Everybody Loves Stablecoins 🪙💕
From Congress to conglomerates, stables are taking over
In this week’s edition of The Context, we talk all about stablecoins, those fiat-pegged digital assets that are increasingly looking like crypto’s killer use case. We’ll discuss stablecoins in Congress, stablecoins in companies, and stablecoins in countries.
[GENIUS (Clears Another) Bar 🧠]
The U.S. Senate voted 68–30 to invoke cloture on the GENIUS Act, setting the country’s first regulatory framework for stablecoins up for a final vote next week.
What Media Said 🧑💻:
The bill, along with a series of bipartisan amendments designed to win broader Democratic support, “could reshape traditional financial services,” wrote PYMNTS. The tech sector is broadly for the bill, with major players “reportedly developing use cases around stablecoin integration to streamline payments, reduce transaction fees and enhance global scalability.” And their big finance brethren are considering creating their own stablecoins.
Not everyone was swayed by the amendments, which failed to directly address potential corruption stemming from President Trump’s crypto ventures. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Jeff Merkley are particularly concerned about foreign investments in Trump-backed World Liberty Financial, which is launching its own stablecoin.
What’s in the actual bill? It “would mandate that stablecoins be fully backed by U.S. dollars or similar highly liquid assets,” wrote Timmy Shen (The Block). Large issuers would also receive annual audits, and foreign issuers would have to “comply with lawful orders like seizing and freezing criminal assets.”
PR Perspective 🔎:
The U.S. has a bicameral legislature, meaning that, for this bill to become law, the House of Representatives must also vote to send the bill to President Trump for his signature. It’s complicated because the House is working on separate stablecoin legislation, so this is no done deal. But it will remain big news until legislation gets over the finish line. Look for it everywhere—in trade publications, political publications, finance publications, and mainstream media. Want to pitch a story? It’ll have broad reach if it’s got a stablecoin angle.
[Adopt-a-Blockchain 👶]
Coinbase released a report finding that 60% of Fortune 500 companies are “working on blockchain initiatives” and that nearly 20% see them as a “key part of their strategy.”
What Media Said 🧑💻:
Those percentages are on the rise, and it’s the “new political climate” under President Trump that’s making blockchain integration more appealing to U.S. companies, wrote Catherine McGrath (Fortune).
Per the report, small and medium businesses (SMBs) are also “increasingly testing crypto payment tools and stablecoins,” noted Daniel Kuhn (The Block). Four out of five SMBs believe crypto can help them mitigate pain points like invoicing.
PR Perspective 🔎:
Companies have been talking about web3 for years—nearly 40% of companies surveyed in a 2020 Deloitte survey SAID they were integrating blockchain into their operations. But Coinbase’s report gives more tangible numbers. One of its most interesting findings is that stablecoin annual settlement volume has exploded in the past five years, surpassing annual settlement volume for both PayPal and all global remittances. Stables, then, are a key part of the mass adoption puzzle.
[Stablecoin Season☁️]
Newly elected South Korean President Lee Jae-myung proposed a stablecoin bill on Tuesday, while French banking heavyweight Société Générale launched its own stablecoin.
What Media Said 🧑💻:
Lee just won the election last week and “is moving quickly to deliver on his campaign pledge to allow local companies to issue stablecoins, giving a further boost to one of the world’s most active digital-asset markets,” said Shinhye Kang & Hyonhee Shin (Bloomberg). Over one-third of South Korea’s 51 million people are already using crypto.
Those local companies don’t have to be very big, noted Martin Young (Cointelegraph). Just 500M won ($368,000) in equity capital and you can launch a stablecoin, provided you get regulatory sign-off and can guarantee enough reserves to refund holders.
In Europe, Société Générale launched a US dollar-pegged stablecoin, becoming the first major bank to do so, wrote Elizabeth Howcroft (Reuters). Now that the EU has implemented stablecoin regulations under the “MiCA” framework—which dominant stablecoin-issuer Tether doesn’t fit into—there’s an opening for new products to enter the “growing market.”
PR Perspective 🔎:
South Korea’s law, if adopted, could kick off a wave of stablecoin issuance across Asia’s top crypto economy by lowering the barrier to entry for stablecoin issuers. While the Asian stable market could open up to startups, Europe’s may become home to big players, with Société Générale just the first of several traditional firms to get in.
[Tweet of The Week]
Credit: @stanunlocked
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The usual disclaimer: This newsletter collates the main themes and headlines of the week in DeFi/crypto/metaverse/Web3/NFT land and tries to provide unbiased context. It's aimed at anyone who wants to keep an eye on the space. It's put together by a team at YAP and doesn't contain any promotion of our clients (if one is mentioned, we'll flag that).
The team: Founder Samantha Yap and consulting editor Jeff Benson, Andrew Wickerson, Nathalie Larrea, Meghna Dembla, Samvidha Sharma, Trisha Goswami and Shajar Qureshi. Your feedback is, as always, welcome. Ping us at thecontext@yapglobal.com. Old newsletters can be found here.
This newsletter is prepared by YAP Global, an international PR Consultancy focusing on helping cryptocurrency, Decentralised Finance (DeFi) and brands through impactful storytelling. Find out more about us here.