Wall Street’s Stablecoin Gold Rush
GENIUS Act passage accelerates TradFi's digital asset plans
Welcome to the Wednesday edition of the Crypto In America newsletter!
What you’ll read: The GENIUS Act’s passage is fueling a Wall Street rush into digital assets, why Dragonfly’s Haseeb Qureshi believes stablecoins could break Visa’s payments monopoly, plus this week’s top headlines.
Amid growing interest from traditional finance, asset manager WisdomTree has launched its own stablecoin, adding to the list of Wall Street firms now actively exploring dollar-backed cryptocurrencies.
The move comes on the heels of the GENIUS Act becoming law last week, creating a federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoins and setting clearer rules for reserve assets. The legislation is seen as a key step toward broader institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies.
“Stablecoins are fast becoming the internet-native dollar, and the GENIUS Act will only accelerate this trend,” Will Peck, Head of Digital Assets at WisdomTree, told Crypto In America.
Currently, WisdomTree’s stablecoin — known as WUSD and soon to be rebranded as USDW — is available exclusively within WisdomTree Prime, the firm’s digital asset platform regulated by the New York Department of Financial Services.
It operates on the Stellar blockchain and functions as a transactional asset within a closed ecosystem, allowing transfers between tokenized funds such as WTGXX, WisdomTree’s tokenized U.S. government money market fund, as well as equities and fixed income products. The asset manager is also building out a suite of infrastructure services to support its stablecoin ecosystem, including on- and off-ramps for USDC and PYUSD, as well as future interoperability across five other public blockchains including Ethereum, Base, and Avalanche.
WisdomTree currently has $126 billion in assets under management.
Other Wall Street heavyweights like JPMorgan, Citigroup, and Goldman Sachs are exploring ways to leverage digital assets to streamline their operations, with Citi CEO Jane Fraser confirming the firm is actively exploring issuing its own stablecoin.
Fidelity, which manages around $6 trillion in assets, is testing its own stablecoin and has filed to launch a tokenized money market fund.
This morning, CNBC reported that Goldman Sachs and Bank of New York Mellon have created a platform enabling institutional investors to purchase tokenized money market funds, with ownership recorded on Goldman’s blockchain platform.
Dragonfly Managing Partner on How Stablecoins Could Finally Break Visa’s Monopoly
In our latest Crypto in America episode, Haseeb Qureshi of Dragonfly dives into the forces quietly shaking up the payments world.
With the DOJ’s antitrust case against Visa gaining momentum and the GENIUS Act driving stablecoin adoption, Haseeb believes we could be on the brink of seeing stablecoins disrupt Visa and Mastercard’s long-standing retail payment monopoly.
He explains why merchants have been stuck paying high interchange fees for years, how those costs get passed on to consumers, and why stablecoins’ open, neutral rails could finally offer a more competitive, lower-cost alternative — one that could be distributed through Apple Pay, Google Pay, or similar wallets, complete with instant rebates and cash back.
Beyond payments, we explore why New York remains crypto’s capital, the unique tech culture of San Francisco, and why founders should focus on real users — not speculation. Plus, Haseeb shares his take on the surge in crypto M&A activity and a surprising political prediction involving Elon Musk.
Watch this episode on all platforms here.
Midweek Update
ICYMI. Here are some of the biggest stories so far this week:
The Senate Banking Committee released its market discussion draft and is seeking public feedback from stakeholders. Building on the House-passed CLARITY Act and the Lummis-Gillibrand framework, it addresses token classification, regulatory fragmentation, banking, disclosures, illicit finance, and more.
Coinbase has entered into a strategic partnership with PNC Bank to offer crypto-as-a-service to its customers. PNC will provide select banking services to Coinbase customers.
The FBI has dropped its criminal probe into Kraken founder Jesse Powell over allegations that he hacked a nonprofit he helped found in 2008.
The SEC has approved the conversion of Bitwise’s BITW fund (containing ten cryptos including BTC, ETH, XRP, SOL, and others) into an ETF, but the order has been stayed and its effective date delayed.
The Senate Agriculture Committee is working to reschedule the vote to advance CFTC Chair nominee Brian Quintenz after postponing Monday’s vote because one GOP member was absent.
Telegram has launched its built-in TON Wallet, allowing its 87 million U.S. users to perform self-custodial crypto transactions, access DeFi, and use off-ramp features within the app.
Remember, new editions of the Crypto In America newsletter drop every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7AM EST.
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