U.S. Companies Continue Stablecoin Payment Integrations, Product Launches
By Keith R. Murphy
According to a recent press release, a major multinational payment card services company has announced several new programs to support global end-to-end stablecoin payments. Among other programs, the company reportedly has partnered with multiple crypto companies to allow consumers to transact with stablecoins from their crypto wallets via traditional payment cards, and it has further partnered with several crypto and fintech companies to allow merchants to receive customer payments in stablecoins, regardless of how the customer pays the merchant.
In other stablecoin news, the issuer of the PYUSD stablecoin and a major U.S. cryptocurrency exchange have expanded their partnership to provide no-fee purchases and one-to-one redemption of PYUSD, according to a recent press release. As noted in the release, the parties are in the process of exploring new use cases for PYUSD in decentralized finance (DeFi) and on-chain platforms, and the current expanded partnership will provide the exchange’s customers with direct access to PYUSD.
The issuer of the USDC stablecoin announced in a recent press release that it has received in-principle approval to operate as a money-services provider from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM). According to the press release, the approval marks a significant step toward the company securing a Financial Services Permission under ADGM’s regulatory framework and “reinforces the company’s commitment to enabling compliant innovation in digital finance throughout the Middle East and Africa (MEA).”
In a final recent press release, several fintech and cryptocurrency wallet provider companies announced the joint creation and issuance of a metal payment card that reportedly “bridges the gap between self-custody crypto and real-world spending.” According to the press release, the card allows users to securely pay directly from their self-custody wallets without traditional banking intermediaries. The new card is reportedly set to launch worldwide in the second quarter of 2025.
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Crypto Products Launch: Crypto-as-a-Service, XRP Futures, Bitcoin Yield Fund
By Jonathan Cardenas
A major U.S. cryptocurrency exchange recently announced the launch of a crypto-as-a-service (CaaS) solution that provides traditional financial institutions, fintechs and payment service providers with the ability to embed crypto trading into their platforms utilizing the exchange’s crypto trading infrastructure. The exchange recently announced its first CaaS partnership with European neobank bunq, with additional partnerships expected soon.
According to a recent press release, a major global derivatives exchange plans to launch XRP futures on May 19, 2025, pending regulatory review. The XRP futures will be cash-settled based on the exchange’s XRP-Dollar Reference Rate and will complement the exchange’s preexisting crypto product suite, which includes Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether futures and options, as well as SOL futures. Market participants will have the choice to trade micro-size (2,500 XRP) and larger-size (50,000 XRP) XRP futures contracts.
The digital asset management division of a major U.S. cryptocurrency exchange recently announced the launch of its Bitcoin Yield Fund (CBYF), a long-BTC fund that is designed to address growing institutional demand for BTC yield. CBYF, which is backed by Abu Dhabi-based digital asset manager Aspen Digital, has an estimated strategy capacity of $1 billion in assets under management and seeks a 4-8 percent net return in BTC per year, with investors subscribing and redeeming in BTC.
The institutional investor services division of the same U.S. crypto exchange and Glassnode, a Switzerland-based blockchain data and intelligence provider, recently published Charting Crypto, Q2 2025 Edition, an investor-focused report that provides an overview of crypto market trends through Q1 2025. Among other findings, the report notes that notwithstanding the optimism that surrounded the crypto markets at the start of 2025, market signals appear to be pointing toward the potential onset of a new “crypto winter” as a result of negative financial market sentiment that has emerged in response to global tariff-related uncertainties. The report features a number of charts, provided by several leading crypto industry participants, that display data related to aggregate application-layer fees, bitcoin exposure restrictions across major brokerages, Solana’s quarterly revenues and adjusted stablecoin transaction volume.
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DePIN Provider Collaborates with Major U.S. Telecom
By Robert A. Musiala Jr.
A recent press release announced that a Web3 decentralized public infrastructure network (DePIN) provider is collaborating with a major U.S. telecom company to enable customers of the telecom company to connect to the DePIN provider’s “community-built WiFi network.” According to the press release, the DePIN provider’s network is “a wireless network built by individuals and businesses who deploy ‘mini cell towers,’ known as Hotspots, and earn rewards for helping to build the network and providing coverage to nearby devices.” The press release describes the collaboration as a “strategic integration” that “marks a pivotal advancement in wireless convergence technology.”
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U.S. Central Bank, SEC, UK HM Treasury Take Crypto Regulatory Actions
By Jonathan Cardenas
On April 24, the board of the U.S. central bank (Board) announced that it has rescinded two prior supervisory letters: (1) a 2022 supervisory letter requiring state member banks to provide advance notice of crypto activities and (2) a 2023 supervisory letter imposing a nonobjection process for state member bank engagement in dollar token activities. According to the press release, the Board will no longer expect banks to provide notification of crypto activities and will instead monitor banks’ crypto activities through the normal supervisory process. The press release notes that the Board has also withdrawn two related statements that were jointly issued with other U.S. bank regulators.
In other news, in response to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Crypto Task Force’s (Task Force) call for public comment, and specifically in response to the series of 48 questions that were posed by SEC Commissioner Hester M. Peirce in her There Must Be Some Way Out of Here statement of Feb. 21, the Task Force has received several written comments from leading crypto exchanges, venture capital funds, law firms, legal academics and other crypto industry participants on a wide range of topics including, but not limited to, the security status of crypto assets, crypto trading, crypto custody, tokenization and public offerings. A table with links to the comments and bulleted summaries is available here.
In the United Kingdom (UK), His Majesty’s Treasury (HM Treasury) recently published a draft statutory instrument (Draft SI), and an accompanying policy note related to the UK’s forthcoming financial services regulatory regime for cryptoassets. The Draft SI would bring specified cryptoassets within the UK’s financial services regulatory regime. Among other things, the Draft SI provides definitions of “qualifying cryptoassets” and “qualifying stablecoins.” The Draft SI also specifies that certain activities – including operating a qualifying cryptoasset trading platform, dealing in qualifying crypto assets, safeguarding qualifying crypto assets and issuing qualifying stablecoins in the UK – would require UK regulatory approval. In a related development, the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, recently gave a speech calling for the UK to be a world leader in digital assets and highlighting dialogue with the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury to support digital assets.
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FinCEN Action Targets Pig Butchering; SEC Ends More Crypto Cases
By Robert A. Musiala Jr.
A recent press release by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced that FinCEN has issued “a finding and notice of proposed rulemaking pursuant to Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act that identifies Cambodia-based Huione Group as a financial institution of primary money laundering concern and proposes to sever its access to the U.S. financial system.” According to the press release, “Huione Group serves as a critical node for laundering proceeds of cyber heists carried out by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), and for transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) in Southeast Asia perpetrating convertible virtual currency (CVC) investment scams, commonly known as ‘pig butchering’ scams, as well as other types of CVC-related scams.” The press release notes that “FinCEN found that Huione Group laundered at least $37 million worth of CVC stemming from DPRK cyber heists, at least $36 million from CVC investment scams, and $300 million worth of CVC from other cyber scams.”
In other enforcement news, according to recent reports, the SEC has ended its investigation into the issuer of the PYUSD stablecoin without enforcement action. The news was reportedly noted in the company’s recently filed Form 10-Q. And another recent report noted that the SEC has dismissed its lawsuit against Dragonchain Inc. and the Dragonchain Foundation. The recently dismissed lawsuit had related to the August 2017 initial coin offering (ICO) of the Dragonchain (DRGN) token.
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DeFi Protocol Hacked for $5.8M; New Data Released on Hacks in April
By John Robertson
Recent reports indicate that Loopscale, a Solana DeFi protocol, temporarily halted its lending markets after being hit with an exploit that extracted approximately $5.8 million. According to reports, the exploiter was able to pull approximately 5.7 million USDC and 1,200 Solana from Loopscale by taking out a “series of undercollateralized loans.” Loopscale has since announced that it has recovered around $2.88 million through negotiations with the exploiter.
According to a recent report, more than $90 million was stolen from DeFi platforms in April. The largest hack, hitting open-source platform UPCX, accounted for the majority of April losses, with more than $70 million stolen. The report includes statements from Immunefi, a cryptocurrency security and recovery company, claiming that more than $1.7 billion in cryptocurrency has already been stolen in 2025, surpassing 2024’s total losses.
Another recent report by blockchain security firm CertiK claimed $364 million was lost through cryptocurrency exploits, hacks and scams in April 2025. This amount is a major increase from the $28.8 million CertiK reported was lost in March. According to the report, April saw the fifth-largest cryptocurrency hack to date, which amounted to 3,520 bitcoins, valued at $330.7 million.
In related news, Bitrace, a blockchain analytics company, recently released its 2025 Crypto Crime Report summarizing cryptocurrency crime in 2024. Key findings from the report include the following:
- Crypto addresses associated with illegal activities received approximately $649 billion.
- Addresses associated with illicit trading received more than $278.1 billion.
- Cryptocurrency escrow platforms increased their volume to $2.64 billion.
- Cryptocurrency fraud rose year over year to at least $52.5 billion.
- Addresses linked to money laundering received $86.3 billion in stablecoins.
- Tether and the issuer of USDC froze more than $1.3 billion in stablecoins in cooperation with law enforcement, double the amount frozen between 2021 and 2023.
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