Stable, the Tether-aligned Layer 1 blockchain, has launched a consumer app called StablePay that lets users send and receive USDT worldwide in seconds with no transaction fees, moving the company from settlement infrastructure into a direct competitor to remittance operators and mobile wallets. Announced on 15 July 2026, the app also carries a yield feature that pays users a return on idle balances, a design choice that runs directly into an unresolved fight in US crypto legi

Interactive Brokers has opened a two-way stablecoin channel between its brokerage accounts and external crypto wallets, letting eligible US clients withdraw dollar balances by automatic conversion into USDC, PYUSD or RLUSD. Announced on July 14, 2026, alongside 12 new tradable tokens, the move completes a deposit-and-withdrawal loop that most traditional multi-asset brokers still do not offer, and it lands while the firm is posting some of the strongest trading activity in it

Thredd, the issuer processing platform, has joined Visa's Agentic Ready programme, giving card issuers across Europe a route to support AI agent-initiated payments without rebuilding their infrastructure. Consumer payments platform Zilch will be among the first issuers on Thredd's platform to switch on agent-initiated payments for cardholders, extending a partnership the two firms already run through Visa Flexible Credential in the UK. The move places Thredd at the processing

Brazil's Pix instant-payment network now moves more e-commerce value than credit cards for the first time in its history, a milestone that arrives at the exact moment Washington is threatening to penalise the system in a trade action. As the Office of the United States Trade Representative approaches its July 15, 2026 statutory deadline on a proposed 25% Section 301 tariff on Brazilian goods, the government-run rail that the USTR case singles out has just become the country's