On Wednesday, an affiliate of Circle Internet Group, Inc. (NYSE: CRCL), the issuer of USDC, said it has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with licensed cross-border payments provider LianLian Global to explore wider adoption of the stablecoin. The collaboration will assess how USDC-based infrastructure and Circle's Arc blockchain can support faster, more transparent and cost-efficient international payments for merchants, especially in emerging markets.

DTCC partnered with Digital Asset Holdings and the Canton Network to tokenize U.S. Treasury securities custodied at DTC, marking its first step to bring custodial assets on-chain. Following an SEC No-Action Letter earlier this month, the parties are targeting a minimum viable product in the first half of 2026, with DTCC's ComposerX platforms supporting tokenization and interoperability.

RedotPay, a stablecoin payments fintech, closed an oversubscribed $107 million Series B. The company reports more than 6 million registered users across over 100 countries and an annualized payment volume above $10 billion as of November 2025, alongside over $150 million in annualized revenue and year‑on‑year transaction growth.

Hyperscale Data Inc., listed on NYSE American, reported a Bitcoin treasury of approximately $75.5 million, about 97.5% of its market capitalization, using pricing from December 14–15, 2025. American Bitcoin said on December 16 it now holds over 5,098 BTC following its September 3 Nasdaq debut, highlighting continued accumulation and a 96.5% BTC Yield through December 14.

Visa Inc. announced on Tuesday that it will let U.S. financial institutions settle payments using Circle's USDC stablecoin on the Solana blockchain, expanding its crypto-focused services. Initial users include Cross River Bank and Lead Bank, with broader U.S. access planned through 2026 and support for seven-day settlement windows to streamline treasury and liquidity management. Visa is also collaborating on the Arc Layer 1 blockchain for future USDC settlement, while Binance CEO Richard Teng highlighted that daily stablecoin transactions have already surpassed Visa's own payment volumes.

Digital asset ETPs logged $716 million in weekly inflows, lifting assets under management to $180 billion. The US led with $483 million, followed by Germany at $96.9 million and Canada at $80.7 million. Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP attracted $352 million, $338 million and $245 million respectively.

Interactive Brokers has introduced a feature enabling U.S. retail clients to fund individual brokerage accounts with USDC stablecoins, with deposits routed from users' personal crypto wallets and converted into U.S. dollars. The phased rollout, powered by Zerohash, supports networks such as Ethereum, Solana, and Base and imposes limits of $10 minimum, $25,000 per transaction, $25,000 per day, and $100,000 per month.

Bitcoin briefly traded above $92,000 before pulling back after the Federal Reserve’s latest rate cut, as markets reassessed a more data-dependent policy path into early 2026. Aurelie Barthere at Nansen highlighted rising correlation between BTC and major U.S. AI stocks and stretched positioning in derivatives. She said bulls need to clear the $91,000 resistance zone to confirm a renewed uptrend.

Bitpanda Technology Solutions has partnered with EurocoinPay to expand regulated access to digital assets across Spain. EurocoinPay plans to integrate Bitpanda’s liquidity platform, enabling users to trade more than 650 crypto assets with institutional-grade pricing and execution. The agreement will broaden EurocoinPay’s asset catalogue and strengthen Bitpanda’s presence in Southern Europe and other global regions.