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Most yield is shared directly with partners rather than being internalized by the stablecoin issuer.
Good morning
This week the payments world was in Miami Beach for Sibos, Swift's annual banking conference. Panel after panel was about tokenization and stablecoins, from “Scaling tokenised money” to “Building the Digital Dollar Stack.”
Early in the week I wrote that crypto is moving into the back office: banks add the new rails and keep the customer.
That leaves the other question everyone in Miami was circling: who keeps the interest? This week, Stripe's answer was clear: hand it to whoever brings the customers.
Here's what matters this week:
Read all the stories on 51insights.xyz.
01 / STABLECOINS ·
Stripe hands out the interest
What's going on here?
OpenUSD, or OUSD, went live on September 30. Bridge, a Stripe company, issues it. The reserves sit at BlackRock, BNY and Lead Bank. The five founding partners, Coinbase, Mastercard, Shopify, Stripe and Visa, have committed more than $1 billion in near-term liquidity, and the partner page lists 214 names.
Businesses can mint and redeem one for one at no cost. Transactions carry a fee, and Stripe hasn't given the rate. The reserve page showed $468.5 million on October 1. USDC stood at about $74 billion the same day.
What does this mean?
Follow the interest. A stablecoin issuer earns interest on the Treasuries behind each coin. Circle already shares it. Its IPO prospectus shows $908 million paid to Coinbase in 2024. Circle kept $659 million after distribution and related costs.
OUSD makes sharing the default. Eligible partners earn in proportion to the supply and activity they bring. Circle co-founder Sean Neville notes that USDC's original plan was to bring more partners into its governance over time.
I think OUSD can hurt Circle without replacing USDC. Coinbase's USDC agreement renews automatically in three-year blocks, and USDC keeps its supply for now. What changes is the next negotiation. Partners that sign up now hold a dollar that pays them by default.
Why should I care?
If you distribute dollars to customers, OUSD gives you a second offer to bring to your next stablecoin negotiation.
The 51 Signal: Coinbase got more than Circle kept
Alt text: Exhibit 1. Circle 2024, per its IPO prospectus: $908 million paid to Coinbase as distribution costs; $659 million of revenue after distribution and related costs; $156 million net income. Right: 25 of 63 USDC partners in the 51 Terminal (records as of March 5, 2026) appear on Open Standard's 214-name OUSD partner page (checked October 1, 2026).
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Your Take
Which would make you switch your stablecoin partner? |
02 / BANKING
Banks keep the front door
What's going on here?
Citi and Coinbase widened their partnership on Monday. Spring by Citi, the bank's checkout service, will let merchants accept stablecoins. Coinbase will convert them to cash, and Citi will settle as the bank of record. In the other direction, Citi's banking will power Coinbase's new virtual accounts. It launches in the US first.
Goldman Sachs went the same way. Its Treasury money market fund FTIXX is now offered through Lynq to qualified US crypto firms, with tZERO handling the trades and the fund unchanged. And at Sibos, Swift said most of its 17 first-mover banks have now used its blockchain ledger for 24/7 payments in its first deployment.
What does this mean?
A shopper pays in stablecoins. The merchant never holds the token. It gets cash in its Citi account. Citi keeps the merchant, and Coinbase runs the rail.
The other half has a twist. Stablecoins held in Coinbase's new accounts earn a 3.75% reward from Coinbase, according to the WSJ. In May, six bank trade groups asked the Senate to clearly prohibit interest-like payments on stablecoins. One of them, the Financial Services Forum, represents eight of the largest US financial institutions, including Citi. Citi now plans to provide the banking under one of those rewards.
My read: the big banks are letting crypto into the back office while they keep the customer.
Why should I care?
If you sell crypto infrastructure to companies, your road now runs through their bank, and the bank keeps the relationship.
Full Pro story: Citi's stablecoin checkout with plCoinbase
03 / TOKENIZED SECURITIES
Seoul writes the token rulebook
What's going on here?
Korea's Financial Services Commission proposed the detailed rules for tokenized securities on October 1. The laws passed in January. Comments run until November 11, with a planned start on February 4, 2027.
They cover stocks, bonds, funds, fractional products and investment contracts. The ledger must be shared by at least two account managers plus the Korea Securities Depository. Issuers that run customer accounts need KRW4 billion in equity and specialist staff. Retail buyers face a KRW100 million yearly net-purchase cap on each over-the-counter venue.
What does this mean?
Korea is putting tokens inside the system it already has. The depository sits on every ledger. Licensed firms keep the accounts. The rules even ban direct fees for using the ledger.
I think that favors Korea's securities firms. They already have the licences, the capital and the depository connection. My guess is that a crypto startup can build the token but will need one of them to reach investors.
Why should I care?
If you plan tokenized products for Korean investors, line up a licensed securities partner before the planned February 2027 start.
04 / STABLECOINS
North Dakota's bank goes live
What's going on here?
Bank of North Dakota's Roughrider stablecoin is now live, according to VersaBank's filing. VersaBank USA N.A. issues it and manages the reserves. Fireblocks runs the infrastructure on Solana.
Banks reach it through Fiserv Commercial Center, their online banking screen. For now it moves money between banks. Fiserv says its digital asset platform is live with financial institution clients. More than 90 North Dakota institutions are eligible to use Roughrider.
What does this mean?
I think the core provider is the distribution. Small US banks mostly run on technology from a core processor. When Fiserv adds a stablecoin to the screen a banker already uses, adoption becomes a menu choice.
That's the same back-office pattern as Citi, at the other end of the market. Fiserv is also on OUSD's partner list.
Why should I care?
If you run a community bank, expect your first stablecoin to arrive through your core provider.
Quick Hits
Fed opens GENIUS comments. The Fed's two stablecoin proposals are now in the Federal Register, open for 60 days of comments.
Treasury sets the state test. A three-agency committee will review state stablecoin regimes. Its first approval of any state must be unanimous.
UK opens crypto licensing. The FCA's application window is open. Firms with only an anti-money-laundering registration must apply too.
Lloyds pays Visa in USDC. A seven-day pilot settled $750,000 of real obligations, reaching Visa in under an hour, weekends included.
SEC tightens its buyback answer. Staff added a condition: the network must have no central party. My take for Pro readers.
Senate staff target USDT. A Democratic report finds 84% of 846 Iran-linked wallets that were sanctioned or targeted for seizure used USDT almost exclusively. Tether says it has supported nearly $550 million in Iran-linked freezes this year.
Brazil's depository mirrors funds. CSD BR now copies BTG Pactual fund records to the XRP Ledger. Its own database stays the legal record.
Chainlink demos cross-chain repo. Fulcrum was demonstrated with DTCC at Sibos as a gateway for cross-chain repo.
HSBC names its stablecoin. HSBC plans to introduce RedCoin, a Hong Kong dollar coin, inside PayMe and its Hong Kong app.
Visa counts the business share. 17% of its stablecoin card volume this fiscal year is business spend.
Money Moves
Jeeves, $110M. An equity round led by CoinFund, with a16z, Coinbase Ventures and GIC. Jeeves says its stablecoin volume went from zero to a $1.5B annual pace in eight months.
Blockchain.com, ~$500M IPO. It targets a valuation of $4 billion to $6 billion, Bloomberg reports. Last week it agreed to explore tokenized stock trading with the NYSE.
Boardroom Reads
US seizes bank accounts of payments group linked to Tether. Dan McCrum, FT, September 25. Why the biggest stablecoin issuer still struggles to find mainstream banks. Paywalled.
UK banks make first interbank transactions using tokenised deposits. Phoebe Seers and Elizabeth Howcroft, Reuters, September 23. The banks plan to settle three digital bonds in tokenized deposits in early 2027.
The cryptographic world computer. Vitalik Buterin, September 27. His vision of Ethereum in 2030: a blockchain mostly in name, with privacy and proofs built in.
The future of digital finance rests on public money, not private. Piero Cipollone, ECB, in The Economist, September 21. The ECB's argument that digital finance should rest on central-bank money. Paywalled.
New forms of money and the role of the SNB. Petra Tschudin, Swiss National Bank, September 30. Why big stablecoins outside the banking system worry a central bank. In German.
On the Calendar
October 2: Hester Peirce's last day. The SEC drops to two commissioners, Paul Atkins and Mark Uyeda.
October 2, 08:30 ET: US employment report. September payrolls, after the Fed's September hike.
October 7–8: TOKEN2049, Singapore. Watch for launches with customers and dates attached.
October 18–21: Money20/20 USA, Las Vegas. I'll watch for bank and card-network stablecoin news.
October 20: Regulation Crypto Assets comments close. Last chance to comment on the SEC's crypto rulebook.
October 27–28: FOMC meeting. The rate path affects what stablecoin reserves earn.
That's all for now, folks.
– Marc & Team
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