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MoneyGram's MGUSD Issuer Bet, Bitcoin's $70K Test & CLARITY Act Wobbles
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
MoneyGram launches its own stablecoin on Stellar, repositioning as a principal issuer across 500,000 global locations — and the implications ripple across crypto regulation and institutional allocation. Plus: Bitcoin below $70K, the CLARITY Act's odds slipping to 50%, European fintech funding discipline, and a $90M raise for Berlin's Upvest.
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
MoneyGram just crossed a line that most legacy payments operators have been careful to avoid. On June second, the company launched MGUSD, its own native USD stablecoin on the Stellar blockchain, making it a principal issuer rather than a third-party distributor.
The strategic logic here is straightforward. MoneyGram's core business serves people in currency-unstable markets who need reliable, affordable dollar access.
Bitcoin fell below seventy thousand dollars for the first time in two months, driven by ETF outflows, geopolitical tension, and capital rotating toward AI and tech stocks. The forty percent decline since October is now running alongside a June selloff that's accelerating institutional redemptions.
The CLARITY Act, which aims to divide crypto oversight between the SEC and CFTC, has hit a serious obstacle. Jamie Dimon publicly warned that provisions allowing interest-like rewards on stablecoin balances will be fought by the banking sector.
European fintech raised three point seven billion dollars across one hundred ninety-two deals in Q1 twenty twenty-six, down thirty-one percent year over year. The more telling number is the mega-deal collapse.
Banks are now dealing with a compliance problem that didn't exist two years ago. Generative AI outputs embedded in trading workflows aren't being captured or monitored at the scale regulators will eventually require.
The clearest near-term signals to track are two. First, whether the CLARITY Act survives the banking lobby's push to strip interest-bearing stablecoin provisions before the July deadline.
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