Canada: Cryptocurrencies Need Regulation to Prevent Money Laundering 3736

Canadian House finance committee wants the government to dramatically change the way it regulates cryptocurrencies to prevent their use in money laundering.

A cryptocurrency like Bitcoin is a form of electronic cash that’s become increasingly popular for making secure online transactions. Cryptocurrencies are attractive to money launderers because they’re generally anonymous and difficult to trace.

The committee is recommending how the government should regulate cryptocurrencies as part of its review of the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act (PCMLTFA), which at least one parliamentary committee is required to undertake every five years. The committee held 18 meetings for the purpose of the review, which it started in February. More than 70 expert witnesses from the field of finance contributed to it.

The committee recommended three significant ways the government should monitor cryptocurrencies.

First, it said exchanges when cryptocurrency is converted from fiat currency should be regulated. (Fiat currency is legal tender, such as the Canadian dollar.) In so doing, the entity conducting the exchange is considered a money-service business. In Canada, such businesses must follow strict financial-reporting guidelines in compliance with the PCMLTFA. The committee’s suggestion aligns with the department of Finance’s proposed amendments to the PCMLTFA, which were published in the Canada Gazette in June.

Second, the committee recommends that cryptocurrency exchanges require a licence, something other jurisdictions such as New York state have already done. In the witness-testimonials part of the report, the committee cites suggestions by financial adviser IJW & Co. and law firm Durand Morisseau LLP, both of which submitted a hefty 56-page joint brief.

“They further explained that in the absence of some degree of regulatory oversight, cryptocurrency transactions may be used by parties to swiftly move large amounts of wealth across borders, and that regulating (exchanges of fiat currencies for cryptocurrencies) would address the (anti-money-laundering) concerns of the cryptocurrency space,” says the report.

The committee’s final recommendation is that government should regulate crypto-wallets, which hold cryptocurrencies, so suspicious purchases can be traced more easily and police can track hacking or financial crime.

While the suggested changes are a small part of the committee’s review of the PCMLTFA, the government is required to table a response to the committee’s recommendations in the House of Commons within 120 days.

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Allstate launches Scam Protection to safeguard workers’ finances from rising cyber and crypto fraud 564

  • Allstate launches Scam Protection, a new workplace benefit that covers modern digital threats including scams, ransomware and cryptocurrency theft, featuring first-of-its-kind reimbursement up to $50,000 for verified scam losses.
  • Employers turn to Allstate amid record-breaking cybercrime trends. The insurer saved customers $33.2 million last year in potential losses, with holiday shopping periods like Black Friday and Cyber Monday driving the steep spikes in fraud claims.
  • Allstate Scam Protection is available to nearly 7 million people and their families through employer benefits. Companies are adding it to benefits packages to safeguard employees’ personal finances during open enrollment.
  • Coverage extends beyond employees to protect family members, including aging parents 65 and older, regardless of where they reside.

Allstate is helping employers safeguard workers’ finances and fight cybercrime with Allstate Scam Protection, including a first-of-its-kind reimbursement up to $50,000 when money, including cryptocurrency, is stolen through scams. The coverage is available exclusively through workplace benefits, reaching nearly 7 million employees and their families during open enrollment. Employees can check their workplace benefits or ask their HR team to see if Allstate Scam Protection is offered and how to enroll.

Cybercrime is surging, straining household finances and workplace productivity. Allstate Identity Protection recovered $33.2 million in potential identity theft losses for customers in 2024, with the fourth quarter alone costing $9.8 million. New account fraud drove $23.3 million in actual losses last year, while fraudulent applications added $5.5 million in potential exposure. Each identity theft case takes time and resources to resolve, draining employee time and productivity that often overlaps with the workday.

This new protection comes as cybercrime spikes during the holiday shopping season, especially around Black Friday and Cyber Monday, when phishing texts, fake retailers and social media scams are rampant.

“Scams cost employees time, money and productivity, impacting their families and their finances,” said Caroline Slane, senior vice president of business operations at Allstate Identity Protection. “This new scam protection fills a gap by putting money back in people’s hands so they can get back on their feet.”

What does Allstate Scam Protection cover?

Allstate Scam Protection goes beyond traditional identity theft products by covering new ways criminals steal money online with fewer exclusions. Here’s what’s included:

  • Reimbursement for scams, digital crimes and social engineering: Includes unlimited claims up to $50,000 per year.
  • Cryptocurrency theft coverage: Reimburses stolen crypto resulting from cybercrime up to $50,000 per year.
  • Web, email and mobile protection: Ensures safe web browsing, protects and alerts against fraudulent texts, emails, links, robocalls and robotexts.
  • Family coverage: The benefit covers unlimited household members, including teens and seniors 65 and older, providing protection for those most vulnerable, even if they live outside the home.
  • Scam takedown: Customers can report malicious URLs directly to Allstate’s cyber experts for removal.
  • Personal coaching: Individual sessions with Allstate Identity Protection specialists to build tailored defense plans for individuals and families.

Why are employers adding Allstate Scam Protection to benefits packages?

Allstate Identity Protection products are already widely available through employee benefits packages at 4,500 companies including a quarter of the Fortune 500. Employers are adding Allstate Scam Protection because:

  • Fraud losses reached $12.5 billion in 2024, according to the FTC. While the number of fraud reports stayed flat, far more people lost money compared to the year prior.
  • AI has supercharged scams. AI fuels phishing emails, impersonation texts and deepfake voices or videos that are nearly impossible to spot.
  • Cybercrime impacts workplace productivity. Workers are vulnerable whenever and wherever they use devices, and they manage fraud recovery during work hours when banks and government agencies are open.

How can consumers protect themselves during holiday shopping season?

Holiday scams surge around Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Allstate recommends:

  • Slow down before buying. Beware of hard-to-find items on third-party sites and avoid sellers demanding gift card payments.
  • Protect your wallet and identity while shopping online. Pay with credit cards, keep track of purchases, update device software and avoid clicking links in unfamiliar texts or emails.
  • Use digital wallets in stores. They encrypt payment info and reduce the chance of card skimming or data theft.

About Allstate

The Allstate Corporation protects people from life’s uncertainties with affordable, simple and connected protection for autos, homes, electronic devices, and identities. Products are available through a broad distribution network including Allstate agents, independent agents, major retailers, online, and at the workplace. Allstate has more than 209 million policies in force and is widely known for the slogan “You’re in Good Hands with Allstate.” For more information, visit www.allstate.com.

Crypto’s Great Deception: 75% of “Decentralized” Currency Controlled by Centralized Giants 554

Billions in digital assets labeled “decentralized” are, in reality, centrally controlled by private servers, hidden admin keys, and corporate entities, all adding up to a potential financial catastrophe. Dr. David Utzke, a former U.S. Treasury cybercrimes technologist, reveals how false decentralization is covertly controlling the crypto ecosystem, and what regulators, investors, and institutions must do now to avert disaster.

A reckoning is coming for the crypto ecosystem. According to recent blockchain and financial research, between 60% and 75% of total daily digital-asset project revenue now flows through fiat-pegged tokens issued by centralized entities such as Tether (USDT) and Circle (USDC). These issuers, and many so-called decentralized projects, operate on proprietary code bases and closed governance systems, contradicting the decentralization narratives used to attract investors, institutions, and governments.

“The problem is architectural, not speculative,” said Dr. David Utzke, author of The Digital Asset Technology Guidebook. “Most of what’s sold as ‘decentralized’ runs on centralized ledgers controlled by private foundations or developer teams. When one of those hidden control points fails or disappears, billions in value can vanish overnight.”

A False Sense of Security

While Bitcoin’s 2009 launch introduced a truly distributed ledger, most newer networks, especially Layer-2 (L2) and Layer-3 (L3) projects, quietly reverted to centralized control. Despite marketing claims, their “decentralization” exists in name only.

As Dr. Utzke notes, “The term decentralization has been hijacked. It originally referred to political hierarchy, not network architecture. Today, many projects call themselves decentralized simply because they don’t interact directly with users, even though a CEO or a small developer team controls every critical system function.”

This growing re-centralization trend has been documented by the Brookings Institution, which warns that “blockchain’s decentralization promise is quietly giving way to corporate and technical centralization”. Similarly, IEEE researchers have identified persistent “centralized security risks in decentralized applications,” including hard-coded administrative access and opaque governance models.

In 2025 alone, decentralized finance (DeFi) exploits and protocol breaches have cost users more than $3 billion, according to cybersecurity trackers. Although reported hacks fell by 85% in October, a decline largely attributed to improved security tooling and law enforcement pressure, the structural vulnerabilities remain unresolved.

“These are not isolated failures,” said Dr. Utzke. “They’re warnings about systemic fragility hidden beneath the surface of crypto’s biggest platforms.”

Systemic Risks Hidden in Plain Sight

This illusion of decentralization carries far-reaching implications. Institutions holding crypto assets are often unaware they are relying on non-cryptographic frameworks or single points of failure embedded in private code. These vulnerabilities mirror the contagion risks seen in traditional finance, as when FTX’s collapse in 2022 triggered losses across the entire digital-asset sector.

“Digital assets are intertwined,” Dr. Utzke warned. “When one centralized project fails, it doesn’t fall alone—it takes others down with it. The next crash won’t be about volatility; it’ll be about trust collapsing at the code level.”

The rise of meme-token platforms like Pump.fun and Degen Chain underscores this fragility. More than seven million tokens have been minted across such systems, yet fewer than 3% retain any long-term value. Over 80% of tokens are effectively dead, a pattern Dr. Utzke calls “the PvP degen casino model” of speculative chaos. In this scenario, participants repeatedly mint and trade meme tokens as though playing a peer-vs-peer casino — chasing short-term wins where most tokens collapse to near-zero value.

Calling for Cryptographic Truth and Oversight

Dr. Utzke argues that the Path forward requires more than regulation; it demands accountability. He advises:

  • Smarter, bifurcated oversight rooted in technical expertise.
  • A self-regulatory organization (SRO), similar to Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), to certify cryptographic soundness.
  • Enforcement of transparent disclosure standards for digital-asset projects.

“Federal regulators simply don’t have the technical depth to oversee blockchain architecture,” said Dr. Utzke. “We need an SRO staffed by cryptographers and cybersecurity experts who can audit code integrity, enforce smart-contract standards, and separate hype from truth. Otherwise, we’re building financial skyscrapers on invisible foundations.”

Securing Against Higher Stakes

With institutional and government adoption of blockchain assets accelerating, the stakes have never been higher. Transparency, verification, and architectural integrity—not speculation—will determine the survivability of the digital-asset economy.

“Decentralization isn’t a slogan,” Dr. Utzke concluded. “It’s a verifiable state of architecture. Until we can prove that… the crypto ecosystem remains one breach, one admin key, or one vanished developer away from its next global meltdown.”

About Dr. David Utzke:

Dr. David Utzke is a pioneering innovator in blockchain-based AI systems and decentralized data intelligence. His work synthesizes emerging technologies with financial systems to create secure, autonomous frameworks for digital asset management, DeFi, and identity verification. With over a decade serving at the U.S. Treasury’s IRS Cyber Crimes Unit, Dr. Utzke has led groundbreaking cases in digital forensics and decentralized finance. With experience spanning economics, cryptography, and machine learning, his disruptive vision focuses on establishing transparent, human-centered technology that bridges the gap between AI and trust in digital transactions.

Astreya Unveils New Wave of Enterprise AI Agents, turning Operational Signals into Real Insights and Rapid Action 577

Astreya, the world’s leading AI-First global IT managed services provider for Digital and IT infrastructure, is accelerating its mission to make AI and automation more accessible for businesses everywhere. By publishing ready-to-use AI agents across multiple marketplaces, including the ServiceNow Store, Astreya is helping organizations adopt AI faster and turn automation into measurable results. The initiative reflects the company’s broader commitment to improving efficiency, reducing manual workloads, and driving smarter operations across cloud, workplace, and IT environments.

Astreya recently served as a Prize Partner at A2HACKFEST 2K25 in Bengaluru, underscoring its commitment to investing in the next generation of AI innovation and talent. The company also participated in Google Cloud’s Agentic AI Day Hackathon, one of India’s largest developer events, where all four of its teams ranked among the top 700 submissions from over 9,100 entries and 57,000 participants.

Astreya’s “Soup Developers” team advanced to the Top 15 finalists, ranking among the top one percent of global submissions. Their concept, a modular ecosystem of 20 specialized AI agents, was designed to redefine financial planning by automating budgeting, cash-flow forecasting, market research, and investment strategy. The project stood out for its use of the Model Context Protocol (MCP), which allows agents to access real-time financial data, simulate complex market scenarios, and deliver personalized insights aligned to each user’s objectives.

Beyond the competition, Astreya has already released four production-ready AI solutions, powered by 21 specialized agents and advanced large language models on the ServiceNow Store. These agents empower IT teams to resolve issues faster, eliminate repetitive tasks, and increase productivity, freeing them to focus on higher-value, strategic initiatives that drive business growth.

  • TicketLens (Newly Published) — A certified AI solutions that delivers unified, single-pane insights across incidents and linked records, enhancing root cause analysis and resolution efficiency in dynamic ticketing environments. It provides one-click summaries of incidents, child incidents, problems, and changes; monitors CI health and completeness; and correlates related records to uncover potential root causes, recommends remediation steps, and will soon evolve toward guided and automated resolution, bringing engineers closer to faster, more accurate fixes within the ServiceNow environment.
  • Astraix — A proactive IT assistant that can analyze an image of an issue to identify the problem, recommend dynamic knowledge articles, trigger automated actions, and predictively assign the incident to the right group.
  • Attachment Summarizer — Reads and extracts the key points from ticket attachments, then updates work notes and surfaces relevant knowledge so teams don’t waste hours sifting through files.
  • Intelligent Knowledge Builder & Optimizer — Automates the creation, deduplication, and quality checks of knowledge articles, ensuring knowledge bases remain current and trustworthy.

Each solution removes the friction from IT support, enabling agents to resolve issues faster, with greater precision, at a consistently higher standard.

As part of its early adoption initiative, Astreya is offering its Agentic AI solutions free of charge for the next 3–6 months, enabling customers to experience their full potential, accelerate automation outcomes, and share actionable feedback through the ServiceNow Store.

AI Automation Assessment: Bridging Vision and Velocity

Astreya has launched the AI Automation Readiness, Maturity & Coverage Assessment, a vendor-neutral framework that helps enterprises identify automation blind spots, evaluate their current state, and accelerate AIOps adoption. The program delivers a maturity and tool-gap analysis, AI readiness scores, benefit projections, and a clear roadmap for transformation.

To complement this, Astreya’s Enterprise AI Services team introduced RapidPulse, a free, five-minute self-assessment that measures readiness across five pillars—Strategy, Tools & Platform, Data & Infrastructure, Process, and People—and provides an instant snapshot of AI and automation maturity.

By revealing where automation delivers the most value, Astreya enables organizations to prioritize investments, strengthen operational resilience, and move confidently from manual workflows to intelligent, autonomous IT operations.

Romil Bahl, CEO, Astreya: Most enterprises are still experimenting with AI in isolated pilots. The problem is that those efforts rarely scale. They stay in the lab, disconnected from the systems that drive real work. That means missed efficiency gains, higher costs, and teams carrying more manual effort than they should. By pairing agent-native applications with structured assessments and deployment playbooks, we embed AI directly where it matters, making businesses faster, leaner, and more resilient. Our new ServiceNow AI agents are a clear example of that shift,” said Romil Bahl, CEO, Astreya.

Expanding the AI Ecosystem with a Databricks Marketplace Debut

Building on its growing momentum in AI and automation, Astreya has launched its first solution on the Databricks Marketplace: Data Trust and Stats Intelligence (DTSi), now available for users to explore at no cost. This milestone also includes recognition as a validated Databricks Data Partner, reinforcing the company’s continued investment in scalable, real-world AI and data innovation.

Powered by five Gemini-enabled AI agents, DTSi is designed to help teams turn complex, unstructured datasets into trusted, actionable intelligence. The solution applies more than 15 advanced analytical and statistical techniques, from anomaly detection and correlation mapping to predictive modeling and hypothesis testing, to surface insights that accelerate better decision-making.

This expansion into the Databricks ecosystem reflects the same guiding principle behind Astreya’s multi-platform AI strategy: make AI easier to adopt, integrate, and scale. By delivering marketplace-ready solutions that unify data intelligence, automation, and AI-driven analysis, the company is helping enterprises move from raw data to confident action with greater speed and clarity.

Hyderabad: A Strategic Launchpad in a Global Model

The Enterprise AI Innovation Center in Hyderabad serves as the nucleus for applied research, experimentation, and rapid development of enterprise-grade AI solutions.

The center focuses on turning ideas into deployable outcomes, from developing AI agents and automation accelerators to creating point solutions tailored for business and IT operations. It brings together data engineers, AI scientists, and automation architects to prototype, validate, and scale solutions that directly address real-world enterprise challenges.

Beyond R&D, the center also serves as a client co-innovation space, where teams jointly explore use cases, assess AI readiness, and design adoption roadmaps that bridge experimentation and enterprise deployment.

“Our Hyderabad Innovation Center is a springboard for enterprise AI, where we validate agent-native ideas, run assessments to surface real value, and then harden solutions for production. Our Enterprise AI capability is global, but hubs like Hyderabad help us compress the cycle from prototype to deployment so clients see measurable outcomes faster,” explained Jothiganesh Nagarajan, COO, Astreya.

Looking ahead

Through strategic partnerships, agent-based innovation, and scaled engineering, Astreya remains focused on one core priority: turning AI into measurable enterprise value. The company continues to invest in multi-agent design, platform-native integration, and specialized engineering talent to help clients move beyond pilots and proofs of concept toward AI solutions that scale, deliver, and stick.

About Astreya

Astreya is a global IT managed services provider that powers enterprises by designing, deploying, and managing complex technology environments. We deliver end-to-end solutions across hybrid cloud, data centers, network infrastructure, and the digital workplace. Intelligent automation and AI run through everything we build to drive efficiency, accelerate service delivery, and clear barriers to growth for our customers.

Learn more at www.astreya.com

Nirmata Launches AI Platform Engineer to Automate Cloud-Native Infrastructure Governance and Management 586

AI-driven solution delivers enterprise Kubernetes management with automated policy-as-code for security, compliance, and governance

Nirmata, creator of Kyverno and leader in policy-as-code innovation, today announced the general availability of its AI Platform Engineering Assistant, an AI-powered solution that automates Kubernetes security, compliance, and workflow management across Kubernetes, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), and hybrid-cloud environments.

As organizations accelerate AI-assisted software development, platform teams must keep pace with increasingly complex infrastructure. Industry data shows a 30x acceleration in software creation and over $350 billion in AI infrastructure investment, yet nearly half of enterprises cite critical platform engineering skill gaps. Nirmata’s AI assistant empowers platform teams by automating the time-intensive tasks of Kubernetes policy management and securing infrastructure, enabling them to scale.

“Platform engineering has become both the bottleneck and the enabler of the AI future,” said Ritesh Patel, Vice President of Product at Nirmata. “Without scalable governance, innovation stalls under complexity and risk. With AI-powered governance, Nirmata transforms policy-as-code into a continuous, intelligent system that enforces compliance without slowing teams down.”

Built on the proven Kyverno policy-as-code engine—the CNCF-incubating project for Kubernetes, IaC, and cloud—the assistant uses a multi-agent architecture to automate policy authoring, detection, and remediation, creating a system for continuous Kubernetes governance and compliance that keeps humans in the loop while automating the most time-consuming tasks.

Key capabilities include:

  • Copilot interface: Conversational AI that turns hours-long investigation cycles into minutes. Engineers use natural language to instantly pull detailed insights, data, and reports about their infrastructure and generate enforcement actions.
  • Policy-as-Code Agent: Transforms natural language rules into validated Kyverno policy-as-code for Kubernetes and IaC, ensuring each rule aligns with security and compliance standards. This streamlines policy creation and eliminates common syntax errors while helping platform teams standardize governance across clusters and pipelines.
  • Remediation Agent: Detects misconfigurations and policy violations, then generates and validates secure fixes with human verification in the loop. This drastically reduces the time engineers spend diagnosing and correcting issues while ensuring every change remains compliant and secure.

Together, these agents deliver AI-powered Kubernetes security through a collaborative, intelligent system that continuously strengthens security, compliance, and operational trust while freeing engineers to focus on higher-value innovation. The AI Platform Engineering Assistant supports all common Kubernetes, Infrastructure-as-Code, and CI/CD systems, with native support for multi-cluster Kubernetes management and seamless integration with existing developer workflows.

Availability

The Nirmata AI Platform Engineering Assistant is now available to enterprise customers. Live demonstrations will be featured at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America 2025 and KyvernoCon.
To learn more or request a demo, visit nirmata.com.

About Nirmata

Nirmata is the creator of Kyverno, the CNCF policy engine for Kubernetes security and governance. With 2.5B+ downloads, Nirmata’s AI-powered policy-as-code solutions help enterprises automate Kubernetes compliance, prevent misconfigurations, and deliver enterprise Kubernetes management at scale across regulated industries. For more information, visit www.nirmata.com.

Bitnomial Launches First-Ever Stablecoin Margin Collateral with RLUSD, Expands Digital Asset Support to XRP 623

Bitnomial, Inc. (“Bitnomial”), a U.S. derivatives exchange company, today announced a historic milestone as Bitnomial Clearinghouse, LLC, the only U.S. registered derivatives clearing organization (DCO) accepting digital assets as native margin collateral, becoming the first to accept stablecoins. Bitnomial is launching support for Ripple USD (RLUSD) and expanding its digital asset margin program to include XRP.

This expansion builds on Bitnomial’s groundbreaking launch of crypto margin deposits in September 2025, making the CFTC-regulated Bitnomial Exchange, LLC, and clearinghouse, Bitnomial Clearinghouse, LLC, the only U.S. regulated derivatives market infrastructure accepting stablecoins and a broader range of digital assets as margin collateral.

RLUSD and XRP margin deposits are now available for institutional clients trading leveraged perpetuals, futures, and options on Bitnomial Exchange. Retail traders will gain access to RLUSD and XRP margin deposits through Botanical, Bitnomial’s retail trading platform. With RLUSD stablecoin support, traders can now margin their positions with a USD-pegged digital asset, providing seamless capital efficiency while maintaining the benefits of blockchain-native settlement.

At the Ripple Swell conference in New York, Luke Hoersten, CEO of Bitnomial said “Adding RLUSD and XRP as margin collateral represents a major evolution in how traders can deploy their digital assets, RLUSD brings stablecoin efficiency to our margin system, allowing traders to hold USD-equivalent positions on-chain while accessing our full suite of derivatives products. Combined with XRP support, this gives our clients unprecedented flexibility in how they manage capital across their trading strategies. This is a natural extension of our partnership with Ripple and our commitment to building the most capital-efficient derivatives infrastructure in the U.S. market.”

“The addition of RLUSD and XRP further enhances the capital efficiency advantages available to traders on Bitnomial Exchange,” added Michael Dunn, President of Bitnomial Exchange, LLC. “Stablecoins represent a superior payment mechanism for both retail traders and institutions alike, offering the stability of USD with the speed and efficiency of blockchain settlement. With our expanded margin collateral options, traders can now leverage their stablecoin holdings and XRP positions to access the full range of CFTC-regulated crypto derivatives, reducing the friction of moving between different asset types.”

“With today’s announcement adding native support for RLUSD and XRP as margin collateral, Bitnomial cements its position as one of the most forward-thinking derivatives exchanges in the U.S,” said Jack McDonald, SVP Stablecoins at Ripple. “Stablecoins are moving from primarily speculative use cases to real world applications, with RLUSD, as a trusted tier-1 USD-backed stablecoin, leading the pack.”

Bitnomial continues to lead innovation in U.S. crypto derivatives markets. As the first to launch regulated perpetual futures in the U.S., the first to accept digital assets as margin collateral, and now the first to accept stablecoins as margin collateral, Bitnomial has consistently pioneered capital-efficient market infrastructure. The combination of RLUSD stablecoin margin, XRP support, and Bitnomial’s existing Bitcoin and Ether margin deposits creates the most comprehensive digital asset margin system available on a U.S. regulated exchange. This initiative provides significant benefits to crypto-native funds, institutional traders, and market makers who can now deploy their digital asset portfolios more efficiently while maintaining full regulatory compliance.

All Bitnomial futures and options contracts are offered by, and subject to the rules of, Bitnomial Exchange, LLC, and cleared through Bitnomial Clearinghouse, LLC. RLUSD and XRP margin collateral acceptance is subject to all applicable regulatory approvals.

About Bitnomial, Inc.

Bitnomial, Inc. is a digital asset derivatives exchange company that owns and operates U.S. CFTC-regulated exchange (DCM), clearinghouse (DCO), and brokerage (FCM) subsidiaries. Bitnomial offers the first U.S. perpetuals, physical futures, and options on the Bitcoin Complex comprising BTC and Hashrate, and the Crypto Complex comprising the first ever U.S. XRP, ADA, and USDC futures, among other assets.

Follow Bitnomial at bitnomial.com and on X @bitnomial
Follow Botanical at botanical.finance and on X @botanical

Stablecoins New Era Begins: Inside the Next Wave of Institutional Adoption and Infrastructure Competition 606

The stablecoin market is entering a new phase of transformation. In the landmark joint report by Alchemy Pay and Gate Research, “The New Era of Stablecoins: A Comprehensive Study on Compliance, Innovation, and Adoption”, the report dives deep into how stablecoins are reshaping the global financial infrastructure, from its exponential growth and regulatory evolution to the intensifying competition at the infrastructure layer.

Exponential Growth and Institutional Momentum

As of August 2025, the total capitalization of stablecoins has exceeded USD 280 billion, representing more than a 660-fold increase since early 2019. Annual on-chain settlement volumes have surpassed USD 30 trillion, placing stablecoins on par with traditional global payment systems such as SWIFT and Visa in terms of transaction throughput.

This growth reflects both technological maturity and regulatory acceleration. The implementation of key frameworks, such as the GENIUS Act, Stablecoin Ordinance, and MiCA, has initiated what the report identifies as the “Age of Compliance.”

The report also highlights the growing participation of major financial institutions including PayPal, Visa, and Mastercard, each embedding stablecoin functionality into retail, enterprise, and cross-border payment systems. These integrations signal the ongoing convergence between TradFi and DeFi, underscoring the transition of stablecoins from speculative instruments to operational assets within global payment and settlement ecosystems.

Meanwhile, innovation within the stablecoin sector continues to accelerate. While USDT and USDC remain dominant, emerging models such as yield-bearing stablecoins are rapidly gaining market share. The study identifies a structural evolution from single-purpose payment tools to a “Three-in-One Model”—Peg + Yield + Application—that extends stablecoin utility into yield generation, real-world asset integration, and enterprise use cases such as supply chain finance and payroll settlement.

From Tokens to Infrastructure: The New Battlefield

The narrative of competition is shifting. It’s no longer about which stablecoin dominates, it’s about who controls the rails. The report calls this the move from “token competition” to “infrastructure competition.” As stablecoins become integral to the global payments landscape, control over settlement infrastructure has emerged as the next competitive frontier. Leading players like Tether, Circle, Stripe, and Alchemy Pay are developing blockchain architectures to establish themselves as dominant settlement networks.

This strategic evolution reflects a broader recognition: in the future of digital finance, the competitive advantage will lie not merely in token issuance, but in control of the infrastructure that enables liquidity, settlement, and compliance across markets and jurisdictions.

Alchemy Chain: Building the Stablecoin Settlement Hub for Global Fiat

Within this emerging infrastructure race, the report spotlights Alchemy Chain, a Layer 1 blockchain developed by Alchemy Pay. Drawing upon years of operational experience in the fiat-crypto payment sector, Alchemy Chain represents a practice-driven approach to infrastructure design.

The blockchain’s architecture centers on a clear, efficient flow—Fiat A → Stablecoin → Fiat B—positioning stablecoins as instant settlement bridges for global cross-border transactions. Key technical innovations include:

  • FIFO (First-In-First-Out) transaction ordering, ensuring fairness and eliminating “pay-to-prioritize” congestion.
  • On-chain real-time FX rates, with validator nodes directly integrating price feeds at the consensus layer to reduce oracle latency.
  • Block-Wing hybrid storage system, combining on-chain recording of essential transaction data with decentralized off-chain storage for auxiliary files, ensuring scalability and cost efficiency.

Strategically, Alchemy Chain diverges from general-purpose blockchains. Rather than competing with ecosystems like Ethereum, it aims to redefine global settlement infrastructure, leveraging Web3 technology to rebuild payment systems traditionally represented by SWIFT. Backed by Alchemy Pay’s already built network of 3 million users across 173 countries, and supported by connections with Visa, Mastercard, local mobile wallets and global banking rails, Alchemy Chain is positioned to serve as a neutral, compliant settlement layer connecting stablecoins and fiat currencies worldwide.

The Future Trajectory: Compliance, Multipolarity, and Integration

The report concludes that stablecoins are transitioning through three structural shifts:

  • From explosive growth to compliance establishment;
  • From token-centric competition to infrastructure-centric competition;
  • From U.S. dollar dominance to regional multipolarity.

Over the next three to five years, the report predicts that the institutions capable of creating a closed-loop ecosystem, integrating compliance frameworks, proprietary infrastructure, and scalable applications, will define the next generation of the global value network.

Read the Full Report

The “New Era of Stablecoins” report offers a data-driven, forward-looking roadmap for enterprises, regulators, and developers navigating the evolving stablecoin landscape.

Read the full report to explore how compliance, infrastructure, and innovation are converging to reshape the global payments ecosystem.

About Gate Research

Gate Research is a comprehensive blockchain and cryptocurrency research platform that provides deep content for readers, including technical analysis, market insights, industry research, trend forecasting, and macroeconomic policy analysis.

About Alchemy Pay

Founded in 2017, Alchemy Pay is a payment gateway that seamlessly connects crypto with traditional fiat currencies for businesses, developers, and end users. With its offerings including On & Off-Ramp, Web3 Digital Bank, NFT Checkout and its newly launched RWA platform, Alchemy Pay supports fiat payments in 173 countries.

The Ramp is a one-stop solution to buy and sell crypto and fiat, easily integrated by platforms and dApps according to requirements. The RWA platform allows global users to invest in tokenized real-world assets using local fiat currencies, lowering entry barriers and democratizing access to traditional financial instruments. Our Web3 Digital Bank supports Web3 enterprises by providing multi-fiat accounts and instant fiat-crypto conversion capabilities. Additionally, the NFT Checkout enables direct purchases of NFTs using fiat payment methods. ACH is the Alchemy Pay network token on the Ethereum blockchain.