Mantle has launched UR, a neobank that runs entirely on the blockchain, allowing users to manage their daily finances securely and effortlessly across fiat and crypto finances. UR is part of Mantle’s modular finance products, blending traditional finance access with blockchain-native architecture. Users can open Swiss International Bank Account Number (IBAN) accounts supporting EUR, CHF, USD, and RMB, with 1:1 backed deposits and spend through a Mastercard debit card. UR is designed to become the everyday interface between traditional and decentralized finance, combining the intuitive simplicity of neobanking with the transformative power of decentralization. UR’s phased rollout will begin with an early contributors’ release in June, followed by full public access later this year in Q3. Mobile applications for iOS and Android are also in development. UR reflects Mantle’s broader vision to reshape the financial stack, from base-layer infrastructure to consumer-grade applications, creating a unified ecosystem where users and institutions can transact, save, invest, and build in ways that were not previously possible under siloed legacy systems.
Coinbase debuts Stablecoin payment stack following Shopify partnership supporting around-the-clock USDC transactions without requiring blockchain knowledge
Coinbase has launched Coinbase Payments, a service built on Ethereum layer-2 network Base, which is already live with ecommerce platform Shopify. The service aims to bring stablecoin payments to merchants, supporting around-the-clock USDC transactions without requiring blockchain knowledge. Coinbase shares rallied 16% following the announcement, while Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, surged 25%. The move aligns with the growing trend of stablecoins reshaping the global payments market, with companies like Stripe and PayPal introducing blockchain-based products. Coinbase said stablecoins facilitated $30 trillion in transactions last year, tripling the volume year-over-year. The service integrates three modular components: Stablecoin Checkout, Ecommerce Engine, and Commerce Payments Protocol.
Eicol Exchange allows users to control self-sovereign credentials, which can function seamlessly across DeFi platforms by using decentralized identity protocols, on-chain signature validation and advanced cryptography
Eicol Exchange has introduced its Web3 Identity System, a decentralized authentication infrastructure designed to improve trust mechanisms and interoperability in the digital finance ecosystem. The system, developed using decentralized identity protocols and on-chain signature validation, allows users to hold and control self-sovereign credentials, which can function seamlessly across DeFi platforms, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), NFT marketplaces, and other Web3 services. Eicol’s system employs advanced cryptography to ensure confidentiality and integrity, reducing dependence on centralized data repositories and aligning the platform with global data privacy regulations. The system also streamlines user access to internal and external digital services, enabling simplified interaction with trading functions, staking pools, DeFi gateways, and tiered services. Eicol plans to provide users with a comprehensive dashboard to manage their identity profiles, aiming to establish the system as a universally accepted credential for interoperability and trust across multiple blockchain environments.
Deutsche Bank’s next-gen tokenization platform for RWAs to support issuance across multiple public blockchains using zero-knowledge proofs and permissioned protocol and feature user-friendly interface to access smart contracts
Deutsche Bank, Memento Blockchain and Axelar Network developer Interop Labs today published a litepaper describing the Digital Asset Management Access (DAMA) 2 project in detail. The paper provides a blueprint for a next-generation tokenization platform, built on public blockchains with regulatory alignment and privacy as core design principles. Designed to accelerate the adoption and servicing of tokenized funds, stablecoins and other real-world assets (RWAs), the platform will enable asset and wealth managers, token issuers, and investment advisors to easily create and service tokenized assets, distributing them securely and compliantly across connected blockchain ecosystems and financial networks. The litepaper captures extensive research with potential asset issuers, led by Deutsche Bank, and lays out the unique design of DAMA 2, including: Blockchain-as-a-Service model that minimizes up-front investment; User-friendly application interface layer with an app store to access fund smart contract designs; Privacy-enabled Layer 2 smart contract environment, built by Memento Blockchain with zkSync’s ZK Chain technology. Managed token issuance across multiple blockchains via Axelar Network. “DAMA 2 represents how public chains have evolved for institutional finance’s use, and how leading applied technologies can meet operational resilience and regulatory goals via one platform,” said Boon-Hiong Chan, Innovation Lead, Securities & Technology Advocacy at Deutsche Bank.
New approach to quantum error-detection uses a dual-rail dimon qubit technology to detect and suppress errors at the individual qubit level, reducing the hardware overheads
Oxford Quantum Circuits (OQC), a global leader in quantum computing solutions, has developed a new approach to quantum error-detection that could accelerate the development of commercially viable quantum computers. The company’s breakthrough, the Dimon approach, uses a dual-rail dimon qubit technology to detect and suppress errors at the individual qubit level, reducing the hardware overheads required for quantum error-corrected logical qubits. This breakthrough has the potential to fundamentally change the economics of quantum computing by reducing the infrastructure and hardware costs needed for commercially-useful quantum computation. The research demonstrates that superconducting qubits can be made more robust with minimal increase in size and complexity. OQC’s breakthrough represents a major step towards a parallel transition in quantum technology, allowing for the development of affordable quantum computing infrastructure by 2028.
UpEquity secures warehouse facility from Silicon Valley Bank for buy before you sell loans- makes a guaranteed offer on your current home; Equity Advance unlocks the equity stuck in your old home to make a new down payment
Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has provided a warehouse facility to UpEquity, an Austin-based mortgage technology company that offers solutions for home buyers to purchase a new home before selling their current one. The facility will provide up to $200 million in financing capacity and is expected to support $1 billion in originations over the next two years. UpEquity’s revenue tripled annually since it began offering its ‘buy before you sell’ solutions in October 2023. The new facility will help more customers with a smoother transition from their old home to the next. UpEquity’s innovative financing solutions and platform help real estate professionals close significantly more transactions by solving the challenge of buying and selling a home simultaneously. Setpoint Capital’s Managing Director of Investments, Kendall Ranjbaran, expressed enthusiasm for deepening their partnership with UpEquity as they enter this next chapter of growth. Trade Up gives you a guaranteed offer on your current home, allowing you to shop contingency free and make a stronger offer on your new home. Equity Advance unlocks the equity stuck in your old home to make a new down payment and helps you avoid carrying the cost of two mortgages.
Vanguard to split mutual funds and exchange-traded funds across two advisors to better handle growth-induced large fund size and alleviate risks associated with ownership caps in index-tracking stock funds
Vanguard announced plans to restructure the advisor responsible for managing its mutual funds and exchange-traded funds. It will form two new advisors, Vanguard Capital Management and Vanguard Portfolio Management, and split its funds across the two. Historically, all funds have been managed by a single advisor: The Vanguard Group. Vanguard Capital Management will manage all of Vanguard’s fixed-income and passive multi-asset funds, while Vanguard Portfolio Management will oversee its actively managed stock and multi-asset funds. Each advisor will take responsibility for a portion of Vanguard’s index-tracking stock funds. There are two big reasons Vanguard likely chose to do this. Its representatives cited the growth of its funds over the past several years. Their mammoth size now requires more focus than a single team could handle. That’s certainly true. Big funds, whether actively managed or index-tracking, often require more attention. Vanguard offers some of the largest, and it has grown its personnel alongside its funds. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index VTSAX and Vanguard 500 Index VFIAX both have more than $1 trillion invested in them, and it has many others with billions. The size of Vanguard’s funds points to another reason: The Vanguard Group owns a large chunk of all publicly traded stocks. In some instances, the ownership stakes are so large that they exceed the limits imposed by certain regulatory agencies. That means some of Vanguard’s index-tracking stock funds may have to cap their stakes in some stocks, and they may not track their target index as accurately as they had in the past. Likewise, it may restrict an active manager’s ability to express their best ideas. Vanguard acknowledged that risk in its funds’ prospectuses for the first time last year. So far, it has navigated those ownership limits by striking agreements with various regulators. Those agreements typically limit Vanguard’s engagement activities with the corresponding companies and allow its funds to maintain their large ownership stakes. The ownership stakes roll up to each advisor. So, splitting its funds across two advisors reduces each advisor’s ownership and further alleviates some of the related risks. Such measures aren’t unprecedented. Large asset managers like Capital Group and T. Rowe Price have already adopted similar multiadvisor structures for similar reasons. Vanguard splitting its funds across two advisors shouldn’t change the investment experience for its clients, and it doesn’t impact the investor-friendly mutual ownership structure that distinguishes Vanguard’s funds. The advisors will have their own managers and stewardship teams. In theory, that allows the advisors to take their own approaches to managing their index-tracking stock funds. In practice, the two advisors are still part of Vanguard, so the tools, processes, and culture should remain the same. Vanguard’s clients should continue to receive the same tight index-tracking that Vanguard has provided in the past.
Cross-border payments platform Conduit partners Braza Group to enable stablecoin-based cross-border transfers between Brazil, with settlement in just two minutes
Conduit, a cross-border payments platform, has partnered with Braza Group, a Brazilian foreign exchange bank, to enable customers to transfer funds between Brazil and the US using Onchain FX. Braza Group launched its stablecoin pegged to the BRL in February 2025 to help Brazilians connect with global financial technologies and support businesses. The two companies aim to build a simple and scalable global payments network, enabling faster settlements between Brazil and the US in just two minutes. Conduit’s platform offers both crypto-native infrastructure and traditional finance solutions, including instant and programmable global transactions with embedded AML, sanctions screening, and transaction monitoring. The collaboration follows Conduit’s Series A funding round and transaction volume surge in 2024. The platform’s ability to settle global transactions quickly and efficiently is reinforced by the partnership.
JPMorgan’s deposit tokens to represent fiat deposits, rather than claim on U.S. Treasuries, be fully permissioned, eligible for FDIC insuarnce and wouldn’t require new reserves or a third-party trust structure, making them a likely “alternative” to stablecoins for institutions
JPMorgan is planning a digital currency that looks and sounds like a stablecoin. But there are differences that have major ramifications for what the cryptocurrency payments market will look like in the post-GENIUS Act world. The bank said it plans to issue a permissioned USD deposit token, JPMD, for payments on Base, a blockchain that is built within Coinbase. JPMD will launch “in the coming days,” the bank said. “It’s going to be a big question in the near term as we see more institutions explore stablecoins: What’s a stablecoin, and what’s a deposit token?” James Wester, director of cryptocurrency research for Javelin Strategy & Research, told. A deposit token is a digital asset that is a claim on a deposit at a licensed depository institution, such as a bank. Deposit tokens are issued on a distributed ledger, or the structure that underpins cryptocurrency. That makes deposit tokens easier to transfer between consumers or businesses, particularly in different countries. Igor Pejic, author of “Big Tech in Finance,” said that.
NACHA says ACH is the most common and preferred method for healthcare claim payments owing to its speed, seamlessness and ability for providers and payors to automate the process
Every day across the U.S., lots of healthcare professionals receive lots of insurance payments, and new Nacha research shows there’s one common thread. Bryan Chamberlin, a partner at Guidehouse said, “ACH is by far the most common, most preferred method. In fact, the providers interviewed “told us that they really wanted all of their payors and all of their payments to be ACH. They acknowledged that it makes it fast, seamless and they have the ability to automate the process.” In contrast, Chamberlin said, “Where payments are not ACH, there is a reconciliation challenge, there could be manual processing.” Nacha reported there were 510 million ACH healthcare claim payments in 2024, a number that has been consistently rising for years. Still, there’s room for improvement, particularly among dentists, which tend to be smaller operators. Chamberlin said dentists “just don’t want to provide” information such as bank account numbers. Dentists also cited enrollment challenges with inconsistent requirements among the multiple insurers, plus concerns about insurers pulling back payments. “We want to elevate ACH in the healthcare space,” said Brad Smith, Nacha Senior Director, Industry Engagement and Advocacy. “When we look at ACH compared to other payment types—especially checks—we see that ACH is much lower cost. And any time we can lower costs in the healthcare space, the better off we’re going to be.”