OCC Stablecoin Rule Reignites Bank Fight

Christos Gkolias of Metric | Fireblocks Denies $2.5B Visa Talks

Marco Manoppo & Karon Pangestu
October 23, 2026

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Good Morning,

Washington handed stablecoin yield a reprieve instead of a ruling, and the gap between what the law allows and what regulators will tolerate has quietly become the most valuable real estate in crypto.

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In Today's Email:

What Matters: OCC Stablecoin Rule Reignites Bank Fight 👀
Founders Highlight: Christos Gkolias of Metric 👨
Deal Flows: Fireblocks Denies $2.5B Visa Talks 💸

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Narratives: Revocable Yield

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WHAT MATTERS

OCC Stablecoin Rule Reignites Bank Fight

State of play: The OCC’s final GENIUS rule quietly dropped its proposed presumption against issuer-third party yield arrangements, handing crypto platforms a regulatory opening that Congress never settled.

The rule still bars issuers from paying interest directly, keeping the core GENIUS Act prohibition intact.
ABA CEO Rob Nichols said the gaps blur the line between stablecoins and bank deposits, and that addressing harm after it occurs is the wrong approach.
The Blockchain Association countered that the change aligns the rule more closely with statutory text and gives issuers workable standards on reserves and redemption.
Regulators said third-party arrangements will be reviewed case by case, which TD Cowen called a negative for banks given the resulting legal ambiguity.
TD Cowen also warned a new Comptroller appointed after the 2028 election could reverse course on what counts as evasion.

Why it matters: Yield is the main lever stablecoins have to pull deposits from banks, and the OCC just left it open through third parties.

Our take: “Case by case” isn’t neutrality; it’s a deferral that hands the yield fight to courts and the 2028 election, so whatever crypto wins now is borrowed time, not settled law.

For builders and investors: Build yield products that can survive a hostile Comptroller, and price third-party reward models as regulatory risk, not a durable moat.

BUILDER-INVESTOR HIGHLIGHT

Christos Gkolias of Metric

Intro: Christos Gkolias is the Co-Founder and CTO of Metric, an advanced decentralized finance (DeFi) trading protocol designed for tokenized real-world assets.

Previous background: Christos Gkolias spent over a decade working at the intersection of traditional big tech and high-performance Web3 infrastructure.

He served as a Senior Software Engineer at Google before joining Uniswap Labs, where he scaled to the role of Engineering Director

The big idea: Christos through Metric aims to solve the "Price Realism Gap" in the rapidly expanding tokenized stock and commodity markets.

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INSIGHTS

Starknet Weighs Leaving Ethereum Behind

Starknet’s community has voted to explore breaking from Ethereum to become an independent post-quantum Layer 1, framing quantum security as the reason but testing whether an L2 can walk away from the chain that gives it legitimacy.

More than 93.5% of voting power backed the research proposal across over 2,800 wallets, with StarkWare abstaining from the poll.
The vote is non-binding, and STRK holders must approve any actual transition in a separate governance vote.
StarkWare plans a draft whitepaper in November, with CEO Eli Ben-Sasson targeting quantum safety by 2027 versus Ethereum’s slip-prone 2029 goal.
Starknet’s hash-based cryptography already supports post-quantum signatures, but its bridge and data availability remain tied to Ethereum’s security.
STRK stays the native token with no new token planned, and Ethereum bridges to Starknet will remain open regardless of the outcome.

DEAL FLOWS

Fireblocks Denies $2.5B Visa Talks

Deal flows soared slightly this week - we saw $60M+ in deals 💼

Fireblocks’ denial that it is “not true at present time” leaves the door conspicuously ajar, and a $2.5B price would mark a nearly 70% haircut on its 2022 valuation as card networks race to buy stablecoin rails rather than build them.

Axios reported late-stage talks citing multiple sources, while Visa declined to comment on rumors or speculation.
Fireblocks was last valued at $8B in January 2022 after raising $550M in a Series E round.
The firm launched a stablecoin payments network in September 2025 with over 40 participants, including Circle, Bridge, Zerohash, and Yellow Card.
Visa’s stablecoin settlement volume recently passed a $20B annualized run rate, up more than 15x year over year.
Rival Mastercard closed its BVNK acquisition in August for up to $1.8B, including $300M in contingent payments.

Deal flows in the past week:

Peso, Undisclosed $ Pre-Seed Round
HoneyB, $5M Seed Round
Dataline, $10.6M Seed Round
Mural, $15M Series A Round
Hylo, $1M Strategic Round
Lighthouse, $1.58M Strategic Round
Erebor Bank, $30M Strategic Round
X Pay, $1M Unknown Round

QUICK BITES

South Korea's crypto bill nears completion.
Phantom rolls out Kalshi prediction markets to US users.
HSBC rolls out its first HKD stablecoin RedCoin to retail users.
BTC ETFs swing back to net outflows with $636M in withdrawals.
Fireblocks denies report of $2.5 billion acquisition talks with Visa.
Netanyahu seeking blockchain plan to prepare for possible sanctions.
Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand CB expand cross-border stablecoin initiative.
South Korea to amend forex law to regulate stablecoins as payment instruments.

NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME

Bercan’s read on Abundance 2029.
Jake’s read on The $PEARL Bear Case.
Kirbycrypto’s read on Everything You Need to Know About Metric.xyz.

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Disclaimer: All the information presented in this publication and its affiliates is strictly for educational purposes only. It should not be construed or taken as financial, legal, investment, or any other form of advice.