As 2025 comes to an end, one really has to compare the number of new stablecoins against the wave of stablecoin-as-a-service platforms. At this point, it feels like we have more ways to issue stablecoins than actual stablecoins. Yes, that didn’t seem possible.

This week, both Coinbase and U.S. fintech giant SoFi joined the party. While Coinbase is starting out with crypto-native clients, both are likely taking the big swing: powering the next generation of stablecoins from fintechs, banks, and enterprise players.

More on Coinbase’s platform below in our top story. It wasn’t their only big announcement this week.

Today, we’ll also talk about:

• Aave faces governance clash over control and revenue

• Moody’s pushes for new stablecoin rating system

Today’s edition marks our final Crypto Briefing of 2025. Thank you for spending part of your week with our research throughout the year. We’ll be back in the first week of January, with a few surprises in store. Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a restful end to the year.

→ For a real-time feed of high signal news, visit our News Aggregator.

Coinbase Unveils Expansion Into Stocks, Prediction Markets, Stablecoin-as-a-Service

Product update: On Wednesday, Coinbase held its highly anticipated “System Update” event, unveiling a broad slate of new products and services spanning crypto, traditional assets, AI, and stablecoin infrastructure.

• Why it matters: The event marks a major step in Coinbase’s evolution from a pure crypto platform into an “everything exchange” and beyond. By expanding into new asset classes and deepening its crypto-as-a-service offering, Coinbase is positioning itself not just as a consumer front end, but as core infrastructure embedded across the entire crypto value chain.

Stock trading: A central pillar of that expansion is equities. Coinbase announced that users will be able to trade real stocks directly within the app, using USDC as the settlement asset, with 24/7 access on weekdays. Early next year, the exchange also plans to launch stock perpetual futures, giving non-U.S. users synthetic exposure to U.S. equities.

Prediction markets: Stocks were not the only new asset class introduced. Coinbase also officially unveiled its prediction markets product. Similar to the event contracts offered by competitor Robinhood, the product is powered by leading prediction market platform Kalshi.

• Speaking of Robinhood: After the fintech introduced Robinhood Cortex, its AI-powered investing assistant, in March, Coinbase now followed with the launch of its own offering, called Coinbase Advisor.

B2B(2C): Beyond consumer products, Coinbase used the event to highlight its growing focus on infrastructure and services for businesses and institutions.

Tokenization: With Coinbase Tokenize, the company introduced an end-to-end offering covering issuance, custody, compliance, and trading of tokenized assets. The platform is designed to support a wide range of instruments, including equities, private companies, and investment funds. CEO Brian Armstrong framed Coinbase’s advantage as a distribution and trust problem it is uniquely positioned to solve.

• “On one hand, we have millions of retail and institutional investors who hold over $500 billion in assets on our platform. On the other hand, we already work with the world's largest institutions who trust us for custody. We can help get distribution for their products.”

Stablecoin-as-a-service: The most notable announcement of the event was the launch of Coinbase Custom Stablecoins. The offering enables businesses to issue a custom-branded stablecoin backed 1:1 by a configurable mix of USDC and other USD stablecoins, without building their own issuance, redemption, security, or compliance infrastructure. Key features include:

• Mass global distribution: Direct access to Coinbase’s global consumer, business, and institutional user base.

• 1:1 interoperability: Zero-fee swaps between USDC and any Coinbase Custom Stablecoin, providing instant liquidity.

• Built-in revenue model: Issuers earn rewards based on circulating supply, accrued daily and paid out monthly.

What’s next: In the coming months, multiple partners are expected to launch Custom Stablecoins for their customers. Some market observers speculate that cloud giant Cloudflare could be among them, given its existing collaboration with Coinbase on the x402 payments standard for agentic commerce.

Aave DAO Debates Conflicts of Interest, Opens Discussion on Protocol IP

DAO drama: Last week, a governance dispute at Aave exposed tensions between Aave Labs, the protocol’s core developer, and the Aave DAO. What followed was a week-long discussion centered on a key question: how should control and value be divided between a decentralized protocol and the centralized teams that build it.

• Why it matters: With around $55 billion in total value locked, Aave is DeFi's largest protocol and leading lending platform, controlling 59% of the market. For perspective, if Aave were a U.S. bank, it would be the 44th largest. How Aave resolves this dispute could set a precedent for how token holders and core developers divide control and economic rights across major DeFi protocols.

Aave’s financials: Year-to-date, Aave’s lending operations have generated around $110 million in revenue, all of which accrues to the Aave DAO and, by extension, AAVE token holders who control the protocol’s treasury. Beyond lending, the DAO has also earned fees via a swap integration embedded in the main Aave interface, which is operated and controlled by Aave Labs.

Silent change: Two weeks ago, that arrangement quietly shifted, when Aave Labs integrated another swap provider and began redirecting swap fees to itself without prior communication to the DAO. According to the delegate who identified the change, the impact could exceed $10 million in annual revenue redirected away from the treasury.

What Aave Labs says: Aave Labs argues the fees are needed to fund continued investment in the interface, which serves as the primary access point for users. Its core defense, however, rests on a structural distinction: the Aave interface is treated as a standalone product, not a protocol component governed by the DAO, and can therefore be monetized independently.

• “$AAVE aligned”: To signal alignment, Aave creator and Aave Labs founder Stani Kulechov announced the purchase of an additional $10 million worth of AAVE tokens and published a blog post reflecting eight years of building the protocol and outlining plans to further support its development.

The DAO’s response: The move did not settle the dispute. A governance proposal now under discussion seeks to place control of Aave’s brand assets, including domains, social handles, and naming rights, under a DAO-controlled entity, effectively shifting ownership of the protocol’s intellectual property to the DAO.

What’s next: Over the coming days, the community will continue gathering feedback ahead of a formal DAO vote that has yet to be scheduled.

What’s the news?

• Last week, tier-1 rating agency Moody’s released a new methodology for rating stablecoins.

• While firms such as S&P and Fitch have already published stability and reserve assessments for stablecoins, Moody’s proposal goes a step further. Its framework proposes full deposit-style ratings that treat stablecoins as credit instruments rather than digital assets.

Behind-the-scenes: To get insights on the firm’s concrete approach, we spoke with Cristiano Ventricelli, VP of Decentralized Finance and Digital Assets at Moody’s.