Visa announced a new Visa Direct pilot that lets businesses fund payouts in fiat while recipients opt to receive funds in USD-backed stablecoins like USDC, enabling near-instant, borderless transfers to on-chain wallets. Revealed at Web Summit and expanded from a SIBOS 2025 pilot, the initiative targets faster, more flexible cross-border payments and financial inclusion in regions with currency volatility or limited banking access.

Franklin Templeton has unveiled the Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund for professional investors in Hong Kong, a first-of-its-kind “end-to-end” tokenized money market fund that issues, distributes, and services its shares entirely on a blockchain ledger — while still operating under the European UCITS regulatory umbrella.

S&P Global Ratings assigned Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy a B- credit rating, placing it firmly in speculative “junk bond” territory while maintaining a stable outlook. The agency cited the company’s narrow business focus on Bitcoin, high BTC concentration, weak risk-adjusted capitalization, and low U.S. dollar liquidity as key weaknesses.