Highlights of this episode

This week's statistics cover the period from February 20, 2026 to February 27, 2026.

This week, the total market capitalization of RWA on-chain steadily increased to $25.37 billion. Although the growth rate slowed down, the user base continued to expand. The total market capitalization of stablecoins ended its continuous contraction and stabilized at $297.75 billion. The number of monthly active addresses rebounded sharply by 14.2%, confirming that the market is emerging from the shadow of liquidity contraction and entering a phase of moderate expansion in volume and price and recovery of user activity.

On the regulatory front: The US OCC released a 376-page proposed rule for stablecoins, specifying redemption deadlines and prohibiting interest payments; the UK FCA selected four companies, including Revolut, to enter its regulatory sandbox to test stablecoin innovations; Hong Kong will issue its first batch of stablecoin issuer licenses in March and submit a draft digital asset policy ordinance within the year.

At the project level: BNP Paribas issued a tokenized money market fund on Ethereum; Binance and Kraken launched tokenized stock markets; Japan's SBI issued 10 billion yen in on-chain bonds and launched a trust-based yen stablecoin; WLFI, Cardone Capital, and the Dubai Real Estate Authority have all launched real estate tokenization; Meta is reportedly planning to return to the stablecoin field.

In terms of financing, RedotPay plans to raise more than $1 billion through an IPO in the US, while Rhythmic, a stablecoin underlying payment infrastructure, has completed a $4 million financing round.

Data Perspective

RWA Track Panorama

According to the latest data disclosed by RWA.xyz, as of February 27, 2026, the total market capitalization of RWA on the blockchain reached US$25.37 billion, an increase of 4.73% compared to the same period last month, with the growth rate slowing down significantly; the total number of asset holders was approximately 652,300, an increase of 4.35% compared to the same period last month, which was basically in line with the growth rate of asset size, and the user base steadily expanded.

Stablecoin Market

The total market capitalization of stablecoins stabilized at $297.75 billion, a slight increase of 0.03% month-on-month, ending a continuous contraction and indicating that the marginal pressure on liquidity pools has eased. Monthly transaction volume increased moderately to $10.05 trillion, up 1.25% month-on-month, and the turnover rate of existing funds (transaction volume/market capitalization) remained at 33.8 times, showing that the demand for large-value settlements remains resilient.

The total number of monthly active addresses increased to 54.95 million, a significant increase of 14.2% compared to the same period last month; the total number of holders steadily increased to 230 million, a 5.93% increase compared to the same period last month. These two factors combined confirm that retail investor participation is rapidly recovering from its previous low, and the market structure is becoming healthier.

Data shows that the market is currently emerging from the shadow of liquidity contraction and entering a recovery phase characterized by moderate expansion in volume and price and a rebound in user activity.

The leading stablecoins are USDT, USDC, and USDS. Among them, the market capitalization of USDT increased slightly by 0.15% month-on-month; the market capitalization of USDC increased by 0.03% month-on-month; and the market capitalization of USDS increased slightly by 0.14% month-on-month.

Regulatory news

Proposed rules from the US OCC for stablecoin regulation: Stablecoin redemptions will not exceed 2 business days, and if daily redemptions exceed 10% of the circulating supply, the redemption period can be extended to 7 days.

The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) recently released a 376-page proposed rule to implement the GENIUS Act's regulatory framework for the issuance and custody of payment stablecoins. The rule clarifies the definition of "payment stablecoin," the scope of applicable entities (including federal/state accredited issuers and foreign issuers), the 1:1 high-liquidity reserve asset requirement, daily liquidity and concentration constraints, and prohibits the payment (or disguised payment) of interest or returns to holders, including significant restrictions on rewards, which could impact Coinbase. The proposed rule requires payment stablecoins to complete redemptions within two business days under normal circumstances, automatically extending to seven calendar days if daily redemptions exceed 10% of the circulating supply. In contrast, USDC currently uses a near-T+0 redemption model (rapid redemption within business days) and does not have a similar "automatic extension" mechanism. The proposed rule also includes disclosure and auditing requirements, as well as OCC mechanisms for federal regulatory oversight and exemptions for state-accredited stablecoin issuers that reach the $10 billion issuance threshold.

The draft law refines the GENIUS Act's prohibition on stablecoin interest payments, focusing on restricting the indirect payment of returns to holders through third parties. The draft explicitly rejects two common circumvention methods, including the practice of issuer partners paying rewards to holders; for example, Paxos's PayPal stablecoin PYUSD, which involves PayPal paying rewards to users, was deemed non-compliant. At the same time, while prohibiting interest payments, the OCC retains some exceptions, such as merchants independently paying rewards to users and issuers paying revenue shares to white-label partners, and seeks market feedback on potential loopholes.

The UK's FCA has selected four companies, including Revolut, to enter its regulatory sandbox to test stablecoin innovation.

According to an official announcement from the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the FCA has selected four companies to enter its regulatory sandbox to test innovative stablecoin services in a real-world environment with robust security measures. The four selected companies are Monee Financial Technologies, ReStabilise, Revolut, and VVTX, which emerged from 20 applications. Testing will begin in the first quarter of 2026 and will focus on application scenarios including stablecoin issuance, payments, wholesale settlement, and crypto trading.

Matthew Long, FCA’s Director of Payments and Digital Assets, said the move aims to ensure the credibility of stablecoins in payments and settlements, and the test results will directly impact the UK’s final regulatory rules for stablecoins, which are set to be released later in 2026.

Local Observations

Paul Chan: The first batch of stablecoin issuer licenses will be issued in March, and a draft digital asset policy regulation will be submitted within the year.

In his Budget 2026 address, Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po stated that the government will submit a draft digital asset policy ordinance this year, establishing a licensing regime for service providers such as digital asset trading and custody. Hong Kong already has a licensing regime for fiat-backed stablecoin issuers, with the first batch of licenses to be issued in March. The government and financial regulators will continue to encourage licensed issuers to explore more application scenarios while ensuring compliance and manageable risk. Chan indicated that the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) will also further promote liquidity in Hong Kong's digital asset market, providing more products and services for professional investors, and will establish an accelerator to accelerate market innovation, while fully protecting investors.

Caixin: Document No. 42 sets the tone for "strict control over overseas RWA"; CICC Hong Kong has already discussed cooperation with public blockchains and exchanges.

According to Caixin, just over the weekend that Document No. 42, "Notice on Further Preventing and Handling Risks Related to Virtual Assets," was released, CICC Hong Kong's team had already been in contact with major public blockchains and exchanges to explore business cooperation opportunities. Some public blockchain leaders also expressed their hope to cooperate with relevant investment banks and other intermediaries to explore business opportunities. Ant Group and JD.com have both expressed high attention to the policy changes.

Related reports indicate that Hong Kong is one of the offshore issuance locations for RWAs. Sources familiar with the regulations stated that RWAs with Hong Kong assets as underlying assets are not within the scope of Regulation 42 and are not under the jurisdiction of domestic regulatory authorities. Currently, there are no RWAs with underlying assets in Hong Kong or other offshore locations based on domestic securities or funds. If such RWAs exist, they would be under the jurisdiction of the Institutional Department of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC). Furthermore, "Previously, it was completely prohibited. Now, it's not said 'completely prohibited,' but there is strict regulation of RWAs with domestic assets exported overseas. This does not imply 'encouragement,' and should not be interpreted as 'promoting development' or 'rapid expansion,' but rather as 'strict regulation.'"

Project progress

WLFI will devise an "exit mechanism" for tokenizing the Trump family's Maldives resort.

According to Decrypt, World Liberty Financial (WLFI), the Trump family's crypto project, announced that it will design a special "exit mechanism" for its tokenized Maldives luxury resort project to alleviate liquidity problems caused by the long real estate development cycle.

Previous reports indicated that the project was a collaboration between international luxury real estate developer DarGlobal PLC (which owns properties in the Maldives) and leading tokenization platform Securitize. The Trump Organization was involved as a licensed hotel brand partner for the resort.

Dubai Real Estate Authority launches Phase 2 of its property tokenization project, integrating with XRP Ledger.

According to CoinDesk, Ripple executive Reece Merrick stated that the Dubai Land Department has launched the second phase of its real estate tokenization project, which will support controlled secondary market trading of tokenized properties on XRP Ledger.

Cardone Capital is preparing to tokenize approximately $5 billion in real estate assets.

According to CoinDesk, real estate investor Grant Cardone stated that his Cardone Capital is preparing to tokenize approximately $5 billion in real estate assets to provide investors with on-chain collateral and secondary market liquidity. The company previously announced its intention to use real estate cash flow to purchase Bitcoin over the long term, and in June of this year purchased 1,000 BTC, with plans to continue increasing its holdings.

BNP Paribas tests public blockchain infrastructure for tokenization of money market funds.

According to Crowdfundinsider, BNP Paribas Asset Management has issued tokenized shares of a French registered money market fund on a public blockchain. The project, announced on February 20th, represents a significant step forward for the bank in exploring tokenization technology, as it moves from a private ledger to the Ethereum public network.

The project employs a permissioned access model on Ethereum, allowing only pre-approved, regulated participants to hold or transfer tokenized shares, ensuring compliance with financial regulations while leveraging the transparency and security of public blockchains. This experiment integrates multiple BNP Paribas business lines: the asset management company acts as the fund issuer, the securities services department serves as the transfer agent and is responsible for wallet infrastructure and private key custody, and the corporate and investment bank's AssetFoundry platform handles the tokenization process and provides connectivity to Ethereum. This pilot builds upon previous experience with a tokenized money market fund issued using a private blockchain in Luxembourg, evaluating the technology and operational model by testing different approaches.

WisdomTree will launch 24/7 trading and instant settlement services for tokenized money market fund shares.

According to Businesswire, WisdomTree announced that its WisdomTree Treasury Money Market Digital Fund (WTGXX) now offers 24/7 trading and instant settlement. This marks the first time that registered tokenized mutual fund units have been approved for 24/7 trading and instant settlement through a dealer-depositor liquidity model within the US regulatory framework.

The rollout of this feature requires coordination of multiple regulatory approvals, and several entities under WisdomTree have received exemptions from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Furthermore, WisdomTree Securities, a brokerage and proprietary trading subsidiary of WisdomTree, has received approval from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) to expand its brokerage and proprietary trading business to include proprietary trading of registered fund units. Initially, this will enable 24/7 liquidity for tokenized money market fund units and will use stablecoins for settlement.

Binance re-enters the tokenized stock market through a partnership with Ondo Finance.

According to The Block, Binance has re-entered the tokenized stock market through a partnership with Ondo Finance. Ondo Finance President Ian De Bode stated that Binance has launched 10 Ondo tokenized US stocks and ETFs on Binance Alpha and Binance Wallet, including AAPLon, GOOGLon, TSLAon, NVDAon, and QQQon. A Binance spokesperson stated that Ondo tokens are digital securities, and Binance offers these products through its regulatory license from the Abu Dhabi Financial Services Authority. Neither Binance nor Ondo's tokenized stocks and ETFs are available to US users.

Kraken launches tokenized US stock perpetual contracts, supporting 24/7 trading and 20x leverage.

According to CoinDesk, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has launched its first regulated tokenized equity perpetual futures contract, open to qualified non-US users in over 110 countries. Initial offerings include tokenized versions of the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, Apple, Nvidia, Tesla, and the SPDR Gold ETF.

This product is based on xStocks, a tokenized stock service acquired by Kraken last December. The underlying xStocks tokens are fully collateralized and backed 1:1 by the underlying assets, and can still provide a pricing anchor when US exchanges are closed. The perpetual contracts have no expiration date, can be traded 24/7, and support up to 20x leverage, providing users with a continuous access and capital-efficient risk management experience.

ETHZilla rebrands as Forum, transitioning to focus on RWA tokenized assets.

According to The Block, ETHZilla's stock price surged over 13% to approximately $3.91 on Tuesday as the company officially changed its name to Forum, further shifting its strategy from solely accumulating ETH to tokenized assets with strong cash flow potential. Data shows that ETHZilla had previously reduced its ETH holdings multiple times: in October of last year, it sold approximately $40 million worth of ETH to repurchase shares, and in December, it sold another 24,291 ETH (approximately $74.5 million) to redeem convertible bonds. This month, the company acquired a portfolio of 95 manufacturing and modular housing loans for approximately $4.7 million, planning to tokenize them on Ethereum Layer 2 with a target annualized yield exceeding 10%, and purchased two CFM56-7B24 aircraft engines for tokenization through Liquidity.io. Management stated that the company's future value will be driven more by revenue and cash flow from the RWA tokenization platform, and it currently holds approximately 69,802 ETH, worth approximately $145 million.

Japan's SBI issued 10 billion yen in on-chain bonds, with investors eligible for XRP rewards ; and launched Japan's first trust-based yen stablecoin, JPYSC, with a planned launch in the second quarter.

According to CoinDesk, Japan's SBI Holdings announced a ¥10 billion (approximately US$64.5 million) on-chain bond issuance program. The disclosed information indicates that the bonds will be issued and managed on-chain, and investors will receive XRP as a reward in addition to regular returns. This move marks a further exploration by traditional financial institutions into blockchain bonds and digital asset incentive mechanisms.

According to The Block, Japanese financial group SBI Holdings and Startale Group have launched JPYSC, a yen-denominated stablecoin, with plans for issuance in the second quarter of this year, pending regulatory approval. The coin is issued through a trust structure by SBI Shinsei Trust Bank, with SBI VC Trade as the primary distributor and Startale handling technology development. Targeting institutional and cross-border settlement scenarios, the project aims to provide a regulated yen alternative in a market dominated by US dollar stablecoins, and supports interoperability with traditional financial infrastructure and multiple blockchain networks. Startale CEO Hajime Watanabe stated that JPYSC will also be used for AI agent payments and on-chain asset distribution in the future.

Better Partners with Framework Ventures on $500 Million Stablecoin to Advance Mortgage Tokenization

According to Cointelegraph, cryptocurrency venture capital firm Framework Ventures has partnered with mortgage lending service Better to provide approximately $500 million in credit support to the stablecoin ecosystem of the DeFi protocol Sky (formerly MakerDAO) and issue tokens pegged to mortgage loans to generate yield. Framework has also agreed to acquire a 10% stake in Better for approximately $45 million. The initial mortgage tokens will be available only to accredited investors; Better plans to later launch a product called "Home Token" for retail investors, but the timeline has not yet been disclosed. Better claims that on-chain financing reduces intermediary layers and financing costs, thereby providing consumers with lower-interest mortgage loans.

Sources say Meta plans to re-enter the stablecoin market in the second half of this year.

According to CoinDesk, sources familiar with the matter revealed that Mark Zuckerberg's tech giant Meta plans to re-enter the stablecoin space in the second half of this year, planning to integrate third-party vendors to support stablecoin payments and launch a new wallet. The sources said that Meta has issued product request invitations to third-party companies, with long-term partner Stripe being a potential candidate for the pilot program. Stripe acquired stablecoin specialist Bridge last year, and its CEO, Patrick Collison, will join Meta's board of directors in April 2025. Meta, Stripe, and Bridge did not respond to requests for comment.

Meta first attempted to launch the Libra stablecoin (later renamed Diem) in 2019, but failed due to regulatory hurdles and the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The project was shut down and assets were sold in early 2022.

Grupo Braza expands its Brazilian Real stablecoin BBRL to the Polygon network.

Brazilian foreign exchange bank Banco Braza announced the expansion of its Brazilian real stablecoin BBRL to the Polygon network. The stablecoin is issued by an institution regulated by the Central Bank of Brazil, fully backed by Brazilian real reserves at a 1:1 ratio, and is subject to regular audits.

TruStage launches USD stablecoin pilot program for credit unions

According to The Block, fintech and insurance company TruStage is partnering with blockchain company Block Time Financial to issue a USD-denominated stablecoin, TruStage Stablecoin (TSDA). TruStage affiliates will act as the issuer and hold cash reserves on a 1:1 basis. TruStage claims its services cover approximately 93% of credit unions in the US, and the stablecoin will primarily be used for loan disbursement and settlement, peer-to-peer transfers, cross-border payments, and inter-institutional clearing and disbursement. The project is currently recruiting credit unions for a pilot program, which will run until the first half of 2026. Positioned as a "collaborative stablecoin" model, it aims to explore the application of stablecoins within traditional financial institutions under existing regulatory frameworks, including the GENIUS Act.

Safe integrates with Morpho Vault, allowing you to earn yield using Société Générale's MiCA-compliant EURCV stablecoin.

According to The Block, Safe Labs, the startup behind the multisignature wallet Safe Wallet, has announced the official integration of Morpho Vault, allowing users to earn Euro yields through EURCV, a compliant stablecoin owned by Société Générale. This initiative allows users to directly connect to a dedicated vault on the Morpho protocol within their Safe Wallet. The vault's risk parameters are managed and maintained by Steakhouse Financial, an institutional-grade DeFi research firm, and it aims to provide users with DeFi yields based on EURCV (a MiCA-compliant Euro stablecoin).

Canza Finance integrates USDC into its cross-border trading and structured asset models.

Circle stated in an article on the X platform that Canza Finance is integrating USDC into cross-border trading and structured asset models to enhance the availability of stablecoins in emerging market scenarios, especially in areas where efficient, programmable financial instruments are crucial.

Canza Finance is committed to promoting open financial access in emerging markets and covers asset tokenization, cross-chain transfers, and trade finance in its business use cases. As a member of the Circle Alliance, Canza supports the wider use of digital dollar infrastructure globally.

PengoPay, a global stablecoin payment platform, launched on February 27th.

PengoPay, a global stablecoin payment platform, has officially launched, initially supporting USDT and USDC payments on the Ethereum and Solana chains. It provides secure stablecoin payment services to B2B companies and freelancers worldwide. Furthermore, the team plans to launch the AgentPay Protocol in 2026, creating a dedicated secure stablecoin payment protocol for on-chain AI agents.

RWA's MSX trading platform has launched spot trading for multiple sectors.

According to official sources, MSX has launched spot trading of US-based solar module manufacturer $FSLR.M, Hollywood content giant $WBD.M, and iShares MSCI Brazil ETF $EWZ.M.

Financing Dynamics

Fintech company Newity has raised $11 million to bring small business lending to the blockchain.

According to The Block, Newity, a fintech company focused on facilitating small business lending, has raised $11 million in a strategic funding round as it explores moving these loans on-chain. CMT Digital, a subsidiary of trading and investment firm CMT Group, led the round, with other participants including private and institutional investors. This is Newity's first funding round, which began in late 2024 and will close in December 2025. The round uses a Simple Equity in the Future (SAFE) structure, but Newity's valuation and whether any investors have been granted board or advisory seats were not disclosed.

Rhythmic, a stablecoin-based payment infrastructure provider, has raised $4 million in seed funding, led by Dragonfly and HadickM.

Aaron, a former payments and digital asset professional, announced that his company, Rhythmic, has completed a $4 million seed funding round, led by Dragonfly and HadickM, with participation from Mirana, The Fintech Fund, and others. Rhythmic is building a financial infrastructure platform for consumer internet companies, embedding accounts, stored value, cards, and rewards systems "natively" into their products, with stablecoins handling fund transfers and settlements at the underlying level. Users only experience "holding balance, receiving rewards, and making any purchases" on the front end, without directly interacting with wallets or using the concept of "using stablecoins." This round of funding will be used to improve the core platform, connect with initial partners, and expand the engineering and compliance teams.

Stablecoin payment company RedotPay plans to raise over $1 billion in a US IPO.

According to Bloomberg, Hong Kong-based stablecoin payment company RedotPay is considering an initial public offering (IPO) in the United States, aiming to raise more than $1 billion. Sources say RedotPay has partnered with JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Jefferies to advance the listing, potentially as early as this year on the New York Stock Exchange, with a target valuation exceeding $4 billion. The details, including the fundraising size and valuation, are still under discussion and may be subject to change.

Insights Highlights

Standard Chartered: Stablecoins may drive $1 trillion in demand for US Treasury bonds; US Treasury may adjust issuance structure.

According to The Block, stablecoin issuers are becoming the largest potential buyers of U.S. Treasury bills (T-bills), a move expected to profoundly impact the U.S. debt financing landscape for years to come. Standard Chartered Bank analysis suggests that as the market capitalization of stablecoins could reach $2 trillion by the end of 2028, issuers will generate an additional $0.8 to $1 trillion in demand for short-term U.S. Treasury bonds as reserve assets. If current issuance patterns remain unchanged, this demand could lead to a supply-demand gap of approximately $0.9 trillion in U.S. Treasury bills over the next three years.

The current stablecoin supply is approximately $300 billion, and growth has slowed due to the sluggish crypto market and the slow progress of regulations under the GENIUS Act. However, analysts believe this is a cyclical rather than structural factor. The GENIUS Act requires US regulators to hold high-quality liquid assets for stablecoins, with short-term Treasury bonds being the core component.

Standard Chartered projects that by 2028, two-thirds of the stablecoin market's growth will come from emerging markets, generating new T-bill demand, while growth in developed markets will primarily replace existing Treasury bond allocations. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve's reserve management purchases could also generate approximately $500 billion to $600 billion in additional front-end demand, and combined with the replacement of maturing mortgage-backed securities, overall new bill demand could reach approximately $2.2 trillion. In contrast, if the bill-to-total-debt ratio remains unchanged, the net supply is projected to be only about $1.3 trillion, leaving a gap of approximately $0.9 trillion.

The Treasury has indicated it may adjust its debt structure to meet demand. Analysis shows that increasing the proportion of notes issued by just 2.5 percentage points could generate approximately $0.9 trillion in new notes over three years, filling the gap. This could be achieved by reducing long-term Treasury bond issuance, such as suspending 30-year bond auctions annually, similar to the US Treasury strategy of 2002-2006, although the budget surplus at that time was significantly different from the current 5%-6% deficit level.

Analysts point out that this structural adjustment may lead to a bull market at the short end of the government bond yield curve, but Standard Chartered still expects the curve to steepen bearishly over the next year, with the 10-year yield around 4.6% by the end of the year. Investors should pay attention to the potential risks brought about by the shortage of front-end bills and changes in issuance models.

The macroeconomic impact of stablecoins is becoming increasingly significant. Tether USDt, the world's largest stablecoin issuer, holds over $120 billion in US Treasury bonds, ranking among the top holders of short-term Treasury bonds globally, and CEO Bo Hines has indicated that further expansion is possible.

The study also suggests that the growth of stablecoins could lead to a loss of up to $500 billion in bank deposits, driving funds away from the traditional banking system and towards the government bond market. Meanwhile, the GENIUS Act and related SEC guidance are accelerating stablecoin regulation, with industry and White House officials continuing to discuss market structure and yield-generating stablecoin policies. At the consumer level, stablecoins have become integrated into daily life, including savings, retail payments, and everyday transactions, demonstrating their increasing penetration in the global economy.

The changing of the guard in the payment industry: Stripe, a unicorn worth hundreds of billions, may acquire PayPal, heavily investing in stablecoins and AI.

PANews Overview: A potential game-changer in the payments industry is underway. Stripe, a privately held unicorn with a rumored valuation of $159 billion and annual transaction processing capacity of $1.9 trillion, is reportedly considering acquiring PayPal, the former industry leader with a market capitalization of only about $54 billion and stagnant growth.

This is not just a comparison of numbers, but a divergence of two fates. PayPal represents the rise and fall of the first generation of internet finance, while Stripe, with its minimalist experience of "integrating payments with just a few lines of code," rode the wave of mobile internet and SaaS, becoming an invisible money-printing machine.

Stripe's ability to remain private and refuse to go public stems from its profitability, stable cash flow, and internal buyback program that addresses employees' monetization needs. This allows Stripe to invest all its resources in long-term R&D and strategic planning, rather than being constrained by quarterly financial reports.

Sripe's latest ambitions are aimed at two major future tracks:

First, there are stablecoins. Last year, Stripe's stablecoin payment volume reached $400 billion, and it acquired the leading platform Bridge, and is developing programmable wallets and its self-developed high-throughput blockchain Tempo.

Secondly, there is AI Agent payment. Stripe believes that AI agents will become independent economic entities and require a brand-new "machine-to-machine" payment infrastructure. Therefore, it has partnered with OpenAI to develop the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) in an attempt to establish standards for the next wave of "AI commerce".

For Stripe, the acquisition of PayPal is not just about expanding its scale, but also a key step in completing its consumer-facing puzzle and strengthening its crypto strategy (PayPal owns the stablecoin PYUSD).

Ultimately, Stripe's ultimate goal is no longer to be a "payment processor," but to become the financial operating system of the internet economy—with traditional payment growth reaching its peak, it is using stablecoins and AI to seize the right to define the next wave of financial trends.

RWA Market Fund Flow Insights: Counter-cyclical Growth, Structural Differentiation, and New Market Winners

PANews Overview: Amidst a deep bear market in the crypto market due to the "1011 incident," with market capitalization falling back to $2.4 trillion, the RWA sector bucked the trend, with its total market capitalization increasing from nearly $19 billion to over $24 billion. However, the sector exhibited significant internal divergence. This essentially reflects a shift in fundamental market demand from "pursuing high risk and high return" to "safe returns, high liquidity, and hedging."

RWA Treasury bonds, offering a risk-free return of nearly 5%, have become a new source of income for $300 billion in idle funds to combat inflation, with their market value continuing to climb. Moreover, funds are flowing from illiquid and strictly regulated institutional products (such as BlackRock's BUIDL) to more DeFi composable protocols (such as Ondo and Circle).

Gold RWA has seen a surge in demand due to its safe-haven properties, nearly doubling in market value in just six months. Issuers such as Tether have been actively promoting it, making it the only readily available macro hedging tool for weekends and holidays.

The market capitalization of RWA stock doubled, and the winners were those functional assets that could transform US stocks into "collateralized lending" assets (such as Ondo and Xstock) and distribute them on efficient public chains such as BNB Chain and Solana.

Conversely, institutional funds and private equity RWA saw their market capitalization shrink due to the brewing risks in their underlying assets and long redemption cycles (T+30 or more), leading to a sell-off of funds during periods of liquidity tightening.

The underlying logic of this round of differentiation is that the market is no longer blindly believing in "code faith" but has returned to the most basic financial disciplines: safe returns, high liquidity, composability, and macro hedging capabilities.

The winners of the future will be those pragmatic RWAs that can provide all three values ​​and be deeply integrated into the DeFi ecosystem, rather than "liquidity islands" that are merely compliance shells.

a16z: Five Uncharted Territories of AI Payments and Opportunities for Stablecoins

PANews Overview: Unlike humans, intelligent agents can be infinitely replicated and scaled up. They will eventually integrate into a few large platforms in each vertical industry, establishing long-term partnerships with suppliers, pre-negotiated B2B terms, and credit lines, just like enterprises, rather than going through retail payment channels for every transaction.

However, the current payment giant, credit cards, has three fatal weaknesses:

First, technological upgrades are slow, relying on manual operation and traditional interfaces, which cannot adapt to the high-speed, programmable payment needs of the intelligent agent era;

Second, there is a mismatch in economic models. The fixed fee of 30 cents is neither able to support small-amount streaming payments of less than 1 cent (such as those charged by API calls) nor suitable for large-amount B2B transfers.

Third, they are caught in the innovator's dilemma, where the existing interest structure makes self-revolution difficult. Stablecoins, on the other hand, fill this "uncharted territory": they are programmable, globally universal, and extremely low-cost (with no minimum transaction fee). They can be seamlessly integrated into APIs and smart agent checkout processes, easily enabling streaming payments, cross-border settlements, and complex reconciliation scenarios that credit cards cannot handle.

More importantly, payments are highly sticky—once a smart agent platform establishes a new partnership with a supplier based on stablecoins, that partnership will continue.

In the future, with the explosion of the smart agent economy, stablecoins will no longer be just a tool for "tourists to exchange currency", but will become the default settlement layer in the AI ​​business world, giving rise to a series of new infrastructures around billing, arbitration, credit, and batch approval.

In short, credit cards are designed for human retail, while stablecoins are tailored for AI-native commerce.