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:
OCC opens charter window, denies Wise and bunq
Product launches, partnerships and funding news from Rain, Nasdaq, Coinbase, Crypto.com, MoneyGram, Tether, Anchorpoint, Decta, Miden, SBI Digital Practice and more.
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🏆 Top Stories
OCC Opens Charter Window, Denies Wise and bunq
The OCC has announced a clarified chartering posture: it wants to revive new bank formation and provide a federal path for firms engaged in legally permissible digital-asset and other novel-technology activities. The agency says it received 40 de novo applications over the past 18 months and has decided many complete applications within 120 days. Its recent decisions show how it is applying that posture: Circle received final approval, Augustus and Upstart received preliminary conditional approvals, Wise and bunq were denied, and ZeroHash's application was returned without a merits decision.
See a full list of pending licensing applications to the OCC from entities planning to offer digital asset products or services.
Why it matters:
The posture is that the charter window is open but it’s not a free pass. The recent decisions show what that means in practice: technology-led firms can enter the process, but they still have to present a complete, credible and supervisable bank.
Novel models can pass: The OCC has granted either preliminary conditional or final approval to stablecoin, digital-asset custody and AI-led lending models. Technology is not the disqualifying factor when the proposed institution meets the agency's requirements.
Scale does not answer readiness: Wise's global footprint did not override the OCC's AML and management concerns. bunq's European banking experience did not answer questions about U.S. capitalization, credit expertise and operating plans.
Public denials clarify the requirements: Publishing the Wise and bunq decisions gives future applicants a clearer view of how the OCC assesses management, compliance, capital and U.S.-specific operating competence. It also raises the reputational cost of applying before those pieces are ready.
Read on for a round up of this week's news:
📊 Market Trends
Standard Chartered tokenized deposits reach $11 billion per month and handle 20% of USDC on/off-ramp volume (read more)
💸 Fundraises and M&A
🚀 Product Announcements & Partnerships
Anchorpoint begins HKDAP stablecoin rollout backed by Standard Chartered (read more)
Bank of England to test stablecoin and digital currency use in cross-border finance (read more)
Coinbase selects Abu Dhabi for its global tokenized-asset expansion (read more)
Crypto.com rolls out tokenized stock derivatives (read more)
Decta uses USDC through OpenPayd for international treasury settlement (read more)
Miden introduces privacy-focused stablecoin USDCx (read more)
MoneyGram launches Ramps on Solana (read more)
SBI Digital Practice and Nodeinfra explore stablecoin PvP payments between Japan and Korea (read more)
Tether expands tokenization into Saudi Arabia, starting with real estate (read more)
⚖️ Regulatory Developments
FCA drafts new rules for tokenized gold (read more)
Russia moves to restrict retail crypto trading to bitcoin, ether and USDT (read more)
SEC schedules meeting to propose Reg Crypto rules for certain digital-asset offerings (read more)
U.S. Senate moves Clarity Act toward September 15 vote after Majority Leader Thune files cloture (read more)
UK lawmakers press banks over crypto access ahead of new FCA regime (read more)
🍻 Upcoming Events
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