Morning Minute: Western Union Chooses Solana for Stablecoin

Morning Minute is a daily newsletter published by: tyler warner. The analyzes and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. Subscribe to Morning Minutes on substack.

GM!

Today’s top news:

• Major cryptocurrencies are down 1-2% ahead of today’s FOMC meeting. BTC$113,200
• Bitwise SOL ETF breaks 2025 record for launch day volume
• Western Union announces Solana stablecoin
• MetaMask Introduces Season 1 Rewards with $30 Million in Prizes to Win
• Monad launches 3-day airdrop public campaign

💸 Western Union selects Solana as stablecoin

The world’s largest remittance company is moving on-chain.

and it was not selected Ethereum or Bitcoin.

📌What happened

Western Union, a 173-year-old global money transfer giant, just announced that it will launch a stablecoin in Solana.

Western Union issues US dollars stable coin Called USDPT, it was built on SolanaAnchorage Digital provides custody rights.

The rollout will begin in 2026 and target hundreds of millions of users in Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia regions, where stablecoins already dominate real-economy usage.

The stablecoin will connect directly to Western Union’s existing licensed fiat rails and over 4,500 corridors, allowing people to move dollars across borders without bank or ACH delays or predatory exchange fees.

And here’s the curveball. Western Union says it plans to continue supporting cash deposit and withdrawal locations and effectively become Solana’s global on/off ramp.

🗣️ What they are saying

“For 175 years, we’ve been connecting people and moving $150 billion a year. Digital assets are the next evolution. We looked at alternatives and decided Solana was the right choice.” – Devin McGranahan, Western Union CEO

🧠 Why is it important?

The largest money transfer company on the planet is moving directly into stablecoins.

This is a huge deal for both Solana and the stablecoin.

Solana just received certification from a major global payments player.

Payments are currently the largest real-world use case for cryptocurrencies, and Solana is currently powering the largest remittance migration in history.

When it comes to stablecoins, it’s clearly eating the world and Western Union is capitulating to it.

The global remittance market is worth $860 billion. If 10% of these flows migrate to stablecoins over the next two years, the annual on-chain volume would be $86 billion.

Mainly about Solana.

Stablecoins are the future, and Solana is part of that future.

On the same day that Bitwise’s Solana ETF set a record for highest volume for a new ETF launch in 2025, it was a truly remarkable story victory.

I wonder if Blackrock is watching…

🌎 Macro Codes and Memes

Some crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:

• Major cryptocurrencies are in the red ahead of today’s FOMC meeting. BTC -1% for $113,100, ETH -3% for $4,000, BNB -2% for $1,115, SOL at $199
• playing cards (+19%), Pi (+14%), and AERO (+6%)
• trump media introduced A new prediction market called Truth Predict
• visa Start receiving payments 4 different stablecoins across 4 blockchains, with the ability to convert them back into fiat currency,
• Circle’s Arc Blockchain I went to a live show Inside the testnet
• BlackRock’s tokenization platform Securitize Shares plans to go public via $1.25 billion SPAC
• Ethereum The Fusaka upgrade has passed the key final test for L2 scaling. next mainnet
• terra wolf Stocks soared as Google-backed AI-enhanced miners pivoted to AI infrastructure. share pop
• indiana state police 1,000 stolen BTC miners and $75,000 in frozen turkeys recovered in an unusual raid

For corporate bonds/ETFs

with a meme

💰 Tokens, Airdrops and Protocol Trackers

Here’s a summary of the day’s key token, protocol, and airdrop news:

• metamask introduced Season 1 rewards are up to $30 million over the next 90 days. Users must update to the latest MM version on iOS to participate
• Mega ETH Public ICO has already raised over $700 million with just over a day left (15x oversubscribed)
• Polymarket Teased release in the US A sports-focused version will be released in the coming weeks
• Monad’s airdrop claim revealed The first day of the three-day event went live, showing recipients the number of tokens they can receive in TGE.
• countless Released on BNB New market focused on BNB + automated market resolved every 5 minutes based on price changes

🚚 What’s happening with NFTs?

Here’s a list of the day’s other notable headlines regarding NFTs:

• NFT leader It was flat that day. Punk is at 39 ETH, Pudgy is at 6.95 and +1%, and BAYC is at 6.5 ETH and -1%. Hypurr -1% at 1,190 HYPE
• Fly a kite (+17%) It was a noteworthy move
• NFT strategy PNKSTR fell 15% and was in the red
• graffiti announced Universal Monsters Creepy Telegram Drop