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📝 In Today’s Edition
Top Stories: Western Union Announces USDPT Stablecoin, Swift Adds Blockchain-Based Ledger to Its Stack, and More
Stablecoin Story: An Interview with Brian Mehler, CEO at Stable, on the Future of Money Movement
Commentary Corner: Why are so many companies choosing to issue their own stablecoins?
Chart We’re Watching: Stablecoins Surpassing $10M in Circulation
Project Spotlight: Arc
📰 Top Stablecoin Stories We’re Following
Western Union unveiled plans to launch USDPT, a U.S. dollar–backed stablecoin built on Solana and issued by Anchorage Digital Bank. The company also introduced its new Digital Asset Network, connecting its global money transfer footprint with digital wallets and off-ramps.
Our thoughts: Western Union’s entry marks a massive moment for consumer-facing remittance networks. The company is moving from being a conduit for payments to owning the digital money itself. This gives Western Union direct exposure to the economics of stablecoin issuance and signals how legacy payment giants are retooling their infrastructure to compete in the modern era.
Swift announced that it will integrate a blockchain-based shared ledger into its global payments infrastructure, developed alongside Consensys and more than 30 financial institutions. The ledger will enable real-time, 24/7 cross-border settlement while maintaining Swift’s standards for compliance and security.
Our thoughts: The initiative represents one of the largest blockchain experiments ever undertaken in traditional finance. By embedding a shared ledger directly into its stack, Swift is transforming from a messaging network into a transaction network. The move also signals that interoperability will define the next phase of financial innovation.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, and Mizuho Financial Group will create a shared framework to issue and transfer yen-backed stablecoins among corporate clients. The group may expand to include dollar-pegged tokens if the initiative is successful.
Our thoughts: A coordinated bank-led framework could become a model for regulated digital cash in major economies. With Japan positioning itself as a serious player in the next wave of stablecoin infrastructure, others may follow suit and establish their own collaborative frameworks.
Visa announced a stablecoin pre-funding pilot through its Visa Direct network, allowing businesses to use stablecoins to pre-fund cross-border payouts. The program will initially launch with select partners and expand in 2026.
Our thoughts: Visa is showing how stablecoins can modernize corporate treasury operations, linking blockchain’s real-time capabilities with the trust of Visa’s global network. Over time, this model could become the foundation for programmable business payments worldwide.
Leading Wall Street Banks Unite to Launch G7-Backed Stablecoin
Nine major banks, including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Citigroup, announced plans to develop a reserve-backed stablecoin tied to G7 currencies. The initiative aims to provide an alternative digital payment asset for institutional and cross-border use.
Our thoughts: The consortium’s stablecoin would give banks a direct stake in digital money markets that have so far been dominated by crypto-native issuers. With payment volumes projected to surpass $50 trillion annually by 2030, traditional institutions are realizing that they must innovate in order to stay competitive.
🎤 An Interview with Brian Mehler, CEO at Stable, on the Future of Money Movement
In this interview, Stable CEO Brian Mehler discusses the rise of stablecoin-specific blockchains, how they differ from general-purpose chains, and how they are redefining global money movement. Under Mehler’s leadership, Stable is building a new Layer-1 network designed to make stablecoin transactions instant, reliable, and globally accessible.
As Mehler explains, today’s financial infrastructure is still anchored to systems that predate the internet itself:
The payment systems we rely on were built in the 1970s. They weren’t designed for a world where value moves at the speed of the internet, across borders and between billions of users in real time.
🤔 Commentary Corner
Q: Why are so many companies choosing to issue their own stablecoins?
A growing number of companies, from payment platforms to wallet providers, are launching their own stablecoins to gain more control over the user experience and flow of digital money. Stablecoins are no longer just tools for traders; they’ve become essential plumbing for global payments. Companies are responding by building their own to align incentives and capture value.
Here are some of the main factors fueling this surge:
Brand-aligned experiences: By issuing their own stablecoins, companies like exchanges and wallets can offer users a native payment experience while controlling branding, UX, and product integration.
Lower third-party dependency: Instead of relying on external issuers, companies can manage issuance, redemption, and liquidity directly, improving reliability and reducing counterparty risk.
New revenue streams: Owning a stablecoin unlocks new sources of value, including transaction fees, interest on reserves, and ecosystem incentives.
Global scalability: With stablecoins, companies can reach global users without relying on fragmented and expensive payment networks.
Ecosystem control: By designing their stablecoins to integrate across apps, chains, and DeFi protocols, issuers can strengthen network effects.
📊 Chart to Watch: Stablecoins Surpassing $10M in Circulation
Every major stablecoin metric is trending upward, including the number of stablecoins that have surpassed a circulating supply of $10M.
There are now 123 unique stablecoins with $10M+ in circulation. This is up from 100 just last month.
The trend continues to accelerate. MetaMask, Phantom, Hyperliquid, and many others have recently announced plans to launch their own stablecoins.
🔎 Project Spotlight: Arc
The shift of real-world economic activity onto blockchains is accelerating. Arc is building the foundational layer for an internet-scale financial system, where payments, credit, and capital markets operate natively onchain. Their Public Testnet went live this week.
What is it? Arc is an open Layer-1 blockchain designed to serve as the Economic Operating System for the internet. It offers sub-second finality, predictable fiat-based fees using stablecoins as gas, and direct integration with Circle’s full-stack developer platform. As an EVM-compatible network, Arc enables developers and institutions to build applications spanning payments, credit, capital markets, and more on compliant infrastructure.
Why is it important? Blockchains have facilitated billions of digital asset transfers, but they remain fragmented and inefficient for large-scale economic activity. Arc changes this by providing a globally distributed network where financial institutions, fintechs, and developers can transact, issue assets, and build natively on the internet.
Until next time,