Circle and Hashnote: melding money and securities

... and other key developments in stablecoins from the past month

“Using technology merely to lower operational costs amounts to standing on a whale fishing for minnows. It just allows you to do the old thing more efficiently, where in this moment of deep transformation, it is much more likely that you should be doing something entirely new in an entirely different way.” – Paul Saffo ||

Hi all!

I don’t know about you, but I really need a break from DeepSeek and AI. So, today, I finally share the regular (cough) roundup of key developments over the past few weeks, this time focusing on stablecoins.

The biggest move on that front over the past month was Circle’s acquisition of Hashnote. Below, I dive into what I think that means for Circle, and also for our understanding of money. I also comment on stablecoin reserves, fintech launches and Tether’s expansion.

Programming note: this newsletter has to skip publication tomorrow – back in your inboxes on Friday!

IN THIS NEWSLETTER:

**Stablecoins: key developments over past month**

• Circle and Hashnote: melding money and securities

• BUIDL as collateral

• Fintech stablecoins

• Tether expansion

If you’re not a premium subscriber, I hope you’ll consider becoming one! You get ~daily commentary on markets, tokenization, regulation and other signs that crypto IS impacting the macro landscape. As well as audio, relevant links and music recommendations ‘cos why not.

WHAT I’M WATCHING:

**Stablecoins: key developments over past month**

With a bit of delay, here’s the regular roundup where I share the top four events in either tokenization, stablecoins, CBDCs or regulation over the past month – today, it’s the turn of stablecoins. My hope here is to sketch out key developments while muting noise, so we can all get a clearer idea of where the crypto-macro overlap is heading.

Circle and Hashnote: melding money and securities