A consortium supported by a who’s who of the payments, banking, and crypto industries has launched a new stablecoin, Open USD. The reserve-backed stablecoin is the brainchild of Zach Abrams, founding CEO of Open Standard and co-founder of stablecoin infrastructure firm Bridge, which was bought by payment processing firm Stripe in 2024. “Existing stablecoins have great strengths, but to use them at scale, businesses need something that’s open, low-cost, high-throughput, broadly accessible, and aligned to their interests,” Abrams said in a statement. Open Standard’s founding users include Visa, Mastercard, American Express, PayPal, Western Union, Blackrock, Standard Chartered, Google, IBM, Coinbase, OKX, Solana, Ripple, and Aave among more than 140 companies.…
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Coinbase Advances Its ‘Everything Exchange’
Tokenized stocks, options trading, AI advisor are part of the new offerings
Crypto exchange Coinbase is advancing its ‘everything exchange’ push, adding tokenized stocks, stock and options trading, and an AI advisor to its offerings. On the stock trading front, Coinbase Advanced users can now transfer over their stock portfolio — including virtually every major stock, index, and ETF — with zero-commission trading, fractional shares, and 3.5% rewards on trade-ready USDC balances. For non-U.S. customers, Coinbase has rolled out tokenized stocks backed one-to-one by the underlying asset, with automatic dividend payments and full shareholder rights. Also coming down the pike is options trading for both stocks and crypto. “We have been hard at work building upon the product foundations that make the…
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Coinbase for Agents Will Make Payments and Trade Crypto
Agentic AI tool will manage holdings without constant manual oversight
Coinbase has launched Coinbase for Agents, a tool that allows AI agents to make payments, execute strategies, and trade crypto for users of the leading exchange. Coinbase for Agents will connect users’ favorite agents like ChapGPT or Claude directly to their Coinbase account. Operating within limits they control, the agents can now do both financial reasoning and execution, Coinbase said. The agent will operate within its own isolated portfolio, without visibility or access into other holdings. Or, it can simply use your main Coinbase account. Coinbase for Agents will only be able to touch what you’ve given it specific permission to do. Soon, users will be able to set exact…
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Couple Get First Bitcoin-Backed Fannie Mae Mortgage
Buyers used bitcoin collateral for downpayment without selling
An Ann Arbor, Mich., couple have become the first to receive a traditional Fannie Mae-backed mortgage using bitcoin collateral for a downpayment. Joe and Amy, in their early 30s, were ready to buy their first home but had most of their savings invested in bitcoin, and did not want to sell, giving up potential future upside while paying capital gains taxes. They found a mortgage from Coinbase and Better Home & Finance Holding Company, which are offering Fannie Mae-backed mortgages to people who meet all eligibility requirements except the cash downpayment, as their assets are tied up in cryptocurrency rather than traditional savings. “The 30-year fixed mortgage was designed for…
