From Circle to SPAR to Panama City, Everyone’s Saying Yes to Crypto 🌍

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👀 This week, Circle aims global payments, Panama City opens its city payments to crypto, Italy sounds the alarm on stablecoins, and Visa doubles down on blockchain. The shift from speculation to real-world deployment is officially underway.

Let’s dive in. 🔥

🏛️ Regulation

🇵🇦 Panama City embraces crypto for services! Residents can now pay taxes and fees using Bitcoin, Ether, USDC, and USDT through a government-partnered crypto-to-dollar conversion system. See how

🇮🇹 Italy warns of stablecoin threat! Italy's finance minister claims U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins pose a greater risk to the euro than tariffs, urging EU’s action. Read about Europe's response

🛑 Northern Marianas vetoes local stablecoin! Governor Palacios blocked Tinian’s attempt to launch a fully backed USD stablecoin, citing legal and constitutional concerns. See why

📊 Stablecoins to drive Treasury boom. If U.S. stablecoin laws pass, the market may hit $2T, massively boosting short-term Treasury demand and dollar dominance. Check the forecast

🌍 Adoption

🇦🇹 SPAR pilots crypto payments in-store. Grocery giant SPAR lets shoppers in Zug, Switzerland, pay with crypto to test crypto payments, a bold step into crypto retail. Check out how

⚡️ $10T giant Charles Schwab is going crypto. After a 400% spike in crypto traffic, the brokerage plans to launch spot crypto trading within 12 months, bringing mainstream infrastructure, liquidity, and legitimacy to digital assets. Read more details

🏫 Scottish school starts accepting Bitcoin payments! A private school in Scotland will accept Bitcoin for tuition and may establish a Bitcoin treasury reserve to hedge against inflation. Explore how

🏦 Tech & Partnerships

🚀 Circle is launching a stablecoin-powered cross-border payments network in May, targeting faster, cheaper B2B payments in emerging markets. The move sidesteps legacy FX rails and positions stablecoins as real-time global settlement tools. Read more on the spotlight story below

💷 JPMorgan expands Kinexys with GBP support! The Kinexys blockchain network now enables British pound transactions, addressing dollar-dominated stablecoin gaps and boosting cross-currency settlements. Get the full scoop

💳 Visa joins Paxos-Robinhood stablecoin group! Visa will partner with Paxos’ USDG consortium to promote stablecoin liquidity, offering yield-sharing unlike dominant players like Tether. Find out how

🌊 Tether backs Bitcoin mining pool Ocean! Tether invested in Ocean to decentralize Bitcoin mining and strengthen its presence in Bitcoin-native financial infrastructure. See how

🔍 Everything Else

⚔️ Stablecoin giants clash over U.S. rules! Bank of America, Tether, and Circle are vying to influence U.S. stablecoin regulations, each pushing for frameworks favoring their models. Explore the battle

🔗 USDh enhances Bitcoin DeFi liquidity! USDh now powers Zest Protocol liquidations, enabling scalable sBTC-backed loans and deeper stablecoin liquidity on Stacks. Discover how

💰 Resolv Labs secures $10M for USR! Resolv Labs raised $10 million in a seed round to scale its yield-generating stablecoin protocol, Resolv. The fundraising was led by Cyber Fund and Maven11, with Coinbase Ventures, SCB Limited, Arrington Capital, and Animoca Ventures also participating. Learn more

🔦 Spotlight Story: Circle Reinvents Cross-Border Payments with Stablecoins

Starting in May, the USDC issuer will launch the Circle Payments Network (CPN), a stablecoin-powered system to settle cross-border payments in real time using USDC, EURC, and other regulated stablecoins.

CPN aims to connect global financial institutions to domestic real-time payment systems, enabling use cases like supplier payouts, remittances, payroll, capital markets settlement, and even on-chain financial apps.

🧠 Why it matters: This isn’t a DeFi experiment; it’s TradFi infrastructure powered by stablecoins. Circle is going from protocol participant to rails builder, and the implications for emerging markets and dollarization are massive.

🚨 What’s Next? If Circle succeeds, it could change the game for global settlements and give USDC a stronger foothold in both B2B finance and digital commerce.

📈 Think Bigger: It’s not just payments. It’s a programmable financial infrastructure. If it works, Circle’s move could turn USDC into the internet’s preferred dollar!

🔗 Read Full Story

💬 The PayFi Pulse

Governments are split, but momentum isn’t. Retail is experimenting. TradFi is building.

Crypto’s no longer knocking, it’s inside! See you next week. 🚀