Circle has secured U.S. trust bank approval, a charter that lets the stablecoin issuer custody its own reserves and settle inside the regulated banking perimeter — removing intermediary dependencies that have been the sector's structural weak point.
Vanguard, meanwhile, has posted its first head-of-digital-assets role — a full pivot for the US$10tn asset manager that spent years refusing to offer crypto exposure to its clients.
Together the moves bracket the institutional shift: issuers are becoming banks, and the most conservative allocators are building desks. The remaining holdouts now face client demand without in-house capability.