Visa gets into stablecoins and prepares for a revolution in international payments

It's Visa's turn to join the race: the payments giant is launching a pilot project to integrate stablecoins into its Visa Direct platform, enabling near-instant international money transfers via cards, accounts, or digital wallets. This aims to replace slow traditional transfers with faster, global, and programmable stablecoin payments. A first version is expected in April 2026. Visa is not ruling out the possibility of issuing its own stablecoin in the future. This move is part of a post-GENIUS Act wave: with over $300bn in stablecoins in circulation, Visa is joining the ranks of players who want to turn the trial into concrete uses. But the battle for mainstream adoption is only just beginning.

BlackRock bolsters its flagship fund and confirms its long-term Bitcoin strategy

BlackRock has increased its exposure to Bitcoin in its Global Allocation Fund by 38%, with $66.4m now invested in its in-house ETF, IBIT. The fund represents $17.1bn in assets under management. The allocation to BTC has increased to 0.4%, up from 0.25% in Q1. The objective is clear: to move closer to the in-house recommendation of 1-2% exposure to diversify portfolios without too much risk. IBIT has become the world's No. 1 Bitcoin ETF with $61bn in net inflows. BTC now follows the cycles of the stock markets, raising the question of its correlation with the Nasdaq in the era of institutional adoption.

Swift teams up with Consensys and tests blockchain for its global payments

Swift announced on Monday that it is working with Consensys to integrate blockchain into its international payments network. The goal is to create a real-time, 24/7 cross-border system capable of moving tokenized value reliably and interoperably using smart contracts. The project already involves financial institutions from 16 countries, including central banks and giants such as Crédit Agricole, JPMorgan, Société Générale-FORGE, and Citi. Swift thus aims to transform its interbank rails into a benchmark blockchain infrastructure, following several tests on MNBCs and a partnership with Chainlink. On the Consensys side, this is only a prototype, but the initiative illustrates the rapid advance of blockchain technologies in traditional finance.

Kraken is preparing its IPO and is said to have raised $500m discreetly

According to Fortune Crypto, Kraken recently closed a $500m funding round ahead of an IPO. The target valuation? $15bn. This is a turning point for the platform, which had raised only $27m since its creation in 2011. This IPO project is not new. In 2024, Bloomberg revealed that $100m had already been raised, with an IPO planned for 2026. What's new? Co-CEO Arjun Sethi is said to have invested himself through his Tribe Capital fund, while no existing investors are reported to have participated. Nothing is official yet—no S-1 form has been published—but the American exchange seems determined to play in the big leagues.

Block 2: Crypto Analysis of the Week

Tether is preparing an extraordinary fundraising campaign that would propel it to the ranks of the most valuable venture-stage companies on the planet—worth $500bn, on par with OpenAI. Already the world's leading issuer of stablecoins, holding more than $170bn in USDT, the group is now aiming for a valuation never before seen in crypto.

A fundraising campaign to change scale

According to Bloomberg, Tether is seeking $15-20 billion from private investors in exchange for 3% of its capital. The transaction would involve the issuance of new shares (no liquidity for existing shareholders). Paolo Ardoino confirmed the existence of the round on X: the capital will be used to scale up activities—stablecoins, distribution, AI, commodity trading, energy, communications, media—"by several orders of magnitude."

Tether is evaluating a raise from a selected group of high-profile key investors, to maximize the scale of the Company's strategy across all existing and new business lines (stablecoins, distribution ubiquity, AI, commodity trading, energy, communications, media) by several...

— Paolo Ardoino 🤖 (@paoloardoino) September 24, 2025

 

As a benchmark, when Circle was targeting $4–5 billion in its IPO, the offering was oversubscribed 25 times and CRCL easily exceeded $20 billion in valuation on the day of listing. Tether, meanwhile, is targeting half a trillion: beyond Coinbase or Circle, the largest corporate valuation in the ecosystem—with the exception of... bitcoin.

The "valuation mechanism," short version

In terms of comparables, Circle and Tether are in the same business: they issue "digital dollars" and invest the money they receive in safe assets that earn interest (Treasury bills, deposits, etc.). Circle's valuation of approximately $29bn serves as our benchmark. Tether has approximately 2.3x more stablecoins in circulation than Circle. It might be tempting to use a direct rule of three... except that the comparison is blurred: Tether does not publish detailed quarterly income statements, and the business models are not identical.

In concrete terms, how does the money come in? Interest on reserves. In H1 2025, Circle reported approximately $1.2bn in interest; if we double that to get an annual estimate "at constant parameters" (same rates, same outstanding amounts), we arrive at around $2.4bn. On the other hand, applying the same logic to Tether's outstanding amounts, we arrive at approximately $2.7bn for the half-year, or approximately $5.5bn annualized. Added to this are the other lines. Circle earned approximately $50m (subscriptions, gains/losses on assets), for approximately $2.5bn in annualized gross revenue. Tether, for its part, reported $2.6bn in gains on gold and bitcoin and $3.1bn in "recurring profits" over the six-month period; at an annualized "cruising speed," this points to approximately $11.4bn in profits according to their figures — bearing in mind that the accounting scopes are not strictly comparable.

There is one key difference that beginners should be aware of: revenue sharing. For USDC, the agreement with Coinbase siphoned off nearly half of the interest to the exchange. As a result, with equal outstanding amounts, Tether keeps roughly twice as much interest as Circle.

This leads to a simple calculation that can be used to establish an order of magnitude: starting with $29bn (Circle's valuation), multiply by 2.3 (Tether has approximately 2.3x more outstanding assets), then multiply by 2 (Tether captures approximately twice as much interest per dollar of reserves). 29 × 2.3 × 2 ≈ $133bn. This is not set in stone, but it makes a range of around $100–150 billion credible for Tether if we stick to comparables and interest mechanics. Aiming for $500bn, on the other hand, involves adding a gamble: sustainably higher margins, prolonged market dominance, rates that remain buoyant... and new activities (AI, energy, commodities, media) that generate real profits beyond interest on reserves.

Why $500 billion still seems a long way off... and why some believe it is possible

The gap to $500 billion is not easy to justify on fundamentals alone. However, Tether's supporters point to structural advantages: lower compliance costs, regulatory arbitrage that reduces taxes, and "unthinkable" margins at scale—Ardoino even mentions a 99% margin. Above all, the narrative is expansive: Tether sees itself as the "company of the century," ready to unlock new financial avenues (tokenization, payments, industrial AI, energy).

At $500 billion, Tether would become the world's second-largest "bank" by valuation, twice the size of Goldman Sachs and just behind JPMorgan. Bulls rationalize this figure if demand for stablecoins explodes, rates remain high, and USDT maintains its dominance.

Verdict

A valuation of around $100-150 billion is defensible based on comparables and monetization of reserves. The jump to $500 billion requires belief in regulatory moat, cost discipline, and diversification (AI, commodities, energy, media) that creates real profits beyond the carry on Treasury bills. The ball is in the market's court: Tether wants to tell the story of a tokenized dollar issuer that has become a digital infrastructure conglomerate. It remains to be seen whether investors will sign up for half a trillion today.

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