Crypto Pulse—Industry Perspectives

Cardano has integrated x402, an internet-native payment standard that allows AI agents and automated applications to pay for access to APIs, data, computing resources, and digital services directly while they operate.Cardano support is now available within the x402 ecosystem through the @x402/cardano package, while the Cardano Foundation has also developed a facilitator and developer templates. Current testing shows that the payment flow can support both ADA and native assets on Cardano.What

Circle has launched Digital Asset-Backed Borrowing, a service that allows eligible institutional clients to use Bitcoin as collateral to access USDC liquidity without having to sell their BTC.Rather than lending directly to customers, Circle provides a workflow connecting Circle Mint with third-party lending protocols. Customers can deposit BTC, mint cirBTC, transfer cirBTC into a Smart Wallet they control, and use the token as collateral on supported lending markets. The borrowed USDC is then a

Block, the financial technology company co-founded by Jack Dorsey, has joined the x402 Foundation and contributed support for Bitcoin payments via the Lightning Network to the x402 protocol, expanding the payment methods that AI agents and automated applications can use across the internet.Block announced the move on September 24, 2026, while the technical changes related to Lightning had already appeared in the x402 Foundation’s official repository on September 23 through a commit titled “Speci

Prediction markets are expanding rapidly, but their growth is running into a major US regulatory dispute. On September 24, New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Polymarket, alleging that its US platform operates as an illegal, unlicensed gambling business. Hours later, Polymarket filed its own federal lawsuit seeking to stop New York officials from regulating it. 1.New York’s Case Against PolymarketNew York’s lawsuit argues that Polymarket’s event contracts amount to gambling because user

Key takeawaysCircle opened the public mainnet of Arc; an EVM-compatible Layer 1 assigned Chain ID 5042 and built for stablecoin settlement, foreign exchange and tokenized capital markets. Eleven founding validators run the permissioned consensus layer: BlackRock, DTCC, Galaxy, Global Payments, ICE, Mastercard, MoneyGram, SBI Group, Standard Chartered, Sumitomo Corporation and Visa. USDC serves as the native gas token so fees are dollar-denominated, while ARC is a separate staking and governance

OverviewTwo of the world's larger economies spent September moving in opposite directions on the same question, which is what rules should govern a regulated crypto market. On September 15 the US Senate failed to invoke cloture on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act by 49 votes to 50, leaving the boundary between the SEC and the CFTC to agency rulemaking instead of statute. Six days later, at the Moscow Financial Forum, Chistyukhin told reporters that Russia's crypto industry could be operating

Key takeawaysThe Eurosystem launched Pontes, connecting market distributed ledger platforms to TARGET Services so wholesale tokenized asset transactions can settle in central bank money, with ECB President Christine Lagarde announcing the go-live and describing it as a digital euro made available for banks. Settlement runs on a dual model, letting participants use cash tokens on a Eurosystem DLT platform or complete the cash leg in T2, the real-time gross settlement system, with legal finality c

The Trump administration is considering a plan that could push dollar-backed stablecoins further into overseas markets. The idea would involve partnerships between government agencies and private companies, with the broader goal of strengthening the dollar and creating more demand for US Treasury securities. The proposal remains under discussion, with no final program announced. 1.Washington Wants Dollar Stablecoins Beyond US BordersBloomberg says, the administration is exploring joint ventures

MEXC has scheduled the delisting of seven USDC-M Perpetual Futures pairs for September 25, 2026, at 07:00 UTC, or 2:00 PM WIB. The affected pairs are ETHFI, SAHARA, ICNT, NEIROCTO, BOME, AEVO, and PNUT against USDC.A futures-pair delisting is not the same as removing a spot asset or ending the blockchain project behind a token. This change specifically concerns the listed USDC-M perpetual-futures pairs.For traders, the key issue is not guessing the reason for a delisting. It is checking for open

Bank Indonesia reported that broad money, or M2, reached IDR10,448.1 trillion in August 2026. The figure grew 8.2% year on year, slightly slower than the 8.3% annual growth recorded in July 2026.A large M2 figure is often interpreted as proof of abundant liquidity. That reading can be misleading. M2 includes currency in circulation, demand deposits, savings accounts, time deposits, and selected quasi-money instruments. An increase in M2 does not mean all of those funds are immediately available