Welcome to In The Stables, a weekly briefing on the most important developments shaping the global stablecoin ecosystem. Each edition delivers clear, data-driven insights into market structure, regulatory momentum, and protocol-level shifts, along with a curated look at supply, flows, and onchain usage trends across the sector.
What’s included this week:
Active addresses fell 6.5% WoW to 4.0M and daily transactions declined 4.6% to 58.1M, though both metrics remain above their January monthly averages.
Net USD inflows into stablecoins dropped 82.9% WoW to $249.9M, with the monthly picture flipping to a net outflow of -$4.4B compared to $1.8B in net inflows during January.
Bridge received conditional OCC approval to establish a national trust bank, which would allow it to issue stablecoins and custody digital assets under direct federal oversight.
South Korea ended a nine-year ban on corporate cryptocurrency trading, permitting listed companies and professional investment firms to access domestic exchanges under a new framework that includes pending stablecoin legislation.
Yields of The Week
Institutional Moves
Feb. 16, 2026 | OKX Obtains Malta Payments License to Support EU Stablecoin Services
OKX has secured a Payment Institution (PI) license in Malta, bringing its European operations into alignment with the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation and the Second Payment Services Directive (PSD2), which takes effect in March 2026. The authorization allows OKX to provide payment services involving stablecoins across the EU bloc.
Feb. 17, 2026 | Quantoz Wins Visa Approval for Stablecoin Debit Cards in Europe
Dutch electronic money institution Quantoz Payments has become a principal member of Visa, allowing it to issue Visa-branded virtual debit cards backed by its regulated e-money tokens USDQ, EURQ, and EURD. The arrangement enables cardholders to spend token balances through existing Visa rails, while positioning Quantoz as a BIN sponsor for fintech partners seeking to embed stablecoin-linked card issuance into their platforms across the European Economic Area.
Feb. 17, 2026 | Bridge Receives Conditional OCC Approval for National Trust Bank
Bridge has received conditional approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish a national trust bank. If finalized, the charter would allow Bridge National Trust Bank to issue stablecoins, custody digital assets, and manage reserve assets under direct federal supervision.
Feb. 17, 2026 | Elemental Royalty to Offer Dividends in Tether Gold
Elemental Royalty Corporation announced that shareholders will have the option to receive dividend payments in Tether Gold. The company said the move makes it the first publicly listed gold firm to offer dividends in a tokenized asset. The announcement follows Tether’s prior acquisition of a minority stake in Elemental and comes amid broader growth in tokenized gold products.
Protocol Updates
Feb. 12, 2026 | Decibel to Introduce Protocol-Native Stablecoin on Aptos
Decibel, an Aptos-incubated decentralized derivatives platform, plans to launch a dollar-backed stablecoin, USDCBL, ahead of its mainnet debut later this month. The token will be issued through Stripe-owned Bridge’s Open Issuance platform and used as the primary collateral asset for onchain perpetual futures trading on the exchange.
Regulatory Pulse
Feb. 16, 2026 | EU Weighs Blanket Ban on Crypto Transactions with Russia
The European Commission is reportedly preparing an EU-wide prohibition on cryptocurrency transactions involving Russian entities to strengthen sanctions enforcement. According to draft documents cited by the Financial Times, the proposal would bar any individual or company in the bloc from transferring digital assets to or from Russia-based counterparties.
Feb. 17, 2026 | South Korea Ends Corporate Crypto Trading Ban
South Korea’s Financial Services Commission has established a framework to lift a nine-year prohibition on corporate cryptocurrency trading, permitting listed companies and registered professional investment firms to access domestic exchanges. Corporate crypto holdings will be limited to 5% of annual equity capital and restricted to the 20 largest tokens traded on regulated local platforms. The change forms part of a broader digital asset strategy that includes pending stablecoin legislation and consideration of spot crypto exchange-traded funds.
In The Data
Stablecoin Market Cap: Total market cap remained flat this week at $307.6B
Top Winners:
USDS: Up 4.9% WoW to $6.8B (2.20% share) - week's standout performer
USDC: Up 0.5% WoW to $73.6B (23.91% share)
Others: Up 1.9% WoW to $27.8B (9.04% share)
Top Losers:
USD1: Down 4.5% WoW (-49.4% MoM) to $5.1B (1.67% share) - week’s standout loser
USDT: Down 0.3% WoW to $183.7B (59.7% market share)
DAI: Down 0.8% WoW to $4.4B (1.43% share) - continued contraction
USDe: Down 1.9% WoW to $6.3B (2.05% share)
Onchain Activity: Weekly pullback, but remaining higher than last month
Week over Week:
Active addresses: Down 6.5% to 4 million (from 4.3 million last week)
Daily transactions: Down 4.6% to 58.1 million (from 60.9 million last week)
Key insight: Addresses fell faster than transaction count, suggesting the remaining active base is transacting more frequently
Month over Month:
Active addresses: Up 2.9% to 4.2 million (from 4.0 million in January)
Daily transactions: Up 15.6% to 58.8 million (from 50.9 million in January)
Key insight: Transaction growth is running well ahead of address growth, pointing to higher usage intensity per user rather than broad new adoption
Net inflows: Down 82.9% to $249.9 million (from $1.46 billion)
Daily average inflows: Down 82.9% to $35.7 million (from $209.2 million)
Key insight: Inflows appear to have nearly stopped, suggesting a pause in fresh capital entering the stablecoin market ahead of the Clarity Act.
Month over Month:
Net flows: Flipped to -$4.4 billion outflow (from $1.8 billion net inflow in January)
Daily average flows: Flipped to -$145.5 million (from $61.4 million in January)
Key insight: The monthly swing of over $6B from inflows to outflows points to sustained redemption activity throughout February, with this week's modest inflows doing little to offset the broader trend.
Author: Alex Vronces, Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI)
Summary: Vronces argues that Canada's draft Stablecoin Act violates the foundational post-2008 principle of "same activity, same risk, same regulation" by regulating a new technology rather than a new activity, since stablecoin issuance is functionally equivalent to narrow banking, which is already regulated. By carving out a technology-specific framework, he contends, Ottawa is neither future-proofing its regulatory system nor managing risk optimally. The piece calls for Canada to align its approach with activity-based oversight while also advancing a sovereign Canadian digital dollar strategy to protect monetary sovereignty amid rapid dollar-stablecoin expansion.
Summary: FXC Intelligence released the first independent, benchmarked assessment of the stablecoin payments infrastructure market. The report revises FXC's total addressable market estimate for stablecoin cross-border payments upward to $17.9 trillion and profiles ten major infrastructure vendors (including Bitso Business, BVNK, Bridge, Fireblocks, and Yellow Card). It argues the industry has moved decisively beyond experimentation into commercial scaling, but that adopting stablecoins requires organisations to engage with an entirely new infrastructure stack, which the guide benchmarks against independent buyer perspectives.
Summary: Acheson uses the February crypto market selloff to make a precise technical argument often overlooked in mainstream stablecoin coverage: stablecoins have both a stable value and a market-traded price, and the two don't always match. She cites USDC trading as high as $1.014 on Kraken during the downturn and traces historical distortions (USDT at $0.94 during Terra's collapse, USDC at $0.86 in 2021) to argue that stablecoin payment rails are more reliable than stablecoin exchange prices, and that distinguishing between the two is critical for evaluating their infrastructure potential.
Author: Michael Pedroni, Highland Global Advisors (Substack)
Summary: Pedroni argues that despite widespread enthusiasm, stablecoins remain a second-best substitute for actual dollars due to the credit risk inherent in private issuance. Drawing on historical analogies, specifically Argentina's currency board collapse in 2001 and money market funds "breaking the buck" in 2008, he contends that the structural advantages of true dollars (safety, sovereign backing) still outweigh the 24/7 accessibility offered by stablecoins, at least for now. The piece is a measured counterweight to the prevailing bullish narrative on payment stablecoins.
Author: BVNK, in partnership with YouGov, Coinbase, and Artemis
Summary: Drawing on a survey of 4,658 early adopters across 15 countries, this report finds that stablecoins have crossed a meaningful threshold in everyday use — 39% of respondents receive part of their income in stablecoins, 27% use them for daily expenses, and 77% would open a stablecoin wallet if their primary bank or fintech offered one. Fee savings average 40% over traditional remittance rails. Africa leads in adoption at 79%. The report concludes that the question is no longer whether stablecoins will be established as a financial primitive, but how quickly they will spread into mainstream account infrastructure.
Summary: Surveying a range of industry voices, from Visa Europe's Head of Product to Grasshopper Bank's SVP, this piece interrogates whether stablecoin momentum from 2025 will compound or plateau. It concludes that the GENIUS Act's federal framework is the single most consequential catalyst for institutionalisation, but warns that regulatory fragmentation across jurisdictions (particularly around Travel Rule compliance) could constrain the cross-border use cases that make stablecoins compelling. The piece argues adoption will ultimately hinge on whether banks, fintechs, and regulators can align on common standards fast enough to validate the technology's real-world utility.
Closing Summary
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Alexander is a protocol researcher specializing in Layer-1 and Layer-2 infrastructure, as well as RWA's and Stablecoins. Before Messari, he worked at Jump Trading and Bull-Moose Consulting. He graduated from Northeastern University with a degree in Economics and Data Science, and helped run Northeastern's blockchain club.
Alexander is a protocol researcher specializing in Layer-1 and Layer-2 infrastructure, as well as RWA's and Stablecoins. Before Messari, he worked at Jump Trading and Bull-Moose Consulting. He graduated from Northeastern University with a degree in Economics and Data Science, and helped run Northeastern's blockchain club.
