Republicans released a revised version of the CLARITY Act with concessions on ethics rules, in a final attempt to win the Democratic votes needed to advance the bill.
In parallel, the WTO released a study identifying fragmented regulation as the main barrier to stablecoin adoption in international trade, while the Bank of Italy began requiring sanctions screening on crypto-asset transfers.
On the product side, Nu began operating in the United States with an international account built on USDC and EURC, and Visa began financing stablecoin-linked card programs using settlement data.
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We're back on X
Lumx has returned to X under a new handle, @lumxhq, and is building its presence from scratch. The decision reflects the understanding that much of the builder community and the discussion around stablecoin infrastructure happens on the platform. The company acknowledges that X's culture is the hardest to read among the networks where it is active, and invites people who use the platform to share what works in practice.
The decisive week for the CLARITY Act in the U.S. Senate
In short:
Republicans released a revised version of the CLARITY Act on Sunday, presented as their last and best offer, ahead of Tuesday's procedural vote.
Trump accepted stricter ethics rules, including divestment or a blind trust, oversight by state attorneys general, and no expiration date.
Democrats prepared a counterproposal, leaving the outcome open.
The cloture vote requires 60 votes, meaning at least seven Democrats must vote in favor. Decrypt detailed the changes to the text, and Cointelegraph reported that the Democratic counterproposal had been sent, according to reporting by Politico.
For the stablecoin sector, the key point is the yield agreement, which Republicans kept despite banks' request to broaden the ban on rewards. In exchange, the bill added a circuit breaker provision that authorizes the Treasury Secretary to intervene if there is evidence of widespread deposit flight from community banks into stablecoins. The text also removed explicit protections against criminal prosecution for developers who do not custody funds, while strengthening civil protections and extending them to miners and validators. Alex Thorn of Galaxy raised his estimate of the bill's chances of passing in 2026 from 10% to 25%.
The WTO says stablecoins' bottleneck in trade isn't technological
In short:
For Juan Marchetti, the WTO's director of trade in services and investment, the limiting factor for adoption is underdeveloped regulatory frameworks.
Stablecoins account for about 3% of all international payments.
Only 39% of the jurisdictions surveyed by the FSB, 11 out of 28, have finalized their regulatory frameworks.
Marchetti spoke in Geneva at the launch of the WTO study on stablecoins in global trade. The report maps five frictions in the current international payments system, which is built on correspondent banking and which stablecoins could reduce: high cost, low speed, limited access, insufficient transparency and currency restrictions. It also records 35-fold growth in cross-border stablecoin payments between 2020 and mid-2024.
Marchetti noted that developing economies stand to gain the most, through lower remittance costs, and are at the same time the ones with the least developed regulatory regimes. According to him, the contribution to trade will depend less on technology than on regulatory convergence, interoperability and the surrounding financial infrastructure. In practice, adoption and regulation in these markets tend to move together, with demand arising from concrete foreign exchange and remittance pain points and regulators building on existing use. Brazil is an example of both sides, having created one of the most widely used instant payment systems in the world while continuing to advance its virtual asset framework with the market already in operation.
The Bank of Italy now requires sanctions screening on crypto transfers
In short:
Banca d'Italia has ordered crypto-asset service providers to implement internal policies and controls to enforce European Union financial sanctions.
The guidance calls for adequate controls to identify customers and transactions linked to sanctioned entities.
The measure responds to the growing use of crypto by Russian and Iranian entities to evade sanctions.
The Italian central bank published the communication on Monday. For context, the ruble-backed stablecoin A7A5 processed 110 billion dollars in cumulative transactions between February 2025 and May 2026, according to CertiK, despite being targeted by Western sanctions.
The requirement represents a significant fixed compliance cost, since sanctions screening demands an ongoing process, list updates and handling of false positives. Taken together with the WTO study, it points to a scenario in which the cost of entering the regulated market is likely to rise predictably, favoring those who get structured before the rules are finalized.
Nubank launched a global account that runs on stablecoins
In short:
Nu began operating in the United States and launched Nu Global, a multi-currency digital account for customers whose lives span multiple countries.
In Nu Global, all deposits are converted into USDC or EURC, with daily yield of 3.50% and 2.20% per year, respectively.
The account sends and receives money in more than 35 countries, with a virtual Mastercard card and fee-free transfers.
Nu announced both initiatives on September 10. In the United States, operations begin under a partner bank model, with deposits held at Lead Bank, which is FDIC-insured, an account yielding 3.50% per year and a Mastercard credit card with no annual fee. The company received conditional approval from the OCC for a national bank charter in January.
Nu Global is not a crypto wallet bolted onto the app, but the bank's international account, with stablecoins operating as the rails beneath the experience. Deposits become digital dollars or euros, earn yield daily and are spent through a virtual Mastercard card with no FX markup. The company grounds the product in World Bank data, according to which more than 300 million people live between countries, moved around 800 billion dollars in 2025 and lose an average of 6% to fees and exchange rate margins. The tokens are issued by Circle, with Nu handling distribution, the same design Revolut adopted when it launched EURR.
Visa began financing stablecoin card programs with onchain credit
In short:
Visa is combining VisaNet settlement data with onchain records so that lenders can assess payment businesses and set financing terms.
The network's stablecoin settlement volume has surpassed an annualized run rate of 20 billion dollars, an increase of more than 15 times.
An initial model with Credit Coop has financed more than 2.5 billion dollars in settlement volume since 2023, with no defaults on participating credit lines.
Visa announced the initiative on Tuesday. The model uses settlement receivables as the basis for the loan, with repayment collected from those same flows and Credit Coop automating funding, collateral and amortization via smart contract.
The initiative targets the working capital constraint in payment businesses, where traditional financing usually requires scale, a long track record and manual underwriting. Volume across the network's more than 160 stablecoin-linked card programs grew nearly 200% in one year, and onchain credit protocols have already processed more than 694 billion dollars in stablecoin loans since 2020. The company did not disclose participating lenders, rates or broader availability.
Worth reading
Jack Appleby analyzed a behavioral shift with a direct impact on content strategy: audiences are still consuming, but they have stopped liking and commenting. A survey by Gabriel Davis of 2.5 million Instagram posts between January 2025 and May 2026 shows a 73% drop in likes on carousels and 81% on Reels, with comments falling 39% and 46%. The platforms have already adapted, prioritizing watch time, completion rate and shares. The recommendation is to downgrade likes and comments to secondary metrics.
Story of the week
Tom Orbach argued that "proof of humanity" is now the biggest marketing opportunity available, treating AI fatigue as a competitive advantage. Gartner research indicates that 53% of customers would consider switching companies upon discovering the use of AI in customer service, and a Gallup survey shows that 66% of people under 30 react negatively to AI in advertising. Examples include Port, which replaced its chatbot with a Slack connector staffed by people; Aerie, which committed to not using AI-generated people in its ads; Wiz, which set up an AI-free zone at a conference; Cursor, which rented a café to put engineers in direct contact with users; and Ramp, which filmed an actor filling out expense reports by hand for seven hours in a glass office, drawing more than 85 million views.
Further reading on AI, markets and the surrounding infrastructure
Five simple hacks to make your copy more persuasive — LinkedIn
AI agents spending money online? New research says not yet — Decrypt
OpenAI asked Congress whether jointly slowing down AI would be legal — Decrypt
Meta launched Muse, its personal AI agent — The New York Times
Zuckerberg says the science isn't settled, but the harms of short-form video are starting to show — The Guardian
U.S. House crypto tax package leaves out deferral of mining and staking rewards — Cointelegraph
This was Stable News, a weekly roundup to keep you up to date on the latest stablecoin developments around the globe.
