Autor Cointelegraph by Nate Kostar

Business use of stablecoins is poised to surge in the next 12 months as adoption of the digital currency goes mainstream, according to a new report from payments infrastructure firm Cybrid. The report found 42% of businesses surveyed are already using stablecoins for cross-border payments and 88% of respondents said they are likely or very likely to use stablecoins within the next 12 months. Still, only 2% identified as committed users of traditional payment rails.Businesses using stablecoins reported average cross-border payment cost savings of 35%, with companies processing more than $100 million in monthly payment volume reporting average savings of up to 47%, according to the survey.Source: Cybrid reportThe global stablecoin market cap is now at $307.64 billion, led by Tether’s USDT, at $184.7 billion, and Circle’s USDC, at $73.51 billion, Coingecko data shows. Fueled by recent legislation, GENIUS Act-compliant stablecoins have reached a market cap of more than $76 billion. That established the first federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoins in the United States. The report is based on a survey of 468 executives and business leaders conducted between April 28 and May 4. Varied users look for regulatory clarity to gain confidencePayroll and contractor payments were the most common stablecoin use case among respondents, followed by supplier payments, customer payments, investment and yield generation, vendor payments, and treasury and liquidity management.Regulatory clarity was also a top factor respondents said would increase their confidence in expanding stablecoin use, with 71% identifying it as more important than trusted infrastructure providers or integration with existing systems.Respondents came from the technology, financial services and ecommerce sectors in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, including C-suite executives, finance and treasury managers, and payments and operations leaders.Related: Breez launches Bitcoin-to-stablecoin payments across more than 30 blockchainsCompanies expand infrastructure for stablecoin paymentsSeparate industry data points to the same trend. In June, payments infrastructure provider Paybis said business customers accounted for nearly 98% of stablecoin payout volume processed through its platform during the first four months of 2026, up from 36% in 2023.Paybis also cited McKinsey research estimating that business-to-business transactions accounted for roughly 60% of the $390 billion in global stablecoin payment volume recorded in 2025.Companies have continued expanding infrastructure to support growing business demand. In May, Falcon Finance debuted the dollar-backed stablecoin fUSD through Anchorage Digital Bank’s federally regulated issuance platform, targeting institutional trading, collateral and treasury workflows.On Monday, BNY expanded its digital asset custody platform to support Circle’s USDC, allowing institutional clients to store, transfer, mint and redeem the stablecoin directly through the bank.Source: DefiLlama Magazine: AI is banking the unbanked in Africa… faster than crypto

Theo, an onchain capital markets platform, has invested $20 million in Fidelity International’s USD Digital Liquidity Fund (FILQ). Theo said the investment makes it the first crypto-native platform to allocate capital to the asset manager’s tokenized fund.Executed through Sygnum, a Swiss digital asset bank that provides regulated banking, custody and tokenization services for institutional clients, the allocation adds FILQ to Theo’s institutional tokenized Treasury product, thBILL.FILQ is a Moody’s Aaa-mf-rated tokenized US dollar liquidity fund built on Sygnum’s Desygnate platform that invests in diversified short-term money market instruments designed to preserve capital and liquidity. Chainlink provides onchain net asset value and distribution data for the fund through its Runtime Environment, while JPMorgan receives and approves the daily NAV data, according to the release.Fidelity International managed $1.06 trillion in total assets as of March 31, according to the company, while Theo said its products have processed more than $1 billion in cumulative trading volume across more than 80,000 users in over 60 countries.RWA.xyz data shows FILQ currently manages about $55.1 million in onchain assets, suggesting Theo’s $20 million allocation represents a significant share of the fund.Source: RWA.xzy Related: Franklin Templeton launches dedicated crypto division after closing 250 Digital acquisitionTraditional asset managers expand tokenized fund offeringsTokenized US Treasury products have become the largest segment of the tokenized real-world asset market. According to RWA.xyz, the sector has more than doubled over the past year, growing from about $6.9 billion in distributed value in late June 2025 to approximately $14.6 billion as of late June 2026.RWA.xyz tracks 83 tokenized Treasury products held by more than 64,000 investors, with offerings from Circle, BlackRock, Ondo, Franklin Templeton and Securitize each managing more than $2 billion in distributed value.Tokenized US Treasuries. Source: RWA.xyzThe market’s growth has been accompanied by new fund launches and distribution partnerships from traditional financial firms. In May, JPMorgan launched JLTXX, a tokenized government money market fund on Ethereum (ETH) that invests in US Treasury bills and overnight repurchase agreements.The following month, Franklin Templeton partnered with MoonPay to expand institutional access to its BENJI tokenized money market fund, allowing eligible institutions to move between supported stablecoins and tokenized fund exposure through an onchain trading workflow.Magazine: Bitcoin decouples from tech stocks, Ether eyes ‘selling wave’: Market Moves

BNY has expanded its Digital Asset Custody platform to let institutional clients store, transfer, mint and redeem Circle’s USD Coin, making it the first stablecoin supported on the platform.The new capabilities allow BNY clients to convert US dollars into USDC and redeem the stablecoin back into dollars directly through the bank while also storing and transferring USDC on its custody platform. BNY said it plans to expand the service to additional stablecoins and digital cash workflows over time.The expansion builds on BNY’s existing role as the primary custodian of the assets backing USDC, extending its relationship with Circle beyond safeguarding reserve assets to include client-facing stablecoin services. According to BNY, the custodian bank oversees $59.3 trillion in assets under custody and administration and serves more than 90% of Fortune 100 companies. USDC is the world’s second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization, with more than $73.8 billion in circulation, according to DefiLlama data.In May, BNY partnered with Abu Dhabi-based Finstreet and the ADI Foundation to develop institutional custody services for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), with plans to later support stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets.Source: DefiLlama Related: Breez launches Bitcoin-to-stablecoin payments across more than 30 blockchainsTraditional finance expands stablecoin infrastructureBNY’s announcement is the latest in a series of stablecoin-focused products launched by major financial institutions in recent months, as traditional banks and asset managers expand services supporting reserve management, custody and blockchain-based payments.In May, JPMorgan filed to launch a tokenized money market fund that would allow stablecoin issuers to hold reserve assets in a regulated investment vehicle while earning interest. The Ethereum-based fund is designed to invest in US Treasury bills and overnight repurchase agreements that back payment stablecoins.Earlier this month, State Street launched a government money market fund for stablecoin issuers, offering a vehicle to hold reserve assets in compliance with the GENIUS Act. The fund invests in US government securities and repurchase agreements and counts State Street Bank and Anchorage Digital among its initial investors.Other large financial institutions are pursuing stablecoin strategies as well. In July 2025, Bank of America said it was exploring stablecoins to modernize its payments infrastructure, while in January, Fidelity Investments launched a US dollar-backed stablecoin, FIDD, after receiving conditional approval to operate a national trust bank.The stablecoin market is valued at approximately $313 billion, according to DefiLlama, with Tether’s USDT accounting for about 60% of the market.Source: DefiLlama Magazine: Bitcoin slides to $58K, XRP hits $1 but onchain data promising: Market Moves

Bitcoin infrastructure company Breez has added a feature to its developer toolkit that lets users send USDC (USDC) and USDt (USDT) across more than 30 blockchain networks directly from a Bitcoin balance, without first converting or holding stablecoins.According to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph, the feature uses the Lightning Network alongside automated conversion to route payments from Bitcoin (BTC) to USDC or USDT before delivering funds to the recipient’s preferred blockchain.When a user enters a recipient’s wallet address, the Breez SDK identifies the destination blockchain, calculates a conversion route and displays the amount, network and fees before the payment is confirmed. The transaction is then routed through liquidity providers, including Flashnet and Boltz, which convert the sender’s Bitcoin into stablecoins and deliver it on the recipient’s chosen blockchain. Roy Sheinfeld, CEO of Breez, told Cointelegraph the feature does not require USDT or USDC to be issued on the Lightning Network. Instead, it relies on “interoperability” to let users spend from a Bitcoin balance while recipients receive stablecoins on supported blockchain networks.Breez said users continue holding Bitcoin until they initiate a payment, while recipients receive stablecoins on their preferred blockchain without requiring the sender to manage separate stablecoin balances. The feature is non-custodial and initially supports only outbound stablecoin payments, with support for receiving stablecoins from external blockchain networks planned for a future release.The feature is designed to allow developers to add stablecoin payments without integrating multiple blockchain networks or requiring users to manage separate Bitcoin and stablecoin balances.Related: Credit unions managing $25B in assets join stablecoin infrastructure programBitcoin payment infrastructure expandsThe launch comes as companies expand Bitcoin and the Lightning Network, a layer-2 payment network designed to make Bitcoin transactions faster and less expensive, into new financial and commercial applications.In February, Secure Digital Markets, an institutional trading and lending desk, completed a $1 million Bitcoin payment to Kraken over the Lightning Network in less than half a second, demonstrating the protocol’s potential for high-value institutional transfers. The transaction illustrated how Lightning is increasingly being tested for use cases beyond small retail payments.That same month, Bitcoin infrastructure company Voltage introduced a US dollar-settled revolving credit line that embeds business credit into Lightning payment flows, allowing companies to settle repayments in either US dollars or Bitcoin. The product is intended to enable businesses to access working capital using Lightning for payments, without holding crypto on their balance sheets.Event platform Satlantis also launched a Bitcoin-native ticketing platform with embedded Lightning wallets, allowing organizers to sell tickets and accept BTC alongside traditional payment methods.In March, Tether-backed Bitcoin infrastructure startup Ark Labs in a $5.2 million funding round to develop technology supporting stablecoin issuance, transfers and settlement on Bitcoin.Lightning adoption has continued to grow. A February report from River estimated the network surpassed $1 billion in monthly transaction volume in late 2025, up from around $12 million in 2021.Lightning Network transaction volumes continue to grow. Source: RiverMagazine: Bitcoin decouples from tech stocks, Ether eyes ‘selling wave’: Market Moves

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have opened a joint public consultation on whether to better align portfolio margin rules across securities and derivatives markets, seeking feedback on approaches that could expand cross-margining and reduce market fragmentation.The agencies are requesting input on cross-margining, collateral treatment, risk management, customer protections and the potential effects on market liquidity and competition. The public comment period will remain open for 60 days after the request is published in the Federal Register.“Cross-margining offers a clear opportunity to unlock liquidity that remains frozen in separate accounts,” SEC Chair Paul Atkins said, adding that harmonizing the agencies’ frameworks could help prevent jurisdictional overlap from limiting innovation and market efficiency.Cross-margining allows offsetting positions across different products or markets to be considered together when calculating margin requirements, rather than treating each position separately. By recognizing these offsets, companies can often post less collateral against hedged positions because margin is based on the portfolio’s overall risk rather than each position in isolation.The SEC oversees securities and security-based swaps, while the CFTC regulates futures, swaps and commodity derivatives. As crypto exchanges and brokerages increasingly operate across both markets, the agencies’ joint review reflects the growing need for coordinated oversight.Related: CFTC hires SEC crypto task force adviser with blockchain forensics chopsCrypto derivatives expand across regulated marketsThe joint request for comment follows recent regulatory approvals that paved the way for a broader expansion of crypto derivatives offerings. On May 29, the CFTC approved Bitcoin (BTC) perpetual futures for prediction market platform Kalshi and cleared Coinbase Financial Markets to offer eligible US institutional clients access to certain Deribit-listed crypto options and perpetual futures. Coinbase began offering that access the same day through its integration with Deribit.A few weeks later, Kraken launched CFTC-regulated perpetual futures for eligible US users through its recently acquired Bitnomial platform, expanding its domestic derivatives offerings beyond CME-listed crypto futures.Source: Kraken ProThe expansion of crypto derivatives in the US has also raised broader questions about whether existing regulatory frameworks remain appropriate across different markets.Earlier this week, CFTC Chair Mike Selig said cryptocurrency perpetual futures were not a “natural fit” for traditional commodity markets such as agriculture, highlighting the challenges regulators face in applying existing frameworks across increasingly diverse asset classes.Magazine: Bitcoin slides to $58K, XRP hits $1 but onchain data promising: Market Moves