According to Fixygen, the European Central Bank must begin working with blockchain infrastructure itself in order to preserve the role of central bank money in the new financial system, said ECB Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel.
According to her, central banks must effectively “go on-chain” by providing tokenized central bank money for settlements involving assets on distributed ledgers.
The ECB is already developing the Pontes and Appia projects.
Pontes is intended to connect the existing European payment infrastructure with blockchain platforms, while Appia is exploring a longer-term architecture for a tokenized financial market.
This is a separate project from the retail digital euro.
The main target audience consists of banks, funds, and financial companies that need to settle transactions involving tokenized bonds, funds, and other assets using real central bank money.
If such an infrastructure becomes operational, blockchain will cease to be exclusively a cryptocurrency technology and will, in fact, become one of the settlement layers of the traditional capital market.
According to Fixygen, the standoff between traditional banks and cryptocurrencies is gradually changing in nature: the largest financial institutions are no longer trying to prove that they don’t need blockchain; instead, they are beginning to migrate bank deposits and payments to the very same technological infrastructure on which stablecoins operate.
One of the most significant developments in August was the creation of the BankChain Alliance in the U.S., which brought together banking associations from 39 states. The project aims to create a banking blockchain network by 2027 that will be capable of supporting tokenized deposits, stablecoins, automated settlements, and programmable payments.
In effect, small and regional U.S. banks are trying to develop their own alternative to cryptocurrency payment infrastructure, rather than ceding this market to Circle, Coinbase, and tech companies.
Major banks are moving in the same direction.
On August 4, Wells Fargo announced the launch of tokenized deposits for corporate clients. These funds are bank money recorded on the blockchain and enable round-the-clock settlements, including on weekends. The first phase involves transactions between the U.S. dollar and the British pound, and by 2027, the bank intends to expand its geographic reach and list of currencies.
The fundamental difference between a tokenized deposit and USDC or USDT lies in who the issuer is.
In the case of a traditional stablecoin, the customer holds a digital claim against a specialized issuer. In the case of a tokenized deposit, the customer still holds a bank deposit, but the infrastructure for managing it is blockchain-based.
Therefore, banks are essentially telling the crypto industry: we accept the technology, but we want to keep the money within the banking system.
Payment systems have gone even further.
Visa reported that its annual volume of transactions in stablecoins reached approximately $7 billion, and in the Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa (CEE) region, the volume of such transactions increased nearly 60-fold over the year. The company is already developing more than 160 card programs linked to stablecoins.
In July, Visa launched a dedicated platform, the Visa Stablecoin Platform, through which banks, fintech companies, and payment providers will be able to work with stablecoins within a unified infrastructure. In August, the company also expanded Visa Direct to include the ability to make payments and provide pre-funding using stablecoins.
At the same time, the use of stablecoins directly by consumers is growing rapidly.
According to an estimate by the payment company RedotPay, cited by Reuters, spending via cards linked to stablecoins could rise to approximately $50 billion per year by 2028. As early as July 2026, the monthly volume of such card payments exceeded $1 billion for the first time.
The most important factor driving changes in the market is regulation in the U.S.
On August 17, the U.S. Department of the Treasury published a new draft rule for implementing the GENIUS Act. Starting January 18, 2027, the issuance of payment stablecoins in the U.S. will generally be permitted only to licensed issuers. Starting in July 2028, U.S. service providers will also face restrictions on offering users stablecoins issued without the appropriate license.
As a result, the market is entering a completely new phase.
Just a few years ago, the question went something like this: Will cryptocurrencies replace banks?
Now the question has changed: Who will control the digital dollar—crypto companies, banks, or payment systems?
This is precisely where one of the major financial competitive battles of the next few years may unfold.
Circle and Tether have created a model of dollar-backed money that can be transferred around the clock and almost instantly. Banks have realized that customers truly want this functionality, but they are unwilling to hand over the deposits—on which the traditional banking model is based—to tech companies.
As a result, the market is gradually moving toward the coexistence of three forms of the digital dollar.
The first is traditional bank money.
The second is tokenized bank deposits, which Wells Fargo and other banks are transferring to the blockchain.
The third is stablecoins, which exist outside the traditional deposit account system but are becoming increasingly integrated into the financial system under new regulatory conditions.
The winner here has not yet been determined. But one conclusion is already clear: the blockchain infrastructure itself is no longer just an experiment in the cryptocurrency sector.
If the largest banks and Visa begin to process payments 24/7 via blockchain, the major technological debate of the past decade will effectively come to an end.
Blockchain hasn’t destroyed banks—banks have begun to embrace blockchain.
Sources: U.S. Treasury, Wells Fargo, Visa, Reuters, publications from August 4–26, 2026.
The Blockchain Association of Ukraine (BAU) has proposed to make Ukraine competitive jurisdiction for companies dealing with cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology and proposed some principles for being implemented into the law, including the introduction of 5% tax on deals with cryptocurrency.
The respective document was posted on the association’s website last week.
According to the text of the document, proposals for implementation in the legislation in the field of regulation of cryptocurrencies were developed with the aim of accelerating the pace of development of this market.
In particular, according to the association, cryptocurrency exchange and sale transactions should not be subject to VAT and cryptocurrency suppliers should not be tax agents of individuals. For transactions with cryptocurrency, personal income tax should be levied at a rate of 5%, and the tax base should be net profit for the reporting year.
Blockchain Ukraine also proposes to introduce licensing of the exchange of cryptocurrency for fiat currencies.
The BAU said that the proposals of the association were accepted for consideration by the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine and the interfactional parliamentary association of the Verkhovna Rada Blockchain4Ukraine.
In the near future, it is planned to sign a memorandum of understanding and cooperation between the Ministry of Digital Transformation and the community of blockchain and crypto companies.
The Blockchain Association of Ukraine brings together experts in the blockchain industry and is a non-profit organization that actively promotes the integration of blockchain technology into the Ukrainian economy. The main mission of the association is to develop multilateral dialogue, the result of which will be consensus in all areas of activity.
