stablecoin

U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal has launched an investigation into the payment of approximately $6.3 million by the stablecoin issuer Tether to the consulting firm Nxum. Nxum was co-founded by former White House cryptocurrency advisor Bo Hines, who holds one-third of the company's shares. On October 22, Blumenthal sent a letter to Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, requesting the contracts between the two parties, cryptocurrency payment records, wallet addresses, and communication content.Tether is accused of paying Nxum $415,000 per month since May 2025 for strategic communications, lobbying, and public relations services. Blumenthal pointed out that Bo Hines, while serving as the executive director of the White House Digital Assets Advisory Committee, still held shares in Nxum and coordinated affairs with the company through encrypted communication applications. He also questioned whether Tether transferred cryptocurrency through the marketing company Notorious and then allocated funds to Nxum shareholders. Tether began directly contracting with Nxum after August 2025 and hired Bo Hines to oversee the newly established U.S. operations. Blumenthal has requested that Tether, Nxum, and related parties respond by November 6, noting that the relevant allegations have not yet formed a legal determination, and Tether has not publicly responded.

According to CoinDesk, the Swedish central bank is pushing lawmakers to reconsider the necessity of issuing an electronic krona (e-krona), believing that with the development of foreign stablecoins and the digital euro, the use of the Swedish krona in the payment system may face long-term pressure.Per Jansson, the Deputy Governor of the Swedish central bank, stated that if cash becomes further digitized and the Swedish krona lacks a convenient digital form, the local currency may struggle to compete with digital payment tools that can be used across borders. Although the central bank has not yet decided whether to officially issue an electronic krona, it hopes to initiate preparations at the legislative level as soon as possible, as the related institutional and technical work is expected to take at least 5 years.

Recently, according to the latest weekly report jointly released by RWA Foundation and Token Terminal, from October 12 to 19, the market capitalization of USDD increased by 180.3 million USD, accounting for about 40% of the total increase of 449.1 million USD among the top ten similar stablecoin issuers during the same period, ranking first. During the same period, Sky ranked second with an increase of 86 million USD, and United Stables ranked fifth with an increase of 22.8 million USD.The report data shows that the market capitalization increase of USDD significantly outpaced other major similar stablecoin projects that week, reflecting its rapid expansion in circulation scale recently. All data in the report comes from Token Terminal, providing the latest observations on recent capital inflows and changes in issuance scale in the stablecoin market.

The Central Bank of Malaysia and the Bank of Thailand joined the Singapore-led BLOOM initiative on Friday as members of the policymakers. BLOOM stands for Borderless, Liquid, Open, Online, Multi-currency, and is a public-private partnership initiative aimed at helping financial institutions utilize stablecoins and tokenized deposits for cross-border payments. According to the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the initiative aims to reduce costs and help institutions bring services to market faster by decreasing the need for financial institutions to establish arrangements with each counterparty or market individually.The Monetary Authority of Singapore launched BLOOM in October 2025, building on Project Orchid, which was initiated in 2021 to explore the application of a digital Singapore dollar. BLOOM's work also covers corporate cash management, trade financing, and payments executed by AI agents within preset limits, with participants including Airwallex, Mastercard, Ripple, Visa, and the World Bank Group. Additionally, the Central Bank of Malaysia announced in February that three initiatives would test the ringgit stablecoin and tokenized deposits for domestic and cross-border wholesale payments in 2026.

According to local media Digital Asset in South Korea, the South Korean government and central bank are promoting amendments to the country's foreign exchange market law to regulate stablecoins as a payment tool.South Korea is currently formulating the "Basic Law on Digital Assets," which will establish an exchange licensing system and formulate rules for the issuance of stablecoins.

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Analysts indicate that regulatory-led measures can encourage institutional participation in the cryptocurrency ecosystem in the short term, but only legislation can make the framework more robust in the long term. Currently, the cryptocurrency industry has to rely on a series of fragmented regulatory actions, which may be overturned in the next two years due to political changes. At the same time, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued a five-year "innovation exemption" for tokenized stocks, requiring that tokens must possess the financial and voting rights of the original stocks.Additionally, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is exploring allowing leveraged cryptocurrency trading on regulated U.S. platforms, while the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has granted national trust charters to an increasing number of stablecoin issuers and digital asset companies, placing activities such as custody and reserve management under federal regulation. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is also considering allowing companies to classify certain stablecoins as cash equivalents to support their broader use in payments and liquidity management.

The prediction market operator Underdog has partnered with the cryptocurrency infrastructure provider zerohash, planning to support cryptocurrency and stablecoin deposits later this year. Eligible users can directly deposit supported digital assets through the Underdog app, with services supporting near-instant transfers around the clock. Underdog has not yet announced the specific cryptocurrencies or stablecoins that will be supported.The new deposit method will complement debit cards, credit cards, Apple Pay, and bank transfers, allowing users to avoid managing wallet addresses or selecting blockchain networks. Underdog was established in 2020 and currently has over 11 million registered accounts. IG Group has agreed to acquire the company for up to $1.3 billion, with the transaction expected to be completed by the end of 2026 or early 2027. As of October 21, Underdog's trading volume over the past 30 days was $1.4 billion, an increase of 133% compared to the previous period.

The Bitcoin ecosystem USDT issuer Utexo announced the early access to Utexo Mint, aimed at professional operators ready to support and provide USDT on Bitcoin, with the public launch scheduled for November 28. Utexo stated that existing partners are preparing for the launch, and it is currently open for access to exchanges, wallets, market makers, OTC desks, trading companies, and other professional operators interested in supporting USDT on Bitcoin.Utexo Mint is a dedicated platform for verified operators to mint and redeem USDT on Bitcoin. In the sandbox environment, operators can test the operation of USDT based on RGB, including minting, confidential transfers, and redemptions, to validate transaction processes and complete integration before the launch. Utexo will also provide tools for managing USDT liquidity across supported networks and for fiat to USDT exchanges. Utexo Mint is not owned or operated by Tether, and USDT on Bitcoin is supported by USDT through Tether's USDT0 protocol.USDT was first launched on Bitcoin in 2014, and this return will bring stablecoin liquidity to the ecosystem and expand scenarios such as trading and BTC collateralized lending. Utexo stated that USDT on Bitcoin is launched by Utexo rather than Tether, designed with privacy features, and USDT on RGB avoids address reuse. In terms of compliance, Utexo claims it will monitor all sourced USDT, check AML scores, and monitor RGB-side risks, while collaborating with Crystal Intelligence for AML efforts. The launch will occur in two phases: on November 28, USDT will be publicly available on the Bitcoin network through RGB, accessible via partner wallets and exchanges; the second phase is planned for the first quarter of 2027 to expand USDT to the Lightning Network for payments.

On October 23, a16z General Partner Chris Dixon announced that a16z crypto would be renamed a16z Frontier. The investment scope has expanded from crypto startups to a broader category of frontier technology startups, which are companies that create new technologies, open new markets, and may take years to mature. Dixon emphasized that this adjustment is an expansion of scope rather than a shift in direction, and the team will continue to invest in crypto and related businesses while advocating for reasonable crypto regulation.Dixon stated that as blockchain becomes more widely adopted, Wall Street and fintech companies have normalized the launch of on-chain products, and the importance of the "crypto company" label has diminished; companies should be defined by their business rather than the technology they use. His explanation also pointed to the AI wave, which not only focuses on using AI to perform existing tasks faster and better but also emphasizes the emergence of new native use cases, full-stack entrepreneurship that integrates software and hardware with services, and new networks that connect people with intelligent agents.Dixon believes that blockchain will continue to play an important role, providing the internet with a fast, cheap, global, and programmable funding track. Stablecoins are becoming standard tools for fintech and institutions, and they can also support machine-to-machine transactions and the cold start of new networks. The fund will be co-led by Dixon along with a16z founders Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, and General Partners Eddy Lazzarin and Guy Wuollet, while the operating team will continue to serve existing and future portfolio companies in areas such as regulation, market entry, talent, marketing, and technology development.

According to a report by Politico, Joel Greenberg, a shareholder of Circle Internet Group and a former software engineer at the company, filed a lawsuit in a U.S. federal court on Thursday, accusing U.S. President Donald Trump and his family of benefiting from two transactions involving the United Arab Emirates through the cryptocurrency company World Liberty Financial (WLFI), allegedly violating the U.S. Constitution's Foreign Emoluments Clause. This clause restricts the president from accepting money or other benefits from foreign governments without congressional approval.The lawsuit states that the first transaction occurred before Trump's second term began, in which he sold 49% of WLFI for $500 million, with the related funds reportedly coming from the UAE. After Trump took office, he reportedly earned millions from this transaction. The second transaction involved an investment fund established by the UAE government purchasing $2 billion worth of digital currency from the Trump family. The plaintiff alleges that this transaction inflated the value of the cryptocurrency assets held by Trump and generated millions in interest income for him, while significantly expanding the circulation of his stablecoin.

The decentralized lending protocol Morpho has incorporated stock tokens issued by Robinhood into its stablecoin lending market, allowing users to collateralize these tokens to borrow stablecoins.According to the disclosure, the first markets launched include NVDA and SPCX, both with a liquidation threshold of 62.5%; the liquidation threshold for SPY is 77%. The borrowing asset for the aforementioned markets is the stablecoin USDG.

On October 22, a16z announced the removal of "Crypto" from the name of its flagship blockchain fund, renaming it to a16z Frontier, and long-time general partner Ali Yahya is stepping down. The announcement stated that this move does not signify a withdrawal from investing in the cryptocurrency space, but rather aims to further broaden the investment scope.The fund has previously raised nearly $10 billion, including $4.5 billion in 2022 and $2.2 billion for Fund 5 this year, making it one of the largest institutional players in the industry. When raising Fund 5 this year, a16z stated that the industry is shifting from a price cycle to a usage cycle, focusing on the infrastructure of stablecoins, on-chain finance, prediction markets, and asset tokenization, rather than merely chasing market trends.Chris Dixon, founder and managing partner of a16z crypto, will remain in his position. Investments related to crypto assets and blockchain remain one of the core directions, but the overall label and strategic focus have been adjusted to cover a broader range of frontier technology fields.

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire stated in an interview that he is not particularly focused on the short-term price performance of Bitcoin, but is more optimistic about the digital dollar used for payments and the AI agent economy. Allaire mentioned that the digital dollar can be used for payments, transactions, lending, and investment, and that AI agents will participate in more economic activities in the future, potentially further driving the demand for digital dollars and related blockchain infrastructure, although he did not provide specific data on the growth of this demand.On the regulatory front, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in the United States is formulating rules related to the GENIUS Act. The proposal requires stablecoin issuers to hold reserve assets not less than the total amount of circulating stablecoins and to redeem at face value within two business days, while prohibiting issuers from paying interest to holders. Allaire believes that the bill has bipartisan support and can provide policy protection for the stablecoin industry, but broader legislative progress on the structure of the cryptocurrency market in the United States has not yet been made.

According to the official announcement from JPYC, the yen stablecoin issuer JPYC has signed a memorandum of cooperation with South Korea's Shinhan Bank's Japan SBJ Bank and LINE NEXT, planning to conduct a proof of concept for direct top-ups of yen stablecoins to bank accounts and digital wallets.According to the division of labor, SBJ Bank provides bank accounts and payment infrastructure, LINE NEXT provides technology such as its Unifi wallet and Unifi Pay, and JPYC provides support for the issuance and redemption of yen stablecoins. JPYC is a regulated yen stablecoin issuer in Japan, with its tokens pegged 1:1 to the yen, supported by bank deposits and Japanese government bonds.

According to Arbitrum monitoring, the stablecoin inflow on Mayan is performing well. Previously, Mayan has transferred over 2.5 billion dollars in assets to Arbitrum, including over 2.3 billion dollars in stablecoins; half of which came from transfers of 100,000 dollars or more.