The American Bankers Association (ABA) is mounting an aggressive lobbying push against portions of the Senate’s Digital Asset Market Clarity Act ahead of a scheduled Banking Committee markup on Thursday, warning lawmakers that stablecoin provisions in the updated bill could still undermine bank deposits and weaken financial stability.
In a call-to-arms circulated to bank executives nationwide, the ABA petitioned banks and their employees over the weekend to contact senators immediately to push for tighter restrictions on payment stablecoins in the crypto market structure bill. The group said the latest version of the legislation — after months of bank lobbying, meetings and input — still leaves room for crypto firms to offer interest-like rewards that may encourage consumers to move money out of traditional bank accounts.
The Senate Banking Committee is expected to release updated legislative text as soon as Monday, with comments and amendments from lawmakers likely to emerge Tuesday before Thursday’s committee vote on the Clarity Act.
“We need your help to drive this message home before senators consider this legislation,” ABA president Rob Nichols said in the request.
The ABA’s campaign follows a joint letter sent last week with other banking trade associations that outlined proposed edits to the bill. The groups argued lawmakers need to close what they describe as a loophole around stablecoin yield before advancing the legislation.
The dispute has become one of the defining battles in Washington’s crypto policy debate. Bank executives and trade groups have argued that yield-bearing stablecoins could function as substitutes for insured deposits, draining funding that banks rely on to make mortgages, business loans and other forms of credit.
Supporters of stablecoins, including many crypto firms and fintech companies, argue the products offer consumers faster payments and new ways to move money online. Critics in the crypto industry say banks are trying to preserve their dominance by limiting how digital dollar products compete for users.
“The banking cartel is in full panic mode,” U.S. Senator Bernie Moreno, an Ohio Republican who has been staunchly pro-crypto, posted on social media site X.
The fight previously delayed legislative progress, and lawmakers eventually negotiated a compromise that would prohibit stablecoin yield resembling deposit interest while allowing activity-based rewards programs similar to credit-card points. Even after those changes, major banking groups have continued pressing Congress for stricter guardrails.
While the White House Council of Economic Advisers had released an analysis on stablecoins that suggested their deployment wouldn’t damage the banking system, ABA economists answered with their own study in April. The banking group argued the administration focused on the wrong policy question by analyzing the effects of banning stablecoin yield rather than the consequences of allowing it. According to the ABA, permitting yield-bearing stablecoins could rapidly scale the market from roughly $300 billion today to as much as $2 trillion, increasing pressure on bank funding.
The longer negotiations drag on, lawmakers and industry participants warn, the harder it may become to move comprehensive crypto legislation through the Senate and onto the floor for a final vote. About 10 weeks of Senate floor time remain before the midterm elections, according to the current Senate calendar, and there are a lot of competing interests for that legislative bandwidth.
UPDATE (May 11, 2026, 14:55 UTC): Adds response from Senator Bernie Moreno.
The private token sale for Circle’s Arc blockchain was led by a16z crypto, and included BlackRock, Apollo, and Intercontinental Exchange.
USDC issuer Circle announced the completion of the presale for its stablecoin-focused blockchain Arc, raising $222 million in token sales, as part of its Q1 2026 report, published on Monday, May 11.
The presale, which gives the Layer 1 chain a fully diluted valuation of $3 billion, was led by a16z crypto, which bought $75 million worth of Arc’s native token, Circle’s CEO Jeremy Allaire told CNBC.
Other participants in the Arc presale included BlackRock, Apollo Funds, NYSE parent firm Intercontinental Exchange, ARK Invest, SBI Group, Janus Henderson Investors, Standard Chartered Ventures, General Catalyst, IDG Capital, Haun Ventures, CoinDesk parent company Bullish, and Marshall Wace, according to Circle’s first quarter report.
Circle also announced that it is building new permissionless AI agent infrastructure and developer tools, including Circle CLI (command line interface), Agent Wallets, and Agent Marketplace. The new services will complement its existing gas-free Nanopayments tool for AI agents, which launched on mainnet across eleven blockchains last month.
Circle first unveiled Arc last August, framing the network as a stablecoin-native L1. Arc’s public testnet went live in October, while mainnet is expected to launch later this year, Allaire previously said during the firm’s Q4 2025 earnings call. During that call, Allaire also first discussed a native Arc token, saying the company was exploring the concept at the time.
Circle shares are trading around $114 today, up just 0.6%. Circle went public less than a year ago, in a blockbuster IPO last June.
Also in today’a Q1 results, Circle said that on-chain transaction volume for USDC grew 263% last quarter to $21.5 trillion.
Icon Solutions, the UK fintech enabling banks to design and implement state-of-the-art payment systems, has been awarded a prestigious King’s Award for Enterprise in the Innovation category.
Icon Solutions is one of only a select few organisations nationally to be recognised with a prestigious King’s Award for Enterprise in 2026. Announced today (Wednesday 6 May), the Award acknowledges the company’s outstanding achievement in Innovation, reflecting the company’s work in addressing one of the banking sector’s most complex challenges: modernising payments technology.
Icon Solutions was founded in 2009 in Wimbledon, London by co-founders Ben Hallifax, Darren Capehorn and Tom Kelleher driven by a shared belief that it should be simpler and safer for banks to modernise their payments technology. Since then, the company has built a global reputation for delivering secure, scalable and customer-centric payment solutions, supported by a specialist services business that helps banks design, deliver and operate complex modernisation programmes. At its core is the Icon Payments Framework (IPF), a software technology framework trusted by leading global banks and financial institutions, including NatWest, BNP Paribas, Citi and UBS. IPF enables organisations to modernise payments safely and efficiently, streamlining transactions, improving operational performance, and unlocking new growth opportunities in response to evolving technologies, regulatory requirements and changing customer expectations.
Icon Solutions co-founder Tom Kelleher said: “We are incredibly proud to receive this recognition. It reflects the impact of our work in helping banks modernise payments on their own terms, safely, efficiently, and without compromise, while supporting better outcomes for both customers and the industry as a whole. This award is a testament to the team’s expertise and our commitment to giving banks the technology and control they need to modernise with confidence.”
The King’s Awards for Enterprise – previously known as The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise – were renamed in 2023 to reflect His Majesty The King’s commitment to continuing the legacy of HM Queen Elizabeth II in celebrating exceptional UK businesses.
Now in its 60th year, the King’s Awards for Enterprise remain the UK’s most prestigious business accolades. Successful organisations may use the esteemed King’s Awards Emblem for the next five years, signalling excellence to customers, partners, and global markets.
Data from TradingView showed XRP/USD remained 60% below its multiyear high of $3.66 reached in July 2025 and traded 21% below its yearly open of $1.83.
Despite this drawdown, several price indicators hinted at a potential upward breakout ahead.
Analyzing XRP’s funding rates on Binance, analyst Darkfost flagged a key bullish signal, setting XRP/USD up for an upward run.
Related: XRP price copies 2025 chart fractal that last time sparked 66% gains
The funding rates 30-day sum on Binance have “maintained a bearish bias for nearly three months, even as XRP has posted a 27% gain over the same period,” the analyst said in a recent post on X, adding:
“When such a strong consensus forms, especially after a correction exceeding 60%, it is often a sign that a potential reversal may be developing.”
XRP/USD funding rates. Source: CryptoQuant
Previous instances show that XRP tends to rise sharply when funding rates recover after prolonged periods of being negative.
This notably happened in April 2025, when XRP reached $1.25, before a “bullish recovery eventually triggered a rally that led to a 126% advance,” the analyst added.
Meanwhile, the Bollinger Bands indicator, used by traders to assess price momentum and volatility within a certain range, reached its tightest point in 10 months, signaling that a significant price move could be underway.
The two-day XRP Bollinger Bands have slipped to their tightest level since July 2025, as shown in the chart below.
The XRP/USD pair surged about 90% in July 2025 to its multi-year high at $3.66, after breaking above the upper boundary of the Bollinger Bands. The gains were 72% in July 2024.
Analyst Seth said XRP has printed the “tightest Bollinger Band squeeze in years” on the daily time frame, adding:
“History says this kind of setup resolves with force.”
XRP/USD daily with tightening Bollinger Bands. Source: X/Seth
As Cointelegraph reported, multiple technical indicators suggested that XRP/USD is bottoming out, pointing to a possible rally to as high as $12.
XRP symmetrical triangle breakout is underway
The XRP/USD pair has broken above a symmetrical triangle on the daily chart, a setup typically associated with bullish reversals after prolonged consolidation.
The price has been compressing between two converging trend lines since February, with the upper boundary now acting as key support near the $1.40 psychological level.
A daily candlestick close above this level could open the way for a run toward the bullish target of the prevailing chart pattern at $2.05, roughly 41% above the current price.
Meanwhile, the moving average convergence divergence (MACD) indicator is trading above the zero line and has produced a bullish cross, indicating rising buying momentum. Historically, similar MACD crossovers have preceded strong rebounds in XRP.
Analyst CW8900 said a “full-scale rise for $XRP is imminent,” after the price bounced off a multi-year support line on the three-day chart.
XRP/USD three-day chart. Source: X/CW8900
As Cointelegraph reported, buyers must break and sustain the XRP price above the $1.40- $1.61 seller congestion zone on the daily chart to signal a long-term trend shift.
Payments firm Corpay (CPAY) add stablecoin wallets and settlement capabilities for its global corporate customers alongside BVNK to give companies another way to move money across borders outside traditional banking hours.
Teaming up with BVNK will allow Corpay clients to see stablecoin balances alongside fiat balances inside its platform, while allowing them to send, receive, store and convert stablecoins through embedded wallets.
Corpay said it will use the same stablecoin rails in its treasury operations. It expects to reduce reliance on pre-funded accounts, improve capital efficiency and make it easier to move funds across its global footprint doing so.
The firm has also added blockchain-based settlement to its cross-border payments platform through JPMorgan’s Kinexys private blockchain and BVNK’s stablecoin infrastructure. The company said the rails would be used across select corridors.
Those additions sit alongside SWIFT, Corpay’s proprietary iACH network and real-time local payment schemes. The new BVNK wallet integration brings that stablecoin functionality closer to customers.
BVNK has become one of the main firms helping payment companies add stablecoin rails. Mastercard agreed in March to buy BVNK for up to $1.8 billion, while Visa teamed up with BVNK earlier this year to support stablecoin funding and payouts through Visa Direct.
Other payment firms are taking a similar route. Stripe has been building stablecoin payments through Bridge, while Worldpay has used BVNK to offer stablecoin payouts to global businesses.
The use case is mostly operational. Stablecoins give payment firms another settlement option for liquidity movement, treasury management and cross-border transfers outside banking hours.
Stablecoin payments remain a small part of global money movement, but a growing one. Data from Visa shows that over the past 30 days, over $1.2 trillion in stablecoin transaction volume, up from $733 billion a year ago.
The following is the fintech, digital and wider economic development overview of the Caribbean nation of 75,000 inhabitants of Dominica.
Dominica has often been discussed through the lens of resilience. A small Caribbean nation exposed to climate shocks and narrow-market constraints, it has spent much of the past decade trying to rebuild not just infrastructure, but economic capacity. Increasingly, that rebuilding effort has included a digital dimension.
The real story in places like Dominica is not scale, but how digital tools can help compensate for structural limitations. By this year, Dominica’s fintech and wider digital ecosystem is still small, but it is becoming more purposeful, more policy-led, and more closely tied to national development.
The economic context matters. Highlighting its tiny population, the gross domestic product is around $689million. This means that its GDP per capita is just over $10,400, according to the World Bank. The economy continues to rely on tourism, agriculture, construction, offshore education and public investment, while remittances also remain important (currently around 5.7 of GDP from 2024).
Financial services and its Eastern Caribbean link
Bright and colorful landscape with cruise port and skyline of Roseau in Dominica, Caribbean Island IMAGE SOURCE GETTY
Roseau remains the country’s commercial and financial centre, and one of the best-known domestic institutions is the National Bank of Dominica, which has continued to build out its digital banking offer through its mobile app and online banking services.
That broader backdrop helps explain why Dominica’s fintech landscape in 2026 is better understood as a very small ecosystem rather than a fully formed startup market. Publicly visible activity suggests a single-digit to low-teens ecosystem, dominated less by venture-backed disruption and more by bank-led digital banking, credit union modernisation, regional payment infrastructure, and a handful of niche fintech or wallet-type solutions.
Dominica, alongside seven other nations (Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines) are all members of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). They have a supranational central bank, Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB), and an ECCB-issued Eastern Caribbean Dollar as their currency.
As with a common fiscal and monetary link, Dominica’s evolution resembles the wider Eastern Caribbean: innovation is happening, but it is being driven through institutions and regional platforms rather than through a large domestic startup base. That is an inference from the country’s scale, the ECCB’s regional role, and the limited number of licensed commercial banks in Dominica identified by the ECCB.
The past few years have seen ECCB continue to advance a regional payments modernisation agenda focused on digital inclusion, interoperability and resilience. That includes ongoing work around DCash, the ECCB’s central bank digital currency pilot, which the Bank described last year as part of a broader push towards a more digitally inclusive future. The ECCB has also emphasised payment system integration and the need for traditional payment rails and fintech solutions to work together in creating broader access.
For Dominica, that matters because digital financial progress is likely to come through regional rails, common regulation and institution-led adoption, rather than through a standalone domestic open banking regime. Put simply, the likes of open banking in the formal sense is not yet a defining feature of Dominica’s market in 2026, but digital payments, wallet infrastructure and interoperable systems are clearly moving up the policy agenda.
Dominica and wider digital transformation and inclusion
What is more tangible is the wider digital transformation agenda surrounding the financial sector. Dominica’s National Digital Transformation Strategy 2022–2026 sets out a vision of using digital technology to drive economic growth, improve public services, create jobs and build resilience, with the aim of becoming a “vibrant digital economy by 2026.” That policy direction has been reinforced by the World Bank-backed Caribbean Digital Transformation Project, a regional programme designed to increase access to digital services, technologies and skills. A 2025 World Bank project paper notes that the programme covers digital enabling environments, digital government infrastructure and digital skills, and highlights implementation milestones in Dominica, including the rollout of a health management information system and the establishment of a cybersecurity incident response team.
On financial inclusion, the picture is more mixed. Dominica does not always appear with complete country-level Global Findex snapshots in the most accessible World Bank public interfaces, but the broader direction of travel is clear: the country has relatively high banking and credit union penetration by Caribbean small-island standards, yet mobile money remains comparatively underdeveloped. A World Food Programme-supported paper on digital financial inclusion in Dominica notes that, despite high mobile phone ownership, mobile money in Dominica remains nascent. That suggests account ownership is likely driven more by traditional bank and credit union relationships than by mobile wallets. In practical terms, Dominica is further along in digital banking than in mass mobile-money penetration.
If there is a fintech story here, it is one of practical examples rather than scale. The National Bank of Dominica’s mobile banking platform offers bill payment, peer-to-peer transfers and budgeting tools. At the regional level, DCash remains the most visible public-sector digital-money initiative touching Dominica through the ECCU framework.
Outside the formal banking space, MLajan Mobile Wallet has been identified as a Dominican financial technology solution and a winner in the Caribbean FinTech Sprint for Financial Inclusion, with ambitions to expand within the OECS. SurePay Dominica, launched in 2023, also points to growing digital bill-payment capability in the market. Taken together, these examples suggest that Dominica’s fintech ecosystem is best described as emerging, payments-heavy, and closely tied to financial inclusion use cases rather than complex verticals such as wealthtech or embedded finance.
Catalysts matter in a market this small. Dominica benefits less from a single powerful domestic fintech association and more from a network of regional enablers: the ECCB, the OECS-linked Digital Transformation programme, United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF)-backed fintech sprint initiatives, and development finance support from institutions such as the World Bank. In other words, the ecosystem is being built through public-private coordination and regional scaffolding rather than through sheer market size.
That is why Dominica’s digital-financial story in 2026 is not really about disruption. It is about institution-building, service digitisation and making a small market more resilient, more connected and more inclusive over time. In a larger country, that might sound modest. In Dominica, it is strategic.
Strategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) purchased 535 bitcoin for approximately $43.0 million at an average price of $80,340 per coin, the company disclosed Monday in a Form 8-K filing. The firm now holds 818,869 BTC, acquired for roughly $61.86 billion at an average cost of $75,540 per bitcoin, and has recorded a bitcoin yield of 9.4% year-to-date in 2026.
The acquisition was funded through $0.1 million raised via Strategy’s STRC ATM program and $42.9 million from its MSTR ATM offering.
The purchase comes six days after executive chairman Michael Saylor told investors on the company’s Q1 earnings call that Strategy was prepared to sell a portion of its bitcoin holdings for the first time. This statement drew immediate scrutiny from a market that had long viewed the company’s accumulation strategy as one-directional.
Saylor: End every year with more bitcoin than you started
Saylor moved to contain the narrative over the weekend. In a podcast interview, he said that for every bitcoin sold, the company would buy 10 to 20 more. “You should be a net accumulator of bitcoin,” he said. “You want to end every year with more bitcoin than you started.” Monday’s purchase suggests the buying has not slowed.
The backdrop is financial pressure. Bitcoin fell 23% in Q1 2026 — from $87,500 to $67,700 — and under FASB fair value accounting rules adopted in January 2025, Strategy is required to mark its full bitcoin position to market each quarter. In Q1, that produced a $12.54 billion unrealized loss running directly through the income statement. More than 434,000 of the company’s coins were purchased above $80,000, generating a $7.6 billion unrealized loss and a $2.2 billion deferred tax asset at a 29% effective tax rate.
It is that deferred tax asset — not a change of heart — that explains Saylor’s openness to selling. The same move was made before. On Dec. 22, 2022, Strategy sold 704 BTC at $16,776 per coin and repurchased 810 BTC two days later in a tax-loss harvesting maneuver designed to carry capital losses back against prior gains. The structure now is larger, but the logic is identical.
CEO Phong Le put the decision framework on the record during the earnings call. “I believe in math over ideology,” Le said. “At the point where selling bitcoin versus selling equity to pay a dividend is better for our bitcoin-per-share, and for our common shareholders, we will do it.”
The company carries $8.2 billion in convertible debt and owes $1.5 billion annually in dividend obligations tied to its perpetual preferred stock, STRC. Both create real cash demands that equity issuance alone may not always cover at favorable terms.
Bitcoin per share — the ratio of total BTC holdings to diluted shares outstanding — remains the metric every financing decision runs through. JPMorgan analysts wrote last week that if Strategy maintains its current pace, total bitcoin purchases in 2026 could reach approximately $30 billion.
Strategy’s bitcoin and software business
The company’s software division, long treated as background noise, is gaining attention. Le said Q1 2026 was its strongest quarter in a decade, with revenue up 12%. Strategy has built an internal AI infrastructure layer called “Mosaic” and is rebuilding core workflows using multiple AI models. “I’m sometimes asked why a bitcoin treasury company should also operate a software business,” Le wrote Sunday on X. “The two create powerful and unique synergies.”
MSTR shares closed up 4.31% Friday at $187.59. The stock has gained 41.7% over the past month, though it remains down 18.9% over the past six months. In pre-market trading Monday, shares were up roughly 1%. Bitcoin traded around $81,000.
On Sunday evening, Saylor posted two words to X: “Back to work. BTC.” He has made similar posts before prior purchase announcements. Monday’s filing confirmed the pattern.
The UK savings market is currently being reshaped by two primary forces: the intensification of interest rate competition and the rising demand for superior digital experiences. While traditional and challenger banks are offering highly competitive rates to attract capital, the real competitive battleground has shifted toward how these products are delivered. Banks are now challenged to move beyond just offering the best financial terms and must focus on creating a seamless, reliable environment where customers feel they can effortlessly manage and grow their money.
For banks to truly succeed, they must bridge the gap between financial value and user interface. Modern consumers no longer visit physical branches; they seek digital-first interactions that provide full visibility into how their wealth is optimizing. This requires a robust core engine that is not only reliable but also scalable enough to grow alongside shifting market demands. The institutions that will lead the market are those that make the process of doing the right thing with one’s money feel completely effortless.
This need for innovation became particularly apparent in 2022 when rising interest rates increased the “cost of inaction” for savers. Despite rates reaching levels of 4% or 5%, a significant portion of the market remained stagnant, with over £500 billion sitting in current accounts earning little to no interest. This inertia highlighted a massive opportunity to introduce new solutions, such as the Spring initiative by Paragon Bank, to help proactive and passive savers alike capture the value they are currently missing.
Key Highlights from Karishma Jaycee and Derek Sprawling:
The Duel of Rates and Experience: Jaycee emphasizes that while competitive rates drive behavior, a seamless digital experience is where banks now truly compete for loyalty.
Beyond the Branch: With physical branches largely a thing of the past, the “core engine” behind a bank’s digital front end must be both reliable and highly scalable.
Effortless Financial Management: The banks positioned to win are those that make managing and growing money feel intuitive and simple for the end user.
The Cost of Inaction: Sprawling points to the hundreds of billions of pounds currently earning no interest as the primary problem that new market solutions must solve.
Paragon’s Evolution: Drawing on over a decade of experience, Paragon Bank is utilizing its background as a fast-growing UK savings bank to address these market gaps.
The Australian government is reportedly seeking to replace capital gains tax discounts on crypto and other assets with an inflation indexation tax, which could increase the taxes on long-term crypto gains.
The Albanese government’s fiscal year 2027 budget, set to be released on Tuesday, would cut the current 50% capital gains tax discount alongside changes to housing investment taxes, the Australian Financial Review reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the budget.
Australian investors can currently claim a 50% capital gains tax discount on assets held for more than 12 months. The proposed indexation model would instead tax full real gains, adjusted for inflation, over the time the asset is held.
The move is likely to impact long-term investors and could potentially see a significant increase in tax obligations for high-income earners on assets with low inflation-adjusted returns.
Chris Joye, a portfolio manager at Coolabah Capital Investments and an AFR columnist, criticized the change, arguing in an X post that it would drive Australians out of most forms of investment and into assets with tax incentives, such as housing.
“After the budget doubles the capital gains tax on productive businesses and assets from about 23.5% to 46-47%, investors will understandably pull money from businesses, shares, commercial property and rental housing and plough it into their tax-free owner-occupied home,” he said.
“The single biggest winner from the budget: the tax-free owner-occupied home, which is where people will put their money,” Joye added.
Changes in the federal budget will take effect at the end of the fiscal year in July 2027, with a one-year grace period for assets acquired after May 10. During the transition to a new system, the existing 50% discount will still apply.
Related: Coinbase launches crypto service for Australian retirement funds
The AFR report also notes that assets purchased before May 10 will be partially exempt, with the final capital gains tax discount calculated proportionally based on how long the asset was held under each tax regime.
Source: Chris Joye
Scott Phillips, chief investment officer at investment advice firm The Motley Fool, argued that while investors will likely pay more tax under the changes, they will still make considerable returns and be incentivized for further investments.
“Not for nothing, but when people say a CGT change would hit founders and growth investors, they’re not wrong. But implicit in that argument is that those groups will be making a motza in the first place. That’s all the incentive they will need,” he said.
Disclosure: The author of this story owns shares in Strategy (MSTR).
Michael Saylor, the executive chairman of Strategy (MSTR), the largest publicly traded corporate holder of bitcoin BTC$81,241.52, announced Monday on X the purchase of 535 bitcoin for roughly $43 million at an average price of about $80,340 per coin
The purchases bring the company’s total holdings to 818,869 BTC, acquired for $61.86 billion at an average cost basis of $75,540. With bitcoin currently trading above $81,000, Strategy’s stash is currently in profit.
Last week’s purchases were funded by $42.9 million raised through sales of the company’s preferred stock, according to a May 11 SEC filing.
This purchase follows Strategy’s first-quarter earnings call, where the company said it was prepared to sell bitcoin to repay convertible debt or fund dividend obligations, provided the move remains accretive on a bitcoin-per-share basis.
MSTR shares rose more than 1% in pre-market trading.
