Cryptocurrency valuations plunged across the board from frothy October highs, per Coinmarketcap data. Crypto volatility scares consumers and dampens consumer interest even in relatively safer types of crypto like stablecoins, which have practical applications for cross-border payments. Stablecoin services need to educate their consumers about the safety of their products, especially as other non-fiat-backed tokens hemorrhage value, to assure clients that their crypto-powered remittances are a safe choice for sending loved ones overseas money.

LevelField Financial, a crypto-friendly “bank” without a bank charter, has obtained conditional state approval to acquire Burling Bank, a state-chartered Chicago community bank with $206 million in assets. Crypto-friendly and crypto-native banks are increasingly operating like traditional banks. That would be a mistake: As crypto firms acquire banks or receive bank charters—and as banks build crypto-related businesses—the lines will blur between legacy and decentralized financial systems. Banks must eventually be prepared to do it all.

Circle reported $740 million in total revenues and reserve income for Q3 2025, up 66% growth YoY. Circle additionally wants to build a platform around USDC to encourage adoption by financial institutions, remittances players, and fintechs. To break into consumer-facing payments, stablecoin issuers need to make it easy for partners to integrate their coins into their cross-border payment systems. By offering remittance senders lower fees is already part of crypto’s appeal. Stablecoin issuers can take that a step further by offering recipients yield-bearing accounts to store their funds to compete with incumbent rivals that have more established reputations and brand recognition.

Cash App released a slew of updates across its payments ecosystem, per a press release. Cash App’s continued focus on expanding financial services and tools for unbanked, underbanked, and lower-income consumers also reveals Block’s ambition to own this market, as Venmo hones in on students and educated young professionals. Making Afterpay’s BNPL tool more easily accessible to Cash App users helps this demographic navigate economic uncertainty with a tool they may see as less risky than revolving credit.

Visa Direct will pilot letting businesses and platforms send stablecoin payouts to recipients’ crypto wallets, per a press release. The importance of the creator economy is growing for ecommerce. Over half of US social shoppers follow creators or influencers, and almost half (49.5%) of all US social shoppers have made a purchase based on creator content. Instituting quick and reliable stablecoin payouts for freelancers can help them retain key marketing contractor team members on social media platforms. However, crypto adoption has met resistance: Per a Kansas City Fed report, the largest predictor for cryptocurrency payments is payee preference, far outstripping speed, privacy, or cost.

The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) urged the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to reject Coinbase’s application for a national trust charter, arguing that the application has “serious deficiencies.” The Trump administration’s crypto friendliness is a threat to banks as much as regulatory leniency and stablecoin clarity is a relief: A trust charter confers legitimacy on a crypto firm, but it doesn’t require deposit insurance. These standards may enable crypto companies to compete more vigorously with traditional institutions.

Mastercard is reportedly nearing a deal to acquire Zerohash for as much as $2 billion, per Fortune. Zerohash provides infrastructure to connect fiat payment systems with crypto and stablecoins. We can expect Visa to pursue a big crypto acquisition in short order. Whether they see it as an existential threat or not, networks are waking up to the fact that crypto is here to stay—and they need to prove to investors and stakeholders that they’re taking it seriously.

Southwest Airlines rolled out a rewards debit card, per a press release. The Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Debit Card runs on Visa’s network and is issued by Sunrise Bank in partnership with SoFi-owned Galileo’s card issuing platform. Offering a debit card helps Southwest tie customers closer to its loyalty program. But getting consumers to sign up may be a tough sell. Consumers who don’t have the credit scores or means to pay for a Southwest credit card may balk at parking $2,500 a checking account.

Western Union will launch a stablecoin to power crypto remittances in the first half of 2026, per a press release. The stablecoin will be called the U.S. Dollar Payment Token (USDPT) and will run on Solana’s Bitcoin infrastructure. As more remittance players pivot toward crypto, they face a bind of a customer base that is more likely to trust in-store cash transactions than novel digital methods, which makes a strong retail presence necessary for success. Targeted advertising campaigns educating remittance senders about the benefits of digital transfers with incentives for new customers could help convert more users to crypto.

Citi is partnering with Coinbase to build stablecoin payment capabilities for institutional clients. The partnership will focus initially on crypto on- and off-ramps, which enable clients to convert between digital assets and fiat currencies. It’s unlikely that many banks will build their own integrations with crypto rails. But with infrastructure partnerships, native on- and off-ramps should become more common. Cryptocurrencies and blockchain infrastructure will be increasingly complementary to the traditional financial system.

Fidelity has introduced Solana trading for US retail and institutional investors. Solana is the digital currency native to the Solana public blockchain, which is designed to be faster, more easily scaled, and cheaper to transact on than competing blockchains. Fidelity’s move with Solana signals mainstream confidence in cryptocurrency for retail purposes and is a nod to using Solana for stablecoin transactions and its potential value for faster cross-border transactions and blockchain-based securities settlement.

SoFi reported net revenue of $950 million and member growth of 35% YoY, to 12.6 million, in its Q3 earnings. The bank continues to expand its range of consumer products with the launch of blockchain-based remittances, an AI-driven financial wellness tool. SoFi’s membership of 12.6 million pales in comparison to megabanks’ customer rolls—but the breadth of its consumer products does not. Traditional community and small regional banks are the most threatened, while SoFi’s infrastructure business puts it in direct competition with banks that provide licenses and infrastructure for consumer fintechs.

MrBeast filed to trademark “MrBeast Financial.” The filing’s contents suggest that an app and a range of financial services—including banking and a crypto exchange—may be in the works. Entering financial services as a provider (e.g., launching a crypto trading platform under a company owned by MrBeast’s enterprise or starting a branded neobank) would be an entirely different world from media and merchandising. The threat to banks based on generational appeal is already a problem. And whatever happens with MrBeast Financial, that problem keeps getting worse.

Erebor has received conditional approval for a national bank charter. It will be a digitally native competitor to lenders that serve the “innovation economy” and some specific industries: Erebor will focus on B2B services for AI, defense, crypto, and manufacturing companies, with offerings for high-net-worth individuals tied to those sectors. The biggest threat to traditional banks is that payments technology quickly advanced beyond what they can support or understand. Real-time payments solve the instant settlement problem that crypto provides for domestic transactions. But the next generation of changes to payments infrastructure is coming—and very few institutions are ready.

Mastercard and Coinbase are reportedly in talks to acquire BVNK for approximately $2 billion, per an exclusive from Fortune Crypto. The scale of this deal underscores stablecoin’s acceptance into the mainstream of payments. Mastercard’s eagerness to seize BVNK’s capabilities suggests that traditional payment rails can no longer ignore stablecoins, and must integrate with the payment method to avoid being left behind.

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Bolt launched a super app, named SuperApp, that combines payments, banking, crypto trading, rewards, and shopping, per a press release. For the select few crypto-forward consumers, Bolt’s crypto reach across 40+ cryptocurrencies could be attractive but there’s not much differentiating it from fintechs that already offer crypto services, like PayPal or Cash App.

Payee preference was the largest predictor of a consumer choosing to pay in cryptocurrency in 2024, per a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. The GENIUS Act’s passage and the rising interest in stablecoins by incumbents and fintechs may reverse some of these trends as consumers gain regulatory clarity and more use cases.

Deposits are moving out of community financial institutions (FIs) and into crypto exchanges—from 1% per month 18 months ago to 5% today, per PYMNTS. Instead of chasing these funds by trying to become more like crypto apps, community FIs are increasingly offering stablecoin products. Smaller FIs must not lose sight of what makes them stand out: human centricity, local knowledge, and customer service. By incorporating new technologies and digital currencies into their everyday offerings—instead of reinventing themselves—FIs can remain grounded in those differentiators while still potentially appealing to digital-first demographics.

Fintech isn’t just a budgeting tool—it’s becoming a partner in Gen Z’s resilience, according to Plaid’s “The Fintech Effect” report. We knew that fintech use was on the rise and that Gen Zers even prefer these digital competitors to traditional banks. And these findings reinforce why financial institutions must either work with fintechs to deliver more complete suites of financial products, or prioritize developing them in-house. They also underscore the importance of viewing fintechs as potential partners, rather than competitors. This raises the question of whether charging fintechs fees for customer data access could backfire and drive fintechs—and customers—to competitors.