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:
Circle launches Arc mainnet.
Column brings stablecoins into a more complete sponsor bank.
Product launches, partnerships and funding news from Fin.com, Payward, Kaiko, Tare, USDai, Velocity, MoonPay, Coinbase, Deutsche Bank, MoneyGram and more.
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🏆 Top Stories
Arc Mainnet Goes Live
Circle launched Arc mainnet with USDC transaction fees and more than 100 ecosystem builders, spanning banks, payment networks, wallets and DeFi protocols. Its announced founding validator cohort includes BlackRock, DTCC, Visa, Mastercard and Standard Chartered, with participation rolling out in phases.
Why it matters: Circle has assembled a promising launch ecosystem. The hard part now is turning those relationships into distribution and sustained transaction volume.
Financial institutions have a role in operating the network: The founding validators give major financial players a stake in Arc's operation, alongside the banks and asset managers exploring applications. That participation is meaningful, but it does not commit their customer flows to Arc.
Applications give users somewhere to transact: Aave and Morpho bring lending, Uniswap brings trading, and wallets including Phantom and MetaMask provide access. Combining these launches shows the breadth of the ecosystem; the next test is how much recurring activity those integrations generate.
FX and agents need customers: StableFX and Circle's agent payment tools give developers infrastructure for cross-currency settlement and automated transactions. Circle and its partners still need to put those capabilities into products people and businesses use.
Column brings stablecoins into a more complete sponsor bank
Column launched four products: stablecoins built into its banking core, card issuing with its own processor, global banking, and multicurrency accounts with local payouts. Its stablecoin product places USDC, USDT and fiat on the same ledger, with 24/7 conversion and access to the bank's payment rails.
Why it matters: Column is modernising sponsor banking by integrating stablecoins into the infrastructure fintechs need to build a complete product. Owning the bank and the technology gives it control over how those services work together.
Stablecoins are part of a broader product: A fintech still needs fiat accounts, payment rails and card issuance, with credit as it expands. Column's feature set brings more of those requirements into one bank relationship.
One integration reduces coordination: Builders can source banking, stablecoin conversion and card processing from the bank responsible for its own compliance. That reduces the number of providers they must coordinate, while the fintech retains responsibility for its product and obligations.
New banks are raising expectations: Erebor and the growing cohort of OCC-chartered digital asset trust banks add competition across banking and custody, though they operate under different permissions. Column's release shows how much functionality a bank can put in a developer's hands.
Better fiat infrastructure improves the application: Column describes receiving USDC on a weekend, converting it and paying out through RTP without waiting for a wire window. Bringing these steps into the banking core gives builders a way to reduce prefunding and reconciliation work behind the customer experience.
Read on for a round up of this week's news:
📊 Market Trends
💸 Fundraises and M&A
MoonPay Buys Rhythm in Latest Strategic Acquisition Move (read more)
Nasdaq invests $100 million in Kraken parent Payward, targets 2027 tokenized equities launch (read more)
S&P Global leads strategic investment in crypto data firm Kaiko, extending Series B to $110 million (read more)
Tare Raises $13.25 Million to Build an End-to-End Exchange for Private Credit (read more)
USDai secures $40 million stablecoin-based revolving debt facility (read more)
Velocity extends Series A to $48M at $200M valuation with backing from Visa, Circle, and Ripple (read more)
🚀 Product Announcements & Partnerships
Aave Proposes Custodied Collateral Lending With Anchorage and Chainlink (read more)
Arc Mainnet Goes Live (read more)
Bolivia's VIVA Uses Avalanche and Stablecoins for Settlement and Dollar Reserves (read more)
Centrifuge brings three tokenized fixed-income assets to X Layer (read more)
Coinbase partners with Moov to give 1,000+ community banks stablecoin infrastructure (read more)
Column launches bank-native stablecoins alongside card issuing, global accounts and multicurrency payouts (read more)
DBS, OCBC and UOB complete domestic SGD tokenized-deposit payments via Swift (read more)
Deutsche Bank plans institutional crypto and stablecoin custody, subject to regulatory checks (read more)
Frgmnt partners with Anchorage Digital to bring fUSD and sfUSD to institutions (read more)
Infinia Expands Programmable Money OS to Support LATAM and UK Stablecoins (read more)
Kraken Clients Can Now Earn Onchain Yield on xStocks (read more)
Maple joins Zodia Custody's Interchange network for institutional onchain financing (read more)
MoneyGram Launches Stablecoin-Backed Card to Expand 60M+ Customer Base Into Global Spend Rails (read more)
Paxos Partners With Spark to Expand Stablecoin Utility Across DeFi Lending, Savings, and Liquidity Pools (read more)
Payward Plans U.S. Onchain Perpetual Futures on Hyperliquid (read more)
Uniswap launches ‘StablePair Hook’ to help LPs capture more stablecoin trading value (read more)
⚖️ Regulatory Developments
Clarity Act fails to clear Senate's 60-vote hurdle (read more)
ESMA warns of fragmented liquidity and intermediary risks in tokenized stocks (read more)
FCA considers bespoke framework and fund-rule exemptions for tokenized gold (read more)
Nasdaq, Boerse Stuttgart, others ask EU to remove or increase cap in tokenization trial (read more)
U.S. House tax committee advances crypto tax bill (read more)
US DOJ seeks $61 million in crypto proceeds from illicit Iranian oil sales laundered on Binance (read more)
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