Weekly Newsletter, 26 June 2026

Two models for digital money

America's four largest banks have chosen the route of tokenized deposits. PayPal, Stripe, Klarna and Western Union have chosen stablecoins. The architecture is splitting along a single fault line: whether you have a banking license.

JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citi and Wells Fargo, joined by eight other lenders, confirmed earlier this month that when it comes to their digital money strategy, they will pursue tokenized deposits through The Clearing House, the US interbank settlement operator, rather than launch a joint bank stablecoin, targeting a 2027 launch. The logic is fairly straightforward: stablecoin reserves cannot be lent out, and a stablecoin that leaves the bank perimeter ends the customer relationship. Tokenized deposits stay inside the network, preserve lending optionality, and keep the deposit on the bank's balance sheet.

Non-bank payment companies reached the opposite conclusion for the same structural reason. PayPal launched PYUSD to move money across its 200-market network without depending on correspondent banking cutoffs. Stripe acquired stablecoin infrastructure company Bridge and has published an enterprise playbook for stablecoin deployment, laying out the cross-border use cases that bank rails cannot serve. Western Union issues its own USDPT coin on Solana to settle with agents around the clock, and Klarna recently tapped Coinbase to raise funding in stablecoins. The common thread is that companies that sit inside global payment flows need open, 24/7, cross-border settlement. Tokenized deposits can’t leave the bank network, they require clearing or swapping at every boundary.

The US regulatory architecture is sharpening around the divide. America's GENIUS Act established the initial stablecoin framework, structuring different treatment for bank and non-bank issuers. The CLARITY Act is advancing toward the White House's July 4 target. Congress this week voted to bar Fed CBDC development through 2030, though the President has so far withheld his signature, which would remove the state as a competing infrastructure provider for at least a cycle.

Digital money is not one market. Banks tokenize deposits to retain lending books and customer relationships. Non-bank payment companies issue stablecoins to escape fragmented bank infrastructure and build primary financial account relationships of their own.

Also this week

Relevant financial updates

Bitbank, a Japanese crypto exchange, has been acquired for $289mln by SBI Holdings
fomo, a collectibles and digital goods platform, has raised $75mln in a Series B round led by Index Ventures with investments from Union Square Ventures, Benchmark, and 13 others at a $550mln valuation
Allium, an enterprise blockchain data platform, has raised $40mln in a Series B round led by Amplify and with participation from Kleiner Perkins
Ornn*, a company building financial infrastructure for the compute market, has raised $33mln in a Seed round led by a16z crypto
Onyx Odds, a sports-focused prediction market, has raised $20mln in a Series A round led by Kraken at a $220mln valuation
Cambrian Network*, a company providing AI agents with real-time financial intelligence by turning onchain and offchain market data into structured, verifiable data feeds, has raised $12mln in a round led by Polychain Capital
TurboFlow*, an onchain trading platform, has raised $6mln in a Seed round led by Pantera
Orthogonal*, a discovery and payments layer for the agentic economy, has raised $4.3mln in a Seed round led by Pantera with investments from YC Combinator and 7 others

*Underlying TBV portfolio position | Prices as per 26/06

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