Stablecoin

Nasdaq is designing a tokenized stock framework in which issuers back tokens that are recorded directly in official shareholder registries, aiming to keep full legal parity with conventional shares while using blockchain for settlement. In parallel, Hong Kong plans to grant its first stablecoin licenses to major banks such as HSBC and Standard Chartered, while the SEC studies exemptions for tokenized securities and global institutions explore broader real‑world asset tokenization.

Analysis covering the 90 days before and after the December 3 Ethereum Fusaka upgrade shows a sharp rise in address poisoning scams and dust transfers, especially in stablecoins. USDT transfers under $0.01 jumped 612% to 29.9 million, while USDC, ETH, and DAI dust activity also climbed, enabling large-scale attacks that have already caused tens of millions of dollars in losses. Researchers say lower fees now allow attackers to bombard high-value wallets with spoofed transactions, and recommend always checking full addresses instead of copying from history.

On 15 March 2026, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino highlighted data suggesting USDT's largest single sender represents just 4.97% of total send volume, compared with 23.34% for rival stablecoins. He linked this distribution to more than 550 million users across emerging markets, particularly in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa, and pointed to the early 2026 launch of USAT under the GENIUS Act as Tether moves to compete for U.S. institutional adoption.

Galaxy Research's Alex Thorn says the CLARITY Act must be placed on the full U.S. Senate agenda by early May to keep a realistic path to passage in 2026, warning that disputes over stablecoin yields and DeFi rules are slowing progress. Banking sector concerns about deposit flight, debates over regulatory turf and protections for blockchain developers, and falling Polymarket odds are adding to uncertainty for the U.S. digital asset market.

Alex Thorn, head of firmwide research at Galaxy Digital, said the US CLARITY Act must clear a Senate committee by the end of April and reach the Senate floor by early May 2026 to retain realistic prospects of passage. Ongoing disputes over stablecoin yield, broader questions about DeFi and agency oversight, and competing priorities such as the SAVE America Act are limiting the time available for comprehensive crypto market structure reform, which some analysts believe may not take full effect until 2029.

Galaxy Digital's Alex Thorn warned that if the US CLARITY Act fails to clear committee by the end of April, the likelihood of it becoming law in 2026 will be very low. He noted that debates over stablecoin rewards are seen as the main obstacle but cautioned that additional issues around DeFi, developer protections and regulatory authority could emerge, while other analysts project any crypto market structure rules may not take effect until 2029.

USDC has overtaken USDT in adjusted transaction volume for the first time since 2019, reaching about $2.2 trillion versus USDT’s $1.3 trillion and accounting for 64% of flows between the two. Circle also minted an additional $2 billion USDC on Solana in 2026, where transactions are reported to be nearly 30 times higher than on Ethereum, fueling debate over whether Solana could gain a structural edge and technically outperform ETH.

The US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit has declined to hear Custodia Bank’s final appeal over its denied Federal Reserve master account, ending the crypto-focused bank’s five-year legal effort to gain direct access to the central bank’s payment system. Judges upheld the view that the Federal Reserve has discretion over which institutions can obtain master accounts, even as other fintech and crypto firms, including Kraken and Revolut, pursue their own routes to US banking access. The ruling drew a strong dissent from Judge Timothy Tymkovich, who warned that refusal of a master account can be “indispensable” and potentially fatal for a bank.

The United States Attorney's Office has filed a civil forfeiture action to seize about USDT 3.4 million in Tether tied to a crypto investment scam conducted on Ethereum. Authorities say the scheme targeted at least four victims in Massachusetts, Utah and South Carolina, with the funds later converted into USDT and confiscated in February and March 2025.

In an interview with Morgan Stanley recorded on January 30 and released Friday, billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller said blockchain-based stablecoins could underpin the global payments system within 10 to 15 years. He argued that tokenized payment rails offer faster and cheaper settlement than traditional systems, even as he remains skeptical of Bitcoin as a long-term store of value and continues to favor gold. Druckenmiller's comments come as stablecoin transaction volumes reach tens of trillions of dollars and new legislation such as the GENIUS Act encourages financial firms to test blockchain settlement.