-chain capabilities (Fintech 3.0):

• 🟢 Custodial wallets – via Bridge
• 🟢 Non-custodial wallets – via Privy
• 🟢 Stablecoin acceptance – via Paxos integration
• 🟢 Payouts – via Bridge and ZeroHash
• 🟢 USD/EUR/GBP rails and on/off ramps – via Bridge
• 🟢 Stablecoin issuance-as-a-service – via Bridge
• 🟡 Foreign currency rails, FX and on/off ramps – via Bridge + partners
• 🟡 Digital asset licenses – Bridge, with more likely forthcoming
• 🔴 On-chain lending and credit (DeFi)
• 🔴 Crypto trading

What’s Next?

Expect Stripe to continue building and acquiring in three directions:

1. Licensing: Digital asset licensing is likely next, enabling broader stablecoin and crypto services globally.
2. More non USD rails and on/off ramps: Bridge added Mexico recently. More local rails will solidify their global infrastructure edge. 
3. Financial services Stripe could embed credit, lending, and even crypto trading as part of its API-first business account offering—similar to Revolut Business.

In doing so, Stripe will offer a programmable, borderless financial stack, at a fraction of the cost of traditional banks.

It’s clear that the future is on-chain and Stripe is unlocking it through APIs.

🚀 Product Launches

Stable, a Layer 1 blockchain offering free USDT transfers launched out of stealth, backed by Bitfinex and USDT0 (read more) 

Societe Generale becomes first major bank to launch dollar-pegged stablecoin (read more)

Coinbase unveiled their crypto-as-a-service ("CaaS") business supporting 200+ leading banks, brokerages, fintechs, and payment firms (read more)

FSL, a global gaming and development studio, partners with Agora to launch a new stablecoin GGUSD (Go Game US Dollar) (read more)

💸 Fundraises and M&A

Tether Invests in Shiga Digital to Strengthen Africa’s On-Chain Financial Ecosystem (read more)

Turnkey raises $30M Series B, led by Bain Capital Crypto (read more)

Plasma completes its $500 million stablecoin vault raise across 1,100 wallets within an hour (read more)

Stripe to Acquire Crypto Wallet Provider Privy (read more)

Stablecoin startup Noah raises $22 million, adds Adyen vet as cofounder (read more)

UK's OpenTrade Raises $7M to Expand Stablecoin Yield Access in Inflation-Hit Markets (read more)

⚡ Stablecoin Adoption 

Uber is evaluating stablecoins' potential for payments (read more)

Deutsche Bank Explores Stablecoins and Tokenized Deposits (read more)

PayPal Brings Its Stablecoin to Stellar for Cross-Border Remittances, Payments Financing (read more)

Jack Ma's Ant International Seeks Stablecoin Licenses in Hong Kong, Singapore (read more)

Sam Altman’s World Chain Adds Native USDC Stablecoin and Circle’s Cross-Chain Service (read more)

Apple, X, Airbnb, and Google are reportedly in early talks to integrate stablecoins (read more)

⚖️ Regulatory Developments

South Korean lawmaker proposes stablecoin licensing regime in new comprehensive crypto bill (read more)

UK FCA Publishes Consultation Paper on Stablecoin Issuance and Cryptoasset Custody in the UK (read more)

U.K. Regulator Names Sarah Pritchard as Deputy CEO to Help Oversee Crypto, Stablecoins (read more)

US Senate votes to move forward with GENIUS Act as stablecoin legislation picks up speed (read more)

💬 Posts of the Week

📖 Reads of the Week

Coinbase’s State of Crypto Report Q2 2025 conducted by The Block Pro Research summarizes announcements, survey data and public information to provide a window into stablecoin and crypto adoption amongst consumers, enterprises and institutions.

The Hierarchy of Value Realisation for Stablecoins by Nathan at Plasma, highlights how stablecoins like USDC and USDT cater to distinct needs: Western markets prioritize programmability for financial innovation, while emerging markets value permissionless access to stable currencies

In "Why do stablecoins need privacy?" Rishabh Gupta of Encifher warns of blockchain transparency risks, citing a 2024 study and 2025 Paris kidnapping, and critiques existing privacy solutions.