Snippings

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Since Chinese banks can and do transact outside swift, the yuan’s role in international payments is probably being undercounted, says Josh Lipsky of the Atlantic Council, an American think-tank.
More than 1,700 banks have signed up to cips across the globe, up by a third since before the war in Ukraine. Transaction volumes rose faster than ever in 2024, up by 43% to 175trn yuan ($24trn). Clearing banks to settle yuan payments (almost all of which are operated by Chinese institutions) have been set up in 33 markets.

From: China is ditching the dollar, fast.

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EWS is in the early stages of investigating whether to build the infrastructure to create and issue a stablecoin aimed at retail bank customers.

If the plan proceeds it would mark a major step in the mainstreaming of stablecoins in the US: Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and PNC are among the company’s owners.

From: Zelle owner investigates launch of own stablecoin – report.

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in a court filing from last week, Google admitted that “the open web is already in rapid decline,”

From: Google admits the open web is in ‘rapid decline’ | The Verge.

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In that court filing Google said that:

“The fact is that today, the open web is already in rapid decline and Plaintiffs’ divestiture proposal would only accelerate that decline, harming publishers who currently rely on open-web display advertising revenue.”

The people who run Google are not stupid, and they have seen what the transition to the post-web (that is, the web but for AI agents, not for people) will mean.

Is it time to start thinking about micropayments again? In particular, since most everything on the post-web will be produced by AI and since most everything on the post-web will be consumed by AI, is time to start thinking about AI-AI micropayments? 

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in a court filing from last week, Google admitted that “the open web is already in rapid decline,”

From: Google admits the open web is in ‘rapid decline’ | The Verge.

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Edi Rama, PM, says digital assistant Diella will make Albania ‘a country where public tenders are 100% free of corruption’

From: Albania puts AI-created ‘minister’ in charge of public procurement | Albania | The Guardian.

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The battle is taking place among users of Hyperliquid, a fast-growing decentralized crypto exchange. They are considering reducing their use of Circle’s USDC, the main stablecoin on Hyperliquid. Competitors are rushing in, offering far better deals to Hyperliquid’s customers.

The Takeaway

• Crypto platform Hyperliquid users may lower use of Circle’s stablecoin
• Hyperliquid users hold 8% of Circle’s stablecoin, potentially hurting revenue
• Paxos, Agora, Native Markets among those bidding to issue new stablecoin
Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that are typically pegged to the dollar and keep most of their assets in safe investments such as U.S. Treasurys. They have been embraced by crypto traders as a way to park money for use as collateral and for international money transfers.

The fight is bad news for Circle, the stablecoin issuer that had a blockbuster initial public offering earlier this year. Stablecoins have become very lucrative businesses because they don’t pay interest they earn on their investments to their customers. Circle does share about half of its interest payments with select exchanges such as Coinbase that use its token, while Tether, the biggest stablecoin issuer, keeps all of its interest payments.

The stablecoin legislation that passed Congress banned stablecoin issuers from directly paying interest to end users. It does allow stablecoin issuers to share their revenue with exchanges, which then reward investors who hold the stablecoins.

Now, Hyperliquid has started a price war. Stablecoin issuers hoping to steal Circle’s business are offering to share an increasing portion of their revenue, in some cases all of it, with Hyperliquid. The fight could quickly turn stablecoins into a commodity business where profits are under constant pressure.

From: Crypto Exchange Sets Off Price War for Stablecoins — The Information.

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Revolut, the global fintech with over 60 million customers globally, and hundreds of thousands of business customers, has today announced the launch of Pay by Bank as an option on the Revolut Gateway. This new feature enables businesses to accept fast and secure payments directly from a customer’s bank account, providing a seamless experience for consumers and significant benefits for merchants.

From: Revolut adds Pay by Bank option to their Payment Gateway | Revolut United Kingdom.

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The term “agent” or “agentic” has become so ubiquitous in the business world that it can now seem to mean everything or nothing at all.

From: The Seven Kinds of AI Agents — The Information.

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ut one could easily imagine a flight to safety into which crypto companies like, say, Tether (which has more US Treasury holdings than Germany) must sell T-bills into a down market to cover redemptions. Then you’ve got a fire sale, higher borrowing costs, and yet another disastrous situation in which Main Street is under pressure to bail out speculators.

From: The coming crypto crisis.

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As we will explore in further detail in our upcoming client alert, the ability of appropriately qualified non-banks to issue payment stablecoins in order to settle or redeem payments provides a powerful tool for fintechs.

But just because a fintech uses stablecoins to redeem or settle payments, does that mean it would no longer need state money transmitter licenses? Yes, that appears to be the case.

From: Will Payment Stablecoins Mean the End of State Money Transmitter Licensing? – FinTech and Blockchain Law Watch.

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