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Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Why Stablecoins—Not Bitcoin—Are Silicon Valley's Next Big Crypto Play
Benzinga and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below. Stablecoins—not Bitcoin—are emerging as the cryptocurrency of choice for Big Tech companies, as firms including Uber Technologies (NYSE:UBER), (NASDAQ:AMZN), and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) explore the technology for global money transfers and corporate treasury management, according to Fortune. Unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum, stablecoins are pegged to fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar, offering faster, lower-cost digital transactions without the volatility. The timing aligns with a friendlier regulatory climate in Washington, D.C., where a bill supporting stablecoin adoption has passed the Senate and is under review in the House. Don't Miss: — no wallets, just price speculation and free paper trading to practice different strategies. Grow your IRA or 401(k) with Crypto – . Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi last month said that the company is actively exploring stablecoins for cross-border payments. According to its 2024 annual report, Amazon generates over $140 billion in 2024, exposing the company to significant foreign exchange risks. About 22% of its net sales come from global operations, which are denominated in local currencies. "Stablecoins can drastically improve their capital efficiency," Agora (NASDAQ:API) CEO Nick van Eck told Fortune. Agora is a stablecoin startup that lets businesses issue their own dollar-backed tokens. "Now you can move $100 million from country to country in one second versus waiting days," he added. Startups like Mesh, Bastion, and BVNK have also drawn venture capital interest, while Stripe completed its $1.1 billion acquisition of stablecoin startup Bridge in February. Stripe serves half of the Fortune 100 and sees stablecoins as a tool for faster, cheaper global transactions, the company said in its 2024 annual investor letter. Trending: New to crypto? on Coinbase. "Traditional credit card payments are fairly expensive," Baird Research Analyst Colin Sebastian told Fortune. "Of course, those fees are even higher for cross-border transactions." However, he said shifting consumer behavior remains a challenge. "Credit cards and debit cards are really popular." Maxim Group Analyst Thomas Forte, who covers firms such as Amazon and Apple, agreed with Sebastian and pointed to reduced transaction fees as a possible benefit of accepting stablecoins. "Where I struggle is: As a consumer in the U.S., why would I pay with stablecoin[s]?" he told Fortune. In Argentina, stablecoin trades accounted for nearly 62% of crypto volume between June 2023 and July 2024, compared to a global average of 45%, according to Chainalysis. Van Eck told Fortune that cross-border transactions involving wire transfers can sometimes take more than two weeks. "This is very common, not just for individuals, but also for businesses that operate multinationally," he Island Ventures Founding Partner Nic Carter said stablecoins are most valuable when solving real-world problems for international businesses. "I'm much more interested in the businesses that are really solving a problem for businesses in Nigeria that want to pay someone in the Philippines—or something like that," he told Fortune. Despite challenges, U.S. tech companies are already experimenting. PayPal Holdings (NASDAQ:PYPL) launched its own stablecoin, while Robinhood Markets (NASDAQ:HOOD) and Mastercard (NYSE:MA) joined a consortium backing USDG, a stablecoin allowing members to mint digital dollars. Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) has also explored stablecoin-based payouts. "One of the common features of a lot of the Big Tech companies," Sebastian said, "is that they are very open to experiment and try new things." Read Next: Named a TIME Best Invention and Backed by 5,000+ Users, Kara's Air-to-Water Pod Cuts Plastic and Costs — Image: Shutterstock This article Why Stablecoins—Not Bitcoin—Are Silicon Valley's Next Big Crypto Play originally appeared on Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Exclusive: Stablecoin startup Agora raises $50 million Series A led by crypto VC giant Paradigm
On Thursday, Agora became the latest stablecoin company to attract the attention of deep-pocketed venture investors, as the crypto startup announced a $50 million investment led by the blockchain-focused VC firm Paradigm. Cofounded by Nick van Eck—the son of the prominent investment management CEO Jan van Eck—along with crypto veterans Drake Evans and Joe McGrady, Agora is competing in an increasingly crowded space dominated by rivals including Circle and Tether. But with the new funding, which follows a $12 million seed round last year, Agora hopes to build up AUSD, its own stablecoin, or a type of cryptocurrency that is pegged to an underlying asset such as the U.S. dollar. Agora offers a white-labeling service to other companies, allowing them to launch their own, self-branded version of AUSD that is able to take advantage of the underlying stablecoin's interoperability and liquidity. 'What we wanted to do is really something novel, which is start by building the network,' van Eck told Fortune. 'We always had the view that we were going to do white-labeled issuance in a different way to how existing peers had done it.' Though the blockchain industry has long been dominated by the leading cryptocurrencies Bitcoin and Ethereum, stablecoins have emerged over the past year as a target for venture investment. The sector has long sought a 'killer app' that will drive adoption beyond speculation, with stablecoins promising a kind of digital dollar that allows near-instantaneous and low-fee transactions between people and companies, and across borders. After announcing its seed round last year, Agora immediately faced stiff competition from incumbents Tether and Circle, whose respective stablecoins have market capitalizations of $158 billion and $62 billion, respectively. Agora's sits at just $130 million. But as more companies, including non-crypto giants like Meta and Apple, dip their toes into stablecoins, Agora is making the bet that there will be multiple winners, especially if they help foster adoption. Unlike Tether and Circle, Agora's business model is built around helping other companies launch their own stablecoins, similar to Paxos, another early mover in the space that worked with PayPal to launch PYUSD. But unlike Paxos, any company working with Agora will launch its stablecoin on top of AUSD, reinforcing its own moat and benefiting from broader network effects, like liquidity and interoperability. Agora has worked with crypto companies like Polygon to help them launch bespoke stablecoins for decentralized finance projects, but van Eck said that Agora expects to work with non-blockchain companies as well moving forward. When Agora launched last summer, the regulatory outlook for stablecoins was still uncertain in the U.S., with the company looking abroad for customers. That could change as Congress considers legislation that would regulate the sector, with the Senate passing a bill in June that the House is currently considering. Van Eck said he expects Agora to start serving U.S. entities if the legislation is enacted and that the company has been acquiring state money transmitter licenses. Even so, he told Fortune that the company's focus will continue to be outside the U.S., where there is more demand for stablecoins due to the volatility of local currencies and the need for cross-border payments. 'A lot of different financial institutions outside of the U.S., I would say, are looking more aggressively and will be quicker to move than some of the companies in the U.S.,' van Eck said. 'A lot of companies in the US are talking about it because it's the topic du jour.' Unlike leading stablecoins like Tether and USDC, Agora is designed to share the yield of the dollar-like assets backing the stablecoin with its partners. 'One of the things we believed in the very beginning was that stablecoins should be run like public goods, which to us meant the lion's share of the revenue gets passed to the people who are providing value within this monetary network,' Evans told Fortune. Agora works with State Street and VanEck, the eponymous investment firm run by van Eck's father to manage its reserves. Though seed investor Dragonfly participated in the Series A, the vast bulk of the investment comes from Paradigm, the crypto venture firm started by Coinbase cofounder Fred Ehrsam and Sequoia alum Matt Huang. General partner Charlie Noyes described Agora's product as a 'batteries-included stablecoin' that will allow companies to quickly create their own version without needing to hire 10 engineers to design it. While Noyes acknowledged the aggressive landscape, with companies spending large sums of money and employing more ruthless tactics to drive adoption for their own products, he said that Agora's combination of white-label service, interoperability, and revenue sharing will make it an attractive option to companies exploring the red-hot space. 'It's competitive, but obviously not that many have broken out,' he said. Updated to clarify Dragonfly's investment in the Series A. This story was originally featured on Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Firms from Uber to Amazon are diving into stablecoins. Here's what they hope to gain
In June, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi announced that the ridesharing giant was looking into stablecoins as a form of global money transfer. A year ago, such a statement from a Big Tech executive would've seemed far-fetched. Today, though, everyone from Apple to Amazon—not to mention big banks and brokerages—is rushing to embrace stablecoins, which are cryptocurrencies pegged to an underlying asset like the U.S. dollar. What changed? Most obviously, there is a dramatically different regulatory climate in Washington, D.C. This has produced a bill, passed by the Senate and currently being considered by the House, that would ease stablecoins' integration into the financial system. Crypto boosters also say there's a growing business case for stablecoins. Stablecoins, which are separate from more volatile cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum, promise a more efficient form of payments—the ability to send digital dollars at near-instantaneous speeds and with lower costs. This potentially upends how companies approach anything from global treasury management to paying staffers and contractors around the world. However, as the technology remains early and its regulatory future uncertain, analysts who spoke with Fortune also voiced skepticism that Silicon Valley's tech giants would widely adopt stablecoins in the near future. For a company like Amazon, moving money around the world is expensive. Net sales from its international business accounted for 22% of its consolidated revenues last year, totaling almost $143 billion, according to its 2024 annual report. Those sales are denominated in local currencies, which means the company has to account for foreign exchange risk and currency fluctuations that potentially cost it billions of dollars. Nick van Eck, the CEO and cofounder of the stablecoin startup Agora, pointed to global treasury management as one of the advantages of stablecoins—being able to convert local currency into stablecoins and repatriate that back to the U.S. Agora allows companies to white-label their own dollar-backed stablecoins. Van Eck told Fortune that while most of Agora's clients today are crypto firms, his ideal customer is a multinational company like Pepsi that has dozens of bank accounts and corporate entities around the world, along with thousands of suppliers. 'Stablecoins can drastically improve their capital efficiency,' he argued. 'Now you can move $100 million from country to country in one second versus waiting days.' Agora isn't the only startup looking to cash in on Silicon Valley's stablecoin craze. A flood of stablecoin startups have raised tens of millions from VCs over the past year, including Mesh, Bastion, and BVNK. Last October, the payments company Stripe completed a $1.1 billion landmark acquisition of the stablecoin startup Bridge. Stripe, which counts half of the Fortune 100 as its customers, lets businesses automatically bill customers, provides a pre-built checkout system, and helps clients send money globally, among other payment products. Cofounders Patrick and John Collison lauded stablecoins in their most recent annual letter to investors, saying the assets will help large enterprises more quickly expand globally, among other benefits. Colin Sebastian, a research analyst at Baird covering Amazon, told Fortune that companies are always on the lookout for financial instruments or payment methods that can help manage expenses or reduce friction. 'Traditional credit card payments are fairly expensive,' he said. 'Of course, those fees are even higher for cross-border transactions.' But while Amazon and other global firms may have a financial incentive to try stablecoin adoption, convincing customers to adopt the technology for payments will be trickier. 'What would really drive consumer behavior to change?' Sebastian asked. 'Credit cards and debit cards are really popular.' Thomas Forte, a Maxim Group analyst who covers consumer internet companies like Amazon and Apple, agreed with Sebastian's assessment. He argued that Amazon's most logical use for stablecoins would be to accept payments from customers through stablecoins, thus reducing transaction fees. 'Where I struggle is: As a consumer in the U.S., why would I pay with stablecoin[s]?' Forte asked. Agora cofounder Van Eck argued that, at least until there is broader stablecoin adoption in the U.S., the likeliest embrace of the technology will be in countries with more volatile currencies, where consumers are more incentivized to try out a more stable form of payment. He recalled a recent instance of receiving funding from angel investors outside of the U.S., with one wire taking 10 business days to arrive, and another 22. 'This is very common, not just for individuals, but also for businesses that operate multinationally,' he told Fortune. In Argentina, for example, inflation has run rampant for more than 15 years, and the value of the country's national currency has plummeted in comparison to the U.S. dollar. It's no surprise, then, that stablecoin transactions from June 2023 to July 2024 in Argentina accounted for almost 62% of the country's crypto trading volume. That's compared to a global average of about 45%, according to a 2024 report from Chainalysis. 'I'm much more interested in the businesses that are really solving a problem for businesses in Nigeria that want to pay someone in the Philippines—or something like that,' said Nic Carter, founding partner at Castle Island Ventures, a crypto venture capital firm that specializes in stablecoin investments. Still, Big Tech companies in the U.S. are excited enough about the tech that they've already made moves into the burgeoning category. PayPal has launched its own stablecoin. The online brokerage Robinhood and payments giant Mastercard have both joined a consortium in which members can mint, or create, the stablecoin USDG. And companies like Amazon, Apple, and Meta are already exploring stablecoins for payouts. Meta previously declined to comment on its stablecoin plans. Spokespeople for Apple and Amazon did not respond to requests for comment. As stablecoin regulation nears completion in Congress, there's little downside for Big Tech to experiment with new technology, said Sebastian, the Baird analyst. 'One of the common features or common elements of a lot of the Big Tech companies,' he said, 'is that they are very open to experiment and try new things.' This story was originally featured on Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Asset Manager VanEck Joins Tokenization Race With U.S. Treasury Fund Token
Asset manager VanEck launched its first tokenized fund, joining a roster of institutions entering the race to bring assets on-chain with tokenziation. The VanEck Treasury Fund (VBILL), developed with tokenization specialist Securitize, offers on-chain access to short-term U.S. Treasury debt and is available on the Avalanche AVAX, BNB Chain BNB, Ethereum ETH and Solana SOL networks, according to a Tuesday press release. "By bringing U.S. Treasuries on-chain, we are providing investors with a secure, transparent, and liquid tool for cash management, further integrating digital assets into mainstream financial markets,' Kyle DaCruz, director of digital assets product at VanEck, said in a statement. "Tokenized funds like VBILL are enhancing market liquidity and efficiency, underscoring our commitment to providing value to our investors." VanEck, which also issues spot bitcoin BTC and ether ETH ETFs, follows the footsteps of BlackRock, Franklin Templeton and other traditional finance firms launching tokenized products. Tokenization is the process of placing instruments like bonds, credit, commodities, real estate on blockchain rails in token form to achieve faster settlements, cheaper transactions and operational efficiencies. Tokenization of U.S. Treasuries, a traditional reserve asset, has been at the forefront of these efforts. It's a nearly $7 billion market now, growing over 500% over the past year, per data. VBILL is accessible to qualified investors with a minimum investment of $100,000 on most blockchains, with $1 million minimum subscription on Ethereum. The fund's assets are held by State Street and priced daily using data from RedStone's oracle service. The token supports around-the clock onramp with Circle's USDC stablecoin. It also offers atomic liquidity with Agora's AUSD stablecoin, meaning that VBILL tokens can be redeemed for AUSD in a single transaction via smart contract. Agora is a stablecoin startup helmed by Nick van Eck, the grandson of the founder of VanEck.
