Author: TSE Staff
Key takeaways: Tether has invested $20 million in Argentine digital bank Ualá, deepening its push into Latin America as the issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin expands beyond digital assets. The investment forms part of Ualá’s $197 million funding round announced in March, which the company plans to use to accelerate growth and expand its financial ecosystem across Argentina, Mexico and Colombia. Ualá founder and chief executive officer Pierpaolo Barbieri said regulatory constraints in Argentina and Mexico rule out any near-term integration of Tether’s USDT stablecoin into the platform. “We always want to stay at the forefront of new products,…
Key takeaways: Fireblocks has integrated Circle’s Gateway and Circle Payments Network directly into its platform, giving institutional clients a way to manage USDC across multiple blockchains and settle payments to local fiat currencies without building separate infrastructure. The company announced the integration in a blog post on July 16. Fireblocks said Gateway provides customers with a USDC Virtual Wallet that aggregates balances across supported chains into a single account, replacing the need to maintain separate pre-funded balances on each chain. “Processing USDC for our clients across multiple chains was one of our biggest operational challenges — balances in the wrong…
Key takeaways: President Bola Tinubu has signed an executive order aimed at harmonizing Nigeria’s regulation of virtual assets, establishing a new council to coordinate oversight across the country’s financial, revenue and capital markets agencies. The Presidential Executive Order on Virtual Assets Coordination, 2026, took effect immediately upon signing, issued under Section 5 of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution as altered. The order establishes a Virtual Asset Council chaired by the Central Bank of Nigeria, with the Nigeria Revenue Service and the Securities and Exchange Commission serving as vice-chairs. The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit and the Office of the National Security Adviser round…
Key takeaways: Circle, the company behind the USDC stablecoin, has received final approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to operate Circle National Trust, a federally regulated national trust bank. The OCC converted Circle’s conditional approval, granted in December 2025, into a full charter on July 10, according to a statement from the company. The bank will initially provide fiduciary digital asset custody services for Circle and its affiliates, with the OCC’s approved business plan allowing for future expansion to institutional clients such as banks and regulated financial institutions. Jeremy Allaire, Circle’s co-founder and chief executive…
Key takeaways: Velocity, a stablecoin treasury and settlement platform, has raised $38 million in a Series A funding round to expand its infrastructure for enterprises, payment providers and financial institutions moving money onchain. The London-based company announced the round in a statement, led by Dragonfly and FirstMark, with participation from Activant Capital, Capital One Ventures, QED Investors, Coinbase Ventures, Wintermute Ventures and Ripple. Founded in 2025, Velocity works with global merchants, payment providers, fintechs and financial institutions looking to modernize treasury operations, reduce settlement times, eliminate prefunding requirements and move capital across borders more efficiently. Eric Queathem, Velocity’s founder and…
Key takeaways: The Bank of Tanzania has completed a study on cryptocurrencies and is now awaiting government guidance before moving ahead with a formal regulatory framework for digital assets. The Governor of the apex bank, Emmanuel Tutubais, closed the development while speaking at the central bank’s pavilion during the 50th Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair. “We are currently finalising the preparation of laws and regulations for the supervision of digital assets, particularly virtual assets, cryptocurrencies and stablecoins, so that we can strengthen regulation and oversight,” Tutuba said. Tutuba said the framework is intended to keep Tanzania in step with…
Key takeaways: Flyra, a fintech startup led by former Flutterwave CFO Oneal Bhambani, has come out of stealth with the launch of FlyraOS, a programmable financial operating system designed to unify stablecoin-powered wallets, payments, cards, lending and compliance under a single infrastructure. The company announced its launch in a post on LinkedIn. “Most stablecoin announcements end at the press release. We are fixing that,” Bhambani, the CEO of Flyer, said. Bhambani described FlyraOS as “an end-to-end programmable financial operating system, built on a proprietary configurable ledger, that unifies wallets, payments, cards, lending, rewards, compliance, and AI.” Flyra said businesses can…
Key takeaways: Linka, a stablecoin settlement platform, says it is now running the full trade finance operations of a Peruvian exporter through its platform, covering both the exporter and the importers who buy from them. Victor Egoavil, the company’s chief executive officer, disclosed the development in a post on LinkedIn last Monday. “We have a Peruvian exporter running their full operation through us. Their importers are using us to finance customs and pay taxes. Both sides of the deal, one platform,” Egoavil said. “That’s what we mean by 360-degree, and we’re just getting started.” Linka converts between stablecoins, including USDT…
Brazil has become one of the world’s fastest-growing stablecoin markets. Every month, between $6 billion and $8 billion worth of stablecoin transactions flow through the country, with dollar-pegged tokens now accounting for roughly 90% of all crypto activity, according to Brazil’s tax authority, Receita Federal. Around 25 million Brazilians now own or use cryptocurrencies, helping propel the country from tenth to fifth place in global crypto adoption rankings in 2025. That rapid growth has forced Brazil’s regulators into difficult territory. Over the past few months, the Central Bank of Brazil (BCB) has taken two significant steps that could reshape how…
Visa has picked the Democratic Republic of Congo as the testing ground for its newest stablecoin project. The card payments giant has teamed up with M-Pesa Africa and cross-border payments network Onafriq to settle mobile money transactions using stablecoins. The pilot is small for now. But it could reshape how millions of people in Congo and across Africa send and receive money. The idea is simple. A customer tops up their M-Pesa wallet like they always have. Nothing changes on their screen. Behind the scenes though the transaction settles in stablecoins instead of moving through the usual banking channels. Visa…