Circle Partners With Volante to Bring Stablecoin Payments to Banks as Stablecoin Infrastructure Expands

Circle Internet and Volante Technologies announced a partnership to integrate stablecoin capabilities directly into banking infrastructure, targeting financial institutions that want to offer dollar-denominated digital payment services. The move reflects a broader push to embed stablecoin rails into traditional finance rather than keeping them confined to crypto-native platforms.

On the cross-chain front, TRON has integrated with Polygon's Open Money Stack, a development designed to widen stablecoin liquidity across chains and position Polygon as a central connector in multi-chain settlements. Separately, THORChain completed its Zcash integration, enabling native ZEC swaps with assets on other supported chains without wrapping tokens, using bridges, or routing through centralized exchanges. The integration covers Zcash-specific UTXO handling, ZIP-317 fee structures, oracle support, and compatibility with the NU6.3 Ironwood network upgrade. THORChain currently uses Zcash's transparent UTXO layer, meaning cross-chain swaps remain publicly traceable for now, with shielded transaction support not yet included.

Tether and the National Bank of Kazakhstan announced they are exploring a tenge-backed stablecoin pilot alongside a framework for tokenizing real-world assets, signaling Kazakhstan's ambition to formalize its digital asset industry at the central bank level.

In decentralized finance, Lido unveiled Lido Lend, a Morpho-based lending protocol designed to support staking loops using staked ETH as collateral. The protocol is targeting a fourth-quarter 2026 launch, with collateral screening and reliable exit mechanisms as core design priorities, though DAO votes and full technical disclosures remain outstanding.