SBI Holdings and Startale Group unveiled a yen-denominated stablecoin, JPYSC, with issuance managed by SBI Shinsei Trust Bank.
It started as an idea. Now it processes more lending volume than most people will ever see in a lifetime. Aave, the decentralized finance protocol that lets users borrow and deposit crypto without going through a traditional bank, has crossed $1 trillion in total cumulative lending — a milestone that has never been reached by any other protocol in the DeFi industry. Related Reading: Is Bitcoin The Poor Man’s Hedge Against Inflation? Coinbase CEO Thinks So From A 2017 Startup To A Trillion-Dollar Lending Machine Aave was not always called Aave. Its founder, Stani Kulechov, first launched the platform under the name ETHLend in November 2017 before rebranding it in September 2018. What began as a small peer-to-peer lending experiment on the Ethereum blockchain has grown into the dominant force in decentralized lending, with over $27 billion in total user funds currently secured on the platform. Aave crossed $1 trillion all-time loans. A first in DeFi history. pic.twitter.com/9zMKhtGq6R — Aave (@aave) February 25, 2026 Over the past 30 days alone, Aave generated more than $83 million in fees — nearly four times more than its nearest competitor, Morpho. Other well-known lending platforms including JustLend, SparkLend, Maple, and Compound Finance each hold over $1 billion in total value locked, but none come close to matching Aave’s scale. “A decade ago, DeFi and Aave didn’t exist. They were just ideas. Today, Aave stands as the backbone of onchain lending, powering a new financial system that is open, global, and unstoppable,” Kulechov said in a post on X following the announcement. His longer-term ambitions are even bigger. Kulechov has said he wants Aave to become the largest and most efficient liquidity network on the planet — one that banks, builders, and financial technology companies connect to by default. Big Finance Names Are Already At The Table Aave is no longer just for crypto enthusiasts. In August last year, Aave Labs launched a new product called Aave Horizon, a lending market built on Ethereum and designed specifically for traditional financial institutions. Related Reading: Peter Schiff Says Bitcoin Has Never Beaten Gold Since 2021 The idea is to allow established finance firms to borrow stablecoins using real-world assets as collateral. According to reports, VanEck, WisdomTree, and Securitize were among the first major institutions to participate in the offering — a sign that the gap between conventional finance and decentralized protocols is narrowing. Kulechov has also been vocal about what he sees as the next big opportunity for DeFi lending. Reports say he believes that tokenizing what he calls “abundance assets” — things like solar energy infrastructure, battery storage systems, and robotics used in labor — could open an entirely new category of collateral for decentralized lending. He expects those types of assets to be worth a combined $50 trillion by 2050. Featured image from BTCCard, chart from TradingView
The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency proposed rules that would govern stablecoins, including apparent limits on rewards that may affect Coinbase.
Circle’s expanding role in infrastructure is starting to contribute incremental, higher-margin revenue beyond reserve income.
The violent move had more to do with hedge funds' overcrowded bearish positioning getting wiped out than the company’s financial performance, one analyst pointed out.
Before the Senate Banking Committee gaveled its banking-oversight hearing to a start, crypto claimed much of the oxygen, including in an OCC policy push.
MEV Capital’s assets under management fell 80% from a peak of $1.5 billion to about $300 million following millions in direct losses linked to deUSD depeg in October.
Circle's fourth quarter earnings tell a story the company would prefer investors understand through the lens of growth: USDC circulation climbed 72% year-over-year to $75.3 billion, reserve income surged 69%, and adjusted EBITDA quintupled. However, the income statement reveals a different architecture in which the issuer generates yield and immediately bargains most of it away […]
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Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase (COIN) could be one of the biggest corporate beneficiaries of the United States’ first comprehensive crypto legislation, the GENIUS Act, which was signed into law in July 2025 and established a federal framework for stablecoin issuance and oversight. Coinbase Stablecoin Revenue Jumps 48% According to Bloomberg analysts Paul Gulberg and Samuel Radowitz, the new framework may significantly strengthen Coinbase’s fast-growing stablecoin business, particularly if adoption of dollar-backed tokens expands into mainstream payments. Related Reading: Bitcoin May Be In A Price Slump—But Adoption Is In A Bull Market In 2025, Coinbase generated an estimated $1.35 billion in revenue tied to stablecoins, a 48% increase from $911 million in 2024. That segment represented 19% of the company’s total annual revenue, underscoring how important stablecoins have become to the exchange’s overall business model. Unlike trading fees, which tend to rise and fall sharply alongside crypto market volatility, stablecoin-related income is derived from interest earned on reserves backing Circle’s USDC. Those reserves are primarily invested in US Treasuries and other low-risk instruments, producing yield. Coinbase receives a significant share of that interest income, making the business more predictable and generally higher margin than transaction-based revenue. The importance of this revenue stream became particularly evident in late 2025. During a period when Bitcoin (BTC) and broader crypto prices declined sharply, and Coinbase’s fourth-quarter revenue dropped 20%, income generated from stablecoins remained comparatively stable. Paul Gulberg and Samuel Radowitz argue that this consistency could become even more meaningful if regulatory clarity accelerates broader USDC adoption. GENIUS Act Expected To Accelerate USDC Growth The GENIUS Act is central to that outlook. By providing a national regulatory structure for stablecoin issuers, the legislation could remove barriers that have limited the use of USDC in areas such as cross-border payments and merchant settlements. If businesses and financial institutions adopt stablecoins more widely for real-world transactions, the overall supply of USDC could expand substantially. An increase in USDC circulation would require additional reserves to back those tokens, which in turn would generate more interest income from the underlying Treasury holdings. Because Coinbase shares in that yield, greater adoption directly translates into higher potential revenue. Bloomberg analysts estimate that under favorable conditions, Coinbase’s USDC-related revenue could grow by two to seven times its current level. Related Reading: Expert Forecasts $5 Trillions Pouring Into Crypto Post CLARITY Act Passage Yet, reaching the upper end of that projection depends on whether Coinbase can continue offering rewards to customers who hold USDC. If customer reward mechanisms remain in place, analysts believe USDC adoption could accelerate more rapidly. However, even if those programmes are limited or scaled back in the ongoing negotiations on the CLARITY Act, the clearer regulatory environment created by the GENIUS Act is still expected to support meaningful growth in stablecoin usage. At the time of writing, the exchange’s stock, trading under the ticker name COIN, surged towards $185 during Wednesday’s trading session, marking a 22% increase in the 24-hour time frame. Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com
The GENIUS Act will take effect on the earlier of 18 months after enactment, which would make it Jan. 18, 2027.
The following article is adapted from The Block’s newsletter, The Daily, which comes out on weekday afternoons.
Circle shares surged 30% to around $80 after earnings, extending pre-market gains as analysts pointed to stronger-than-expected margins.
Coinciding with the FCA’s announcement of its stablecoin trial, Coinbase’s Brian Armstrong criticized the U.K.’s regulatory process, saying it puts the region's global crypto leadership at risk.
The online marketplace said it will embed Tether's crypto wallet tools and USDT, USAT tokens to power crypto payments for over 18 million users.
Social media giant Meta is quietly plotting a return to stablecoins. This time, however, the primary beneficiary may not be Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse, but the US Treasury market. On Feb. 24, Coindesk reported that Meta was exploring stablecoin-based payments for a possible rollout in the second half of 2026, likely through a third-party provider rather […]
The post Meta’s digital dollar comeback could unlock a $1 trillion Treasury shift Washington is not ready for appeared first on CryptoSlate.
TBD, co-founded by former dYdX team members, has raised $3 million in a seed round co-led by CMT Digital and ParaFi.
Both the FCA and the Bank of England are working in concert to develop a comprehensive set of regulations for stablecoins.
A “torrent” of AI agentic commerce running on stablecoins and high-throughput blockchains seems very likely, Stripe's co-founder said.
Circle reported $770 million in Q4 revenue and reserve income as USDC circulation reached $75.3 billion and issued 40% CAGR guidance.
Tether has taken a stake in Whop as the marketplace adopts its WDK to enable USDT and USAT onchain creator payouts.
Safe Labs is rolling out a way for users to earn euro-denominated yield using a EUR CoinVertible vault on Morpho.
Project 0's new Pay feature offers a way for users to pay off their credit cards by borrowing against their crypto investment portfolios.
Although final passage of the CLARITY Act—commonly referred to as the crypto market structure bill —has been delayed in Congress, some experts believe its eventual approval could unleash an unprecedented wave of capital into the crypto sector. Trillions On Hold In a recent post on X (previously Twitter), the expert known as 360Trader argued that trillions of dollars in institutional money are waiting on regulatory certainty before entering digital assets. Related Reading: History Repeating? XRP Flashes Signal Last Seen Before Explosive 60,000% Rally According to his assessment, the CLARITY Act could act as the trigger that opens Wall Street’s doors to crypto in a meaningful way, potentially driving more than $5 trillion into the space over time. 360Trader pointed to comments from White House Digital Asset adviser Patrick Witt, who stated that trillions in institutional capital are effectively sidelined as firms wait for legal clarity. Large asset managers, including BlackRock, are often cited as examples of institutions constrained by the current patchwork regulatory environment. If the CLARITY Act becomes law, the expert believes the crypto market capitalization could surge beyond $4 trillion, drawing comparisons to the rally that followed the approval of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) back in 2024. Catalyst For Next Crypto Bull Run? Stablecoins are another key element of the discussion. Under the proposed framework, banks would receive clearer authorization to issue stablecoins. The stablecoin market has already expanded significantly, reaching a reported $300 billion in supply in 2025 and processing approximately $33 trillion in transaction volume—figures that exceed the total throughput of Visa’s network. The possibility of major banks such as JPMorgan launching fully integrated stablecoins backed by substantial payment activity has been described as a potential turning point for the sector. The yield component is also drawing attention. Some stablecoin products currently offer returns in the range of 3% to 5%, compared with traditional savings accounts that average roughly 0.07%. Related Reading: World Liberty Financial Cites ‘Coordinated Attack’ — But Are There Deeper Issues? 360Trader suggested that this disparity could prompt a significant reallocation of capital—potentially as much as $6 trillion—from conventional bank deposits into crypto-linked instruments. Pension funds, university endowments and retail investors could all gain broader exposure to higher-yielding crypto products. In parallel, traditional financial institutions may begin integrating decentralized finance (DeFi) infrastructure to enable faster settlement and more efficient transaction rails. Yet, the traditional banking sector has consistently pushed back against stablecoin yield structures, citing concerns about the impact on their deposit bases. This has resulted in the current delay and the ongoing White House meetings. In the expert’s words: …I’m bullish on CLARITY unlocking trillions in dormant capital. This could be the catalyst that separates the next bull run from everything we’ve seen before. Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com
Growth of tether and other top stablecoins has stalled, posing risk to the broader crypto market.
Financial Secretary Paul Chan said the first licenses for fiat-referenced stablecoin issuers are expected to be approved in March.
Bloomberg reported that Stripe — which has growing stablecoin and blockchain ambitions — is exploring a deal for the embattled fintech.
Comparisons between AI’s explosive consumer adoption and crypto’s trajectory misunderstand the nature of the products, Dragonfly's Haseeb Qureshi told CoinDesk in an interview.
TruStage and Block Time Financial are collaborating on a dollar-pegged stablecoin pilot geared for U.S. credit unions.
The payments giant says Bridge, its stablecoin arm, saw its transaction volume sky-rocket through last year as stablecoin adoption is decoupling from crypto cycles.
Last May, Fortune reported that Meta was considering a stablecoin integration to reduce the costs of payments.