Singapore Gulf Bank (SGB) said Friday it has launched a stablecoin mint-and-redeem service that lets corporate and high-net-worth clients convert directly between fiat and stablecoins from within their SGB accounts. The in-bank stablecoin settlement offering, first unveiled in February, initially supports USDC on Solana for transactions above $100,000. The rollout follows SGB's recent entry into the Circle Alliance Program, Circle's global network of USDC-focused partners. SGB said it plans to expand support to additional stablecoins—including USDT, USDe and USDG—and to multiple blockchains over time. To mark the launch, the bank is waiving gas and bank fees for minting and redeeming on Solana for a limited period, with volume-based rewards expected later. The mint-and-redeem functionality is integrated into SGB Net, the bank's proprietary clearing network, enabling regulated movement of funds between on-chain and off-chain environments. CEO Shawn Chan said the product targets persistent client frictions, describing cross-border capital movement as a growing constraint on business expansion. "By integrating stablecoin mint and redeem directly into the banking environment, we enable real-time movement between fiat and digital assets, improving cash flow, payments, and treasury management. We are building the bank for a borderless world, where businesses and individuals operate across jurisdictions". According to Business Times, SGB is a fully licensed digital wholesale bank based in Bahrain, founded by Singapore-based private investment firm Whampoa Group and backed by Bahrain's sovereign wealth fund, Mumtalakat. The launch comes as stablecoins continue to gain traction in institutional finance. The Defiant reported that stablecoins began shifting from "crypto products" to core infrastructure in 2025, with enterprise adoption accelerating across payments, treasury and settlement. Last fall, Coinbase and Citigroup partnered to help Citi's institutional clients use stablecoins to move money faster while staying within traditional banking systems, combining Coinbase's digital asset infrastructure with Citi's payments network spanning 94 markets. Earlier this month, Circle launched Circle Payments Network (CPN) Managed Payments, a stablecoin settlement solution designed to let traditional financial firms use stablecoin rails for fiat transactions while abstracting operational complexity. This article was produced with the assistance of AI workflows. All stories are curated, edited and fact-checked by a human.

On-chain data shows a transfer of 125,000,000 USDC, valued at about $124,993,500, from an unidentified wallet to Binance.

Neo co-founder Da Hongfei has unveiled a sweeping plan to restructure the Neo Foundation, escalating a long-running governance standoff with fellow co-founder Erik Zhang. The move comes after Neo's first financial disclosure since 2019, which reported $461 million in assets held across the Neo Foundation and Neo Global Development. Hongfei's proposal would shift the foundation's domicile to the Cayman Islands, create a five-member board, add an independent supervisor, and prevent either co-founder from serving on the board for 24 months. A separate "Giveback II" initiative would distribute 49.5 million reserved $NEO to the community. Zhang pushed back publicly on X, arguing that relocating to the Cayman Islands amounts to a "cosmetic shell change" and could still allow opaque third-party attestations instead of transparent, verifiable on-chain addresses. Hongfei also said Neo's user base has contracted sharply since 2021, citing delays around the N3 upgrade that caused the project to miss DeFi Summer and a decline in activity from the Chinese market. He is now pitching Neo X as an "agent-first" blockchain designed for autonomous AI agents to transact on-chain.

Circle has introduced USDC Bridge, a new service designed to support native cross-chain transfers of its USDC stablecoin.

Mitsui & Co. Digital Commodities will roll out Zipangcoin on OP Mainnet, marking a milestone as one of Japan's largest trading houses moves into public blockchain infrastructure. The launch features regulated, yield-bearing tokens backed 1:1 by physical precious metals: gold ($ZPG), silver ($ZPGAG), and platinum ($ZPGPT). The institutional-grade assets are scheduled to list on @Gmo_coin on April 20 and will use the @Optimism Stack to connect traditional commodity exposure with decentralized finance.

UPDATE: Tether has frozen 3.29 million USDT held in wallets believed to be controlled by hackers linked to the Rhea Finance exploit. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino publicly thanked on-chain investigator ZachXBT for flagging the addresses quickly.

Exodus Movement, the U.S.-listed crypto wallet provider and Bitcoin treasury firm, said on April 17 (UTC+8) that it has partnered with Ripple to expand native support for the XRP Ledger (XRPL) in its wallet and to integrate support for Ripple's stablecoin, Ripple USD (RLUSD). The company said users can now manage and send XRP directly within the Exodus wallet. (Source: ODAILY; via ME News)

On-chain data shows a transfer of 102,000,000 USDT, valued at $102,051,237, from Tether Treasury to Kraken.