Welcome to another edition of The Weekly Stable, the essential source of stablecoin insights, analysis and news coverage for global fintech professionals, brought to you by This Week in Fintech.

This week we cover:

• Fintech chains are the new App Stores
• Coinbase Launches Base App, Its Onchain 'Everything App'
• How Citi Is Thinking About Stablecoins
• Product launches, partnerships and regulatory news from Agora, Coinbase, Crossmint, Dakota, Global Dollar Network, OKX, Ondo Finance, Orbital, Ripple, Zerohash and more.

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🏆 Top Stories

Fintech chains are the new App Stores

Robinhood is joining Coinbase, Kraken, and OKX in launching its own blockchain. Stripe may be next. They’re not chasing decentralization — they’re building platforms.

Just like Apple launched the iPhone and developers built the App Store, these fintechs are bringing users on-chain and letting others build for them.

By launching their own chain — instead of relying on general-purpose ones like Solana or Arbitrum — they aim to capture more of the value created by their user base.

Robinhood doesn’t need to build stock-backed lending. Morpho could build it directly on their chain, just like it powers $400M in BTC-backed loans on Base. Robinhood integrates it, controls the UX, and captures the margin.

Similarly, integrating a DEX is a much faster way to give users access to millions of assets, rather than limiting them to only those that pass the rigours CEX listing processes

Thanks to rollup-as-a-service platforms like Gelato and Conduit, launching an L2 on Optimism or Arbitrum is now trivial. Infrastructure is outsourced, scalable, and composable — no need for 20 protocol engineers.

This isn’t just about cutting costs. It’s a growth engine:

• New services
• New revenue streams
• Minimal lift

If you're a fintech, why rent blockspace when you can own the rails?

In the next story we’ll dive deeper using a recent example, Coinbase’s launch of its new Base App.

Coinbase Launches Base App, Its Onchain 'Everything App'

Coinbase, during its “A New Day One” event, has repositioned its Ethereum L2, Base, as a three-part open platform (app, chain, dev platform) with a new flagship consumer product, the Base App. Replacing Coinbase Wallet, it bundles social media, trading, payments, chat, mini apps, and a universal onchain identity system. This is Coinbase’s boldest move yet toward capturing consumer mindshare, redefining creator monetization, and building a Western equivalent of a WeChat-style super app — all powered by USDC.

Why it matters: This is Coinbase’s most ambitious consumer play yet—redefining itself as more than an exchange by launching a crypto-native super app with real-world utility, open infrastructure, and USDC at the core.

• Super app for the open internet: Base App mirrors WeChat’s model, but with open protocols. It abstracts away crypto friction and unlocks new social, financial, and creative behaviors.
• Creator monetization engine: Creator-first social model: Every post is a token (via Zora), enabling ownership, tipping, and direct monetization without platform gatekeepers or follower thresholds.
• USDC distribution flywheel: Instant, free USDC payments via tap-to-pay, Shopify checkout, and in-app spend/earn loops drive USDC velocity and help Coinbase challenge USDT’s dominance.
• Protocol-layer lock-in: Base Account (portable smart wallet + login) positions Coinbase as the identity and UX gateway for the onchain ecosystem. Sign in with Base might be the onchain Sign in with Google.
• Developer platform strategy: With Base Build and embedded mini apps, Coinbase is seeding a programmable app layer around its stack—creating a native onchain app stores with potentially long-term network effects.
• Regulatory and UX arbitrage: Framed as a software client, Base App sidesteps traditional fintech licensing and radically simplifies UX (no gas, no seed phrases).

Coinbase is no longer just a trading platform—it’s becoming an onchain operating system. With Base App, it aims to redefine how users post, pay, and play across the open internet. Armstrong wants Coinbase to be the “#1 financial app globally,” and Base is its onchain App Store.

How Citi Is Thinking About Stablecoins—and Managing the Threat

On Citi’s Q2 2025 earnings call, CEO Jane Fraser addressed multiple questions on stablecoins, likely driven by Circle’s soaring valuation and growing crypto-fintech momentum. Fraser emphasized that Citi does not view stablecoins as a direct threat for its core corporate clients. Instead, Citi is focused on four areas: reserve management, on/off ramps, crypto custody, and issuance, especially tokenized deposits. Fraser highlighted that Citi Token Services is already live, moving billions in volume, and said Citi prefers to “absorb all the complexity” rather than rely on interbank alliances.

Why it matters: Citi’s posture reflects how incumbent banks are defending their core services without ignoring blockchain’s potential.

• Tokenized deposits are the bank-aligned response: They replicate the UX of stablecoins while preserving compliance, float, and control. Citi frames them as the most viable long-term path.
• Citi wants to control the stack: Unlike consortium approaches like Zelle, Citi is choosing to go solo—building in-house infrastructure and deep client integration to defend its moat.
• Fraser is buying time, not standing still: Citi acknowledges that most clients aren’t ready to adopt tokenized workflows. Meanwhile, it’s laying rails to migrate them incrementally.
• Network effects still matter: If public stablecoin infrastructure becomes compliant, liquid, and programmable at scale, it could erode Citi’s edge in cross-border and treasury over time.

Citi’s strategy is rational and well-positioned for now. But stablecoins are gaining traction at the edges, serving segments Citi doesn’t touch. As that adoption drives infrastructure upgrades in compliance, liquidity, and programmability, the overlap with Citi’s domain will grow. Whether that eventually challenges Citi’s dominance depends less on tech and more on the stickiness of its core clients.

Read on for this week’s headlines

🚀 Product Announcements & Partnerships

Crypto exchange OKX joins Global Dollar Network, integrates Paxos-issued USDG stablecoin (read more)

Crossmint and Visa Join Forces to Power AI-Driven Commerce (read more)

Perpl Partners with Agora for Enhanced Stablecoin Trading (read more)

Standard Chartered launches bitcoin, ether spot trading for institutional clients (read more)

Coinbase unveils Base App, rebrands wallet as all-in-one social, trading and payments platform (read more)

Orbital and ClearBank Europe to Bridge Real-Time Euro Payments across SEPA and Stablecoins (read more)

💸 Fundraises and M&A

Crypto and stablecoin infrastructure startup Zerohash to raise $100 million at an almost $1 billion valuation (read more)

Ondo Finance acquires blockchain developer Strangelove as part of RWA expansion strategy (read more)

Dakota raises $12.5 million for a stablecoin-powered neobank (read more)

⚡ Stablecoin Adoption 

HSBC completes e-HKD trials of CBDC on public blockchains (read more)

⚖️ Regulatory Developments

'Crypto Week' Back on Track After Lengthy House Do-Over Vote (read more)

BIS says a more “restrictive regime” is needed in stablecoin policy guidance (read more)

Bank of England Governor warns banks against issuing stablecoins amid global scrutiny (read more)

Ripple plans RLUSD stablecoin EU entry via Luxembourg (read more)

Shanghai SASAC meeting signals softer stance on stablecoins after Hong Kong legislation (read more)

Federal Reserve, OCC, FDIC outline expectations for bank digital asset custody (read more)

Hong Kong's Crypto LEAP Framework Aims To Bolster Financial Leadership (read more)

Australia takes another step toward a central bank digital currency (read more)

Bank of Korea governor warns of ‘currency chaos’ from non-bank issuance of KRW stablecoins (read more)

💬 Posts of the Week

📖 Reads of the Week

In Stablecoins, DeFi, and Credit Creation, William Nuelle, General Partner at Galaxy Digital Ventures contends that stablecoins and DeFi are accelerating a historic shift in global credit intermediation—driven by their use as savings tools in emerging markets, as cross-border payment rails, and as gateways to above-market DeFi yields, while simultaneously draining deposits from traditional banks, concentrating capital in US Treasuries, and threatening local credit creation in weaker banking systems.

In Stablecoins in Africa (Part I): How USD Stablecoins Became Core Financial Infrastructure, Yoseph Ayele explores how USD stablecoins have become essential to Africa’s parallel dollar economy—enabled by dollar scarcity, fragmented forex markets, and mobile money infrastructure—streamlining cross-border payments and business finance, though rising reliance on USD risks undermining local monetary sovereignty.

In Are Stablecoin Payments a Threat to Banks and Card Networks?, 100y.eth argues that stablecoins can disrupt payments by lowering cross-border fees and settlement times—especially through closed-loop systems like PYUSD and blockchain-native flows like Shopify’s USDC—though banks and card networks may persist due to unresolved needs for fraud protection and refunds.

In The Risk-Free Rate in DeFi (Stablecoins): A 2025 Analysis, machi argues that DeFi lacks a true risk-free rate—while platforms like Aave, Curve, and tokenized T-bills offer relatively stable yields, all carry nontrivial risks. Yield-bearing stablecoins promise higher returns but function more like investment products than savings tools, reflecting DeFi’s enduring risk-reward tradeoff.