This week:

Want to get notified as soon as we press publish?

_{Have a story we should cover or have a project to share? Reply to this email. We're building our editorial calendar with input from builders, investors, and operators like you.}

Western Union officially launched USDPT today, its U.S. dollar payment stablecoin on Solana, issued by Anchorage Digital and integrated with Fireblocks. Initial rollout is in the Philippines and Bolivia, with the consumer-facing "Stable by Western Union" app coming to 40+ countries through 2026.

This isn't the first time we've covered Western Union's stablecoin strategy. Zach sat down with Malcolm Clarke, VP of Digital Assets at Western Union, at A Very Stable Conference 2026 to walk through the full four-product strategy that USDPT is the first piece of. Watch the conversation:

Zach also interviewed Malcolm earlier on Stableminded S6 - "From Telegraph to Stablecoins" - on how a 170-year-old remittance company was rethinking itself for stablecoin rails.

Stepan Simkin, CEO of Squads / Altitude, on the $18M Solana Ventures round and why Altitude isn't a bank - it's a financial operating system for businesses, built on stablecoin rails. Watch the full segment below on Youtube, also available on Spotify:

Building the First Stablecoin Treasury Platform for Global CFOs
Eric Queathem, Co-Founder of Velocity, on the London-based Stablecoin Payment Account and what payments veterans build when they design for treasurers instead of crypto-natives.

Canada's First Regulated CAD Stablecoin Goes Live
Didier Lavallee, CEO of Tetra Digital Group, on CADD officially launching live on Base, Ethereum, and Tempo with an eight-firm design partner roster led by Wealthsimple, Shopify, and National Bank of Canada.

Five back-to-back conversations from the Altitude booth, one per layer of the Solana stablecoin stack.

_{Click the story to read more}

Western Union Launches USDPT on Solana via Anchorage Digital

a16z Crypto Closes $2.2B Fund Five, Doubles Down on Pure-Play Blockchain Strategy

Bullish Tokenizes Its Entire Cap Table and Announces $4.2B Equiniti Acquisition

MoonPay Acquires DFlow in $100M All-Stock Deal

State Street and Galaxy Launch SWEEP Fund Onchain for Institutional Cash Management

Coinbase Targets Institutional RWA Market with Strategic Equity Investment in Centrifuge

Solana Foundation and Google Cloud Launch Pay.sh - a Stablecoin Payment Gateway for AI Agents

Circle's USYC Crosses $3 Billion in Assets Under Management

Rain Secures Mastercard Principal Membership, Expanding $3B Stablecoin Payment Infrastructure

Squads' Altitude Integrates Rain for 2% Cashback Stablecoin Card

Tether Posts $1.04B Q1 Profit as Reserves Hit Record $8.23B

Dfns is the institutional-grade custody and wallet infrastructure platform that lets enterprises build with digital assets — without building custody themselves. Secure key management, programmable wallets, and enterprise-grade compliance, all through one API.

Start building today.

Special thanks to our sponsors: Altitude, Arculus, Artemis, Agora, Credit Coop, Coast and KAST.