Stablecoin Issuers

SoFi Technologies and Mastercard announced that stablecoin settlement went live across SoFi Bank, N.A.'s debit and credit card program, migrating its entire US$25.00 billion card portfolio to SoFiUSD. SoFiUSD is the first stablecoin issued by a nationally chartered bank on Mastercard's global network, positioning bank-issued stablecoins as an operational bridge between traditional payment rails and blockchain infrastructure. The move connects to SoFi's April 2026 launch of Big Business Banking, which lets enterprises manage fiat and crypto, mint and burn SoFiUSD, and access real time payments in a single bank interface. SoFi's narrative projects $7.7 billion revenue and $1.6 billion earnings by 2029, requiring 21.6% yearly revenue growth and an earnings increase of about $1.0 billion from $636.3 million today, while the most pessimistic analysts saw SoFi reaching only about US$6.0 billion revenue and US$1.0 billion earnings by 2029.

Fiserv has launched the Roughrider stablecoin, a bank-to-bank settlement token built on Solana. Versa Bank issues the bank-only token, which serves a North Dakota network of more than 90 banks and credit unions. The coin is designed for interbank settlement among those institutions rather than for consumer retail use, replacing legacy systems such as Swift and ACH with near-instant, near-zero-fee transfers. The North Dakota effort is separate from a national network of regional and community banks that is launching its own bank stablecoin network. Because the token runs on Solana, its growth could drive demand for the network's gas fees.

The crypto market entered Friday evening, October 2, 2026, in a phase of powerful strategic accumulation, with the industry's total market capitalization standing in the $2.94–$3.03 trillion range. U.S. labor market data came in weak, as Non-Farm Payrolls rose by just 29,000 against expectations of $84,000–$90,000, while the unemployment rate climbed to 4.2%. The headline also points to the biggest USD stablecoin returning to Bitcoin after 12 years.

Bitcoin rallied to its best third quarter since 2017, gaining 43% in July, August and September even as long-term Treasuries lost approximately 7.7% and the broader US bond market declined approximately 3.4%, with the 10-year yield recording its largest quarterly increase since 1994. The crypto industry spent $8 million lobbying for the Clarity Act out of a total $13 million in first-half 2026 lobbying spending, and the bill failed to win a single Democratic vote, with Coinbase leading corporate efforts at $2.2 million and Kraken spending $1 million. The OUSD stable coin, backed by a consortium of more than 200 companies, went live with Visa, MasterCard and Stripe among its five founding members, alongside Coinbase and Shopify, with reserves held at BlackRock and BNY. The EU is questioning Binance over continued operations despite a wind-down order, with ESMA, France, Germany and Greece examining whether the exchange is still servicing European customers through a reverse solicitation exemption. The CFTC secured a judgment of over $30 million against defendants in a funds fraud case, including approximately $15.7 million in restitution and a $15 million civil penalty.

The US Senate voted 49–50 on September 15 to reject a motion to advance the crypto Clarity Act, which needed at least 60 votes to pass, effectively killing the bill. After the vote, the White House blamed Democratic senators, saying they prioritized political games over doing what is best for American technology and innovation. Meanwhile, Patrick Witt, the White House's crypto adviser, called the outcome a major disappointment and warned that future global financial standards could be set by Brussels or Beijing instead of Washington and New York. Senator Cynthia Lummis pointed out that the final version of the bill had incorporated 126 amendments requested by Democrats, including new ethics rules and changes covering decentralized finance systems, yet Democrats still voted it down. Democrats Cory Booker and Adam Schiff insisted they would not support legislation that failed to address concerns about President Donald Trump's crypto conflicts of interest, and they wanted strict, enforceable ethics rules. The bill did not fail solely because of Democratic opposition, as four Republican senators, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitch McConnell and Thom Tillis, also voted against ending debate. This followed heavy lobbying by traditional banks against provisions such as Section 404, which would have barred stablecoin issuers from offering deposit-like yields to customers in the United States. The biggest impact is that the United States still lacks a single federal framework for the spot digital asset market, and the CFTC will not receive the new powers the bill proposed, leaving these businesses to continue dealing with state-by-state money transmitter regulations.

Tether, the issuer of the US dollar-pegged stablecoin, announced on September 28 that it helped freeze approximately 550 million dollars' worth of USDT in 2026 in wallets that US authorities identified as linked to Iran's central bank and a sanctions-evasion network. The announcement came as the Trump administration intensifies economic sanctions on Iran. Behind it is "Operation Economic Outcast," launched by the US Treasury Department on August 24, an effort ordered by President Trump to cut off international funding networks supporting the Iranian government and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Treasury Department said it will focus monitoring on five new sanctions targets: digital assets, technology, gold, aviation, and shipping. In April, based on information provided by the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control and US law enforcement agencies, Tether helped freeze more than 344 million dollars' worth of USDT at two addresses, and the next day OFAC added the same addresses to its sanctions list as digital currency identifiers of Iran's central bank. In July, after the Treasury expanded its designation of Iran's central bank, more than 130 million dollars' worth of USDT in four wallets was frozen, all of them addresses on TRON. On September 14, the US Department of Justice filed a civil lawsuit seeking the forfeiture of about 61 million dollars in crypto assets, saying they represented proceeds from trading Iranian crude oil. Tether currently works with more than 340 law enforcement agencies in 67 countries, and the assets it has helped freeze to date total more than 4.9 billion dollars, of which more than 2.4 billion dollars is related to US authorities.

Circle Internet Group disclosed on September 25 that chief financial officer Jeremy Fox-Geen is stepping down after more than five years in the role, and a separate filing the same day revealed that co-founder and long-serving director P. Sean Neville had resigned from the board with immediate effect, taking it from eight members to seven. The shares fell 4.30% to close at $89.00 and slipped further after hours. Circle said neither departure arose from any disagreement over the company's operations, policies, or accounting practices, and Fox-Geen will stay in the job through December 2026 while a successor is found, with severance of about $1.05 million in cash over twelve months plus accelerated vesting on equity he already holds. Neville's resignation was described as part of an ongoing board refreshment process. Circle's revenue comes almost entirely from interest earned on reserves backing USDC, which ended the second quarter at more than $73 billion in circulation, leaving its income statement tied to Federal Reserve policy while the company digests an acquisition.

On South Korea's cryptocurrency exchange Upbit, the number of investors who bought the yen-denominated stablecoin JPYC at prices more than 10 percent above its reference price reached 21,219. South Korea's Yonhap News reported this on September 27, putting total purchases at 25.985519 billion won, or roughly 28 billion yen. According to the report, as of September 21, 3,792 of the high-price buyers still held JPYC, with an average unrealized loss of 1.32553 million won per person, totaling about 5.03 billion won. JPYC began trading on Upbit on September 17, and immediately after trading opened, the quantity available for trading was limited while buy orders concentrated, pushing the price well above its yen-pegged level. Between September 17 and 21, 11,449 investors bought at three to four times the reference price, with purchases worth 85.42003 billion won, while 13,728 bought at two to three times the reference price, purchasing the equivalent of 105.86281 billion won, and 2,574 investors bought at four times the reference price or more. Of the 21,219 who bought at high prices, 7,006, or 33 percent of the total, sold their JPYC and locked in profits, with an average realized gain of 453,687 won.

Federal prosecutors in the US state of California have seized a total of about $84.2 million from the bank accounts and cryptocurrency wallets of US payments company Capstone, which has been reported to have ties to Tether. Reuters reported the move on September 25. According to court documents, authorities seized about $81 million from an account Capstone held at Wells Fargo and about $2 million from an account at JPMorgan Chase, and also seized about $1.2 million worth of the US dollar-pegged stablecoin Tether. Capstone is a payments company operating a money transmission service registered in the US state of Montana, and in a filing seeking civil forfeiture, prosecutors argued that the company's executives described its business as information technology-related when opening the bank accounts. According to prosecutors, Capstone processed numerous payments for two cryptocurrency-related firms through a contract with a bank based in the Caribbean nation of Dominica. The seizure is not a penalty against Tether itself; at issue is the banking relationship of the bank where Tether placed some of its assets and Capstone's dealings, which are said to have processed payments at the bank's direction.

DeltaForesight, a company engaged in crypto asset-related businesses, announced on September 25 that it has raised a cumulative 324 million yen through J-KISS-type stock acquisition rights, with Coral Capital as lead investor. Subscribers include FFG Venture Business Partners, Decima Fund, Animoca Brands, HashPort, DeFimans, and Narrative Inc. The funds will be used for development costs toward the mainnet launch of "JPY DeFi," a system that allows users to borrow the yen-pegged stablecoin "JPYdf" using crypto assets and US dollar-denominated stablecoins as collateral, as well as for external security audits and hiring. The company aims to bring global crypto asset liquidity into yen-denominated transactions by using non-yen assets as collateral. Founder and CEO Yusuke Shindo previously handled audits of crypto asset exchange operators at Deloitte Tohmatsu, worked on obtaining exchange business registration at Mercari and Mercoin, and served as CFO of Animoca Brands.

Summary of top crypto news for September 25, 2026: the key stories are that Bitget was hacked and the US Federal Reserve proposed regulatory rules for stablecoins, while the broader crypto market weakened. Bitcoin reversed course and fell to around 84,300 dollars after the 10-year US Treasury yield surged to a new high, prompting investors to increase their bets that the Fed will raise interest rates in October. As a result, the total crypto market capitalization fell 2.73%. Investors are also watching US jobless claims figures as the next factor.