Stablecoin

World Liberty Financial has put forward a governance proposal to allocate 5% of its WLFI token treasury, valued at about $120 million, to drive adoption of its USD1 U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin. The plan would channel additional USD1 supply into integrations and incentives across centralized and decentralized platforms, while WLFI holders are currently voting on whether to approve the deployment.

On the night of December 17, 2025, Coinbase activated live U.S. stock trading in its app, allowing users to purchase American equities using USDC. The company is also rolling out futures, perpetuals, prediction markets, and a tokenization stack for institutions, positioning the platform as a hub for traditional assets, derivatives, and on-chain products.

World Liberty Financial, a firm linked to the Trump family, has proposed deploying 5% of its WLFI token treasury, worth about $120 million at current prices, to expand the supply and adoption of its USD1 stablecoin. The live governance vote offers for, against or abstain options, while early community feedback appears slightly tilted against the plan despite USD1 already holding a $2.74 billion market cap.

On 17 December, the Federal Reserve revoked its restrictive 2023 policy on "novel activities" and introduced a new framework for digital-asset innovation. The updated guidance adopts a "same activity, same risks, same regulation" approach, giving both insured and uninsured state member banks a formal pathway to offer services such as crypto custody, tokenization, and stablecoin integrations under strict risk-management standards.

On December 17, Ripple and AMINA Bank unveiled a partnership to integrate Ripple Payments for 24/7 real-time cross-border settlement, with AMINA described as the first European bank to adopt the service. The collaboration seeks to reduce correspondent-banking friction and improve stablecoin settlement capabilities for crypto-native enterprises.

On Wednesday, an affiliate of Circle Internet Group, Inc. (NYSE: CRCL), the issuer of USDC, said it has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with licensed cross-border payments provider LianLian Global to explore wider adoption of the stablecoin. The collaboration will assess how USDC-based infrastructure and Circle's Arc blockchain can support faster, more transparent and cost-efficient international payments for merchants, especially in emerging markets.

On Dec. 17, SBI Ripple Asia signed a memorandum of understanding with Doppler Finance to explore XRP-based yield infrastructure and real‑world asset tokenization on the XRP Ledger. The companies described this as their first partnership with an XRPL‑native protocol and named SBI Digital Markets as the institutional custodian with segregated custody, aiming to route XRP into regulated yield sources despite the asset's lack of native staking.

Coinbase projects AI-driven productivity could spur a new crypto upswing in 2026. Total market capitalization peaked near $4.2 trillion in 2025 before easing toward $3.0 trillion, framed as a transition rather than cycle end. Institutional treasuries, tokenization, stablecoins, and regulated DeFi are cited as structural adoption signals.

Kyrgyzstan introduced USDKG, a USD-pegged stablecoin the project says is backed by physical gold, with an initial 50 million tokens issued on Tron and plans to support Ethereum. Launch materials describe an issuer with 100% state participation and operations run by a local private firm. Next, independent reserve attestations, clear redemption and real-world liquidity will determine credibility.

Senators Elissa Slotkin and Jerry Moran introduced the bipartisan SAFE Crypto Act to strengthen federal responses to crypto fraud. The move follows the FBI's finding that U.S. residents lost about $9.3 billion in 2024, a 66% rise year‑over‑year. The bill would require the Treasury to convene a cross‑agency task force within 180 days.