GM!
Today’s top news:
Crypto majors rebound sharply, up 4-8%; BTC at $65.7k Meta confirms plans to re-enter stablecoins across Facebook, Whatsapp and IG Coinbase launches 24/5 stock trading with no fees & fractional shares Tether teased an upcoming product, with speculation of card or neobank Virtual rebounds 20% as Base continues to drive the onchain AI meta Stablecoins Are Eating Everything Forget crypto winter.
What Happened Meta sent RFPs to crypto infrastructure firms seeking a third-party partner to administer stablecoin-based payments across Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, targeting a launch early in H2 2026.
Stripe, which acquired stablecoin platform Bridge last year and whose CEO Patrick Collison sits on Meta’s board, is the leading candidate. This comes after Stripe processed $1.9 trillion in total payment volume last year, up 34%. Bridge volume quadrupled. Stripe also received a national bank trust charter from the OCC last week, letting it custody crypto and manage stablecoin reserves directly.
️ What They’re Saying “It may be a crypto winter, but it’s a stablecoin summer.”
“Stablecoin payments are advancing quietly and inexorably as real-world uptake continues apace.” - Patrick and John Collison, Stripe annual letter
“Nothing has changed; there is still no Meta stablecoin. This is about enabling people and businesses to make payments on our platforms using their preferred method.” - Andy Stone, Meta communications director
🧠 Why It Matters A Meta stablecoin is a big deal.
Facebook has 3.2 billion monthly active users. WhatsApp has 3 billion, with an 84.1% daily open rate (the highest of any major app) and 100 billion messages sent every day. Instagram hits another 3 billion.
Meta's full family of apps reaches 3.98 billion unique people per month. That's roughly half the world's population.
For those who don’t remember, Meta’s prior stablecoin attempt failed because regulators came down hard on a company trying to issue its own global currency. This time, Meta is doing none of that. They’re opting to be stablecoin agnostic, using third-party rails.
They learned the lesson and now the regulatory environment under the GENIUS Act has made it easier to execute.
If Meta gets this working across WhatsApp alone—remittances, creator payouts, cross-border transfers—that’s a stablecoin use case at a scale that could dwarf everything currently on-chain.
Stablecoin supply and volumes would soar.
For traders: the clearest beneficiaries are Circle (USDC issuer, likely integration candidate), Tether (always in the driver's seat), Stripe itself, and any infrastructure layer that sits between the wallet and settlement. And Meta of course…
Macro Crypto and Markets Crypto majors are very green after a big rebound; BTC +4% at $65.7K; ETH +6% at $1,940; SOL +8% at $83 Virtual (+20%), Morpho (+16%), DOT (+13%) and ETHFI (+13%) led top movers; AVAX +10% as well Bitcoin is down 50% from its all-time high as trader sentiment turns increasingly bearish, per Decrypt reporting today. The Ethereum Foundation began staking 70,000 ETH from its treasury, with an initial 2,106 ETH deposit going live today; staking rewards will fund protocol R&D and ecosystem grants Vitalik has sold more than 10,700 ETH since early February, netting roughly $6.1M, with the proceeds used to help fund the Ethereum Foundation The Trump administration is publicly pressuring the crypto industry to revive the stalled market structure bill Meanwhile, World Liberty Financial is siding with Coinbase against the White House’s version of the market structure bill, creating a split between Trump’s administration and Trump’s own crypto business over stablecoin yield language Michigan lawmakers introduced a bill that would allow state employees to receive wages in Bitcoin Solana DeFi TVL has declined 52% from its September peak to $6.3B Tether teased an upcoming product announcement, with speculation of a neobank and/or payments card Trump’s White House Has One View of Crypto Legislation. His Family’s Crypto Company Has Another
Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker Coinbase announced tokenized stock trading, available 24/5, with 0 commission fees and with fractional shares available Kraken launched tokenized equity perpetual futures via its xStocks framework, offering up to 20x leverage on assets including the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, Apple, Nvidia, Tesla, and GLD Binance returned to tokenized stocks for the first time since its 2021 regulatory pullback, listing 10 Ondo Finance-issued U.S. stock, ETF, and commodity tokens on Binance Alpha Aave DAO published an audit of Aave Labs historical performance ahead of their $51M ask tomorrow EtherFi announced its Earn function available on its iOS app
What is happening in NFTs? NFT leaders were slightly red with ETH rebounding; Punks -1% at 29.7 ETH, Pudgy -1% at 4.45 ETH, BAYC even at 6 ETH; Hypurr’s +2% at 467 HYPE Doodles (+14%) and Moonbirds (+5%) led top movers Ether Rock sells for 69.9 ETH XCOPY’s ‘Last Selfie’ gets $1M loan 
