Mastercard expanded settlement to USDC, PYUSD, and RLUSD, enabling intraday, weekend, and holiday card settlement across its payments network.
The government recently announced it would become the world’s first economy to go fully onchain, a move officials believe will bring its people new opportunities.
A new report from Keyrock says stablecoins on blockchain rails are becoming the go-to payment layer for AI agents as traditional card rails struggle to handle micropayments.
Hyperliquid is increasingly evolving from a high-performance trading platform into a foundational layer of crypto’s financial infrastructure. What began as a decentralized perpetual futures exchange has expanded into a broader ecosystem that attracts traders, liquidity providers, builders, and capital at a growing scale. As activity across the platform increases, market participants view Hyperliquid as a core venue for a significant portion of on-chain financial activity. How Hyperliquid’s Evolution Extends Beyond A Trading Platform Hyperliquid is steadily evolving beyond a trading platform and into a full-scale financial supercenter of the crypto economy. According to the Delphi Digital post on X, the protocol is increasingly consolidating functions that traditional finance (Tradfi) typically separates among brokers, exchanges, and custodians into a single on-chain venue. Related Reading: Hyperliquid (HYPE) Could See Prices Reach $190 In Optimistic Market Capture Scenario At the core of this evolution is HIP-4, a feature that introduces outcome-based trading, allowing users to express views that perpetual futures cannot capture. A trader going long on Bitcoin in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) can be right about the number and still lose on the price reaction, and binary pay on the outcome. The direct fees generated by HIP-4 represent only a small share compared to the trade flow already accumulated in Hyperliquid. At the expected volumes, HIP-4 contributes roughly $25 million against Hyperliquid’s $636 million run rate. Delphi Digital argues that the capital that would typically rotate out for event views to other platforms now remains in Hyperliquid, reinforcing its liquidity. Circle’s USDC sitting in the venue is currently generating treasury yield, with 90% of it recycled back into HYPE buybacks. Additionally, HIP-4 has also changed what vaults can run, and on-chain vaults have been limited to two linear instruments that can be expressed. However, outcome contracts introduce a powerful third instrument that pays directly on the event outcomes while netting against traditional directional position. With this added flexibility, vault creators can now build more sophisticated, event-driven strategies that hedge, and every trade that remains in the venue powers the flywheel. New All-Time High Reinforces Hyperliquid’s Market Leadership Hyperliquid is being viewed as a leading indicator for broader altcoin momentum. The CIO and founder of MNFund and MNCapital_vc, Michaël van de Poppe, noted that HYPE has repeatedly demonstrated an ability to move ahead of the rest of the market, often acting as an early signal that risk appetite is returning to digital assets. Related Reading: Hyperliquid Flips Solana By FDV As ‘Revenue Chains’ Race Heats Up In previous market cycles, strong momentum in HYPE has frequently been followed by broader strength across altcoins, making the asset a key indicator that many traders now monitor closely. However, with HYPE recently pushing toward a new all-time high in one of the strongest moves seen in the market for a long time, it shows there is an appetite for altcoins. Featured image from Medium, chart from Tradingview.com
Sean Neville's Catena Labs closed a $30 million Series A to build governed infrastructure for AI agent financial transactions.
The head of digital assets and tokenization at one of Germany’s largest asset managers said that USDT and USDC are not stablecoins, from his perspective.
The revenue share deal could shift an estimated $160 million in revenue from Coinbase and Circle into Hyperliquid's ecosystem, Compass Point analysts said.
Bernstein analysts said the Senate Clarity Act markup and yield compromise strengthen Circle's model as dollar stablecoin supply grows.
Circle's $222 million ARC token presale has given Wall Street a new way to value the USDC issuer, while raising a harder question for one of crypto’s most profitable alliances. On May 11, Circle said investors led by a16z Crypto backed the presale of ARC, the native token for Arc, its planned public blockchain for […]
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New fundraising rounds for three institution-focused blockchains show how regulation, privacy and corporate competition are reshaping crypto infrastructure, according to Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan.
Bernstein maintained its $190 Circle target, citing ARC presale proceeds, USDC growth, and expanding stablecoin payments infrastructure.
Circle shares rose 16% to $131.76 on Monday, their highest closing price since March 18.
Shares of stablecoin issuer Circle (CRLC) climbed on Monday, rising by 15% to $130 for the first time in nearly a month. The move came after the company disclosed it had raised $222 million in the presale of Arc, the native token tied to Circle’s new blockchain. The funding values Arc at a fully diluted network valuation of $3 billion Circle CEO Maps The Road Ahead Speaking to CNBC in an exclusive interview, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire framed Arc as more than another crypto launch. He compared blockchain infrastructure to major technology platforms such as mobile operating systems and cloud services, arguing that it is becoming a foundational layer for how businesses operate. Related Reading: Dogecoin Price Set To Hit $5 Amid New Influx From Smart Money? “We want to build an operating system that has many, many stakeholders in it,” Allaire said, describing a model that includes major companies helping to run and ultimately govern the infrastructure. He added that Circle is moving toward becoming “a broader internet platform company,” entering “the operating system business” while also laying groundwork for an eventual push into “the apps business.” The Arc presale attracted heavyweight backing. Andreessen Horowitz led the round with a $75 million investment. Other participants named in the disclosure include BlackRock, Apollo Funds, and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the owner of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The list also includes SBI Group, Janus Henderson Investors, Standard Chartered Ventures, General Catalyst, Marshall Wace, ARK Invest, IDG Capital, Haun Ventures, and cryptocurrency exchange Bullish. Arc Tokenomics Explained Allaire said Arc is designed to support institutional finance and emphasized that Circle sees it as more than stablecoins and payments. In his comments, he pointed to the idea that the network can “run the actual economy.” He elaborated that the “economy” isn’t just digital representations of value, but the contracts and governance systems that underwrite financial relationships and the institutions that rely on them. In that framing, the token and the blockchain are meant to provide the infrastructure layer for how economic activity is coordinated, validated, and governed. Related Reading: Bitcoin Flashes Signal With 186% Average One-Year Return Circle also detailed how it plans to participate in the network. With a 25% stake in Arc’s initial supply of 10 billion tokens, Circle can take part in operating validator infrastructure, which it said will generate new fee revenue and allow the company to earn staking income. The token distribution is designed to support the ecosystem: 60% of the tokens are allocated to participants who build on, use, or contribute to the Arc network, while the remaining 15% goes to a long-term reserve. In addition to Arc and its token economics, Circle said it unveiled a set of services and tools intended to help developers build artificial intelligence (AI) agents. The tools are designed to enable agents to manage transactions, access online services, and make payments using USDC. Featured image created with OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com
Circle's shares closed up 15.91% at $131.76 on Monday after the stablecoin issuer disclosed its first-quarter 2026 results.
The USDC stablecoin issuer is betting Arc can become Wall Street’s blockchain rail for payments and tokenized finance, though analysts still see it as speculative.
Circle raised $222M in an Arc presale at a $3B valuation; BlackRock, Apollo, and a16z invest as Q1 revenue reaches $694M and USDC hits $77B.
Circle raised $222 million for its Arc blockchain token at a $3 billion valuation, drawing backing from BlackRock, Apollo and Bullish.
Premier David Burt said Bermuda's "onchain economy" plan aims to bring stablecoins into everyday commerce.
Ondo is gaining significant institutional traction after being selected to participate in a key working group led by DTCC. This move places Ondo in direct collaboration with established financial institutions and infrastructure leaders, working to define how traditional assets can be brought on-chain at scale. What Ondo’s DTCC Role Means For The Broader Crypto Market In a recent post on X, Ondo Finance has revealed that the firm has been selected to join an industry working group led by Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC), a major initiative aimed at advancing tokenization across the United States capital markets. DTCC currently custodies over $114 trillion in assets and has processed an estimated $3.7 quadrillion in transactions annually. Related Reading: Ondo Finance Brings Tokenized Stocks, ETFs To BNB Chain With New Expansion The initiative focuses on building a tokenization service designed to bring the core of the US capital market infrastructure on-chain, with Ondo among the selected group of firms contributing to its design. With this initiative, Ondo is positioned to work alongside major financial institutions such as BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Franklin Templeton, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Citadel Securities, NYSE Group, Circle, Fireblocks, Robinhood, and more. Furthermore, the DTCC President and CEO, Frank La Salla, emphasized the significance of this transition, noting that tokenization has the potential to transform how markets operate, unlocking new levels of liquidity, transparency, and efficiency for investors. With over 50 years of experience, the DTCC has been at the center of US capital markets. Its decision to build a tokenization service and to bring Ondo to the table alongside the world’s leading financial institutions reflects how far tokenization has come. As the largest tokenizer of stocks, ETFs, and US Treasuries, Ondo is well-positioned to help shape the next phase of financial innovation, one that aims to keep US markets competitive in an increasingly digital and global economy. Institutional Adoption Accelerates Beyond Experimentation In another major move, Franklin Templeton, a $1.7 trillion asset manager, has made a decisive move into blockchain by choosing Ondo Finance as its gateway to the next generation of investors. An analyst known as 2xnmore on X highlighted that instead of building its own infrastructure or relying on traditional financial intermediaries, the firm has opted to leverage Ondo’s existing on-chain rails. Related Reading: Bitget and Bitget Wallet Support Trading of Over 100 Tokenized Assets via Ondo Finance Through the Ondo global markets, five ETFs are now live and tradeable 24/7 directly from crypto wallets. This removes many of the traditional barriers associated with investing, such as brokerage accounts, geographic limitations outside the US, and reliance on intermediaries, offering a more open approach. Ondo currently controls an estimated 70% of the tokenized equity market, while targeting the much larger $30 trillion global ETF market. Also, this massive gap between Ondo’s current footprint and its potential addressable market underscores the scale of the opportunity ahead. Meanwhile, the broader message is clear. Wall Street is no longer approaching crypto as an experiment. Instead, institutions are approaching blockchain as a more efficient infrastructure layer, and Ondo built the rails first. Featured image from YouTube, chart from Tradingview.com
The market is starting to price in potential winners as stablecoin yield compromise opens path for passing key U.S. digital asset regulation, one analyst said.
After Circle and Bullish delivered blockbuster listings in 2025, crypto exchanges rushed toward public markets with a familiar promise: the industry is finally mature enough for Wall Street. However, the latest research from Kaiko shows that it's not as simple as that. The crypto exchange IPO wave was supposed to prove that the crypto industry […]
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Facebook paid its creators nearly $3 billion in 2025 — a 35% jump from the year before. Now some of those Meta creators will get paid in crypto. Related Reading: Dogecoin Futures Open Interest Explodes As Leveraged Traders Pile In Meta: A Second Try At Digital Payments Meta has begun rolling out USDC stablecoin payouts to select creators in the Philippines and Colombia, marking the company’s return to digital currency after a failed attempt years ago. Creators who sign up can link a third-party crypto wallet to Facebook’s payout platform and receive funds directly on the Solana or Polygon blockchains. The rollout is live now, though it remains limited to eligible creators in those two countries for the moment. Polygon confirmed the launch on Wednesday, adding that expansion to more than 160 markets is expected soon. “This is how creators’ lives are improved,” the blockchain network said, pointing to faster settlement times and access to dollar-denominated assets as key benefits for users outside the US. The future of marketplace commerce is on Polygon.@Meta launched stablecoin payouts for creators on the Polygon Chain. Live in Colombia and the Philippines, with 160+ markets coming, users now get faster settlement with USDC while gaining access to dollar denominated assets. pic.twitter.com/hjodzNpuyU — Polygon | POL (@0xPolygon) April 29, 2026 One catch: Meta does not convert USDC to local currency. Creators who want cash will need to use an outside exchange on their own. The company also reserved the right to pay through alternate methods if technical problems arise. Big Scale, Careful Rollout The creator pool affected by this change is broad. Meta’s platforms — Facebook and Instagram — host influencers, educators, and entertainers who earn through content posted on the apps. According to company data, that creator base collectively received close to $3 billion from Facebook alone last year. USDC, the stablecoin issued by Circle, ranks as the second-largest stablecoin by market value. Data from DeFiLlama puts its market cap at over $77 billion as of Thursday. Tether’s USDT still leads the market at a little over $189 billion. Stablecoins have been gaining traction across the financial industry. Reports indicate that banks and financial institutions in Europe are actively picking infrastructure partners to support stablecoin adoption, a sign that corporate interest in the technology has moved well beyond cryptocurrency circles. Related Reading: Bitcoin Bull Run Brewing: ATH In Sight By Late 2026: Analyst The Ghost Of Diem Meta’s history with stablecoins is complicated. The company first entered the space in 2019 under the name Libra, which was later rebranded as Diem. The project ran into a wall of regulatory opposition from central banks and lawmakers who raised concerns about financial stability, privacy, and consumer protection. In January 2022, the project acknowledged it could not move forward and sold its assets to Silvergate Capital Corporation. This time, Meta is not building its own stablecoin. By using USDC — an already-regulated, widely accepted digital dollar — the company sidesteps much of the friction that doomed Diem. Featured image from MetaAI, chart from TradingView
Circle Chief Economist Gordon Liao proposed raising USDC borrowing rates on Aave to ease post-KelpDAO liquidity strains.
Crypto trade groups and dozens of digital asset firms urged the Senate Banking Committee to hold a markup on market structure legislation.
USDT stablecoin issuer Tether has stepped in to anchor a massive recovery plan for Drift Protocol, the Solana-based decentralized exchange (DEX) that was crippled by a $286 million exploit earlier this month. However, the rescue package includes a potent commercial string that could challenge Circle's dominance of USDC on the Solana blockchain. According to the recovery plan, Drift […]
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Solana-based decentralized exchange (DEX) Drift Protocol has shared the highly anticipated user recovery plan alongside Tether and other collaborators. This move follows the major exploit that drained $285 million from the project’s vaults two weeks ago. Related Reading: Bitcoin Double Bottom Formation Eyes $82,500 Rally – Breakout Or Rejection Next? Drift Protocol Secures $150M Recovery Fund On Thursday, Drift Protocol, the largest decentralized perpetual futures exchange on the Solana blockchain, announced a collaboration with Tether and other partners to establish a “structured recovery plan backed by up to nearly $150 million in combined support” and relaunch with USDT “at the center.” According to the announcement, the funds include a $100 million revenue-linked credit line, an ecosystem grant, and loans to market makers, all intended to finance a dedicated user recovery pool. As NewsBTC reported, the Solana-based DEX suffered an exploit that stole hundreds of millions of dollars from its vaults on April 1. The attack took around $285 million in multiple crypto assets and became the largest exploit of 2026 to date. During the initial phase of the collaboration, a significant portion of exchange revenue, together with committed support capital, will be intended to fund this recovery pool, Drift explained, noting that any stolen funds recovered would be contributed to the pool. In addition, Drift revealed that it will issue a new token for the affected users to “streamline distribution of recovery assets as well as provide liquidity opportunities for impacted users.” The token will be a dedicated recovery token, separate from the DRIFT governance token, that is intended to represent a claim on the recovery pool and will be transferable. Solana DEX Eyes Hardened Security Framework The Solana-based project shared that it will harden its security, passing each component through independent audits by OtterSec and Asymmetric Research before relaunching the protocol. It will also introduce a new community-governed multisig to manage core protocol assets, requiring all multisig signers to operate on dedicated signing devices with transaction content independently verified outside the primary signing interface before any signature is executed. This aims to prevent similar attacks on the project. It’s worth noting that the malicious actors gained unauthorized access to Drift Protocol by manipulating its multisig approvals using Solana durable nonces. “The attack involved unauthorized or misrepresented transaction approvals obtained prior to execution, likely facilitated through durable nonce mechanisms and sophisticated social engineering,” the project explained on its first report. Since then, Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic has identified multiple indicators suggesting that the exploit is linked to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), while Drift has affirmed that the exploit was a six-month operation to infiltrate the protocol’s inner circle and compromise their devices. USDT Settlements ‘At The Center’ Of Drift The project also detailed that it will relaunch with Tether’s USDT for settlements. Tether reportedly proposed to extend a USDT support facility to designated market makers “to reinforce deep, liquid markets from day one.” “Drift’s decision to integrate USD₮ into the relaunch and recovery of a major trading venue on Solana reinforces Tether’s role as a reliable settlement asset within the Solana ecosystem,” Tether stated. The shift from USDC to USDT settlement represents a significant change, following Circle’s decision not to freeze the stolen USDC during the initial attack. Notably, the exploiter swapped $270.9 million of the stolen assets into USDC within hours, bridged them from Solana to Ethereum via the CCTP TokenMessengerMinterV2, and purchased 129,000 ETH, splitting them across multiple wallets. Related Reading: Bitmine’s Ethereum Holdings Hits 4% Supply Milestone After 71,524 ETH Buy At the time, multiple investors and on-chain investigators urged Circle to freeze the funds, with crypto sleuth ZachXBT slamming the stablecoin issuer for its repeated “inaction” over the past few years. Circle has since addressed the backlash, affirming that it does not act “unilaterally or arbitrarily” and freeze funds when “the law requires us to act.” Drift concluded that “this is the first step toward making users whole over time and toward building back stronger than where we were before.” Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com
Circle (CRCL), the issuer behind the USDC stablecoin, is facing a fresh lawsuit in Massachusetts tied to the $280 million Drift Protocol hack that occurred on April 1. The complaint, filed by plaintiffs represented by the law firm Gibbs Mura, alleges that Circle did not take action to freeze stolen funds even though it had both the technical ability and contractual authority to do so. Drift Hack Fallout According to the lawsuit, attackers drained an estimated $280–$285 million from the Solana-based exchange in less than 12 minutes. The stolen assets were then moved from Solana to Ethereum over the course of roughly eight hours using Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP). Related Reading: Could Bitcoin Hit $90,000 And Trigger A New Altcoin Rally? Expert Cites 6 Major Catalysts The transfer allegedly took place during US business hours, a detail plaintiffs highlight to emphasize that the alleged movement and conversion of funds occurred while the matter was ongoing, without intervention from Circle to freeze the assets. The filing further claims that user funds were pulled from multiple parts of Drift’s platform, including trading, lending, and vault deposits. As the breach unfolded, Drift’s total value locked reportedly fell sharply from about $550 million to under $250 million. In response to the incident, deposits and withdrawals were suspended indefinitely. The impact, plaintiffs say, extended beyond Drift itself: at least 20 other DeFi protocols reported indirect losses related to exposure to Drift. Circle Accused Of Not Freezing Assets The plaintiffs also point to a separate earlier civil matter involving Circle. Nine days before the Drift-related lawsuit, Circle reportedly froze 16 unrelated business wallets. That, according to the plaintiffs, demonstrates that Circle has the capability—and, in that instance, the willingness—to freeze funds when it deems it appropriate. However, the lawsuit alleges that Circle failed to freeze the stolen USDC and other assets that were allegedly converted into USDC after the hack. Related Reading: Bitcoin Policy Institute Maps Out Strategy For US Stablecoin Supremacy Across 5 Policy Areas Circle is accused of using its Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol in a way that plaintiffs say allowed attackers to offload up to $230 million onto the Ethereum blockchain. In the lawsuit’s framing, this is central to why the plaintiffs believe Circle should have acted to prevent the transfers of stolen stablecoins and connected assets during the time the funds were being moved. Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com
Drift Protocol said it has secured up to $127.5 million from Tether to support user recovery after the April 1 exploit.
The money will be used by Drift to recover user funds after more than $270 million in clients assets were exploited this month, and will relaunch the protocol as a USDT-based perpetuals DEX on Solana.
The pitch is global scale for the yuan, but capital controls, offshore limits and convertibility gaps still stand in the way