Editor - Jackie

🌍 Macro: From going mainstream to hitting record M&A deals, 2025 was a big year for stables

Stablecoins cemented as crypto’s first mainstream use case

• Total stablecoin supply climbed to nearly $310 billion in 2025, up more than 50% from about $205 billion at the start of the year.
• USDT held over 60% market share, while USDC fell below 26% after briefly approaching 37% earlier in the year.
• The number of stablecoins with over $10 million in supply rose from 75 to 142, supported by enterprise payment rails such as PYUSD, Visa, and Mastercard integrations.

Privacy tech gains traction as USDC pilots and shielded assets grow

• Zcash’s shielded supply rose to nearly 25% in 2025, making it one of the strongest-performing tokens in the second half of the year.
• Aztec launched its Ignition Chain mainnet after raising roughly $61 million worth of ETH from more than 16,700 participants.
• Circle began piloting a privacy-preserving wrapped version of USDC, called USDCx, using the Aleo testnet.

Big bucks! Crypto M&A hits record as stablecoin regulation unlocks deals

• Crypto mergers and acquisitions reached a record $8.6 billion in 2025 across 267 deals, up from $2.17 billion in 2024.
• Coinbase’s $2.9 billion acquisition of Deribit was the largest transaction of the year.
• Analysts said regulatory clarity from the GENIUS Act accelerated tokenized settlement and deal-making activity.

🔍 Policies: PARITY Act eases micro-tx taxes, HK remains tight on stables, and Ghana greenlights cryto trading

U.S. lawmakers propose tax relief for stablecoin usage

• The PARITY Act would exempt capital gains taxes on stablecoin transactions under $200 from federally regulated issuers.
• The bill also introduces optional tax deferral for staking and mining rewards.
• Sponsors framed the proposal as consumer-friendly relief aimed at everyday payments and small businesses.

Hong Kong weighs differentiated capital rules for stablecoins

• Hong Kong’s insurance regulator proposed a 100% risk charge for crypto asset exposure held by insurers.
• Regulated stablecoins would instead carry risk charges aligned with their underlying fiat currency.
• The consultation runs from February to April as part of Hong Kong’s broader stablecoin licensing strategy.

South Korea and Japan race toward institution-led stablecoin frameworks

• Japan’s yen stablecoin issuance is projected to grow fivefold by end-2026, with transaction volumes expected to exceed $50 million.
• Interbank settlement and corporate payments-focused institutional issuance models are favored over retail use by policymakers.
• South Korea’s central bank warns of risks while lawmakers push for regulated won-denominated stablecoins, showcasing internal debate.

UK regulator approves Sling Money as stablecoin payments expand - Sling Money, an app that supports USDP and EURC on Solana with instant local currency withdrawals across 80 countries, received approval from the UK Financial Conduct Authority to operate as a crypto services provider.

Russia proposes controlled crypto access for retail investors - Russia’s central bank proposed allowing non-qualified investors to buy crypto with an annual cap of 300,000 rubles. Crypto and stablecoins would be classified as foreign currency assets that can be traded but not used for payments domestically.

Ghana legalizes crypto trading and explores gold-backed stablecoins - Ghana passed a Virtual Asset Service Providers bill requiring registration with the central bank or securities regulator. This allows crypto trading to operate under legal protections without enforcement uncertainty.

🔥 Biz Beats: Coinbase tagged as top '26 fintech, PayPal bets on stable rails, and JPM eyes crypto expansions

Coinbase named top 2026 fintech pick as stablecoin revenue grows - Clear Street named Coinbase a top three fintech stock for 2026, assigning a $415 price target implying roughly 70% upside. Analysts highlighted growing revenue from subscriptions, stablecoin activity, and onchain financial services.

Wall Street prepares to replace legacy rails with stablecoins - PayPal’s CEO said future payment infrastructure is likely to resemble stablecoin-based blockchains rather than traditional rails. Analysts expect 2026 to mark a transition from experimentation to large-scale institutional deployment.

JPMorgan evaluates institutional crypto trading expansiona - JPMorgan is reportedly considering offering spot and derivatives crypto trading to institutional clients.

Aave founder pushes back on governance proposal amid GHO growth - Aave founder Stani Kulechov criticized a proposed token alignment change as harmful to the protocol and DAO. He argued the proposal was too complex for a binary governance vote and could slow development.

💡Rollouts: Kyrgyzstan’s KGST debuts on BNB Chain and Shift4 goes live on multiple chains

Kyrgyzstan launches first CIS stablecoin on Binance

• Kyrgyzstan’s som-backed stablecoin KGST went live on Binance, marking the first CIS stablecoin listed on a global exchange.
• The token runs on BNB Chain and targets cross-border payments and regional crypto adoption.
• The country also launched a gold-backed USD stablecoin with a 50 million initial issuance.

Shift4 adds multi-chain stablecoin settlement for merchants

• Shift4 launched stablecoin settlement for merchants processing over $200 billion annually across 200,000 businesses.
• Merchants can accept USDC, USDT, EURC, and DAI across networks including Solana, Ethereum, Polygon, and Base.

Hyperliquid rolls out portfolio margin and USDC borrowing - Hyperliquid introduced portfolio margin to unify spot and perpetual positions for capital efficiency. New earn vaults allow users to earn yield on stablecoins or borrow against native collateral.

👋 That’s your stablecoin scoop for the week - Thank you to all of the readers this year and we will see you in 2026!

Until next time — AllScale Weekly

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