Billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller said blockchain and stablecoins may only be a decade away from powering the global payments system — though he isn’t sold on the idea of crypto functioning as a store of value.

In an interview with Morgan Stanley recorded on Jan. 30 and released on Friday, the former hedge fund manager said blockchain-based tokens — particularly stablecoins — boost productivity in the payments space:

“Blockchain and the use of stablecoins, if you want to throw crypto into that, tokens, incredibly useful in terms of productivity,” Druckenmiller said.

“I assume our whole payment systems will be stablecoins in 10 or 15 years,” he said, adding that stablecoins are more efficient, faster and cheaper than existing solutions.

Druckenmiller founded Duquesne Capital Management in 1981 and closed the fund in late 2010. During that time, he achieved an average annual return of 30% and never experienced a down year.

Druckenmiller said back in May 2021 that a blockchain-based system could replace the payment rails that power the US dollar due to a lack of trust in the traditional banking system.

“Well, the problem has been clearly identified. It’s Jerome Powell and the rest of the world, central bankers. There’s a lack of trust,” he told CNBC’s Squawk Box at the time.

Several traditional payments firms, such as Western Union, MoneyGram and Zelle, announced plans to launch stablecoin settlement systems last year following the passage of the stablecoin-focused GENIUS Act in July, which provided a clear regulatory framework for payment firms to offer digital asset services.

Drunkenmiller not sold on crypto as a store of value

Despite Druckenmiller’s conviction on blockchain and stablecoins, he isn’t convinced that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) can function as a store of value.

“It’s a solution looking for a problem. I’m very sad that it ever happened,” Druckenmiller told Morgan Stanley.

Related: Crypto Biz: Circle stock defies Wall Street and digital asset selloff

“It wasn’t needed,” but crypto has become a brand that some people love, so it will function as a store of value to them, he said.

Back in October 2023, Druckenmiller said he compared Bitcoin to gold, stating that he prefers the latter because it is a “5,000-year-old brand.”

Druckenmiller went on to say that he doesn’t own any Bitcoin, but that he should.

Magazine: Bitcoin’s ‘narrative vacuum,’ Ethereum now inevitable: Trade Secrets

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently. Read our Editorial Policy https://cointelegraph.com/editorial-policy

 

Banco Central do Brasil said on Friday that it expanded its Pix digital payments system to allow Brazilians living in Argentina to access the service to pay for goods, services and send payments in both countries.

The central bank’s instant payments platform is accepted by major crypto platforms and service providers operating in Brazil for fiat onramping, including the Lemon crypto app, Binance Pay, Crypto.com, the Mercado Bitcoin exchange and the Kraken crypto exchange.

Argentina ranks as the number one country for crypto adoption per capita in LATAM, while Brazil ranks as number one in terms of total crypto value received, according to Lemon’s State of the Crypto Industry in Latin America 2025 report.

Argentina has about 4x the number of crypto users it had during the 2021 market cycle, the report said, and the Latin America region has about a 3x higher adoption rate than the United States.

Lemon also attributed a surge in user downloads of its crypto application to the Pix payments system.

“Argentina recorded 5.4 million crypto app downloads in 2025, with more than 90% corresponding to wallets that implemented Pix payments in Brazil,” the authors of the report said.

Users in Latin America and other jurisdictions with high inflation have turned to digital assets as an alternative to traditional fiat currencies and the legacy financial system, which features relatively higher transaction fees and potential currency controls.

Related: Western Union teams with Crossmint to support USDPT stablecoin on Solana

Inflation is declining in Argentina, but still remains high

The Argentine peso clocked its lowest annual inflation rate in eight years in 2025, when inflation fell to 37%, a threefold reduction from the previous year, according to Lemon.

Argentina’s government also removed currency controls, allowing residents in Argentina to sell and buy US dollars on the open market, improving economic conditions for those living in the country.

Previously, strict capital controls limited residents’ ability to buy US dollars, creating a black market for the greenback and dollar-pegged stablecoins.

This improvement has opened the door for new crypto use cases beyond savings and cross-border remittances, the report said.

Magazine: El Salvador’s national Bitcoin chief has been orange-pilling Argentina

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently. Read our Editorial Policy https://cointelegraph.com/editorial-policy

Demand for tokenized commodities is increasing as investors look for safe-haven exposure through crypto-native markets that trade around the clock, rather than only during traditional market hours.

The tokenized commodities sector grew 10% over the past month to $7.69 billion in cumulative market capitalization, while holders increased by 5.8% to 189,390, according to data aggregator RWA.xyz.

Tether Gold (XAUT) makes up the lion’s share with $2.96 billion of onchain commodities, while Paxos Gold (PAXG) is second with $2.56 billion.

The growth underscores how real-world assets are becoming a larger part of crypto market activity. Tokenized commodities allow investors to gain 24/7 blockchain-based exposure to assets including gold and silver, while offering the ability to transfer and trade them through digital asset infrastructure.

Related: Crypto’s yield gap with TradFi narrows as staking, RWAs surge

Crypto exchanges emerge as new TradFi venues

At the same time, crypto exchanges are drawing more interest from traders seeking exposure to traditional assets through derivatives.

This trend is particularly visible during strong price trend periods such as the recent gold and silver rallies, according to blockchain data platform CryptoQuant.

“Activity has spiked during periods of strong precious-metal price momentum,” wrote CryptoQuant’s head of research, Julio Moreno, in a research report published on Tuesday.

He added that daily volume was overwhelmingly concentrated in gold and silver contracts, which reached $3.77 billion and $3.75 billion, respectively, on Tuesday.

Related: US financial markets ‘poised to move on-chain’ amid DTCC tokenization greenlight

Binance perpetual trading activity on the rise

Trading in those products has expanded quickly. CryptoQuant said Binance’s TradFi perpetual futures have generated more than $130 billion in cumulative trading volume and about 90 million trades since launching in January.

CryptoQuant attributed the rising demand for tokenized commodities and the precious metal rally to tariff-related uncertainty, higher interest rates and stronger safe-haven demand.

Magazine: Can Robinhood or Kraken’s tokenized stocks ever be truly decentralized?

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently. Read our Editorial Policy https://cointelegraph.com/editorial-policy

Sony Bank said it has signed a memorandum of understanding with stablecoin issuer JPYC Inc. to study whether the Japanese yen-pegged stablecoin JPYC can be connected more directly to the bank’s deposit rails.

In a statement on Monday, the companies said they will study real-time account transfers that would allow users to purchase JPYC instantly from their Sony Bank accounts through the JPYC EX platform, eliminating the need for manual bank transfers. 

Sony Bank said its Web3-focused subsidiary, BlockBloom, will play a central role in designing how the bank link, stablecoin rails and potential consumer services would work in practice.

The agreement comes as Japan formalizes stablecoin issuance under its revised Payment Services Act, with regulated financial institutions beginning to test integration at the deposit layer rather than limiting access to crypto exchanges.

Real-time conversion under Japan’s stablecoin rules

JPYC began issuing its yen-backed stablecoin on Oct. 27, 2025, under Japan’s revised Payment Services Act, which recognizes stablecoins as electronic payment instruments. 

According to the company, the token is backed 1:1 by bank deposits and Japanese government bonds and is issued and redeemed through the JPYC EX platform, which requires identity verification.

The companies said the agreement is exploratory and does not introduce a new stablecoin. They did not give a timetable for when any real-time transfer feature might be launched.

Related: Japan plans major shift as crypto moves from payments to securities law

The companies said the feature would be designed under a neutral framework, not limited to a single financial institution, to preserve the scalability of JPYC EX. 

Last week, JPYC announced plans to raise 1.78 billion yen (about $12 million) in the first close of its Series B round, led by Asteria Corporation, to expand system development and ecosystem partnerships.

Exploring links to entertainment

Beyond payments, Sony Bank and JPYC said they will explore linking the stablecoin to entertainment intellectual property, including music and gaming services. Potential use cases include digital content purchases and the distribution of rewards. 

The companies said future efforts will also examine streamlining the issuance and redemption of JPYC using Sony Bank services to reduce user steps. 

The announcement stated all initiatives will be developed in compliance with applicable laws and regulatory guidelines.

Magazine: Bitdeer sells all Bitcoin, Metaplanet rejects misconduct claims: Asia Express

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently. Read our Editorial Policy https://cointelegraph.com/editorial-policy

Stablecoin issuer Tether has reportedly frozen roughly $4.2 billion worth of its USDt tokens connected to suspected criminal activity over the past three years.

Most of the blocked funds were restricted since 2023, as regulators and law enforcement agencies intensified scrutiny of crypto-related fraud and sanctions evasion, the El Salvador-based firm reportedly told Reuters on Friday.

Tether’s dollar-pegged USDt (USDT) token is the largest stablecoin in circulation, with more than $180 billion outstanding, up sharply from about $70 billion three years ago.

Tether can freeze tokens directly on the blockchain by blacklisting wallet addresses when requested by authorities.

Related: Tether-backed Oobit adds crypto-to-bank transfers for local payment networks

Tether helps governments freeze funds

On Tuesday, Tether announced that it has assisted the US Department of Justice in seizing nearly $61 million in USDt tied to “pig-butchering” scams, a scheme in which criminals build relationships with victims before persuading them to send money.

Earlier this month, the company also froze approximately $544 million in cryptocurrency at the request of Turkish authorities, blocking funds tied to an alleged illegal online betting and money-laundering operation.

According to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, by late 2025, stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle had blacklisted around 5,700 wallets holding about $2.5 billion, with roughly three-quarters of the addresses containing USDt when they were frozen.

Related: Tether USDT supply set for biggest monthly decline since 2022 FTX collapse

USDt supply shrinks

As Cointelegraph reported, USDt is on track for its largest monthly supply drop in three years, with circulating supply falling about $1.5 billion in February after a $1.2 billion decline in January, according to blockchain data. The contraction echoes the period following the FTX collapse in late 2022 and may point to tighter liquidity in crypto markets.

Tether said the figures reflect short-term distribution changes rather than weakening demand, noting USDC (USDC) also saw a multibillion-dollar reduction during the same period.

Magazine: Bitcoin may take 7 years to upgrade to post-quantum — BIP-360 co-author

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently. Read our Editorial Policy https://cointelegraph.com/editorial-policy

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed a plan to address four areas of the network he sees as most vulnerable to quantum attacks.

Quantum computing and crypto have been in the headlines recently as concerns mount over Bitcoin and other blockchains’ resistance to quantum-capable supercomputers.

Buterin posted his quantum resistance roadmap for Ethereum on Thursday, stating that the four areas are: validator signatures, data storage, user account signatures, and zero-knowledge proofs.

He said that replacing the current BLS (Boneh-Lynn-Shacham) consensus signatures with “Lean” quantum-safe hash-based signatures would fix that component. The challenge is selecting an appropriate hash function, since the choice would likely remain in place long-term.

“This may be ‘Ethereum’s last hash function,’ so it’s important to choose wisely,” he said.

Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake proposed “Lean Ethereum,” a plan to make the network quantum-secure, in August 2025.

Quantum-safe data storage and accounts

Regarding data storage, or “blobs”, Ethereum currently uses a system called KZG (Kate-Zaverucha-Goldberg) for storing and verifying data.

The plan is to swap this out for STARKs (Zero-Knowledge Scalable Transparent Argument of Knowledge), which are quantum-resistant. “It’s manageable, but there’s a lot of engineering work to do,” said Buterin.

Related: Buterin outlines 4-year roadmap to speed up and quantum-proof Ethereum

The third challenge is user accounts. Ethereum currently uses ECDSA (Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm) signatures, which are standard cryptographic keys. The fix is to upgrade the network so that accounts can use any signature scheme, including “lattice-based” quantum-resistant ones.

However, quantum-safe signatures are significantly more computationally intensive and would consume more gas.

“The long-term fix is protocol-layer recursive signature and proof aggregation, which could reduce these gas overheads to near-zero,” he said.

Quantum-resistant proofs are very expensive

Quantum-resistant proofs are extremely expensive to run onchain so “the solution again is protocol-layer recursive signature and proof aggregation,” said Buterin.

Instead of verifying every signature and proof individually onchain, a single master proof or “validation frame” would verify thousands of them at once, keeping costs near zero.

“This way, a block could ‘contain’ a thousand validation frames, each of which contains either a 3kB signature or even a 256kB proof,” he explained.

Buterin also commented on the Ethereum Foundation’s “Strawmap” on Thursday, stating that he expects to see “progressive decreases of both slot time and finality time.”

Magazine: Bitcoin may take 7 years to upgrade to post-quantum: BIP-360 co-author

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently. Read our Editorial Policy https://cointelegraph.com/editorial-policy

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has added to a newly released roadmap outlining how Ethereum plans to dramatically speed up the production of new blocks and the confirmation of transactions.

Vitalik’s comments on Thursday offered more detail on a visual public roadmap called “Strawmap” released by the Ethereum Foundation’s Protocol team. 

“Fast slots are off in their own lane at the top of the roadmap, and do not really seem to connect to anything,” said Buterin, noting that the rest of the roadmap is “pretty independent of the slot time.” 

Slot time is the time it takes for Ethereum to produce new blocks, currently around 12 seconds. The roadmap aims to get this down to as fast as 2 seconds, so the blockchain feels more like a live, responsive system rather than something that has to be waited for.

“I expect that we’ll reduce slot time in an incremental fashion,” said Buterin, suggesting reductions following a roughly square-root-of-two formula from 12 seconds down through 8, 6, 4, and eventually as low as 2 seconds.

He also suggested that p2p improvements, or upgrades to how Ethereum nodes communicate with each other — such as sharing new blocks and data without the need to download repeated data — can greatly reduce block propagation time, “making shorter slots viable with no security tradeoffs.” 

Finality from minutes to seconds 

The second major improvement in the roadmap is to finality, or the point at which a transaction is mathematically guaranteed to be irreversible, which is currently around 16 minutes. 

The future goal is finality between 6 and 16 seconds, achieved by replacing the current complicated confirmation system with a cleaner, simpler one that’s also quantum-resistant.

Related: Ethereum Foundation lists ‘quantum readiness,’ gas limits as 2026 priorities

“The goal is to decouple slots and finality, to allow us to reason about both separately,” explained Buterin. 

He said this was a “very invasive set of changes,” so the plan is to bundle the largest step in each change with a “switch of the cryptography, notably to post-quantum hash-based signatures.”

Quantum resistance of slots before finality

Buterin said that a consequence of this approach would be quantum-resistant slots before finality. 

“One interesting consequence of the incremental approach is that there is a pathway to making the slots quantum-resistant much sooner than making the finality quantum-resistant.” 

The network might “quite quickly” get to a regime where, if quantum computers suddenly appear, “we lose the finality guarantee, but the chain keeps chugging along,” he said. 

“Expect to see progressive decreases of both slot time and finality time,” Buterin summarized.

The “component-by-component replacement” of Ethereum’s slot structure and consensus will produce a “cleaner, simpler, quantum-resistant, prover-friendly, end-to-end formally-verified alternative.”

The timescale for these changes is over the next four years, with seven forks planned roughly every six months. Glamsterdam and Hegotá are already confirmed and slated for later this year. 

Magazine: Bitcoin may take 7 years to upgrade to post-quantum: BIP-360 co-author

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently. Read our Editorial Policy https://cointelegraph.com/editorial-policy

Crypto payment provider Oobit has launched crypto-to-bank transfers that settle into bank accounts via local payment rails, expanding its app beyond in-store spending and peer-to-peer (P2P) transfers. 

In an announcement shared with Cointelegraph, Oobit said users could send supported digital assets from self-custody wallets and have funds deposited into bank accounts through networks including the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) in Europe, the Automated Clearing House (ACH) in the United States and Mexico’s Sistema de Pagos Electrónicos Interbancarios (SPEI).

Settlement currencies include US dollars, euros, Mexican pesos and Philippine pesos, while supported assets include Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and a range of stablecoins such as Tether (USDT), USDC (USDC), EURC and EURR, along with other tokens including XRP (XRP), BNB (BNB), Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA) and Dogecoin (DOGE).

Related: VCI Global unveils crypto treasury plan, backs Tether’s payments arm OOBIT

Oobit said that users could see the crypto amount leaving their wallet and the fiat equivalent arriving in the recipient’s account before confirming the transactions.

It described the system as routing transactions through local payment rails instead of traditional correspondent banking channels.

Unlike checkout-based providers that redirect users to third-party interfaces, Oobit said the transfer flow is embedded natively inside its app, without redirecting users to an external off-ramp provider.

Crypto off-ramps heating up

The rollout highlights growing competition in crypto off-ramping, where exchanges and fintech companies allow users to convert digital assets into fiat deposits.

Oobit’s stated differentiator is its focus on self-custody wallets, positioning the app as a payments layer that connects onchain assets to bank accounts without requiring users to hold funds on a centralized exchange. 

DTR tie-up and Bakkt acquisition

Oobit says that the feature is powered by infrastructure from Distributed Technologies Research (DTR), which connects Oobit’s wallet interface to domestic payment networks.

DTR recently entered into an agreement to be acquired by Bakkt, a US-listed digital asset platform launched by the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) in 2018.

Akshay Naheta, DTR founder and CEO of Bakkt, said in the release that infrastructure connecting digital asset platforms with traditional financial systems was “foundational to broader adoption.”

Amram Adar, co-founder and CEO of Oobit, told Cointelegraph the company’s model differs from traditional off-ramp providers in both custody structure and user flow. “The end-user relationship, wallet custody and transaction experience remain entirely within Oobit,” Adar said.

According to Adar, user funds are initially held within Oobit’s wallet infrastructure. When a bank transfer is initiated, funds are debited and transferred to DTR strictly for payout execution. DTR forwards the funds to the recipient bank account and does not hold funds for investment or discretionary purposes.

Oobit performs the initial crypto-to-USD conversion, after which the USD-equivalent value is transferred in USDT to DTR. DTR then executes the foreign exchange conversion into local fiat currency before settlement into the designated bank account, Adar said.

Oobit has previously disclosed backing from Tether, the issuer of USDT, linking the app to the largest stablecoin operator by market capitalization.

Related: Bybit to launch retail bank accounts with personal IBANs in February

Fees, limits and expanding infrastructure

Adar said the service is fully live across all countries supported by DTR, with no pilot corridors currently in place. US dollar transfers are limited to domestic US flows.

Minimum transfers range from a roughly 10 euro ($11.70) to $100 equivalent, depending on the corridor, while maximum limits can reach about a $50,000 equivalent.

Total fees consist of components charged by both Oobit and DTR. Oobit applies the greater of a fixed fee, currently contemplated at $1, or a 1% transaction fee, along with an estimated 0.5% spread on crypto-to-USD conversions.

DTR applies either a fixed fee, generally between about 0.65 cents and 2 euro depending on the currency, or a percentage-based fee ranging from about 0.65% to 1%, according to the company.

The integration comes as banks and fintech firms deepen efforts to embed blockchain-based assets into regulated payment systems.

Major payment players like Visa have rolled out USDC-based settlement and stablecoin payouts for financial institutions, and Crypto.com has used Circle’s application programming interfaces (APIs) to support dollar bank transfers to and from USDC wallets.

On Monday, digital asset infrastructure company Stablecore joined the Jack Henry Fintech Integration Network, enabling more than 1,600 US banks and credit unions to add stablecoin services through existing core banking platforms.

On the same day, TRM Labs announced a partnership with Finray Technologies to unify crypto and fiat transaction monitoring for institutions operating under Europe’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation.

Magazine: Hong Kong stablecoins in Q1, BitConnect kidnapping arrests: Asia Express

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently. Read our Editorial Policy https://cointelegraph.com/editorial-policy