payments

According to Cointelegraph, Japanese logistics company AZ-COM Maruwa Holdings plans to use the JPYC stablecoin to make payments to approximately 2,300 business partners, potentially becoming the first large-scale enterprise in Japan to use the yen stablecoin JPYC. This stablecoin will be used to pay transportation contractors (including truck drivers) fees and compensation.Since JPYC does not charge transfer fees, using the stablecoin allows for faster and more frequent payments. AZ-COM Maruwa is also considering establishing a partnership with JPYC and plans to invest over 1 billion yen (approximately 6.2 million USD). AZ-COM Maruwa is a medium-sized Japanese logistics company, with major clients including Amazon Japan.

ESMA has included 14 new cryptocurrency companies, including Ripple Payments Europe, in its MiCA registration list, bringing the total number of licensed cryptocurrency service providers to 294.

On July 17, Interlace and BlockSec jointly held the summit "The Next Decade of Payments: Digital Currency, AI Agents, and the New Global Financial Order." The event brought together industry guests from AI, Web3, security, and payments to discuss the development trends of stablecoin payments, security compliance, AI agents, and global payment infrastructure.BlockSec co-founder Zhou Yajin and Interlace founder and CEO Michael Wu delivered keynote speeches on "Security and Compliance in Crypto Payments" and "Agentic Payment and the New Infrastructure of Global Finance," respectively, sharing their latest observations on the development trends of digital asset payments. As the scenarios for stablecoin payments continue to expand, the security compliance system and the construction of a new generation of payment infrastructure are becoming key supports for driving industry development. In the future, payment infrastructure will not only serve the function of capital flow but will also further evolve into a programmable, trusted, and verifiable value transfer system, providing underlying support for the connection between digital assets and real-world commerce.At the event, Interlace also officially released the white paper "The Value Transmission Layer of the AI Economy: From Concept to Implementation." The white paper was jointly initiated with ecosystem partners such as Bitget, BlockSec, Cobo, Conflux, Stable, Xagent, and Hetu, systematically defining the architecture, standards, and implementation paths of Agentic Payment infrastructure, providing a reference for value transfer in the era of the AI economy.

According to the Ethereum Magicians forum, developer Leo Glisic officially released Privacy Guardians 2 and announced the open-sourcing of its design. The project is positioned as a decentralized privacy payment system aimed at maximizing privacy protection for on-chain payments to combat issues such as freezing and monitoring present in centralized payment solutions (like OUSD launched by Corpo Consortium).The current V1 version includes multiple modules such as private payment mechanisms, insurance mechanisms, honeypot designs, exchange rate management, liquidity pools, and metadata processing. Glisic stated that this version is still in the early stages and has significant room for optimization in areas such as cryptographic security, incentive mechanism alignment, and capital efficiency, and he called on the community to participate in its improvement. The white paper has been simultaneously published on glisic.xyz.

Cryptocurrency payment company BitPay announced that it has obtained approval from the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets to acquire a cryptocurrency asset service provider license, allowing it to operate in EU member states under the regulatory framework for cryptocurrency markets. BitPay stated that this license will support the company's expansion of cryptocurrency payment and stablecoin payment services in Europe.According to relevant requirements, starting from July 1, all entities providing cryptocurrency-related services must be regulated. BitPay's European head, Jonathan Arler, stated that Europe is one of the most important regions for the future development of payments. Previously, Ripple announced that it had obtained a cryptocurrency asset service provider license issued by the Luxembourg financial regulator.

The global stablecoin payment infrastructure platform WasabiCard, in collaboration with WIDTH, held the CCO Leadership Edition compliance high-end exchange event in Hong Kong. WasabiCard CMO Jack Derong gathered with executives and experts from the fields of digital assets, payments, fintech, and regulatory compliance in Hong Kong to engage in in-depth discussions on topics such as the evolution of global regulations, the development of stablecoin payments, and corporate compliance practices.As Hong Kong's Web3 ecosystem continues to develop and the digital asset regulatory framework becomes increasingly refined, stablecoin payments are ushering in new development opportunities. With the continuous improvement of compliance requirements surrounding the HKMA stablecoin licensing system, Travel Rule, AML, KYT, and others, companies are increasingly focused on how to build payment infrastructure that combines global payment capabilities, risk management capabilities, and compliance capabilities to achieve the scalable implementation of stablecoin payments.WasabiCard believes that the future competition in stablecoin payments will hinge on whether companies possess the infrastructure capabilities to cover global compliance, risk management, and cross-border payment networks, rather than just payment efficiency.In the future, WasabiCard will continue to enhance global payment infrastructure based on the highest standards of compliance systems and risk management capabilities, helping clients confidently respond to the evolving global regulatory requirements and expand their international business more securely.

According to CoinPost, JCB has reached a partnership with a Circle affiliate, planning to test USDC payments at a store in Tokyo that attracts many foreign tourists within the year and evaluate the promotion to more franchise merchants.The pilot aims to reduce the currency exchange process for tourists and lower payment transaction fees. JCB has previously tested USDC and JPYC offline payments with Digital Garage, Resona Holdings, and others; Japan has also accelerated stablecoin merchant payment trials recently, including Lawson's plan to test JPYC in-store settlements in August.

Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong posted on the X platform, publicly acknowledging that the creator coin previously promoted by the Base chain has not succeeded and that a strategic adjustment was completed earlier this year.Armstrong stated that Base's current core focus areas are trading, payments, and AI agents, which are interconnected—payments require foreign exchange trading, and AI agents will also involve a large number of trading and payment scenarios. Currently, most resources have been concentrated on the trading track.

According to The Block, the Benchmark Report released by Borderless.xyz for Q2 2026 shows that the delivery quotes for stablecoin cross-border payments in each month of the second quarter were all below the interbank foreign exchange rate midpoint. Data covering 108 countries and 260 payment corridors indicates that the median "parity spread" for the quarter was -3.2 basis points, further widening to -5.9 basis points in June, marking the deepest negative value of the year.The report also shows that the typical delivery cost for a $10,000 cross-border payment in the second quarter was approximately $27, and it has remained around this level for five consecutive months. If companies only connect to a single service provider in the long term, they will pay an average of about $2,330 more compared to the optimal quote for every $1 million payment scale, known as the "routing tax."Regionally, the African market showed the most significant fluctuations, with the price point spread widening by 166 basis points to 512.8 basis points; Latin America compressed to 89.0 basis points, while Asia remained relatively stable at 6.1 basis points. In specific corridors, Malawi experienced a one-day repricing of 5.8% on April 9, with the typical spread jumping from about 296 basis points to 1975 basis points.

According to Cointelegraph, CryptoRank data shows that Coinbase Ventures completed 30 investments in the first half of 2026, becoming the most active crypto venture capital institution; Animoca Brands, a16z, and Tether completed 19, 18, and 15 investments respectively.In the past 12 months, Coinbase Ventures completed a total of 75 investments, ranking first in the industry, followed by Animoca Brands, YZi Labs (formerly Binance Labs), GSR, and a16z.Despite the crypto market still being in a downturn, the scale of industry financing continues to shrink, with the total financing for crypto enterprises in June dropping to $1.4 billion, a 63% decrease from $3.8 billion in April; the number of financing rounds also fell from 89 rounds in May to 61 rounds. Meanwhile, the number of independent investment institutions participating in investments decreased from 452 in October 2025 to 242 in June this year.From the perspective of sectors, DeFi, payments, and AI have remained the most favored areas for capital in the past year, completing 216 rounds, 131 rounds, and 128 rounds of financing respectively, with Coinbase Ventures focusing on payment protocols, DeFi, infrastructure, and RWA tokenization projects.

Gate US officially launched the Gate Card, collaborating with Visa, Stripe, and its stablecoin infrastructure company Bridge to create a new generation of digital payment products for U.S. users. The card is issued by Lead Bank (a member bank of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, FDIC) under a Visa license, supporting eligible stablecoins (such as USDC) as a source of funds for consumption, and enabling payments through the Visa global merchant network.The Gate Card offers both virtual and physical card options, supporting Apple Pay, Google Wallet, NFC contactless payments, and ATM withdrawals. Stablecoin exchange and fund settlement are supported by Bridge's infrastructure, and eligible purchases can earn points, which can be redeemed for USDT within the Gate US App.Gate US stated that the launch of the Gate Card further promotes the application of stablecoins in real-world consumption scenarios. In the future, the company will continue to collaborate with partners such as Visa and Stripe to expand the application scenarios of digital assets in global payment and financial services.

According to official news, Swift announced that its blockchain-based ledger is ready, and 17 banks from six continents are preparing to pilot the use of tokenized deposits for 24/7 cross-border payment trials.The ledger provides a secure orchestration layer for participating banks, supporting them in issuing tokenized deposits on their own ledgers, enabling around-the-clock fund movement before final settlement through existing systems. Participating banks include ANZ, BNP Paribas, BNY Mellon, Citibank, DBS Bank, First Abu Dhabi Bank, FirstRand Bank, HSBC, Itaú Unibanco, Lloyds Bank, Mashreq Bank, MUFG, OCBC Bank, Standard Chartered, UBS Group, UOB, and Wells Fargo.

According to reports, the U.S. "Digital Asset Market Clarity Act" (CLARITY Act) is expected to enter the next stage of the legislative process on July 4, 2026. As the regulatory framework for digital assets continues to improve, the market's expectations for the development of stablecoin payments have become clearer, providing businesses with more explicit policy references for adopting stablecoins for global payments.In this regard, WasabiCard CEO Ray Yang stated, "For businesses, regulatory transparency is more important than regulatory leniency. Companies can adapt to strict compliance requirements, but it is challenging to formulate long-term development plans in an environment where regulations are unclear. The advancement of the CLARITY Act will create a clearer and more predictable development environment for stablecoin payments."As an enterprise-level stablecoin global payment infrastructure platform, WasabiCard continuously enhances its compliance capabilities and global payment network, establishing a risk management system covering KYB, KYC, KYT, and AML, and holds U.S. MSB and MTL licenses, providing businesses with one-stop payment solutions for global card issuance, stablecoin payments, global remittances, and fund distribution.Regarding the development prospects of stablecoin payments, Ray Yang believes, "As the global regulatory environment continues to improve, stablecoin payments will accelerate their integration into the global payment systems of enterprises. WasabiCard will continue to help businesses conduct global operations more robustly through compliant and reliable payment infrastructure."

According to a report from Hongxing News, an investigation report leaked from a scam park in Myanmar shows that global telecom fraud is accelerating towards an "AI industrialization + cross-border encrypted payment" system. The scam network completes fund circulation through cryptocurrency and uses automated tools based on large models for multi-language script generation, identity disguise, and emotional manipulation.According to the investigation analysis, these systems extensively utilize OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini at the functional level to support "scaled social fraud." The funding side achieves rapid laundering and transfer through on-chain payments and cross-border channels, forming a dual structure of "AI customer acquisition + encrypted settlement," which gives the fraud industry a high degree of automation and transnational diffusion capability. In addition, Starlink, owned by Musk, has become the number one network service provider for the scam park in Myanmar, with American ISP providers carrying nearly one-fifth of the park's traffic.In response to the related accusations, OpenAI stated that the behavior of scammers using ChatGPT is highly similar to that of ordinary users, making identification difficult. However, they have banned about 100,000 suspicious accounts monthly through behavioral pattern recognition and risk control systems. Google stated that its AI models have safety barriers in place and emphasized its commitment to "responsible AI development" to limit the tools' use for fraud and other illegal purposes.

The New Hampshire House Bill HB639 has completed the registration process. The bill specifies that state and local governments may not restrict individuals from using digital assets for payments or holding assets through self-custody wallets, nor may they impose additional taxes solely for the use of digital assets.At the same time, individuals or businesses operating nodes, engaging in mining or staking activities, are not required to obtain a money transmission license, and such activities are not considered the issuance or sale of securities.

Jack McDonald, Senior Vice President of Ripple's Stablecoin Business, disclosed eight recent developments regarding RLUSD in a post on X on June 29, covering settlement, regional access, on-chain liquidity, cross-border payments, multi-chain support, exchange listings, charity, and the Japanese market.Mastercard has expanded its settlement capabilities to support RLUSD across eight blockchain networks, including the XRP Ledger; Ripple has also increased the availability of RLUSD in Turkey through partnerships with BiLira, Bitexen, and Bitlo, and collaborated with Bitso to support liquidity and cross-border transactions for RLUSD and MXNB via the XRP Ledger's Permissioned DEX.RLUSD has also achieved multi-chain support through Wormhole Native Token Transfers and entered the Japanese market via SBI VC Trade after obtaining approval from the Financial Services Agency of Japan; additionally, RLUSD has been listed on exchanges such as Gate and Floq, and integrated with cross-chain infrastructure provider Squid Router, while Ripple joined Water's GetBlue campaign as its exclusive digital asset and payment partner.

With the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) officially coming into full effect on July 1, 2026, it marks the beginning of a new era of unified regulation in the European digital asset market. As the global regulatory framework continues to improve, stablecoin payments are evolving from a focus on "pure efficiency" to "compliance, transparency, and trust," accelerating their transformation into core infrastructure for enterprise-level payments.As a provider of enterprise-level stablecoin payment infrastructure, WasabiCard consistently practices a "compliance first" development philosophy. By continuously strengthening core risk control capabilities such as AML (Anti-Money Laundering), KYC (Know Your Customer), and KYB (Know Your Business), it is committed to building a secure, transparent, and sustainable foundation for global payments.As stablecoins rapidly penetrate core business scenarios such as enterprise treasury management, cross-border payments, and B2B settlements, compliance capability has become the primary consideration for enterprises when choosing payment channels. In the future, WasabiCard will leverage its core capabilities of "global issuance, stablecoin payments, global remittance, and fund distribution" to deeply integrate a comprehensive compliance system with business scenarios, helping global enterprises confidently navigate the evolving regulatory environment and significantly enhance the security and compliance efficiency of their global operations.

American Express is hiring a Vice President of Stablecoin and Blockchain Partnerships and Strategy in New York, responsible for formulating the company's overall strategy in the fields of programmable currency, stablecoin payments, and blockchain financial infrastructure, promoting collaboration with stablecoin issuers, blockchain networks, tokenization platforms, wallets, and fintech companies, and overseeing projects such as stablecoin payments, tokenized settlements, digital identity, and programmable commerce from concept validation to implementation.

During the 2026 New York Tech Week, Zack Anderson, Chief Data and Analytics Officer of J.P. Morgan Payments, shared the latest applications and strategic outlook of AI in payment infrastructure at a seminar. He stated that the application of AI in the banking industry is becoming increasingly mature, with most AI agents currently operating invisibly in the background, significantly enhancing the efficiency of payment flows and risk management capabilities.Anderson pointed out that with the proliferation of Agentic AI, the core challenge facing the payment sector lies in the governance and auditability of "machine authorization" (especially for high-value payments). He emphasized that leveraging AI to handle complex cross-border payment compliance rules is an important opportunity in the near term, which is expected to significantly reduce payment rejection rates. Furthermore, although current corporate AI investments are largely focused on the customer front end, "Agentic Treasury" will be an important early opportunity for the future, and its large-scale application will still rely on further improvement of underlying data and governance infrastructure.