Fragmented regulatory regimes are limiting stablecoin adoption in international trade, according to Juan Marchetti, director of the trade in services and investment division at the World Trade Organization (WTO).

“The constraint is not technology. It is actually regulation and the lack of development of regulatory frameworks,” said Marchetti during a Monday speech in Geneva, at the launch of WTO’s study on stablecoins in world trade.

He cited an October 2025 report from the Financial Stability Board which found that only 39%, or 11 out of 28 surveyed jurisdictions, have finalized their stablecoin regulatory frameworks.

Marchetti added that stablecoins may improve some of the main friction points of trade finance, but currently only account for 3% of total international payments due to fragmented regulatory regimes. 

The WTO’s report identified five friction points that may be improved by stablecoin adoption, including high costs, low speed, limited access, insufficient transparency and foreign exchange limitations.

Stablecoins ability to ease friction in international payments. Source: Cointelegraph/WTO

The report also revealed that stablecoin payments in cross-border payments grew 35-fold between 2020 and mid-2024.

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Emerging economies stand to gain most from stablecoin adoption: WTO

Developing economies stand to benefit most from stablecoin adoption due to their ability to reduce remittance fees. However, these same countries have the least developed regulatory regimes to facilitate adoption, according to the WTO’s director. He said:

“Contribution to trade will depend far less on the technology than on regulatory convergence, interoperability and the surrounding financial infrastructure, especially in developing economies that stand to gain.”

Some of the largest global payment processors are exploring stablecoins to improve cross-border payments.

In August, Mastercard partnered with stablecoin orchestration network Borderless to pilot how to bring more trust into cross-border stablecoin transfers through the payment processing giant’s Crypto Credential framework. In June, it announced plans to expand its settlement capabilities to include intraday, weekend and holiday card settlement, including settlement through stablecoins.

Also in August, Western Union said it partnered with stablecoin infrastructure provider Rain to launch a digital wallet and Visa-branded card that enables users to hold and spend a US dollar-backed stablecoin in 37 markets, planning to expand it to more than 60 markets by the end of the year.

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Accepting crypto has become easier for online businesses, but managing what happens before and after a customer sends a payment can still involve several moving parts.

A merchant needs to generate the payment, confirm that the correct amount has arrived and connect the transaction with an order. Depending on the business, the received crypto may then need to be converted into another asset, transferred to an external wallet or distributed through payouts.

Heleket has built its crypto payment processing platform around bringing those processes into a single system. Businesses can accept Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT and other popular cryptocurrencies, while tools for conversion, automated withdrawals and mass payouts handle different stages of the payment flow.

Heleket at a glance

• Incoming payment fees start from 0.4%
• Withdrawal fees are 0%
• API and ready-made plugin integrations are available
• Project moderation takes up to 24 hours
• Each project receives a personal account manager

The combination gives Heleket room to serve different types of businesses. An online store may only need a straightforward checkout integration, while a SaaS company, gaming platform or digital service could require more control over how payments interact with its existing product.

Crypto payments without rebuilding the checkout

Businesses with their own technical infrastructure can connect Heleket directly through its API.

Developers control how the payment process fits into the product instead of working around a fixed checkout format. Heleket provides SDKs, code examples and documentation for the integration, including material designed to be accessible to developers with limited experience working with crypto payment systems.

Testing takes place before real funds need to move.

Through test webhooks, developers can simulate payment events and check how their application responds at different stages of a transaction. A team can test whether its system recognizes a payment correctly and whether subsequent actions work as expected before enabling the integration for customers.

The integration work happens on the merchant’s side, but the checkout itself is what determines whether a customer completes the payment. Heleket’s checkout does not require the customer to register an account, and a payment can be completed in two clicks, the customer scans a QR code with their mobile wallet, and the exact amount and address are filled in automatically. For a merchant, a simpler checkout is also a practical detail: less friction at the point of payment usually means fewer abandoned transactions.

Two ways to integrate Heleket

API: Built for businesses that want more control over the payment experience and how it connects with their existing product.

Plugins: Designed for businesses already running on supported e-commerce, billing, exchange, management or gaming platforms.

For companies without the need for a custom implementation, Heleket offers plugins for WooCommerce, WHMCS and XenForo. PremiumExchanger, BoxExchanger, iexExchanger and Money-top are among the supported exchange and processing platforms.

Its integrations extend to management systems including PerfectPanel, socpanel, rootpanel and BillManager. MenuBuilderBot and Bot-t cover Telegram and social tools, while Seller.games provides an integration route for gaming projects using Digiseller.

A plugin can handle a more standardized implementation, while the API gives developers room to build the payment flow around an existing service.

What happens after the customer pays?

Receiving crypto creates another decision for merchants: what should happen to the assets once they arrive?

Some businesses may want to hold the cryptocurrency they receive. Others may prefer to move funds directly to their own wallet or maintain balances in a particular asset.

Heleket’s auto-withdrawal feature handles one of those scenarios by automatically sending funds to an external wallet. Once configured, withdrawals can take place without a merchant manually initiating every transfer.

For businesses accepting several cryptocurrencies, the converter allows one supported asset to be exchanged for another from the Heleket dashboard.

The auto-converter automates the process. A merchant that accepts payments in several cryptocurrencies, for example, can configure incoming assets to be converted into a preferred stablecoin.

A possible automated payment flow

Customer pays in BTC or ETH
↓
Heleket processes the payment
↓
Incoming crypto is automatically converted
↓
Funds are held in the selected asset or sent to an external wallet

The exact flow can be configured around how a business wants to manage its crypto payments.

Transaction fees and rounding create another consideration when processing cryptocurrency payments. Small differences between the requested payment and the completed transaction can accumulate when a business handles a large number of payments.

Heleket uses what it calls its Accurate Payment Fee system to calculate payment amounts. The company says its calculation logic accounts for rounding and fluctuating fees to reduce the risk of merchants losing money through payment discrepancies.

Key payment management tools

• Acquiring: Accept BTC, ETH, USDT and other supported cryptocurrencies
• Auto-withdrawal: Move received funds automatically to an external wallet
• Converter: Exchange supported cryptocurrencies from the dashboard
• Auto-converter: Automatically convert incoming payments into a selected asset
• Accurate Payment Fee: Calculate payments while accounting for rounding and changing fees

Businesses can use only the functions they need instead of configuring every feature available on the platform.

Heleket covers outgoing crypto payments too

For some online businesses, accepting money from customers represents only one side of the transaction flow.

Freelance marketplaces, online services and other platforms may regularly need to send cryptocurrency to users. Processing transfers individually becomes increasingly cumbersome as the number of recipients increases.

Heleket provides mass payouts for projects handling high volumes of outgoing payments. Businesses can process multiple crypto payouts through the platform instead of preparing each transaction separately.

Combined with the other automation tools, this creates several possible setups.

An e-commerce merchant could accept Bitcoin and automatically move it to an external wallet. Another business could accept multiple cryptocurrencies and convert each payment into USDT. A platform with users or contractors could combine incoming payments with mass payouts.

Where the features can fit

E-commerce: Crypto checkout, conversion and automatic withdrawals

SaaS: API-based recurring payment flows and account management

Freelance platforms: Crypto payments combined with mass payouts

Gaming: Payment processing and user payouts

Online services: Custom API integrations with automated fund management

The setup can therefore remain relatively small for a merchant that simply wants another checkout option or become more automated for a platform processing a larger number of transactions.

Integration does not always follow a template

Even with APIs and ready-made plugins, payment integrations can become more complicated when an existing business has its own technical requirements.

Heleket handles non-standard setups and edge cases through direct support. Each project receives a personal account manager who can assist during onboarding, answer technical questions and help configure payment processes.

Projects pass through moderation before they begin using the service, with Heleket putting the review period at up to 24 hours.

From setup to live payments

1. Submit the project for moderation
2. Select an API or supported plugin integration
3. Configure the required payment and fund management features
4. Test the transaction flow when using the API
5. Enable live crypto payments

Developers taking the API route can use test webhooks before moving to real transactions. Businesses running supported software can choose the corresponding plugin where available.

For more unusual configurations, technical support and the assigned account manager provide a route for working through requirements that do not fit a standard integration.

A WooCommerce store, for instance, may use Heleket primarily to give customers another way to pay. A digital platform could use the same infrastructure to accept several cryptocurrencies, convert incoming funds, automate transfers to its own wallet and process payouts to users.

Heleket keeps those functions within the same payment environment, leaving businesses to select the tools that fit how they receive, manage and distribute cryptocurrency.

Despite Bitcoin failing to hold above $80,000 following the recent rally, the cryptocurrency is unlikely to revisit the lower price levels it has hovered near for much of this year, according to CoinMarketCap Head of Research Alice Liu.

“I think we might have already touched the bottom,” Liu tells Cointelegraph on Trade Secrets, referring to Bitcoin falling to around $59,000 in June this year, approximately 53% below its October all-time high of $126,100. 

Bitcoin recently tapped $81,600 at the start of September, an approximate 28% rally since mid-August. It pushed the CoinMarketCap Crypto Fear & Greed Index, which measures overall sentiment in the crypto market, back up to Greed after posting Fear scores for most of the year.

However, Liu says some of the more interesting narratives are unfolding outside Bitcoin, particularly in the markets for tokenized real-world assets and perpetual futures. “For Hype [Hyperliquid], there are two things I want to mention. Number one is the activity, and number two is the price, because the network activity doesn’t necessarily translate to the price, and vice versa,” she says.

Hyperliquid ‘still leads’ says Alice Liu

“One interesting thing is I was looking at the RWA perps for the past two months, so the perpetrals backed onto tokenized stocks, tokenized ETFs, and tokenized indices,” she says. Liu said that while Hyperliquid currently holds market share, that might not always be the case as centralized exchanges swoop in.

“Tokenization of the perps, people normally traded on Hyperliquid. But since Binance started to launch the RWA perps, the volume and liquidity quickly moved to Binance,” Liu says. 

“Binance takes about 50% of the market share. But when it comes to DEX, Hyperliquid still leads in that space,” she says.

Hyperliquid is up 47.50% over the past 30 days. Source: CoinMarketCap

“Hyperliquid is still a venue where a lot of the liquidity is getting aggregated, and a lot of the product’s scale is created there.” 

On the Hyperliquid token’s price, Liu points to a different driver. “Hype did hit an all-time high recently: $86. And what’s really interesting is the buybacks.” She explains that Hyperliquid is leading the pack in token buybacks, which is when a project uses its revenue to buy back its own tokens on the open market.

“Hype has spent over $400 million USD on token buybacks. So I think some of this price action momentum we’re seeing is supported by that as well,” Liu says.

She says that Hyperliquid only has a small amount of tokens unlocked, so we’ll continue to see the token unlocks gradually come out.

Alice Liu is more cautious on the AI-crypto narrative

Liu says that means the Hype price is dependent on revenue flowing in to support buybacks.

“So, will we have enough activity on the network to generate the revenue to continue with the buybacks to support the price level? I think that’s one of the key things to watch.” 

While Liu remains bullish on Hyperliquid, she is more cautious on the AI-crypto narrative, particularly AI tokens with little or no utility that surged in popularity in late 2023.

“They are facing such big competition at the moment with the actual AI stocks, all the memory stocks, and all the AI companies. So I think that might be the competitor they’re facing,” Liu says

“For the previous cycle meme-ified AI tokens that do not have any utility or infrastructure, and are purely just backing onto a concept. I think those could potentially go to zero,” she says.

However, Liu emphasizes that there are “some really solid” AI infrastructure projects. “I think they will have utilities too. But even then, I think they’re likely to get a price discount,” she says.

Liu says Bitcoin and the broader crypto market are being underestimated as a place to park funds in the current economic environment, but she takes a more conservative view than Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood, who have both predicted Bitcoin will reach $1 million by 2030.

“Bitcoin to $500K by 2030,” Liu laughs.

“It’s not unlikely that we might hit one million, but I’ll give it a more conservative answer,” Liu adds.

Cross-chain liquidity protocol Symbiosis said it recovered 15 Bitcoin, worth around $1.1 million, from a Bitcoin bridge exploit it suffered Friday.

Symbiosis said it recovered 15 Bitcoin (BTC) into a team-controlled multi-sig wallet and clarified that all routes remain operational, according to a Friday X post. The exploit affected Symbiosis’ native Bitcoin bridge, which remains paused.

The attacker’s address minted 46.1 billion unbacked tokens from the protocol’s Bitcoin bridge but realized net proceeds of 4.3 Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), worth $336,000, according to blockchain security company Blockaid, which flagged the exploit on Friday. The protocol has not specified how the recovered Bitcoin relates to the $336,000 in proceeds attributed to the attacker.

Symbiosis is now offering a 20% bounty to anyone who provides information that leads to asset recovery. The protocol initially offered a 20% white-hat bounty for the attacker to return the funds, but the deadline expired on Sunday. The protocol said it will reveal a compensation framework for affected liquidity providers.

DefiLlama clocked around $336,000 lost in the exploit, but the protocol has yet to disclose its final accounting of losses incurred.

Bridge exploits continue testing DeFi

In June, Secret Network suffered an “infinite mint” exploit that drained about $4.6 million from the protocol.

In May, the Verus-Ethereum bridge was drained in a forged cross-chain transfer exploit for 5,402 Ether, then worth about $11.6 million. The hacker returned 75% of the stolen funds and kept about 1,350 Ether, or $2.8 million, a day after the protocol offered it a 25% white-hat bounty.

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Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

The EU is telling cryptocurrency hardware and software wallet providers that they have 24 hours from awareness to report actively exploited bugs or severe security vulnerabilities affecting their products.

The measure is part of the EU’s Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), which took effect on Friday, according to an announcement from the European Commission.

Manufacturers must submit an early warning for severe vulnerabilities within 24 hours, followed by a full notification within 72 hours. A final report will be required 14 days after corrective or mitigating measures are available and within one month for severe incidents.

The EC said the new reporting requirements aim to better protect consumers and businesses from cyber threats. The measure extends to all products “with digital elements made available in the EU” and builds on the EU’s broader cybersecurity strategy.

Cointelegraph has approached the European Commission for more details surrounding the cybersecurity measures.

Related: German finance ministry proposes 25% crypto tax starting 2028: Report

Fines could reach $17 million

Companies that fail to adhere to the cybersecurity measures under Articles 13 and 14 may face an administrative fine of up to 15 million euros ($17.3 million) or 2.5% of worldwide annual turnover, depending on which figure is higher, according to the penalties section of the final draft.

Supplying incorrect, incomplete or misleading information will also subject companies to an administrative fine of up to 5 million euros.

Excerpt from Final Text, European Cyber Resilience Act. Source: European-Cyber-Resilience-Act.com 

The measure was revealed weeks after two popular hardware wallet providers disclosed user data breaches that could lead to phishing or social engineering attempts. 

On Sept. 4, hardware wallet provider Trezor revealed that an additional 67,000 US customers were at risk from the data breach suffered by its shipping provider, ShipMonk, exceeding the initially estimated 14,000 users.

On Wednesday, Trezor and BitBox warned users about phishing emails disguised as urgent security notices after suspected compromises involving third-party email services.  

In June, Layer-1 blockchain network Zilliqa warned that a vulnerability in the Zilliqa Ledger app could allow attackers to recover users’ private keys using publicly available onchain data.

Cointelegraph has approached wallet makers Trezor and Ledger for comment on how wallet providers would comply with the new reporting requirements.

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