Stablecoin

On 28 February 2026, Tether disclosed that it has frozen a total of $4.2 billion in USDT tied to illicit activity since the stablecoin’s inception, with roughly $3.5 billion of that occurring between 2023 and early 2026. The frozen amount represents about 2.3% of USDT’s roughly $180 billion circulating supply, with more than half of the blocked tokens on the Tron network, while analysts note the peg and liquidity remain stable.

Tether has frozen roughly $4.2 billion in USDT tied to criminal investigations, with about $3.5 billion of that occurring since 2023. The company also worked with the U.S. Department of Justice this week to restrict nearly $61 million linked to pig-butchering scams. USDT's circulating supply now exceeds $180 billion.

On February 28, 2026, eleven U.S. senators asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to conduct a federal review of Binance's sanctions and AML controls. The letter cites reports of about $1.7B in crypto allegedly linked to Iranian entities and raises concerns over potential Russian sanctions evasion, while Binance disputes the claims.

On February 27, 2026, MoonPay, PayPal and M0 unveiled PYUSDx, a developer framework for creating application-branded stablecoins backed by PayPal USD. Tokens are issued by MoonPay Digital Assets Limited, which holds a New York trust license, and the first live project is USD.ai, focused on machine-to-machine payments; PYUSDx tokens are distinct from PYUSD and are not usable on PayPal or Venmo.

Ethereum holds $159 billion of the $300 billion stablecoin supply, reinforcing its role as an institutional settlement layer. On February 26, 2026, Jeff Housenbold called Ethereum the stablecoin backbone, while January 2026 transfer volumes across EVM, Solana and Tron reached $10.3 trillion. ETH trades near $1,960, with $2,000 seen as a pivotal level.

On 28 February 2026, Barclays said it is engaging technology vendors to develop a blockchain platform for payments, deposits, and settlements. The bank targets a partner decision by April 2026 and has taken a stake in Ubyx, while the stablecoin market is close to $300 billion and a tokenized sterling pilot with HSBC and Lloyds is scheduled through mid-2026.

On February 27, 2026, the OCC finalized a rule that broadens permissible activities for national trust banks, with implementation set for April 1, 2026. The update allows crypto trust banks to offer custody and safekeeping as a primary business, with firms such as Ripple, Circle, Paxos, and Crypto.com holding conditional approvals.

Alchemy has launched a self-service payment system that lets autonomous AI agents maintain on-chain wallets and purchase compute credits with USDC on Base. Using the x402 payment standard and HTTP 402 responses, agents auto-top up balances without human intervention. Developer accounts can start with as little as $1 in USDC.

Cardano launched USDCx, a native stablecoin collateralized 1:1 with Circle's USDC via the xReserve smart contract. On February 27, 2026, Circle said USDCx on Cardano is available via xReserve. IOG will cover bridge fees for the first 10 days. ADA traded at $0.2775, down 2.87% over the past day.

Cardano deployed USDCx, a USDC-backed stablecoin infrastructure built with Circle that links to the xReserve framework for 1:1 minting and redemption. The rollout integrates with Minswap, Liqwid, and SundaeSwap. Stablecoin capitalization on Cardano is around $34 million while TVL exceeds $137 million, pointing to deeper dollar liquidity despite subdued on-chain activity.