Stablecoin

On December 16, 2025, Tether and ego death capital co-led an $8 million strategic funding round for Speed1, a Lightning Network and stablecoin payments platform handling over $1.5 billion in annual volume and serving about 1.2 million users. The deal aims to expand Bitcoin-native USDT payment infrastructure and deepens Tether's broader push into Lightning-based commerce and multi-chain stablecoin use cases.

Polygon's proof-of-stake chain has seen daily transactions climb back to multi-year highs, driven mainly by Polymarket activity and peer-to-peer USDC payments. A recent upgrade increased Polygon's throughput by 30% to about 1,400 transactions per second, while the POL token continues to trade near its all-time low around $0.11 with open interest close to $35M. Despite losing most play-to-earn traffic from the 2021 bull market, the network now functions primarily as a settlement layer for prediction markets and stablecoin transfers.

The FDIC published a 38-page proposal outlining how regulated banks could apply, via subsidiaries, to issue payment stablecoins. According to an FDIC website posting, the draft lays out approval criteria and oversight; as Bloomberg reported, it will undergo a public consultation before advancing. The GENIUS Act cleared the Senate in June and was signed by President Donald Trump on July 18.

RedotPay, a stablecoin payments fintech, closed an oversubscribed $107 million Series B. The company reports more than 6 million registered users across over 100 countries and an annualized payment volume above $10 billion as of November 2025, alongside over $150 million in annualized revenue and year‑on‑year transaction growth.

On Tuesday, the Canton Network announced that World Liberty Financial will deploy the USD1 stablecoin on Canton to support compliant, privacy‑enabled onchain finance for institutions. According to CoinGecko, USD1 has surpassed $2 billion in market cap and is fully reserved and redeemable 1:1, with custody and issuance handled by BitGo entities.

Visa Inc. announced on Tuesday that it will let U.S. financial institutions settle payments using Circle's USDC stablecoin on the Solana blockchain, expanding its crypto-focused services. Initial users include Cross River Bank and Lead Bank, with broader U.S. access planned through 2026 and support for seven-day settlement windows to streamline treasury and liquidity management. Visa is also collaborating on the Arc Layer 1 blockchain for future USDC settlement, while Binance CEO Richard Teng highlighted that daily stablecoin transactions have already surpassed Visa's own payment volumes.

XRP has dropped under $2 to around $1.87, with its price down roughly 6% in a day and about 17% over a recent institutional inflow streak. A nearly seven-year-old wallet that accumulated XRP near $0.40 realized more than $721.5 million in profit around the $2 level on Dec. 11, amid falling leverage on Binance and a sharp decline in XRP futures buying volume.

Singapore-based StraitsX plans to extend its XSGD and XUSD stablecoins to Solana by early 2026. The move targets automated payments and onchain SGD–USD exchange, with the pair having processed over $18 billion in onchain transactions. StraitsX operates under MAS oversight and is exploring a consumer pilot with Grab.

FSOC's 2025 annual report removes digital assets from its financial stability vulnerabilities list and shifts emphasis toward sustainable economic growth. It highlights the GENIUS Act, signed in July, as the federal framework for stablecoin payments and notes complementary actions, including Executive Order 14178 in January and the SEC's rescission of SAB 121 via SAB 122.

Matrixport reports that while overall stablecoin supply remains close to record levels and exceeds $260 billion, the 12‑month growth in new issuance began to slow after late October. The firm links this cooling liquidity impulse to cautious Federal Reserve policy and notes that Bitcoin, trading near $85,860 on Tuesday with a roughly 3% decline, is struggling to maintain key bullish trend indicators.