Stablecoin

Grayscale's 2026 outlook, published on Monday, projects Bitcoin to reach a new all‑time high in the first half of 2026, driven by institutional demand and clearer U.S. regulation. The report anticipates bipartisan market‑structure legislation and stablecoin growth under the GENIUS Act, alongside themes like tokenization and DeFi lending, while downplaying quantum computing and DATs as market drivers.

Tokyo-based SBI Holdings is partnering with Startale Group to issue a yen-denominated stablecoin in Q2 2026. According to the companies, Shinsei Trust & Banking will oversee issuance and redemption, while SBI VC Trade will manage circulation. The firms say the stablecoin market exceeds $300 billion and remains concentrated in U.S. dollar assets.

On Monday, Chairman Tim Scott said the Senate Banking Committee will not hold a markup on the crypto market structure bill this week, with a spokesperson targeting early 2026. The House passed the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act in July by a 294-134 vote, while senators continue bipartisan talks on ethics rules, stablecoin yields, and oversight.

Circle has agreed to acquire the Interop Labs team and its proprietary technology in a transaction expected to close in early 2026, while the Axelar Network, its foundation and the AXL token will remain independently governed. The acquisition will fold Interop Labs' interoperability stack into Circle's Arc blockchain and Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol to bolster crosschain infrastructure for multichain applications. The move follows Circle's earlier purchase of Hashnote and comes amid a broader wave of 2025 acquisitions by stablecoin issuers, including Paxos and Tether.

Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon has been sentenced to 15 years in a U.S. prison for wire fraud linked to the Terra-Luna collapse and could later face up to 30 additional years if convicted in South Korea. He may apply for transfer to South Korea after serving half of his U.S. term, where prosecutors have prepared a separate case tied to Capital Markets Act violations and large investor losses.

Ripple began testing its U.S.-regulated stablecoin RLUSD on Optimism, Base, Ink, and Unichain, using Wormhole’s Native Token Transfers to support native multichain issuance. RLUSD operates under an NYDFS Trust Charter, and DefiLlama data shows 79.2% of RLUSD on Ethereum worth over $1 billion, with the remainder on XRPL.

Industry insiders caution that Ethereum could fade by 2030 unless urgency returns, prompting the Ethereum Foundation to pivot toward faster iteration from early 2025. Leadership changes, including Tomasz Stańczak and Hsiao-Wei Wang as Executive Directors, accompany performance-focused upgrades and a proposed "Beam Chain" to address scaling and fragmentation.

On December 15, Ripple announced it has started testing its RLUSD stablecoin across multiple Ethereum Layer 2 networks, with a public rollout targeted for 2026 following regulatory clearance in New York. The trials span Base, Unichain and Ink, using Wormhole's Native Token Transfers standard to keep RLUSD natively issued while enabling movement between chains. Ripple aims to position RLUSD as a compliant, liquid asset for users entering and exiting the digital asset ecosystem, while also reinforcing utility within the broader XRP environment.

Updated on December 15, 2025 at 1:27 PM UTC, Oobit integrated Plasma, a stablecoin-focused blockchain infrastructure, to enable USD₮ spending via its DePay layer across a network of more than 100 million merchants. Users can pay from self-custody wallets like Phantom, MetaMask, Trust Wallet, and Binance Wallet, with negligible fees and deep USD₮ liquidity.

JPMorgan Chase has introduced a private tokenized money market fund on Ethereum, seeding it with $100 million. The MONY vehicle issues wallet-based share tokens via Morgan Money, with subscriptions and redemptions in cash or USDC and eligibility starting at $1 million; individuals need at least $5 million and institutions $25 million.