Highlights of this episode
This week's statistics cover the period from February 13, 2026 to February 20, 2026.
This week, the total on-chain market capitalization of RWA steadily increased to $24.83 billion, with holder growth of 32%, far exceeding the growth rate of scale, strengthening the user expansion-driven characteristic; the market capitalization of stablecoins continued to decline, but the monthly transaction volume approached $10 trillion, and the turnover rate continued to reach a new high of 33.4 times, with retail investor participation significantly recovering, and the market is shifting from "capital inflow" to "efficiency-driven".
On the regulatory front: The US SEC Chairman released positive signals at ETHDenver, proposing to promote exemptions for tokenized securities trading innovations and guidelines for stablecoin custody of payments, leaving room for compliant innovation; the White House is pushing to include stablecoin rewards in legislative negotiations, the Russian Central Bank plans to study the feasibility of stablecoins, and the German Central Bank President strongly supports euro-denominated stablecoins to safeguard payment sovereignty. The global regulatory framework is moving towards refinement amid disagreements.
At the project level: Figure issued tokenized shares, Securitize introduced RWA into DeFi lending, Tether Gold launched a dividend mechanism, Société Générale expanded its Euro stablecoin to XRP Ledger, Emirates Digital Bank explored issuing the Dirham stablecoin, and Anchorage Digital provided international banks with regulated stablecoin settlement channels.
Data Perspective
RWA Circuit Panorama
According to the latest data disclosed by RWA.xyz, as of February 20, 2026, the total market capitalization of RWA on the chain reached US$24.83 billion, an increase of 8.65% compared to the same period last month, with the growth rate slowing down; the total number of asset holders was approximately 850,600, a surge of 32.11% compared to the same period last month, far exceeding the growth rate of asset size.
Stablecoin Market
The total market capitalization of stablecoins shrank to $296.5 billion, a slight decrease of 0.78% compared to the same period last month, marking the second consecutive month of decline. This reflects continued caution in the inflow of new funds, and the overall liquidity pool continues to be under pressure. Monthly transaction volume grew strongly to $9.9 trillion, a surge of 11.81% compared to the same period last month. The turnover rate of existing funds (transaction volume/market capitalization) continued to reach a new high of 33.4 times, indicating that the demand for large-value settlements remains resilient.
The total number of monthly active addresses rebounded to 52.48 million, an increase of 11.87% compared to the same period last month; the total number of holders steadily increased to 236 million, an increase of 8.43% compared to the same period last month. The two factors combined to accelerate the recovery of retail investor participation from its previous low point, and the user structure continued to improve positively.
Currently, the main contradiction in the market lies in the continued divergence between market capitalization contraction and trading activity. While existing funds maintain a high turnover rate, the overall liquidity pool is struggling to expand, indicating that the market is still in a transition phase from "capital inflow" to "efficiency-driven."
The leading stablecoins are USDT, USDC, and USDS. Among them, the market capitalization of USDT decreased slightly by 1.18% month-on-month; the market capitalization of USDC decreased by 2.19% month-on-month; and the market capitalization of USDS increased by 2.34% month-on-month.
Regulatory news
According to CoinDesk, the White House expressed support for partial stablecoin rewards programs during talks with the banking and crypto industries and urged banks to reach an agreement on market structure legislation. Sources familiar with the matter revealed that if the banking industry agrees, restricted stablecoin rewards will be included in the next draft of the U.S. Senate's Digital Asset Market Clarity Act.
At Thursday's meeting, the White House team, led by Trump's crypto advisor Patrick Witt, made it clear that reward programs for certain activities would remain in the bill, except for stablecoin holding rewards similar to deposit accounts. Summer Mersinger, CEO of the Blockchain Association, stated that the meeting was a constructive step forward in addressing rewards-related issues and maintaining the legislative process for market structure. Currently, the bill still needs to address Democratic demands for stronger regulation of the DeFi sector, prohibiting senior government officials from direct involvement in the crypto industry, and filling vacancies on the CFTC and SEC boards.
According to TASS, Vladimir Chistyukhin, First Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Russia, stated at the Alfa Talk conference that the Central Bank plans to conduct a feasibility study on creating a Russian stablecoin in 2026. Chistyukhin said that the Central Bank's traditional stance is against such operations, but considering the practices of other countries, it will reassess the relevant risks and prospects and submit the study results for public discussion.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) website published Chairman Paul Atkins' speech at the ETHDenver conference, which outlined the agency's regulatory signals regarding cryptocurrencies, including:
1. Clarify the “Investment Contract” Framework: The committee will study and publish a framework that clarifies under what circumstances crypto assets constitute investment contracts, as well as their formation and termination mechanisms.
2. Innovation Exemption: Consider establishing an innovation exemption to allow pilot trading of certain tokenized securities under restricted conditions, including limited trading on new platforms such as automated market makers, to accumulate experience for a long-term regulatory framework.
3. Advancement of Rules and Guidelines: The plan is to initiate or advance the formulation of rules on issues such as crypto asset financing paths, broker custody of non-securities crypto assets (including payment stablecoins), and modernization of transfer agency rules; and to continue to provide clarity for scenarios that do not require registration, such as wallets and user interfaces, through no-action letters and exemption orders.
4. Regulatory Philosophy: Paul Atkins emphasizes that regulators should not react to short-term price fluctuations. The responsibility of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is to ensure adequate information disclosure and clear rules, allowing market participants to make decisions in a transparent environment, rather than "protecting prices".
According to a report by Cointelegraph citing the Financial Times, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde is considering stepping down before her term expires in October 2027, so that French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merz can reach an agreement on her successor before the French general election in April 2027. An ECB spokesperson later responded that Lagarde is "fully focused on her mission and has not yet made any decisions regarding the end of her term."
Lagarde's potential early departure comes at a crucial time for the European Central Bank's (ECB) push for a digital euro. Under her leadership, the ECB has continued its preparations for a digital euro and has repeatedly emphasized the need to manage the risks of stablecoins and other private digital currencies within the framework of the EU's Crypto-Assets Market Regulation Act. Lagarde herself has long been critical of crypto assets such as Bitcoin, calling them "highly speculative," "worthless," and "without any underlying asset backing." A change in ECB leadership could affect the institution's communication priorities and focus regarding the digital euro, stablecoin regulation, and crypto-related payment arrangements, although the overall regulatory direction has been established at the EU level.
Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel stated that a stablecoin pegged to the euro would provide Europe with greater independence, freeing it from the dollar-pegged stablecoins that are set to be approved under the GENIUS Act.
Nagel supports the launch of a central bank digital currency pegged to the euro, as well as a euro-denominated payment stablecoin. In his opening remarks at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's New Year reception in Frankfurt on Monday, he stated that EU officials are working to push forward the launch of a retail central bank digital currency. He believes that a euro-denominated stablecoin would also help "make Europe more independent in terms of payment systems and solutions."
The Bundesbank president's comments on stablecoins did not mention the risks he raised at the Euro50 conference last week. Nagel had previously warned that if dollar-denominated stablecoins significantly outsell euro-pegged stablecoins, domestic monetary policy "could be severely damaged, not to mention the potential undermining of European sovereignty."
Andrew MacKenzie, CEO of Agant, a sterling stablecoin issuer, said that the UK’s crypto regulatory framework is on the right track, but its pace of development is not fast enough to support the country’s ambition to become a global digital asset hub.
MacKenzie believes the UK government has repeatedly pledged to position London as a global hub for crypto and digital asset activities. However, legislation comprehensively covering stablecoins and broader crypto activities is not expected to be approved by Parliament until later this year, and may not come into effect until 2027.
Agant plans to issue a stablecoin called GBPA, fully backed by the British pound. The company has already registered with the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), indicating its intention to target institutional investors, rather than the retail cryptocurrency market. Agant has positioned GBPA as infrastructure for institutional payments, settlements, and tokenized assets.
Local News
According to the official WeChat account of Shaanxi Province, under the guidance of the Shaanxi Branch of the People's Bank of China, the Xi'an Branch of China Merchants Bank successfully issued the first tranche of science and technology innovation bonds for 2026 to a large enterprise in Shaanxi Province, and completed the collection of all raised funds in the form of digital RMB, amounting to 300 million yuan. Industry insiders pointed out that this transaction is not only the first digital RMB science and technology innovation bond in Shaanxi Province, but also a practical application of digital RMB in the field of direct financing, which is of positive significance for improving the digital RMB ecosystem and promoting business innovation in Shaanxi's financial market.
In response to the Hong Kong Chief Executive's announcement that the first batch of stablecoin issuer licenses will be issued in March, Hong Kong Legislative Council member Ng Kit-chung posted on the X platform suggesting that stablecoins be integrated with public finance policies. He proposed rapidly popularizing stablecoins through the issuance of "nighttime consumption vouchers," which would both benefit citizens and promote the development of the Web3 industry. He pointed out that this move could bring "four major benefits":
1. Citizens can directly use stablecoins for spending and experience digital payments;
2. Help citizens easily open e-wallets and become familiar with digital assets and stablecoins;
3. Reduce administrative costs by having compliant stablecoin issuers bear part of the promotion expenses;
4. In the long run, improve public awareness of digital assets and reduce the occurrence of fraud cases.
Project progress
Securitize announced a partnership with Euler to bring tokenized RWA to DeFi lending.
Securitize has partnered with Euler Finance to integrate its DS protocol, enabling DS tokens to be used as collateral in screened, risk-isolated lending markets.
The first services will be launched on the Euler Select Marketplace managed by KPK, where whitelisted investors can borrow digital assets using tokenized securities as collateral.
WLFI will tokenize loan revenue from the Trump family's Maldives resort.
WLFI announced plans to tokenize loan revenue equity related to Trump International Hotels & Resorts in the Maldives.
This initiative represents a significant step forward for WLFI in the tokenization of Real-World Assets (RWAs). The project is a collaboration between international luxury real estate developer DarGlobal PLC (which owns properties in the Maldives) and leading tokenization platform Securitize. The Trump Organization is involved as a licensed hotel brand partner for the resort.
Figure will launch its tokenized stock and conduct a $150 million share issuance.
Figure announced that it will issue a tokenized version of its stock directly on the blockchain, bypassing the traditional clearing system. Stock token holders will be able to borrow and lend through Figure's DeFi market.
Figure's tokenized stock listing coincides with its secondary public offering, which has increased to $150 million. Venture capital firm Pantera Capital participated in the transaction.
According to PR Newswire, decentralized data infrastructure provider Inveniam and investment and advisory platform MEASA Partners have reached a merger agreement, focusing on income-generating Real-World Assets (RWAs) such as real estate, infrastructure, and private lending. Following the merger, MEASA Partners will lead the Inveniam Capital business unit, responsible for providing compliant private RWA solutions to institutional and digital investors. Inveniam will leverage its Smart Provenance decentralized data architecture, combined with MEASA's network of sovereign and institutional investors in the Middle East and globally, to achieve near real-time pricing of private assets, quantitative portfolio optimization, and liquidity aggregation across compliant digital markets. The goal is to drive AI-based proxy asset management and systematic trading in markets such as Abu Dhabi.
Elemental Royalty Corporation emphasizes that this mechanism links tokenized gold ownership with standard royalty payments on the blockchain. Tether acquired approximately 33% of Elemental in 2025. Investors can acquire direct physical gold ownership by allocating funds to gold royalties, and the company is expected to distribute approximately 12 cents in dividends to investors quarterly. Investors who prefer cash dividends can still choose cash.
According to Cryptopolitan, Tether announced a dividend mechanism for its gold-backed token, Tether Gold (XAUT), becoming the first publicly traded gold company structure to allow shareholders to choose to receive dividends in tokenized gold instead of cash. This move is described as a major breakthrough for the gold industry, with demand for digital gold surging recently. XAUT's market capitalization has reached nearly $2.55 billion, leading the overall growth of tokenized real-world assets.
Rumble announces integration of its wallet service with Tether's USAT stablecoin.
Nasdaq-listed Rumble and Tether announced the integration of the US dollar stablecoin USAT into the non-custodial crypto wallet Rumble Wallet. To date, the wallet supports USAT, USDT, XAUT, and Bitcoin. Users can directly use these crypto assets to tip creators and receive payments in stablecoins globally without relying on traditional banks or payment institutions.
Canza Finance partners with First Digital to support institutions using FDUSD.
Canza Finance has announced a strategic integration with First Digital to support the adoption of FDUSD in institutional and B2B stablecoin settlement processes. Over the past year, Canza Finance processed approximately $200 million in stablecoin transactions, primarily driven by over-the-counter (OTC) activity and cross-border B2B transactions in emerging markets. Through this partnership, FDUSD will be introduced as an additional settlement option to Canza Finance's client network.
Vincent Chok, founder and group CEO of First Digital, stated that this integration supports the commitment to expanding responsible and scalable stablecoin use cases, and Canza Finance's position within institutional settlement networks makes it a suitable partner for driving FDUSD adoption in emerging markets. Canza Finance stated that supporting FDUSD in its settlement processes aligns with its mission to provide enterprise clients with an efficient, transparent, and trusted digital asset infrastructure.
French banking group Societe Generale extends its euro stablecoin EURCV to XRP Ledger
According to Cointelegraph, SG-FORGE, the digital asset arm of French banking group Societe Generale, has expanded its euro-pegged stablecoin EUR CoinVertible (EURCV) to XRP Ledger. This marks the token's third blockchain deployment after Ethereum and Solana, utilizing Ripple's custody infrastructure and potentially integrating it into Ripple products as collateral for transactions. The stablecoin is reportedly backed 1:1 by bank cash deposits or high-quality securities, with a current circulating supply of approximately 70.51 million. It aims to enhance institutional access to euro-backed tokens and complies with EU MiCA regulations.
According to The Fintech Times, Zand, an AI and blockchain digital bank in the UAE, has established a strategic partnership with Ripple. The two companies will jointly promote the development of the digital economy in the region through Zand's UAE Dirham stablecoin AEDZ and Ripple's US dollar stablecoin RLUSD.
Building on their previous payment cooperation, the two parties will advance several initiatives, including supporting RLUSD in Zand's regulated digital asset custody service and exploring direct liquidity solutions between AEDZ and RLUSD. They will also explore issuing AEDZ on the XRP Ledger, leveraging the blockchain's compliance and risk control mechanisms.
Soil launches RLUSD yield protocol on XRP Ledger to expand the use of Ripple stablecoin.
According to The Block, Soil has launched the first RWA-compliant yield protocol on XRP Ledger, and its initial $1 million funding pool was fully raised within 72 hours.
This launch adds yield functionality to Ripple's USD-pegged stablecoin RLUSD. Meanwhile, according to RWA.xyz, the tokenized real-world asset value of XRP Ledger has surpassed that of Solana.
According to Financefeeds, crypto bank Anchorage Digital has announced the launch of "Stablecoin Solutions" for international banks, aiming to provide non-US financial institutions with a US-regulated digital dollar infrastructure as an alternative to the traditional correspondent banking system. This solution integrates stablecoin issuance, compliant custody, fiat currency fund management, and blockchain-native settlement capabilities, allowing banks to facilitate the cross-border flow of dollar assets without relying on traditional correspondent banking networks. Anchorage stated that institutions can hold and settle tokenized dollar assets under its federal banking license.
According to an official announcement, the TON Foundation has partnered with Banxa, a regulated crypto infrastructure provider under the OSL Group, to provide compliant stablecoin payment infrastructure for thousands of SMEs in the Asia-Pacific region.
This collaboration positions TON as the operational payment layer for real-world business activities in Asia. Leveraging OSL's merchant and institutional network and Banxa's payment channels, SMEs in the Asia-Pacific region can now use TON for actual payment workflows, including business-to-business settlements, cross-border transactions, and consumer-to-merchant payments.
Banxa handles the exchange between local fiat currency and digital assets. While TON's P2P payment infrastructure is already widely used in the region, this partnership expands its application to enterprise-level business scenarios.
Anchorage is the first crypto-native institution to obtain a U.S. federal banking license and is regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). CEO Nathan McCauley stated that stablecoins are gradually becoming core financial infrastructure, and this solution provides banks with a pathway to global dollar flows via a blockchain track, while ensuring custody, compliance, and operational control. Anchorage's move is seen as an attempt to replace the traditional correspondent banking cross-border clearing system with a regulated stablecoin track. If adopted by international banks, dollar stablecoins may be further embedded in mainstream cross-border payment and fund management processes. However, its final implementation still depends on the clarity of regulatory details and the acceptance of tokenized liability structures by global banks.
According to Chainwire, AB Xelerate, the fintech accelerator of Arab Bank, a major international bank headquartered in Amman, Jordan, announced an investment in stablecoin settlement company Ubyx. The specific investment amount was not disclosed. The new funds will support Ubyx's development of a shared network that would enable regulated financial institutions to issue, accept, and exchange digital currencies at face value across multiple blockchains and jurisdictions, while operating within established regulatory and compliance frameworks. Previously, it was reported that Ubyx had been acquired by banking giant Barclays and was exploring the development of "tokenized currencies."
RWA, a leading cybersecurity firm, has listed on the MSX trading platform.
According to official sources, MSX has launched spot trading of $PANW.M, a leading cybersecurity company. $PANW.M is a global leader in cybersecurity solutions, providing enterprises with comprehensive protection covering networks, cloud, and endpoints. Its latest quarterly financial report was released after market close on February 17.
Insights Highlights
The Hidden Wars Behind Stablecoins: Who Will Be the "Biggest Winner"—Issuers, Apps, and Users?
PANews Overview: Stablecoin issuers (such as Tether and Circle) have what can be called the "best business model in history": users deposit fiat currency in exchange for stablecoins, and issuers invest the funds in safe assets such as government bonds, enjoying risk-free interest and making huge profits with almost zero cost and zero risk (Tether's profits are expected to reach $10 billion in 2025).
However, this profit chain is being disrupted by downstream application layers (wallets, exchanges, DeFi protocols). Applications that control user access are using their bargaining power by "designating the default stablecoin" to demand that issuers share profits (such as the revenue-sharing agreement between Coinbase and Circle), and even attempting to bypass issuers and monopolize the revenue through their own branded stablecoins (such as PayPal's PYUSD) or "issuance as a service" models.
However, the real variable comes from users, especially in developed markets, where users have an increasingly strong expectation that "idle stablecoins can also earn interest." This forces application layers to return their share of profits to users in order to retain them, thus falling into the dilemma of "being caught between users' demand for returns and the issuer's profit monopoly."
In this covert war, users may ultimately be the beneficiaries. As applications compete for users, most profits will flow from publishers through the application layer back into users' pockets.
In emerging markets, users value the inflation-hedging and risk-averse functions of USD stablecoins more and are less sensitive to returns. This puts less pressure on issuers like Tether, which primarily serve overseas users. However, the overall trend is irreversible: user returns are changing from an "option" to a "must-have".
PANews Overview: On February 11, 2026, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) released a package of new regulations to introduce compliant leverage to the virtual asset market through three main pathways: First, margin financing, allowing licensed brokers to provide financing to securities margin clients, but collateral is limited to Bitcoin and Ethereum, with a prudent deduction rate of no less than 60%, and re-pledging is strictly prohibited, thus cutting off the leverage chain; Second, the first-ever perpetual contract framework, but participation is limited to professional investors, requiring high transparency in disclosure, robust risk control, and platforms assuming central counterparty clearing responsibility; Third, allowing platform affiliates to act as market makers, but requiring the establishment of strict conflict-of-interest firewalls (customer priority, functional independence, and information segregation) to address the challenge of liquidity cold start.
The underlying logic of this design is that "liquidity is designed, not left to chance." By limiting the most mature assets, the highest safety margin, and the most transparent rules, depth is cultivated within controllable boundaries.
The underlying intention behind all of this is to "make up for" the more severe liquidity crisis in the RWA market: the current tokenized gold, stocks and other RWAs have extremely high slippage and extremely poor liquidity, the root cause of which is the lack of compliant leverage tools and market-making mechanisms.
The new regulations provide RWA with four models: a tiered collateral management system, a template for transparency in derivatives, a "Chinese wall" model for related-party market making, and a dialogue mechanism between regulators and the market through a "digital asset accelerator".
Ultimately, Hong Kong is using virtual assets as a "laboratory" to develop a complete leverage tool system, from collateral and derivatives to market makers. Once the data is mature and the framework is stable, the entire system will be migrated to the RWA field.
For practitioners, this means that the window for compliance leverage is opening, but the threshold is extremely high; now is the golden window of opportunity to learn this set of regulatory tools and rehearse product design.
a16z Crypto Founder Discusses Stablecoins: The "WhatsApp Moment" in the Crypto World Has Arrived
PANews Overview: Stablecoins are becoming the mainstream payment option globally, with transaction volume exceeding $12 trillion last year, approaching Visa's $17 trillion, but at a much lower cost.
This is the “WhatsApp moment” in the monetary world: just as WhatsApp made international text messages, which cost 30 cents each, almost free, stablecoins are transforming cross-border payments from high fees and slow settlements to near-zero cost and instant arrival. More importantly, currency is becoming software.
Leveraging the programmability of blockchain, stablecoins can achieve functions unimaginable in traditional finance, such as automated transactions and smart contract settlements. Enterprises have already begun large-scale adoption: Stripe reduced its payment fees from 3% to 1.5%, SpaceX used stablecoins to circumvent capital controls in countries with high inflation, and Fidelity even issued its own stablecoin.
This transformation has also brought about an often overlooked effect: stablecoins are becoming a new pillar of the dollar's hegemony. Leading issuers Circle and Tether already hold nearly $140 billion in U.S. Treasury bonds, ranking among the top 20 holders of U.S. debt, and are expected to enter the top ten next year, creating strong new demand for U.S. Treasury bonds.
However, to unleash its full potential, a clear regulatory framework is needed, such as the U.S. Genius Grant Act and Clarity Act, to provide clear rules for stablecoins and underlying blockchain networks. Ultimately, just as the internet has made information borderless, stablecoins will enable the borderless flow of value, becoming the conduit and pillar of the new global financial system.
