Stable News is Lumx’s weekly curation dedicated to tracking the key movements in stablecoins, digital infrastructure, and the future of global payments.
After a special edition focused on ecosystem events, this week marks a return to the newsletter’s traditional format. The backdrop of the news reveals a clear redistribution of power within the financial system: asset managers take on the role of issuers, regulators begin selecting winners through licensing, and banks attempt to limit functionalities that threaten their funding models.
Reading time: 5 minutes
A quick update from Lumx
Before moving on to this week’s news, a few recent developments reinforce the practical agenda being built around stablecoins, infrastructure, and regulation.
Lumx In Company – Online
Lumx In Company – Online takes place this week with 90% of seats filled, bringing together operations, risk, compliance, product, and strategy teams to discuss the practical implementation of stablecoins in regulated environments.
More information about the event and registration is available here.
Stable Talks S02E06
In the latest episode of Stable Talks, Caio Barbosa and Julián Colombo sit down with Juan Diego (Capa) to discuss the transition from stablecoin arbitrage strategies to B2B FX infrastructure.
The conversation covers liquidity, compliance, banking relationships, and the factors that truly unlock scale in cross-border payments, an episode that connects stablecoins to execution, market dynamics, and founder perspective.
The full episode is available here.
Lumx on Times Brasil | CNBC
Lumx also appeared in an interview on Times Brasil, CNBC Exclusive Licensee, discussing the consolidation of stablecoins as an operational tool for cross-border payments and the direct impact of regulatory progress in Brazil, the United States, and Europe.
A short but representative conversation of the market’s maturation, available here.
Fidelity enters the market with its own Ethereum-based stablecoin
In brief:
Stablecoins are treated as a natural extension of financial infrastructure
Traditional asset managers step in as issuers, not just users
Ethereum consolidates as the preferred layer for institutional settlement
Fidelity announced the imminent launch of the Fidelity Digital Dollar (FIDD), a dollar-backed stablecoin to be issued through its subsidiary Fidelity Digital Assets and initially operating on Ethereum.
The move places one of the world’s largest asset managers, with roughly $5 trillion under management, directly into the stablecoin market. Beyond competing for distribution, the initiative reinforces the institutional use of stablecoins as a settlement and integration layer for existing financial products, in line with the regulatory progress observed following the GENIUS Act.
Circle bets on “durable infrastructure” to accelerate institutional adoption
In brief:
Infrastructure becomes the core of the strategy, not the token
Institutional adoption depends less on innovation and more on execution
UX, integration, and compliance become critical vectors
Circle signaled that 2026 will be less focused on narrative expansion and more on operational robustness. Highlights include progress on the Arc blockchain, aimed at institutional use, and the expansion of payment infrastructure to allow companies to adopt stablecoins without having to build the entire stack from scratch.
The takeaway is clear: stablecoins as a product tend toward commoditization. Differentiation shifts to infrastructure orchestration, reliability, and the ability to scale under institutional standards.
Hong Kong prepares to grant its first stablecoin licenses
In brief:
Licensing begins to filter maturity, not just intent
Stablecoins enter the same requirement regime as financial institutions
Regulation becomes a funnel, not a seal of approval
Hong Kong’s monetary authority confirmed it intends to grant, as early as March, the first group of licenses for stablecoin issuers, an initially very limited number.
The key point is not who will be licensed, but the criteria applied: real use cases, risk management, AML, and operational readiness. The regulator explicitly stated that many applications failed due to a lack of credible implementation plans, marking the shift from regulatory frameworks to concrete execution.
Banks warn of “bank runs,” regulators see limited impact
In brief:
Stablecoins are treated as a systemic variable
The debate shifts from “if” to “how” and “how far”
The CLARITY Act consolidates as a central theme for 2026
The debate over yield-bearing stablecoins remains at the center of regulatory discussions, particularly in the context of the CLARITY Act in the United States. Banks argue that stablecoins could drain deposits from the traditional system; analysts and regulators, so far, see little empirical evidence of immediate risk.
The emerging consensus is that the impact is conditional on future scale, but the structural tension remains: who captures the yield on reserves and what role stablecoins play within the traditional financial system. This clash helps explain why the CLARITY Act remains stalled amid intense political lobbying.
Taken together, this edition reinforces that discussing stablecoins as infrastructure means moving beyond narratives and rhetoric. The focus shifts to licenses, flows, governance, compliance, and consistent execution.
With asset managers acting as issuers, regulators raising the bar, and banks pushing functional limits, the market enters a phase of operational responsibility. More than innovation, differentiation now lies in the ability to operate at scale, within the rules, and with predictability.
See you in the next edition.
