payments

According to Cointelegraph, DBS Bank has partnered with Citibank to utilize a blockchain-based ledger from Swift to achieve instant, round-the-clock cross-border dollar payments through tokenized deposits.

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 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.

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.

According to Bits.media, Russia's three major telecom operators MTS, Rostelecom, and Megafon announced that they will start accepting digital ruble payments from September 1. MTS will support the use of digital rubles for all services within its payment module MTS Pay, with no category restrictions. Rostelecom will initially only support one-time payments on its official website, and will later expand to personal accounts; regular payments and automatic top-ups will depend on the readiness of the central bank's platform. Megafon will also offer it as an additional payment method.The two major e-commerce platforms, Wildberries and Ozon, also announced the activation of digital rubles on the same day. According to the law, starting from September 1, all large enterprises in Russia must be able to process digital ruble transactions, and the apps of 12 systemically important banks must have an entry point for digital ruble wallets. The central bank plans to impose limits on the recharge of digital wallets, with a maximum of 300,000 rubles per month through a single bank.

According to a report by the Korea Herald, South Korea's Shinhan Financial Group announced that it has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Visa. The two parties will collaborate on digital assets and future financial services.Shinhan Financial plans to utilize Visa's stablecoin platform to verify core functions such as stablecoin issuance, transfer, and redemption, and to jointly design business models in conjunction with South Korea's local financial regulations and market environment. The two sides will also explore the application of stablecoins in financial services such as credit card bill settlements, promote AI-driven new payment models, and expand B2B and B2C payment businesses.

The U.S. Treasury Department has expanded its sanctions framework against Iran to include the digital asset sector, stating that the relevant cryptocurrency payments exceed $100 million, which were used to assist in the sale of Iranian oil. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), a division of the U.S. Treasury, has also imposed sanctions on nearly 60 entities, individuals, and vessels involved in nuclear energy, missiles, cyber activities, and the oil network.The sanctions in the digital asset sector allow OFAC to sanction foreign individuals and companies operating in Iran's digital asset sector or providing support services to the relevant field. The U.S. Treasury stated that Iran is increasingly using cryptocurrencies to evade sanctions, including transactions related to the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and insiders within the government. The U.S. Treasury noted that Ukrainian broker Ivan Obukhov, a UAE national, has processed over $100 million in cryptocurrency payments since 2023 to assist the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force in oil sales. OFAC has added Ivan Obukhov and his UAE company Foscom FZE to the sanctions list.

Jeonbuk Bank has partnered with blockchain payment company Ripple to deploy its cross-border payment system, providing faster and cheaper remittance services for business clients such as import and export companies, tech startups, and online content creators, replacing the traditional transfer method that takes several days via the SWIFT network.Meanwhile, the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA) has opened the application portal for crypto licenses. Companies providing virtual asset services on or before March 5 must submit a No Objection Certificate (NOC) application by September 5, or they will cease operations. PVARA stated that the licensing window is officially open, providing a clear path for businesses to enter Pakistan's regulated virtual asset market.In addition, Laser Digital, a digital asset subsidiary of Nomura Group in Japan, has received approval from the Financial Services Agency (FSA) to become the first platform to obtain a crypto exchange license in four years, the last being Binance Japan in October 2022.

According to the Nikkei, Japan's Financial Services Agency plans to relax regulatory restrictions on trust banks issuing stablecoins, opening up space for individuals to conduct stablecoin transactions exceeding 1 million yen, and intends to include relevant content in the upcoming tax reform proposals.If implemented, stablecoins could further be used in large consumption scenarios such as automobiles and housing, indicating that the application of stablecoins in Japan is expanding from small payments to higher amount settlements.

WasabiCard's global remittance service supports over 30 fiat currencies, providing cross-border payment and bulk fund distribution capabilities for businesses, fintech platforms, and internet-native enterprises. Eligible payment channels support real-time or T+0 settlement.This service uses stablecoins as the funding allocation and settlement layer, connecting the traditional banking system with local payment networks. After completing the necessary KYC/KYB verification, users can deposit USDT into their WasabiCard accounts and exchange USDT for their chosen fiat currency through the global remittance feature, which is then transferred in real-time to the user's personal bank card account with the same name. In scenarios of corporate fund management and fund collection, eligible businesses can also use corporate bank accounts for receiving payments.Businesses can initiate payments to employees, contractors, suppliers, creators, affiliate partners, and platform merchants through a unified management backend or API. Core capabilities include bulk payments, smart routing, transparent exchange rates and fees, payment status tracking, and financial reconciliation.

According to The Block, Rain CEO Farooq Malik stated that through partnerships with networks like Visa, the stablecoin payments facilitated by Rain have reached over 100,000 merchants, most of whom are unaware. Currently, transactions settled through the Visa network take about 3 days, but if merchants choose to settle directly using stablecoins, they can achieve same-day settlement.Rain completed a $250 million Series C funding round in January, with a post-money valuation of $1.95 billion, an annual transaction volume exceeding $3 billion, and has partnered with Visa and Mastercard to launch stablecoin cards and wallets, planning to explore the use of regulated stablecoins for on-chain settlements in certain business processes.

AWS announced that the Amazon Bedrock AgentCore payments service is officially fully available (GA). This service collaborates with Coinbase and Stripe, enabling AI agents to autonomously pay for paid APIs, MCP, and content services with just a few lines of code. AgentCore payments integrates Coinbase and Stripe Privy wallets, supporting small transaction payments in USDC stablecoin. Users can recharge the agent wallet and authorize the agent to spend using credit cards or USDC.The service supports the x402 protocol and MPP protocol, with a new "upto" payment scheme that allows agents to set spending limits instead of fixed prices, enabling dynamic billing based on actual reasoning usage. It includes built-in payment session limits (maximum spending per interaction and expiration time), which will be rejected if exceeded, and integrates AgentCore Observability to provide visual dashboards for transaction audit logs, success rates, and average transaction values.Related features have been integrated with CDNs such as Amazon CloudFront and Cloudflare, and clients such as Anchor Browser, SpreadX, and Travala are already using this service. AgentCore payments is now available in multiple regions, and developers can integrate it through the console, CLI, and open-source frameworks like LangGraph and OpenClaw. The launch of this service is a key step in the evolution of AI agents from "reasoning and action" to "autonomous transactions."

Ripple officially announced that Jeonbuk Bank has become the first local bank in South Korea to deploy Ripple Payments, providing its corporate clients with near real-time, 24/7 cross-border settlement services to replace the time-consuming SWIFT transfers. This collaboration will help the bank enhance its cross-border payment efficiency and service capabilities.This is Ripple's third partnership in South Korea this year, having previously collaborated with Kyobo Life Insurance and Kbank on custody, wallet infrastructure, and payment services. Several leading financial institutions in South Korea are continuing to advance cooperation with Ripple in the fields of payments and related infrastructure.

Coinbase announced the construction of a complete financial and payment infrastructure for AI Agents. The official statement claims that AI Agents can conduct research, decision-making, and trading on its platform, including cryptocurrencies, stocks, and derivatives, through "Coinbase for Agents," and can access Coinbase Advisor for personalized investment advice and tax-loss harvesting services.On the payment layer, Coinbase launched the open standard x402, enabling agent-to-agent machine payments without human involvement. Related transactions are primarily settled on the Base chain, while Coinbase Business supports businesses in receiving payments from AI Agents in USDC and provides discovery and marketplace access for x402 payable services on Agentic.Market.

According to CoinDesk, the crypto startup raised $11.2 billion in funding in the first half of 2026, with all disclosed funds directed towards regulated and licensed enterprises. The most funding was received by payment and stablecoin companies, prediction markets, exchanges, and trading platforms.Major investors include Wall Street and large global financial institutions, focusing their investments on licensed and compliant companies. Investors and founders increasingly view regulatory licenses as scarce and defensive assets, while retail investors still primarily trade on unlicensed or other alternative platforms.