The crypto industry just wrapped up one of its most eventful weeks in 2025. Bitcoin’s surge past USD 100,000 grabbed the spotlight, but beneath the surface, the story was about positioning, not just price. Crypto is shifting from an outside challenger to an inside player in global finance.
From Stripe’s rollout of AI-driven, stablecoin-based financial tools to major Ethereum protocol upgrades, tokenization infrastructure gains, and a wave of corporate acquisitions, the week revealed a maturing ecosystem. What used to feel like disconnected innovation is beginning to sync. And while it’s far from certain whether crypto will become a foundational layer of financial infrastructure, this past week showed a growing interest coming from players who are ready to explore that possibility.
This shift, from ‘currency’ to ‘infrastructure’ was fully on display within Ethereum’s latest protocol upgrade, Pectra, its most technically ambitious update in over a year. By enabling EOA (Externally Owned Accounts) to function like smart contract accounts, Ethereum aims to open the door to delegated transaction fees, gasless interactions, and flexible access control. These may sound like technical tweaks, but they are critical prerequisites for onboarding the next wave of users and institutions.
These are strategic infrastructure changes that align with Ethereum’s long-term goal of becoming the foundational platform where dApps and financial transactions can be executed and verified in a decentralized way.
Crucially, Pectra also aims to raise Ethereum’s stake from 32 ETH to 2048 ETH, a change designed with institutional validators in mind. Therefore, Ethereum stepped up its dream of being a platform for crypto-native users anymore – it strives to be the settlement layer for institutional finance.
The trend towards tokenization materialised this week, as traditional and crypto-native players continue to converge. Most notable? Superstate, a firm led by former SEC Commissioner Jay Clayton, is now backing a blockchain-based marketplace for public equities. The platform, called Opening Bell, runs on Solana and allows companies to issue SEC-registered tokenized shares that trade directly on-chain. Unlike other blockchain equity pilots, Opening Bell is targeting both publicly listed firms and late-stage private companies seeking liquidity. Canadian investment film SOL Strategies has already announced its plans to become the first issuer on the platform, pending regulatory approval.
Meanwhile, Robinhood signalled its own ambitions to blur the line between traditional and on-chain finance through its acquisition of WonderFi. The deal gives Robinhood a footprint in Canada’s regulated crypto market and access to WonderFi’s users, as well as ties to DeFi-native infrastructure. In parallel, the company is also developing a blockchain-based platform to give European traders access to US financial assets, with Arbitrum (ARB), Ethereum (ETH), and Solana (SOL) reportedly under consideration for powering the new system.
Together, these developments show that tokenization has the potential to become an operational reality. From programmable equity rails to crypto brokerages, the infrastructure for on-chain finance is maturing fast. Analysts at McKinsey, BCG, Bernstein, and 21Shares all project tokenized assets to reach multitrillion-dollar market size by the end of the decade, a forecast that now feels grounded in action rather than speculation.
However, the clearest signals come from the payments sector, where Stripe, Ramp, and Meta all seem to move towards stablecoin-based solutions, exploring their use as foundational rails for faster, cheaper, programmable payments.
Ramp has announced its partnership with Stripe to accelerate global commerce by launching a stablecoin-backed corporate card, which is designed to offer businesses faster settlements, lower costs, and built-in protection from market volatility. This partnership aims to simplify corporate spending with integrated spend management software, enabling businesses to access financial automation tools that have traditionally been reserved for larger companies. The new product will allow businesses to fund their wallets with local currency, make purchases in the same way as standard local payments, and hold their funds in a USD-equivalent value, protecting them from devaluation risks in local currencies.
For Ramp, the collaboration also opens the door to emerging markets, where Stripe’s global reach allows businesses in these regions to access the same advanced financial tools that have already helped US companies save on cross-border fees and streamline operations. As a result, Ramp's focus on programmable functionality aligns perfectly with Stripe’s approach to solving real-world financial pain points, such as high cross-border fees, delayed settlements, and currency instability.
This new shift also mirrors Stripe’s own move toward stablecoin adoption, specifically USDC payouts in countries with high inflation, like Argentina. It’s a pivot that moves beyond DeFi experimentation and into practical, real-world fixes. Ramp's stablecoin corporate card will further facilitate business growth across multiple regions, improving ecommerce by reducing friction, fees, and risk.
Meanwhile, Meta, who once spearheaded the stablecoin conversation with its Diem project, is now reportedly integrating stablecoins like USDC or PYUSD into its platform payouts. Meta’s shift from a currency issuer to a payments integrator signals that the stablecoin space has matured. The focus is no longer on creating new tokens but on improving the movement of money, through stablecoin-backed payments that provide faster and more efficient cross-border transactions.
Yet just as the private sector begins to align around real-world stablecoin use cases, the US government remains mired in legislative gridlock. The bipartisan GENIUS Act, which aimed to create a federal framework for payment stablecoins, failed to clear a key procedural vote. The issue wasn’t a lack of interest, but the bill’s rushed amendments and internal disputes.
This failure, while seemingly a setback, reflects a more mature political landscape. The conversation is no longer about whether stablecoins should exist, but how they should be governed. Questions of scale, systemic risk, and digital sovereignty are now front and centre, marking a shift in Washington from ideological resistance to regulatory reckoning.
Then, there’s Bitcoin. In a week already packed with so many changes, Bitcoin surged past USD 100,000 with conviction. But unlike past rallies fueled by meme mania or macro chaos, this one was grounded in geopolitics and institutional repositioning. President Trump’s softened stance on UK trade helped lift broader markets by reducing political uncertainty. Simultaneously, Coinbase’s USD 2.9 billion acquisition of Deribit, one of the world’s largest crypto options exchanges, marked a turning point. The move not only signalled Wall Street’s quiet reentry into crypto but also reframed options and derivatives as essential instruments for hedging and portfolio construction.
Coinbase’s bet on Deribit plants it in the heart of the crypto derivatives market, where institutional players are most active. If US regulators greenlight broader access to crypto options and perpetuals – likely to happen under Trump’s pro-crypto administration – Coinbase will be positioned to conquer this emerging segment.
This institutional momentum isn’t occurring in isolation. Over 80 companies now hold Bitcoin in their treasuries, representing 3.4% of the total supply. As financial tools are rebuilt on stablecoin and blockchain infrastructure, Bitcoin has solidified its role as the digital ecosystem’s asset of last resort
This past week offered a snapshot of a crypto industry in transition. While Bitcoin’s price surge to over USD 100,000 drew attention, the broader story was about the growing alignment between traditional finance and blockchain-based infrastructure.
From stablecoin-powered corporate tools and Ethereum’s protocol upgrades to tokenization efforts and major acquisitions, the week reflected a sector that is slowly maturing. The lines between traditional and crypto finance are becoming less rigid, and a more interconnected ecosystem is beginning to take shape.
About Claudia Pincovski
Claudia is a News Lead Editor at The Paypers. Holding a bachelor’s degree in Journalism, she is very passionate about exploring the latest news on financial inclusion, financial literacy, digital banking, and Open Finance. Claudia is a diligent researcher, a meticulous editor, and an active advocate for diversity and inclusion.
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