127: JPMorgan, Mastercard, and Dubai go onchain

Hey, it’s Marc.

Another big week for stablecoins, as Mastercard integrates them for 150M merchants together with MoonPay.

• JPMorgan becomes first global bank to settle financial transaction on public blockchain.
• Databricks bets $1B on AI agents
• Dubai introduces stablecoins

And much more. Let’s unpack it.

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This week’s question:

Mastercard brings stablecoins to 150M merchants

Mastercard and MoonPay are teaming up to let people spend stablecoins like USDC at over 150M stores worldwide. The card auto-converts crypto to fiat at checkout. No app switching, no friction. Fintechs can now issue Mastercard cards backed by crypto wallets. Wallets = real-world bank accounts. The insight: This isn’t just about payments. It’s about turning stablecoins into everyday money: for payouts, global commerce, and 1-click usability. Mastercard processes $8T a year. Now it’s plugging crypto into the same pipes. Stripe’s already in. Visa’s next. The rails of money are going onchain, fast. RELEASE

JPMorgan becomes first global bank to settle financial transaction on public blockchain

JPMorgan used its Kinexys network (formerly JPM Coin) to settle a trade on a public blockchain for the first time, swapping cash for tokenized Treasuries from Ondo Finance. Chainlink’s new middleware made it work: syncing both sides and enforcing the rules in one atomic transaction. No wires. No stablecoins. Fully programmable. The insight: This is JPMorgan turning real bank deposits into onchain cash, opening tokenized assets to thousands of its clients, including 90% of the Fortune 500. For the first time, public blockchains are being wired directly into the heart of global finance. SOURCE

Databricks just bet $1B on AI agents

Databricks just dropped $1B to snag Neon, to embed agentic workflows into its Lakehouse, after finding 80% of Neon databases are spun up automatically by AI agents. This gives developers serverless Postgres tuned for autonomous bots, pay‑as‑you‑go scaling, and open‑source flexibility. So what? Databricks didn’t just buy Neon - they ignited the engine to build a turbocharged platform to deploy AI that thinks, acts, and scales without choking on data bottlenecks. RELEASE

Dubai introduces stablecoins

Dubai is partnering with Crypto.com to let citizens and businesses pay government service fees using stablecoins - automatically converted into dirhams- on all official platforms. Here’s the kicker: 97% of their government payments were already digital in 2023, and this move’s slated to pump 8B AED ($2.1B) into the economy through fintech growth. So what? Dubai is institutionalizing tokenized money as a backbone for public and private commerce, and every business in UAE must now treat blockchain wallets as fundamental payment channels. RELEASE

News Flash

• Coinbase set to join the S&P 500, replacing Discover Financial Services. Link
• Eric Trump’s American Bitcoin to go public. Link
• Tencent’s AI boosts gaming, ads; revenue hits $25B, users 1.4B. Link
• OpenAI released its GPT-4.1 and GPT-4.1 mini AI models in ChatGPT. Link
• Animoca Brands plans US listing. Link
• SmartMedia’s enables “stablecoin payments” for its Visa loyalty network. Link
• Paxos introduced gold-backed stablecoin PAXG. Link

Readings & Ideas

AI

• Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2025: Agentic AI. Link
• Top GenAI Use Cases in 2025. Link
• Meet the $1M AI Agent from Dolce & Gabbana. Link
• Agentic AI Playbook for Finance. Link
• Lessons from Wikipedia on AI Data trends to come. Link

Digital Assets

• Wall Street is going on chain. Link
• Stablecoins: Learning from 334 currency pegs since 1800. Link
• Redefining the Fabric of the Internet with Blockchain. Link
• Stablecoins’ Growth. Link

Vendor Spotlight

Content:

• Box AI: AI-driven enterprise content management platform

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• watsonx Orchestrate: Build, integrate and customise custom agents
• n8n: Open-source workflow automation platform with visual editor

Coding:

• AlphaEvolve: Gemini-powered coding agent for designing advanced algorithms
• Replit: Rapid prototyping of applications

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– Marc & Team

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