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.

ICE Invests $2bn in Polymarkets

ICE, which owns the NYSE, has invested $2bn in prediction markets firm, Polymarkets, valuing the company at $8bn.  Polymarkets works on USDC deposits (USDC = "the world's largest digital dollar") on the Polygon blockchain network. ICE will become a distributor of Polymarkets data to institutional investors globally.

Circle Announces Blockchain Plans

Circle Internet Group (NYSE:CRCL) has announced Arc, a Layer 1 blockchain designed around stablecoin finance. (Layer 1 blockchains refer to the foundation layer of a blockchain network, so-named to distinguish them from services built on top of blockchains e.g. Optimism (built on Ethereum).

Earlier moves included launch of the Circle Payments Network, enabling financial companies to use stablecoins for payment. It is billed as "a new standard for global money movement".

Circle has also been active in partnerships with the likes of Binance, OKX, FIS and Fiserv.

CRCL went public on June 5th 2025 with the IPO priced at $31 a share. JP, Citi and GS were joint lead active bookrunners for the IPO.

USD stablecoins have advantages over "pure" USD transfers as all you need is a crypto account to use it, potentially have lower fees for money transfers and can be integrated into DeFi infrastructure e.g. smart contracts.

Circle's Blockbuster IPO on the NYSE, Bravo Ex Macromedia CTO

Circle Internet Group, specializing in digital currencies and blockchains, went public on June 5, 2025. It debuted under ticker symbol CRCL. The IPO was priced at $31 a share, with shares surging over 100% on the first day, hitting a market cap of nearly $60bn albeit brief.  Circle was launched in 2013.

This success is significant for the crypto and fintech space.

CEO Jeremy Allaire has previously argued governments and policy makers need to "create more degrees of freedom for innovation to happen".

Allaire was co-founder of Allaire Corporation in 1995 which had an IPO in January 1999, and is hence no stranger to the public markets. 

Allaire Corporation was acquired by Macromedia in 2001 after which JA became CTO of Macromedia. He left in 2003 to join General Catalyst as a technologist and executive-in-residence.

Hagerty extols virtues of the GENIUS (Stablecoin) Act

Senator William ("Bill") Hagerty (Republican), who had a pre-politics career at the Boston Consulting Group, is pushing for the GENIUS Act to be passed.

The GENIUS Act stands for Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins and per Hagerty "creates a strong, forward-looking regulatory framework to modernize our payment systems and affirms the dominance of the US dollar". 

The UK has been proactive in creating conditions for stablecoin development in the UK but has come under criticism for overly constraining market development.

As a sidebar, stablecoins are digital assets which can be used to make payments. These so-called "coins" can be created technology companies rather than traditional banks and are backed by equivalent currency in a 1:1 ratio. They are thus less volatile than traditional cryptocurrencies.