banking

According to the Financial Times, JPMorgan Chase terminated its banking services for Polymarket last October due to regulatory concerns, requiring the company to seek new banking institutions. Previously, Polymarket was banned from providing services to U.S. customers after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission took enforcement action in 2022.Currently, Polymarket has partnered with a new bank, but the specific name has not been disclosed. JPMorgan Chase still maintains business dealings with Polymarket and invited its CEO Shayne Coplan to participate in a private banking client meeting held in Miami this February, where he spoke alongside former NFL player Tom Brady. Polymarket stated that the two parties continue to maintain a close and active relationship in various areas, including multiple entities, operational integration, and customer fund flow management.Since 2026, prediction market platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi have faced legal actions from multiple U.S. states regarding their alleged operation as illegal sports bookmakers, while the relevant platforms argue that they operate as exchanges facilitating trades between buyers and sellers, rather than as bookmakers. According to user aggregated data, the nominal trading volume of prediction markets has exceeded $250 billion since 2026.Meanwhile, Polymarket is seeking over $1 billion in financing, with a target valuation of $20 billion, more than doubling from the approximately $8 billion valuation during the last round of financing in 2025.

The fintech company and crypto-friendly bank Revolut announced that it has obtained a banking license in France, becoming the second full banking license the company has acquired in the EU after Lithuania. The license was jointly reviewed by the French Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority (ACPR) and the European Central Bank, and approved by the Governing Council of the European Central Bank. After obtaining the license, Revolut Bank S.A. will be able to offer a wider range of banking services in France, including loans, mortgages, and regulated savings products. France is one of Revolut's largest markets in Western Europe.Previously, the company primarily operated in France under its Lithuanian banking license, mainly providing payment and financial services. Following this licensing, Revolut will gradually migrate its French operations to the new French banking entity and plans to subsequently expand to Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. Revolut stated that it has invested over 1 billion euros in the Western European market over the past few years and has created over 600 new jobs locally, with plans to establish its Western European headquarters in Paris by 2027. However, the license comes with regulatory conditions. Reports suggest that the European Central Bank may impose restrictions on new products for Revolut's French operations, similar to the regulatory measures previously implemented on its Lithuanian entity, which may affect the speed of launching loan and savings products.This year, Revolut has continued to advance its global regulatory expansion. The company obtained a full banking license in the UK in March 2026 and a full banking license in Australia in July. Currently, Revolut covers 40 markets, with its valuation rising to $115 billion after secondary stock trading in 2026.

According to BeInCrypto, Tim Scott, the chairman of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, stated that the CLARITY Act, aimed at regulating the cryptocurrency market, will be voted on before Congress goes into recess, and "there will undoubtedly be a vote."In an interview with Fox News, Scott mentioned that the Senate might extend its working hours, not limited to the next two days, to push forward the relevant legislation. He noted that there is a consensus forming within the Republican Party regarding the bill and believes that advancing a cryptocurrency regulatory framework "is in the interest of the United States."Tim Scott stated, "We will get this done."The CLARITY Act aims to further clarify the regulatory framework for digital assets in the United States, delineating the regulatory responsibilities of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in the cryptocurrency market. Supporters believe that the bill will provide clearer rules for the industry and help the U.S. maintain its competitiveness in the digital asset space.Currently, the bill still faces internal congressional disputes regarding consumer protection, regulatory authority, and market risks. If ultimately passed, it will be an important step in building the U.S. cryptocurrency regulatory system.

ChianCatcher news, The Tie co-founder and CEO Joshua Frank announced the official launch of its wholly-owned subsidiary The Tie Capital.The company is a broker registered with the SEC in the United States and a member of FINRA, which will provide investment banking and capital market advisory services for crypto protocols, on-chain businesses, and digital asset service providers. The scope of services includes private financing, buy-side and sell-side mergers and acquisitions, agreement restructuring, token generation events (TGE), token-to-equity conversions, and other special situation transactions. This business is led by Boomer Saraga as Managing Director.The Tie was founded in 2017 and primarily provides services such as market intelligence, data APIs, conferences, enterprise access, and staking infrastructure. This launch aims to further serve institutional clients.

The bank holding group BIND Group, managing assets over $2 billion, is developing a stablecoin pegged to the Argentine peso through its virtual asset service provider BEN, offering programmable currency services to institutions. BIND Group also announced a partnership with Circle to provide BEN clients with institution-level payment and fund management services that comply with local regulatory requirements.Petersen Group is also advancing a second peso stablecoin initiative through a subsidiary, supported by the crypto-as-a-service company Lirium. The product, named DIPE, has a white paper; Lirium provides related solutions for Banco Galicia and Brubank. The aforementioned projects are promoted by companies supported by the banking group, rather than services provided directly by the banking group. The Central Bank of Argentina has prohibited private banks from offering crypto-related services to customers since May 2022.These products are primarily aimed at institutional scenarios, with use cases including fund management, payments triggered by on-chain events, and collateral credit management. In March, the Argentine securities regulator determined that the stablecoin argt, pegged to the peso, is classified as a security and was not issued in compliance with regulations.

According to the open-source dataset from NeobankBeat as of July 2026, there are 368 neobanks globally that are still actively operating, serving approximately 1.46 billion users. Among them, Asian users account for 817 million (with WeBank alone serving over 400 million people), and Brazil's Nubank has 131 million customers, surpassing the total of all U.S. neobanks. Out of the 368, only 127 hold a full banking license, with two-thirds relying on partner banks, electronic money licenses, or issuing institutions to operate, leaving customers largely unaware of the actual custodian of their funds.Among the neobanks established in the 2020s that are still alive today, 30% are Web3 native self-custody applications (compared to only 4% in the 2010s). This dataset audits the AI application status of the 368 one by one, revealing that only 67 (18%) have evidence of production-level AI deployment, with leaders mostly being lending institutions from emerging markets like Nigeria, the Philippines, and Mexico. The report warns that 106 infrastructure providers support 368 consumer brands, with a few partner banks and BaaS platforms each supporting dozens of brands, creating concentration risk that could lead to the next Synapse-like event.

According to Cointelegraph, crypto-friendly bank-as-a-service provider Cross River will provide banking infrastructure for X Money, supporting peer-to-peer payments, FDIC-insured interest-bearing accounts, and Visa debit card services. Cross River's banking platform and payment channels will support X's "super app" strategy and are designed to scale with more financial products over time. X Money will enter limited testing in May 2025 and expand to external testing in March 2026. X has obtained money transfer licenses in over 40 states in the U.S. and is registered with FinCEN to support platform peer-to-peer payments. The announcement did not mention support for cryptocurrencies or stablecoins.

According to The Block, the UK Parliament's All-Party Group on Digital Assets has launched an investigation into the access to banking services for the local cryptocurrency industry.This investigation will focus on examining the difficulties faced by cryptocurrency companies in opening and maintaining bank accounts, as well as the relevant circumstances regarding banks imposing restrictions on cryptocurrency transactions.

According to Cryptonomist, banking groups such as the American Bankers Association and the Independent Community Bankers of America are urging the Senate to further tighten the provisions related to stablecoin yields in the CLARITY Act. Previously, the Senate Banking Committee passed the bill on May 14, 2026, with a vote of 15 to 9, incorporating some amendments pushed by Senators Thom Tillis and Angela Alsobrooks. However, the banking sector believes that the existing text still does not completely close the incentive space for "class yields" related to stablecoins.The Independent Community Bankers of America previously estimated that if the bill does not further strengthen yield restrictions, stablecoins could lead to a loss of approximately $1.3 trillion in deposits from the banking system and reduce the lending capacity of community banks by about $850 billion, thereby affecting credit access for small businesses, agriculture, and families in underdeveloped areas.

According to Forbes, the stablecoin banking platform Flex announced the completion of a $70 million B1 round of financing, led by Halo Fund.The new funds will be used to expand its stablecoin-based cross-border commercial banking platform Flex Global, helping medium-sized enterprises conduct global payments and fund management through stablecoin infrastructure.Data shows that the annual payment scale of stablecoins has reached approximately $390 billion, with inter-enterprise transactions growing by about 733% year-on-year. Meanwhile, the settlement scale of Visa stablecoins has reached an annualized $7 billion as of April 2026, a year-on-year increase of 50%.

According to Bloomberg, Nubank's parent company Nu Holdings, a crypto-friendly digital bank in Brazil, has been granted a formal banking license by Mexico's financial regulatory agency Comision Nacional Bancaria y de Valores, allowing it to conduct business such as payroll accounts, checking accounts, higher limit deposits, and more loan products locally.Since entering Mexico in 2019, Nubank has invested billions of dollars, and currently has over 15 million customers, accounting for about 15% of the local adult population. Founder and global CEO David Vélez stated that total investment in Mexico is expected to reach approximately $4.2 billion by 2030. Obtaining a full banking license is expected to help Nubank replace some wholesale financing with low-cost deposits and compete directly with large traditional banks in Mexico as well as fintech institutions like Revolut and Klar.

According to CNBC, Swedish payment giant Klarna has submitted applications to federal and state regulators in the United States, planning to establish a bank subsidiary "Klarna Bank USA" in Utah, which will be covered by FDIC insurance, allowing Klarna to conduct loans, deposits, and a wider range of financial services through its own banking system. Klarna launched the stablecoin KlarnaUSD at the end of last year and is reportedly collaborating with Stripe's wallet infrastructure platform Privy to jointly develop a cryptocurrency wallet aimed at mainstream users.

Binance announced a partnership with Anchorage Digital to further expand its third-party banking product network. By integrating Anchorage Digital's Atlas settlement platform, institutional clients can now trade on Binance while securely holding their assets in Anchorage Digital's independent qualified custody.It is reported that this is the first time the Atlas settlement platform has integrated with a cryptocurrency exchange. This partnership introduces the structure of "custody and trade execution separation" from traditional financial markets, allowing eligible institutions to use crypto assets, interest-bearing USD accounts, and specific tokenized real-world assets as collateral.

According to the Daily Economic News, the Bank of Korea (central bank) is advancing its deposit token project, with a clear goal of full commercialization, rather than being limited to the pilot phase. The Korean banking industry has expressed concerns, pointing out that the subsequent phases—including supporting peer-to-peer transfers and expanding application scenarios—require processes equivalent to launching a new business, and has requested adjustments to the advancement timeline.According to a document submitted by the Bank of Korea Federation to the office of National Power Party member Lee Hyun-seung, the central bank and commercial banks are planning to conduct follow-up tests to lay the foundation for the formal introduction and widespread application of deposit tokens, aiming to achieve uninterrupted continuous operation.

The official announcement from the XAUT ecosystem states that the Greater China region node will officially complete its network connection from June 15 to 20, fully integrating into the global node network, simultaneously connecting the WEFI payment system and DEO Banking digital banking, completing the critical expansion of global financial infrastructure.The core focus of this ecological upgrade is on three major tracks: global stablecoin payments, on-chain asset clearing and settlement, and one-stop digital banking services. The dual asset pledge system for USDC and USD1 will be launched simultaneously, with multiple measures running in parallel to comprehensively optimize the underlying liquidity of the ecosystem, user asset allocation efficiency, and cross-border payment flow capabilities.According to official disclosures, the network upgrade of the Greater China region node will link with Helio Protocol's global investment ecosystem resources, implement XAUT gold stablecoin payment scenarios, diversify digital financial services, and establish a global node collaborative operation system, continuously improving the underlying architecture of the global stablecoin payment network, laying a solid foundation for the digitization of gold assets, cross-border compliant payments, and the large-scale implementation of on-chain banking services.

American venture capitalist and billionaire Tim Draper posted on the X platform that he believes the banking system will be breached before quantum computing has the capability to break blockchain. Draper stated that Bitcoin is safer than the dollars in bank accounts. Even if there are issues with blockchain, full node operators can roll back to the last secure block, and the network can continue to operate, whereas dollars and banks do not have this option. He predicts that as retailers begin to accept Bitcoin, it will eventually completely replace the dollar.

According to CoinDesk, Elena Carletti, an executive at UniCredit Bank in Italy, warned that Europe may struggle to cope with the financial shocks related to crypto companies and banks. Carletti pointed out that when Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank collapsed in 2023, the United States decided to protect all deposits, including funds held by stablecoin issuers, a measure that helped stabilize the crypto market.Carletti stated that Europe cannot easily take the same measures. The EU's MiCA regulations require stablecoin issuers to hold reserve assets in liquid assets such as bank deposits and government securities, which ties them more closely to traditional banks. However, the European deposit guarantee system typically only protects up to €100,000 per bank per depositor. If large stablecoin reserve accounts come under pressure, this limit may not be sufficient to absorb the shock. Carletti described this as a "double weakness."