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"Every dollar of USDC in circulation moved roughly 190x in the quarter, about 10x the rate of the next largest stablecoin."
Hey, it's Marc.
Morgan Stanley now turns stocks and Treasuries into tokens through DTCC, as I wrote on Thursday. Same shares, same books. The only difference: they can move at 3am on a Sunday.
Here's what matters this week:
Let's unpack.
On the podcast
We sat down with former CFTC chair Chris Giancarlo. He thinks crypto "really lost nothing" when CLARITY failed. We also talked about who is winning the fight for the future of money, freedom vs control, China’s CBDC, and what the US needs to win crypto.
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01 / TOKENIZATION
Wall Street funds Canton, but no firm controls it
What's going on here?
In a no-action response on Tuesday, SEC staff said Canton Coin, worth about $4 billion, is a "digital commodity," the category of bitcoin and ether. It's a staff view, built on Canton's own account: no person or group controls the network. Yet Wall Street is all over it. Goldman Sachs, Citadel Securities and DTCC invested in its builder, Digital Asset. DTCC and Euroclear co-chair its foundation.
What does this mean?
So how does a chain backed by half of Wall Street pass a no-control test? Changing its rules takes two-thirds of the 13 firms running its main nodes, one vote each, however many coins they hold. So even DTCC can't change them alone.
As I wrote on Wednesday, the test looks at who controls a network, not who funded its builder. The catch: SEC staff say even an informal agreement to act together can make operators a group, and a group with control is a central party.
Why should I care?
If your firm runs a node on a network like this, keep your vote independent, because a pact with other operators could undercut the facts SEC staff relied on.
The 51 Signal: USDC moves faster than it grows
USDC moved $13.9 trillion on-chain last quarter, up 49% on a year earlier. USDC in circulation ended the quarter at $73.9 billion, unchanged on the year. The average balance rose 8%.
USDC on-chain volume and USDC in circulation at the end of Q3 2025 and Q3 2026, and USD-pegged stablecoin supply on November 5, 2026. Q3 2025 volume derived from Circle's reported 49% growth. Sources: Circle Q3 2026 results; DefiLlama. Exhibit and analysis by 51 Insights.
Our read: faster turnover hasn't made up for lower rates, because Circle is paid on balances. Reserve income fell 8% to $658 million as its reserve yield dropped to 3.5%. Take out $182 million from presales of its new Arc token, and revenue fell about 8% on our math. Circle's payments network runs at $41 billion a year. The question is how much of that flow it can charge for.
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03 / MARKET STRUCTURE
Stock perps reach Wall Street, and so do the lawyers
What's going on here?
On Tuesday the CFTC said perpetual futures on single US stocks can trade on exchanges registered with both it and the SEC. A perpetual is a derivative with no end date. Kalshi listed four, on Qualcomm, McDonald's, Amgen and Costco. It had just raised $1 billion at a $40 billion valuation, partly to build them. A group including Cboe and Citadel Securities sued. Judge Valerie Caproni refused to halt trading, but said the contracts look like swaps and the CFTC likely overstepped.
What does this mean?
Here's the legal fight. The CFTC's route treats these as security futures, which the SEC and CFTC oversee together. The judge's early read is that they look more like security-based swaps, which the SEC mainly regulates. That's a different rulebook, with its own limits on who can trade.
Our read: the incumbents are also fighting over who gets to list it. Both earn on single-stock options. A perpetual offers similar exposure on a venue neither runs. CFTC chair Michael Selig says the agencies "have turned the page" on turf fights. A judge's first read says the turf fight isn't over. An agency order is only as strong as its first court test.
04 / PAYMENTS
Stripe brings stablecoins to 82 million phones
What's going on here?
Samsung Wallet now lets eligible US users buy and send USDC on 82 million Galaxy devices. They pay with Samsung Pay, a card or a bank transfer. Stripe handles the identity checks, compliance and fraud controls on every purchase. The same week, Stripe previewed stablecoin payouts to crypto wallets in more than 160 markets, for US businesses outside New York. Its bank payouts reach more than 100. The price: $0.50 plus 0.5% per stablecoin payout, against a flat $25 for a SWIFT wire.
What does this mean?
A phone wallet just became a place to buy digital dollars, right next to your cards. Samsung brings the customers. Stripe runs the checks a bank would run. For banks, that's a live example of stablecoin access inside a consumer app, built without them.
On payouts, Stripe isn't selling price. On $10,000, the stablecoin route costs $50.50 and the wire $25, so above $4,900 the wire is cheaper. As I wrote on Wednesday, Stripe sells a faster payment in more places, not cheaper transactions. My bet: businesses will pay that premium where bank payouts are slow or missing.
Why should I care?
If you run a bank's consumer app, this is your new benchmark: buying digital dollars is now as easy as adding a card to a phone.
Quick Hits
Binance explains the hack. A fake job interview and a hijacked internal AI tool gave attackers a path to Binance's wallet signing service, its initial findings say.
The no's reach 62. Apple, Amazon and Tesla are among 62 companies now objecting to OKXICE, the OKX and ICE venue for stock tokens.
Tether books $1.5 billion. Tether's Q3 net operating profit came with $7.95 billion of excess reserves, on flat USDT supply.
Treasury watches stablecoins. Primary dealers named stablecoins, with money funds and the Fed, as potential sources of growing T-bill demand.
The Bank of England hikes. The MPC raised Bank Rate to 4% by 8 votes to 1, its first rise since 2023.
NYSE signs transfer agents. Broadridge, Computershare, Equiniti and Superstate will record company-approved stock tokens on NYSE's coming platform.
Money Moves
Erebor, $100M from SBI. The Japanese group invested in the Thiel-backed US national bank built around stablecoins.
Soter, Series B extension. Standard Chartered's SC Ventures and SBI joined the crypto theft insurer's Galaxy-led round.
Revolut, $115B valuation. A new share sale values it at $115 billion as it prepares a US bank.
Boardroom Reads
AI cyber breach of a bank is a matter of when, not if. Anil Kashyap, FT. A Chicago Booth economist argues Binance shows a cyber threat banks must prepare for now. .
The Commanding Heights. Will Manidis and Joe Roberts. Why the wealth from AI may land far from where it was built.
Calomiris: Regulators "Walling off" Stablecoins by Preventing Interest Payments on Deposits. Kathleen Hays, Central Bank Central. A former OCC chief economist calls the stablecoin interest ban a bank-protection play.
Digital US Stocks Are Coming. Be Worried. Paul J. Davies, Bloomberg Opinion. The skeptic's case: platforms win, investors carry the theft and laundering risk. .
Stablecoins as a vehicle for dollarisation. Marco Reuter, VoxEU. An IMF economist finds stablecoin holdings jump after currency crises, across 188 countries.
On the Calendar
November 9: BitGo reports Q3.
November 10: US consumer prices. Blockworks' Digital Asset Summit opens in London.
November 11: Comments close on Korea's tokenized securities rules.
November 12: The EBA and France's ACPR start supervising USDC for Circle's EU issuer.
November 18: Bullish reports Q3. The Singapore FinTech Festival opens.
51 Intel: the data behind this newsletter
51 Intel tracks the companies, vendors and deals shaping digital assets, with Ask51, an AI analyst. It's open in beta.
That's all for now, folks.
– Marc & Team
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