Stablecoin

Visa is expanding its stablecoin settlement pilot while extending its collaboration with Bridge, which is working toward launching stablecoin-linked Visa cards in more than 100 countries by the end of 2026. The initiative lets users spend stablecoin balances at over 175 million merchant locations and tests onchain settlement options via Bridge’s partnership with Lead Bank. The program remains in a pilot phase focused on settlement flexibility and operational efficiency rather than replacing fiat rails.

On 3 March 2026, Ripple introduced an upgraded Ripple Payments platform that consolidates fiat and stablecoin transactions into a single end-to-end system for institutions. The service, powered by the RLUSD stablecoin and technology from recent acquisitions, is live in more than 60 markets and has processed over $100 billion in volume. The company supports its institutional offering with over 75 licenses worldwide, including approvals in the US, EU, and UK.

A European Central Bank working paper finds that stablecoins can function as substitutes for retail bank deposits, potentially shrinking banks' funding bases and constraining lending if adoption becomes widespread. The authors argue that this shift could alter how policy rate changes pass through the euro area banking system and indirectly expose the region to U.S. monetary policy via dollar-denominated stablecoins. While current usage is largely tied to crypto trading, the study warns that scale and evolving use cases will determine how strongly stablecoins reshape bank balance sheets and monetary transmission.

XRP Ledger developer Panos Mekras has highlighted a new RLUSD liquidity pool incentive on the XRP/RLUSD pair, offering a 12.8% APR and drawing around $500,000 in XRP liquidity in less than 24 hours. He noted that a similar proposal his team made in 2025 was not supported by Ripple, and urged the company to use the one billion XRP reserved for community initiatives to back DeFi builders. Despite this progress, XRP Ledger still trails leading DeFi ecosystems in total value locked, fee generation and active addresses.

According to Elliptic, Iranian crypto exchange Nobitex recorded a 700% surge in net outflows to nearly $3 million in the 48 hours following coordinated US and Israeli military strikes, even as local trading volumes dropped around 80% amid internet restrictions. Iran's central bank ordered major platforms to suspend USDT/toman pairs, while Elliptic and TRM Labs data indicate rising exposure to illicit or sanctioned activity and a potential liquidity crunch for domestic exchanges.

The European Central Bank, in a new working paper titled "Stablecoins and Monetary Policy Transmission" released on Tuesday, warns that rising stablecoin adoption is associated with declining retail bank deposits and weaker lending to firms. The study finds that as households and companies move funds from bank deposits into stablecoins, banks may face higher funding costs and monetary policy transmission to the real economy could be disrupted, especially given the dominance of US dollar-pegged stablecoins.

The United States Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts has filed a civil forfeiture action to seize $327,829 in USDT tied to an alleged online romance investment scam. Tether has reported freezing $4.2 billion in USDT connected to illicit activity over the past three years and was also commended for helping federal agencies seize an additional $61 million in a separate money laundering case.

Bitfinex Securities plans to restart USDt-denominated tokenized bond issuances on Bitcoin's Liquid Network for Luxembourg-based fund ALTERNATIVE, after four earlier offerings totaling $6.2 million since 2023. The new sales are expected to surpass $10 million, with onchain fundraising, coupon payments and principal repayments, while the broader move coincides with an ongoing U.S. policy debate over yield-bearing stablecoin products.

Qivalis, a consortium of 12 European banks, plans to roll out an institutional euro‑pegged stablecoin in the second half of 2026, targeting corporate payments and cross‑border blockchain settlements. The group is seeking an Electronic Money Institution licence from De Nederlandsche Bank under MiCA and designing reserves with at least 40% in bank deposits and the rest in high‑quality liquid bonds. Qivalis is also in talks with major exchanges and liquidity providers to support listings and distribution, while the European Central Bank has been described as balancing support for payment autonomy with caution on stablecoin risks.

On March 2, Ripple's recently acquired prime brokerage unit Hidden Road was added to the DTCC's National Securities Clearing Corporation directory, paving the way to route institutional post-trade volume onto the XRP Ledger. The $1.25 billion acquisition closed in late October and the firm was rebranded as Ripple Prime, which plans to use XRPL's speed and low costs and is already deploying the RLUSD stablecoin as collateral in various prime brokerage products.