Author: Rinat Mirzaitov

Ethereum processed more than $8 trillion in stablecoin transfers in the fourth quarter, a new all-time high that is reshaping how policymakers view the future of digital money. The milestone highlights how private, dollar-denominated stablecoins have quietly become a core payments layer, just as Europe debates whether and how to introduce a digital euro. Drawing on on-chain analytics from Token Terminal and Blockworks, the data show that stablecoin transfer volumes on Ethereum nearly doubled compared with earlier quarters. Network activity also surged, with transaction counts and active addresses reaching record levels toward the end of the year. For much of…

European banks could face implementation costs running into tens of billions of euros to support a digital euro, even as new research from the European Central Bank suggests a sizeable share of households may be open to using it. Together, the two studies underline a growing tension at the heart of the project, consumer demand may exist, but the operational burden on banks remains heavy and politically sensitive. A PwC study published in June, commissioned by banking industry groups, estimates that euro area retail banks could face around €18 billion in “change costs” to implement a digital euro under current…

Europe’s digital euro debate is narrowing to a deceptively simple political question: how close can a public digital payment instrument get to the privacy of cash without weakening anti-money-laundering controls. That tension, highlighted again this week in the crypto press, is increasingly shaping the contours of the legislative talks in Brussels. The emerging compromise is not “full anonymity” versus “full traceability”. It is a two-track model in which cash-like privacy is delivered primarily through offline payments, while online payments remain subject to the compliance checks that underpin Europe’s financial crime regime. Offline privacy is becoming the political anchor The European…

The fintech industry is entering a more sober and institutional phase. After years of experimentation driven by startups and venture capital, 2026 is shaping up to be a year defined by two familiar forces: banks and stablecoins. Together, they are expected to dominate fintech activity, investment, and real-world adoption, marking a clear shift away from speculative innovation toward regulated, large-scale financial infrastructure. This transition reflects a broader rebalancing in global finance. Higher interest rates, tighter regulation, and slowing venture funding have weakened the business case for many standalone fintechs. At the same time, banks have absorbed much of the technological…

The global stablecoin market is expanding at a pace that is increasingly difficult for European policymakers to ignore. While the European Union continues legislative and technical work on a digital euro, private dollar-backed stablecoins are growing in scale, speed, and global reach, reinforcing US monetary influence in digital payments. Recent analysis by crypto media outlet Decrypt highlights how a small group of stablecoins are moving faster than the rest of the market in 2025. The focus is not just on size, but on velocity, how quickly new tokens are issued, circulated, and used for settlement. This distinction matters, because payments…

A security breach affecting the browser extension of Trust Wallet has resulted in an estimated $7 million in stolen cryptocurrency, underscoring persistent vulnerabilities in consumer crypto infrastructure. The incident, reported by Yahoo Finance, involved a malicious software update that exposed users’ recovery phrases, allowing attackers to drain funds without further interaction. According to the report, the issue was limited to a specific version of Trust Wallet’s Chrome extension. Malicious code was embedded into what appeared to be a routine update, creating a supply-chain-style attack. When affected users opened the extension or imported their seed phrases, the compromised software silently transmitted…

The European debate on the digital euro often focuses on technology choices, privacy guarantees, and legislative timelines. A new report from Ortec Finance and NextWealth suggests the harder challenge lies elsewhere: how to scale financial innovation without sacrificing trust, explainability, and regulatory control. That lesson matters directly for the digital euro as it moves from concept to implementation. The report, Innovation with Integrity, examines how UK wealth and advice firms are struggling to modernise their systems under tighter consumer protection rules. While the context is retail financial advice, the underlying problem mirrors the digital euro debate. How do institutions introduce…

BC Card has completed a two-month pilot allowing foreign visitors to pay at South Korean merchants using overseas stablecoins, marking one of the most concrete tests to date of how crypto-based value could integrate with a mainstream card payment network. The proof-of-concept, which ran from October to December, enabled foreign users holding foreign-currency stablecoins in overseas digital wallets to convert those assets into digital prepaid cards and make QR code payments at BC Card merchants, including convenience stores, cafés and supermarkets. No physical card or traditional currency exchange was required. Stablecoins inside existing card rails The trial was led by…

Artificial intelligence and fast-improving humanoid robots are pushing Europe into a new policy debate, not just about productivity, but about income security and access to essential services. If more work is automated, governments may face pressure to expand universal basic income (UBI) or universal basic services (UBS), and the digital euro could become an important way to distribute public money quickly, securely, and at scale. In the near term, AI adoption is already reshaping labour markets and workplace practices, with EU-level research warning that algorithmic management and AI tools can expand worker exposure to automated decision-making. At the same time,…

Central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, are moving from theory to reality as governments rethink how money should function in an increasingly digital and geopolitically fragmented world. In Europe, this debate has crystallised around the digital euro, a proposed public digital form of cash issued by the European Central Bank. At its core, a CBDC is digital public money, a direct claim on a central bank, designed to complement cash and commercial bank deposits. Unlike cryptocurrencies, CBDCs are issued by the state, anchored to monetary policy and embedded in existing legal frameworks. More than 130 jurisdictions are now exploring or…