Once the idea is cleared by the Office of Management and Budget at the White House, the agency can formally propose it and take comment from the industry and public. Meanwhile, Lindman cited the agency’s staff statement in December that was meant as an interim approach to steer broker-dealers on how they should handle crypto custody until the rules are in place, and he also referenced its move in September 2025 to allow investment advisers to park customer assets with state-chartered trusts as qualified crypto custodians.

The SEC’s previous effort to pursue a custody rule in 2023 was under a decidedly different regime, and then-SEC Chair Gary Gensler said that crypto firms themselves wouldn’t qualify to custody the assets. That rule, though, never moved to final form and was scrapped when President Donald Trump returned to the White House and appointed crypto-friendly leadership at the regulator.

Speaking more broadly of the agency’s crypto agenda, which has recently included a proposed rule to allow for crypto offerings and a new exemption to clear the way for tokenized securities, Lindman characterized the work as “foundation laying,” adding that “some of the foundation laying is boring.”

“It’s the customary steps associated with taking what was once like this really unique and scary asset, and now saying, ‘Hey, look, this is how we think about stablecoins, or this is how we think about non-security crypto assets,’ and really trying to put them within a framework that can be built upon for every generation to come,” Lindman said. “We need to kind of meet the market where it’s at.”

Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA) has remained one of the market’s hottest biotech stocks. Even as the vaccine maker’s shares remain off their 52-week high, hit by news of a breakthrough in using its mRNA technology to create marketable drugs for other diseases and ailments, not just for COVID-19, at around $157 per share, they’re still up over sixfold over the past 12 months.

Yet while Moderna may still be sitting pretty right now, analysts remain skeptical whether the stock can hold on to its latest spate of gains.

Missed AI’s “Act 1”? Act 2 Could Be 15x Bigger. Most investors think they missed the AI boat because they didn’t buy Nvidia in 2005. But according to our analysts, we’re only at the end of “Act 1″—the R&D phase. “Act 2” is the global rollout. Continue »

Moderna, the big rally, and the analyst community’s cautious view

Already trending higher since late 2025, Moderna shares skyrocketed in August. This super rally came on the heels of the company’s unveiling of positive late-stage clinical trial data for Intismeran Autogene, an mRNA-based cancer vaccine that Moderna is co-developing with Merck.

Per the press release, top-line results from the Phase 3 INTerpath-001 trial of Instimeran Autogene combined with Keytruda, Merck’s immunotherapy treatment, “demonstrated meaningful improvements in recurrence-free survival (RFS) and distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) in patients with completely resected Stage IIB-IV melanoma.”

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Perceiving this development as a positive sign for Moderna’s overall plans to bring mRNA-based oncology products to market, Moderna shares surged 177% following the Aug. 19 clinical trial news. Even after giving back some of these gains in the past month, Moderna remains near multiyear highs.

That said, according to Barron’s, most analysts hold either a neutral or “hold” rating on Moderna right now; two analysts have downgraded the stock following this rally. Rothschild & Co. Redburn’s Simon Baker, in his downgrade from “hold” to “sell,” noted that while the phase 3 data were “undoubtedly good,” the market has likely overreacted to news, as it’s uncertain whether the nine other clinical trials for other types of tumors will unveil similar conclusions.

In her bearish research update, J.P. Morgan’s Jessica Fye also noted uncertainty over subsequent trial data, coupled with the argument that the immediate economic implications of the aforementioned clinical trial are already well-factored into the stock price.

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SoFi Technologies has moved its entire $25 billion card program to blockchain based settlement using SoFiUSD as its bank issued stablecoin goes live across Mastercard’s global payments network.

According to a joint announcement from SoFi and Mastercard on Sept. 22, debit and credit card transactions under the SoFi Bank program are now settling with SoFiUSD, making the token part of Mastercard’s live payment infrastructure six months after the companies announced their partnership.

Transactions are already live onchain, with SoFi Bank migrating a card program expected to process more than $25 billion in volume. SoFi said the rollout makes SoFiUSD the first stablecoin issued by a nationally chartered bank to be used for settlement across Mastercard’s network.

The system does not require merchants to hold the token or build separate blockchain infrastructure. Settlement can reach a SoFi Bank account through the company’s Big Business Banking platform, after which merchants can withdraw the funds as cash around the clock without a withdrawal fee.

“In six months, SoFi and Mastercard took stablecoin settlement from an idea to a live product that materially improves how money moves for businesses,” SoFi CEO Anthony Noto said.

Noto said merchants can use blockchain based settlement without changing how they currently operate, while gaining faster access to funds through their bank accounts.

SoFiUSD stablecoin settlement moves into live card transactions

SoFiUSD is issued by SoFi Bank, N.A., a nationally chartered bank regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The stablecoin is redeemable 1:1 for U.S. dollars, with reserves held primarily in cash, according to the company.

The token is available to institutions and SoFi members for settlement, payments and other financial applications.

SoFi had already expanded access to the token before moving its card program onchain. In May, crypto.news previously reported that SoFiUSD became available inside the company’s consumer app, allowing nearly 15 million members to buy, sell, hold and convert the stablecoin. The token operates on Ethereum and Solana, while SoFi had listed Mastercard settlement among the institutional uses planned for the product.

Mastercard Global Head of Digital Commercialization Sherri Haymond said the launch had moved the companies past the testing stage and into live use.

“Stablecoins become meaningful when they solve real problems that businesses face every day,” Haymond said. She added that the companies were bringing regulated stablecoin settlement into production while keeping the safeguards and scale associated with Mastercard’s existing network.

Mastercard has been expanding stablecoin settlement options

The SoFi rollout follows a larger stablecoin settlement program unveiled by Mastercard earlier this year.

In June, Mastercard added six regulated stablecoins to its planned settlement infrastructure, including Circle’s USDC, PayPal USD, Global Dollar, Pax Dollar, Ripple USD and SoFiUSD. The payment company said supported transactions could settle outside conventional banking hours, including during weekends and holidays.

Support was announced across several blockchain networks, including Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, Base, Arbitrum, Canton, Tempo and the XRP Ledger.

Under that rollout, issuers and acquirers were expected to gain the option to settle card transactions using regulated stablecoins while retaining existing Mastercard payment processes. Initial support was planned for parts of the United States and Latin America before further expansion during 2026.

Mastercard has since continued building infrastructure that connects conventional payment systems with blockchain based money movement.

The company completed its acquisition of BVNK in August in a deal valued at up to $1.8 billion. BVNK provides infrastructure for moving funds between fiat currencies and stablecoins and supports payments, treasury operations, payouts and settlement.

Bringing BVNK into Mastercard gave the payments company another set of systems for handling stablecoin and tokenized asset transactions alongside its existing payment network.

SoFi is extending SoFiUSD beyond its own banking network

SoFi said the latest settlement launch is not intended to remain limited to transactions involving SoFi Bank.

The company is in discussions with large U.S. merchants over stablecoin based settlement arrangements, ranging from multinational retailers to technology service platforms. No participating merchants or implementation dates were disclosed in the announcement.

SoFi and Mastercard plan to examine more uses for SoFiUSD across Mastercard’s network, including cross border payments, remittances and other forms of money movement.

Institutional distribution of the stablecoin has been growing through separate partnerships. Earlier this month, SoFi reached an agreement with Payward that brought together its banking infrastructure and Kraken’s digital asset services.

Under the arrangement, Kraken agreed to list the SoFiUSD stablecoin, while Payward joined SoFi’s real time settlement network for round the clock U.S. dollar transfers. SoFi agreed to use Kraken Prime as another source of liquidity for digital asset orders.

The partnership gave SoFiUSD another distribution channel outside SoFi’s own platform while connecting institutional clients with bank based dollar settlement.

Merchants can settle without holding SoFiUSD

For merchants, the companies have structured the system so that stablecoin settlement can remain largely behind the scenes.

Businesses do not need to maintain a SoFiUSD balance or integrate blockchain wallets into their operations, according to SoFi. Funds can be received through SoFi Bank and converted into cash while the blockchain handles the settlement process between the relevant parties.

SoFi’s Big Business Banking platform serves as part of that infrastructure. The service was launched earlier this year to give institutional customers access to fiat balances, stablecoins and digital assets through a single regulated banking environment.

SoFiUSD can be used within the platform for payments and settlement, while businesses can move between the token and U.S. dollars through SoFi Bank.

The company said the system gives merchants access to settlement funds at any time instead of tying withdrawals to traditional banking hours.

SoFi and Mastercard have not provided a timetable for the next phase of the rollout. Their current discussions cover merchant settlement, cross border transfers, remittances and other payment uses as they assess where SoFiUSD can be used across Mastercard’s network.

The European Central Bank (ECB) and the European Union’s national central banks want crypto platforms to be prevented from using lending, borrowing, staking and other products that offer indirect returns on stablecoin holdings.

“Electronic money is intended to be used for making payments and not as a means of saving,” the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) said in a response to the European Commission’s consultation on reviewing the Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation (MiCA).

In the 57-page response, the group said it “continues to support the prohibition on CASPs paying remuneration on stablecoins,” referring to crypto-asset service providers. The ban, it said, should not be limited to services already governed by MiCA, which began taking effect in June 2024, and should also cover unregulated activities, including crypto lending, borrowing and staking.

The banks said that allowing indirect returns could undermine the distinction between electronic money and bank deposits, as well as distort the level playing field across the EU financial system.

“Maintaining and, where necessary, strengthening the prohibition, covering both direct and indirect forms of remuneration, should be a clear legislative priority,” the ESCB stated.

The European Central Bank (ECB) and EU central banks want to replace mandatory bank-deposit thresholds for stablecoin reserves with new liquidity requirements, arguing that large stablecoin deposits could create liquidity risks for banks.

The European System of Central Banks (ESCB) called for removing rules requiring at least 30% of reserves, or 60% for significant stablecoins, to be held as bank deposits. The proposal came in the ESCB’s response, published Tuesday, to the European Commission’s review of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA).

Instead of the existing bank-deposit rules, the ESCB backed minimum liquidity thresholds for reserve assets maturing within one and five working days. It separately pointed to overnight reverse repurchase agreements (repos) and short-term sovereign bonds as alternative instruments issuers could use to achieve liquidity.

The new proposal echoes concerns previously raised by the stablecoin industry, including Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, who has warned since at least 2024 that MiCA’s bank-deposit requirements could create systemic risks for both banks and stablecoin issuers.

EU central banks favor liquidity buckets

The ESCB said the existing requirement “creates a direct link between issuers and credit institutions” and could expose banks to liquidity problems if a stablecoin run forces an issuer to rapidly withdraw deposits.

The central banks cited draft rules published by the European Banking Authority in 2024, requiring significant stablecoins to hold at least 40% of reserves in assets maturing within one working day and 60% within five working days. For non-significant tokens, the thresholds are 20% and 30%, respectively.

Beyond stablecoin reserves, the ESCB also warned of “material challenges” in enforcing MiCA, saying non-compliant crypto companies can still access EU customers.

Tether raised similar bank-risk concerns in 2024

In an October 2024 Cointelegraph interview, Tether CEO Ardoino illustrated the risk with a hypothetical stablecoin holding 10 billion euros in reserves, 6 billion euros of which would have to be kept in bank deposits.

If a bank lent out 90% of those funds, he said, only 600 million euros would remain available, potentially creating a liquidity crunch if the issuer suddenly needed billions to meet redemptions, Ardoino said.

Related: ECB launches Pontes to settle tokenized assets without stablecoins

Flash forward almost two years and the ESCB now points to a similar risk, saying a stablecoin run could force an issuer to rapidly withdraw deposits and create liquidity problems for a bank, particularly if stablecoin reserves account for a significant share of its funding.

The central banks on Tuesday said risks can also flow in the opposite direction, citing the March 2023 collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, which triggered a run on Circle’s USDC stablecoin after Circle disclosed that $3.3 billion of its reserves were held at the bank.

Magazine: MiCA cracks down on USDT in Europe… but no one else cares