Cobo Stable Weekly No.16 ｜US Passes Three Crypto Regulatory Bills, Citi and Multiple Banks Announce Entry into Stablecoin Business
Stablecoins Enter Banking Era, Which Other Crypto-Native Companies May See IPOs?
Global payments are undergoing a revolution, and stablecoins are at the heart of this transformation. They're not just reshaping how money moves across borders—they're completely redefining what payments can be. Cobo stands at the cutting edge of this shift, building the full-stack infrastructure that powers next-gen stablecoin solutions: from secure wallet tech to risk control and compliance and yield-generating options that actually make your money work.
Go with Cobo, and you can zero in on building cool stuff and growing your user base, while surfing the stablecoin revolution without the infrastructure headaches.
Welcome to Cobo Stable Weekly — Issue 16
This week marks a regulatory milestone. For the first time, the U.S. House passed three major crypto bills with broad bipartisan support: the GENIUS Act (stablecoin reserves and redemption), the CLARITY Act (market structure), and the Anti-CBDC Act (restricting a federal digital dollar). Together, they create the clearest regulatory framework the U.S. has ever offered—codifying private stablecoin issuance, drawing a firm line between state and market roles, and exporting an “American model” for global policy.
That clarity is triggering real movement. Banks like Citi and JPMorgan are now publicly exploring stablecoin issuance and tokenized deposit frameworks. What was once speculative is now strategic—stablecoins are becoming core infrastructure, not just wrappers.
On the capital markets side, Circle’s IPO has reset investor expectations. As public markets begin to value on-chain companies on revenue and regulatory alignment—the next breakout may come from infrastructure players with real volume, compliance traction, and balance sheet durability.
Market Overview and Growth Highlights
Stablecoin Total Market Cap Reaches $260.728b
The total stablecoin market capitalization has reached $260.728 billion, reflecting a week-over-week growth of $3.69b. In terms of market share, USDT continues to dominate with a 61.99% share, followed by USDC, which holds the second position with a market cap of $64.068 billion (24.57% share).
Blockchain Network Distribution
Top 3 Networks by Stablecoin Market Cap:
Ethereum: $128.832B
Tron: $81.268B
Solana: $11.342B
Top 3 Fastest-Growing Networks (Weekly):
Hedera：+30.93%（USDC dominance: 99.63%）
Hyperliquid L1：+23.27%（USDC dominance: 97.56%）
XRPL：+15.06%（RLUSD dominance:75.29%）
Data Source: DefiLlama
🎯 US Congress Passes Three Crypto Bills, Stablecoins Enter Compliance Era
This week marked a pivotal moment for crypto. The US House passed three core digital asset bills with overwhelming bipartisan support, establishing long-awaited regulatory clarity.
The GENIUS Act sets reserve, redemption, and disclosure rules for payment stablecoins, providing a clear compliance pathway for institutional issuers. The bill gained rare bipartisan backing, signaling stablecoin regulation's shift from political divide to policy consensus. Previously stalled due to 12 Republican lawmakers' concerns over CBDC language, it finally passed under direct pressure from Trump and is expected to be signed into law Friday.
The Clarity Act establishes market structure rules for broader digital assets, marking the first federal attempt to define boundaries between tokenized securities, commodities, and tokens. The Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act explicitly restricts the Federal Reserve from issuing central bank digital currencies without Congressional authorization, preserving space for private innovation.
These three bills form a coordinated regulatory framework: green-lighting compliant stablecoins, establishing clear rules for digital asset markets, and limiting government-issued CBDCs. This represents core American regulatory philosophy—supporting free innovation, opposing government control, emphasizing institutional checks and balances. As global regulatory approaches diverge, the US may have carved out a "libertarian template" with strategic export potential.
🎯 Citi, JPMorgan, Bank of America Enter the Fray: Stablecoins Enter Banking Era
As the GENIUS Act advances through Congress, US banks are responding en masse.
Major banks including Citi, Bank of America, JPMorgan, and PNC have recently made unprecedented public statements, revealing evaluations of issuing proprietary stablecoins, advancing tokenized deposits, and even exploring "banking consortium stablecoin" frameworks. Stablecoins have become a mandatory talking point for bank executives facing capital markets, indicating structural impact on banking fundamentals.
This shift isn't coincidental. The GENIUS Act's progression not only provides a clear regulatory foundation for bank entry into stablecoins but constructs a "native advantage zone" for banks through institutional design. The bill sets high thresholds for issuers: 100% US Treasury reserves, monthly audits, capital requirements—burdens for non-bank institutions but basic operations for banks. Banks also gain privileges unavailable to non-bank issuers: direct access to core clearing systems like Fedwire and FedNow, unlocking deep integration with USD payment networks; credit creation through "tokenized deposits" within existing regulatory frameworks, preserving their most important profit model; legal authority to pay interest to users, providing greater appeal in capital competition. Future SLR exemptions for Treasuries would further reduce banks' capital costs.
Meanwhile, stablecoin user behavior is eroding core banking functions. Early stablecoins served as "on/off ramps" for temporary fiat-crypto conversion. However, enterprise clients increasingly hold USDC and USDT long-term for supply chain payments and liquidity management. This means funds no longer flow back to traditional account systems but remain in issuer reserve pools, circulating on-chain repeatedly. Banks lose their role as deposit holders and settlement intermediaries. While only 6% of stablecoins currently serve traditional fiat payments, these use cases already weaken banks' control over corporate client funds. When enterprises manage supply chain payments with USDC and execute fund transfers with USDT, banks lose both demand deposits and settlement participation opportunities.
Banks are countering with "tokenized deposits." Citi's approach involves transforming deposit assets into programmable on-chain assets while preserving regulatory and account frameworks, enhancing liquidity, compatibility, and client stickiness. This allows entry into on-chain financial ecosystems while controlling compliant stablecoin infrastructure. Long-term, if tokenized deposits, bank stablecoins, and existing on-chain assets achieve interoperability, cross-currency payment network dynamics will fundamentally transform.
🎯 After Circle: Which Crypto-Native Companies Have IPO Potential?
Stablecoins are becoming "the internet's monetary layer," and capital markets are revaluing accordingly. Circle exemplifies this shift—no longer categorized as a bank or SaaS company, but as efficient, scalable financial infrastructure. Revenue comes from reserve spreads, growth is driven by channels like Coinbase, yet it plays a role in reconstructing payment networks. As payment "commoditization" accelerates, the gap between traditional banks' 7% marginal costs and stablecoins' near-zero costs is being rapidly priced by Wall Street. Circle's post-IPO stock surged nearly six-fold, reaching a market cap approaching 70% of USDC circulation—one of the most dramatic valuation corrections in recent IPO history. This repricing signals mainstream market acceptance of stablecoins as compliant financial assets.
With Circle's model validated, markets are seeking companies with similar fundamentals: real cash flows, predictable revenue, clear compliance pathways, and vertical leadership positions.
According to The Block editor Yogita Khatri's interviews with multiple VCs, the next batch of IPO-ready crypto-native companies clusters around four areas. First, trading and brokerage platforms like Kraken (publicly expressed interest), Gemini, and Bullish (reportedly filed S-1). Second, custody and settlement infrastructure including Anchorage and BitGo, with licensed credentials and institutional client bases. Third, enterprise crypto SaaS providers like Chainalysis, Alchemy, and Consensys. Fourth, non-USD stablecoins and cross-border clearing networks accumulating real money flows and regulatory compliance paths.
Additionally, projects with clear structures and diversified revenue streams show medium-term IPO potential, including MetaMask (under Consensys), Flashbots (on-chain sequencing infrastructure), and DCG (multi-line holding group).
Market Adoption
🌱US gaming company Snail Games (SNAL) is considering launching its own USD stablecoin, bringing on AscendEX founder George Cao as an advisor. The announcement drove stock bump as the company explores blockchain integration across its entertainment portfolio. This signals stablecoins expanding beyond traditional finance into gaming, where they could enable player-driven economies and cross-border monetization without legacy payment systems. It's another example of how stablecoins are becoming infrastructure for entirely new business models across unexpected industries.
🌱The UK government is aggressively positioning itself as a global crypto hub by backing DLT and asset tokenization in wholesale financial markets through a new cross-market working group. They're launching a digital securities sandbox to test tokenized deposits and stablecoins, building on April's stablecoin legislation draft. This represents a direct challenge to US dominance in the space, with the UK betting that friendly regulation around real-world asset tokenization will attract institutional adoption. It's a clear signal that governments are now competing on blockchain infrastructure rather than just tolerating it.
🌱Citi CEO Jane Fraser confirmed the bank is exploring a "Citi stablecoin" while prioritizing tokenized deposits as their main digital asset strategy. The bank is building comprehensive capabilities across stablecoin reserves, fiat-to-crypto conversion, custody, and tokenized deposits, viewing digital assets as the future of payments and liquidity management. This marks another major traditional institution embracing stablecoins as US regulatory clarity improves, potentially enabling 24/7 compliant cross-border payments that bypass legacy banking rails. It's further evidence that incumbent banks are racing to control the stablecoin narrative before fintech competitors cement their dominance.
🌱JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon confirmed the bank will pursue stablecoin development, including expanding "JPM Coin" and other projects, despite his personal crypto skepticism. Dimon emphasized the need to "understand it and be good at it," recognizing blockchain payments as faster and cheaper than legacy systems. This follows similar moves by Citi, showing major banks are racing into stablecoins regardless of executive opinions on crypto broadly. It's a pragmatic institutional shift that could dramatically accelerate mainstream adoption and reshape the entire payments ecosystem.
🌱Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan confirmed the bank is actively developing stablecoin capabilities and will launch when market conditions align, potentially through partnerships. This puts BofA alongside JPMorgan and Citi in the emerging Wall Street stablecoin race as the GENIUS Act progresses through Congress. The coordinated entry of major traditional banks signals stablecoins are hitting mainstream institutional acceptance, potentially reshaping cross-border payments competition. It's becoming clear that every major bank views stablecoins as essential infrastructure rather than experimental crypto products.
Big Picture
🔮 Standard Chartered's Geoff Kendrick predicts stablecoins will fundamentally reshape US Treasury markets once they hit $750 billion, up from today's $240 billion. He expects the market to triple by end-2026 as regulatory clarity emerges, particularly with the bipartisan GENIUS Act potentially passing. Since stablecoins are primarily backed by short-term Treasuries, this growth could force the Treasury to adjust bond issuance strategies and reshape the yield curve. It's a striking prediction that stablecoins could become powerful enough to influence US monetary policy mechanics themselves.
🔮Zhu Taihui, a senior researcher at China's National Institution for Finance & Development, suggests that while stablecoins may indirectly increase demand for US treasuries, they're not designed as a US debt solution. He envisions practical applications like university tuition payments in Hong Kong that could bypass traditional SWIFT and CHIPS payment rails as regulations develop. This perspective highlights stablecoins' potential as an alternative international payment infrastructure rather than just a financial instrument. The analysis is particularly significant given China's exploration of digital payment alternatives and the broader geopolitical implications of payment system diversification.
New Launches
👀Privacy Pools is launching its multi-asset expansion with Sky's USDS stablecoin integration, marking a breakthrough in compliant blockchain privacy. The Vitalik Buterin-backed solution uses zero-knowledge proofs and association set providers to ensure only verified clean funds enter the pool. This 0xbow-developed system bridges the gap between privacy and regulatory compliance, potentially unlocking privacy features for mainstream stablecoin users. It's a pivotal moment for privacy tech that actually works within regulatory frameworks.
👀RippleX has introduced the XLS-0089d draft standard for structured metadata on the XRP Ledger, designed to enhance token discoverability and interoperability across stablecoins and Real World Assets. The standard establishes minimum metadata schemas including name, code, and issuer information, while supporting detailed off-chain data through external links. It features specific asset categorization for RWAs like private credit and real estate, enabling better differentiation for indexers and analytics platforms. This voluntary standard could significantly streamline the XRP ecosystem for cross-chain bridges, institutional wallets, and on-chain analytics tools.
Capital Moves
💰Ex-Coinbase executive Ryan Bozarth launched Dakota, a stablecoin-powered digital bank that raised $12.5 million in Series A funding led by CoinFund. The platform has processed $1.6 billion in transactions with over 500 business clients, projecting $4 billion by year-end while offering traditional banking features powered by stablecoin infrastructure. Dakota uses stablecoins to facilitate seamless fund transfers between bank partners, providing international clients with efficient dollar access through familiar banking interfaces. This launch exemplifies the growing convergence between crypto and traditional finance as regulatory clarity enables new hybrid business models.
💰Plasma launched a public token sale for XPL, targeting $50 million at a $500 million valuation to build a zero-fee stablecoin payment network. The project combines Bitcoin's security framework with Ethereum's smart contract functionality, positioning itself as cost-effective infrastructure for DeFi applications. With clearer stablecoin regulations emerging, Plasma aims to attract users and developers seeking cheaper transaction alternatives. This timing could prove strategic as the market demands more efficient payment rails for stablecoin transactions.
Regulation & Compliance
🏛️FSB Chair Andrew Bailey has elevated stablecoins to a top G20 priority, pushing for accelerated implementation of agreed-upon regulations and assessment of their payments role. As both FSB head and Bank of England Governor, Bailey's letter signals that international stablecoin frameworks are rapidly crystallizing at the highest levels of global finance. This coordinated push from the world's financial stability watchdog suggests individual countries will soon face pressure to align with emerging international standards. It's a clear sign that stablecoin regulation is moving from fragmented national approaches to synchronized global policy.
🏛️The Federal Reserve, FDIC, and OCC have jointly confirmed that banks can offer crypto custody services under existing laws, provided they implement robust risk management frameworks. Banks must address crypto-specific risks including key management, third-party custody relationships, cybersecurity, and AML compliance without new regulatory requirements. This regulatory clarity creates a pathway for traditional banks to enter crypto services while maintaining existing oversight standards. It's a significant step toward bridging legacy finance and crypto by allowing banks to compete directly with specialized crypto custodians under familiar regulatory frameworks.
🏛️Ripple is preparing to apply for a MiCA license through its newly established Ripple Payments Europe S.A. in Luxembourg, positioning itself to expand crypto and stablecoin operations across the European Economic Area. This strategic move leverages Luxembourg's emergence as a MiCA compliance hub and signals Ripple's commitment to operating within regulated frameworks. The license could significantly accelerate crypto payment adoption across Europe and strengthen Ripple's competitive position in global payments infrastructure. It's another example of major crypto players proactively embracing regulation to unlock institutional markets.
🏛️Circle has applied to the OCC for the first US digital currency bank license, focused exclusively on USDC trust functions, reserve management, and institutional crypto custody. This represents a landmark attempt by a major stablecoin issuer to fully integrate into the traditional banking system rather than operating on the periphery. If approved, it could establish the template for other digital asset firms seeking banking licenses and dramatically enhance USDC's institutional credibility. It's a bold move that could fundamentally change how stablecoin issuers operate within US financial infrastructure.
🏛️The Trump administration continues pursuing a de minimis tax exemption for crypto transactions, aiming to eliminate tax friction on everyday purchases like coffee. While a previous $300 exemption threshold didn't make it into recent legislation, the administration is exploring new legislative pathways to advance the proposal. This initiative addresses a major barrier to mainstream crypto adoption by removing tax reporting requirements on small transactions. The push aligns with broader goals to establish the U.S. as a global crypto leader through payment-friendly policies.
🏛️Wyoming is piloting its upcoming Wyoming Stable Token (WYST) on Avalanche to enable real-time payments to government contractors, cutting processing times from 45 days to seconds. The trial uses Hashfire's Document Authentication Protocol to demonstrate how stablecoins can dramatically improve public sector payment efficiency. This represents a significant milestone for U.S. government blockchain adoption, potentially setting a precedent for other states and federal agencies. The pilot showcases stablecoins' practical utility beyond private markets, opening new pathways for government financial infrastructure modernization.
🏛️China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology held a seminar on stablecoins and industrial digital assets, exploring their integration into the industrial internet alongside Real World Asset tokenization. The event included MIIT officials and major financial institutions like Guosen Securities and SoftBank Asia Ventures, signaling serious government interest in industrial digitalization. This represents a potential policy shift for China, suggesting forthcoming guidance on industrial asset tokenization and the convergence of industrial internet infrastructure with financial innovation. The high-level participation indicates China may be positioning itself strategically in the industrial RWA space.