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:

• Visa Direct Adds Stablecoin Funding and Wallet Payouts via BVNK
• Ingenico Adds WalletConnect Pay for In-Store Stablecoin Checkout
• M-Pesa Plugs Into ADI Chain Across Eight African Markets
• Product launches, partnerships and funding news from BNY, Meld, Multiliquid, Noah, Paycrest, Polygon Labs, Rain, and more.

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🏆 Top Stories

Visa Direct Adds Stablecoin Funding and Wallet Payouts via BVNK

Visa and BVNK announced a partnership where BVNK powers stablecoin services inside Visa Direct, Visa’s $1.7T money movement network. The integration supports (1) stablecoin prefunding for fiat payouts and (2) payouts to stablecoin wallets, using existing Visa Direct APIs but passing wallet details instead of bank account details.

Why it matters:

This is a normalization milestone. Visa Direct is a core rail for global payouts, and making stablecoin funding plus “push to wallet” a native option reduces the integration and vendor overhead that usually stalls institutional adoption. Stablecoins move from pilot infrastructure to a default liquidity tool inside the payout workflow.

• Distribution upgrade: Visa Direct is supported by 500+ enablers across 2,800+ programs, so a stablecoin endpoint can propagate through existing implementations.
• Treasury relief: Stablecoin prefunding reduces reliance on wires and banking hours when loading payout balances.
• Compliance as the product: BVNK is positioning “wallet screening + monitoring + conversion” as the product, which can often be the real blocker for enterprises.
• Use-case wedge: High-volume payouts (creators, remittances, insurance) are the first obvious wedge because speed + reach matter more than marginal cost.
• Near-term signal: In the interview, BVNK says public launch is planned for January, targeting $1B TPV in the first 6 months.

Stablecoin Rewards Language Delays Senate CLARITY Act Markup

The Senate Banking Committee postponed its planned Jan 15 markup of the digital-asset market structure bill branded the CLARITY Act after Coinbase publicly pulled support for the draft. GENIUS bans issuer-paid yield, and CLARITY extends the restriction to platform and affiliate pass-through rewards, while still allowing activity-based incentives tied to usage.

Why it matters:

CLARITY is the industry’s path to regulatory certainty, and stablecoin rewards are the sticking point, with critics arguing the crackdown is more about protecting bank deposits than consumer safety.

• Prudential lens: Banks argue pass-through yield creates deposit-like products without bank-style supervision (liquidity, capital, consumer protections), raising run and disintermediation risk.
• Competition lens: Crypto firms argue the restriction protects incumbent deposit franchises by blocking simple pass-through of the risk-free rate, pushing yield demand offshore or into less regulated wrappers.
• Legislative trajectory: A delay isn’t a death blow, but it’s a warning sign: in an election year, Congress has less time than it looks, so every slip makes it harder to find a window to pass a contested bill.

Ingenico Adds WalletConnect Pay for In-Store Stablecoin Checkout

Ingenico partnered with WalletConnect Pay to let merchants accept stablecoin payments at physical checkouts on Ingenico Android terminals. Shoppers pay directly from WalletConnect-compatible mobile wallets (700+), starting with USDC on Ethereum and select EVM chains (Polygon, Base, Arbitrum, plus other EVM-compatible networks), with rollout to acquirers and PSPs beginning in January 2026.

Why it matters:

This is a meaningful “acceptance-layer” move: stablecoins are no longer just a settlement rail behind the scenes, they can show up as an on-screen payment method on mainstream POS hardware.

• Distribution: Ingenico’s footprint (40M terminals) means “crypto checkout” can propagate via software and PSP enablement, avoiding merchant by merchant integrations
• Native flow: Payments route wallet-to-merchant-provider without card networks, shifting the cost model and reducing card-rail dependency (but also removing familiar chargeback mechanics)
• Execution risk: Adoption hinges on pricing, refunds/disputes, and whether PSPs can package compliance and reconciliation cleanly enough for everyday merchants

M-Pesa Plugs Into ADI Chain Across Eight African Markets

M-PESA Africa just announced a partnership with ADI Foundation to roll out ADI Chain across 8 African markets. A dirham-backed stablecoin is part of the stack, issued by First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) and $240B conglomerate IHC under UAE Central Bank oversight.

Why it matters:

If this gets even partially executed, it is one of the cleanest “real-world adoption” setups we’ve seen in a while. Like Western Union and MoneyGram, adoption is happening by upgrading the plumbing of existing platforms with broad distribution.

• Embedded distribution: 60M+ monthly active users. No new consumer habit required. Upgrade the rails under an existing one.
• Trade flow wedge: cross-border settlement + SME flows. Where stablecoins win on speed and availability.
• Compliance-first: Positioned as institutional, regulator-aligned infrastructure, with privacy tech that still has to work with real-world controls (selective disclosure, audits, disputes).

📺 Money Code Podcast 

Ep 15: Stablecoins Need Banks: The “Banking Layer” Nobody Sees w/ Jackie Reses (Lead Bank)

Stablecoins are not completely detached from the financial system. They are an upgrade that still relies on banks, compliance, and the unglamorous plumbing most builders never see. 

Jacqueline Reses (Chair and CEO, Lead Bank) has built that plumbing from the inside, bringing product, engineering, and automation DNA into a regulated bank that powers major stablecoin and fintech players. 

The hard part is not “sending tokens,” it’s earning regulator trust, managing real-time risk, and preventing the rails from concentrating power in ways that break local banking.

We Decode:

• Why do stablecoins scale only when the banking layer becomes product-grade?
• What happens when stablecoin growth pulls deposits out of community banks faster than local credit can be replaced?
• Can tokenized deposits and stablecoins coexist as routing choices without creating unmanageable fragmentation?

What You’ll Get

• A clear model for what the “banking layer” actually does in stablecoin payments
• A practical lens for treating compliance as a product and growth lever, not a checkbox
• A sharper framework for thinking about rails fragmentation, consolidation, and who wins

Give it a listen and share your feedback by sending me a DM or replying to this email. 

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

📊 Market Trends

A ruble stablecoin outpaced market leaders last year despite international sanctions (read more)

Revolut Processed $1.2B in Stablecoin Transfers Last Month and Is on Track to Surpass $10.5B in Total Stablecoin Volume in 2025, Marking 87% Growth. (read more)

💸 Fundraises and M&A

Rain Raises $250M Series C to Scale Stablecoin-Powered Payments Infrastructure for Global Enterprises (read more)

Tether said to have invested up to $50 million in crypto lender Ledn at $500 million valuation (read more)

VelaFi raises $20 million in Series B to expand stablecoin payments infrastructure (read more)

Polygon Labs Announces Definitive Agreements to Purchase Coinme and Sequence in $250M Deal (read more)

Paycrest has raised a $400K Pre-Seed round (read more)

Meld raises $7 million to integrate stablecoin networks, build the ‘Visa for crypto’ (read more)

Uniform Labs's Multiliquid, an atomic swap protocol for stablecoins and tokenized treasuries, raises from Metalayer Ventures, Generative Ventures and The Venture Dept (read more)

🚀 Product Announcements & Partnerships

BNY activates tokenized deposit service for payments and collateral (read more)

Polygon Labs unveils ‘Open Money Stack’ to power borderless stablecoin payments (read more)

Ingenico Launches Digital Currency solution in partnership with WalletConnect Pay (read more)

Franklin Templeton turns money market fund into stablecoin reserve vehicle (read more)

Noah and NALA Launch Instant Stablecoin Settlement Network to Modernise $850bn Emerging-Markets Payments (read more)

South Korean financial giant KB files patent for stablecoin credit card (read more)

Visa teams up with BVNK to launch stablecoin payouts (read more)

Societe Generale works with Swift to settle tokenize bonds using cash and stablecoins (read more)

⚖️ Regulatory Developments

Ripple secures FCA authorization, clearing path for UK expansion (read more)

Tether freezes $182 million in USDT across five Tron blockchain wallets (read more)

Senate Banking Committee's crypto market structure bill text sets up showdown over stablecoin rewards (read more)

Ripple wins early money license nod in Luxembourg for Europe expansion (read more)

Bank of America CEO warns up to $6 trillion in deposits could shift to stablecoins if allowed to pay interest (read more)

💬 Posts of the Week