This week was heavy on payment infrastructure, legacy players and crypto-native ones moving in the same direction. Plus an exploit, a recovery, and a few structural shifts worth noting.

🔎 Recent Updates & Developments

– Visa expanded stablecoin settlement to 9 blockchains, reaching a $7B annualized run rate and strengthening payment infrastructure

– Circle launched gas-free USDC nanopayments on mainnet, enabling instant low-cost transfers for AI agents and machine commerce

– Western Union will launch Solana-based stablecoin USDPT and payment card, positioning it as an onchain alternative to SWIFT

– Polymarket upgraded its exchange stack with pUSD migration, rebuilt infrastructure, and preparations for perpetual futures

– Ondo Finance added proxy voting for $700M tokenized equities, bringing governance closer to traditional stock ownership

– Squads raised $18M led by Solana Ventures to scale stablecoin banking infrastructure for global business payments

– Tether backed Belo’s $14M raise to expand stablecoin payments across Latin America and digital dollar adoption