Jona Jaupi and Olivia Capozzalo
October 29, 2025
GM, Challengers!
The big story of the day:
- Big financial players – including Citi and Zelle – are no longer just testing the waters with stablecoins – they’re getting in on the action.
In other news:
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📈 Markets in the last 24 hours
TradFi’s growing interest in stablecoins is turning into big moves, and the last few days alone have been busy.
As we explained in yesterday’s newsletter, Western Union plans to launch its own dollar-backed stablecoin, USDPTon the Solana blockchain, with a total locked value of $13.7 billion. The token will be issued by Anchorage Digital Bank and is expected to go live in the first half of 2026.
But Western Union is far from the only financial giant to have revealed its stablecoin strategy in just the last few days.
Citi and Zelle
On Monday, centralized crypto exchange Coinbase and Citi Group (two giants in their respective fields) have teamed up in hopes of making crypto payments a little more… normal. Partnership aims to help Citi’s institutional clients use stablecoins and other cryptocurrencies to move money faster, all without abandoning traditional banking systems.
It combines Coinbase’s digital asset infrastructure with Citi’s extensive global payments network, spanning 94 markets and more than 300 clearing systems. Last month, Citi predicted that stablecoins could reach $1.9 trillion in issuance by 2030 as a base case, and up to $4 trillion in a bullish scenario.
And the momentum doesn’t stop there: Zelle, the payments app owned by seven of the largest U.S. banks, said Friday it is exploring international transfers powered by stablecoins.
For Zelle, which has so far limited payments in the United States, this could mark a major expansion. Using stablecoins, the network could harness the speed and profitability of crypto while staying within regulated banking rails.
In terms of the broader convergence of TradeFi and crypto, this week also saw WisdomTree – an asset manager focused on providing institutional-grade exposure to crypto – announce that it is in partnership with BNY Mellon as the core banking-as-a-service (BaaS) infrastructure provider for WisdomTree Prime – its retail platform that gives ordinary investors access to stablecoins like Circle’s USDC and PayPal’s PYUSD, as well as tokenized assets.
WisdomTree is also the issuer of the WisdomTree Government Money Market Digital Fund (WTGXX), a tokenized US Treasury fund, primarily on Ethereum, with a total asset value of over $615 million.
“Stablecoins and tokenized assets open up new user experiences across a range of use cases in financial services,” said Will Peck, head of digital assets at WisdomTree, at the time of the announcement.
The year of the stablecoin (USD)
The surge follows new stablecoin legislation (aka GENIUS Act) signed by President Donald Trump in July, which set clearer federal rules and guardrails for the asset class. U.S. regulatory clarity has encouraged an increase in the supply of stablecoins, with the total market capitalization increasing from $206 billion at the start of the year to more than $308 billion today.
Beyond payments, stablecoins also power DeFi lending, with Visa reporting over $670 billion in on-chain lending over the past five years.
Total supply of stablecoins. Source: DéfiLlama
Simply put, major financial players no longer just test the waters with stablecoins – they go straight in. From Western Union to Citi to Zelle, it seems everyone is racing to make payments faster, cheaper, and on-chain.
It appears that stablecoins are no longer just a crypto experiment, but officially mainstream.
Xx Jona, journalist at The Defiant
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🎬WATCH
Why Yat Siu thinks Altcoins will overtake Bitcoin
In the latest episode of The Defiant Podcast, Cami spoke with Yat Siu, co-founder of Animoca Brands. He reveals his vision for a trust layer built on zero-knowledge proofs, as well as his plans for a Hong Kong dollar stablecoin, and unveils the Mocaverse ecosystem where staking power and airdrops build a Verifiable, cross-chain identity.
Their conversation also explores the future of Web3 gaming, GTA 6’s upcoming meta-shift, and a bold thesis: why the entire altcoin market could one day eclipse Bitcoin.
Top News since Friday
- CRO Jumps After Trump’s Truth Social Announces Prediction Market Partnership With CryptoCom Crypto.com’s Cronos (CRO) token surged on Tuesday after Trump-linked social media company Truth Social announced it would soon allow users to make predictions and trade contracts on real-world events through a new partnership with the centralized exchange. Why it’s important: The move comes as interest in prediction markets increases, with Polymarket preparing for its return to the United States and Kalshi increasing its crypto footprint.
- REP jumps 50% in a week as developer gains community support for Augur Fork Augur – one of the first decentralized prediction market protocols and the first Ethereum dapps to conduct an ICO – is about to undergo what it calls “crypto’s first algorithmic fork.” The goal of the fork, which is to mimic an attack on the platform, is to filter out inactive holders of REP, Augur’s governance token. Why it’s important: As the foundation behind the development of Augur says: “Augur is a permissionless system – anyone can build on it, test it, or run experiments like this. »
- Tokenized futures contracts on Nasdaq enter the top 10 in volume on Hyperliquide Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 upgrade, which enables permissionless perpetual markets, launched two weeks ago, and TradeXYZ’s XYZ100 market – which tracks Nasdaq futures – is gaining traction as it enters the exchange’s top 10 assets in terms of daily volume. Why it’s important: Despite the platform’s success in the niche tokenized stock futures market, its volumes still represent only a drop in the ocean compared to traditional markets.
- FILE: GENIUS has yet to take effect, even though some companies claim to be ‘regulated’ and ‘compliant’ Just over three months after its enactment, GENIUS has yet to come into effect, although established and new players are positioning themselves to comply with the upcoming rules. Why it’s important: Some stablecoin companies already claim to be regulated and GENIUS compliant – experts say the claims risk misleading investors.
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