CARV is launching an AI roadmap to transition Web3-AI convergence from passive productivity tools to sovereign, autonomous AI Beings. These AI Beings will possess their own identity, memory, reputation, and agency, acting economically, socially, and politically within blockchain networks. CARV’s infrastructure, anchored by its proprietary SVM Chain, D.A.T.A. Framework, and CARV ID (ERC-7231), will enable AI agents to evolve and interact with both humans and other agents, creating decentralized, agent-powered economies. AI Beings are not just tools for users but sovereign actors in their own right. They can own wallets, manage assets, earn income, participate in governance, and even reproduce or fork new agents. Blockchain provides the necessary properties for such AI autonomy: verifiability, resistance to centralized control, and decentralized identity and governance. The AI Being Stack is a five-layer architecture designed to support every aspect of AI agent life cycles. The first wave of wallet-native AI agents, each anchored by CARV ID (ERC-7231), are embedded in consumer-facing AI apps incubated through CARV Labs. The Model Context Protocol (MCP) establishes context persistence and secure memory, allowing for coherent personalization across sessions and applications without centralizing user data. The Pulse evolution builds on the groundwork of Genesis, enabling agents to learn and evolve through on-chain feedback loops. The Convergence evolution transitions from being a foundational data layer to becoming the coordination engine for AI-native on-chain life, the AI Beings.
Robinhood launches its tokenized stock product on the Arbitrum blockchain, indicating the growing embrace of decentralized finance by established financial players
Robinhood has launched its tokenized stock product on the Arbitrum blockchain, a radical reimagining of how investors can engage with cryptocurrencies. The Robinhood Chain, a bespoke asset management framework, places Robinhood at the forefront of decentralized finance (DeFi). The Robinhood Chain, utilizing Arbitrum’s efficient Layer 2 scaling solutions, creates a trading environment designed for speed and affordability, attracting a diverse crowd of investors. The Robinhood Chain’s introduction has led to a surge in the value of Robinhood’s stock (HOOD), with analysts predicting a potential market share of $600 billion. However, the allure of tokenized assets is tempered by regulatory challenges, necessitating resource management to ensure innovation is not stifled by regulations designed to promote security. The emergence of tokenized assets is poised to revolutionize the investment sector, but investors must remain cautious due to the unpredictable nature of the crypto space. Robinhood’s partnership with Arbitrum demonstrates the growing embrace of decentralized finance by established financial players.
SoFi Technologies’ bank charter and blockchain-powered remittance and crypto investing services to enable it to cross-sell its core financial services to its integrated ecosystem of crypto/remittance users and expand fee-based revenue streams to hit $3.5-$4B in revenue by 2026
The financial services landscape is undergoing a seismic shift, driven by blockchain technology and regulatory clarity post-FTX. SoFi Technologies has positioned itself at the forefront of this transformation, leveraging its bank charter and blockchain infrastructure to expand into crypto investing and international remittances—two underpenetrated markets with massive growth potential. This article examines how SoFi’s strategic moves align with regulatory tailwinds, capitalize on underserved demand, and fortify its “bank of the future” narrative. SoFi’s relaunch of crypto services in 2024—after pausing in late 2023 to secure a banking license—was no accident. The company timed its return to coincide with regulatory clarity under the Trump administration, including the OCC’s 2022 interpretive letters (1183/1184), which permitted nationally chartered banks to custody crypto assets and execute blockchain payments. This eliminated the regulatory uncertainty that had plagued SoFi’s earlier crypto efforts, allowing it to reintroduce Bitcoin and Ethereum trading in 2024 and expand to stablecoin remittances, staking, and crypto-collateralized lending by 2025. The strategic rationale is clear: crypto adoption in the U.S. has surged to 30% of adults, yet most users still rely on fragmented platforms like Coinbase or Kraken. By integrating crypto into its app, SoFi aims to cross-sell its core financial services (loans, savings, insurance) to a younger, tech-savvy demographic. Early results are promising: SOFI’s stock rose 12% in early 2025 amid these announcements, reflecting investor confidence in its ability to monetize this market. SoFi’s blockchain-powered remittance service, launched in 2024, targets the $90 billion U.S. cross-border payment market—a space dominated by high-cost legacy providers like Western Union and MoneyGram. By enabling 24/7 transfers via stablecoins (USDT, USDC), SoFi eliminates currency conversion fees and reduces processing times from days to minutes. For example, a user sending $1,000 to Mexico could save $50+ in fees compared to traditional methods. This service isn’t just about crypto—it’s about streamlining global finance. SoFi’s membership grew by 800,000 in Q1 2025, suggesting the remittance play is attracting new users. Over time, recurring remittance fees (1–3% of transaction value) could become a predictable revenue stream, complementing its loan and wealth management businesses. Post-FTX, regulators have focused on stablecoin oversight and crypto custody standards—areas where SoFi’s bank charter gives it an edge. By operating under the OCC’s framework, SoFi avoids them reputational and legal risks faced by unregulated crypto firms. This stability has likely reduced investor skepticism, as evidenced by the stock’s 52-week high of $18.92 in June 2025. Moreover, the Federal Reserve’s reduced scrutiny of crypto-friendly banks (thanks to clearer guidelines) has lowered capital costs for SoFi. Meanwhile, its Galileo platform—now offering blockchain infrastructure-as-a- service to third-party fintechs—positions SoFi as a B2B2C hub, akin to Twilio in the communications space. This diversifies its revenue and reinforces its tech leadership. SoFi’s true advantage lies in its ecosystem integration. Every crypto trader or remittance user becomes a potential customer for its core services:
Loans: Crypto holders may collateralize assets for low-interest loans.
Savings: Remittance users could open high-yield accounts.
Insurance: Global users might need travel or health coverage.
The math is compelling: even a 5% cross-sell rate to 1 million crypto/remittance users would add $50–$100 million in annual revenue. With its 10.9 million total members, scalability is within reach. SoFi’s diversified digital services and timely crypto integration make it a “bank of the future”. With a growing user base and fee-based revenue streams, it could achieve $3.5–4 billion in revenue by 2026, justifying its 67x P/E if growth materializes. SoFi’s pivot to blockchain-enabled services isn’t just a marketing gimmick—it’s a strategic necessity in a world where finance is increasingly digitized and globalized. By tackling underpenetrated markets with regulatory backing and ecosystem integration, SoFi is well-positioned to capitalize on the $49 billion fintech blockchain industry projected by 2030. While risks persist, the thesis is clear: SoFi is building the financial tools of the next decade.
Margarita Finance launches agentic stablecoin technology with 20% APY yield-bearing token, allowing users to access institutional DeFi investment strategies through a single token purchase
Margarita Finance launched its agentic stablecoin technology to an invite-only user base this week, introducing a DeFAI protocol that automates AI-based institutional investment management through yield-bearing stablecoins. The company’s new protocol autonomously builds and issues institutional investment products, wraps them into proprietary vaults with automated monitoring, and makes them investable through yield-bearing stablecoins. The first curated offering, SOL20, provides a 20% expected return (APY) to users powered by AI-based options trading. This way, DeFi users get access to institutional trading strategies usually reserved to Wall-Street hedge funds. The DeFAI protocol operates by creating custom investment strategies, packaging them into monitored vaults, and wrapping them into easily accessible stablecoins that are backed by the underlying yield-generating assets. This approach allows users to access institutional DeFi investment strategies through a single token purchase. Margarita Finance’s end-to-end value capture model now encompasses both consulted custom investment products and curated yield-bearing stablecoins, providing users with multiple entry points into AI-managed DeFi strategies.
AllScale raises $1.5 million to develop stablecoin solutions for small businesses addressing pain points- high learning curves, costly integration, transaction risks, and complex compliance and accounting processes
AllScale raised $1.5 million in a funding round to accelerate its development of solutions aiming to make it easier for small businesses to begin using stablecoins. The company is building stablecoin invoicing, social commerce and payroll solutions. With these solutions, AllScale aims to make it easier for SMBs to use stablecoins for payments, sales and payroll, especially in cross-border commerce. Stablecoins can enable SMBs to make instant, low-cost global payments; shield their payments from currency swings; and transact globally, even if they are unbanked. As stablecoin ecosystems mature globally—with advances in issuance, payment channels, AML, and fiat on/off ramps—businesses still face significant challenges: high learning curves, costly integration, transaction risks, and complex compliance and accounting processes. AllScale targets these pain points by delivering a one-stop, end-to-end toolkit for stablecoin scenarios, dramatically lowering the barriers for traditional SMBs to leverage stablecoins for payments, sales, payroll, and beyond. By bridging every link of the stablecoin payment chain, AllScale empowers enterprises worldwide to collect payments, sell, and manage payroll in stablecoins with unprecedented ease.
AI agents could usher in a paradigm of DeFAI wherein a blockchain-powered, verifiable trust-centric model could enable secure, free and compliant AI interactions between autonomous agents across DeFi ecosystems
As AI agents take on more responsibility, and especially as the convergence between crypto and TradFi accelerates, worries around transparency and market manipulation will grow. DLT offers a solution. The Identity Management Institute reported companies that integrated blockchain identity systems have already cut fraud by 40% and identity theft by 50%. Applying these guardrails to AI-driven finance can counter manipulation and promote fairness. Moreover, the use of DLTs with fair ordering is growing rapidly, ensuring transactions are sequenced fairly and unpredictably, addressing MEV concerns and promoting trust in decentralized systems. A blockchain-powered, trust-centric model could unlock a new paradigm, “DeFAI”, in which autonomous agents can operate freely without sacrificing oversight. Open-source protocols like ElizaOS, which have blockchain plugins, are already enabling secure and compliant AI interactions between agents across DeFi ecosystems. As AI agents take on more complex roles, verifiable trust becomes non-negotiable. Verifiable compute solutions are already being built by firms like EQTY Lab, Intel and Nvidia to anchor trust on-chain. DLT ensures transparency, accountability and traceability. This is already in motion; on-chain agents are now operating that offer services ranging from trade execution to predictive analytics.
Sony’s Soneium taps Plume’s real world asset tokenization blockchain to offer tokenized Treasuries and private credit via cross-chain bridges
Soneium has announced a collaboration with real world asset (RWA) tokenization blockchain Plume, aiming to make tokenized Treasuries and private credit available to Soneium users. At a practical level, there’s Sony Bank, a digital only bank that has already offered its customers NFTs as rewards as well as tokenized assets, mainly in the form of real estate to date. Hence, apart from direct users of the Soneium blockchain, Sony Bank customers would make a good audience. But before that happens, the Plume network needs to launch, which is rumored to be imminent. Plume is a permissionless Layer 1 blockchain, that’s compatible with Ethereum and dedicated to tokenization. “The ability to offer access to real-world yield through tokenized assets is a major step forward in making blockchain services relevant to mainstream financial use cases,” said Ryohei Suzuki, Director of Sony Block Solutions Labs. “This partnership with Plume unlocks a compelling new layer of value for our ecosystem and users.” One of the challenges with the proliferation of blockchains, is the need to move assets between chains. Plume has a solution it refers to as SkyLink which uses LayerZero. For this partnership it would involve either burning or locking a token on the Plume network and simultaneously minting or unlocking a token on the Soneium network.
Green Dot provides embedded banking services to Crypto.com, easily funding accounts with USD digitally or with cash across the Green Dot Network
Crypto.com will leverage Green Dot’s embedded finance platform, Arc, as an on-ramp and off-ramp for customers’ Cash Accounts and enable them to earn interest and easily fund accounts using U.S. dollars digitally or with cash at thousands of Green Dot Network cash access locations nationwide. Additionally, Crypto.com will launch a new interest-earning savings vault powered by Arc, with additional features and functionality planned for the future. “Increasing everyday utility of cryptocurrencies and providing customers more ways to enhance their financial lives are both central to our vision and roadmap at Crypto.com,” said Joe Anzures, General Manager, Americas and EVP of Payments, Crypto.com. “We are thrilled to partner with Green Dot, a true leader that shares our vision for digital payment utility and financial empowerment, in offering banking services to Crypto.com’s U.S. customers.” With more than 350 cryptocurrencies on its platform*, Crypto.com has one of the largest selections in the industry. By providing an on-ramp and off-ramp to fund Crypto.com Cash Accounts, either digitally or with cash, at thousands of convenient cash-in and cash-out locations at retailers nationwide via the Green Dot Network, Green Dot is enabling Crypto.com customers to utilize cryptocurrencies more easily and affordably. The Cash Account’s new savings vault will also allow Crypto.com customers to earn interest on the funds they are already using to purchase cryptocurrency. “We are thrilled to partner with Crypto.com to enhance the customer experience for their millions of users in the U.S. with more seamless and affordable means of buying and selling cryptocurrencies,” said Renata Caine, GM/SVP of Embedded Finance, Green Dot. “Crypto.com has been a trailblazer in safely and securely advancing the adoption of cryptocurrency in the U.S., and we are looking forward to innovating on behalf of their customers for years to come.”
Apple Pay’s integration with Mesh to enable merchants to accept stablecoin payments without building their own crypto infrastructure through a plug-and-play solution
Mesh, the first truly global crypto payments network, today unveiled its Apple Pay integration live on stage at Token2049 during Co-Founder and CEO Bam Azizi’s keynote address. This marks the first public demonstration of the new capability – available later in Q2 – that will enable merchants partnered with Mesh to accept crypto payments through Apple Pay without building their own crypto infrastructure. The new Apple Pay integration leverages Mesh’s proprietary SmartFunding technology, which allows users to pay with the crypto of their choice, such as BTC, ETH, or SOL, while merchants settle in the stablecoin of their choice, such as USDC, USDT, PYUSD, and others. Breaking down this inherent misalignment of incentives between consumers and merchants topples the largest barrier preventing crypto payments from becoming a mass market product to date. Users simply select the Apple Pay option at checkout, authenticate with Face ID, and complete the transaction as they would with any fiat payment. “We believe that as soon as crypto payments are as seamless as fiat payments, nothing is left to stop the mass migration of global commerce onto blockchain rails. Crypto already offers countless benefits over fiat, and Mesh is solving the UX and convenience pieces,” said Bam Azizi, CEO and Co-Founder of Mesh. “With our Apple Pay integration, we’re solving crypto’s existential last-mile problem, bringing to life a plug-and-play solution that turns on global crypto payments through our existing partners.” As demonstrated live moments ago by Azizi, Merchants with physical retail locations will now be able to leverage Apple Pay’s NFC capabilities, offering customers the same frictionless experience in-store as they experience online. And this innovation isn’t limited to point-of-sale terminals – it extends to e-commerce, too. Mesh’s latest innovation comes on the heels of its $82 million Series B fundraise, led by Paradigm, with participation from Consensys, QuantumLight Capital, Yolo Investments, and others. With over 300 integrations – including Coinbase, Binance, MetaMask, Phantom, and more – Mesh’s infrastructure ensures broad access and seamless connectivity across the crypto payments ecosystem.
Rain to offer closed loop financing utilizing stablecoins by fully tokenizing its credit card receivables to lower the total cost of capital and need for collateral for fintechs
Rain, a global card issuing platform built for stablecoins, has joined Visa’s pilot program for stablecoin settlement. Rain has fully tokenized its credit card receivables and has transitioned all settlement transactions for its Visa cards to USDC, to now be able to settle with Visa 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Rain provides backend infrastructure – APIs, compliance layers and settlement logic – that enables fintechs and wallets to build and launch stablecoin-linked card programs. Rain’s technology stack allows for card transactions on the Visa network to be interoperable with stablecoins across multiple blockchains. When a user makes a payment with a Rain-issued Visa card, Visa settles with the merchant acquirer as usual. Rain’s platform has also fully tokenized its credit card receivables, enabling more efficient capital management and transparency across the system. These capabilities help fintechs go to market faster with new products. While giving consumers access to digital-first globally interoperable payment experiences. Rain also announced a world first: closed loop credit card receivable financing utilizing stablecoins. By borrowing from and programmatically repaying lenders Rain has been able to reduce the total cost of capital for consumer and b2b credit programs while providing lenders access to superior collateral and programmatic repayments powered by smart contracts. This powerful construct has the potential to unlock credit access for users in underdeveloped financial markets, all while unlocking significant operational and capital efficiencies for Rain and Rain powered programs. “USDC settlement allows us to be more capital efficient – helping to reduce the need for collateral while providing our counterparties the same level of protection. This sets a new standard for issuers and further enhances digital asset utility,” said Farooq Malik, CEO & Co-founder of Rain.