Stablecoin

Mercado Libre will end Mercado Coin, a Brazil-launched crypto loyalty token used for cashback rewards, with the program set to stop on April 17, 2026. From that date, users will no longer be able to buy, sell, or earn the token, and any unspent balance will be automatically converted into local fiat and credited to Mercado Pago accounts.

Ripple reduced RLUSD supply by about 128 million tokens in a short window at the end of March 2026, via multiple treasury burn transactions. The largest single burn was 79 million RLUSD, and the drop coincided with Q1 closing activity. RLUSD's market cap later slipped below $1.4 billion, ranking it ninth among dollar-pegged stablecoins by market value.

OpenFX raised $94 million in a Series A round to grow its stablecoin-powered foreign-exchange and remittance payments network. The company said it will deploy the capital to add liquidity, expand into new markets and scale operations across Southeast Asia and Latin America.

Standard Chartered said stablecoin velocity has doubled over the past two years, allowing higher transaction volumes without requiring supply to expand at the same pace. In a Tuesday report, the bank said it still expects the stablecoin market to reach $2 trillion by late 2028 despite faster turnover. The report added that USDC has driven much of the velocity increase, while USDT remains more associated with lower-velocity savings use.

Metals.io said xU3O8 holders can now pledge the tokenized uranium asset as collateral to borrow stablecoins through an integration with Morpho, with the feature live as of March 30, 2026. The setup runs on the Oku interface and currently enables access to USDC liquidity without selling the underlying physical uranium exposure.

Cardano’s ADA traded at $0.2407 on March 31, down 3.6% on the day and more than 8% over the week, after losing the $0.245 level on the 4H chart. The breakdown keeps $0.22 as the next downside target while $0.245 turns into resistance, with higher resistance zones marked at $0.273 and $0.304. Over the same week, large holders increased positions by 220M ADA, lifting whale balances from about 13.44B on March 24 to 13.84B on March 30.

Nium said it launched a stablecoin-funded card issuance platform on March 30, 2026, letting businesses issue cards on both Visa and Mastercard via a single integration. The company said stablecoin balances can be converted into fiat at the point of sale across hundreds of millions of merchant locations, with compliant issuance supported across 190 countries.

KB Kookmin Card said Tuesday it will work with Avalanche to develop a hybrid stablecoin payment model designed for use with existing credit cards. The company plans to build the system on a public blockchain and, with OpenAsset, cover top-ups, payments, and settlement, while prioritizing wallet stablecoin balances before charging any remainder to credit.

Nium has introduced a stablecoin-funded card issuance platform that allows businesses to launch physical or virtual spending cards on both Visa and Mastercard via one API. The product converts stablecoins to fiat at the point of sale and relies on Nium's 40+ regulatory licences spanning 190+ countries to support compliance. The rollout comes as onchain crypto card spending reportedly rose from about $10 million per month in early 2024 to more than $100 million per month by early 2026.

Binance has shifted from heavy stablecoin withdrawals to net inflows, with the latest reading at +$2.4 billion after lows of -$3.4 billion (Dec. 11) and -$6.7 billion (Feb. 15). The move comes as the total crypto market cap sits near $2.3 trillion, up 1.85% on the week, while still down 43% from the January 2026 peak. The change is viewed as an encouraging signal, but it may require persistence over the next sessions to confirm a trend.