payment

The decentralized lending protocol Pencil Finance has announced the completion of a $1 million student loan portfolio on-chain, including fundraising, lending, repayment records, and fund returns, constituting a complete financing and repayment cycle. Animoca Brands, Open Campus, and NewCampus provided funding for this portfolio in July 2025.The education financing company ErudiFi issued most of the funds through Southeast Asian student loans and tuition financing, covering markets such as Indonesia and the Philippines. The portfolio operates for 12 months, supporting over 6,600 students across 118 schools and universities, of which approximately 1,050 students received funding directly attributable to Pencil Finance. Investors are divided into priority and subordinate shares, with the former providing fixed returns and enjoying repayment priority, while the latter has variable returns and bears the first loss from defaults. Pencil Finance claims this is the first fully on-chain student loan cycle, but has not disclosed interest rates, investor yields, default situations, or blockchain transaction records.

The People's Bank of China announced the overall operation of the payment system for the second quarter of 2026. By the end of the second quarter, a total of 10.267 billion bank cards had been issued nationwide. Among them, there were 677 million credit cards and credit card loans, a decrease of about 10 million cards compared to the end of the first quarter, and a decrease of nearly 20 million cards since the beginning of the year, averaging over 100,000 credit cards exiting the market each day. Compared to the historical peak of 807 million cards in the second quarter of 2022, the number of credit cards has been reduced by about 130 million.The mid-year report of listed banks in 2026 shows that the overdraft balances of credit cards from the six major state-owned banks decreased at the end of the first half compared to the end of the previous year. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China had a credit card loan balance of 597.157 billion yuan, a decrease of 14.39% from the end of the previous year. By the end of June, the cumulative number of credit cards issued by Bank of China was about 152 million, with an increase of 1.76 million cards compared to the end of the previous year; China Merchants Bank saw a net increase of 256,300 cards to 97.7073 million cards.In terms of asset quality, the non-performing loan ratios for Agricultural Bank of China and Postal Savings Bank of China remained at 2.05% and 1.45%, respectively; the non-performing loan ratio for Industrial and Commercial Bank of China rose to 5.37%; and the non-performing loan ratio for Bank of Communications increased from 2.68% to 3.8%. The non-performing loan ratio for China Minsheng Bank rose to 4.22%, and for Industrial Bank, it rose to 3.79%. In the first half of the year, China Merchants Bank generated new non-performing loans of 23.698 billion yuan, with a non-performing loan ratio of 1.90%. In August 2026, the principal and interest of non-performing credit card transfers amounted to 12.2 billion yuan.

AI Economic Settlement Agreement AEON announces the launch of Agentic Checkout, supporting AI Agents to complete product search, selection, checkout, and payment through natural language dialogue in the Shopify open merchant ecosystem. The payment process is supported by the AEON AI Card, a virtual card that can set predefined spending limits and authorization scopes, allowing AI agents to complete payments without directly accessing the user's main wallet or main card.AEON Agentic Checkout currently covers over 3 million active stores on Shopify and more than 1 billion products, and will later integrate with the Claude open-source e-commerce agent, expanding to shopping and payment scenarios such as Amazon and Travala.

SWIFT service provider Bottomline announced a collaboration with the blockchain infrastructure project Chainlink to enable over 600 bank clients in its network to access blockchain-based cross-border settlements. Bottomline processes over $16 trillion in payments annually and serves 1,200 financial institutions and 10,000 enterprises.Through this integration, banks can continue to use the ISO 20022 standard to send payment instructions, with Chainlink's infrastructure connecting the instructions to blockchain settlements. Chainlink's Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) supports the transfer of tokenized value across different blockchain networks, while Chainlink's Runtime Environment (CRE) is responsible for payment processes, transaction routing, and operational change coordination.CCIP has been recording mainnet activity since July 2023 and is currently connected to over 60 blockchain networks. Chainlink's Project Pangea has covered more than 50 banking institutions in Europe and South Korea, with participants managing assets totaling over $10 trillion, and the project's goals include achieving T+0 settlement for foreign exchange transactions.

The cryptocurrency exchange Bybit's payment department Bybit Pay has completed integration with the cryptocurrency payment infrastructure provider Mesh. Users can now directly use their Bybit account balance for payments or account top-ups on supported platforms without needing to withdraw assets or transfer them to other platforms first.Users can directly select Bybit Pay as the payment method during settlement or recharge. For merchants already integrated with Mesh, Bybit Pay can be added as a payment option through existing integrations, reaching the 80 million users claimed by Bybit. Bybit stated that this integration also supports programmable settlement options, allowing merchants to control the payment settlement methods and timing across different markets.Mesh stated that its network is connected to over 300 wallets, exchanges, and financial service platforms. In January of this year, the company completed a $75 million Series C funding round led by Dragonfly, achieving a valuation of $1 billion, with total funding exceeding $200 million, and plans to expand into the Latin American, Asian, and European markets.

Stablecoin payment infrastructure startup Diameter Pay has completed a $10 million Series A funding round, co-led by CMT Digital and Lightspeed Faction.Diameter Pay stated that since the beginning of this year, it has processed over $10 billion in payments by helping institutional clients access dollar accounts, payment channels, and stablecoin deposit and withdrawal pathways.

The Payment and Settlement Department of the People's Bank of China released the overall situation of the payment system operation for the second quarter of 2025. By the end of the second quarter, a total of 15.238 billion bank accounts had been opened nationwide, including 116 million corporate bank accounts and 15.122 billion personal bank accounts; a total of 10.068 billion bank cards had been issued nationwide, including 9.354 billion debit cards and 715 million credit cards and loan cards, with 775,700 ATMs.In the second quarter, banks nationwide processed 149.789 billion non-cash payment transactions, amounting to 136.536 trillion yuan. Bank card transactions totaled 146.662 billion, amounting to 22.670 trillion yuan, of which consumer transactions accounted for 93.371 billion, amounting to 3.157 trillion yuan. Banks processed 80.053 billion electronic payment transactions, amounting to 85.816 trillion yuan, including 18.217 billion online payments, amounting to 70.785 trillion yuan, and 58.386 billion mobile payments, amounting to 13.606 trillion yuan. Non-bank payment institutions processed 333.845 billion online payment transactions, amounting to 8.211 trillion yuan.In the second quarter, the payment system processed a total of 392.751 billion payment transactions, amounting to 308.483 trillion yuan. The People's Bank of China Clearing Center system processed 5.543 billion transactions, amounting to 22.957 trillion yuan; the UnionPay interbank payment system processed 97.641 billion transactions, amounting to 6.671 trillion yuan; the NetUnion clearing platform processed 283.180 billion transactions, amounting to 14.558 trillion yuan; and the RMB cross-border payment system processed 2.121 million transactions, amounting to 4.594 trillion yuan.

The Block's investigation shows that on the social trading app Fomo and Robinhood's self-custody wallet Robinhood Wallet, users can directly purchase Memecoin using credit cards via Apple Pay or Google Pay without completing a separate KYC identity verification. Transactions can also accumulate points or cash back rewards as normal credit card rewards. The media tested the purchase of WIF, and transactions on the Visa and Mastercard networks were classified under merchant category code MCC 5815 (digital goods media), rather than the cryptocurrency asset categories MCC 6012 or 6051 as stipulated by card organization rules, which typically come with crypto tags and do not earn rewards.These transactions are supported by the Token Checkout product from the crypto infrastructure company Crossmint. Crossmint insists that this classification is appropriate, citing the joint guidance released by the SEC and CFTC in March of this year, which views certain Memecoins like WIF as "digital collectibles." However, Chase stated that the Visa transaction was not marked as a cryptocurrency purchase and that the classification was incorrect, and they have initiated a case review with Visa; the New York Attorney General's office also stated that it is reviewing the matter. Vanderbilt University law professor Yesha Yadav and other payment experts believe that the SEC's position and card organization rules represent "two completely different systems."

According to Cointelegraph, the stablecoin payment company Kast has launched the KAST Business platform, integrating features such as corporate accounts, payment cards, cross-border transfers, and stablecoin yield balances. The platform provides services through stablecoin infrastructure.Kast stated that businesses can receive payments through fiat virtual accounts provided by regulated partners, deposit supported stablecoins and crypto assets, issue virtual cards, and make local payments in over 20 currencies.The platform's services cover more than 170 countries and regions, but specific availability varies by jurisdiction. Idle balances earn an annual yield of up to 8%, and there is also a cashback of up to 3% on spending.Kast is a fintech company rather than a bank, and regulated services are provided by licensed partner institutions. Kast completed a $80 million financing in March at a valuation of $600 million, which will be used for product development, licensing acquisition, and expanding into North America, Latin America, and the Middle East markets. The company claims to currently have over 1 million users and plans to attract 1,000 to 5,000 active businesses by the end of 2026.

The payment system X Money tweeted that its services are now available to all Premium and Premium+ subscribers with a U.S. account.

The Hong Kong-listed company OSL Group (HKEX:863) announced its interim results for the six months ending June 30, 2026. Total revenue was HKD 55.813 billion, an increase of 65.8% year-on-year; payment business revenue was HKD 49.083 billion, an increase of 69.3%, accounting for 88% of total revenue; total trading volume was HKD 172 billion, an increase of 241.3%; revenue outside of the Asia-Pacific region was HKD 7.8 billion, a tenfold increase year-on-year; adjusted non-IFRS earnings were HKD 331 million, an increase of 75.5% year-on-year.OSL Group's Executive Director and CEO, Kevin Choi, stated that despite a significant market correction in the first half of the year, the company's trading volume and revenue both reached new highs, and noted that it has become the world's largest stablecoin payment infrastructure company by B2B stablecoin payment transaction volume. In 2025, the company completed a strategic upgrade, achieving an annual B2B stablecoin payment volume of USD 12.3 billion. In February 2026, it launched the corporate dollar stablecoin USDGO issued by Anchorage Digital Bank, N.A., with a circulation exceeding USD 800 million in four months, and surpassing USD 1.2 billion by August.During the reporting period, OSL completed the acquisition of Banxa Holdings Inc. in January 2026 and obtained the EU MiCAR license granted by the Austrian Financial Market Authority and the AFSL issued by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, while also launching the stablecoin payment infrastructure OSL AgentPay aimed at AI agents.

According to Caixin, Ant Group CEO and Alipay Chairman Han Xinyi elaborated on systematic insights regarding the global exploration path of AI payments at the China Payment and Clearing Forum. He stated that AI payments have essentially formed four exploration paths:The first category is represented by payment technology and infrastructure platforms like Stripe. The second category is represented by cryptocurrency companies such as Circle and Coinbase, which mainly rely on stablecoins and their wallet systems, using cryptocurrencies as a payment medium to directly support automated payment scenarios between machines. The third category is represented by traditional payment networks like the two major card organizations (Visa, Mastercard). The fourth category consists of AI platform companies such as Google and OpenAI.

According to Mobile Payment Network, Lu Lei, a member of the Party Committee and Vice President of the People's Bank of China, stated at the 15th China Payment Clearing Forum that intelligent agent payments must not blur the boundaries of responsibility between consumers, operating institutions, and algorithm systems. Lu Lei believes that the essence of payment is the transfer of fund ownership, which objectively requires that the results of transactions are predictable, responsibilities are definable, and traces are traceable. Large models and autonomous intelligent agents have characteristics such as output randomness and insufficient transparency of logic. If transaction decision-making authority is blindly or excessively granted to intelligent agents, it will affect the trust foundation of fund transactions. The current governance rules of the payment industry and dispute resolution mechanisms are built around "humans as the final decision-makers in transactions." The new model of intelligent agents automatically initiating and assisting in transactions easily blurs the boundaries of responsibility, and the existing governance rules need to be optimized and improved.Regarding the issue of insufficient compatibility of protocol standards in the field of intelligent agent payments, Lu Lei emphasized that the dispute over protocols is essentially a dispute over business rules and technical standards, as well as a struggle for dominance in the era of artificial intelligence. The People's Bank of China continues to strengthen its tracking research on technological innovation, especially intelligent agent payments, guiding the Payment Clearing Association to leverage its advantages in industry self-regulation. Based on extensive soliciting of opinions, they will formulate and publish the "Self-Regulatory Convention for Intelligent Agent Payment Applications," and will continue to work on coordinating protocols and standards, as well as innovating risk governance. Lu Lei proposed three hopes to market institutions: actively respond to and implement the industry self-regulatory convention, with payment security and risk prevention as the bottom line, and consumer rights protection as the focal point; continuously track the trends of cutting-edge technologies such as large models and intelligent agents both domestically and internationally, and build technical reserves and application capabilities; adhere to the principle of rules and standards first, strengthen coordination and compatibility among different protocols and standards, and cooperate with regulatory authorities to promote the construction of a foundational protocol and technical standard system for intelligent agent payments.

IMF President Georgieva stated at the Jackson Hole annual meeting that stablecoins and tokenization could enhance global financial liquidity, making large cross-border payments cheaper and faster; however, stablecoins could also exacerbate currency substitution, capital flows, and exchange rate volatility, while undermining capital controls and monetary sovereignty. Dollar stablecoins may expand the global network effect of the dollar and marginally reduce U.S. financing costs, but they cannot replace fiscal discipline.This year's Jackson Hole Global Central Bank Annual Meeting has revealed three clear institutional divergences: BIS leans towards "marginalization of stablecoins, centralization of tokenized deposits"; ECB leans towards "central bank currencies on-chain"; while IMF acknowledges the real efficiency of stablecoins in cross-border payments but emphasizes the risks of currency substitution and capital flows in emerging markets. This has more policy implications than simply "supporting or opposing stablecoins."

Pablo Hernández de Cos, General Manager of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), stated that stablecoins lack credibility in large-scale payment scenarios, making it difficult to use them as everyday currency. He believes that tokenized bank deposits are a better alternative, capable of achieving the advantages of tokenization while retaining the foundation of the monetary system. This statement comes against the backdrop of regulatory agencies in various countries establishing a regulatory framework for stablecoins.Hernández de Cos also acknowledged that stablecoins could lower government borrowing costs but might also increase bank financing costs, which would then be passed on to household and business loan rates. He pointed out that the interoperability between stablecoin platforms is limited, anti-money laundering controls are inconsistently enforced, and the widespread use of dollar-pegged stablecoins overseas could undermine the monetary sovereignty of other countries and the effectiveness of domestic monetary policy.On the same day, the Financial Stability Institute (FSI) under BIS released a research report comparing the stablecoin regulatory rules of the United States, European Union, United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and Singapore, finding significant differences in the qualifications of issuing entities and the scope of business they can conduct across jurisdictions. The United States and Singapore impose stricter restrictions on non-bank issuing entities, while Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, and the European Union allow certain additional businesses under separate authorization or licensing.

AI Agent Economic Settlement Agreement AEON announced the integration with Kenya's mobile payment platform M-Pesa, allowing users to complete payments using cryptocurrency, while merchants receive payments in Kenyan Shillings.AEON claims its settlement network covers over 50 million merchants globally and will extend the AI Agent settlement capabilities to more local payment systems, enabling transactions to be completed through users' daily payment networks, allowing merchants to receive local fiat currency settlements.

Japan Bitcoin Industry Co., Ltd. launched the self-custody Bitcoin payment platform Aurora at the Bitcoin Asia conference held in Hong Kong, aiming to help Japanese businesses sell content such as anime, manga, and games to international fans. The company stated that the overseas Japanese anime content market is expected to reach 21.7 trillion yen in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 26%, but traditional payment systems often keep overseas consumers at bay.Aurora allows international customers to make Bitcoin payments via the Lightning Network while providing Japanese merchants with a simple point of sale (POS) and API layer for managing invoices, payment tracking, and integration. The core design principle of the platform is that JBI does not touch the funds; each merchant operates their own self-custody Lightning Network node, directly receiving Bitcoin from customers, which provides merchants with a clearer regulatory foundation.JBI stated that Aurora draws on the experience of its existing consumer business UseBitcoin.jp, which has allowed customers to purchase digital gift cards including au PAY, V-Preca, and Kyash using the Lightning Network for the past two years. The company invites media, potential merchants, and wallet providers to contact the team at the 2026 Hong Kong Bitcoin Asia conference.