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According to Jinshi reports, the UK's financial regulatory authority has launched an investigation into Mastercard (MA.N), Visa (V.N), and PayPal (PYPL.O) due to suspicions of anti-competitive behavior regarding the flow and use of funds in the PayPal digital wallet.The UK's Financial Conduct Authority stated on Wednesday that it has not yet concluded whether the relevant companies have violated competition law. PayPal disclosed this investigation in a regulatory filing this week. A representative from PayPal stated that the company is cooperating with the FCA investigation but will not comment further as the case is still ongoing.

According to Forbes, the Bitcoin mining company GoMining plans to launch its Bitcoin native payment protocol GoBTC, based on its own block production, at the Consensus conference.The protocol offers users instant authorization and settlement on the Bitcoin mainnet within a few hours, charging merchants a fee rate of 0.2%, which is an order of magnitude lower than the 1.5% to 3.5% rates of Visa and Mastercard.

According to BBX data, yesterday the earnings season for cryptocurrency-related stocks and the expansion of stablecoin infrastructure advanced simultaneously, with the following key developments:Robinhood Markets, Inc. (NASDAQ: $HOOD) released its Q1 2026 earnings report and submitted SEC Form 8-K after the market closed on April 28: total revenue of $1.07 billion (up 15% year-over-year), below the analyst consensus expectation of $1.14 billion; adjusted EPS of $0.38, slightly lower than the consensus of $0.39; cryptocurrency trading revenue plummeted 47% year-over-year to $134 million (compared to $252 million in the same period last year), with cryptocurrency trading volume also declining 48% to $24 billion, marking the third consecutive quarter of declining cryptocurrency revenue. Meanwhile, revenue from event contracts (prediction markets) surged 320% year-over-year to $147 million, surpassing cryptocurrency revenue for the first time to become the largest source of trading revenue, with a record contract volume of 8.8 billion for the quarter; affected by the earnings report, $HOOD fell about 13.24% to $71.20 yesterday.Visa Inc. (NYSE: $V) announced on April 29 through an official BusinessWire press release that five new blockchains—Arc, Base, Canton, Polygon, and Tempo—have been added to its global stablecoin settlement pilot, expanding the total supported network to nine (previously Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche, Stellar); the annualized scale of stablecoin settlements reached $7 billion, a 50% increase from the previous quarter. The pilot allows issuing banks and acquiring banks to settle using stablecoins instead of traditional banking rails, currently covering over 50 countries and more than 130 stablecoin-related card projects, and has expanded to USDC settlements with U.S. banks.Senator Cynthia Lummis publicly confirmed on April 29 that the markup for the CLARITY Act in the Senate Banking Committee is scheduled for May 2026; at the same time, the SEC announced it will hold a roundtable discussion on May 3 regarding issues related to the CLARITY Act, further clarifying the signals of coordination between regulatory and legislative bodies to accelerate the process, providing an official timeline endorsement for the previously anticipated "end of May" market expectations.

According to official news, Visa has announced the formal inclusion of Polygon in its global Stablecoin Settlement Program. Visa partners, including issuing institutions and acquiring institutions, can now complete stablecoin settlements through the Polygon network. Polygon stated that it has now become the largest USD stablecoin payment network in the world.According to Allium and Dune data: 34% of USD stablecoin transfers occur on Polygon, more than twice that of BNB Chain; 54% of USDC transfers occur on Polygon, higher than the total of all other chains; 36% of global USDC transactions run on Polygon; Polygon currently has approximately 3.19 million weekly active stablecoin users; the on-chain stablecoin supply has reached a historic high of $3.62 billion; in March, the number of USD stablecoin transactions reached 178.1 million.Visa stated that its stablecoin settlement program has achieved an annualized operating scale of $7 billion this quarter, a 50% increase from three months ago. Polygon emphasized that its network features low transaction fees, approximately 4 seconds for transaction finality, and has been used by institutions such as Stripe, Revolut, Flutterwave, and BlackRock for real financial activity settlements.

According to The Block, Visa has partnered with WeFi, a "on-chain bank" company founded by former Tether CEO Reeve Collins, allowing users to hold digital assets through self-custody wallets while directly spending within the global Visa acceptance network, without the need to custody assets in centralized exchanges.Maksym Sakharov, co-founder and CEO of WeFi, stated that stablecoins are directly embedded in the underlying infrastructure, with settlements automatically completed in the background, providing a user experience similar to regular payments. This collaboration will initially roll out in certain markets in Europe, Asia, and Latin America, with further expansion depending on regulatory approval progress.

Cuy Sheffield, the head of Visa's crypto business, stated that two American banks, Lead Bank and Cross River, have settled transactions using USDC on Solana.

According to Theblock, institutional payment giants Visa and Stripe, as well as Zodia Custody under Standard Chartered Bank, have become early validators of Tempo.It is reported that Tempo is an Ethereum-compatible Layer 1 built for high-throughput payments and stablecoin settlements. The project is incubated by Stripe and Paradigm and launched on a private testnet in September. At the same time, Tempo also launched a proxy payment protocol aimed at enabling transactions through software proxies.

According to Cointelegraph, Visa has launched the "Intelligent Commerce Connect" service, which supports AI agents to complete purchase payments on behalf of consumers in commercial scenarios worldwide.

According to Bloomberg, Andrew Ferguson, the chairman of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, sent letters to payment companies such as Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, and Stripe, warning them not to refuse services based on users' political views or religious beliefs.Ferguson stated that preventing law-abiding individuals from conducting legitimate business is not in line with American values. This move comes as the Trump administration focuses on the issue of "de-banking," with the government previously suing JPMorgan Chase and its CEO Jamie Dimon, accusing the bank of cutting off services to Trump and his businesses for political reasons. The Trump Organization has also sued Capital One Financial Corp., alleging political discrimination. Both JPMorgan Chase and First Capital deny the allegations. Stripe responded that it would not restrict services based on political views.

Visa announced that it will join the Canton Network, becoming the first major global payment company to serve as a super validator. Visa will be one of 40 super validators, helping banks and financial institutions move payment flows on-chain.Rubail Birwadker, Head of Global Growth Products and Strategic Partnerships at Visa, stated: "Many banks see the lack of privacy as a fatal flaw in moving meaningful activities on-chain. By operating as a super validator on the Canton Network, we bring Visa-level trust, governance, and operational rigor to a privacy-preserving blockchain infrastructure, enabling regulated financial institutions to move payments on-chain without having to rethink how they operate."

According to a report by The Block, payment giant VISA and Dune jointly released a report indicating that non-U.S. dollar stablecoins are gradually being used as actual "local currencies," with significant growth in their application in payment and settlement scenarios.Unlike U.S. dollar stablecoins, which are primarily used for DeFi yield strategies, non-U.S. dollar stablecoins are more commonly used in practical fund flow scenarios such as cross-border payments, remittances, B2B settlements, and foreign exchange management. Their assets are mainly distributed across user wallets, centralized exchanges, and institutional treasuries.Data shows that as of February this year, the total supply of non-U.S. dollar stablecoins reached $1.1 billion, an increase of about three times compared to January 2023; during the same period, the transfer volume surged from $600 million to $10 billion, an increase of over 1600%. Currently, there are more than 1.2 million addresses holding related stablecoins, and the number of active sending addresses has also increased from about 6,000 to 135,000.

The Web3 asset data platform RootData released a network map of Visa's business partners in the cryptocurrency field on X, systematically outlining its complete ecological layout from underlying infrastructure to end applications.Structurally, Visa has formed a "three-layer synergy" model: the upstream is provided by stablecoin issuers like Circle, offering settlement infrastructure, along with risk control and compliance service providers like TRM Labs; the middle layer connects on-chain and traditional finance through bridges and banking institutions; the downstream is handled by wallet and card issuing platforms, including MetaMask, Wirex, etc., facilitating actual payment scenarios for users.This layout reflects that the cryptocurrency industry is accelerating its integration into the traditional payment system, with the combination of "stablecoin settlement + compliance risk control + card network" becoming the mainstream path. 【View Visa Crypto Partner Network Compilation (continuously updated)】RootData stated that it will continue to track and open more project business relationship disclosure channels. For cryptocurrency projects, actively showcasing partners and business networks is becoming an important way to enhance transparency and market trust. Web3 project parties are welcome to claim data and join the RootData Alliances Hub TG group to maintain business alliance data, match BD partners, and explore ecological cooperation together!