Stablecoin

Hong Kong Monetary Authority aims to approve the first batch of fiat-referenced stablecoin licenses by March 2026, following a disclosure by Chief Executive Eddie Yue on 02 February 2026. The regulator has received 36 applications but intends to grant only a very small number initially to prioritize prudence and financial stability.

On February 4, 2026, Tether scaled back plans for a $15–$20 billion equity raise after investors balked at a $500 billion valuation. Talks that began last year now focus on about $5 billion, with terms unresolved. CEO Paolo Ardoino said the figure was never a target and noted insiders are reluctant to sell.

On February 3, 2026, U.S. investigators opened a probe into crypto platforms suspected of facilitating Iranian sanctions evasion, according to Ari Redbord at TRM Labs. TRM Labs estimates about $10 billion of crypto activity in Iran in 2025, while Chainalysis reports $7.8 billion received by Iranian wallets, and Elliptic says the central bank bought at least $507 million in USDT.

On 2 February, a White House meeting designed to break a long-running deadlock on U.S. crypto market structure legislation ended without a deal, with stablecoin rewards remaining the core sticking point. Banking groups want the bill to restrict interest and other rewards on stablecoins, while crypto firms insist such incentives are essential for growth, leaving the Senate unable to move the bill forward.

The Avalanche Policy Coalition has introduced an advisory council led by Ava Labs General Counsel Lee Schneider, with UK legislator Chris Holmes and leaders from the Avalanche ecosystem joining. The council will address 2026 priorities: token classification, defining intermediaries, and protecting internet access, as regulators in the U.S., EU, UK and Japan move forward with crypto frameworks.

Bitcoin's downturn traces back to Oct. 10, 2025, when a derivatives washout forced roughly $19 billion in futures liquidations as prices fell. CryptoQuant contributor Darkfost says open interest collapsed by about 70,000 BTC that day, resetting months of leverage and leaving speculation subdued amid weaker spot volumes and declining stablecoin liquidity.

On Jan. 26 and Feb. 2, DOGE spot ETFs recorded net inflows of $246,030 and $252,530 after a 20‑day zero streak, according to SoSoValue. On Feb. 2, Ripple's RLUSD treasury minted 59,000,000 tokens on XRPL, taking supply to 1.45 billion, while Arkham logs show OKX reactivated 162,874,151,430 SHIB from cold to hot storage.

On February 3, 2026, Ripple said it is supporting Billiton Diamond and Ctrl Alt in a UAE push that has brought tokenized certified polished diamonds worth over AED 1 billion ($280 million) to the XRP Ledger. According to a Tuesday press statement, Ctrl Alt will mint the assets and the platform records certification and inventory on-chain, with VARA approval pending. The effort is backed by DMCC.

A group of ten major European banks, including Italy's Banca Sella and UniCredit, plans to issue Qivalis, a MiCA-compliant stablecoin pegged to the euro and expected to go live in the second half of 2026. The initiative aims to bridge traditional finance and blockchain in a market where about USD 300 billion in stablecoins are mostly dollar-denominated, but some observers question its adoption prospects and transaction costs.

A UAE-backed investment vehicle acquired a 49% interest in World Liberty Financial, the Trump family's cryptocurrency firm, for $500 million under a deal signed on January 16, 2025, four days before Donald Trump's second inauguration. The investment was structured in two $250 million tranches, altered the Trump family's equity stake, and granted the Emirati side a 49% holding via Aryam Investment 1. The company issues the USD1 stablecoin, which was later used to settle a $2 billion crypto investment, while separate U.S.-UAE agreements covered access to Nvidia AI chips in 2025.