Onchain Finance: Coinbase Agentic Wallets | Dirham stablecoin | Visa settles USDC on Ethereum
Onchain Finance - Edition 3: Feb 8th - 16th
Onchain finance had a “settlement week” - and it was busy. ⚙️🪙
UAE-style regulated issuance, enterprise stablecoin settlement, and tokenized treasuries trading/serving as collateral all pushed the stack forward, while AI agents got their own payment tools.
✔️ Stablecoin settlement moved deeper into regulated and enterprise workflows
✔️ Tokenized treasuries looked more like collateral and trading inventory
✔️ Agentic wallets + automated payments pushed crypto UX into new default surfaces
Ready for the signals? 🔍
🚨 Featured Story of the Week:
Stablecoin Cards Go Mainstream: Quantoz × Visa 💳🪙
Quantoz partnered with Visa to become a direct Visa principal member, enabling it to issue virtual Visa debit cards and act as a BIN sponsor for third-party fintechs - so customers can spend regulated e-money/stablecoin balances anywhere Visa is accepted (including Apple Pay/Google Pay).
This matters because the “stablecoin moment” is shifting into a familiar distribution channel: cards, where compliance, settlement, and acceptance already exist - and stablecoins can ride that infrastructure into everyday spend.
What changes now
Regulatory: Principal membership + BIN sponsorship puts stablecoin-linked spend inside the same governance, controls, and program standards used for mainstream card issuance.
Market structure: Stablecoin balances start behaving like a spendable account layer, while merchants still receive local currency through existing card rails.
Institutional adoption: Fintechs can launch card products faster because the “heavy lifting” (network access + issuing sponsorship) sits with regulated intermediaries like Quantoz.
How the runway was set
Visa’s card playbook: Visa already rolled out stablecoin-linked card issuance via Bridge (Stripe company), letting developers issue cards funded by stablecoin balances via API.
Mastercard’s parallel push: Mastercard positioned end-to-end stablecoin acceptance: wallet enablement, card issuing, and merchant settlement, through partners like OKX and Nuvei.
Network-level expansion: Mastercard also partnered with Fiserv to support stablecoin-linked cards and merchant settlement in FIUSD across its acceptance footprint.
Stablecoin adoption is increasingly a distribution race, and cards are becoming the fastest bridge from onchain balances to everyday spending.
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🚀 Startup Spotlight: STBL
STBL is building stablecoin + yield infrastructure that lets ecosystems launch their own programmable, yield-sharing stablecoins, anchored to USST (its universal over-collateralized stablecoin backed by high-quality RWAs).
This week’s OKX Ventures investment and the X Layer partnership signaled strong product–market fit: institutions want regulated, tokenized collateral + programmable settlement, and STBL is positioning itself as the infrastructure layer that packages that into deployable “ecosystem-specific” stablecoins.
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What’s on the onchain menu today?
🏁 Onchain Highlights: Biggest moves across money, markets, and tokenization
🧩 ‘Byte’ Buzz: Onchain Finance updates, sorted by segment
🔗 Link Up: A curated set of reads worth your time
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Edition 3 brings you the onchain finance stories that shaped how money, markets, and assets moved this week »
Last Week’s Top Onchain Tea!♨️
Institution-grade settlement rails go on-chain
↳ IHC and First Abu Dhabi Bank launched the dirham-backed stablecoin DDSC on ADI Chain under UAE central bank licensing.
↳ Visa began settling USDC stablecoin transactions on Ethereum for real-world payment flows.
↳ Fiserv launched INDX to move USD 24/7/365 for digital-asset firms via a single custodial account.
Tokenized cash becomes tradable + usable as collateral
↳ BlackRock’s BUIDL tokenized MMF became tradable on Uniswap via Securitize’s compliance/whitelisting layer.
↳ Binance and Franklin Templeton activated tokenized money market funds as off-exchange collateral for institutions.
Public experiments
↳ The Bank of England teamed with Chainlink to test settling tokenized assets alongside central bank money.
↳ Robinhood launched a public testnet for Robinhood Chain, an Arbitrum-based Ethereum L2 aimed at compliant tokenized finance.
AI + agentic crypto payments stack
↳ Stripe introduced an AI-agent payment system using automated USDC payments on Base via x402.
↳ Coinbase introduced Agentic Wallets so AI agents could transact with configurable controls.
Now, for the ‘byte’-sized onchain buzz -
Onchain Money put stablecoins deeper into regulated banking rails!
OKX snags EU payments license for stablecoin rails
↳ OKX secured a Payment Institution license in Malta to expand stablecoin payments and its crypto card push across Europe.
↳ Implication: stablecoin checkout and card products are becoming “license-first” utilities as EU compliance deadlines kick in.Japan’s megabanks test stablecoins for securities settlement
↳ Nomura and Daiwa launched a PoC with MUFG, SMBC, and Mizuho to use stablecoins for securities settlement inside Japan’s FSA sandbox.
↳ Implication: stablecoins are moving toward DvP-style settlement in traditional markets, not just remittances.
Onchain Assets kept tokenization inside familiar wrappers - sovereign-style issuance and regulated derivatives access.
UK taps HSBC Orion for tokenized gilt pilot (DIGIT)
↳ HM Treasury selected HSBC Orion to run the UK’s digital gilt pilot, testing blockchain rails for government bond issuance/settlement.
↳ Implication: tokenized sovereign debt is edging toward “real issuance,” which upgrades tokenization from demos to market infrastructure.Thailand clears crypto as underlyings for regulated derivatives
↳ Thailand approved changes to let crypto/digital assets be used as underlying assets in the regulated derivatives framework.
↳ Implication: the “regulated perimeter” expands — more crypto exposure can move into licensed venues instead of offshore products.
Onchain Markets looked more like “licensed market access” - major players getting regulatory stamps.
Blockchain.com gets FCA registration in the UK
↳ Blockchain.com was registered with the UK FCA to operate as a crypto asset business, enabling regulated brokerage/custody services in-market.
↳ Implication: UK market structure is increasingly defined by who can operate under FCA supervision - raising the bar for credible distribution.Animoca Brands secures VARA VASP license in Dubai
↳ Animoca received a VARA VASP licence to provide broker-dealer and management/investment services in/from Dubai for institutional and qualified investors.
↳ Implication: Dubai keeps pulling Web3 into a regulated hub model - licensing becomes a growth lever, not a constraint.
Onchain Infra shifted toward enterprise-grade rails - custody stacks and settlement plumbing for institutions.
Ripple upgrades institutional custody with security + staking integrations
↳ Ripple expanded Ripple Custody via partnerships with Securosys (HSM security) and Figment (staking for ETH/SOL) plus compliance integrations.
↳ Implication: custody is bundling into a “full stack” (security + compliance + yield) that banks can adopt without building it all.LSEG plans an on-chain settlement platform (DSD)
↳ LSEG announced plans for a Digital Securities Depository (DSD) to support on-chain settlement connecting traditional and digital markets.
↳ Implication: major market infrastructure is now building for multi-chain settlement workflows, not just token issuance.
Onchain Yield packaged yield into safer wrappers!
BitGo × 21Shares deepen staking + custody for ETPs
↳ BitGo and 21Shares expanded their partnership across the US and EMEA to support custody and staking services for crypto ETP products.
↳ Implication: staking yield keeps moving into broker-native/regulatory-friendly wrappers, widening access without validators or wallets.Bybit launches an institutional-style XRP Earn with Doppler
↳ Bybit partnered with Doppler Finance to bring XRP yield products to Bybit Earn (positioned as a staking alternative since XRP has no native staking).
↳ Implication: exchanges are productizing “compliant yield” for major assets - even when the base chain doesn’t support staking.
Onchain Lending pushed institutional participation without losing custody - TradFi capital meets DeFi rails.
Morpho × Apollo: cooperation agreement around MORPHO exposure
↳ Morpho signed a cooperation agreement with Apollo, allowing Apollo affiliates to acquire up to 90M MORPHO tokens over 48 months (with restrictions).
↳ Implication: large asset managers are taking structured exposure to DeFi lending protocols - a signal that “onchain credit” is entering institutional portfolios.Anchorage × Kamino: tri-party model for borrowing against staked SOL
↳ Solana, Anchorage Digital, and Kamino launched a tri-party structure letting institutions borrow against natively staked SOL while keeping qualified custody.
↳ Implication: the “don’t move custody” constraint is getting solved - which is key for institutional-scale DeFi lending participation.
And that’s a wrap 👋
We hope you enjoyed this edition of the Onchain Finance!
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