Stablestats Dispatch August 11 - August 15, 2025

Industry News 

Circle Unveils Arc L1 Blockchain. Circle said that Arc will use USDC as its native gas token and include features like an integrated FX engine and sub-second finality, and noted that USDC’s supply jumped 90% Y/Y to $44B with $5.9T in on-chain volume (28% of all stablecoins).

Stripe Building “Tempo” Payments Chain. Stripe is quietly developing a new Ethereum-compatible Layer-1 blockchain called “Tempo” in partnership with venture firm Paradigm. The project, revealed through a job posting, follows Stripe’s February 2024 acquisition of stablecoin platform Bridge for $1.1 billion and aims to enable instant, low-fee stablecoin payment rails.

MetaMask Plans mUSD Stablecoin. MetaMask will launch a dollar-pegged stablecoin named “mUSD”, leveraging Stripe’s Bridge infrastructure and backed by Blackstone for treasury services. The company (with 30M users) plans to roll out the token by month-end, allowing users to tokenise fiat into USD on-chain.

BofA, Fiserv Prepare U.S. Stablecoins. Bank of America and Fiserv are “preparing to launch” their dollar-backed stablecoins now that the U.S. Congress passed the GENIUS Act to create the first federal framework for stablecoins.

Citigroup Eyes Stablecoin Custody/Payments. Citigroup is exploring providing custody for Treasuries/cash backing regulated stablecoins, as well as other crypto payment services. Citi’s exec said offering custody of those “high-quality assets” is a top priority as banks rush into crypto under the new law.

RedotPay Launches UK/EU Onramps. Singapore fintech RedotPay announced that UK and EU users can now deposit EUR or GBP into their wallets and instantly convert it to stablecoins with zero fees. CEO Michael Gao said this feature (following RedotPay’s $40M Series A) was built to eliminate high cost and slow settlement pain points in fiat-to-crypto onramps.

BVNK Expands US Stablecoin Payments. Payments platform BVNK announced it now supports stablecoin payments in all 50 U.S. states (including NY) via a partnership with Paxos. CEO Amit Cheela said the rollout comes as BVNK’s US transaction volumes have quadrupled in 60 days (toward a ~$10B annualized run-rate) on surging enterprise demand for 24/7 crypto payments.

Swiss Spar Accepts Crypto Payments. Swiss supermarket chain Spar is enabling customers to pay with 100+ cryptocurrencies and stablecoins (through Binance Pay) at 100 of its 300 stores, with all locations to follow. Spar’s management said the new system could cut merchant transaction fees by roughly two-thirds versus cards.

Western Union Mulls Stablecoin. Western Union CEO Devin McGranahan is “exploring the opportunity” to issue a U.S. dollar stablecoin for non-U.S. markets. He said such a coin could function “almost like a savings account in US dollars” for international customers, as the 175-year-old money-transfer giant looks to counter crypto remittance services.

24/7 On-chain U.S. Treasury Repo Executed. Digital Asset Corp and major Wall Street firms executed the first real-time on-chain repo of U.S. Treasuries on DA’s Canton blockchain. Prime brokers converted Treasuries held at the DTCC into tokens and used them as collateral to borrow USDC on a Saturday, demonstrating “real-time collateral mobility” for tokenized government bonds.

KAIO Tokenizes Institutional Funds on Hedera. Tokenization startup KAIO announced on August 14 that it has brought multiple institutional fund products on-chain via the Hedera network. The initiative includes a tokenized Laser Digital crypto carry fund and a tokenized BlackRock USD Liquidity money-market fund. KAIO’s CEO called this a “critical inflection point” enabling regulated macro and money-market strategies to be accessed on DeFi platforms.

Hong Kong Launches RWA Registry Platform. Hong Kong unveiled the world’s first public registry for real-world asset tokenization. The regulator stated that the platform will standardize the encoding and classification of assets. Officials have already signaled their intent to tokenize assets, such as precious metals and renewable energy, underscoring that RWA tokens are intended as a “pragmatic tool” for finance, not a gimmick.

KuCoin Pilots Tokenized Fund as Collateral. Crypto exchange KuCoin has announced a partnership with fintech AlloyX, allowing a tokenized ChinaAMC USD money-market fund (RYT) to serve as collateral on its lending platform. Users holding the RYT token on KuCoin can borrow against it on margin, making it one of the first regulated on-chain funds used as compliant collateral, a move highlighting the growing institutionalization of RWAs.

What I am Reading 

Stablecoin Playbook by Dynamic