While the general news flow has been rather slow lately, one topic has kept the crypto industry arguing: the state of the Ethereum Foundation (EF).
The EF has recently seen a wave of senior departures, including prominent protocol leads and long-time contributors. With little public explanation from the organization, the market has been left to fill the vacuum with speculation and bearish takes on crypto’s second-largest asset.
On Sunday, Vitalik stepped in. In a post on X, Ethereum’s co-founder clarified how he sees the future role of the EF. The gist:
the EF is only one node in the Ethereum ecosystem, not the center
the EF is mid-transition, getting smaller and more opinionated (also culturally)
the EF is not Ethereum’s business-development department; it’s supporting other organizations to fill that
Instead, the EF is focusing on CROPS: censorship resistance, open source, privacy, security
In business school, the professor would probably nod approvingly at the commitment to differentiation. And so far, financial institutions certainly didn’t wait for the EF to hold their hands during deployment. Ethereum remains their default network.
Yet, markets are forward-looking. The question is how long that default status holds. And how much of the industry's net new user growth Ethereum can actually capture to justify a $250 billion valuation, let alone any upside beyond it.
Because the professor would also remind you: there's always a threat of substitutes. And the competition has never looked stronger.
In today’s Briefing:
Cash App rolls out USDC payments
Whop launches stablecoin-linked card
HIGH SIGNAL NEWS
SEC delays release of tokenized stocks' innovation exemption. Instead of publishing the draft last week, as Bloomberg had reported, the SEC delayed the release of its proposed regulatory framework for tokenized securities. The delay was reportedly driven by pushback from stock-exchange officials and other traditional market participants over the potential approval of trading in synthetic, third-party representations of securities without issuer involvement. 🛑
Cash App kicks offs stablecoin rollout. According to CoinDesk, the mobile payments app has started rolling out USDC payments to roughly a quarter of its nearly 60 million users, with plans to make the feature available to all users by the end of the week. 📱
Wintermute expands into onchain asset management. Through "Armitage," the leading crypto market maker is now using its trading infrastructure and risk management expertise to manage vaults on Morpho. The first two vaults target 4% to 8% APY. 💸
KelpDAO fully recovers from exploit. Thanks to contributions and donations from major DeFi protocols and individuals through “DeFi United,” the restaking protocol has fully restored the backing of the ~116,000 rsETH, worth around $240 million, that it lost in last month’s hack. 💰
SoFi rolls out SoFiUSD. The stablecoin can now be bought, sold, and held within SoFi’s banking app by its 14.7 million members, marking the first U.S. national bank-issued stablecoin embedded in a retail banking interface. SoFiUSD will initially operate on Ethereum and Solana, with tokenized deposits, cross-border transfers, and a Bullish exchange integration planned in the coming weeks. 🏦
TOP STORY
Whop Launches Stablecoin-Linked Cards as Category Gains Momentum
Whop’s new card: Yesterday, U.S. online marketplace Whop announced the launch of Whop Cards. Powered by leading stablecoin-linked card issuer Rain, the cards give businesses and freelancers on Whop 5% cashback on selected purchases and let them pay globally wherever Visa is accepted, without needing to withdraw funds from the platform to a bank account.
Why it matters: With more than 40,000 businesses across 145 countries generating $4 billion in annualized earnings, Whop is one of the world’s largest online platforms for creators and developers selling digital products. With the launch of Whop Cards, Whop becomes one of the first non-crypto-native companies to offer a stablecoin-linked card, a category that has seen tremendous growth over the past 12 months.
"Crypto exchanges and stablecoin-native apps were the early adopters, as you'd expect, but the faster-growing segment today is traditional businesses launching their first stablecoin solution. Companies that had no prior exposure to blockchain infrastructure are coming to us because they want the efficiency, not because they're making a philosophical bet on the technology," Farooq Malik, Co-founder and CEO of Rain, told Blockstories.
Monthly crypto card volumes grew 150% in the last 12 months, now sitting at $670 million. Source: Paymentscan
Crypto-powered everything app: The card launch also fits into Whop’s broader push to become a full-fledged fintech platform powered by crypto. In February, Whop raised $200 million from Tether and integrated the stablecoin issuer’s Wallet Development Kit, enabling seamless, low-cost stablecoin payments for its more than 18 million users. A month later, it launched Whop Treasury, allowing users to earn passive yield on their Whop balances through Aave.
Stablecoin-linked vs. fiat: Whop Cards extend that strategy into global payments. At their core, stablecoin-linked cards differ from traditional fiat card programs in how they settle. In a traditional setup, companies usually need to maintain a pre-funded balance with their issuing bank, while card network settlement typically takes two business days. Because of that lag, companies often keep three to five days of projected spending volume in reserve, tying up capital that could otherwise be deployed elsewhere.
A better settlement model: Providers such as Rain allow card issuers to fund their card programs with stablecoin balances and settle with the underlying card networks on a daily basis, including on weekends and holidays. As funds move every day, partners no longer need to pre-fund several days of expected spending, resulting in lower idle capital and faster reconciliation.
"That daily settlement cycle means our partners can operate with reserve requirements up to 60% lower than a traditional program. That's real capital efficiency, and for a scaling company, it matters," Malik added.
Global from day one: Another benefit of this structure is that platforms do not need to hold funds across different correspondent banks in every jurisdiction where they want to run a card program. That creates a more scalable way for fintechs and digital platforms to launch card programs across markets.
"Historically, global card issuance meant a multi-year buildout with country-by-country compliance, pre-funded balances scattered across the correspondent banking system, and high reserve requirements. With Rain, a company can launch a global program from day one," Malik noted.
Outlook: These benefits suggest Whop is unlikely to remain a non-crypto-native outlier for long. As Malik told Blockstories, Rain is already seeing interest from traditional fintechs around the world, each looking to use stablecoin-linked cards for different parts of their payment stack:
"The segments we're most excited about right now are traditional fintechs in the US, LATAM, and the EU that are rewiring their underlying payment pipes, remittance platforms that want to cut costs on cross-border flows, marketplaces that need to pay out creators and contractors around the world, and B2B neobanks that are building spending products for their business customers."
Chuk Okpalugo is Editor & Podcast host at This Week in Fintech and former Product Lead at stablecoin issuer Paxos.
How are stablecoin-linked cards reshaping the role of payment networks like Visa and Mastercard, and how could that role evolve as adoption grows?
Visa and Mastercard are often reduced to “money movement,” but their role is much broader. They provide global acceptance, network rules, governance, fraud controls, dispute frameworks, incentives, and trust mediation between issuers, acquirers, merchants, processors, and consumers. When a merchant accepts a card payment, they know that funds are guaranteed. When a consumer has a problem, there is a defined dispute process. Stablecoins do not automatically recreate these functions.
That is why I expect the card networks to remain important for the foreseeable future. Their acceptance, trust, and incentive layers continue to matter. What is already starting to change, however, is the settlement and funding layer beneath them.
Stablecoin-linked card programs show how this shift can play out. Card payments can still run through Visa and Mastercard at the point of sale, while stablecoins are used in the background to reduce prefunding needs and speed up settlement. As adoption grows, stablecoins are unlikely to replace the network functions that make card payments work at scale. Instead, they are likely to become a larger part of the settlement infrastructure underneath those networks.
Led by a progressive banking sector and a fast-growing tokenization ecosystem, Spain has become one of Europe’s most interesting digital asset markets.
In our latest research report, we map the Spanish ecosystem and break down the five characteristics that make the market unique and well-positioned for its next phase of growth.
Circle: Senior Counsel (Arc), London 🇬🇧
Galaxy: VP - Quantitative Developer, London 🇬🇧
Monad Foundation: Tokenization Lead, Europe 🇪🇺
Revolut: Head of Finance (Crypto), Luxembourg 🇱🇺
RockawayX: Venture Analyst, Global 🌐
Spiko: Crypto GTM Lead, Paris 🇫🇷
Tether: Technical Project Manager Tether Wallet, Global 🌐
Zama: Ecosystem Partnerships Lead, Paris 🇫🇷
Variational | $50 million | Series A : Onchain derivatives trading protocol.
Catena Labs | $30 million | Series A : AI agent-compatible banking infrastructure.
Checker | $8 million | Seed : Institutional-grade stablecoin infrastructure provider.
Sorted | $4.4 million | Seed : Mobile crypto wallet targeting emerging markets.
What’s the news?
Next week, the Proof of Talk conference will return for its fourth edition.
More than 2,500 top executives from traditional finance and digital assets will gather at the Louvre Palace in Paris to discuss where the industry is headed in the months and years ahead.
Blockstories will be on-site as a media partner. We also have a limited number of complimentary passes for readers. Details below.
Interview: We took the opportunity to sit down with Zohair Dehnadi, Co-founder and CEO of Proof of Talk, to discuss how the profile of attendees and speakers has evolved since the first conference in 2023, and which conversations he believes the industry needs to have most urgently this year.
Interested in joining Proof of Talk?
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To apply, reply to this email with a few lines on who you are and why you’d like to attend. We’ll review all replies and select ten readers for a complimentary general admission pass.
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Disclaimer: The information provided in the Crypto Briefing by Blockstories does not constitute investment advice. Accordingly, we assume no liability for any investment decisions made based on the content presented herein.
