Stablecoin

Startale Group said on March 26, 2026 it completed the second close of its Series A round, adding $50 million from SBI Group, Inc. to bring the total to $63 million. The raise follows a $13 million investment from Sony Innovation Fund in January 2026, with the company planning to use the capital to advance Strium for tokenized securities and expand work on the JPYSC yen stablecoin and related onchain settlement infrastructure.

A federal grand jury in Ohio indicted two Chinese pharmaceutical companies and six Chinese nationals over alleged fentanyl precursor trafficking and money laundering, after investigators said customers were told to pay through crypto wallets controlled by the defendants. The case, tied to the FBI's Operation Box Cutter, also includes charges against three defendants for allegedly seeking to provide material support to a Mexican cartel designated as a foreign terrorist organization.

The Reserve Bank of Australia has signaled support for real-world asset tokenization after Project Acacia findings suggested it could add 24 billion Australian dollars ($16.7 billion) a year to the economy. Assistant Governor Brad Jones said the focus is shifting from whether tokenization will play a role to how it should be implemented, including work on a new DFMI sandbox. He also highlighted interest in linking wholesale CBDC activity with deposit tokens, stablecoins and the RITS payments system.

On Tuesday, Circle Internet Financial (CRCL) fell 22% to $98 after reports tied the move to a revised CLARITY Act draft that would bar platforms from offering stablecoin yield. Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan said the selloff looked "overblown" and argued the bill does not change his base-case view. He said Circle could still reach a $75 billion valuation by 2030 under what he described as conservative assumptions.

Coinbase has again declined to back the latest Clarity Act draft, focusing its objections on language that would bar platforms from paying yield or rewards on stablecoin balances. A bipartisan version circulated Monday would also curb incentives by limiting access to transaction-size data used to calculate rewards.

Ripple broadened its Singapore payment permissions under a Major Payment Institution license and joined MAS's BLOOM initiative with Unloq to pilot programmable trade settlement using XRP Ledger and RLUSD. At press time, XRP volume rose from $2.1 billion to $3.6 billion, while price rebounded from $1.38 to $1.42 as traders reacted.

On March 23, Grayscale research head Zach Pandl said crypto markets stayed relatively stable during the war with Iran, arguing valuations could recover more meaningfully as macro risks fade. By March 25, oil had fallen more than 5%, with Brent around $98.28 and WTI near $87.68, while Grayscale also pointed to ETP inflows, higher perpetual open interest, and improving U.S. policy signals as supportive factors.

Investors are repositioning ahead of the CLARITY Act, as expectations that stablecoin balances may not earn yield raise questions about where on-chain "passive" returns will come from. Ethereum was up 1.5% intraday at the time of writing and sat near $2.2k resistance, while analysts argue capped stablecoin yields could redirect capital into ETH staking and increase network activity. The setup is also framed around a roughly $164 billion stablecoin pool on Ethereum, a reported plan to stake about $6 billion worth of ETH over the next 50 days, and about 3.46 million ETH ($7.4 billion) available on exchanges.

Onchain investigator ZachXBT says Circle, the issuer of USDC, mistakenly froze 16 hot wallets while acting in connection with a US civil case. He alleges the addresses belonged to operating businesses such as crypto exchanges, online casinos and FX services, and argues basic transaction review would have shown they were not related.

Visa (NYSE: V) said Wednesday it has joined the Canton Network as its first major global payments Super Validator, aiming to help regulated financial institutions move payment flows onchain while preserving required privacy standards. Visa is one of 40 Super Validators and will have voting power over decisions tied to the network’s payment infrastructure. The company also cited an annualized stablecoin-settlement run rate of $4.6 billion and said it supports 130+ stablecoin-linked card programs across 50 countries.