First Pass

54 stories from 5 sources

Crypto pushes deeper into mainstream financial infrastructure

Day’s Recap

The day's major developments therefore combined regulatory experimentation with an effort to embed digital assets in everyday payments, trading, and banking infrastructure.

Supporting Articles

The SEC proposed a framework, dubbed Regulation Crypto Assets, for certain investment contracts involving crypto assets. The proposal will enter a 60-day public comment period after publication in the Federal Register.

8:47 PMPYMNTS

The SEC proposed exempting certain digital asset offerings from securities registration statements as it advances its crypto agenda after broader legislation stalled in Congress.

2:55 PMBloomberg Markets

Klarna shares fell after its revenue and gross merchandise volume outlook missed expectations, with foreign exchange and weaker German volumes offsetting a second consecutive profit beat. Amylyx Pharmaceuticals rallied on positive late-stage trial results, while Bath & Body Works gained after Citi upgraded the stock to buy.

11:11 AMBloomberg Markets

Klarna lowered its full-year revenue and transaction-volume forecasts after weaker retail conditions in Germany. Stronger U.S. growth and an unexpected second-quarter profit softened the impact, but the revised outlook pushed its shares lower before trading.

8:50 AMEconomic Times

Stablecoin payments company Rain has formed the Agentic Payments Alliance with Visa, Mastercard, Fiserv, Circle, Solana and Remitly among its founding members. The coalition aims to develop common approaches for payments made by AI agents on behalf of consumers.

1:25 PMPYMNTS

The Blockchain Association is asking the Supreme Court to review Custodia Bank's challenge to the Federal Reserve's denial of access to a master account. It argues that the lower-court ruling could give regulators broad discretion to exclude lawful digital-asset banks from the federal payment system.

1:12 PMPYMNTS

Other Developments

A curated list of other prominent stories from this day.

The average credit card delinquency rate at seven major banks rose slightly to 2.50% in July from 2.48% in June. It remains below the pre-pandemic average of 2.68%, while the banks' average net charge-off rate declined to 3.42% from 3.42% in the prior period.

9:41 PMPYMNTS

Cards remain the dominant payment method in the UK, but mobile wallets are gaining ground, with nearly two thirds of the population registered with at least one wallet provider.

8:01 PMFinextra

Research from Banca d'Italia finds that stablecoins do not systematically reduce the cost or speed of cross-border remittances compared with traditional channels.

8:01 PMFinextra

PointsKash has secured a strategic capital commitment of up to $100 million from Hawk Capital Advisors as it rolls out crypto ATMs and expands its payments, loyalty rewards and digital commerce products.

7:33 PMPYMNTS

Code in TikTok's current US app suggests the company is testing a peer-to-peer payment feature inside direct messages. The apparent design would let users send money with a message and require recipients to tap to accept it, though no launch has been announced.

6:29 PMPYMNTS

The article argues that improvements in cross-border payments can let global businesses offer customers local checkout while managing funds through a more centralized treasury operation. It presents currency infrastructure as a tool for reducing the tradeoff between localized payments and financial control.

5:06 PMPYMNTS

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