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South Korea’s budget office says stablecoin adoption could save merchants up to $3.8 billion annually, but warns it may weaken banks’ credit-intermediation role and put token pegs under pressure during mass redemptions.
Bitcoin started the week flat, while LINK reached an eight-month high after Bottomline selected Chainlink to connect more than 600 banks to blockchain settlement. Bottomline provides SWIFT services and processes $16 trillion annually.
The Philippines’ central bank is considering a proposal to pause new payment operator registrations and impose enhanced monitoring and transaction limits on arrangements involving virtual asset service providers, Cointelegraph reported.
Decrypt says stablecoin adoption could be limited by a shortage of trusted, regulated infrastructure. As institutional interest grows, banking support is identified as a key requirement for the sector to scale.
A Bank of Korea study links buying pressure in dollar-backed stablecoins and Binance-paired currencies with local-currency depreciation, citing market makers’ efforts to balance positions as a possible channel.
a16z-backed OpenReserve received approval for a full-service national bank charter. The startup chose this route over a trust-bank structure, opening a path to insured deposits and conventional lending alongside stablecoin issuance.
Revolut and OpenReserve received preliminary OCC approval to form US national banks. Both companies plan to offer cryptocurrency and stablecoin-related services, although final authorization, product details and launch timing were not provided.
The OCC granted blockchain bank OpenReserve a provisional charter, adding the new full-service institution to the growing group of crypto-native banks in the United States. The approval is initial and does not confirm full operations.
Kraken and SoFi agreed to connect crypto trading with banking and payment infrastructure. The initiative follows SoFi’s bitcoin-trading launch last year and is intended to support broader digital-asset markets.
Bitcoin gained 5% and reclaimed $80,000 as the US dollar weakened amid suspected Bank of Japan intervention in the yen. Analysts remain split on the broader impact of the currency-market development.
Standard Chartered has added institutional spot trading for Bitcoin and Ethereum to its Dubai FX platform. CoinDesk reports that the cryptocurrencies are available through the bank’s existing eFX infrastructure used for dollar and euro trading.
