News linked to both this project and an event.
According to The Block, Y Combinator will hold its first interview event in New York focused on startups in the cryptocurrency and fintech sectors, aiming to support more companies in these fields. Selected teams will join YC’s Summer 2026 batch and travel to San Francisco to participate in the program, receiving YC’s standard $500,000 investment offer—funds that can optionally be disbursed in Circle’s USDC stablecoin.
Odaily Startup Incubator Y Combinator will hold its first-ever interview session specifically for fintech and crypto startups in New York City, aiming to support more companies in this sector. The interviews will be held offline on May 21st. Selected startups will join the Summer 2026 batch and receive a standard investment of $500,000. Chosen projects can opt to receive funding in the form of USDC stablecoins. To date, Y Combinator has invested in over 150 crypto and fintech companies, including Coinbase, OpenSea, and Kalshi.
According to an official announcement, Coinbase has launched gold perpetual futures (GOLD-PERP) and silver perpetual futures (SILVER-PERP), available to eligible non-U.S. institutional and retail traders. These products are tradable in supported regions via the Coinbase International Exchange, coinbase.com, and the Coinbase App. Both products are linear perpetual contracts referenced to the spot price of one troy ounce of gold or silver, settled in USDC, and support 24/7/365 trading with up to 25x leverage. Coinbase also stated that it is working with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to transition its gold and silver futures offerings in the United States to 24/7 trading.
According to Odaily, Drift Protocol has released a user recovery plan for the approximately $295 million security vulnerability incident on April 1, which was attributed to a North Korean-backed hacker group. Under the plan, Drift will issue receipt tokens representing users' verified losses, with each token corresponding to $1 in losses, allowing holders to gradually redeem based on the recovery pool's funding size.Currently, the recovery pool has initial funding of approximately $3.8 million. Subsequent funding sources include up to $127.5 million from exchange revenue, Tether-backed funds, and up to $20 million from partner contributions, aiming to cover total losses of approximately $295.4 million. Drift has frozen approximately $3.36 million in USDC and has established a public bounty program offering 10% of recovered assets. It is expected to relaunch the exchange in a "security-first" model during the second quarter. (CoinDesk)
SoFi Technologies has announced the expansion of its stablecoin, SoFiUSD, to the Solana network, attracted by its low costs, high throughput, and rapid settlement capabilities.Launched in 2025 as a fully reserved US dollar-pegged stablecoin, SoFiUSD was initially deployed on Ethereum, designed to provide banks, fintech companies, and enterprises with near real-time settlement infrastructure available 24/7.As the regulatory framework gradually becomes clearer, banks and financial institutions are accelerating their entry into the stablecoin赛道, competing with major issuers such as Tether and Circle.
Somnia, an L1 blockchain, has announced the launch of its ecosystem stablecoin USDso, issued and operated by the decentralized stablecoin protocol Frax Finance based on the frxUSD architecture. USDso employs an over-collateralized model and is backed by reserves including U.S. Treasury securities, enabling minting at a 1:1 ratio against assets such as USDC. Its yield distribution mechanism channels reserve yields back into the ecosystem—90% allocated to DeFi protocols and 10% reserved for an insurance fund. This stablecoin is designed to serve high-frequency trading, DeFi, and on-chain protocol use cases.
According to Crowdfund Insider, Circle’s French subsidiary, Circle Internet Financial Europe SAS (referred to as “Circle France”), received formal authorization from the French Financial Markets Authority (AMF) on April 20 to provide custody and transfer services for its stablecoins USDC and EURC across the entire European Economic Area (EEA). Under Article 60(4) of the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), this authorization enables Circle France to operate via the “passporting mechanism,” allowing customers in all EEA member states to access these services without requiring additional local licenses. Circle is the largest compliant issuer of electronic money tokens (EMTs) under MiCA regulation in the EU. The authorized custody services cover secure storage and management of clients’ crypto assets, while the transfer functionality supports seamless asset movement. Dante Disparte, Circle’s Chief Strategy Officer and Head of Global Policy and Operations, stated that this milestone reflects Circle’s commitment to operating within Europe’s regulatory framework and supporting the development of trusted digital financial infrastructure in France and across the EU. This authorization builds upon Circle’s prior authorization as an electronic money institution in France.
According to the official announcement, Binance will delist and cease trading for the following spot trading pairs on May 8, 2026, at 03:00 UTC: AVA/BTC, BCH/BNB, CFX/BTC, ENA/BTC, HBAR/FDUSD, LA/BNB, MAGIC/BTC, OP/BTC, PUNDIX/USDC, STEEM/ETH, WIN/TRX, and XPL/FDUSD. At that time, Binance will also terminate its Spot Trading Bot service for these trading pairs. Users must update or cancel their bots before the service discontinuation to avoid potential losses. Delisting these trading pairs does not affect the availability of the corresponding tokens in other trading pairs on Binance.
According to Financialit, stablecoin financial services platform UnblockPay has announced the completion of a $4.5 million seed funding round, led by Prelude, with participation from Plug and Play, Wintermute, Reverie, Signature Ventures, Triaxis Capital, Crescera Capital, and a group of angel investors. The new capital will support the development of regulated financial products, enabling businesses to integrate stablecoins into their day-to-day financial operations and facilitating seamless conversions between fiat currencies and major stablecoins such as USDC and USDT for enterprise users.
According to Bitcoin.com News, Bitso, one of Latin America’s largest cryptocurrency service providers, has released its “2025 Latin American Crypto Landscape Report.” The report shows that nearly 40% of cryptocurrency purchases in the region in 2025 involved U.S. dollar-pegged assets such as USDT and USDC. The analysis draws on data from nearly 10 million customers across key markets including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico.
AethirClaw has officially launched CARA (Pre-configured Crypto AI Agent), running on Aethir's decentralized GPU infrastructure. Equipped with over 50 skills, it covers core crypto scenarios such as real-time market monitoring, whale wallet tracking, on-chain analysis, social media sentiment monitoring, and project due diligence, and users can use it out-of-the-box without any technical configuration.The platform supports payments via credit card as well as USDT, USDC, and ATH tokens. Aethir also disclosed that it will soon launch a Model-as-a-Service (MaaS) layer, running mainstream open-source large models on Aethir's decentralized GPU infrastructure, and expand multimodal capabilities including text-to-image and video generation.
According to the official announcement, Binance has now completed the integration of USDC on the Starknet network and World Liberty Financial USD (USD1) on the AB chain, and deposits and withdrawals are now available.
According to Fortune, Meta has quietly launched a stablecoin payment feature, offering select creators in Colombia and the Philippines the ability to receive payments in USDC on the Solana and Polygon networks. Creators can enter their third-party wallet addresses into Facebook’s payout platform to withdraw funds. Meta does not provide USDC-to-local-fiat conversion services and partners with Stripe to handle related tax filings. According to Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs, the initiative is expected to expand to over 160 countries by year-end. This launch comes more than four years after Meta’s Libra project—later renamed Diem—was discontinued in 2022.
Meta has begun offering select creators the option to settle payments in USDC, allowing users to withdraw their earnings directly to wallets on Solana or Polygon.Creators can link crypto wallets (such as MetaMask, Phantom, etc.) to receive funds. Payment services are supported by Stripe, and users may be provided with crypto-related tax reports.Meta also cautioned that stablecoin payments carry inherent risks, and users are responsible for securing their own accounts and wallets; in the event of technical issues or special circumstances, the company may resort to alternative payment methods to complete settlements.According to previous reports, Meta is planning to further expand its stablecoin-related operations within the year.
Bitget Wallet has launched a Labor Day QR code payment campaign, running from April 28 to May 7, further driving the adoption of stablecoin payments in everyday consumption and travel scenarios across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. During the campaign, users who complete offline QR code payments using USDT or USDC will receive RLUSD cashback for each transaction. From May 1 to May 7, Bitget Wallet will randomly select one paying user per day to receive an additional 1,000 RLUSD cashback. To lower the barrier to first-time usage, Bitget Wallet will also airdrop XRP to eligible participants—serving as the account reserve required to activate RLUSD withdrawals. RLUSD is a compliant U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by Ripple and regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). This campaign marks Bitget Wallet’s first real-world consumer application following its integration of the XRP Ledger (XRPL) mainnet and onboarding of the RLUSD payment ecosystem at the end of March—and represents a key milestone in advancing Bitget Wallet’s Everyday Finance strategy.
Stacks Releases Q1 2026 Ecosystem Metrics: sBTC Total Value Locked (TVL) Reaches $545 Million, and Deposit Caps Have Been Fully Removed; Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Active Deployed Capital on the Stacks Protocol Stands at $121 Million—Zest Protocol TVL Accounts for $75.9 Million, Granite $26 Million, and StackingDAO $20 Million. During the Same Period, the Bitcoin Staking Pilot Product Dual Stacking App Attracted Over $100 Million in Participating Capital. On the Infrastructure Front, Integrations with Fireblocks, BitGo, Circle, and Nansen Are Now Live. Regarding Network Upgrades, Stacks Completed Version 3.3.0.0.6 in March 2026, and SIP-034 Enhancements Increased Network Capacity by up to 30x.
Circle Ventures, Consensys, and Joseph Lubin have announced their support for the DeFi United initiative, aimed at mitigating losses caused by the Kelp DAO vulnerability. Circle Ventures is supporting the ecosystem by purchasing AAVE tokens. Consensys and Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin have confirmed the provision of 30,000 ETH to DeFi United. To date, DeFi United has raised over 132,000 ETH, with a total value exceeding $300 million. These funds will be used to cover bad debts resulting from an attacker minting unbacked rsETH via the LayerZero bridge and borrowing assets on Aave. Previously, Aave proposed a donation of 25,000 ETH, while Lido DAO, Ether.fi, and Kelp have respectively proposed or pledged donations of 2,500 ETH, 5,000 ETH, and 2,000 ETH.
A research report released by a16z Crypto states that stablecoins have evolved from niche trading tools into the foundational layer of a new global financial infrastructure, giving rise to a new generation of “Banking-as-a-Service” (BaaS) models. Unlike the previous wave of BaaS, this new model is built on onchain infrastructure and integrates account management, payments, foreign exchange, and credit functions via self-custodial wallets—significantly reducing reliance on traditional intermediaries. The report classifies blockchains into three categories: general-purpose public chains (e.g., Solana and Ethereum), purpose-built chains optimized for payment use cases (e.g., Stripe’s Tempo and Circle’s Arc), and compliance-focused networks designed for regulated institutions (e.g., Canton). On the regulatory front, following the passage of the GENIUS Act, stablecoin issuers are competing aggressively for national trust charters from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), aiming to gain direct access to the Federal Reserve’s payment rails and secure a central position within the payments stack. The report also notes that stablecoins have made significant progress in the “middle mile” of cross-border payments; however, liquidity bottlenecks between stablecoins and local fiat currencies remain unresolved in emerging markets. Looking ahead, as stablecoin scale grows, the onchain credit market is poised to become the next major opportunity after payments—providing capital to borrowers underserved by traditional financial systems. Moreover, the widespread adoption of stablecoins is expected to further reinforce the U.S. dollar’s global dominance.
Circle posted on X platform, stating that Circle Ventures is purchasing AAVE tokens. Aave is helping shape the future of on-chain finance, and Circle Ventures will support the ecosystem and the entire community built around it.
According to an official announcement by Banking Circle, the company officially launched its stablecoin settlement service on April 27, 2026. Prior to this, Banking Circle had obtained a Crypto-Asset Service Provider (CASP) license from Luxembourg’s financial regulator, the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF), on April 15. The new service enables instant, two-way conversions between fiat currencies and major stablecoins—including USDC, USDG, and EURI—and leverages Banking Circle’s core banking platform to deliver 24/7 settlement with full regulatory traceability. Globally, the stablecoin market capitalization currently stands at approximately €250 billion, with annual payment transaction volume reaching around €330 billion and monthly on-chain transaction volume exceeding €8 trillion. Laust Bertelsen, CEO of Banking Circle, stated that stablecoins have become core infrastructure for cross-border settlement and treasury management. This launch aims to combine the efficiency of blockchain-based payments with banking-grade compliance standards, serving Banking Circle’s global network of over 750 payment institution clients.