Tether has applied for seven trademarks in South Korea, including for its company name and logo, in a move that market observers see as a hint of the firm expanding into the South Korean market.
The issuer of the largest stablecoin in the world, USDT, is also expanding its reach into Africa and Asia by partnering with Lemfi. Meanwhile, Tether’s rival Circle (NYSE: CRCL) has already been meeting with major financial institutions in South Korea, setting up a potential showdown between number one and two in the stablecoin issuance business.
Tether and Circle are lining up entry into the South Korean market
Tether, the company behind the world’s largest stablecoin USDT, is making progress in its plans to enter the South Korean market. The Korea Intellectual Property Rights Information Service (KIPRIS) recently received multiple trademark applications from Tether, totaling up to seven.
Tether’s previous filings in the country focused on stablecoin product names, but this batch includes the corporate brand itself and its gold-backed stablecoin Tether Gold (XAUT).
South Korea’s proposed Digital Asset Basic Act is expected to require foreign stablecoin issuers to maintain a domestic branch if they want to distribute their tokens locally, and Tether appears to be positioning itself ahead.
Before Tether’s latest filings, Circle’s CEO Jeremy Allaire visited Seoul in April and met with executives from KB Financial Group, Shinhan Financial Group, and Hana Financial Group to discuss stablecoin payment cooperation and real-world asset tokenization.
Allaire acknowledged the potential in the South Korean market and shared Circle’s plans to establish a Korean subsidiary and obtain a license if the final regulatory framework accepts foreign issuers.
Circle has also signed partnerships with Korean exchanges Dunamu, which operates Upbit, and Bithumb to expand USDC adoption on domestic trading platforms.
Cryptopolitan reported earlier that Hana Card, part of Hana Financial Group, launched a pilot in March allowing foreign visitors to pay at local merchants using USDC through a partnership with Circle and Crypto.com. Other Korean financial firms, including BC Card and KB Kookmin Card, have been testing stablecoin payment infrastructure as well.
Tether has been on an expansion trail
Tether also recently announced an investment in LemFi, a cross-border payments platform that works across communities in the UK, US, Canada, and Europe to recipients in Africa and Asia. The deal will integrate USDT as a settlement layer across LemFi’s payment corridors, replacing multi-day SWIFT-based transfers with blockchain settlement.
Tether’s CEO Paolo Ardoino said in the announcement that the goal of the partnership is to expand financial access for its estimated 585 million users globally.
Cryptopolitan previously reported that Tether recorded $1.04 billion in profit for Q1 2026. The company holds excess reserves of $8.23 billion; enough capital to invest in distribution partners and pursue market entry in jurisdictions like South Korea.
South Korea is home to an estimated 18 million crypto investors. Exchanges in the country recorded over $663 billion in trades through mid-2025, and the country’s retail traders remain a significant part of altcoin markets.
Beyond Tether and Circle, multiple projects are building won-denominated stablecoins. Cryptopolitan reported that the Bank of Korea has been advancing “Project Han River,” its wholesale CBDC initiative, which entered a second phase of real-transaction testing earlier this year.
Regulators are still debating whether or not stablecoin issuance should be restricted to commercial banks or follow a more flexible licensing model. The discussion has been postponed until after South Korea’s June local elections.
Best Autonomous Agentic Payments Platform is a category within the BeInCrypto Institutional 100, an annual research-driven program recognising institutional digital asset excellence across 26 categories and six pillars.
This category sits under Pillar 4: Tokenization & On-Chain Finance. The 10 firms below are listed alphabetically and are not ranked. A shortlist will be named in May 2026, with the winner announced at Proof of Talk in Paris on June 2–3, 2026.
Key Facts
Long list: 10 firms across stablecoin agent stacks, x402 protocol ecosystems, full-stack agent payment platforms, agent identity standards, settlement layers, agentic onramps, and network-level payment rails
Initial pool: More than 30 firms screened; 10 advanced to the primary long list
Order: Listed alphabetically, not ranked
Scoring: 30% quantitative data · 50% Expert Council · 20% disclosed company data
Criteria assessed: Agentic transaction volume, agent integration depth, programmability, developer adoption, security and compliance, funding and viability, innovation signal
Eligibility: Each firm must have a verifiable AI-agentic product, program, fund, standard, or pilot live or announced during the award window
Firm
HQ
Agentic Platform / Sub-Segment
Reach
Representative Work
Ant Digital Technologies
Hangzhou, China
Agent-to-agent economy infrastructure platform
Anvita platform: Anvita TaaS and Anvita Flow
Supports x402 payments, Agent Store modules, OpenClaw, and Claude Code
Anvita launched Mar 31, 2026 at Real Up Cannes
USDC integration with Circle in progress; stablecoin licences pending in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Luxembourg
Circle Internet Group
New York, USA
Stablecoin issuer Agent Stack on USDC rails
USDC settles 99.8% of x402 agentic payments
Live on 11 EVM chains; Agent Marketplace launched with 500+ endpoints
Circle Agent Stack launched May 11, 2026
Includes CLI, Agent Wallets, Marketplace, Nanopayments, and Circle Skills
Coinbase
San Francisco, USA
x402 protocol layer and AgentKit developer ecosystem
About 69,000 active AI agents on x402
167M+ transactions and $50M volume as of Apr 21, 2026
x402 V2 launched Dec 2025 under Linux Foundation umbrella
Selected protocol layer for Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Payments
Crossmint
New York, USA
Full-stack agent payment platform
About $23.6M raised
40,000+ companies and developers; live across 40+ blockchains
Smart contract wallets across EVM, Solana, and Stellar
Virtual Visa and Mastercard cards for agents with spending caps
Ethereum Foundation (dAI Team)
Zug, Switzerland
Standards body for AI agent on-chain identity
Dedicated AI initiative launched Sept 15, 2025
Two-track mandate: AI Economy on Ethereum and Decentralized AI Stack
ERC-8004 finalized at Devconnect Buenos Aires
Creates on-chain identity and reputation layer for AI agents
Mesh
San Francisco, USA
Settlement layer for agentic commerce
$75M round in Jan 2026 at $1B valuation
400M users via partners across 100+ countries
Integrates Google AP2 for natural-language agent purchases
Visa Intelligent Commerce Connect launch pilot partner
MoonPay
Miami, USA
Agentic onramp and card-rail spending product
30M+ customers across 180 countries
NYDFS Trust Charter, BitLicense, and MiCA Netherlands registration
MoonAgents Card launched May 1, 2026
MoonPay Agents launched Feb 2026 with non-custodial AI wallets
Skyfire
San Francisco, USA
Agent identity and payment protocol
$9.5M raised
Customers include Anthropic, Cohere, Replicate, and Hugging Face
KYAPay built for verifiable agent identity and USDC settlement
F5 Networks partnership for enterprise agentic commerce
Solana Foundation
Zug, Switzerland
Network-level agentic payments rail
$650B stablecoin volume in Feb 2026
15M+ on-chain agent payments cleared to date
Pay.sh launched May 5, 2026 with Google Cloud
Solana Agent Kit provides 60+ pre-built actions
TRON DAO
Geneva, Switzerland
Sovereign agentic AI fund and payment rail
977M transactions in Q1 2026
$86B stablecoin supply and $26B TVL
AI Fund expanded from $100M to $1B in Mar 2026
B.AI launched on TRON with 8004 identity and x402 standard support
About This List
The BeInCrypto Institutional 100 — Autonomous Agentic Payments (2026 Long List) identifies firms that enable AI agents to hold assets, access wallets, sign transactions, and settle payments on crypto rails with minimal human intervention.
Coverage spans network-level rails, stablecoin issuer agent platforms, full-stack payment platforms, settlement layers, agent identity protocols, and agentic onramp or card-rail products. Pure AI agent frameworks without a dedicated payment module are out of scope.
Methodology
This category is evaluated under Track B of the BeInCrypto Institutional 100 methodology: 30% quantitative metrics, 50% Expert Council scoring, and 20% disclosed company data.
Assessment spans seven criteria: transaction volume on agentic rails, integration depth across AI frameworks, wallet programmability and policy controls, developer adoption, security and compliance, funding and viability, and innovation during the award window.
The higher Expert Council weighting reflects the early stage of the agentic payments category, where on-chain data exists for some platforms but many launches remain too recent for traditional financial metrics to capture their market importance.
Data was verified using regulatory registers, audited filings, on-chain analytics, x402 Foundation metrics, public company earnings transcripts, partnership announcements, and direct company disclosures.
Circle’s $222 million ARC token presale has given Wall Street a new way to value the USDC issuer, while raising a harder question for one of crypto’s most profitable alliances.
On May 11, Circle said investors led by a16z Crypto backed the presale of ARC, the native token for Arc, its planned public blockchain for institutional finance.
The sale valued the network at $3 billion on a fully diluted basis and came alongside first-quarter results that showed $694 million in total revenue and reserve income, up 20% from a year earlier.
At the same time, USDC in circulation rose 28% to $77 billion, while on-chain transaction volume reached $21.5 trillion, up 263% year over year.
Circle’s Q1 Earnings Report (Source: Circle)
Those figures reinforced Circle’s position as one of the main issuers in the global stablecoin market, where tokenized dollars have become core infrastructure for trading, payments, and settlement.
However, the more important development was Circle’s attempt to move beyond issuance through its new blockchain network, Arc.
Arc gives the company a network-level growth story built around payments, tokenized assets, foreign exchange, capital markets, and AI-driven commerce.
That push places Circle closer to the terrain already occupied by Coinbase, its longtime USDC partner and the operator of Base, the Layer 2 network that the US-based exchange has positioned as a settlement layer for stablecoins, consumer payments, and agentic transactions.
Considering this, Circle’s aggressive expansion could bring a new competition to the crypto landscape: a looming, head-to-head battle with Coinbase.
Circle gives investors a wider story
Circle’s business has long been tied to the economics of stablecoin reserves. The company issues USDC, holds safe assets backing the token, and earns income on those reserves.
That model can be powerful when rates are elevated, but it also raises questions about how durable its earnings will be as interest income declines.
The company is pitching the network as an “economic operating system” for the internet, a shared environment where stablecoins, tokenized assets, and financial applications can operate on common infrastructure.
The chain is expected to be EVM-compatible, with stablecoin-native fees, deterministic sub-second finality, and configurable privacy designed for institutions that need auditability without exposing every transaction detail to the public.
Circle Chief Executive Jeremy Allaire framed the quarter around the convergence of AI platforms and on-chain money, saying:
“Circle’s first quarter reflected strong execution against a much bigger opportunity: the rapid convergence of AI platforms and economic operating systems into a new internet stack. With the ARC token presale, momentum behind the Arc network, and the launch of our Agent Stack, we are building trusted infrastructure for AI-native economic activity and a more programmable internet financial system.”
The investor list shows how far that pitch now reaches. a16z Crypto led the presale with a $75 million investment.
Other participants included BlackRock, Apollo Funds, Intercontinental Exchange, SBI Group, Janus Henderson Investors, Standard Chartered Ventures, General Catalyst,a IDG Capital, Haun Ventures, and Bullish.
The message to investors is clear: Circle wants to be valued less as a stablecoin issuer exposed to rate cycles and more as a full-stack infrastructure company for on-chain finance.
In a note shared with CryptoSlate, Clear Street analysts echoed that view, writing that Circle is “no longer a pure crypto play” and has built the Layer 1 network, application layer, and partner ecosystem required to become a critical infrastructure provider.
The firm raised its price target on the stock from $152 to $157, citing Arc, Agent Stack, Circle Payments Network, and regulatory momentum as potential sources of upside.
USDC already moves across more than 30 blockchains and is integrated throughout exchanges, wallets, fintech platforms, and institutional systems.
That distribution has been one of the stablecoin’s main strengths. Circle could grow as USDC became more widely used, regardless of where the activity settled.
Arc gives Circle a reason to bring more of that activity onto the infrastructure it controls.
The network is designed to support payments, lending, foreign exchange, capital markets, and tokenized assets. Circle has also positioned ARC as a coordination token for validators, builders, liquidity providers, exchanges, institutions, and users.
In that structure, USDC remains the transactional asset, while ARC is intended to help govern economic rules and align network participants.
That creates a broader economic layer around Circle’s core product. If Arc gains traction, investors will not only measure Circle by USDC circulation and reserve income.
They will also track transaction volume, developer adoption, institutional participation, validator activity, and the degree to which Circle can capture revenue from the infrastructure surrounding USDC.
Circle Payments Network adds another part of that strategy. Clear Street said CPN reached $8.3 billion in annualized total payment volume and approached $10 billion by May 7, with 136 financial institutions enrolled.
Managed Payments is intended to reduce friction for banks and payment service providers by handling licensing, liquidity, custody, and compliance burdens.
Taken together, Arc, Agent Stack, CPN, and Managed Payments give Circle a more ambitious public-market story. The company is trying to become the platform where digital dollars move, settle, and interact with software.
That ambition makes the Coinbase relationship more complicated.
Coinbase already controls much of the flow
However, Coinbase has its own claim to the USDC infrastructure story.
In its first-quarter report, the company described itself as the distribution engine for USDC, with more than 25% of total USDC in circulation, or about $19 billion on average, held across Coinbase products.
Coinbase said Base processed 62% of global on-chain stablecoin transaction volume during the quarter, more than all other chains combined.
At the same time, more than 100 million payments were processed through its x402 protocol, with more than 99% completed using USDC.
How Coinbase is Growing Stablecoin Adoption via USDC and Base (Source: Coinbase)
Those figures show why Arc is sensitive for Coinbase.
Coinbase is no longer merely a distribution channel for Circle’s stablecoin. It is building the rails around the asset.
Its stack includes USDC as the programmable dollar, Base as the low-cost settlement network, and Coinbase Developer Platform, AgentKit, and x402 as infrastructure for developers and AI-enabled payments.
Circle’s emerging stack points in the same direction. USDC provides the dollar asset, Arc provides the network, Agent Stack targets AI-native commerce, and CPN connects financial institutions and payment companies.
The companies remain commercially aligned around USDC growth. But their infrastructure strategies increasingly point toward the same flows.
The alliance gets a new scoreboard
For years, the Circle-Coinbase relationship was one of crypto’s cleanest partnerships. Circle issued USDC. Coinbase distributed it across its exchange, wallet, and institutional products. The stablecoin gained scale, and Coinbase shared in the economics.
That relationship helped make USDC one of the most important dollar assets in crypto. It also gave Coinbase a major stablecoin revenue line and helped turn USDC into a regulated alternative to Tether’s USDT for many US-based institutions.
However, Arc introduces a different incentive structure.
Omar Kanji, an investor at Dragonfly, captured the concern in a post asking how long the “marriage” between Circle and Coinbase can stay clean.
His argument was that the old model worked when Circle was the issuer, and Coinbase was the distributor. But Circle’s public-market demands and Arc’s token-backed network now require the company to show investors that it can own more customers, flows, and infrastructure directly.
That is where Arc overlaps with Base. Circle wants Arc to host USDC balances, tokenized assets, payments, settlement, and eventually foreign-exchange activity. Coinbase wants Base to serve as the main venue for stablecoin payments, on-chain consumer transactions, AI-agent activity, and institutional settlement.
The tension is already visible in adjacent products. Coinbase has cbBTC, a wrapped BTC product used across DeFi. Circle is preparing cirBTC, which is designed to integrate with Arc and Circle Mint.
While this overlap does not signal an immediate rupture, it shows that the companies are no longer staying in separate lanes and are beginning to compete on similar products.
AI payments raise the stakes
The competition becomes more significant when viewed through the lens of agentic commerce.
AI agents are expected to become a larger share of internet activity, handling tasks such as purchasing data, paying for software, settling invoices, managing subscriptions, and executing business processes.
Those transactions require programmable money, low-cost settlement, and infrastructure that can authorize spending without constant human intervention.
Stablecoins are well-suited to that environment because they operate continuously, settle quickly, and can be embedded directly into software. That has made agentic commerce one of the most attractive long-term narratives for stablecoin infrastructure providers.
Coinbase is already claiming early leadership. Its first-quarter materials pointed to Base’s share of on-chain agentic stablecoin transaction volume and the rapid growth of x402 payments. The company is presenting Base, USDC, AgentKit, and x402 as a ready-made stack for machine-driven economic activity.
Circle is moving to meet that opportunity with Agent Stack and Arc. Allaire has framed AI platforms and on-chain money as part of a new internet stack, and Circle’s product roadmap suggests the company wants USDC to become a settlement layer not only for humans and institutions, but also for software agents.
Considering this, Tom Wan, the head of data at Entropy Research, concluded:
“[Circle and Coinbase] business lines are converging across blockchain, tokenization, payments and stablecoins. A formal split is unlikely given the mutual benefits still on the table, but the trajectory is clear. Both sides are building toward a less dependent relationship, and the overlap will only create more friction over time.”
A third-party provider failure caused Revolut’s app to show wildly inaccurate crypto prices on Friday, the company confirmed, after users flooded social media with screenshots of Bitcoin listed at just 2 cents.
Third-Party Provider Blamed For Pricing Chaos
Revolut acknowledged the problem in a public statement, saying engineers were working on a fix and urging customers to check its status page for updates.
Hi. We want to help resolve the issues you’re facing with the Bitcoin price notification. We’re currently experiencing issues affecting some of the app’s functionalities. Please be assured that our colleagues are working on this as we speak. Please keep an eye on our status page…
The glitch wasn’t limited to Bitcoin. Users reported seeing simultaneous price drops across XRP, Solana, and even stablecoins like USDT and USDC — assets designed to hold steady at one dollar.
Screenshots shared on X and Reddit showed Bitcoin’s 24-hour chart registering a roughly 50% intraday plunge, with the price briefly anchoring near $39,900 before snapping back.
Some users also received push notifications warning that BTC had hit a 52-week low of 2 cents.
According to Revolut, The price of Bitcoin has just dropped to $0.02
Pricing data on major aggregators showed nothing unusual during the same window. Bitcoin’s price on CoinMarketCap and CoinGecko held steady, with no sign of any crash in derivatives markets either. The anomaly appeared entirely contained within Revolut’s app.
Ranveer Arora, a former PwC quantitative trading lead and co-founder of Altura.trade, told reporters two explanations are in play.
The first is a corrupt data tick pushed through Revolut’s pricing system — a single bad data point that briefly anchored the chart before being corrected.
Because Revolut is not an exchange and pulls prices from outside providers, one faulty input can be enough to produce exactly this kind of chart distortion.
The second possibility is a transient liquidity gap. Revolut’s order book is shallower than what you’d find on a full exchange, so a large sell order could theoretically exhaust available bids and print a sharp downward wick before prices recover.
Arora noted, however, that the lack of matching prints on any other platform makes the data feed explanation more likely.
Why Retail Apps Face Unique Data Risks
Marc Tillement, director of blockchain price oracle Pyth Data Association, said the episode shows how quickly a single bad data point can distort price perception — particularly in retail-facing systems where users may not think to cross-check what they’re seeing.
Tillement said that as markets grow more data-dependent, the reliability of pricing infrastructure becomes central to how much traders can trust what’s in front of them.
Transparent, verifiable data layers, he argued, are what separate a glitch from a crisis.
Featured image from Pixabay, chart from TradingView
Crypto rhetoric has long prized the ability to transact without gatekeepers, to move value across borders without asking permission, and to hold assets no institution could seize.
Crypto culture treated these as design virtues, properties that builders embedded with ethical weight by deliberate architectural choice. Then the Drift exploit happened, and the backlash told a different story.
On Apr. 1, Drift suffered a major exploit. Circle later described the publicly reported losses as exceeding $270 million, while other reports put the figure around $285 million and documented criticism that Circle had not frozen stolen USDC as it moved across its cross-chain rails.
The attacker routed roughly $232 million in USDC from Solana to Ethereum using Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol. The backlash stemmed from users and observers wanting to know why Circle had not intervened sooner.
Days later, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino posted that Tether had frozen 3.29 million USDT tied to the Rhea Finance attacker, framing the intervention as proof that “Tether cares.”
Circle published its formal response on Apr. 10, and its core argument was that USDC freezes occur when the law requires action. Circle is legally compelled by an appropriate authority through a lawful process.
Circle pushed back on the idea that an issuer should act as an ad hoc chain police force, arguing that open access to permissionless infrastructure is a feature, and that the bigger problem is that legal frameworks have not yet kept pace with the speed of on-chain exploits.
The stablecoin issuer also made a property-rights argument, claiming that arbitrary freezes set dangerous precedents for lawful users, and the power to freeze is a compliance obligation, constrained by lawful process and legal compulsion, authorized only through formal legal channels.
The complication is that Circle’s own legal documents tell a more layered story.
USDC terms state that transfers are irreversible and that Circle carries no obligation to track or determine the provenance of balances.
Those same terms also reserve Circle’s right to block certain addresses and, for Circle-custodied balances, freeze associated USDC in its sole discretion when it believes those addresses may be tied to illegal activity or terms violations.
Circle holds meaningful freeze power and frames it as a tightly bound compliance function, constrained by legal process and compulsion.
Ardoino’s Rhea post was a boast, and Tether’s terms grant it broad discretion by stating that the company may freeze tokens as required by law or whenever it determines, in its sole discretion, that doing so is prudent, and authorizing it to blacklist token addresses.
In February, Tether froze approximately $4.2 billion in USDT due to links to illicit activity, with $3.5 billion of that since 2023.
Circle freezes USDC only when legally compelled, while Tether reserves sole discretion to freeze and has frozen $4.2 billion over illicit-activity links.
The feature nobody advertised
What Drift and Rhea forced into the open is a question that stablecoin competition had not yet fully surfaced: in a hack, what do users actually want from an issuer?
The anti-censorship instincts that shaped crypto’s early culture tend to lose their force the moment users need an emergency brake. Affected protocols, exchanges holding stolen funds, and victims watching their balances drain want to know who can stop the thief.
That reframes freeze capacity as more of a consumer-protection feature.
Tether has been accumulating a record of intervention and visibility. Ardoino’s Rhea post was designed to be read as a product statement, and in the context of a fresh exploit, it worked.
The emotional and practical logic is accessible, showing that one issuer froze stolen funds the same day an attacker moved them, while another issuer said legal timelines tied its hands.
This makes optics difficult for Circle regardless of the legal merits of its position.
Stablecoins are quietly differentiating themselves in emergency governance, alongside reserve composition and exchange liquidity.
The cost of the feature
The case for Circle’s position is real and does not require dismissing the Drift backlash to hold. Broad issuer discretion over freezes creates risks that extend far beyond hack scenarios.
An issuer that can freeze tokens in its sole discretion when it determines it is prudent can freeze tokens for reasons unrelated to protecting victims. Politically contentious addresses, disputed transactions, regulatory scrutiny from a single jurisdiction, or simple operational error can all trigger freezes under terms as broad as Tether’s.
The same capacity that lets an issuer stop a thief also lets it stop a protester, a dissident from a sanctioned country, or a business whose activity it finds inconvenient.
Circle’s public writing on the Drift exploit is, among other things, a defense against that risk. The argument that emergency intervention needs new legal frameworks and safe-harbor structures is also an argument that the current situation is a problem, even when the targets are criminals.
The absence of defined standards means an issuer can act generously today and overreach tomorrow, with no formal mechanism to distinguish the two.
Tether’s freeze record has not yet produced a major documented wrongful-freeze controversy, but that record is also vast and not fully transparent.
Reports on the $4.2 billion in frozen USDT withhold the details of each decision, the legal process underlying each freeze, and the error rate across thousands of enforcement actions.
Fast intervention looks different in the abstract when the process generating those interventions is opaque.
Benefit of fast freezes
Cost of broad freeze discretion
Can slow or stop stolen funds
Can enable arbitrary intervention
May improve recovery odds
Can affect lawful users
Helps exchanges/protocols in crises
Can reflect political or regulatory pressure
Looks like consumer protection in hacks
Process may be opaque
Becomes a due-diligence feature
Wrongful-freeze risk may be hard to challenge
Two paths from here
The bull case for intervention-first issuers runs in a world where hacks keep coming, and recoverability keeps rising on the priority list.
More regulatory scrutiny on exchanges to show they take asset protection seriously, and more institutional users who need to demonstrate due diligence in custody and recovery. These are factors that push emergency freeze capacity to the center of stablecoin evaluation.
In that scenario, Tether’s public freeze record and broad discretionary terms become genuine competitive assets. Exchanges and protocols that have experienced exploits now treat fast-intervention capacity as a due diligence criterion when choosing which stablecoin to hold as primary liquidity.
Circle has to either act faster through new legal mechanisms or accept that some market segments will treat its rule-of-law posture as a liability in crises. Ardoino’s Rhea post, in retrospect, looks like an early entry in a competition that the market eventually formalizes.
The bear case for that same model runs through wrongful freezes, regulatory backlash, and the discovery that broad discretion is often a liability as much as a virtue.
A high-profile incorrect freeze, such as an address flagged as malicious that belongs to a legitimate user, a jurisdiction-specific enforcement action that appears to be politically targeted at users in other markets, or an operational error that freezes clean funds during a market stress event, turns the same emergency-governance story toxic.
In that world, Circle’s insistence on lawful process and defined standards looks like principled restraint, a deliberate commitment to defined limits over speed, and users place a real premium on an issuer whose freeze decisions carry formal accountability.
The crypto community’s historical skepticism toward centralized control reasserts itself as hard-won practical wisdom, grounded in the documented costs of unchecked issuer discretion.
The stablecoin winners in that scenario are the ones whose intervention power is real but bounded. Issuers who can act in genuine emergencies and demonstrate they held back in ambiguous ones.
Stablecoin governance splits between intervention-first issuers gaining crisis goodwill and bounded-discretion issuers winning users who reprice centralization risk, per Circle and Tether materials.
As stablecoins deepen their role in institutional payments, treasury workflows, and regulated financial infrastructure, governance under stress becomes as material as reserve quality or distribution reach.
The question that Drift and Rhea put on the table of how much control users want an issuer to have has no clean universal answer. Institutions with large exposures and recovery obligations may want emergency brakes, while individuals holding stablecoins across politically sensitive jurisdictions may want the opposite.
Protocols with mixed user bases need to answer for both.
The real contest now is for the version of stablecoin governance that earns enough trust from enough users to become the default.
Stablecoin tax treatment in the U.S. is at the center of a new legislative push to exempt qualifying daily transactions involving regulated payment stablecoins from tax.
The latest version of the PARITY Act would stop gain or loss recognition on certain stablecoin sales unless a taxpayer’s basis falls below 99% of the token’s redemption value, marking a direct attempt to treat routine stablecoin spending more like cash payments. The proposal also revises rules on staking rewards and digital asset wash sales, while lawmakers in Washington continue to debate broader crypto legislation.
Stablecoin payments provision removes small transaction tax burden
The bill is grounded on the past discussion drafts issued in December 2025 and on March 26, 2026. The earlier proposal recommended a $200 limit on payments made with regulated payment stablecoins, as in the de minimis section.
That structure was altered in the March 2026 draft. Instead of using a de minimis criterion, the text states that no gain or loss would be recognized on the sale of a regulated payment stablecoin unless the taxpayer’s basis in that stablecoin is less than 99% of its redemption value.
Another standard eliminated by the draft was the previous $200 standard. In addition, it created a deemed basis of $1 for exchanges, which the text treats separately from the stablecoin’s sales. That development solves one of the long-term problems of crypto users. The current tax treatment states that any payment made using USDC or USDT can result in a taxable event, even when the change in value is minimal.
Meanwhile, the bill creates a distinction between passive staking and other activities, such as trading. It would also enable taxpayers to decide when to record staking rewards, upon receipt or after a deferral period of not more than 5 years, as indicated in the material. To qualify under the proposed stablecoin treatment, the asset must be regulated under the GENIUS Act and remain within 1% of its $1 peg.
Stablecoin debate comes alongside ongoing crypto policy pressure
The tax proposal comes following pressure on other digital asset legislation, including the CLARITY Act. Senator Cynthia Lummis recently pointed out that the bill could remain stalled until 2030 if the Senate fails to act before the 2026 election cycle.
At the same time, as reported by Cryptopolitan, the Trump White House has pushed back on concerns over stablecoin yield provisions. A Council of Economic Advisors report dated April 8 said the effect on bank lending would be limited, estimating a 0.02% increase, or about $2.1 billion.
The same report said community banks would face about $500 million in additional obligations, equal to a 0.026% increase over current lending activity. It concluded that banning yield would provide little protection for bank lending while giving up consumer benefits tied to competitive returns on stablecoin holdings.
Your bank is using your money. You’re getting the scraps. Watch our free video on becoming your own bank
RealFi Launches USDr — Turning Idle Stablecoins into Real-World Returns
Press Release — Embargo Lifted 09 April 2026, 11:00 BST
London · 09 April 2026 · DeFi & Real-World Assets
RealFi Launches USDr: Turning Idle Stablecoins into Real-World Returns
New crypto-native platform targeting up to 9%* APY, putting hundreds of billions in dormant stablecoins to work through real-world market investments
9%*Target APY
$1BTVL Target
USDrYield-Bearing Stablecoin
No Lock-UpLiquidity
RealFi today announced the launch of its platform alongside the introduction of USDr — a decentralised, yield-bearing stablecoin pegged to the US dollar that enables investors to put their dormant stablecoins to work, earning real returns backed by real-world market investments.
The Opportunity
RealFi is a crypto-native financial platform targeting one of the most underleveraged assets in digital markets: stablecoins. With hundreds of billions in circulation globally across high-growth markets including Nigeria, Vietnam, Kenya, Indonesia, Turkey, Brazil and Argentina, stablecoins have become DeFi’s most successful digital asset. Yet for most holders, they remain idle — preserving value but failing to work as an investment tool.
USDr changes that. Through exposure to real-world market investments rather than traditional banking infrastructure or passive fiat reserves, USDr enables investors to earn yields of up to 9%* APY with no lockup — delivering meaningful returns in a market increasingly focused on capital efficiency.
“Stablecoins are the most underleveraged asset class in crypto — hundreds of billions sit idle when they could be generating real returns for their holders. USDr changes that equation entirely. We’ve built a platform that is transparent, accessible and designed to deliver genuine value.”
— John O’Connor, CEO & Founder, RealFi
How It Works
The platform is designed for accessibility. Users can purchase USDC directly in their Lace wallet, convert it seamlessly into USDr, and stake to begin earning yield immediately — lowering the barrier to entry for retail users while remaining attractive to crypto treasuries and sophisticated DeFi participants.
USDr’s yield is backed by real-world economies: a diversified reserve of Money Market Funds and Corporate Floating Rate Bonds — meaning every dollar in USDr supports real businesses and real infrastructure, rather than relying on risky crypto-native leverage.
Infrastructure & Ecosystem
RealFi is currently entering a testnet phase alongside an initial institutional onboarding process, with broader availability anticipated later this year. The platform is supported by Input Output Global and follows the integration of USD Coin on the Cardano network in March, boosting DeFi capabilities across the network before expanding to other ecosystems.
RealFi is targeting $1 billion in TVL as it scales across Cardano, Ethereum and Bitcoin networks.
“We’re bringing investors and borrowers closer to the company, and closer to the rewards, whereas a traditional banking sector keeps them at arms length, in many cases depriving them of any kind of financial autonomy.”
— John O’Connor, CEO & Founder, RealFi
Early Participation
Early participants on the RealFi platform will have the opportunity to earn R-Points through active engagement and platform participation. R-Points recognise and reward community contribution during the platform’s early growth phase and distribution across chains. Further details regarding R-Points, including any future utility or conversion mechanics, will be communicated to participants in accordance with applicable regulatory requirements and platform terms.
Investors can register their interest now at realfi.co, as well as sign up for the testnet waitlist.
About RealFi
RealFi is a crypto-native stablecoin platform that bridges decentralised finance with real-world market investments. Through its flagship product USDr — a yield-bearing stablecoin pegged to the US dollar — RealFi enables stablecoin holders to earn sustainable returns. Built on the Cardano blockchain and integrated with the Lace wallet, RealFi is designed to make DeFi yields simple, transparent and accessible to users worldwide.
Important Notices & Disclaimers
Geographic Restrictions: RealFi products are not available to users in the United States (US), European Union (EU), United Kingdom (UK), Hong Kong (HK), or other restricted or sanctioned jurisdictions. It is the responsibility of each user to ensure compliance with the laws and regulations applicable in their jurisdiction prior to accessing the RealFi platform or any of its products.
Forward-Looking Statements: This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding anticipated product launch timelines, platform development milestones, and projected TVL targets. These statements reflect current expectations and targets only, and are subject to risks, uncertainties, and changes in circumstances that could cause actual outcomes to differ materially. RealFi undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement following publication of this release.
Risk Disclosure: USDr is a digital asset that provides exposure to a portfolio of real-world financial instruments. It is not a bank deposit, is not insured, and carries risk, including potential loss of principal. Returns are variable, based on market conditions, and are not guaranteed. Redemptions may be subject to timing delays, liquidity constraints, and market conditions. The value of underlying assets may fluctuate, and there is no assurance that USDr will maintain a constant value relative to the US dollar at all times. Access to the platform is subject to onboarding procedures, including identity verification and compliance with applicable anti-money laundering and sanctions regulations.
*APY is indicative, based on current rates, and subject to change. Not a guaranteed return. Capital at risk. *Indicative only
Coinbase is reviving its stablecoin bootstrap fund program after a nearly six-year hiatus, signaling renewed commitment to expanding USDC liquidity across decentralized finance platforms. The initiative will initially direct capital to four major protocols—Aave and Morpho on Ethereum, alongside Kamino and Jupiter on Solana—with Coinbase Asset Management administering the effort on behalf of Circle, the issuer of USDC.
The reopened fund represents a strategic pivot as on-chain financial services gain mainstream traction. Rather than traditional grants, Coinbase will deploy working capital directly into protocol liquidity pools, reducing borrowing costs and minimizing trading friction for users.
Liquidity as Infrastructure
According to Shan Aggarwal, Coinbase’s chief business officer, the fund exists to “deploy capital in on-chain protocols to ensure sufficient liquidity for their unique use cases.” The exact fund size remains undisclosed, though the company plans to supply liquidity in both USDC and EURC, with additional stablecoins potentially added later.
The initial focus targets protocols addressing distinct DeFi functions. Aave and Morpho operate as lending and borrowing markets on Ethereum, while Kamino provides concentrated liquidity services on Solana, and Jupiter functions as a trade aggregation platform on the same network.
These moves are part of a long-term strategy to guarantee ongoing USDC availability for both established and emerging networks.
— Coinbase statement to CNBC
By concentrating liquidity in key protocols, Coinbase aims to lower friction costs and accelerate protocol growth across multiple blockchain ecosystems.
Lessons from 2019
Coinbase’s original stablecoin bootstrap fund launched in 2019, when USDC was still establishing itself in decentralized markets. The initiative proved remarkably effective at building infrastructure during USDC’s formative period.
The early program directed capital strategically. Compound, a foundational lending protocol, received liquidity injections, as did dYdX, an important derivatives trading venue. Rather than grant distributions, Coinbase repositioned capital within protocol liquidity pools—a mechanical approach that directly addressed user experience.
The fund expanded over time to include Uniswap, the largest decentralized exchange by volume, and PoolTogether, an innovative no-loss savings protocol. Each injection reinforced USDC’s utility across different DeFi segments.
Market Impact
Early liquidity injections helped establish USDC as a foundational store of value throughout DeFi, enabling traders and borrowers to access stablecoins with minimal slippage and stable pricing.
The results reshaped DeFi infrastructure. By guaranteeing consistent USDC availability across protocols, Coinbase helped build user confidence in on-chain financial services. The approach contrasted sharply with traditional venture capital, which funds protocol development but rarely ensures operational liquidity.
USDC’s Multi-Chain Evolution
USDC has since evolved into a multi-chain stablecoin, operating across Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, and numerous other networks. Daily transaction volumes now reach billions, reflecting its emergence as essential infrastructure for on-chain finance.
The stablecoin underpins some of the largest borrowing markets in crypto, with several billion dollars locked across protocols at any given time. Thousands of smart contracts depend on USDC as a settlement layer, making its liquidity a critical variable affecting user costs and protocol competitiveness.
For investors and traders, USDC pricing and availability directly influence their ability to enter and exit positions efficiently. Widespread liquidity reduces slippage—the difference between expected and actual execution prices—particularly during periods of high trading volume or market stress.
Key Context
USDC operates across all major blockchain networks and Coinbase’s Layer 2 solution, Base. It has become the default settlement currency for many DeFi protocols and continues to gain adoption among institutional and retail participants.
Coinbase’s Strategic Position and Ecosystem Leadership
Coinbase itself operates as a critical node in the broader cryptocurrency infrastructure. As one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges globally, with over 100 million verified users, Coinbase maintains significant influence over DeFi adoption patterns and stablecoin demand signals. The company manages billions in cryptocurrency assets, operates institutional custody services, and recently expanded into blockchain infrastructure through its Base Layer 2 network, which settled over $4 billion in transactions during its first year of operation.
By redeploying capital through the stablecoin bootstrap fund, Coinbase simultaneously strengthens USDC’s competitive positioning and builds network effects that benefit its own ecosystem services. This strategic alignment differs fundamentally from third-party liquidity providers, as Coinbase directly captures value from increased on-chain transaction volumes through trading fees, custody services, and Base network activity.
The company’s scale provides meaningful advantages in executing this strategy. Coinbase Asset Management oversees substantial cryptocurrency holdings and maintains direct relationships with protocol teams, enabling efficient capital deployment and ongoing coordination. This infrastructure positions Coinbase to respond rapidly to emerging liquidity needs or strategic opportunities within the DeFi landscape.
Stablecoin Market Dynamics and Competitive Pressure
The stablecoin market has evolved substantially since 2019, introducing competitive dynamics that inform Coinbase’s relaunch timing. USDT, issued by Tether, maintains the largest market capitalization but faces ongoing regulatory scrutiny and transparency concerns. DAI, an algorithmic stablecoin issued by MakerDAO, offers decentralized issuance but requires substantial collateral and carries liquidation risk. Emerging competitors including PayPal’s PYUSD and projects within the Solana ecosystem have begun fragmenting liquidity across multiple stablecoins.
For Coinbase and Circle, the challenge involves maintaining USDC’s utility and availability even as alternative stablecoins compete for protocol integration and user adoption. Concentrated liquidity provision directly addresses this competitive dynamic—protocols gravitate toward stablecoins offering abundant depth and minimal execution friction. By subsidizing USDC liquidity across top-tier protocols, Coinbase raises the economic cost for protocols to prioritize competing stablecoins.
This dynamic intensifies within the Solana ecosystem, where USDT has historically dominated despite USDC’s technical advantages. Kamino and Jupiter represent strategic choices targeting Solana’s most active participants. Robust USDC liquidity on these platforms could materially shift Solana ecosystem preferences, generating compounding effects as traders and developers optimize around available liquidity.
Strategic Timing and Market Conditions
Coinbase frames the fund’s relaunch amid what it calls an “inflection point” for on-chain financial services. The company argues that both crypto-native users and newcomers increasingly demand accessible, stable-priced entry points into blockchain-based finance.
This timing reflects broader market dynamics. Institutional adoption has accelerated following regulatory clarity in several jurisdictions, while retail interest has rebounded alongside crypto price appreciation. Both cohorts require robust liquidity infrastructure to reduce friction costs. The approval of spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs in major markets has introduced institutional capital flows, intensifying demand for stablecoin infrastructure that can facilitate efficient trading and settlement.
Regulatory developments also support the initiative’s timing. The emergence of coherent stablecoin regulation in the European Union and clearer frameworks in the United States have reduced uncertainty around USDC’s long-term viability. Institutions previously hesitant to engage with cryptocurrency-native stablecoins now view USDC as a legitimate settlement asset, expanding potential liquidity demand.
By repositioning capital in top-tier protocols, Coinbase simultaneously strengthens USDC’s competitive position against alternative stablecoins, including USDT, DAI, and emerging competitors. Liquidity itself becomes a moat—protocols with abundant stablecoin liquidity attract traders and borrowers, generating fees and further protocol value.
The initiative also underscores Coinbase’s broader strategy to leverage its balance sheet for ecosystem development. Unlike traditional venture investors focused on equity returns, Coinbase benefits directly from robust on-chain financial infrastructure, as it drives user acquisition and transaction volumes on its Ethereum-compatible Base network and custodial services.
For DeFi participants, the implications are practical. Lower borrowing costs on Aave and Morpho reduce leverage financing expenses. Improved liquidity on Jupiter reduces trade execution costs for Solana users. Concentrated liquidity on Kamino generates better returns for liquidity providers.
Long-Term Infrastructure Development
The stablecoin bootstrap fund represents a long-term commitment rather than a short-term subsidy. By ensuring that major protocols maintain sufficient USDC depth, Coinbase reduces the likelihood of liquidity crises that historically damaged protocol reputation and user trust.
As on-chain finance matures, reliable stablecoin availability will remain critical infrastructure. Coinbase’s relaunch signals confidence in that thesis and willingness to deploy significant capital to support it. Whether other major crypto platforms follow with similar initiatives may determine how quickly DeFi achieves mainstream adoption.
The success of this program could reshape infrastructure expectations across the broader industry. If competing platforms recognize similar competitive advantages, stablecoin liquidity provision may evolve from differentiator into table-stakes requirement, accelerating the capital deployment necessary to achieve institutional-grade on-chain financial services.
For detailed analysis on bitcoin, ethereum, and broader crypto market movements, explore our research sections.
Get weekly blockchain insights via the CCS Insider newsletter.
Polymarket, the crypto-powered prediction market, is considering entering the stablecoin market with two options on the table. The first one is to introduce its own customized stablecoin, or accept a revenue-sharing deal with Circle based on the amount of USDC held on the platform.
According to reports, Polymarket’s main drive for launching its stablecoin is to earn yield from the reserves that currently benefit Circle. By issuing a native token, the platform could keep that revenue in-house.
Polymarket considering its own stablecoin.
Stablecoin entry could enhance liquidity in prediction markets, providing native economic incentives.
If executed well, this move could expand Polymarket’s ecosystem and increase retention by creating new DeFi opportunities. pic.twitter.com/qheRiixv0Q
Stablecoins have become the main beneficiaries of Polymarket’s rising activity. All transactions on the platform settle in USDC on the Polygon network. This ensures a steady transaction flow and sustained demand for the token.
A deal with Circle or customize its stablecoin?
Legislation around stablecoins passed in the US last week makes issuing a stablecoin an attractive business proposition for crypto native firms and more traditional finance players alike.
To that end, launching a stablecoin is hard for many companies. For instance, Circle, the company that created USDC, is known to be ending revenue-sharing deals with exchanges, payment companies, and other fintechs. The reason behind this is to stay competitive in a field that is changing so quickly.
A Polymarket representative said no decision has yet been made on the stablecoin question. However, of the two options, for Polymarket, issuing its own stablecoin is a much easier lift from a regulatory standpoint.
According to a person familiar with the matter, “In the case of Polymarket, it’s a closed ecosystem and all they really need to do is to be able to exchange USDC or USDT into whatever their custom stablecoin is. They don’t have to worry about the last mile on ramp and off ramp. That’s a very simple thing to build, and easy to secure and control.”
In addition, Polymarket has grown in popularity. According to SimilarWeb, over $8 billion in bets were placed during last year’s US election cycle, and the site saw nearly 16 million visits in May. Also, Polymarket announced plans to overhaul its reward and oracle-resolution system.
The new framework, part of its 2028 Election Holding Rewards program, will offer more accurate pricing and easier migration for users.
Meanwhile, Polymarket wants to buy QCEX, a CFTC-licensed exchange and clearinghouse, in a $112 million deal that clears the path for regulated operations in the world’s largest financial market. It is based in the US. This follows the closure of civil and criminal investigations into its allowing US-based customers to place bets on its platform.
Polymarket has handled more than $14 billion in trades since its launch. It had more than $1 billion in monthly volume in May alone, with 20,000 to 30,000 active daily traders. After Trump’s re-election in November 2024, the platform moved $2.5 billion in a single month, making it one of its busiest times.
During that surge, there were a lot of USDC transfers and more action on the bridges to move money around.
Cryptopolitan Academy: Tired of market swings? Learn how DeFi can help you build steady passive income. Register Now
Mastercard and Bitget Wallet have partnered to launch the “zero-fee” crypto card, allowing users to spend their crypto directly from their digital wallets at over 150 million Mastercard merchants worldwide.
The card even works with stablecoins like USDC to protect users from Bitcoin and Ethereum’s big price swings. With no fees, the project could benefit regions with unstable currencies or limited access to financial services, as it promises a future where anyone, anywhere, can pay with crypto as easily as they pay with cash or a card.
However, there are still costs involved that might not show up clearly to users at the moment of payment, possibly through exchange rates, ATM fees, or blockchain network fees that depend on how busy the system is.
Mastercard calls it a win for innovation, and Bitget says the project makes crypto more useful, but critics warn that calling it “zero-fee” will mislead first-time users who don’t fully understand how crypto works.
Mastercard and Bitget launch a card that spends crypto like cash
The Mastercard–Bitget wallet crypto card results from a partnership between the global payment giant, Mastercard, a non-custodial crypto wallet, Bitget, and a licensed card issuer that handles the on-chain conversions and regulatory requirements, Immersive.
Users can pay for goods and services at any physical or online store that accepts Mastercard without moving the funds manually, waiting for exchanges to clear transactions, or using multiple apps to make a simple purchase.
The approval process takes a few minutes and involves basic KYC verification and a small issuance fee, currently set at 10 USDC. Users don’t have to pay application or annual fees for the card, nor do they need a credit check or a bank account. They received a virtual version of the card instantly once approved and can also get a physical card upon request.
Mastercard and Bitget are currently issuing the card in the United Kingdom and the European Union, but have announced plans to expand into Latin America, Australia, and New Zealand soon.
“Zero-Fee” does not mean no costs at all
Bitget Wallet and Mastercard’s promise of a “zero-fee” crypto card sounds exciting because there are no barriers to entry, such as application fees, paperwork processing, or minimum balance requirements. Similarly, Bitget Wallet’s “GetGas” feature subsidizes or completely waives initial gas fees for new users and offers ongoing discounts for specific types of transfers (such as TRON USDT).
In addition, the first 2,000 cardholders will get 5% cashback in BGB tokens in their first month and profit from staking idle stablecoins like USDC directly from the wallet.
Several critics say some fees are simply hidden deeper in the system or show up in less obvious ways. For example, the exchange rate used for crypto-to-fiat conversion could include a small markup that acts as a silent profit margin for the service provider (a “spread”).
Users will still pay a cost to convert crypto to their local currency, even though they may not see a charge line in their transaction history.
ATM operators or Mastercard’s payment network in foreign countries will likely also charge for withdrawals, and transaction fees may apply when spending in different currencies, depending on the user’s region, the card’s issuer policies, and local banking regulations.
To top it all off, users transacting on higher-cost blockchains like Ethereum could pay several dollars per transaction during network congestion once the incentives expire. Bitget only subsidizes some gas fees to specific chains or tokens during the promotional phase.
The term “zero-fee” sounds exciting in marketing, but the reality often depends on how a person uses the card.
You may experience something close to zero fees if you transact mostly in USDC on the Base chain, shop with online merchants in the same country, and never use an ATM. But you’ll pay far more than expected if you shop across borders, switch assets frequently, or interact with other networks.
Rules and security could slow down adoption
The “zero-fee” card feels more reliable than many earlier crypto payment experiments that lacked such oversight due to Mastercard’s long track record in global payments and its strict compliance protocols. Yet, there are concerns about how secure and future-proof this new product is because the legal and regulatory landscape for crypto payments is far from settled.
For starters, the expected Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework in the European Union will introduce strict rules for companies that deal with digital assets, especially stablecoins. Stablecoin users must meet reserve requirements, publish whitepapers, and register with EU regulators.
The exact interpretation of MiCA may require Bitget, Immersve, or even Mastercard to change how they handle custody, transaction settlement, or disclosure practices, even though the Bitget Wallet card currently supports USDC.
The situation is more fragmented outside the EU, as countries have completely different standards for Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) rules. Some users may face sudden disruptions if local rules change, while others may not complete the identity checks needed to activate their card.
Similarly, giving out detailed personal information just to spend crypto might feel like a step backward for users who value privacy or live under strict regimes.
Bitget Wallet is also non-custodial, meaning users control their private keys and funds, but it also puts responsibility squarely on the user. There may be no way to recover funds if you lose access to their wallet, forget their recovery phrase, or fall for a phishing scam. The risks multiply in countries with low digital literacy or limited consumer protection laws.
Bitget may have a large user protection fund, reportedly worth over $300 million, but they haven’t said when and how those funds would be used to reimburse users in case of fraud, technical error, or regulatory shutdowns.
The card still operates in a space regulators struggle to fully define, even with Mastercard’s extensive infrastructure and compliance team involved. What’s compliant today might not be compliant tomorrow. For instance, Bitget and its partners could be forced to redesign the entire payment process if the U.S. introduces its own version of MiCA, or if a court reclassifies USDC or other stablecoins as securities.
There’s no guarantee that this product can remain stable and usable long-term unless it continuously adapts to the fast-changing legal environment.
Mastercard and Bitget may benefit more than users
There are moral concerns about whether this is truly a democratizing tool or a privilege for high-volume traders and loyal customers because the card’s initial exclusivity was limited to Bitget VIP users by invitation only when it launched.
The controlled launch suggests the card may first serve Bitget’s interest in reinforcing user loyalty and collecting transaction insights from its most valuable customer segment.
The card’s design also creates strong incentives that tether users more tightly to the Bitget ecosystem, especially new users unfamiliar with the broader crypto landscape, or prefer convenience over independence.
Every crypto-to-fiat transaction processed through Mastercard’s network reinforces the company’s role as a trusted middle layer. It gives it data about how crypto users behave, such as what they spend, where they spend it, how often, and through which assets.
So, who really wins? Users get instant access, a slick user experience, and rewards for participation.
Bitget also wins by locking in user loyalty, expanding its footprint in new markets, and growing its native token.
Mastercard perhaps wins the most by embedding itself into the future of crypto payments and collecting data to shape the next generation of financial products.
However, the promise of decentralization begins to fade if crypto cards replace banks but rely on the same central intermediaries. And while users may enjoy “zero fees,” they may end up paying with their privacy, flexibility, and future choices.
Your crypto news deserves attention – KEY Difference Wire puts you on 250+ top sites
