Robinhood Considers Solana For U.S. Equities, Meta’s Stablecoin Comeback & More

Welcome back!

This is J264G and this week I’ve got these titbits for you:

• Onchain Equities: Robinhood’s U.S. equities platform might leverage Solana. 

• Welcome Back: Meta is reportedly in discussions to integrate stablecoins.

• Crypto History: Coinbase has agreed to acquire Deribit for $2.9 billion.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the U.S. Treasury bureau tasked with overseeing national banks, has reiterated its cautious endorsement of crypto. While not a blanket approval, the OCC’s continued engagement signals a measured but constructive stance toward the integration of crypto within the regulated financial system—an encouraging development for institutional participants seeking clarity.

Now, let’s jump right into this week’s newsletter!

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Spotlight

Mainstream Medium

The value of a currency is proportional to how seamless and low-cost it is to enter and exit.

This is where stablecoins currently hit a wall, as on- and off-ramping them often involves significant friction and fees that mirror the very systems they aim to improve.

Nowhere is this more consequential than in emerging markets across Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Would-be users in these markets typically face double penalties: higher need for stablecoins, but higher hurdles and costs to obtain and use them.

Take Latin America for example. In inflation-plagued economies such as Argentina and Venezuela, citizens have flocked to USD-pegged stablecoins as a refuge for their savings. Yet accessing those stablecoins isn’t cheap: Argentines are used to hefty premiums on stablecoins over official exchange rates. Such a steep premium ensures only those in urgent need of stability will pay it—making everyday use impractical when each dollar costs far more than its face value. Other Latin American countries with slightly more stable conditions still see stablecoins used largely for remittances or niche e-commerce, rather than broad retail adoption—again, due to the friction of conversion.

In parts of Africa, stablecoins are increasingly integrating with the thriving mobile money ecosystems and serve the unbanked. For example, Nigerian and Kenyan entrepreneurs increasingly experiment with USDT cross-border trade and freelance payments. Consequently, Nigeria has world-leading peer-to-peer crypto volumes, a testament to citizens’ resourcefulness in obtaining digital currency despite official banking bans. But without widely available local on- and off-ramps, these tokens often circulate in gray markets, incurring extra fees and sometimes fraud risk.

Similarly, in Asian nations with large overseas diasporas—India, the Philippines, Vietnam—stablecoins hold promise to make remittances more direct. Yet migrant workers will not adopt them en masse if their families back home cannot easily turn stablecoins into groceries and school fees—cheaply.

Stablecoins have already proven their worth in the digital arena, moving trillions and providing a lifeline to many.

But to truly fulfil their promise, the rails connecting them to traditional finance must be improved—overcoming these hurdles will determine whether stablecoins remain a niche asset or ascend to a mainstream medium of exchange.

Chart Of The Week

News Bites

Unstoppable Force: Stripe’s momentum in the stablecoin space continues to accelerate. Following its acquisition of Bridge, the company unveiled two flagship offerings: (a) Stablecoin Financial Accounts—multi-asset accounts enabling users to hold balances and transact in both fiat and crypto from over 100 countries, and (b) a new partnership with Ramp to launch stablecoin-backed cards in Latin America, underscoring its ambitions to build global payments rails native to the internet economy.

Crypto History: Coinbase has agreed to acquire Deribit, the world’s largest crypto options exchange, in a $2.9 billion deal—marking the largest acquisition in crypto history. The move signals Coinbase’s strategic expansion into derivatives markets, as the firm seeks to diversify its revenue streams.

Welcome Back: Meta is reportedly in discussions to integrate stablecoins across its product suite, three years after shelving its Libra i.e. Diem initiative. The renewed push appears focused on enabling low-cost microtransactions across the company’s messaging and content platforms.

Onchain Equities: Robinhood is building a blockchain-based platform that will allow European retail investors to trade U.S. securities onchain. The firm is reportedly evaluating both Arbitrum and Solana as possible infrastructure partners—suggesting that the future of regulated, tokenized equities may be closer than anticipated.

Opening Bell: Speaking of onchain equities, Superstate has announced Opening Bell, a platform designed to enable the issuance and trading of SEC-registered public equities directly on Solana. The first company slated for launch is SOL Strategies, which—pending regulatory clearance—expects to trade its shares on Solana by summer.

Decentralised Nasdaq: To make onchain equities a reality, developers in the Solana ecosystem continue to pursue the vision of a decentralised Nasdaq—an open, always-on trading system for tokenized assets. Recent network upgrades, along with ongoing discussions around multiple concurrent leaders, represent meaningful steps toward scalable and performant onchain order flow.

Regulatory Sandbox: Solana has even more going for it in the race to onchain equities: the SEC may be softening its posture toward blockchain-based securities. Commissioner Peirce confirmed that the agency’s Crypto Task Force is exploring an exemptive order to allow firms to issue, trade, and settle tokenized securities using distributed ledger technology—potentially paving the way for both Robinhood and Superstate. 

Mapping Upgrade: Solana-based DePIN project NATIX has partnered with Southeast Asian tech giant Grab to improve mapping for its logistics. The collaboration is aimed at optimizing delivery routes and reducing costs across Grab’s driver network—an early indicator of how decentralised infrastructure may embed into real-world applications.

Bitcoin Reserve: New Hampshire has become the first U.S. state to codify a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve into law. Governor Kelly Ayotte signed HB 302, establishing a statutory framework for holding Bitcoin as a state-level asset. The development adds momentum to what observers are calling the “reserve race”—here's a state-by-state overview.

Caught In 4K

Weekly Take

Keks & Giggles

And that's a wrap!

You can reach me anytime over on 𝕏.

Talk soon!

J264G

_{DISCLAIMER
None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research. Lastly, please be advised that we discuss products and services from our partners from which our team members may hold tokens/equity.}