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This is a general announcement. Products and services referred to here may not be available in your region. Terms and conditions apply. Disclaimer: This is not available for users in the EEA. Fellow Binancians, Binance is pleased to launch a new Word of the Day (WOTD) game! The theme of this week’s WOTD is “Fueling the Next Rally”. Read selected articles to learn more about this topic and participate in this week’s WOTD to grab a share of the rewards. Activity Period: 2026-08-31 00:00 (UTC) to 2026-09-06 23:59 (UTC) Complete 5 Words to Unlock Your Share of 10,000 USDC WOTD is an educational word-guessing game, which allows users to increase their crypto vocabulary and stay on top of the latest market developments. 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Related Readings for This Week’s WOTD Crypto News: Bitcoin's 23.6% Week Is Its Second-Best Since 2021 — Ether Outperforms at 31.3% as $1.92 Billion Floods Into ETFs and the Debasement Trade Returns Terms & Conditions Binance reserves the right to modify or cancel the Promotion at any time without prior notice.Binance reserves the right to update the list of eligible countries/regions for the Promotion at any time. Users who were previously able to participate may no longer be eligible to join or receive rewards under the updated terms.These terms and conditions (“Activity Terms”) govern users’ participation in this WOTD activity (“Activity”). By participating in this Activity, users agree to these Activity Terms, and the following additional terms: (a) Binance Terms and Conditions for Prize Promotions; (b) Binance Terms of Use; and (c) Binance Privacy Policy; all of which are incorporated by reference into these terms and conditions. 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1 days ago

Decentralized lending protocol Ajna tweeted that its v2 version was hit by a vulnerability exploit, and the team is investigating abnormal fund flows. The protocol advised users to withdraw all funds, repay outstanding loans, and halt interactions with the platform. Separately, Defimon Alerts monitored that Ajna’s losses from the incident total around $775,000, involving pools including syrupUSDC, wstETH, rETH, cbETH, WBTC, WETH/USDC, and sDAI. The attack is attributed to a liquidation accounting manipulation exploit.

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An estimated $390 billion in stablecoin payments took place in 2025, according to McKinsey and Artemis. But inside this market, AI agents are creating an interesting kind of payment activity.

Research shows that agents completed more than 176 million on-chain transactions worth over $73 million between May 2025 and April 2026. But most of them were very small transactions. 

The median x402 payment was between $0.01 and $0.10, while 76% of transactions fell below the $0.30 fixed-fee threshold for card payments. USDC accounted for 98.6% of settlements.

Annual Stablecoin Payments in 2025. Source: McKinsey Although the transaction amounts are small, the frequency of AI agentic payments is staggering — 173 million.

Software can buy data, compute and other services hundreds or thousands of times without the human behaviors that define conventional commerce. For example, opening an account, entering card details, approving an invoice or waiting until the next banking day.

XDC Network believes this offers an early glimpse of how more payments could work in future.

“Money has always moved as fast as the slowest part of the process, like a bank, a clearinghouse, or normal business hours,” Atul Khekade, Co-Founder of XDC Network, told BeInCrypto. “Agents just show what happens when you get rid of those delays. Payments stop being something you wait around for and turn into a continuous process happening in the background at the speed of the underlying network.”

Machine Payments Software can transact continuously. An AI service may need a weather feed for one calculation, a market-price API several seconds later, and compute resources immediately afterward.

Each interaction can carry its own price, turning what might once have been a monthly subscription or invoice into thousands of individual transactions.

That helps explain why Keyrock found activity spread across such a large population of AI agents and service directories. The report found more than 104,000 agents registered across at least 15 directories by the end of the first quarter of 2026.

The economics favor systems that can handle payments measured in cents or fractions of a cent. The payments industry is already preparing:

Stripe launched the Machine Payments Protocol, or MPP, in March. The open standard allows agents and services to coordinate micropayments and recurring payments programmatically, with Stripe supporting stablecoins as well as traditional payment methods; Google’s Agent Payments Protocol, or AP2, concentrates on proving user authorization and establishing an auditable record of what an agent was permitted to buy. Google transferred the protocol to the FIDO Alliance in April and added support for autonomous “Human Not Present” transactions; Cloudflare entered the market in August with Cloudflare Wallets and cloudflare.pay, giving agents identities and programmable spending controls. Its payment tools support both x402 and MPP; Mastercard’s Agent Pay for Machines service, announced in June, is designed for continuous, high-frequency and low-value payments, with settlement across cards, accounts and stablecoins. More than 30 companies, including Stripe, Coinbase, Cloudflare and Tempo, were named among its initial supporters. 2️⃣ Secure agentic purchases on Google

✅ We designed Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) to help agents make secure payments on your behalf — with boundaries and accountability to give you peace of mind.

✅ AP2 lets you set strict guardrails for agentic payment transactions. Just…

— Google (@Google) May 27, 2026 Invisible Settlement XDC’s contribution to this market is XDCAI.tech, which uses the open x402 protocol originally introduced by Coinbase.

x402 turns the HTTP ‘402 Payment Required’ response into a payment mechanism. An agent requests a resource, receives its price, authorizes the payment, and repeats the request with proof of payment. The process allows software to purchase an API call or another digital service within the same interaction.

Coinbase introduced the protocol in May 2025, and its use has since expanded through integrations with companies including AWS.

XDC AI applies x402 to USDC settlement on XDC Network. Users fund a smart wallet with USDC and establish an on-chain spending limit. An agent can then pay an x402-enabled service per request. EIP-3009 allows the payment to be signed off-chain while a relayer covers the network fee, leaving the agent itself to hold and spend USDC.

For years, AI agents could reason, plan, and execute tasks.

But they couldn't pay.

APIs, subscriptions, checkout pages, and payment flows were built for humans — not autonomous software.

So we built XDC AI.

A platform that gives AI agents a wallet, lets them discover…

— Rushabh Parmar (@rushabh96975767) July 11, 2026 The system can also connect to AI applications through MCP or a command-line interface, allowing agents running through products including ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, and Codex to discover and pay for services.

XDC already had much of the underlying settlement infrastructure in place. Native USDC and Circle’s CCTP went live on XDC in September 2025.

XDC lists two-second block times, six-second finality, and transaction costs around $0.00001, characteristics aimed at high-volume financial applications.

Invoices Could Disappear Invoices package several functions together. They communicate what is owed, set payment terms, and provide records for reconciliation and accounting. Many businesses then wait days or weeks for the actual transfer to arrive.

Software dealing with software can compress part of that cycle. A service can state its price in a machine-readable format, an authorized agent can evaluate the request, and payment can be settled immediately. Transaction records can then feed directly into treasury and accounting systems.

Next wave of payments = AI + Agentic Commerce.
XDC is building the infrastructure:
• x402 micropayments
• Gasless USDC settlement
• Real-time, sub-cent autonomous payments for AI agents
Tonight in NYC, @atulkhekade shares how we’re making this a reality. The future of… https://t.co/FokrYWhAbw

— XDC Network (@XDCNetwork) July 9, 2026 This comes as agents are taking on increasing responsibility for procurement, cloud spending, portfolio management, and recurring commercial obligations. A company could eventually give an agent a budget and a set of rules, then allow it to buy compute when demand rises, renew services, pay suppliers or rebalance liquidity within those boundaries.

XDC therefore sees today’s one-cent API payment as the smallest version of something much larger.

The card networks see it too. Visa’s stablecoin settlement program reached a $7 billion annualized run rate in April after growing 50% quarter-over-quarter and expanding to nine blockchains. Mastercard announced stablecoin settlement across networks including Ethereum, Solana, Base, Polygon, Tempo and XRPL in June.

The competition is consequently broader than blockchain networks attempting to replace card companies. Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Google, Coinbase, Cloudflare and blockchain developers are increasingly building interoperable pieces of the same machine-commerce market.

The Other Half of the Problem Greater autonomy raises questions about permission and accountability.

An agent paying 3 cents per API request incurs limited financial exposure. However, an agent managing a corporate treasury or procurement budget needs controls around authorization, counterparties, limits, and auditability, which is why the major platforms are converging on different pieces of the same problem. This explains why:

Google has concentrated on cryptographic mandates that record what a user authorized; Cloudflare lets owners impose spending caps and approved merchant lists; Mastercard’s system combines agent credentials with permissioning rules;  XDC AI places spending limits at the wallet level Those controls determine how quickly agentic payments graduate from micropayments into larger financial relationships.

They also temper the idea that cards and invoices disappear on a fixed timetable. Card networks are already adapting their products for autonomous software, while invoices serve legal, tax, credit and accounting functions that extend beyond transferring funds.

XDC believes that payment and service delivery can happen almost simultaneously: APIs, data, compute, digital services and other machine-to-machine transactions. Success there could establish the habits and technical standards that would later be used for larger transactions.

Khekade expects the terminology itself to disappear as the technology becomes commonplace.

“In 5 years nobody will describe this as agentic payments, the same way nobody today calls a wire transfer an internet payment,” he said. “It will just be how value moves. The interesting question is not whether that happens, it is which networks were actually built for it versus which ones bolted it on afterward.”

@injective has announced it is working with @circle and teams across the @cosmos ecosystem to move legacy $USDC versions onto the native issuance that Circle launched on Injective in May, with the broader migration now targeting September.

The legacy versions in scope include Noble-issued USDC and bridged variants that have circulated across Cosmos chains. The goal is to consolidate them onto a single, natively issued standard backed directly by Circle, removing the fragmentation that has long complicated stablecoin use across interchain applications.

How the native issuance works The foundation for this shift was laid on May 7, 2026, when native USDC and Circle's Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) went live on the Injective mainnet. CCTP allows USDC to move natively across blockchains, meaning tokens are burned on the source chain and minted on the destination chain rather than locked in a bridge contract. It was also Circle's first MultiVM issuance of the token.

The integration was intended to ensure continued USDC availability across Cosmos chains after Noble announced its migration plans to a dedicated EVM Layer 1 and positioned its Cosmos SDK chain into maintenance mode. By taking over that position, Injective is expected to absorb more than $100 million in stablecoin issuance connected to the ecosystem.

Cosmos Hub commitment and rollout Four days after launch, the Cosmos Hub adopted the Injective issuance as the ecosystem's reference USDC under a minimum four-year commitment, with Skip:Go set to treat it as the default USDC denomination. Cosmos Hub, Cosmos Labs, and Skip Protocol confirmed that Injective-issued USDC will route through the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol.

The migration rolls out over the coming months, with dYdX going first, and Cosmos Labs coordinating the rollout for additional chains and applications across the ecosystem. Migration tools are also being prepared for chains and DeFi platforms transitioning from previous USDC liquidity providers. For users, the frontend experience is expected to remain mostly unchanged.

A portion of fees generated from Injective USDC activity will also be allocated to programmatically buy back ATOM, the native token of the Cosmos Hub.

Sources
Injective: USDC Adopted by Cosmos and dYdX as Canonical Stablecoin Standard
Crypto Times: Cosmos Hub Adopts Injective USDC as Primary Stablecoin
Crypto Briefing: Injective Initiates Migration of Exchange dApps to USDC Standard

Fables' pre-governance token PROLOGUE hits an all-time high: its market cap tops $12 million, with a 143% gain in the past 24 hours.

According to GMGN market data, Robinhood Chain-based token PROLOGUE has crossed $12 million in market capitalization, with a 143% 24-hour gain—hitting an all-time high—and $6.3 million in 24-hour trading volume. PROLOGUE is a pre-governance token on Robinhood Chain, backed by Fables, a dynamic-fee ve(3,3) DEX built on Uniswap v4. Its narrative is: "Every story has a beginning; this is just the prologue." At its Token Generation Event (TGE), PROLOGUE will be converted to the official governance token at a dynamic ratio, used for lock-up voting and fee sharing. BlockBeats Note: Token trading is highly volatile, largely driven by market sentiment and hype; investors should exercise caution.

12 minutes ago

Bitget has launched its "Niu Lai" perpetual contracts, supporting up to 10x leverage.

According to an official announcement, Bitget has launched its USDT-margined "Niu Lai" perpetual contracts, supporting up to 10x leverage. Contract trading bots will also be available simultaneously. For more details, please refer to Bitget's official platform.

12 minutes ago

Reports say Doubao 2.2 has been delayed: ByteDance catches up on coding, recruitment explicitly names Claude Code and Codex

Beating AI Insight News Brief: ByteDance’s originally planned August launch of Doubao 2.2 has been delayed. The company will allocate more training time to focus on strengthening coding, tool calling, and agent capabilities. This year, one of Seed’s core goals is to elevate its coding models to the top tier. Internally, the team aims to achieve performance on par with GLM-5.2 and Kimi-K3 by the end of the year, to earn genuine developer recognition for ByteDance’s coding models. In August, Seed underwent a major restructuring: teams originally segmented by text, speech, code, and vision were reorganized into four departments: Pretrain Data, Horizon RL, Product Posttrain-Work, and Product Posttrain-Chat. Horizon RL will handle coding post-training, while the Work team will focus on tool calling, GUI operations, and long-task execution. ByteDance has recently been intensively recruiting for these areas: its official website is hiring Code Agents, general Agents, and reinforcement learning algorithm engineers. One Multi-Agent Harness position explicitly requires research on Coding Agents such as Claude Code and Codex, plus building multi-agent and reinforcement learning environments capable of sustained long runs. When Seed 2.1 launched in June, it already highlighted coding, but ByteDance clearly deemed it inadequate. This time, Doubao 2.2 will delay its launch to first refine its coding capabilities to a more robust standard.

12 minutes ago

HyperLabs redeems 433,000 HYPE tokens worth about $36.14 million.

According to YuEjin Monitoring, the address of HyperLabs, the development team behind Hyperliquid, applied to redeem 433,000 HYPE tokens from staking 10 minutes ago, valued at roughly $36.14 million. The HYPE will fully exit staking in 7 days (September 6). Based on prior records, these tokens will be transferred to centralized exchanges via market maker Flowdesk post-staking exit.

12 minutes ago

Li Yihua: I hope everyone focuses on industry innovation and opportunities; a new bull market is about to start, and on-chain finance has opened up enormous potential.

Yilihua, founder of Liquid Capital, said: "Over the past decade in the crypto industry, it has been like a small world with its own social dynamics and cutthroat competition. Perhaps because it is too close to money or lacks clear rules, the sector is now dominated by negative voices and its reputation is worsening. I sincerely hope everyone refocuses on the industry’s innovations and opportunities. A new bull market is approaching; on-chain finance—especially tokenized stocks—has huge potential, and there are many meaningful projects and wealth-generating opportunities ahead. Moreover, the entire crypto industry is still in its early stages, and there is also the AI sector, which is dozens of times larger than crypto, worth exploring."

12 minutes ago

Uniswap trading volume surges on Robinhood, UNI price breaks above $5.2

According to HTX market data, UNI has broken through $5.24, with its 24-hour gain expanding to 18.9%. The primary catalyst driving UNI’s recent rally is the surge in real trading volume on Robinhood Chain, which has positioned Uniswap as the leading decentralized exchange (DEX) for tokenized stock RWAs on Robinhood. The daily trading volume of tokenized stocks on the chain once reached around $130 million, a nearly 10x increase in one month. Additionally, since Uniswap’s v4 version fee switch launched on Robinhood on July 27, the chain has become a major contributor to Uniswap’s fee revenue. Currently, Robinhood’s 24-hour protocol fees total approximately $11.29 million, with Uniswap and issuance platform Pons each contributing around $4.3 million, making Uniswap the top protocol by fee contribution. Per the v4 fee switch rules, this level of Uniswap protocol fees will fuel ongoing UNI token burns of $200,000 to $300,000 daily, equivalent to about 57,000 UNI tokens burned per day at current prices.

12 minutes ago

@circle has activated Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol V2 (CCTP V2) on Aptos, upgrading the burn-and-mint standard that moves native $USDC between blockchains. The deployment, confirmed on Wednesday by @AptosLabs, replaces the V1 integration that was already live on the $APT network and brings Aptos in line with the broader V2 rollout across more than a dozen chains.

What CCTP V2 adds to Aptos The upgrade delivers two headline capabilities. Alongside that, Practical use cases include

The Aptos deployment retains the same developer surface as other V2 chains and includes relay support, targeting treasury management, liquidity movement, and trading applications.

Context: V1 phase-out and wider rollout The Aptos activation marks a step toward completing that expansion.

The Aptos integration expands the network's access to that infrastructure as Circle pushes V2 toward becoming the sole standard for native USDC movement across supported chains.

Sources:
Circle: Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol overview
Circle: CCTP V1 deprecation and V2 canonical designation
CoinDesk: Circle upgrades Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol

Independent OpenZeppelin review of TxFlow’s bridge contract marks another step in TxFlow’s approach to security as its L1, DEX, and builder ecosystem continue to develop.

TxFlow announces the completion of an independent security audit by OpenZeppelin, one of the world’s most established blockchain security firms, trusted by major organizations and protocols including Coinbase, the Ethereum Foundation, Uniswap, Aave, Arbitrum, ZKsync, Compound, and others.

OpenZeppelin’s review covered TxFlow’s bridge contract, a critical component of the infrastructure supporting the movement of capital between external networks and TxFlow L1. OpenZeppelin’s review identified zero critical and zero high-severity findings. One medium-severity finding was identified and resolved during the audit process.

The independent review forms part of TxFlow’s broader approach to incorporating external security expertise as its financial infrastructure and ecosystem continue to develop. Alongside TxFlow DEX and continued L1 development, TxFlow is also building Builder Code, with additional details to be announced as both initiatives move closer to release. Together, these developments support TxFlow’s broader objective: to build a Layer 1 designed specifically for financial markets, bringing trading, liquidity, and financial applications onto one blockchain where all finance happens.

Security at TxFlow L1 is a continuous responsibility: An Independent Review by OpenZeppelin As part of this commitment, we work with leading independent security experts to rigorously assess our infrastructure. In 2026, OpenZeppelin completed a security audit of Bridge2, the USDC bridge connecting Arbitrum One to TxFlow L1. TxFlow aims to continue to strengthen its security architecture, monitoring, and operational safeguards as the network evolves. The audit report provides the technical scope, findings, and assessment from OpenZeppelin and is available for the community to review directly.

TxFlow’s broader bridge infrastructure supports deposits and withdrawals across Arbitrum One, Ethereum, Base, Polygon PoS, and Solana. TxFlow’s documented bridge flow includes controls around the movement of funds, including validator-approved withdrawals and a built-in safety wait before withdrawals are completed.

These controls form part of TxFlow’s approach to protecting one of the most important functions of financial infrastructure: the movement of capital between networks.

Global-Grade Security from the Ground Up TxFlow is building its security program with the standards expected of serious financial infrastructure in mind. To support that approach, TxFlow engaged OpenZeppelin, one of the world’s most established blockchain security firms. OpenZeppelin has completed more than 900 security audits, identifying more than 10,000 issues, including 700+ critical and high-severity vulnerabilities, across blockchain protocols and financial infrastructure.

Its security work spans major crypto organizations and ecosystems including Coinbase, the Ethereum Foundation, Uniswap, Aave, Arbitrum, ZKsync, Optimism, and Compound, as well as established financial institutions and infrastructure providers including DTCC, Fidelity Digital Assets, WisdomTree, ANZ, and CACEIS.

For TxFlow, working with globally recognized security specialists at an early stage establishes a clear approach: independently review critical infrastructure as the network and ecosystem grow. Security is not an add-on to financial infrastructure. It is part of the infrastructure itself.

Building Infrastructure for On-chain Finance TxFlow L1 is designed specifically for financial markets and applications.

TxFlow DEX, a fully on-chain central limit order book for perpetual markets, is the first application built on TxFlow L1. The DEX is the first product operating on a broader infrastructure layer. TxFlow L1 is designed to support multiple financial applications and markets on the same network, including perpetuals, spot markets, prediction markets, and new categories of on-chain financial products. Through TxFlow Improvement Protocol (TIP) Liquidity Standards, Channels can connect to common execution, settlement, and liquidity infrastructure rather than operating as isolated applications.

For traders, that means infrastructure designed around markets from the start.

For builders, it creates a foundation for developing new financial applications on a network designed for trading, liquidity, and settlement.

What’s Next: Builder Code Alongside continued development of TxFlow L1 and TxFlow DEX, the team is building two new ecosystem initiatives: TxFlow Builder Code.

Builder Code is being developed to expand how builders and ecosystem participants can contribute to and grow alongside the network. For the TxFlow community, these initiatives represent the next stage of ecosystem growth: more ways for traders to participate, more ways for builders to contribute, and more activity across the TxFlow network.

About TxFlow L1 TxFlow L1 is a high-performance blockchain built for on-chain financial infrastructure, organized around TIP Liquidity Standards that define how financial products are built, composed, and settled on-chain. TxFlow DEX is the first Channel on TxFlow L1, a CLOB orderbook DEX for perpetual trading, processing over 250,000 TPS with one-block finality. Through its TxFlow Improvement Protocol standards and Channel architecture, TxFlow enables spot markets, derivatives, prediction markets and future financial products to operate on the same chain while connecting to shared execution and settlement infrastructure where all finance happens. TxFlow L1 is building an open, composable and community-owned financial ecosystem in which each new application can strengthen the infrastructure available to those that follow.

About OpenZeppelin OpenZeppelin is a leading security partner for on-chain finance, trusted by organizations including DTCC, Fidelity Digital Assets, WisdomTree, Coinbase, Uniswap, Aave, and the Ethereum Foundation. Since 2015, OpenZeppelin has secured more than $35 trillion in value transferred and delivered 900+ security engagements, surfacing more than 10,000 vulnerabilities across critical on-chain infrastructure. Its open-source smart contract libraries are an industry standard used across leading stablecoins, tokenized assets, and blockchain applications.

Learn more about TxFlow:

txflow.com

We’re excited to announce that USDC, EURC, CCTP, and Bridge Kit are now available on Plasma.

Plasma is an EVM-compatible, Layer-1 (L1) blockchain built for high-throughput stablecoin applications including payments, settlement, remittances, and other use cases. Supporting payment and partner infrastructure in over 100 countries with over 100 currencies, these integrations bring Circle’s trusted and interoperable multi-currency onchain infrastructure to Plasma’s large and established stablecoin-focused ecosystem.

With the launch of USDC and EURC along with CCTP support, Plasma gains access to some of the leading dollar and euro stablecoins. This unlocks MiCA compliant dollar- and euro-denominated payments, settlement, DeFi trading, FX, treasury management, and more on a blockchain designed for global transaction efficiency.

Benefits of USDC and EURC on Plasma:

Regulated1, fully reserved stablecoins redeemable 1:1 for USD2 and EUR,2 respectivelyIntegrate easily with Plasma payment and DeFi appsMigrate money flows to trusted, unified, and issuer-backed stablecoin infrastructureWith CCTP, eligible institutional traders and teams will be able to:

Access institutional-grade fiat on/offramps for USDC payments and settlementEnable full deposit, withdraw, and API access for USDC on PlasmaTransfer USDC from one supported blockchain (e.g., Ethereum) to another (e.g., Plasma)Integrate crosschain transfers in around 10 lines of code with Bridge KitKey use cases for USDC and EURC on PlasmaUSDC and EURC will enable a regulated1 dollar- and euro-denominated payment ecosystem on Plasma. With issuer-backed stablecoin infrastructure, MiCA compliance, and 1:1 redeemability for dollars and euros respectively, USDC and EURC can support payments, settlement, remittances, trading, and more on a chain purpose-built for stablecoin usage. Establishing deep liquidity for both EUR/EURC and USD/USDC trading pairs can support stablecoin flows at the volumes institutions and enterprises need. Through CCTP, USDC on Plasma will become interoperable with other supported blockchains, enabling users and developers to move USDC securely across ecosystems without relying on wrapped assets.

Together, USDC, EURC, CCTP, and Bridge Kit will give businesses and developers on Plasma access to trustworthy, multi-currency fiat rails for institutional-grade payments, B2B settlement, trading, FX, treasury, and other compliant stablecoin flows. While USDC is widely used around the world, euro-denominated EURC is well suited for onchain activity within the EU, where 1:1 euro redeemability and MiCA compliance are often required to enable compliant capital movement.

Starting today, users can access USDC through Plasma One, Plasma’s stablecoin app and card for sending and spending digital dollars. Developers can also integrate USDC and EURC across Plasma apps.

‍

USDC on Plasma, issued by Circle1

Token Name: USDC

Token Symbol: USDC

Mainnet Address: 0x2d661C89D812261039AF9764eceaAee884f5F67F

Testnet Address: 0xe67fb267022cba8064dd388cc2fed724f3120d9d

‍

EURC on Plasma, issued by Circle1

Token Name: EURC

Token Symbol: EURC

Mainnet Address: 0x3ee196e78d4d4248b849b8e1c7f44c5457fafd2c

Testnet Address: 0x98afa0f93dd993b736399f9074edcebd1985a330

Get started todayBusinesses can access institutional on/offramps to convert to Circle stablecoins on Plasma by applying for a Circle Mint3 account. Individuals and smaller institutions can access USDC and EURC through various exchanges, wallets, and providers. Visit circle.com/eurc and circle.com/usdc to learn more.

Get started today with our developer docs for USDC, EURC, CCTP, Bridge Kit, and Circle Mint. USDC and EURC are open-source, permissionless stablecoin infrastructure that anyone can build with.

‍

1 USDC is issued by regulated affiliates of Circle. EURC is issued by Circle Internet Financial Europe SAS. A list of Circle’s regulatory authorizations can be found here.

2 Circle Mint customers are able to redeem USDC and EURC directly from Circle. In addition, Circle will redeem all USDC and EURC presented to it for redemption in compliance with MiCAR, regardless of whether the holder is a Circle Mint customer. Circle Mint is currently available only to institutions and is not available to individuals.

3 Circle Mint and money transmission services are provided by Circle Internet Financial, LLC, NMLS # 1201441, and Circle Internet Financial Europe SAS, Electronic Money Institution License No. 17788, when provided in France.

Bernstein reiterated its $140 price target on Circle (NYSE:CRCL) Monday, saying the stablecoin giant’s growth cycle continues with or without the CLARITY Act.

Why Bernstein Says Circle Doesn’t Need the Clarity ActBernstein analysts led by Gautam Chhugani wrote in a note to clients cited by The Block that Circle’s growth cycle is independent of CLARITY Act passage. 

A macro regime shift favoring hard assets and stablecoins, growing stablecoin payment adoption, real-world blockchain capital markets, and agentic AI payments settling in USDC are all moving forward regardless of what happens on September 15.

USDC (CRYPTO: USDC) supply added $1.7 billion last week after six months of flat growth, Circle controls roughly 80% of decentralized exchange volumes, and its Agent Stack platform already hosts more than 900 paid services with 99% of agent-payment volume settling in USDC.

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Meanwhile, adjusted stablecoin transaction volume hit $11 trillion in 2025 and is tracking at an annualized $17 trillion through July, up 60% year-over-year. 

If the Clarity Act fails, Bernstein expects the SEC and CFTC to step in directly, which it views as an equally positive outcome for the industry.

What Cathie Wood Said About CircleARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood posted on X that despite CRCL appreciating 84% since its IPO, the one-year chart illustrates the inefficiency of public equity markets in the short term.

She argued that financial services analysts who built their track records on Visa (NYSE:V) and Mastercard (NYSE:MA) cannot properly value Circle as a disrupter of their business model.

As Benzinga reported, Circle posted a swing to profit in Q2 with transaction revenue doubling, USDC processed $849 billion in July volume representing 62% of the entire stablecoin market, and the company secured a federal trust bank charter, shifting it well beyond a pure interest rate play.

CRCL Price AnalysisCRCL is up 2% Monday, extending a sharp reversal off the $59.47 support that held through three tests in July and August. 

Moreover, Circle stock price has broken above the descending trendline from the May highs and cleared the 100-day EMA at $81.06, with the 200-day EMA at $95.68 as the next meaningful target.

Key levels for CRCL:

$96 — Resistance  $88 — Support Photo via Shutterstock

Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

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Bernstein sees new USDC growth cycle, sets $140 Circle price targetLatest NewsPublishedAug 24, 2026

USDC supply increased by roughly $2 billion in seven days, with Bernstein citing higher transaction activity and several factors that could support further growth.

Analysts at Bernstein are bullish on stablecoin issuer Circle, arguing that a new growth cycle for its USDC stablecoin could provide a significant boost for the company over the next 12 months.

In a research note published Monday, Bernstein said USDC (USDC) is showing signs of what it called “digital dollar reflation” after its supply increased by roughly $2 billion in seven days, reversing a six-month stretch of stagnant or declining growth. The firm maintained an Outperform rating on Circle (CRCL) and a $140 price target, implying roughly 60% upside from current levels. Circle shares have risen roughly 40% over the past month.

Bernstein said the next phase of stablecoin growth could be driven by several factors, including renewed momentum in crypto markets, greater regulatory clarity in the United States, tokenized capital markets and growing adoption of stablecoins for payments. The analysts also pointed to early signs of stablecoin use in payments made by artificial intelligence agents.

Although USDC remains the second-largest dollar-backed stablecoin by market capitalization, well behind Tether’s USDt (USDT), it has gained significant ground in transaction activity. Bernstein said USDC’s share of adjusted stablecoin transaction volume rose from roughly 40% in 2025 to more than 60% so far in 2026, overtaking USDt by that measure.

Stablecoin transaction volume has grown significantly this year. Source: Bernstein

Circle’s volatile path since its IPOCircle shares have experienced significant swings since the company went public in June 2025. The stablecoin issuer priced its shares at $31 and raised roughly $1.1 billion in its initial public offering. After surging in the months following its debut, the stock had fallen back toward its IPO price by November 2025 as a broader crypto market downturn weighed on publicly traded companies with exposure to the sector.

In its most recent quarter, Circle reported $701 million in revenue and $48 million in net income, both up from a year earlier.

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

暗号資産（仮想通貨）のエックス・アール・ピー（XRP）の価格が大幅に上昇している。CoinMarketCap（コインマーケットキャップ）によると、XRPの時価総額ランキングはBNBを抜き4位となった。（8月25日10時時点）

同時点でXRPの時価総額は945億ドル（約15兆円）、BNBの時価総額は944億ドル（約14.98兆円）となっている。その後は両銘柄の順位が再び入れ替わるなど、XRPとBNBの時価総額は接近している。

CoinMarketCapのデータによると、XRPは過去7日間で約48％上昇し、価格は1.5ドル付近で推移している（8月25日10時時点）。

＜XRPの過去1カ月の価格推移｜CoinMarketCap＞ XRPをめぐっては、Ripple（リップル）が8月18日、韓国のJeonbuk Bank（チョンブク・バンク）との提携を発表した。同行は韓国の地方銀行として初めてRipple Payments（リップル・ペイメンツ）を導入し、企業向けのクロスボーダー送金に活用するという。

また同日、リップルは、Ripple Prime（リップル・プライム）が2億7500万ドル規模のシニア無担保債の私募を完了したと発表した。調達資金は米国事業の運転資金や一般的な事業目的に充てるとしている。

関連記事：Ripple Prime、米プライムブローカレッジ事業で2億7500万ドルの資金調達を完了──XRPは24時間で3本の移動平均線を上抜け【価格分析】

さらに20日には、リップル、Cicada Partners（シケイダ・パートナーズ）、Clearpool（クリアプール）の3社が、企業向け融資をブロックチェーン上で実行する機関投資家向け信用市場をXRP Ledger（XRPL）上に構築すると発表した。

関連記事：リップル、企業融資をブロックチェーン上で実行へ──RLUSD活用

｜文：平木 昌宏
｜トップ画像：Adobe Stock
｜画像：CoinMarketCapより（キャプチャ）

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A single dollar stablecoin like $USDC does not actually exist as one thing. For large financial institutions operating across multiple chains, that means managing seven balances where one would suffice.

The problem is structural. A Bank for International Settlements working paper noted that

One Asset, One Pool

The core mechanism is what @quantnetwork calls a unified asset model.

A Layer 2.5 Built for Institutions Quant describes the architecture as a Layer 2.5, because unlike a conventional Layer 2,

Sources:
Quant Network: A new category of infrastructure, the Fusion Rollup is live on mainnet
CoinTrust: Quant Launches Fusion Rollup Mainnet Across 74 Blockchains
Disruption Banking: Quant's Fusion Rollup Goes Live, Unifying 74 Blockchains for Institutions

Key Highlights Monthly crypto card payments reached $1.04 billion in July, representing a three-fold increase from the previous year Stablecoins USDC and USDT combined to power more than 70% of over 10 million monitored payments Mean transaction value climbed to $86, marking a 46% jump from $59 recorded one year prior Three platforms—RedotPay, EtherFi, and KAST—captured approximately 77% of total tracked payment volume Latin American markets show robust growth, with food and grocery purchases leading spending patterns Digital currency payment cards surpassed the $1 billion monthly threshold in July, marking a significant milestone as stablecoins increasingly power everyday consumer purchases. According to Paymentscan data highlighted by venture firm a16z, transaction volume reached $1.04 billion, representing substantial growth from the previous year’s figures.

JUST IN: Crypto card spending hits $1B in July 2026, with stablecoins powering 70%+ of everyday buys​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​. pic.twitter.com/CTi14kBOUF

— Whale Insider (@WhaleInsider) August 23, 2026

U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins dominated transaction flow throughout the period. USDC captured 50.8% of July’s total volume, with USDT contributing an additional 20.3%. Combined, these two digital assets backed more than seven out of every ten transactions among the 10 million-plus payments tracked during the month.

Payment sizes expanded notably as well. The typical transaction averaged approximately $86 in July, representing a significant increase from the $59 average recorded twelve months earlier. For context, monthly payment volume stood at $306 million in July 2025, based on the same dataset.

Platform concentration remains a defining characteristic of this emerging market. RedotPay processed $395.1 million of July’s total activity. EtherFi recorded $100.3 million in volume, while KAST contributed $89.6 million. These three providers collectively represented approximately 77% of all monitored spending.

Major payment networks are expanding their stablecoin infrastructure. Visa announced in June that it had over 160 stablecoin-connected card programs either operational or under development across global markets. StraitsX, operating as a Visa partner, reported that transaction volume on its card platform increased 40 times between Q4 2024 and Q4 2025.

Daily Purchases Lead Transaction Growth Purchase categories reveal a distinct move toward regular consumer spending. Binance disclosed that its Brazilian card user base expanded 53% from program launch through Q2 2026, while transaction volume surged 80%. Leading purchase categories included transportation services, meal delivery, supermarkets, dining establishments, and digital subscription services.

Kraken shared that its Krak Card experienced weekly transaction frequency that more than doubled year-over-year to 8.3 payments per cardholder. Retail and brick-and-mortar store purchases represented 59.3% of card spending activity.

Oobit disclosed that engaged Brazilian cardholders averaged approximately $400 in spending across 20 separate transactions monthly. Supermarket purchases accounted for 35% of regional transaction activity. In Argentina, food-related spending comprised 41% of all transactions, with USDT facilitating 72% of payments.

Emerging Markets Show Accelerated Adoption StraitsX documented that gross transaction value increased approximately 600% in lower-GDP territories between March 2025 and February 2026. Meanwhile, higher-GDP markets experienced 150% growth during the identical timeframe. Food and retail categories dominated spending across both market segments.

Coinbase indicated that roughly 16% of aggregate card transaction volume utilized USDC. Active subscribers to Coinbase One averaged approximately $3,000 in monthly spending across USDC, alternative cryptocurrencies, and traditional bank transfers. The platform currently holds $20 billion in USDC across its various products, reflecting 44% growth over the past year.

RedotPay announced its user base expanded by more than 33% across a six-month period, surpassing 8 million registered customers. The euro-denominated EURe stablecoin, which previously represented 88% of monitored card spending in early 2024, declined to under 2% of total volume by July.

The underlying mechanism of crypto cards involves real-time conversion of stablecoin balances during checkout, ensuring merchants receive payment in their local fiat currency. This approach positions stablecoins as funding sources for established card networks rather than competing alternatives.

Some credentials first, because they explain why this launch matters.THORWallet was one of the first crypto wallets to execute native BTC-to-ETH swaps, and continued breaking new ground with XRP-to-BTC and other pairs that were previously considered impossible without a centralized exchange. Since 2021, more than $2.5 billion has been swapped natively through the app across 20,000+ tokens, with more cross-chain routes than any wallet in the space. Along the way: winner of the Startup World Cup, Top 10 Fintech Switzerland, recognised by the CoinMarketCap Incubator and the Cointelegraph Accelerator, and a 4.7-star App Store rating from over 3,000 reviews.

In other words: holding and swapping without middlemen is a solved problem. Spending was not.

The last meter was always broken
For five years, crypto has had a humiliating final step. You could hold your coins in self-custody, swap them across chains without anyone’s permission – and then, the moment you wanted to actually buy something, you had to send them to an exchange, hand over your keys, wait, and hope nothing got frozen along the way. The industry built self-custody for saving and quietly surrendered it for spending.

Every “crypto card” until now asked for the same trade: convenience in exchange for custody. That is not crypto with extra steps. That is a bank with extra steps.

Today, that detour is gone.

The loop is closed

The THORWallet Card is live – and it completes the journey your assets have been waiting for.

Here is the whole flow, end to end: take any asset on any chain – BTC, ETH, SOL, whatever you hold – and swap it natively to USDC inside your wallet. No bridge. No wrapped token. No exchange. No middleman who can censor or freeze the trade. Then top up your card, with a 0% top-up fee, and tap it at any Mastercard terminal on the planet.

BTC on Sunday night becomes coffee on Monday morning. And your funds stay in self-custody until the exact second you choose to spend them.

Two tiers. No subscriptions. 
Basic is for getting started – and it is free with an invite code (otherwise a $5 one-off). You get a virtual Mastercard with a $125,000 monthly limit, 0% top-up fees, 24/7 chat support, and Apple Pay and Google Pay from day one. From download to first tap takes about five minutes.

Premium launches shortly, for people who spend: $99 one-off with an invite code (otherwise $124), no subscription, ever. It adds a physical card alongside the virtual one, 0.5% USDC cashback on your spending, priority support, and monthly limits raised to unlimited on request.

That is the entire price list. One payment, then the card is yours. No monthly fee quietly eating your balance, no “premium plan” renewing while you sleep.

A major upgrade to your card experience
If you are already part of our existing card community, your current card remains active and unchanged. However, THORWallet has rebuilt this new program to be a significant upgrade for its users:

More Affordable: THORWallet has optimized the cost structure to be cheaper for the end user.
Expanded Reach: Availability has grown to over 175 countries, so you can spend your crypto in more places than ever.
Faster, Flexible KYC: verification process has been streamlined significantly. Users can now enjoy faster approval times and more options for identification, accepting more than just passports to get you onboarded quickly.

Available in +172 countries. Very likely including yours.
The card is available in 172 countries, including the United States -. And once it is in your hands, you can spend anywhere Mastercard is accepted. That reach is deliberate. The people who need this most are not sitting in one or two rich markets: they are freelancers invoicing across borders, digital nomads between time zones, and users in regions the established players never bothered to serve. If Mastercard is accepted where you are standing, your crypto now works there too. And the app travels just as well: THORWallet is translated into many languages, so chances are it already speaks yours. The full country list is on our website.

Something you use, not something you stare at
The team has spent five years making sure nobody stands between you and your assets. The card extends that promise to the checkout counter: swap anything, hold it yourself, spend it anywhere.

Crypto was never meant to be a number you watch on a screen. Starting today, it is the money in your pocket.

Download THORWallet, grab an invite code, and your free card is about five minutes away: thorwallet.org

U.S. Treasury: Sanctions Imposed on Nearly 60 Iran-Related Entities, Individuals and Vessels

U.S. Treasury Department: Sanctions nearly 60 Iran-related entities, individuals, and vessels, covering nuclear, missile, cyber, and oil networks. The action imposes potential secondary sanctions on five sectors—including digital assets, technology, gold, aviation, and shipping—and suspends general licenses for certain remittances to Iran.

16 minutes ago

Multicoin Capital-associated address transferred 1,061,100 HYPE tokens to Coinbase.

According to monitoring by OnchainLens, a wallet linked to Multicoin Capital transferred 1,061,100 HYPE tokens (valued at around $8.41 million) to Coinbase Prime minutes ago, potentially indicating an imminent sell-off.

16 minutes ago

ZEC hits an approximately 8-year high, briefly touching $888; the NU7 network upgrade snapshot is imminent.

According to HTX market data, ZEC hit an approximately 8-year high today, touching its highest price since 2018 at $888 with a weekly gain of over 70%. It is currently holding steady near the $844 level. The Zcash community will launch an 18-day token holder vote starting on the 24th (Beijing time: early morning of the 25th) to determine the scope of the upcoming NU7 upgrade. The minimum voting participation threshold is 1 million ZEC. Voting rights are based on spendable, shielded ZEC held in the Ironwood pool at the snapshot time (estimated 19:00 UTC on the 24th, mainnet block height approx. 3,459,350). The vote opens August 25 and closes at 19:00 UTC on September 14. Votes are cast privately via supported wallets, including Zodl, Vizor, Zkool, and Keystone hardware wallets; only aggregated data will be released, with no individual voting details disclosed. The initiative aims to gather holders’ feedback on the upgrade scope for reference by the community and developers.

16 minutes ago

Whale’s short positions, which first set 10 major price targets, may see their unrealized losses expand to $6.88 million.

As Bitcoin rebounds to hit the $80,000 mark, the massive short positions in Bitcoin and Ethereum held by the whale codenamed "Set 10 Big Goals First" may return to loss if they retain their original positions. The open positions are as follows: - BTC short positions: 1,830.724 BTC, worth approximately $139 million, average entry price $76,397.56 - ETH short positions: 12,756.739 ETH, worth approximately $30.25 million, average entry price $2,371.57 Based on current BTC price of $79,300 and ETH price of $2,499, the total unrealized loss on the whale's address could reach $6.88 million. The whale has previously resumed live trading on Binance but is currently in an invisible status, making it impossible to confirm whether the trader has closed positions to stop loss.

16 minutes ago

Scott Bessent plans to take aggressive measures to push the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield to 5%.

According to Fox Business News, Wall Street executives stated that U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is preparing to take aggressive measures to push the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield to around 5%. The Trump administration is not expected to pursue fiscal austerity policies, but instead aims to reduce debt via tax increases. Earlier reports noted that Bessent is eyeing the trillion-dollar "emergency fund pool" to cover U.S. Treasury obligations, leveraging the powerful tool of the Treasury General Account (TGA) to influence long-term bond yields.

16 minutes ago

Coinbase will list spot trading for BASECAT and DRB.

Coinbase to Launch Spot Trading for Basecat (BASECAT) and DebtReliefBot (DRB). If liquidity conditions are met and trading is supported in relevant regions, the BASECAT-USD and DRB-USD trading pairs will open today.

16 minutes ago

Monthly crypto card payments surpassed $1 billion for the first time in July, fueled by growing use of stablecoins such as USDC and USDT in everyday purchases. According to Paymentscan and venture capital firm a16z, transaction volume reached $1.04 billion, marking a significant increase compared to the same period last year.

Stablecoins drive bulk of spendingStablecoins pegged to the US dollar accounted for the majority of transaction flow throughout July. USDC was responsible for 50.8% of total volume, while USDT contributed a further 20.3%. Together, they supported over 70% of more than 10 million tracked payments during the month.

The mean transaction value also climbed sharply, with the average payment reaching $86 in July, up from $59 one year earlier. Twelve months prior, total monthly payment volume stood at $306 million, demonstrating rapid growth in stablecoin-fueled activity.

Platform concentration remains notable, with RedotPay handling $395.1 million of July’s total volume. EtherFi reported $100.3 million and KAST processed $89.6 million, meaning these three firms combined captured about 77% of tracked payment activity.

Major payment networks are actively expanding their stablecoin infrastructure. Visa disclosed in June that it has more than 160 card programs connected to stablecoins, either live or under development globally. Singapore-based StraitsX, which partners with Visa, reported a fortyfold increase in transaction volume on its card platform between Q4 2024 and Q4 2025.

Mini dictionary: StraitsX is a Singapore-based payment infrastructure provider that enables users and businesses to access stablecoin-based payment solutions and operates the XSGD and XUSD stablecoins.

PlatformJuly VolumeMarket ShareRedotPay$395.1 million38%EtherFi$100.3 million10%KAST$89.6 million9%Other$455 million43%Consumer spending categories shiftPayment data reflected a shift toward daily, retail-focused transactions. Binance reported a 53% increase in its Brazilian card user base from launch through Q2 2026, with transaction volume up 80%. Brazilians primarily used crypto cards for transportation, meal deliveries, grocery shopping, dining, and subscription services.

Kraken revealed that its Krak Card users averaged 8.3 payments per cardholder each week, more than double the figure from the prior year. Card usage at retail and physical stores comprised 59.3% of all Krak Card spending.

Mini dictionary: Krak Card is a debit card product offered by Kraken, a major global cryptocurrency exchange, enabling users to spend digital assets as fiat currency at merchants worldwide.

Oobit, another payment fintech, stated that Brazilian cardholders spent an average of $400 per month across 20 separate transactions, with supermarket purchases representing 35% of regional volume. In Argentina, food-related expenses accounted for 41% of all card payments, and USDT was used for 72% of transactions.

Strong adoption in emerging marketsStraitsX data highlighted especially robust growth in lower-GDP countries, where gross transaction value rose around 600% from March 2025 to February 2026. By contrast, higher-GDP markets experienced growth of 150% over the same period. Food and retail remained top spending categories in both segments.

Coinbase reported that 16% of its total card transactions used USDC. Subscribers to Coinbase One, a service targeting frequent traders, averaged $3,000 in monthly payments across stablecoins, other digital assets, and traditional bank transfers. Coinbase also holds $20 billion in USDC balances, marking a 44% increase year-over-year.

RedotPay announced that its user count grew more than 33% in six months, reaching over 8 million registered accounts. Meanwhile, use of the EURe, a euro-backed stablecoin, declined from 88% of observed card spending in early 2024 to below 2% in July.

Crypto cards work by automatically converting stably held cryptocurrencies to local currency at the point of sale, allowing merchants to receive fiat funds instantly. This real-time conversion process means stablecoins now serve as funding mechanisms for existing payment networks rather than acting as standalone competitors.

Visa is actively building stablecoin payment infrastructure, supporting more than 160 card programs worldwide and collaborating with partners like StraitsX as digital assets increasingly drive consumer transactions.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.

Bernstein has maintained an Outperform rating and $140 price target on Circle Internet Group, implying about 59% upside after CRCL closed Friday at $87.98, as the brokerage expects USDC adoption to support the company even without passage of the CLARITY Act.

Summary

Bernstein maintained its Outperform rating and $140 Circle price target, implying about 59% upside from Friday’s close. USDC supply increased by about $1.7 billion over the past week after nearly six months of largely flat growth. Adjusted stablecoin transaction volume is tracking at a $17 trillion annualized rate through July, according to Bernstein. Bernstein said Circle’s growth cycle can continue even if the CLARITY Act does not pass in September. Circle said more than 900 paid services use Agent Stack, with 99.3% of x402 agent payment volume settling in USDC. Bernstein analysts led by Gautam Chhugani said in an Aug. 24 note that Circle’s next growth cycle does not depend on Congress passing the U.S. crypto market structure bill during the September session.

Circle shares gained more than 5% on Aug. 21 before closing at $87.98, according to Yahoo Finance data. The $140 target would put the stock about 59% above Friday’s closing price, although it remains below Bernstein’s previous $190 target from earlier this year.

Chhugani’s team tied its outlook to several sources of demand, including stablecoin payments, blockchain-based capital markets, tokenized assets and payments made by autonomous software agents.

The analysts also pointed to changes in global liquidity conditions. Bernstein said Bitcoin has benefited from demand for scarce assets while stablecoins have become another destination for dollars as the U.S. Treasury issues more short-term government debt.

USDC supply has started expanding again After spending almost six months largely flat, USDC supply increased by about $1.7 billion during the past week, according to Bernstein.

The brokerage said USDC has become an important collateral asset across decentralized finance, tokenized equities, prediction markets and perpetual futures tied to real-world assets. Bernstein estimated that Circle’s stablecoin accounts for about 80% of decentralized exchange trading and finance volumes.

Stablecoin activity outside speculative trading is also expanding, according to the firm. Adjusted transaction volume, which Bernstein said excludes bots and high-frequency activity, reached about $11 trillion during 2025 and was running at an annualized pace of roughly $17 trillion through July 2026.

That pace represented an increase of about 60% from a year earlier, according to the brokerage.

Circle has also been expanding the institutional infrastructure through which businesses can use USDC. In July, crypto.news reported Circle received approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish Circle National Trust, a federally supervised national trust bank.

The approval allows the institution to provide digital asset custody services and could eventually place management of reserves backing USDC within the federally regulated entity, according to Circle.

Institutional access has expanded through banks and digital asset infrastructure providers as well. Circle said during its second-quarter results that Standard Chartered had introduced direct USDC minting and redemption access for institutional customers.

A separate July integration also brought USDC settlement through Fireblocks, allowing institutions to manage USDC balances across supported blockchains and route payments into local fiat currencies through Circle Payments Network.

Fireblocks said stablecoins accounted for 69% of transaction volume across its platform during the second quarter, while Circle said its Payments Network reached $14.7 billion in annualized transaction volume at the end of the quarter.

Circle sees agent payments as another USDC market Machine-to-machine payments form another part of Bernstein’s Circle thesis, with the analysts pointing to USDC’s early lead in payments made through the x402 protocol.

Circle launched Agent Stack in May as infrastructure that allows software agents to hold assets, discover services and make programmable payments.

By the second quarter, Circle said the platform had more than 900 paid services, while 99.3% of x402 agent-payment volume was settling in USDC.

Independent data has also shown heavy USDC use in the category. A Keyrock report covered in May found that AI agents had settled $73 million across 176 million transactions over 12 months, with USDC handling 98.6% of those payments.

Circle has built Agent Wallets, an agent marketplace and nanopayment tools around the same use case. The company said Agent Stack lets developers set spending limits, allowlists and other controls while permitting agents to make USDC transactions without requiring a human to approve each payment.

For Bernstein, adoption of such services could create another source of stablecoin transaction demand outside cryptocurrency trading.

CLARITY Act outcome does not change Bernstein’s Circle thesis Regulation remains one of the largest variables for Circle because U.S. lawmakers are still negotiating how stablecoin rewards and digital asset market structure should work.

Bernstein said the outcome of the CLARITY Act would not materially change its investment case.

“We believe, this growth cycle is independent of the Clarity Act passing in the September session,” the analysts wrote.

The brokerage said failure to secure Senate support during the expected Sept. 15 vote could prompt the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission to take a larger role in providing regulatory guidance.

“We believe, the SEC/CFTC intervention would accelerate if the Senate does not support Clarity in the Sept. 15 vote,” Bernstein said.

Stablecoin rewards remain one of the contested parts of the legislation. Under the scenario outlined by Bernstein, failure of the bill would leave third-party reward programs operating under the existing model.

If the legislation passes, the analysts expect rewards to become more closely tied to customer activity instead of payments simply for holding an idle stablecoin balance.

Bernstein views either structure as workable for USDC.

Its view has remained consistent even as the language around stablecoin incentives has changed. In May, Bernstein backed Circle’s regulatory position after lawmakers advanced language that restricted deposit-like yield on passive stablecoin balances.

At the time, the brokerage said such restrictions could prevent stablecoin issuers from competing mainly by paying higher returns to token holders, reducing pressure on Circle to enter what the analysts described as an interest-rate competition.

Banking groups have since pushed lawmakers to tighten the rules further. Several U.S. banking organizations urged Senate leaders in July to revise provisions dealing with stablecoin rewards, arguing that some structures could still function like interest-bearing accounts.

Circle faces competition as payment infrastructure expands Bernstein’s bullish call comes as Circle faces increased competition from other regulated stablecoin models.

Open USD has emerged as one challenge because its consortium structure distributes part of the reserve economics to participating companies, creating a different model from Circle’s approach of earning income from the assets backing USDC.

Mizuho downgraded Circle to Underperform in July and cut its target to $50, citing pressure that Open USD could place on Circle’s margins.

Circle President Heath Tarbert later defended the company’s position, arguing that USDC’s liquidity, existing integrations and regulatory infrastructure would be difficult for new competitors to reproduce quickly.

Circle has continued adding payment partners while competition develops. Its agreement with Japan’s JCB, announced in July, includes tests of USDC for corporate treasury transfers before possible use in merchant payments, while separate partnerships with Kakao and Toss are examining stablecoin settlement and programmable payments in South Korea.

USDC also entered BNY’s Digital Asset Custody platform in June, allowing institutional customers to mint, redeem, hold, and transfer the stablecoin through the bank.

Bernstein disclosed that Chhugani holds long positions in several cryptocurrencies and that the brokerage or its affiliates have maintained investment banking or other business relationships with Circle during the past 12 months.

When AI agents need to pay each other for data, API calls, and compute, they are apparently very opinionated about currency. USDC accounted for over 99.99% of all agentic transfer volume on Coinbase’s x402 protocol over the past 90 days, according to recent data. That is not a rounding quirk. It is a near-complete monopoly in one of the fastest-growing corners of digital payments.

The x402 protocol is Coinbase’s infrastructure layer designed specifically for autonomous software systems. Think of it as the plumbing that lets AI agents buy and sell services from each other without a human hitting “confirm” every time.

From zero to 160 million transactions in under a year In mid-2025, x402 had virtually no usage. By June 2026, cumulative transactions on the protocol had crossed 160 million, with more than 90% of those occurring on Base, Coinbase’s Layer 2 network.

In a single 30-day window around August 2026, the protocol processed between 14 million and 17.8 million transactions.

The individual transactions are tiny by design. Average transaction value on Base clocked in at roughly $0.13, according to Token Terminal data. These are not block trades or DeFi swaps. They are machine-to-machine micropayments: one agent paying another for a weather API lookup, a dataset query, or a model inference call.

An interesting shift is happening inside those small numbers, though. Transactions valued at $1 or more made up 95% of recent transfer values by count, up sharply from 49% in early 2025.

Why USDC and why now USDC was already deeply integrated into Base infrastructure before the agentic payment narrative took off. Speed and low transaction costs on supported chains made it the obvious default.

Circle leaned into this position aggressively. In May 2026, the company launched what it calls the Agent Stack, a suite of developer tools purpose-built for AI agent payments. The headline feature is gas-free nanopayments, enabling transactions as small as $0.000001.

The macro numbers back up the momentum. Circle reported that USDC’s on-chain transaction volume hit $14.8 trillion in Q2 2026, a 151% increase year-over-year.

Approximately 400,000 agents have been identified in prior assessments as active participants in x402 transactions.

What this means for stablecoin competition and crypto markets Tether’s USDT is the dominant stablecoin by market cap and overall volume. But USDT is essentially absent from this particular arena. The reasons likely involve integration timing, chain support, and the fact that Circle moved faster to build developer tooling specifically for agentic use cases.

Circle’s AWS partnership, which routes payments through USDC infrastructure, adds another layer of institutional weight to this picture.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Blockchain security company Salus stated that the theft of approximately $550,000 in USDC from a Hyperliquid user on August 13 was connected to a professional phishing operation using the Inferno Drainer ecosystem.

Fake website targeted victim fundsAccording to Salus, the attacker set up a counterfeit Hyperliquid site to trick the victim into authorizing a harmful transaction. Following the attack, the stolen assets were distributed to several addresses. Salus mapped the movement of funds, noting that 80% of the stolen amount was sent to one address, 15% to a second, and 5% to a third, while another address was used to complete the initial draining process.

The security team also traced the malicious service to a Telegram account named @AngelFernoOwner, which appeared to promote automated, revenue-sharing features for affiliates. Salus reported that this infrastructure has been linked to an estimated $52.74 million in losses affiliated with multiple high-profile phishing attacks.

Mini dictionary: Inferno Drainer, a phishing-as-a-service network, provides ready-made tools that facilitate automated wallet drains, enabling attackers to siphon cryptocurrencies from victims efficiently using impersonation tactics.

Google has suspended the account responsible for advertising the counterfeit Hyperliquid website. Despite this action, concerns remain regarding the speed at which such malicious advertisements can be detected and removed before affecting users.

Growing risk and operational sophisticationThe report highlighted that phishing operations using prebuilt draining services have made it easier for malicious actors to attack victims. Attackers are now able to focus primarily on luring victims, as the technical aspects of asset movement are managed by third-party tools.

For individuals, a legitimate website appearance in major search results no longer ensures safety, as sophisticated phishing can now bypass simple checks and deceive even cautious users.

Salus submitted evidence, wallet addresses considered high risk, and other intelligence to multiple organizations for risk labelling and potential coordinated responses.

Beyond the single Hyperliquid case, Salus has also linked the same phishing infrastructure to incidents involving UXLINK and CoW.fi. The company stated that targeting these broader service networks could disrupt a wider range of phishing operations, rather than simply removing individual fake sites.

IncidentLinked ServiceEstimated LossHyperliquid user attackInferno Drainer$550,000UXLINK phishing caseInferno DrainerNot specifiedCoW.fi phishing caseInferno DrainerNot specifiedTotal associated attacksInferno Drainer$52.74 millionCalls for increased vigilance and coordinated actionThe incident has prompted cybersecurity experts to call for greater vigilance from both platforms and individual users. Reviewing site authenticity or relying exclusively on outwardly legitimate search results may not be adequate in safeguarding against such targeted operations.

Salus emphasized that disabling the underlying infrastructure behind recurring phishing schemes could provide more effective protection than simply blocking individual sites as they appear.

Looking ahead, the case illustrates the shifting landscape of crypto security, where the emergence of phishing-as-a-service models makes proactive, industry-wide coordination even more critical.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.

Back in 1997, the architects of the internet reserved HTTP status code 402 for a future where payments could flow natively through the web. They labeled it “Payment Required” and then promptly shelved it for nearly three decades.

AI agents transferred 3.3 million USDC on Solana via the x402 protocol in just the past week. Over the last 90 days, that figure balloons to 5.1 million total transfers, according to Token Terminal metrics. The typical transaction clocks in at under $0.50, which tells you everything about the kind of economy being built here: not whale trades, but millions of tiny automated payments flowing between machines.

What x402 actually does Think of x402 as giving AI agents a credit card that works natively on the internet. When an AI agent makes an HTTP request to a server, the server can respond with a 402 status code containing payment details. The agent reads those details, settles the payment on-chain in USDC, and gets access to whatever resource it was requesting. No human intervention, no checkout flow, no payment processor taking days to settle.

Solana has emerged as the dominant settlement layer for this activity, processing roughly 70% of x402 transaction volume on a monthly basis. The network has handled over 35 million x402 transactions cumulatively. Its combination of sub-second finality and negligible transaction fees makes it a natural fit for micropayments that would be economically impractical on higher-fee chains.

The consortium behind x402 The x402 protocol is managed by the x402 Foundation, whose participant list includes Solana Foundation, Coinbase, Cloudflare, Stripe, and Visa. Coinbase originally designed the standard before transitioning stewardship to the foundation.

Ramp, the corporate spend management platform, integrated x402 into its services on August 20, 2026, for over 70,000 businesses. That integration allows enterprises to let AI agents autonomously fund and spend from USDC wallets on Solana.

Why micropayments matter this time AI agents don’t experience decision fatigue. They can evaluate whether paying $0.12 for a data feed is worth the value it generates and execute the transaction in milliseconds. This removes the single biggest obstacle that has historically strangled micropayment systems.

The 5.1 million transfers over 90 days on Solana alone suggest this isn’t theoretical anymore. Real agents are making real payments at a pace that would be physically impossible for human users. And the growth trajectory is steep: 3.3 million of those transfers happened in the most recent week, meaning weekly volume now represents roughly 65% of what took the previous three months to accumulate.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

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