Stablecoin Transaction Volume Exceeded ACH Volume as of Feb 2026

According to NY-based analytics firm Artemis (which offers a "Bloomberg-style" terminal for crypto), stablecoin volume exceeded US Automated Clearing House volume for the first time in Feb 2026 (stablecoins: $7.2 trillion versus ACH network volume of $6.8 trillion).

Automated Clearing Houses are a backbone of the payments industry. The first automated clearing house was BACS (Bankers' Automated Clearing System) which started processing payments in April 1968. It operated from the start on a net settlement basis (to minimise the number of individual exchanges).

However, stablecoins don't use the ACH network and instead trade on crypto exchanges (centralised exchanges like Coinbase, Kraken, Binance), decentralised exchanges (Uniswap, Curve, Maverick) which settle on-chain using the native settlement mechanism of the relevant blockchain and brokers/OTC desks.

Despite the threat of stablecoins, ACHs still have an effective monopoly over salary payments.

Growth Slows in Evergreen Private Equity Funds

Analysis by RA Stanger has shown a slowdown in growth for evergreen PE and VC funds typified by offerings from industry giants Ares and KKR.

Evergreen funds are also known as open-ended or perpetual funds. They allow periodic subscriptions and redemptions, typically monthly or quarterly.

Traditional PE/VC funds are closed-ended, have a defined 10-15 year life and return capital at the end.

An article from With Intelligence citing historical growth in evergreen funds can be found here.

NWE Jet Fuel Soars, 13,000 flights cancelled in May

Following US and Israel strikes on Iran in March, jet fuel (priced in $ per tonne) has risen from roughly $750 to more than $1500 per tonne. 

Istanbul and Chicago O'Hare have been the most impacted in terms of cancellations (according to data from aviation analytics firm Cirium). This is partly due to Turkish Airlines being hard hit by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Lufthansa has also cancelled many flights. 

The 13,000 cancellations represents 1% of global flights.

The UK imports around 65% of the jet fuel it uses.

The IEA has warned Europe will face jet fuel shortages by June.

Anthropic Reaches Deeper into Finance with PE backed services arm

Anthropic has reached deeper into workflow with a new venture embedding its technology into Enterprise Services.  Both Anthropic and OpenAI signed deals with private equity to embed their engineers (in Palantir-style forward-deployed fashion) into thousands of PE-backed portfolio companies - TPG, Blackstone, Goldman Sachs and Bain Capital are the partners in this initiative. $5.5bn in capital has been committed.

Fitch Solutions Acquires TREPP

Fitch Solutions has acquired Trepp, Inc (specialist data provider for commercial real estate and structured finance, named after its founder, Richard Trepp) from DMGT (owned by Jersey-domiciled RCHL, Rothermere Continuation Holdings Limited, 75% controlled by Jonathan Harmsworth, Viscount Rothermere) for $1bn. Sellers were advised by Centerview Partners and Goldman Sachs.

Ares Defies Private Credit Jitters

Ares, a leading global alternative investment manager, reported Q1 fundraising of around $30bn, a positive indication of investor appetite for private credit (a multi-trillion dollar sector).  

Ares' AuM is $644bn. It seeks to surpass $750bn by 2028. 

In February, Ares acquired systematic fixed-income manager BlueCove, creating a $5.5bn asset boost to the business.

Ares only earns fees on deployed capital - if capital is uninvested no fees are earned. $32bn of capital was deployed in Q1 increasing fee income. Fee income is up 26% from a year ago.

China Blocks $2bn Purchase of Manus by Meta

Manus is an agentic AI startup. Meta wanted to acquire Manus to leapfrog ahead in AI. Although Manus was incorporated in Singapore, its owners hail from China.