Crypto World
Morgan Stanley to support tokenized stocks on internal venue by 2026
Morgan Stanley will let clients trade tokenized versions of U.S. stocks and ETFs on its internal ATS from late 2026, tying into SEC pilots at DTCC and Nasdaq for on‑chain settlement.
Summary
- Morgan Stanley plans to enable tokenized issuance and settlement for selected blue‑chip U.S. stocks and ETFs on its alternative trading system in H2 2026, running alongside traditional shares.
- The move rides a tokenized stock market that has grown to about $800m in value and $1.8b in monthly volume, with roughly 50,000 monthly active and 130,000 total holding addresses.
- It fits a broader U.S. shift: the SEC has given DTCC’s DTC a three‑year window to custody tokenized securities and approved a Nasdaq pilot for tokenized stock settlement without changing trading rules.
Morgan Stanley plans to switch on tokenized stock trading for institutional clients on its internal alternative trading system in the second half of 2026, a significant escalation of Wall Street’s push to bring traditional equities onto blockchain rails. Amy Oldenburg, the bank’s head of digital assets strategy, told a panel at the Digital Asset Summit in New York on Tuesday that the ATS — which currently handles listed stocks, ETFs and American depositary receipts — will allow certain securities to be issued and settled in tokenized form alongside their conventional counterparts. “This is not FOMO,” Oldenburg said in separate comments reported by AOL, describing the rollout as “a very managed and stepped journey” tied to a broader modernization of Morgan Stanley’s trading and settlement infrastructure.
The plan positions Morgan Stanley to sit directly in the middle of the fast-growing tokenized stocks segment, where on-chain representations of U.S. equities have reached roughly $800 million in market value and about $1.8 billion in monthly trading volume as of December 2025, according to ChainCatcher’s market research. That same research notes around 50,000 monthly active addresses and 130,000 total holding addresses in tokenized equities, a sign that usage is moving beyond niche experiments and into regular portfolio construction for offshore and crypto-native investors. For Morgan Stanley’s ATS, the initial phase will likely focus on tokenized blue-chip U.S. stocks and ETFs, with Oldenburg previously signaling interest in connecting the bank’s wealth clients and advisory channels to a broader lineup of digital securities over time.
Morgan Stanley’s move lands in a regulatory environment that has turned sharply more accommodating to tokenized securities. In late 2025, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission granted a no-action letter to the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), allowing its Depository Trust Company unit to custody and recognize tokenized stocks, bonds and other real-world assets on selected blockchains for a three-year period. This effectively gave DTCC permission to run tokenization services at scale and paved the way for mainstream broker-dealers and banks to plug into on-chain settlement without abandoning the existing market structure.
More recently, the SEC approved a pilot for Nasdaq to support tokenized stock trading, letting participants choose tokenized settlement while keeping the same order book, priority rules and shareholder rights as traditional equities. ChainCatcher notes that the Nasdaq pilot is designed to “explore the feasibility of on-chain settlement without changing the trading structure,” a model that closely mirrors Morgan Stanley’s plan to add tokenized legs into an existing ATS rather than create a separate crypto-only exchange. In parallel, Morgan Stanley has filed for spot Bitcoin and Solana ETFs, is preparing a native Bitcoin custody and trading platform, and, according to RootData and CryptoRank, is developing a digital wallet to support tokenized assets — suggesting that tokenized stocks are one pillar in a broader multi-asset digital securities roadmap.
OpenAI has announced it is shutting down its video generation platform Sora after just six months, with CEO Sam Altman reportedly telling staff the company is winding down all of its video products.
“We’re saying goodbye to the Sora app,” Sora posted to X on Tuesday. “We know this news is disappointing. We’ll share more soon, including timelines for the app and API and details on preserving your work.”
Sora was released in September to a buzzy reception as the ChatGPT maker sought to make inroads on short-form video content popular across TikTok and Meta’s Instagram.
However, the app also faced backlash over concerns that it would further the proliferation of realistic deepfakes. OpenAI cracked down on some deepfakes generated by its platform after pressure from celebrities.
Products using video models on the chopping block
Altman told staff the company was winding down products that used video models, including the developer version of Sora and the app’s video functionality in its generative AI chatbot ChatGPT, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.
Altman also said the Sora team will shift its focus to longer-term bets such as robotics, amid a company-wide redirect to concentrate on productivity tools for enterprises and individual users.
Related: OpenAI wins defense contract hours after government ditches Anthropic
OpenAI launched Sora last year as a text-to-video generator, and it racked up 1 million downloads in just five days. Data analytics firm Sensor Tower estimates that last month, Sora was downloaded around 600,000 times.
Disney deal not moving forward
In December, the Walt Disney Co. signed a three-year licensing agreement to become Sora’s first major content partner, giving users access to more than 200 characters from franchises including Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars.
A Disney spokeswoman told The Wall Street Journal that the deal, which included a $1 billion equity investment in OpenAI, will not move forward.
Cointelegraph contacted OpenAI and Disney for comment.
The AI market has been the subject of significant hype. It’s projected to be worth more than $4.8 trillion by 2033, affect 40% of jobs and emerge as a dominant frontier technology.
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The Siren (SIREN) token plunged nearly 70% on Tuesday, reversing a rapid rally as onchain analysts warned that a small cluster of wallets may control a large share of the token’s supply.
According to CoinGecko data, the token dropped nearly 70% from a high of $2.56 early Tuesday to a low of $0.79 on the same day. At the time of writing, Siren hovered around $1.
The sell-off followed a steep run-up in SIREN, a BNB Chain token marketed as an AI analyst agent. Analysts at Bubblemaps and the pseudonymous researcher EmberCN said Monday that wallet data suggested the token’s holdings were highly concentrated.
While the relationship between the claims and the price move remains unclear, the volatility highlights risks tied to thin liquidity and concentrated holdings.
Siren’s 70% drop follows wallet concentration warnings
SIREN rallied to $2.81 on Monday, up 340% from its price of $0.63 on March 16. CoinGecko data showed that in the last month, the token rose by nearly 1,300% from $0.22.
On Monday, a pseudonymous onchain analyst, EmberCN, warned traders that the token’s surge was due to a party cornering nearly all spot supply to profit from contracts.
Related: ‘Hawk Tuah’ girl Haliey Welch says memecoin implosion ‘traumatized’ her
Citing an unverified custom entity created by Arkham Intelligence, EmberCN pointed out that a single entity may be in control of 644 million SIREN, worth about $1.8 billion at the time. This amount accounts for 88% of the entire circulating supply of 728 million tokens.
On Tuesday, blockchain analytics company Bubblemaps shared a visual representation of wallet clusters surrounding Siren. According to the company, one entity controls about 50% of the circulating supply of tokens worth about $1 billion.
According to Bubblemaps, Siren was “largely abandoned” after its launch back in February 2025. The company said that a cluster of over 200 wallets was funded via PancakeSwap and purchased the token in two batches before dispersing them into 47 wallets.
“This only ends one way,” Bubblemaps wrote, implying that if a single party controls the supply, a sharp sell-off may follow.
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The Financial Stability Board (FSB), a global financial watchdog hosted by the Bank for International Settlements, warned on Tuesday that foreign currency-denominated stablecoins can pose financial stability and macroeconomic risks for emerging market and developing economies.
In its annual report for 2025, the FSB said that US dollar-denominated stablecoins circulating across multiple jurisdictions pose “potentially more acute” risks to the financial stability of emerging economies.
The report said those risks can include currency substitution, reduced use of domestic payment systems, lower effectiveness of domestic monetary policy, strains on fiscal resources and the circumvention of capital flow measures.
The FSB said it remains necessary for lawmakers to assess how the stablecoin sector develops in order to understand and respond to vulnerabilities related to liquidity, operational risk and interlinkages with the broader financial system.
The report builds on the FSB’s 2023 global regulatory framework for crypto-asset activities and global stablecoin arrangements, which the board reviewed in 2025 and said still shows significant gaps and inconsistencies in implementation.
The FSB was established in April 2009 as a successor to the Financial Stability Forum. It was created by G20 economies after the 2008 financial crisis to strengthen global financial systems.
Related: FSB warns crypto nearing ‘tipping point’ as ties to TradFi deepen
Stablecoins still have limited real use
Crypto assets and stablecoins still lack adoption in real economic use cases such as payments, the FSB said in the report.
“Despite growth in these markets in recent years, crypto-assets and stablecoins are not widely used in financial services supporting the real economy.”
The report said stablecoins can provide benefits, but added that authorities should continue monitoring vulnerabilities tied to interlinkages, liquidity and operational risks as linkages with core financial markets and institutions increase.
The FSB also outlined other key areas of focus in 2026, including digital innovation related to crypto assets and monitoring stablecoin vulnerabilities.
Other focal points included monitoring vulnerabilities tied to private credit, nonbank financial intermediation, cross-border payments, and the implementation of additional measures tied to crisis preparedness and regulatory modernization.
Related: FSB calls for stricter oversight against AI vulnerabilities
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AI and stablecoin segments have outperformed the broader crypto market in 2026, with data pointing to continued usage growth despite declining prices elsewhere.
Key takeaways:
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AI sector posts smallest loss in Q1/2026, down just 14%.
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Stablecoin market cap hits a record $320 billion, with monthly transaction volumes at a record $1.8 trillion.
AI and stablecoin sectors buck the trend
Bitcoin (BTC) trades 18.5% lower in 2026, the total crypto market capitalization has slipped to $2.42 trillion, while most altcoins are lagging, as fear and uncertainty surrounding the US and Israel-Iran war and the Fed’s hawkishness grip the market.
Meanwhile, AI and stablecoin businesses continue to defy the trend, recording significant growth and strong fundamentals that highlight a rotation toward infrastructure over speculation.
Related: Circle asks EU to ease crypto thresholds in proposed markets framework
For example, Circle’s USDC (USDC) supply is at $78 billion, a 220% increase since November 2023, data from Token Terminal shows.
ChatGPT’s weekly active users have also grown to 900 million in March 2026 from 85 million in November 2023, a roughly 10x increase over the same period.
Grayscale’s Q1/2026 report reinforces this observation, revealing that the AI sector recorded the smallest loss at 14% during the first three months of the year, compared to Consumer and Culture at 31%, Smart Contract Platforms at 21%, and Currencies at 21%.
This indicates that “investor appetite shifted away from momentum-driven and more speculative segments,” the digital-asset investment manager said, adding:
“Despite subdued overall sentiment, capital appeared to rotate toward projects with stronger fundamentals and those aligned with key themes such as AI and tokenization.”
The market capitalization of AI tokens now stands at $17.4 billion, up 30% over the last 30 days. Bittensor (TAO) and NEAR Protocol (NEAR) lead the growth, with 75% and 30% price increases, respectively, over the same period
Similarly, stablecoins continue to grow, with the total market capitalization hitting a record $320 billion on March 23. Tether’s USDt (USDT) maintains dominance around $184 billion, representing 57% of the total stablecoin supply.
Monthly transaction volumes hit a record $1.8 trillion in February, rivaling traditional payment rails. USDC led supply growth with an 80% month-to-month increase to a $1.26 trillion all-time high last month.
Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies designed to maintain a stable value, typically pegged to fiat currencies like the US dollar, and can be hosted on multiple blockchains.
In a bear market, stablecoins serve as buying power and settlement rails, dominating trading pairs, supporting tokenized real-world assets, and enabling yield-bearing products.
Ethereum and other chains see high transfer volumes, while institutional products from banks and fintechs integrate them for yield and treasury management. This infrastructural role persists even as speculative assets bleed.
“Structural tailwinds” drive growth convergence
The two sectors thrive because they deliver measurable value even after speculation fades.
“AI labs and stablecoin issuers are among the businesses with the strongest structural tailwinds of the 2020s,” Token Terminal said.
They sit at the “intersection of three distinct forces: technology, finance, and geopolitics,” with each of these drivers independently driving demand for these sectors, the crypto data provider said, adding:
“AI drives productivity and defense capabilities, while stablecoins provide financial infrastructure for global dollar distribution.”
In an X post on Monday, Crypto trader Mando CT said AI and stablecoins are among the four dominant sectors in 2026.
Explaining the convergence, the trader said that AI needs instant and low-fees payment systems to operate, while stablecoins are the “internet money” needed to make this happen.
“These trends are connected,” Mando CT said, adding:
“2026 isn’t just another cycle. It’s the transition from: Speculation to Infrastructure.”
Cointelegraph reported that stablecoins could benefit from AI-driven payments by enabling easy, automatic, and rule-based transactions between entities, further driving long-term growth for both sectors.
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision. While we strive to provide accurate and timely information, Cointelegraph does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any information in this article. This article may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Cointelegraph will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from your reliance on this information.
Opinion by: Mitchell Amador, founder and CEO of Immunefi
There’s an argument that regulation will split decentralized finance (DeFi) into two separate silos: one regulated and compliant and the other completely open and accessible by anyone, including anonymous participants.
This argument is outdated.
Regulatory pressure in 2026 will reshape DeFi into a network of interoperable, interlinked ecosystems with distinct risk, compliance and access profiles.
Some tiers will become more compliant and institution-friendly, while others will remain open, permissionless and driven by onchain leverage and market experimentation.
This evolution won’t drag DeFi toward TradFi. Rather, it will bring TradFi into DeFi’s orbit.
DeFi already operates in multiple lanes
DeFi has never functioned as a single monolith; it operates across several concurrent compliance tiers.
The first lane is permissionless DeFi, where anyone can deploy a contract, supply liquidity and use leverage. This is the engine of innovation, where price discovery and stress testing happen in public, as does failure. Permissionless pools have no Know Your Customer (KYC), allow pseudonymous users and exist because global markets can move faster than regulated institutions.
The next tier consists of protocols with built-in safeguards, like liquidation rules, governance frameworks and oracle protections, but no identity requirements. These serve people who want liquidity and yield with risk management.
Finally, there is the newer, heavily controlled lane, where KYC checks, geofencing and compliance filters are applied at the access-point level.
The same underlying smart contracts can still be reached, just through different gates.
Liquidity trumps isolation
Full isolation of compliant DeFi is unlikely. Capital seeks liquidity, and liquidity seeks composability. That means the regulated lanes will run through permissionless infrastructure.
Institutions entering digital assets will want access to the scale of liquidity that only onchain markets can provide — 24/7 global access, near-instant settlement and depth that traditional venues cannot match. The passage of the GENIUS Act, which bans yield-bearing stablecoins, has already pushed institutional capital toward DeFi protocols in search of returns.
If the liquidity accessed is compelling enough, institutions will tolerate complexity and innovation risks. Regulation won’t eliminate this incentive.
Security innovation starts in the arena
Institutional and compliant participants care deeply about security, yet the center of gravity for security innovation will sit inside permissionless DeFi.
That may sound counterintuitive, given that over $3.1 billion was lost to hacks and exploits during the first half of 2025 alone.
Related: For Wall Street’s most sophisticated trading firms, the next alpha is onchain
Adversarial conditions are precisely where robust defenses are forged. Bug bounty programs, real-time monitoring tools and AI-driven threat detection were all born in the permissionless environment and stress-tested against live exploits before any compliance framework adopted them.
This pattern will accelerate. New security models that range from automated vulnerability scanning to onchain firewalling will continue to emerge in open DeFi and will then be standardized and adopted by the institutional side once they prove effective.
Regulation will cement DeFi’s central role
Regulation will certainly not fracture DeFi. What we will see instead is how decentralized finance will cement its position at the center of global finance.
The future, to be sure, is not compliant DeFi versus permissionless DeFi, because DeFi has the ability to be interoperable. It’s a network where open markets generate liquidity and innovation, and regulated players selectively plug in. That’s why we will see regulatory pressures mold the ecosystem into interconnected tiers, with some gravitating toward greater compliance and others toward the open marketplace, all of them linked by the composability that makes onchain finance uniquely powerful.
That dynamic will inevitably draw TradFi closer to DeFi as institutions seek out the far greater liquidity, speed and efficiency of decentralized markets.
Opinion by: Mitchell Amador, founder and CEO of Immunefi.
This opinion article presents the author’s expert view, and it may not reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. This content has undergone editorial review to ensure clarity and relevance. Cointelegraph remains committed to transparent reporting and upholding the highest standards of journalism. Readers are encouraged to conduct their own research before taking any actions related to the company.
Financial technology company Omnes and financial services provider Apex Group said on Tuesday that they plan to issue a tokenized secured debt note backed by Bitcoin hashrate on Base.
The two companies announced that they would tokenize the Omnes Mining Note (OMN), an institutional-grade structured note backed by the Bitcoin (BTC) hashrate. The companies said it will be issued and managed on the Base blockchain, Coinbase’s Ethereum layer-2 network.
Apex said the note is designed to give institutional investors “direct economic exposure to new Bitcoin production measured in hashrate” without the operational burden of managing mining hardware, energy procurement and facilities.
The launch adds a new type of crypto-linked security to the tokenization market by packaging mining output into a regulated investment product that can be transferred onchain between approved investors.
Omnes CEO Emmanuel Montero said the OMN is intended to convert Bitcoin mining output into a structured financial instrument backed by large-scale mining operations. “Bitcoin mining is the only mechanism that creates new Bitcoin through protocol issuance. This is economically distinct from yield strategies that rely on redistributing existing Bitcoin,” he said.
Bitcoin mining exposure packaged into a tokenized debt note
According to the announcement, the OMN is designed to give professional investors outside of the United States economic exposure linked to mining production, using hashrate as its underlying metric. The Bitcoin hashrate is the computational power that secures the network and produces new coins.
The product essentially lets investors benefit from Bitcoin mining activity without running mining operations themselves.
Related: Nasdaq, Talos target collateral bottleneck in institutional tokenization push
Issued as a secured debt note, the product applies a traditional financial structure with blockchain-based features, including onchain transfers between approved investors.
While the product expands access to mining exposure, details on how hashrate translates into investor returns, as well as the note’s liquidity and risk profile, were not fully disclosed.
Cointelegraph reached out to Omnes and Apex Group for more information, but had not received a response by publication.
Tokenized assets climb to over $23 billion in March
The plans to tokenize Bitcoin mining exposure come amid a rise in tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) in 2026.
On March 11, DefiLlama data showed that the value of tokenized RWAs on public blockchains reached roughly $23.6 billion, up 66% year-to-date.
At the time of writing, the onchain market capitalization for tokenized RWAs stood at around at $23 billion, according to DefiLlama.
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Circle has called on the European Commission to ease parts of its proposed Market Integration Package as the stablecoin issuer pushes for wider institutional use of digital euro and dollar tokens in the region.
Summary
- Circle asked the EU to lower thresholds blocking broader institutional use of e-money tokens.
- The company said current settlement rules could slow growth of euro-denominated stablecoins like EURC.
- Circle also wants crypto service providers included in the EU DLT Pilot Regime.
In a Monday announcement, the company said the package could help connect traditional finance and blockchain systems, but added that some rules still limit access for crypto service providers and slow the growth of euro-backed tokens.
Circle said it sent its feedback to the Commission on March 20. In its response, the company described the package as a “meaningful step toward a digitally enabled financial system” while asking for changes to improve market access and digital asset settlement in Europe.
One of Circle’s main requests focused on the market capitalization threshold tied to e-money tokens used in settlement. The company said limiting settlement use to “significant” e-money tokens could keep euro-denominated tokens out of the market and create what it called a “chicken-and-egg scenario” for growth.
Circle argued that the current threshold creates a structural barrier for institutions that want to use e-money tokens in secondary markets. It said the Commission should use more flexible thresholds based on factors such as market uptake and liquidity conditions rather than relying on a fixed capital benchmark.
The company has a direct interest in that issue because it offers EURC, a euro-backed stablecoin that complies with MiCA rules in Europe. Circle’s MiCA white paper says EURC is an e-money token and states that it does not meet the definition of a “significant e-money token” under current rules.
Circle also wants wider access under DLT rules
Circle also asked the Commission to widen access under the DLT Pilot Regime. It said the current structure limits cash accounts to credit institutions and central securities depositories, and argued that crypto-asset service providers should also be allowed to take part.
The company said these changes would give Europe-based crypto market participants more clarity, especially around which digital assets can be used as collateral and how blockchain-based settlement can work within regulated capital markets. The Commission launched the broader Market Integration Package in December 2025 as part of its plan to deepen EU capital markets integration and supervision.
Europe’s main crypto framework remains the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, which took effect in late 2024. Circle said the new package gives the EU a chance to update parts of its financial system while keeping digital asset rules clear and proportionate for firms operating in the bloc.
Aave’s community has moved a step closer to launching V4 on Ethereum after a governance proposal won near-unanimous backing. The result points to broader support for the upgrade after several weeks of public tension inside the DAO and the exit plans of key contributors.
Summary
- Aave DAO strongly backed V4, moving the protocol closer to Ethereum mainnet deployment.
- The vote followed governance tension and exit plans from key Aave contributors recently.
- Aave V4 introduces modular hubs and spokes for shared liquidity and tailored risk.
A Snapshot vote on Monday showed more than 645,000 votes in favor of moving Aave V4 toward Ethereum mainnet deployment. Fewer than one vote opposed the plan, and there were no abstentions, according to reporting on the outcome.
The vote does not activate the system on its own. Aave founder Stani Kulechov said the proposal is expected to advance to an Aave Improvement Proposal, which would be the binding onchain vote needed to deploy and activate V4 on Ethereum.
Aave Labs presented V4 as a protocol built around a hub-and-spoke structure. Under that model, shared liquidity sits in “Hubs,” while “Spokes” define separate borrowing markets with their own limits and risk settings.
Aave Labs said this structure is meant to keep the benefits of shared liquidity while giving the protocol tighter control over risk across different markets. The design is also intended to support a wider range of use cases, including new collateral types and structured credit markets.
Governance tensions shaped the backdrop
The strong support for V4 follows a period of strain inside Aave governance. In a forum post published on February 20, BGD Labs said it would end its involvement with Aave after nearly four years, citing an “asymmetric organizational scenario” and what it called an “adversarial position” toward its work on V3.
That dispute widened in early March when the Aave Chan Initiative said it would not seek renewal of its engagement with the DAO. Marc Zeller wrote that ACI would wind down over four months after a clash over funding, governance standards, and voting dynamics.
In addition, the latest vote suggests the DAO is now more aligned on the path forward for V4. It also gives Aave Labs a clearer route to seek final approval for Ethereum mainnet activation through the next governance stage.
Why Mastercard’s BVNK acquisition is a strategic shift
Mastercard’s deal to acquire BVNK for up to $1.8 billion goes beyond simply entering the crypto space. It reflects a well-thought-out strategic redirection.
Rather than introducing its own stablecoin, Mastercard has opted to gain control of the underlying infrastructure that links conventional finance to blockchain-enabled payments.
This approach prompts an important question: Why would a major player in payments decide against creating its own digital currency and instead invest in the systems that facilitate its movement?
The explanation centers on regulatory considerations, the ability to scale and sustained influence over the core infrastructure of digital finance.
What BVNK brings to the table
BVNK does not issue stablecoins and operates as a payments infrastructure provider. Robust infrastructure plays an important role in the functioning of the stablecoin ecosystem.
It allows businesses to:
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Send and receive payments with stablecoins
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Perform smooth conversions between fiat currencies and crypto
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Operate in more than 130 countries
As a result, BVNK serves as a connector between two distinct financial ecosystems:
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Conventional payment networks, including banks, card networks and fiat channels
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Blockchain networks, including stablecoins, crypto wallets and on-chain transactions
Instead of developing a new form of currency, BVNK helps businesses utilize the ones already available with greater efficiency.
Did you know? Stablecoins process trillions of dollars in annual transaction volume and often rival major card networks. Yet many users do not realize they are interacting with blockchain-based systems behind the scenes when using certain fintech payment services.
Objective of Mastercard: Connecting financial networks
Mastercard serves as a connector of financial networks, functioning as a network of networks. Rather than trying to compete with different forms of digital money, Mastercard aims to play the role of an integrator that links them all seamlessly.
This approach involves bringing together:
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Traditional card-based payment systems
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Core banking infrastructure
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Blockchain-based transaction rails
According to company leadership, the future payments landscape is expected to feature an array of digital money forms, such as:
Why Mastercard has chosen not to issue its own stablecoin
On the surface, creating a stablecoin issued by Mastercard might appear to be a natural step. However, there are compelling reasons the company has decided against it:
Stringent regulatory compliance
Stablecoin issuers are encountering growing regulatory pressure. Emerging frameworks, such as the GENIUS Act (Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins), are designed to enforce:
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Strict reserve requirements
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Enhanced transparency obligations
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Oversight similar to that applied to traditional banks
By issuing a stablecoin, Mastercard would effectively become a regulated financial issuer, which would introduce substantial operational and compliance complexity.
Risks tied to the balance sheet
Enterprises that issue stablecoins are required to hold reserves, typically in cash or government securities, to fully back the tokens in circulation. This creates several challenges, including:
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Complex liquidity management
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Potential redemption pressures
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Vulnerability to shifts in market conditions
By steering clear of issuance, Mastercard avoids taking on these financial risks and obligations.
Preserving harmony with partners
Mastercard maintains close partnerships with:
Introducing its own stablecoin would risk placing Mastercard in direct competition with these key collaborators within its ecosystem. By focusing on infrastructure instead, Mastercard can remain in a neutral position that serves rather than challenges its partners.
Did you know? The concept of “tokenized deposits” is gaining traction among banks, where traditional money is digitized on a blockchain. However, it remains within regulated banking systems, offering a potential alternative to privately issued stablecoins.
Infrastructure offers Mastercard more leverage
Controlling infrastructure generally delivers greater power than controlling a single asset. A stablecoin issuer earns profits exclusively from its own token. An infrastructure provider, however, captures value from transactions involving multiple tokens.
This model enables Mastercard to:
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Support Tether USDt (USDT), USDC (USDC) and emerging bank-issued tokens
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Generate fees from a broad spectrum of use cases
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Grow in tandem with the entire ecosystem rather than being limited to one product
With this step, Mastercard is positioning itself to capture value across digital payment flows.
Why timing is critical at this juncture
The acquisition aligns with a surge in institutional interest in stablecoins, which have the potential to fundamentally transform global payments over the coming decade.
Several converging trends reinforce this momentum:
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Significantly faster and more cost-effective cross-border transactions
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Growing regulatory clarity
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Expanding adoption among fintech companies and large enterprises
Stablecoins have moved beyond the experimental phase and are increasingly viewed as foundational elements of financial infrastructure.
Did you know? Cross-border payments through traditional banking can involve up to five intermediaries. Stablecoin-based transfers can reduce this to just two endpoints, dramatically cutting both time and cost.
Where Visa, Coinbase and others fit in
Mastercard faces competition in this space. Visa has made investments in BVNK, while Coinbase previously considered acquiring the company before withdrawing.
This reflects a wider industry convergence:
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Traditional financial institutions are advancing into blockchain territory
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Crypto-native companies are seeking deeper integration with established payment networks
Nevertheless, approaches vary and many crypto firms prioritize issuing their own tokens. Major payment networks emphasize infrastructure and broad distribution.
Why infrastructure wins in cross-border payments
Conventional cross-border payments are hampered by delays, often spanning days, high fees and the involvement of numerous intermediaries.
On the other hand, stablecoin-based systems deliver:
By incorporating infrastructure such as BVNK, Mastercard can introduce these benefits into its established network without needing to replace it entirely.
Mastercard’s strategy reduces the barriers to adoption. Banks and fintechs gain the ability to:
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Provide stablecoin services without developing their own blockchain systems
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Use global payment rails more efficiently
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Seamlessly incorporate digital currency features into their current offerings
This approach cements Mastercard’s position as a backend enabler for the future of finance.
Associated risks and open questions
Despite the promise of this infrastructure-focused strategy for Mastercard, meaningful challenges and uncertainties remain that could influence its long-term outcome.
These include:
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Persistent regulatory differences and fragmentation across jurisdictions, creating compliance hurdles and inconsistent operating environments for cross-border activities
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Heavy reliance on external stablecoins issued and managed by third parties, which introduces dependency risks related to their stability, governance and continued availability
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Intensifying competition from CBDCs as well as powerful technology giants entering the payments space with their own solutions and vast user bases
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Potential margin compression in infrastructure-based services, as increased competition and scale drive fees downward over time
Evolving geopolitical tensions, shifts in monetary policy and unforeseen technological disruptions could further complicate the path forward.
Ultimately, the success and durability of Mastercard’s approach will depend on how the broader stablecoin ecosystem continues to develop and mature.
A group of Ethereum developers has launched a resource hub focused on protecting the blockchain from future quantum computing threats and securing the billions of dollars worth of value the network secures.
The “Post-Quantum Ethereum” website, launched on Tuesday by members of the Ethereum Foundation, says the organization’s new Post-Quantum team is planning to implement quantum solutions into Ethereum at the protocol level by 2029, with solutions targeting the execution layer to follow.
While the Post-Quantum team said no imminent quantum threat exists for cryptography-secured blockchains, early action is necessary due to the complexity involved:
“Migrating a decentralized, global protocol takes years of coordination, engineering, and formal verification,” the team said. “The work must begin well before the threat arrives.”
Source: Ethereum Foundation
Concerns that quantum computers could eventually break blockchain cryptography have fueled industry-wide fear around private keys and wallet security, prompting broader debate over how the sector should prepare as the technology develops.
Most industry analysts acknowledge that quantum computing poses some level of threat to crypto. Galaxy Digital analyst Will Owens has said only crypto wallets with exposed public keys are vulnerable, while others, such as Capriole Investments’ Charles Edwards, have said all coins are at risk.
Post-Quantum team building SNARK-based signatures
Many crypto developers are focused on how quantum-safe solutions can be implemented into cryptographic signatures to fight off potential attacks.
However, some solutions are more computationally intensive and could potentially impact blockchain performance by increasing bandwidth and storage.
The Post-Quantum team is integrating SNARK, or Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge technology, in an effort to prevent the Ethereum network from experiencing these issues.
Related: Quantum fears aren’t behind Bitcoin’s 46% drop, says developer
Quantum solutions will be implemented into Ethereum’s consensus, execution and data layers, the team said.
The Post-Quantum team said it would prioritize protecting standard Ethereum wallets as it believes that’s where the largest pool of value is, followed by high-value operational wallets tied to crypto exchanges, bridges and custody solutions.
It said that one of the biggest challenges will be to deploy these solutions without disrupting the network.
“Choosing a post-quantum algorithm is only part of the challenge. The harder parts include safely upgrading hundreds of millions of accounts, preventing the migration from introducing new bugs, avoiding new attack surfaces, maintaining performance, and coordinating ecosystem-wide adoption.”
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