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MoneyGram launched MGUSD on Stellar, graduating from USDC-powered transfers to proprietary stablecoin issuance and joining Western Union, PayPal, and Visa in a broader race among legacy payments networks to capture settlement margin they previously ceded to third-party issuers.
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In Today’s Email:
**What Matters:MoneyGram Launches Native MGUSD Stablecoin 👀Case Study:Vitalik Proposes Liquidation-Free Synthetic Assets 🔎Governance & Features:**Coinbase Backs Ethena With Open Market ENA Buy 👌
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WHAT MATTERS
State of play: MoneyGram launched MGUSD, a USD-pegged stablecoin on Stellar, targeting its 60M+ customers across nearly 500,000 retail locations and joining Western Union, PayPal, and Visa in building proprietary stablecoin rails.
Bridge (Stripe) serves as regulated issuer under the GENIUS Act, with M0 handling minting and burning and Fireblocks providing custody and wallet distribution.
MGUSD launches initially in the US, distributed through customer wallets embedded in the MoneyGram app, with global scaling planned.
The launch graduates MoneyGram from USDC-powered transfers to its own issuance, deepening a 5-year partnership with the Stellar Development Foundation.
Recent buildout includes Fireblocks for settlements in December, a Tempo remittance validator role last month, and crypto-to-cash withdrawals for Kraken users in May.
Western Union launched USDPT on Solana, while PayPal and Visa have each embedded stablecoin infrastructure into their cross-border settlement stacks.
Why it matters: Legacy payments networks capturing proprietary stablecoin rails means direct margin on settlement flows previously ceded to Circle and others.
**Our take: **The GENIUS Act framing is doing real work here, but the moat depends entirely on whether 60M customers use the app wallet rather than cashing out immediately.
**For builders and investors: **Stellar continues to quietly win remittance-grade deployments, and M0’s minting infrastructure is emerging as a recurring layer in enterprise stablecoin stacks.
CASE STUDY
Vitalik Buterin proposed replacing debt and forced liquidations in synthetic asset design with options as the base primitive, eliminating oracle dependence and insolvency risk from undercollateralized positions.
The system splits one ETH into a protected and leveraged position tied to a strike price, with an oracle resolving distribution at maturity rather than in real time.
Because the two positions always sum to one ETH, the design eliminates insolvency risk and replaces binary liquidations with a quadratic drift in index exposure.
The architecture runs on “slow oracles” used by prediction markets, allowing extended dispute windows and human recourse against manipulation.
The key open question is whether rebalancing can be made slippage-resistant enough to compete, with Buterin suggesting one-sided market making as a path forward.
The proposal extends a February thesis on replacing fiat-pegged stablecoins, introducing the onchain mechanics that could underpin that vision.
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INSIGHTS
**State of play: **Galaxy Digital launched an OTC prediction market trading desk for hedge funds and family offices, executing a $10M inaugural trade with Arca on a Clarity Act passage contract on Kalshi.
The desk acts as principal counterparty for bilateral position-building at institutional scale, covering non-sports contracts on Kalshi and Polymarket.
Galaxy can pair prediction market positions with hedges in equities and commodities, letting clients build unified risk strategies around a single event.
Arca CIO Jeff Dorman cited insufficient retail liquidity for a fund of its size as the driver for seeking institutional infrastructure.
Wintermute entered event contracts last week, BitGo partnered with Susquehanna Crypto in March, and Jump Trading struck market-making deals with Polymarket and Kalshi in February.
Galaxy had been exploring the space since November and was reportedly in talks to serve as liquidity provider for both platforms.
FEATURES & GOVERNANCE UPDATE
Coinbase Ventures purchased ENA on the open market and announced a partnership with Ethena to grow onchain finance and savings products, with an integration bringing Ethena products to Coinbase’s 100M+ user base launching next week.
The partnership includes Circle’s USDC, though the exact collaboration structure remains unclear.
Ethena founder Guy Young cited the Clarity Act as a potential tailwind for USDe, as the legislation could allow exchanges to reward users for holding stablecoins.
ENA jumped roughly 6% following the announcement.
USDe has lost significant market cap and seen sustained outflows since late last year, making the Coinbase distribution a meaningful lifeline.
Prior backers include Arthur Hayes’ Maelstrom, Dragonfly, Brevan Howard, Franklin Templeton, and YZi Labs, which increased its stake last September.
Other notable feature updates:
Sei𝕏publishedthe Giga Roadmap.Apyx𝕏boostsSeason 2 points to 196x.X Layer𝕏bringstokenized stocks via xStocks.Venice𝕏cutsVVV emissions toward deflation.Radiant Capital𝕏sunsetsafter failed recovery.SecuritizelaunchesPrivate Credit Fund on TRON.Re Protocol𝕏expandsreinsurance program portfolio.Morpho𝕏releasedthe upcoming Morpho Midnight whitepaper.
QUICK BITES
MoneyGramdebutsMGUSD stablecoin on Stellar.Mastercardexpandsstablecoin settlement options.Crypto derivatives activityslumpsto late-2023 levels.Striveadds2,500 BTC to treasury as Saylor’s Strategy sells.Coinbaseinvestsin Ethena via open market purchase of ENA.Galaxy DigitalopensOTC prediction market trading for institutions.Coinbaseinvestinginto stablecoin reserves ETF issued by ProShares.Spot bitcoin ETFsextendnegative streak, following $2.4B outflows in May.Vitalik Buterinproposesoptions-based synthetic assets to avoid liquidations.CME’s 24/7 crypto derivatives marketsees$50M in opening weekend trading.
NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME
Gaspardlezin’s𝕏readon Privacy stablecoins.a16z’s𝕏readon Why prediction markets matter.Stacy’s𝕏readon Three categories Dominating the RWA Landscape.
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