Hong Kong has implemented a licensing regime for fiat-denominated stablecoin issuers under a stablecoin ordinance that took effect in August, with regulators now processing applications. Officials have described digital assets as a new growth area and expect to publish the first list of approved stablecoin issuers in Q1 2026.

On 10 October, OKX founder Star Xu alleged that Binance's marketing practices and products such as Ethena's USDe on the exchange were responsible for the crypto market crash. Binance countered that a macro shock linked to Donald Trump's tariffs update sparked the $19 billion liquidation wave and said its technical issues did not trigger the move, while BNB later fell below $900 even as its market dominance climbed to 4%.

Key players in the Ripple-backed XRPL ecosystem are preparing an XLS-66 lending upgrade on testnet, aiming to unlock institutional DeFi strategies via single-asset vaults and fixed-rate loans. Evernorth plans to center its XRP treasury strategy on the upcoming lending protocol, while RLUSD’s supply has climbed above $1 billion even as XRPL’s DeFi TVL has fallen to about $60 million. Large XRP holders show mixed signals, with +1 million XRP wallets returning to accumulation as the token trades around $1.7 amid easing but still net selling whale flows.

In late 2025, the Bank of England proposed a 60/40 reserve model and holding caps for sterling-backed stablecoins. On 29 January, the U.K. Parliament’s Financial Services Regulation Committee launched an inquiry to assess growth, risks, and these frameworks, with evidence submissions due by 11 March 2026. Critics warn the caps—£20K per individual and £10 million per business—could undermine competitiveness.

Michael Saylor, Strategy's founder and chairman, rejected claims the firm buys "paper BTC," asserting it acquires real Bitcoin and audits custodians. The company holds 712K BTC, with more than 110K said to be untraceable across custodians, and invested about $20B in 2024, $23B in 2025, and close to $4B in 2026. MSTR slipped about 2% to $157.45.

Circle has launched USDCx, a USDC-backed stablecoin on the privacy-first Aleo blockchain, targeting demand for confidential transfers. Over the past 24 months, institutional stablecoin settlements reached $1.22 trillion, while private settlement flows remained below 1%, highlighting what some see as a large upside for privacy-oriented infrastructure.

In 2025, corporate Bitcoin treasuries led by Michael Saylor's Strategy accumulated 494,000 BTC, pushing their combined holdings to 1.13 million coins even as BTC ended the year down 6.4%. These firms now control 5.1% of the total BTC supply, while ETFs hold about 7.1%, and the joint demand tracked by Apparent Demand Growth has stayed negative since December, limiting price recovery. Despite reduced selling by long-term holders, analysts note that ETF flows and subdued demand continue to weigh on BTC's ability to break above prior highs.

Since 2020, stablecoins have expanded 76x and supply surpassed $300 billion. In 2025, according to Artemis and McKinsey, global payment volumes totaled $2 quadrillion while stablecoin volume reached $35 trillion, yet only $390 billion were real-world transfers (~1%). B2B hit $226 billion (+733% YoY) and card-linked spending rose 673%.

The Ethereum Foundation in 2026 designated post‑quantum security as a top priority and formed a dedicated team led by Thomas Coratger with Emile (leanVM). EF outlined bi‑weekly coordination, active PQ devnets, and a $1 million Poseidon Prize, with Justin Drake saying years of research since 2019 now feed into Ethereum’s long‑term roadmap.