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Weekly Global Stablecoin & CBDC Update
This Week's Stories (So Far)
The digital currency platform mBridge has surged past $55 billion in cumulative transaction value, completing over 4,000 cross-border transactions. The platform, under evaluation by central banks from China, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia, represents a 2,500x increase from its 2022 inception. The digital yuan (e-CNY) accounts for approximately 95% of transaction volume. The Atlantic Council report highlights this as part of efforts to create alternatives to dollar-centric global payment systems. The mBridge platform enables final settlement of payments within seconds at reportedly half the cost of traditional systems like SWIFT. Originally managed by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the Swiss-based organization unexpectedly withdrew from the initiative in late 2024. Future focus is expected on trade settlements, particularly in energy and commodity transactions where China holds strategic commercial positions.
Key Takeaways:
- mBridge transaction volume hit $55.5 billion, a 2,500x increase since project inception in 2022
- Digital yuan (e-CNY) comprises approximately 95% of all transactions on the platform
- Over 4,000 successful cross-border transactions have been completed by participating central banks
- Settlement occurs within seconds at costs approximately 50% lower than traditional SWIFT infrastructure
- BIS withdrew from the project in late 2024; China continues independent development and expansion
Why It Matters:
- De-dollarization Infrastructure: mBridge represents a functional alternative to dollar-dominated global payment systems, reducing reliance on existing U.S.-controlled financial infrastructure
- Global Payment System Implications: The platform’s operational success at scale validates the feasibility of CBDC-based cross-border settlement, challenging traditional correspondent banking models
- Geopolitical Significance: This development signals China’s advancing role in building alternative global financial infrastructure, with potential long-term implications for international monetary system architecture
- Institutional Validation: Success metrics (55.5B in transactions, 4,000+ completed settlements) demonstrate market demand for faster, cheaper cross-border payment mechanisms
- Regulatory Precedent: The project’s scaling provides a template for other central banks considering cross-border CBDC initiatives, potentially accelerating global CBDC adoption timelines
USDT0, the unified liquidity network for Tether’s USDT stablecoin, commemorated its one-year anniversary by achieving $63 billion in total value moved across all chains. The platform experienced exceptional growth, with $431 million in bridge volume processed in just the past 24 hours. USDT0 has established itself as the #1 most active omnichain token on LayerZero, indicating that the market has embraced unified stablecoin liquidity as a core infrastructure requirement. The platform’s Legacy Mesh connects directly to native USDT deployments without requiring wrappers or synthetic representations, while Polygon emerged as the most active USDT0 ecosystem by transaction count in 2025.
Key Takeaways:
- Unprecedented scaling velocity: $63 billion in value moved within one year represents faster adoption than any prior cross-chain liquidity protocol, positioning USDT0 as the market standard for stablecoin interoperability.
- Polygon leadership position: Polygon ended 2025 with more active USDT0 senders than all other chains combined, establishing itself as the dominant ecosystem for stablecoin settlement among institutional participants.
- Frictionless interoperability: The Legacy Mesh architecture eliminates synthetic representations and wrapper tokens, enabling direct capital movement that reduces counterparty risk and settlement friction.
- Record daily throughput: $431 million in 24-hour bridge volume suggests consistent institutional demand for cross-chain stablecoin movement, indicating mainstream adoption beyond retail speculation.
- Organic demand validation: No forced incentives or governance manipulation required to achieve #1 ranking on LayerZero, demonstrating that market participants organically prefer unified liquidity.
Why It Matters:
- Stablecoin infrastructure maturation: USDT0’s success proves that stablecoin utility extends beyond a single blockchain. Fragmentation risk is eliminated through interoperable liquidity, validating the payments use case over pure cryptocurrency trading.
- Institutional settlement preference: $431M in daily bridge volume indicates that institutions are consistently moving capital between chains, suggesting real settlement demand rather than speculation-driven activity.
- Competitive advantage for Polygon: Dominance as the #1 USDT0 ecosystem positions Polygon to capture institutional payment flows, particularly for cross-border corporate and remittance transactions at scale.
- Technical architecture validation: Legacy Mesh success demonstrates that native token connectivity (without derivatives) is essential for institutional adoption. This model may become the standard for future stablecoin protocols.
- Visa/PayPal counter-positioning: As legacy payment networks integrate stablecoins, USDT0 establishes Tether as the liquidity backbone for decentralized settlement, potentially capturing market share from centralized payment processors for institutional clients.
Kazakhstan has enacted new legislation that legally defines the National Digital Financial Infrastructure, setting a unified framework for modern payment systems and digital finance services. The laws clarify the status of key components, including the National Payment System, interbank card and mobile payment systems, the Digital Tenge platform, open banking, biometric identification, and a national anti-fraud center. Digital tenge is recognized as a legal means of payment, issued exclusively by the National Bank and accessed via financial market participants. The framework also introduces a comprehensive regime for digital financial assets and regulated circulation of unbacked cryptocurrencies through licensed providers. Authorities expect these measures to enhance interbank efficiency, expand innovative services like QR payments and mobile transfers, and integrate digital assets into the national financial system while improving consumer protection and transaction transparency.
Key Takeaways:
- Legal status granted to the National Digital Financial Infrastructure and its core platforms, including Digital Tenge and open banking.
- Digital tenge recognized as legal tender, with the National Bank as sole issuer.
- Regulated regime introduced for digital financial assets and unbacked cryptocurrencies via licensed providers.
- Measures aim to expand QR payments, mobile transfers, and innovative financial services nationwide.
- Creation of a unified, inclusive, and regulated national digital asset market.
Why It Matters:
- Signals Kazakhstan’s strategic shift toward a fully digital and programmable national currency environment.
- Enhances transparency and control over public finance through smart contract–enabled digital tenge.
- Provides clearer rules for crypto-fiat channels, improving consumer protection and market integrity.
- Strengthens competition in the financial sector by standardizing access to innovative payment and identification services.
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