SoFi Technologies, a U.S. based fintech company, has partnered with Mastercard to bring stablecoin settlement to the debit and credit card program of SoFi Bank, N.A.

 

Through this partnership, SoFi unlocks stablecoin settlement for its debit and credit cards using its SoFiUSD stablecoin. Thus, instead of card credit and debit transactions being settled traditionally with banks, which would typically delay settlements, SoFi is migrating its entire $25 billion card program on-chain, with transactions already live on the blockchain.

 

“In six months, SoFi and Mastercard took stablecoin settlement from an idea to a live product that materially improves how money moves for businesses,” said Anthony Noto, CEO of SoFi.

 

According to Noto, merchants do not need to hold stablecoins, build new infrastructure, or alter their current payment workflow before they can take advantage of this integration.

 

Through SoFi’s Business Banking platform, which they are already used to, these merchants can receive settlement funds instantly and directly in their SoFi bank account, while also being able to withdraw this cash at any time.

 

SoFi’s launch of stablecoin settlement highlights how well digital assets can work alongside stablecoins, bridging the gap between traditional finance systems and blockchain-based payment solutions.

 

About SoFi

 

Founded in 2011 by four Stanford students, SoFi is a U.S. digital bank and fintech platform that offers lending, banking, investing, and other financial services, all within a single app.

 

Despite being launched as a traditional finance platform, SoFi has rapidly adopted and integrated crypto and blockchain technology into its infrastructure.

 

Through its partnership with Coinbase in 2019, SoFi began making it possible for users to trade cryptocurrencies. In 2025, SoFi launched the SoFiUSD stablecoin, the first stablecoin to be launched by a U.S. national bank, a status it achieved when it acquired Golden Pacific Bancorp, Inc. and its subsidiary, Golden Pacific Bank, N.A., a few years earlier.

 

 

Kakao Pay and Kakao Bank have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with stablecoin infrastructure firm Fireblocks to explore secure digital asset infrastructure in Korea.

 

Under the agreement, the three companies will jointly explore business opportunities based on Korea’s market conditions and infrastructure demand.

 

 

With a focus on stablecoins, the trio will explore digital asset distribution frameworks that comply with the country’s regulatory and security requirements, while also developing a proof of concept (PoC) to assess the applicability of these frameworks to South Korea’s digital economy.

 

"For banks and payment platforms in Korea, leveraging reliable digital asset infrastructure that is engineered to meet institutional requirements from day one is critically important," said Michael Shaulov, CEO and Co-Founder of Fireblocks. "This is the prerequisite for widespread adoption, and Kakao Pay and Kakao Bank are setting the groundwork now."

 

By leveraging Fireblocks’ unique institutional-grade infrastructure for the secure issuance of stablecoins and digital assets, alongside Kakao’s wide reach, the trio aims to establish secure on-chain infrastructure for Korea’s emerging digital asset market.

 

Crypto Adoption Surges in South Korea

 

South Korea has emerged as a hub for pro-crypto and blockchain initiatives, with several local companies rapidly adopting and integrating blockchain technology into their infrastructure.

 

Notable among these developments is Hana Bank, one of the country’s major commercial banks, issuing its first digital bond on a blockchain and completing same-day settlement.

 

Like Kakao, other major South Korean institutions have entered strategic partnerships to expand into crypto and blockchain. In July, KB Kookmin Bank, South Korea’s largest bank, partnered with JPMorgan’s Kinexys Blockchain to facilitate cross-border payments.

 

Jeonbuk Bank, also one of South Korea’s leading commercial banks, partnered with Ripple to facilitate cross-border remittances and settlements.

 

Hana Bank, one of South Korea’s major commercial banks, has issued a $100 million digital bond using the Euroclear blockchain.

 

The five-year bond, which was issued using Euroclear's Digital Financial Market Infrastructure, achieved T+0 settlement, with the bond allocations and payments completed on the same day.

 

"The $100 million digital bond issuance and implementation of T+0 settlement represent a significant step beyond simply diversifying our funding channels, as they bring blockchain technology into the capital market," a Hana Bank official said.

 

"We will continue to adopt advanced infrastructure and explore innovative funding solutions that meet the needs of global investors," the official added.

 

With Standard Chartered serving as the sole lead manager overseeing the bond issuance and sale, Hana leverages the fast settlement times of distributed ledger technology, cutting the settlement time from what would typically take 3 to 5 days to complete to less than a day.

 

About Euroclear

 

Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, Euroclear is one of the major global financial market infrastructure (FMI) providers and a leader in central securities depositories (CSDs) and international CSDs (ICSDs).

 

In 2023, it launched its blockchain initiative, the Euroclear blockchain platform (D-FMI), for the primary purpose of facilitating the issuance, distribution, and primary market settlement of fully dematerialised international securities.

 

By leveraging the fast settlement times of blockchain technology, D-FMI allows for same day settlement (T+0) and the issuance and allocation of digital bonds.

 

Since the launch of Euroclear's blockchain platform, several financial institutions have settled and issued digital bonds on it, including the World Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Emirates NBD, Doha Bank, and Akbank.

 

Apple and Google, two of the largest technology companies, are currently on the lookout for crypto professionals who can help develop and shape their blockchain and payment initiatives.

 

In an Apple job posting, the technology giant advertised a position for a Financial Product Strategy Lead in the Apple Pay department.

 

According to the job description, the candidate would be involved in working with the Apple Card and Apple Cash product teams, developing a long-term strategy, assessing new growth opportunities, and managing and coordinating large initiatives that drive growth, with projects including Wallet, Payments, and Commerce.

 

Although the role particularly seeks candidates with experience in payment strategy, the job description also mentions a deep understanding of and experience with P2P payments, stablecoins, tokenised deposits, and blockchain technology.

 

For the Google role, the company is seeking a principal architect in the Web3 field, with the job description requiring a minimum of 10 years of experience in system architecture, distributed systems design, and cloud infrastructure.

 

Qualified candidates are also required to have years of experience architecting, deploying, or operating production-grade Web3 systems, blockchain protocols, institutional digital infrastructure, low-latency blockchain node infrastructure, Zero Knowledge (ZK) infrastructure, and rollup architectures.

 

The job description specifically mentions that qualified candidates should have institutional experience across different Web3 sectors, including Real World Asset (RWA) tokenisation, stablecoin rails, tokenised deposits, and custody architectures within financial environments, among other technical requirements.

 

Compared to the role at Apple, the Google role is much more technically demanding and requires candidates to have an in-depth and solid understanding of the inner workings and architecture of blockchain infrastructure and systems.

 

A Positive Sign for Crypto Adoption

 

The hiring of crypto professionals by two of the biggest non-crypto technology companies in the world is a good sign that highlights how much exploration and adoption the crypto sector, particularly stablecoins, is beginning to receive.

 

Although these companies are not entirely new to the crypto sector, there appears to be a big shift in how big tech companies are beginning to view blockchain and crypto, with many already integrating blockchain technology into their infrastructure.

 

For example, Google launched the Google Cloud Universal Ledger (GCUL), its permissioned, private distributed ledger that supports cross-border payments, tokenisation, and blockchain use cases for financial institutions. It also launched its own agent payment protocol and Pay.sh, a pay-as-you-go payment layer that enables AI agents to make payments.

 

ZetaChain will shut down its Layer 1 blockchain network and migrate to Solana after receiving almost unanimous approval in a governance vote.

 

The governance portal for the vote, which closed on Sunday at 14:58:18 UTC, recorded 99.4% of token holders voting in favour, while 0.3% each voted in opposition and abstained. Participation stood at 58%, exceeding the 40% quorum.

 

 

Stating the reasons for the ZetaChain to Solana migration, the team, in a recent blog post, gave a number of reasons, including the privacy features of the Solana blockchain and the infrastructure that Solana has been building for private AI.

 

According to the ZetaChain team, the subsecond and subcent finality features of the Solana blockchain, including its transaction confirmation time of 400 milliseconds and its one tenth of a cent fee, make it possible for AI agents to perform at scale.

 

In a test, the team claimed that the Solana blockchain handled more than 100,000 transactions per second, a result the team says is ideal for agents that are being built to execute transactions at machine speed.

 

Following the completion of a second governance proposal and the subsequent migration to the Solana network, the native ZETA token will be converted 1:1 to the Solana SPL ZETA, which will continue to be used to access Anuma, ZetaChain’s privacy AI platform.

 

About ZetaChain

 

Founded in 2021, ZetaChain is a Layer 1 blockchain network that was built to serve as an interoperability layer that connects blockchains without the need for traditional bridges.

 

Prior to its migration plans, the ZetaChain team had raised $27 million and processed hundreds of millions of transactions while onboarding millions of users and wallets.

 

However, the team made a strategic shift to AI this year with its first consumer multimodal AI app, which lets users carry one encrypted, user-controlled memory across dozens of AI models, including Claude, GPT, Gemini, and Grok.

 

With accessibility tied to the ZETA token, Anuma has grown to more than 300,000 users since its launch in February.

 

Circle Internet Group has launched the mainnet of Arc, its Layer 1 blockchain purpose built for money and financial markets, with BlackRock and Visa among the chain’s founding validators.

 

Announcing the launch in a press release this Wednesday, Circle said Arc was launched with native integration into Circle’s full stack platform, with more than 100 applications already built atop it and more than 100 institutional and ecosystem builders, including global banks, asset managers, payment networks, exchanges, DeFi protocols, crypto wallets, and AI platforms.

 

Among the validators for the Arc chain are BlackRock, The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), Galaxy, ICE, Mastercard, MoneyGram, SBI Group, Standard Chartered, Sumitomo Corporation, Visa, and Worldpay.

 

 

Describing Arc’s launch as Circle’s most significant launch since the launch of the USDC stablecoin, Circle Co Founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire said the Arc chain is the embodiment of what the Circle team has operated on for 13 years.

 

“Today we are switching on something the world has never had before: an open, neutral, always-on economic operating system for the internet, secured by some of the most important financial institutions on Earth, and built for a world where both people and machines transact.”

 

According to Circle, there are six features that set Arc apart from other chains: a chain gas fee denominated in dollars, which allows gas fees to be paid in USDC; sub-second finality, which ensures fast and instant settlement; opt in privacy, which ensures confidentiality of transactions; interoperability; agentic economic activity; and institutional security.

 

Alongside the Arc mainnet launch, Circle also released Arc Studio and Arc App Kits, which enable builders to create stablecoin native applications from scratch.

 

Arc Studio is an on-chain coding agent that turns ideas into implementations, enabling builders to create applications with market ready blockchain features faster, while Arc App Kits is a unified SDK that enables builders to add payments, swaps, on ramp, and other on-chain funding features to applications with just a few lines of code.

 

Consensys Software Inc. (CSI) has announced plans to split into two independent companies, each with a separate focus and leadership team.

 

Announcing the split in a press release published on the MetaMask blog, Consensys Software Inc. said it will be rebranded as MetaMask, with Joe Lubin serving as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

 

The second company, which will retain the Consensys name, will be a newly formed entity comprising CSI’s Protocols Group and institutional blockchain infrastructure business, including Linea and its broader portfolio of enterprise and Ethereum protocol infrastructure. Mike Kriak will serve as CEO, David Cunningham as President, and Joe Lubin as Executive Chairman.

 

Speaking about what both companies are expected to become, Joe Lubin, Chairman and CEO of MetaMask and Executive Chairman of Consensys, said MetaMask will grow beyond being just a self-custodial wallet and become a platform where users can not only hold their assets but also manage their money in diverse forms and across different aspects of their financial lives.

 

As for the new Consensys entity, Lubin said the company will continue to operate as a protocols company, with the newly formed team bringing Ethereum, Hyperledger Besu, and Linea protocol development together to enable enterprises and institutions to collaborate more effectively.

 

What Comes Next for Both Companies

 

MetaMask will continue to be an Ethereum first product company, providing self-custody services that allow users to hold and manage their assets on the platform.

 

The team will also continue working on its Open Money platform, which represents the company’s vision of transforming the wallet into a platform where users can hold, move, spend, save, invest, and grow their money in one place. As a step toward this goal, the team launched the MetaMask Money Account in June, enabling users to gain greater control over their finances.

 

Consensys will continue playing a key role in advancing Ethereum and other Ethereum related protocols, including the development of decentralized applications and protocols on the Ethereum blockchain network.

 

The team will also expand its work helping financial institutions and enterprises deploy blockchain infrastructure, including helping institutions such as banks, asset managers, payment providers, and market infrastructure firms access tokenized financial markets and stablecoins.

 

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has signed three memorandums of understanding with key entities and institutions in Kazakhstan.

 

In a blog post announcing the agreements, Binance said the MoUs focus on key sectors of Kazakhstan’s economy and were signed with the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development, the National Bank of Kazakhstan, and the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC).

 

Under the memorandum signed with Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development, Binance will cooperate on digital assets, digital and computing infrastructure, and innovative payment solutions, while exploring the possibility of issuing a stablecoin backed by the Kazakhstani tenge.

 

The second memorandum, signed with the National Bank of Kazakhstan, focuses on building payment and digital financial infrastructure, with Binance and the National Bank potentially exploring opportunities to position Kazakhstan as a regional payments and fintech hub.

 

To ensure the initiative is practically implemented and moves beyond a paper plan, Binance and the National Bank of Kazakhstan have already created a roadmap outlining the different phases for building payment infrastructure, obtaining licenses, and launching new payment products.

 

The third memorandum, signed between Binance and the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC), is aimed at strengthening cooperation under the Investment Tax Residency Programme and expanding the potential use of digital assets as part of Kazakhstan’s modern investment infrastructure.

 

According to Renat Bekturov, Governor of the Astana International Financial Centre, the expansion will enable investors to better access new opportunities within the AIFC ecosystem and contribute to the further development of Kazakhstan’s digital asset market.

 

FinTax, a crypto native financial platform, has completed a seed funding round led by YZi Labs through EASY Residence, with participation from other investors, including Amber, Hash House, Pundi AI, Waverider International, and Nexus Holdings.

 

Although the amount raised has yet to be disclosed, FinTax now has a post money valuation of $40 million. According to the FinTax team, the new funding will be used to expand the company’s global coverage and further develop its use of AI for complex financial and tax workflows.

 

 

Despite primarily offering crypto native solutions, such as a crypto asset financial ERP, a global tax compliance platform, a blockchain audit platform, and an institutional grade financial product aggregation hub, AI remains at the core of FinTax’s operations.

 

With the new funding, the FinTax team plans to expand beyond Asia Pacific and North America into Europe and the Middle East. The company currently serves more than 70 institutional clients, including crypto exchanges, mining companies, and publicly listed crypto companies, while claiming an annual client retention rate of nearly 90%.

 

In a separate development in the crypto funding sector, crypto project City Protocol also raised $11 million in a funding round that included Dragonfly, Jump Crypto, CMT Digital, Stratified Capital, Adaverse, and Mirana.

 

The funding will be used to expand the city protocol’s tokenization efforts, including its plan to bring structured investment strategies on-chain.

 

Crypto funding continues to attract significant interest from venture capital firms looking to invest in crypto startups and companies with strong growth potential. According to a recent report from The Block, more than $8.1 billion has been invested in the sector this year alone.

Image credit: news1.kr

 

Jeonbuk Bank, one of South Korea’s commercial banks, has partnered with Ripple to enhance cross-border remittances and enable real-time transaction settlements.

 

The partnership is aimed at eliminating common bottlenecks associated with the settlement of transactions by traditional institutions, which often involve several intermediaries. 

 

 

Through the partnership, Jeonbuk Bank plans to leverage the real-time settlement capabilities of Ripple’s blockchain infrastructure, reducing the settlement time for cross-border remittances from minutes to seconds while enabling 24/7 operations.

 

“With this partnership with Ripple, JB Jeonbuk Bank is ready to move beyond its role as a regional bank and emerge as a digital finance leader that meets global standards,” said Park Choon-won, President of JB Jeonbuk Bank. 

 

“This partnership will become a new growth engine for the bank, and we will lead innovation that reshapes the financial paradigm, going beyond the adoption of new technology.”

 

Ripple’s partnership with Jeonbuk Bank isn’t the first of its kind with a South Korean institution. In April of this year, Ripple partnered with KBank, South Korea’s first internet-only bank. The partnership aimed to enable KBank to more securely manage its digital assets while leveraging Ripple’s blockchain infrastructure for cross-border remittances.

 

That same month, Ripple also partnered with Kyobo Life Insurance, one of South Korea’s leading life insurance companies. Through the partnership, Kyobo leveraged Ripple’s blockchain infrastructure to tokenize government bonds.

 

Institutional Adoption Continues to Grow

 

Despite South Korea’s tightening regulation around crypto, institutional involvement in the sector continues to grow rapidly in the country.

 

According to a report from Tiger Research, a South Korean crypto research firm, well over 195 crypto-related partnerships involving approximately 150 institutions had been tracked as of mid-year, with many of these partnerships revolving around stablecoins and cross-border remittances, custody, security token offerings, and real-world asset tokenization.

 

Former New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo has been appointed to the Board of Directors of cryptocurrency exchange OKX.

 

The appointment, announced in a recent OKX blog post, comes three years after Cuomo joined the exchange in 2023 as a member of its advisory team, where he advised the company on its regulatory and institutional strategy in the United States.

 

Image credit: x.com

 

"Governor Cuomo has been a thoughtful voice for OKX for years, and his move to the board formalizes a relationship that has already shaped how we approach the U.S. market," said Star Xu, Founder and CEO of OKX.

 

"As we build OKX into the infrastructure layer for both traditional and digital finance, we need people who understand how governments, institutions, and markets actually think. That's exactly what he brings."

 

Cuomo's appointment to the OKX Board comes as the exchange accelerates its expansion efforts. Last month, it signed a joint venture with Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, to build next-generation infrastructure for digital assets.

 

The infrastructure is intended to bridge the gap between traditional finance and the crypto market, giving more than 120 million registered OKX users access to ICE futures and tokenized NYSE-listed equities. Following the partnership, ICE reportedly invested $200 million in OKX, valuing the exchange at $25 billion.

 

Despite the regulatory challenges it has faced in the United States, including being barred from operating after violating anti-money laundering laws and being ordered to pay $504 million in penalties and forfeitures, OKX has continued to deepen its presence in the country following its relaunch a few months after the ban.

 

Since its relaunch, OKX has maintained compliance with U.S. laws by strengthening its anti-money laundering and know your customer systems while strategically appointing key executives, including former Barclays executive Roshan Robert as CEO of OKX U.S. and Andrew Cuomo as a board member and Co-Chair of the OKX ICE joint venture.

 

 

Bank of America has announced the appointment of senior executives Kevin Milson and Sonali Theisen in its latest move to drive AI adoption and implementation across its global markets group.

 

Kevin Milson was named Head of Platforms and AI Transformation, where he will help lead the broader implementation of artificial intelligence across the bank's global markets platforms.

 

Sonali Theisen was appointed Head of Global Digital Assets Platform. In this new role, she will oversee the design and development of the bank's digital asset initiatives while retaining her current position as Head of Global FICC E Trading and Markets Strategic Investments.

 

FICC, short for Fixed Income, Currencies, and Commodities, is the division that handles sales, trading, market making, research, and risk management across several core asset classes for institutional clients.

 

According to a memo seen by Reuters, Amy Avery and her Analytics, Modeling and Insights team will also join the bank's Global Platforms group, where she will oversee data-driven insights across the company.

 

The move by Bank of America comes as several other financial institutions, particularly banks and asset managers, make strategic appointments in an effort to adopt and integrate blockchain technology into their infrastructure.

 

In January this year, Morgan Stanley appointed Amy Oldenburg to lead its digital asset strategy following the firm's filing for spot Bitcoin and Solana ETFs.

 

Royal Bank of Canada, JPMorgan, and Standard Chartered have also made strategic appointments, naming executives to lead and expand their digital asset strategies. Meanwhile, Vanguard, one of the world's largest asset managers, has announced that it is seeking its first Head of Digital Assets.