Visa Unleashes Solana Rails, Google's Stablecoin Push & More

Welcome back!

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

• Stablecoin Settlement: Visa launches stablecoin settlement on Solana.

• Stablecoin Payouts: YouTube adds stablecoin payout option in the US.

• Stablecoin Capabilities: Intuit integrates stablecoin capabilities.

Financial privacy has become one of the most actively debated themes in crypto, making it particularly notable to see SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce emerge as a clear and principled advocate for it, lending institutional weight to the conversation.

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

Click on any underlined heading/hyperlink to learn more.

Spotlight

Scarce Primitive

Crypto often struggles with trust, legitimacy, and comprehension because it lacks coherent, relatable storytelling. 

Having said that, this is not a problem unique to crypto. A recent Wall Street Journal analysis found that US job postings mentioning the word “storyteller” have doubled in the past year. In boardrooms and management teams across industries, there is a growing recognition that strategy, innovation, and transformation require narrative as much as execution. 

People do not follow roadmaps; they follow stories.

In crypto, however, the need for storytelling is particularly acute. Millions of people know of crypto’s existence, but far fewer can articulate what it is actually for, beyond speculation. The industry has been better at explaining how its systems work than why they matter, and better at speaking to insiders than to the wider public it ultimately needs to serve.

That is unfortunate, because crypto’s core promise is a compelling one. At its best, it offers faster settlement, broader access, programmable money, and new ways to coordinate economic activity across borders. These are not marginal improvements; they are structural shifts. Yet without a story that links these capabilities to everyday problems and human outcomes, the promise remains abstract.

Bridging this gap will require a change in priorities. Crypto projects invest heavily in engineers, rightly so. But narrative talent deserves similar attention. An industry cannot achieve mainstream legitimacy on technology alone. It needs public belief in its mission.

The finance industry has always been built on trust and stories as much as on spreadsheets.

If crypto is to overcome scepticism and fulfil its disruptive potential, it must tell a better story: one that acknowledges past excesses, highlights genuine progress, and sets out a credible vision of how blockchain technology and digital assets can solve real problems.

With coherent, relatable storytelling, crypto can move beyond today’s haze of doubt and be seen for what it really is: a transformative technology that people can understand, evaluate, and ultimately rally behind.

Numbers Of The Week

News Bites

Stablecoin Settlement: Visa has launched stablecoin settlement in the US using USDC on the Solana network. Cross River Bank and a16z-backed Lead Bank are among the first participants. The choice underscores growing institutional interest in Solana as an alternative infrastructure for payments.

Stablecoin Capabilities: Intuit has partnered with Circle to integrate stablecoin capabilities across its products including TurboTax, QuickBooks, and Credit Karma. Under a multi-year agreement, Intuit will use Circle’s infrastructure and USDC to support faster and more programmable transactions. 

Stablecoin Payouts: YouTube, Google’s global video distribution engine, has added PayPal’s dollar-pegged stablecoin, PYUSD, as a payout option for US creators. The move represents one of the most prominent distribution uses of PayPal’s stablecoin to date. 

Crypto Trading: JPMorgan Chase is considering offering crypto trading services to its institutional clients. Options under review include spot trading and derivatives. The discussions remain internal and exploratory, and no formal decision has yet been announced.

Tokenised Money: JPMorgan Chase is also bringing blockchain technology to a staple of investing: the money-market fund. Its $4tn asset-management arm has launched its first tokenised money-market product, allowing investors to hold digital tokens that represent fund ownership.

Crypto Bank: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has approved the deposit-insurance application of Erebor Bank, a crypto-focused financial startup. The venture is associated with Palmer Luckey and backed by Joe Lonsdale and Peter Thiel. The approval moves the bank a step closer to launch, pending final regulatory clearances.

Quantum Security: Quantum computers may still be years away, but the Solana Foundation is beginning to prepare. It has worked with Project Eleven to assess the Solana network’s resilience to future quantum threats.

Caught In 4K

Weekly Take

Keks & Giggles

And that's a wrap!

You can reach me anytime over on 𝕏 or drop me a line. 

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.}