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.

 

 

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, has today announced a $100 million equity investment in Circle Internet Group, the global financial technology company behind the USDC stablecoin.

 

 

The investment, which is a renewal of an ongoing partnership that started in 2024, involved Binance purchasing Circle’s newly issued Class A common shares through a private placement at a 5% discount to the market price.

 

 

Under this agreement, Binance will accelerate the promotion, awareness, and integration of USDC across its global platform, especially in emerging markets, with Circle providing the infrastructure services that support the holding and use of USDC.

 

"Circle has earned its place as one of the most credible issuers in the world, spanning USDC, Arc, and the infrastructure reshaping how value moves across borders. Our $100 million investment and five-year commitment represent long-duration conviction," said Richard Teng, co CEO of Binance.

 

"We are helping to build a more inclusive, transparent, and compliant digital economy. A stable, trusted digital dollar should not be a privilege. It should be available to anyone with a phone. That's the future this partnership is designed to deliver."

 

Building on an Existing Partnership

 

The current partnership between both crypto giants is a continuation of a commercial agreement made in late 2024 at Abu Dhabi Finance Week, where Binance entered a strategic agreement to expand USDC availability across its product offerings.

 

The partnership also comes shortly after Circle launched Arc, its Layer 1 blockchain purpose-built for stablecoin finance. Since its launch a few days ago, Arc has reached a TVL of over $300 million. Transactions also crossed 7 million, dropping to 1.27 million thereafter.

 

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.

 

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.

 

Bastion, the stablecoin infrastructure provider for global enterprises and financial institutions, has received preliminary conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish a national trust bank.

 

 

Following the approval, Bastion, through the Bastion Platforms National Trust Company, will now offer regulated digital asset services under OCC supervision, including stablecoin wallets and custody, payment infrastructure, and white-label issuance.

 

"Enterprises and financial institutions can now access stablecoins through a federally regulated counterparty, with the controls and oversight they already expect from their banks. We’ve built Bastion for this moment from day one,” said Nassim Eddequiouaq, CEO of Bastion.

 

With OCC approval now in the bag, enterprise clients and financial institutions can fully access Bastion’s products, including its wallet and issuance services such as minting, redemption, and conversion between stablecoins and fiat, with services that meet required regulatory and compliance standards.

 

Prior to receiving the conditional charter from the OCC, Bastion had secured a limited purpose trust company charter from the New York State Department of Financial Services, which enabled it to offer certain fiduciary and trust services.

 

It was during that period that Bastion acquired Dibbs Trust Company, which was eventually renamed Bastion Platforms Trust Company, the entity that is now playing a pivotal role in Bastion’s OCC-regulated fiduciary offerings.

 

Like Bastion, several other financial institutions have received similar conditional or even full trust charters from the OCC, notably Trump-backed World Liberty Financial, Catena, and Agora.

 

Deutsche Bank has just announced its plan to launch its digital asset custody solution this year, depending on how soon it completes the necessary regulatory requirements.

 

Making the announcement in a press release this Wednesday, the bank said the new custody solution will provide its institutional and corporate clients with secure and regulated custody services for their digital assets, with Deutsche Bank managing the clients’ wallets and private keys.

 

“Digital assets are not a replacement for the traditional financial system but an important complement to it. We see them as new rails that can coexist with existing market infrastructures while benefiting from the trust, security and safeguards that regulated financial institutions provide. Our aim is to offer clients a secure and regulated gateway to this evolving market,” said Gerald Podobnik, Co-Head of Corporate Bank at Deutsche Bank.

 

At launch, the custody solution will support only a selected range of digital assets, including Bitcoin and Ether, as well as a few stablecoin assets such as USDC, EURC and EURAU, with possible expansion to support more assets depending on clients’ demand and regulatory processes. Tokenized financial instruments are also included in the bank’s roadmap.

 

Security Measures to Protect Clients' Assets

 

To enhance the safety and security of clients’ assets under its custody, Deutsche Bank will implement multiple layers of security for the custodial solution, with the bank stating that these security mechanisms will operate under strict governance.

 

Among the various security measures that will be implemented to safeguard clients’ assets are secure key generation and hardware-based protection, segregation of duties, multi-person approval processes, separate warm and cold storage environments, and controlled backup and recovery arrangements.

 

As its initial focus, the custodial solution will be made available first to qualified Deutsche Bank institutional clients across Europe, including corporates, asset managers, hedge funds, custodians, brokers and sovereign institutions.

 

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.

 

UniCredit, Italy’s second largest bank, is reportedly considering entering the crypto and digital asset custody market, according to a Bloomberg report.

 

Although UniCredit has yet to publicly announce its intention to offer crypto custody services, Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that the bank is already selecting a provider to build custodial infrastructure that would allow it not only to hold digital assets but also facilitate their buying and selling.

 

In addition to custodial services, Bloomberg also reported that the bank is considering other areas of crypto, including tokenized investment products and fixed income securities, the use of stablecoins, and exposure to cryptocurrencies, as possible areas of expansion.

 

UniCredit’s expansion into crypto custody comes at a time when financial institutions are also considering expanding into the sector.

 

Just recently, Jack Dorsey owned financial technology company Block formally applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish a National Trust Bank that would allow it to offer crypto custody services.

 

In August, Citibank also announced plans to launch a native Bitcoin custody service that would allow its clients to hold Bitcoin alongside traditional assets such as stocks and bonds.

 

While UniCredit has yet to officially issue a public statement regarding the move, speculation surrounding the bank’s plans to expand into crypto custody could be a significant development for the crypto industry if successful, as it would enhance crypto adoption, bridging the gap between blockchain-based finance and traditional finance.

 

Financial technology company Block Inc. has formally submitted an application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish Builders Bank & Trust, N.A. (“Builders Bank”), an uninsured national trust bank.

 

If approved, the charter will enable Block to operate as a federally regulated national trust bank under the supervision of the OCC, allowing it to provide fiduciary and custody services for digital assets such as Bitcoin and stablecoins.

 

“Combining Block’s digital asset expertise, our experience with Square Financial Services, and the deep banking expertise of our team, we believe Builders Bank is well positioned to support Block’s broader vision of economic empowerment,” said Lee Woolley, who is expected to serve as president and CEO of Builders Bank.

 

Although the charter will not allow Builders Bank to accept customer deposits or make loans like traditional banks, if approved, it will enable the bank to operate as an uninsured, non-deposit taking national trust bank under the OCC’s regulatory framework.

 

Block’s application comes at a time when several financial institutions have made similar filings with the OCC to establish national trust banks.

 

Just last month, digital asset infrastructure provider Zero Hash applied to establish a national trust bank focused exclusively on digital assets. The application followed similar filings by fintech firm Dakota, Catena, and Payward in preceding months.

 

President Trump-backed World Liberty Financial and Sony Bank also recently received conditional trust charters from the OCC to establish national trust banks, while stablecoin issuer Circle was granted a New York trust charter.

 

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.

 

Two Thai businessmen, Nutthawat Rukthammachalern and Natthawat Kasamvilas, have filed a lawsuit against stablecoin issuer Tether over the alleged seizure of $42.4 million worth of USDT.

 

The lawsuit, which was filed by the plaintiffs this week in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, challenges the seizure of the crypto funds by the stablecoin issuer, alleging that it was carried out without proper legal backing.

 

According to the suit filed with the court, the plaintiffs claim that the seizure involved funds held across 10 Ethereum addresses that were blacklisted by Tether. They allege that the blacklist was created solely based on an informal request from a U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agent and without a warrant, court order, or other formal legal process.

 

 

Defending how the funds were obtained, the plaintiffs claimed that the frozen USDT assets were acquired through secondary market business transactions that had no direct relationship with Tether whatsoever.

 

Post-seizure Recovery Efforts

 

After discovering that Tether had frozen the funds October last year, one of the plaintiffs, Natthawat Kasamvilas, emailed the stablecoin issuer to inquire why he could no longer control the funds and asked to regain full custody of them.

 

However, Kasamvilas claimed that Tether replied by asking him to contact a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), whose email address the company provided, while failing to provide a legal basis for the freeze.

 

Although earlier this year, in February, a U.S. Magistrate Judge in the Eastern District of North Carolina ordered the seizure of $61 million worth of USDT that was reportedly linked to a pig butchering and money laundering scam, the plaintiffs claim that the seizure of their funds occurred months before the judge issued the order. They also allege that Tether continued to earn yield from the frozen assets.

 

A consortium of 21 banks and financial institutions has formed a joint venture to potentially launch a stablecoin in the first half of 2027.

 

The consortium, which was first announced in October 2025 and initially comprised just 10 banks, has grown to include 21 major banks across multiple jurisdictions, including North America, Europe, Africa, East Asia and the Middle East.

 

Some of the financial institutions that make up the consortium include Bank of America, Citi, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, Capital One, PNC, Fidelity Investments, WisdomTree, Deutsche Bank, BBVA, MUFG Bank and Standard Bank, among others.

 

With its member institutions now fully established, the consortium plans to launch a yet to be named company in the second half of this year, subject to fulfilling various regulatory requirements.

 

Once established, the company will launch a stablecoin backed by the U.S. dollar for cross border payments and settlements across wholesale, retail and institutional markets in early 2027. Euro pegged stablecoins will follow, paving the way for the launch of stablecoins denominated in other G7 currencies.

 

The formation of this 21 institution consortium comes at a time when other financial institutions are coming together to support the launch of their own stablecoins.

 

Notable among these consortia is Qivalis, a consortium made up of 37 banks targeting the launch of a euro pegged stablecoin before the end of the year.

 

There is also the Open Standard consortium, made up of 140 companies supporting the launch of Open USD, a recently launched stablecoin that allows its members to share in the earnings generated from its reserves.