Today In Crypto

Today in Crypto - Stablecoin Cards Pass $1.37 Billion

Stablecoin cards logged $1.37B in October, and a Bhutan central bank is cleared to hold crypto reserves.

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Crypto is settling into the places where everyday money already lives. Card terminals handled about $1.37 billion of stablecoin-funded payments in October, a central bank in Bhutan can now hold digital assets in its reserves, and banks got a way to settle across blockchains while their assets stay put.

  • About $1.37 billion moved through tracked stablecoin cards in October, across 12.94 million transactions.
  • Bhutan’s Gelephu Mindfulness City gets a central bank cleared to invest in crypto.
  • Consensys launches Sovereign Network Interoperability for banks working across separate ledgers.

Ownership, movement and spending are connecting from both ends today: shoppers at the checkout, institutions at the reserve and settlement layer.


Stablecoin cards top $1.37 billion a month

A hand holding a glass coin with a dollar sign and a bank facade cracking apart Source: crypto.news

Tracked stablecoin card volume reached roughly $1.37 billion in October, according to Paymentscan dashboard data published on November 3. The dashboard counted about 12.94 million transactions from 363,321 active addresses.

Paymentscan separates card top-ups from purchases, and it counts addresses rather than verified people, so the figure measures activity rather than a headcount of customers.

Zypto take: 12.94 million transactions in a month puts digital dollars at ordinary checkouts every day. That’s real-world crypto showing up where people already shop. Zypto Premium VISA Cards convert at load, so your balance is fixed before you reach the till and later price moves don’t change it.


Bhutan clears a central bank to hold crypto

A Bhutanese mountain village beside a glowing digital data center Source: crypto.news

Bhutan’s Gelephu Mindfulness City has royal approval for a central bank that can invest in cryptocurrencies alongside traditional reserve assets. The region’s financial regulator becomes the autonomous Gelephu Central Bank, with powers over supervision, monetary policy and foreign reserves.

The decree doesn’t set an amount or a fixed allocation. The region had already named Bitcoin, Ether and BNB as intended strategic reserve assets in January 2025, and it describes its reserve as built by converting surplus hydroelectric power into digital assets.

Zypto take: Bitcoin has no issuer, so there’s no freeze switch built into the asset itself. A reserve built on it is ownership at the scale of a state. The same property is open to anyone who holds Bitcoin in self custody, with the keys on their own phone in Zypto App. Download Zypto App.


Consensys connects bank ledgers without bridges

The Consensys logo on a green digital landscape of glass blocks Source: The Block

Consensys has launched Sovereign Network Interoperability, a technology stack that lets banks and financial institutions settle across independently operated blockchains while assets stay on their native ledgers. It was unveiled at Devcon in Mumbai.

An institution sets its transaction requirements and approved counterparties, and the software picks a route, coordinates execution on each ledger and tracks the outcome. EVM-based networks are supported now, with Canton connectivity planned.

Zypto take: Settlement across many ledgers is turning into a routing question for banks. For individuals, that routing already sits in the Zypto multichain wallet, with 1,000,000+ crosschain routes across 20+ blockchains, all executed in-app.


Key Takeaways

  • Stablecoins are earning a place at the checkout, measured in millions of transactions a month.
  • Holding an asset with no issuer is now a reserve decision for at least one central bank.
  • Moving value between chains is becoming an expected feature, from bank settlement desks to a phone.
  • Watch for the steps that make this ordinary: more card programs, more reserve mandates and more routes between networks.

Prices, fees, features and availability mentioned in this article were correct at the time of publishing and may have changed since.

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