Hi stable subscribers, 

Welcome to another edition of The Weekly Stable, the #1 source for stablecoin insights brought to you by This Week in Fintech.

Each week, over 85,000 fintech professionals rely on us for clear analysis, thoughtful perspectives, and steady coverage of the stablecoin space—going beyond the news.

This week we dive into Circle’s launch of Circle Payment Network, as well as a round up of product launches, partnerships and regulatory news from Brale, Coinflow Labs, Solayer, Paypal and Worldpay.

Enjoy this week’s news below and let us know about any other feedback/suggestions you have.

(Find us online at @chuk_xyz, linkedin/chuk-okpalugo, @thestablecon and linkedin/stablecon)

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🏆 Top Stories

Circle Payments Network: What it is and why it matters

Circle launched the Circle Payments Network (CPN), a new protocol designed to connect financial institutions globally for compliant, real-time stablecoin payments. It’s a bold step that moves Circle beyond stablecoin issuance into infrastructure: not unlike Visa or SWIFT, but for programmable, blockchain-native money.

Why CPN Exists

Cross-border payments are more than just moving money, they involve compliance, FX, reconciliation, and integration with local on/off ramps. Stablecoins make value transfer instant, but the coordination layer around them is fragmented and complex. Businesses must integrate with multiple partners across jurisdictions, each with their own APIs, compliance models, and liquidity constraints.

What CPN Does

CPN solves this by offering a single integration point for payment institutions. It connects vetted financial institutions under a shared compliance and messaging standard. Circle handles credentialing and orchestration; payments settle on-chain using USDC or EURC.

Circle doesn’t move the funds, but it verifies the transaction messages and manages the infrastructure. Revenue comes from network fees, FX spreads, and future value-added services (e.g. fraud tools, escrow, third-party plug-ins). 

This turns CPN into a trust and coordination network, similar to efforts like Borderless, UMA Protocol, or now closed down tbDEX, but backed by a major issuer with capital, reach, and regulatory traction.

So it’s similar to SWIFT in the sense that it’s a messaging layer, but it’s also similar to card networks such as Visa in the sense that they bring value to the network through vetting institutions, setting standards, governing and resolving disputes.

Why It Matters

This is a major business model shift for Circle. Instead of relying solely on rate-sensitive reserve interest from USDC, CPN creates transactional revenue streams, essential as the company heads toward IPO.

It also pushes the industry forward. For fintechs and payment service providers, CPN simplifies global payouts. For the broader ecosystem, it validates the networked approach to stablecoin adoption, raising both opportunity and competition for orchestrators, issuers, and infrastructure players.

What Could Go Wrong

To succeed, Circle must overcome a classic cold start problem: you need PFIs with liquidity to attract volume, and you need volume to justify PFIs’ participation. Competing with established corridors, especially where USDT has dominant liquidity, won’t be easy.

Circle must also navigate multi-jurisdiction compliance, provide high-touch integration support, and govern a global network transparently. Execution needs to be nearly flawless, and that’s tough while simultaneously preparing for public markets.

Ecosystem Impacts

CPN is clearly a boon for fintechs, unlocking global access through one integration. But it’s also a challenge to orchestrators whose value lies in stitching corridors together. Some may integrate with CPN; others may differentiate via specialized services. The list of design partners is a who’s who of stablecoin payments orchestration suggesting that a sufficient number are at least curious to figure out the tradeoff.

Stablecoin issuers face strategic questions too. Circle is unlikely to prioritize support for competitors like USDT, even though it dominates in many emerging markets. Networks that are asset-neutral, like Borderless, could benefit if institutions seek interoperability and choice.

Final Thoughts

CPN is a bold move. If it works, it could be the foundation of a global, always-on, programmable payments network. If it doesn’t, it will have been an honorable attempt that marked an important inflection point in the evolution of stablecoin infrastructure. Circle will grow the pie and the whole ecosystem will benefit

For a deeper analysis, check out my long form analysis on CPN here.

📺 Stableminded Podcast 

"You can't outsource compliance. It's part of your core business process."

Eric Barbier reveals how Triple-A built a regulated infrastructure serving 20,000+ customers across 120+ countries.

They've transformed from checkout solution to complete treasury platform by:

• Enabling merchants like Farfetch and Razer to tap global crypto markets
• Solving the dollar access problem for emerging market businesses
• Processing payments with 30% higher basket sizes than traditional methods
• Creating real-time settlement with enhanced transaction data

Most powerful insight? While Americans take USD access for granted, two-thirds of the planet CANNOT hold dollars—creating an invisible barrier to global trade.

Watch how non-crypto businesses are using stablecoins to overcome this challenge

Season 3 proudly sponsored by dfns

🔦 Use Case Spotlight

Argentinian crypto wallet Belo powered cross-border payments for tourists in Brazil using stablecoins behind the scenes

As millions of Argentinians traveled to Brazil, Belo capitalized on the massive adoption of Pix—Brazil’s instant payment system—by enabling seamless local payments backed by stablecoin-based settlement across currencies. Users paid in Brazil like locals, while Belo handled the conversion from Argentine pesos to Brazilian real using blockchain rails under the hood.

The result? Over 70% of payments by Argentinians in Brazil were made via Belo, displacing many traditional card networks and driving more than $300M in volume—and 95% of new users didn’t even realize they were using blockchain.

This case highlights two key themes:

• Stablecoins as invisible infrastructure for efficient, real-time cross-border settlement
• Frictionless UX as the key to mainstream adoption

Read more here

🚀 Product Launches

Circle launch a new Refund Protocol smart contract to enable non-custodial refunds for stablecoin payments (read more)

Circle Debuts Stablecoin-Based Network to Reduce Costs, Delays in Global Payments (read more)

Halo announced HUSD, a new stablecoin built for the Hyperliquid DEX, built on M0 (read more) 

Solayer launches crypto rewards Visa card (read more)

Coinflow Adds Crypto Purchases to Its Payment Portfolio Suite (read more)

💸 Fundraises and M&A

Kado Software, the Web3 payments infrastructure company, was acquired by Swapped.com (read more)

a16z invested an additional $55M in LayerZero tokens (ZRO), with a 3-year lockup (read more)

Neutrl Raises $5M to Tokenize a Popular Hedge Fund Altcoin Trade with NUSD token (read more)

⚡ Stablecoin Adoption 

Brale in process to become the first US entity authorized to mint stablecoins on M0’s federated platform (read more)

Brale partners with Lightspark’s Spark to enable stablecoin issuance on Bitcoin (read more)

Worldpay Joins Global Dollar Network, Expanding Access to Stablecoin Solutions for Merchants Worldwide (read more)

PayPal Aims To Boost Stablecoin Use By Offering 3.7% on Balances (read more)

Ethena, Securitize release Converge's technical specification & roadmap, target Q2 Mainnet Launch (read more and here)

⚖️ Regulatory Developments

Congressional Research Service release an overview of the GENIUS Act (read more)

Over a Dozen Crypto Firms Pursuing OCC Trust Charters (read more and here)

BIS report calls for 'containment' of crypto risks as TradFi connections deepen, sparking criticism (read more)

South Korea's central bank vows to 'actively participate' in stablecoin legislation development (read more)

Commission livid as ECB warns of crypto apocalypse under Trump (read more)

OCC reaffirms guidance on permissibility of crypto-related activities by banks (read more)

Stablecoin turf wars: Bank of America, Tether and Circle battle to shape US rules (read more)

DeFi Education Fund Submits Guiding Principles for Token Safe Harbor to SEC Crypto Task Force (read more)

🍻 Upcoming Events

The Stable Salon - vol. 3 · Luma

Join us for the third edition of the Stable Salon, in collaboration with Will White - NYC’s premier gathering for the stablecoin ecosystem. This monthly…

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💼 Stable Job of the Week

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💬 Posts of the Week

📖 Reads of the Week

In A Network Model of Money, M0 CEO Luca Prosperi argues that the topology of monetary networks, whether centralized like a star or distributed like a mesh, fundamentally determines value distribution, signal propagation efficiency, and long-term stability, proposing five potential digital money architectures to guide future design and regulation.

Blockworks Research published a thread on how Ethena Labs is evolving from a single synthetic dollar issuer to an institutional DeFi chain and the ParaFi team published a deep dive into protocol’s mechanics

Alex Treece, Co-founder & CEO of Stablecore,  breaks down the various forms of money in the banking system to differentiate tokenized deposits from stablecoins