The two biggest payment companies in the world are not concerned about a potential threat to their business model from stablecoins.

In the companies’ latest earnings calls, executives from Visa and Mastercard – which handle $13.2 trillion and $8 trillion in payments globally per year, respectively – signaled that the giants were ready to embrace rather than fight stablecoins.

Says Visa CEO Ryan McInerney,

“…Stablecoins could enable us to have faster cross-border transactions. By the way, that’s true for consumers or for businesses. And we’ve been testing that out and having some good results. We’ve been testing a series of corridors and putting stablecoins to work directly versus the fiat currency money movement options that we’re able to deliver to our clients and their users today…

I do think, as I said in my prepared remarks, that there is real product market fit for stablecoins in remittances for certain corridors. And as the largest money movement platform around the world, we’re going to be an early adopter of a lot of those things on behalf of our clients and their end users.”

And in Mastercard’s Q2 earnings call, CEO Michael Miebach also suggested that stablecoins weren’t so much of a threat to the company, but an asset to augment its services.

“And as to stablecoins, we see this as another currency. We also see it as additive to the network with opportunities for us to provide the on and off ramps from fiat to stablecoin to partner with [ advice ] and wallets to bring interoperability, bring relevant services, bring global reach and trust to the specific use cases. With new technologies, we always embrace innovation.”

Follow us on X, Facebook and Telegram

Don’t Miss a Beat – Subscribe to get email alerts delivered directly to your inbox

Check Price Action

Surf The Daily Hodl Mix

&nbsp

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

Generated Image: DALLE-2

California Governor Gavin Newsom announced the California Breakthrough Project on July 15, enlisting executives from Coinbase, Ripple, MoonPay, and other technology firms to help streamline state operations. 

Newsom convened the advisory group at Ripple’s San Francisco headquarters on June 6. Participants include Ripple Executive Chair Chris Larsen and unnamed executives from MoonPay and Coinbase.

The cohort will work with agency staff to pinpoint bottlenecks in procurement, hiring, and service delivery, propose challenge‑based pilots, and maintain transparency and labor consultation throughout each project phase. 

Newsom tied the initiative to California’s role in artificial intelligence (AI) research, noting that 32 of the world’s 50 largest AI companies operate in the state. He said access to that expertise enables Sacramento to test new tools quickly while respecting privacy safeguards. 

Executive order sets implementation deadlines

The governor paired the task force with Executive Order N-30-25, which instructs the Government Operations Agency to collaborate with the departments of Human Resources, General Services, and Technology on three fronts: shortening civil service hiring cycles, simplifying information technology procurement, and creating shared contracting vehicles. 

The order directs every cabinet agency to submit at least one no- or low-cost efficiency proposal within 90 days. 

The Office of Data Innovation will expand “Engaged California,” a deliberative democracy platform that crowdsources ideas from state workers. 

The office must also launch an Innovation Fellows Program that assigns selected supervisors to fix specific operational challenges by  Aug. 15. Departments are mandated to allocate dedicated time for each fellow to complete the assignment. 

Coinbase channels funds to Fairshake super PAC

Separately, Coinbase is backing federal political efforts through Fairshake, a crypto‑focused super PAC that reported $141 million in cash on hand as of June 30, journalist Eleanor Terrett wrote on July 15. 

The figure includes $52 million raised in the first half of 2025, of which Coinbase contributed $25 million. 

Fairshake has collected $109 million since Election Day 2024, and a spokesperson said the group “remains focused on building lasting support for crypto and blockchain innovation.”

Mentioned in this article

Shareholders trimmed support for executive pay packages at leading US Bitcoin (BTC) miners to an average of 64% in this year’s proxy season, far below the over 90% approval norm across the S&P 500, according to a July 10 VanEck research note. 

VanEck reviewed filings from eight listed miners and found average named-executive-officer (NEO) compensation climbed from $6.6 million in 2023 to $14.4 million in draft 2024 proxies.

Equity and other long-term instruments accounted for 79% of total pay in 2023 and 89% in 2024, well above the Russell 3000’s 63% and the energy sector’s 63% weighting. 

Base salaries remained near industry norms at roughly $474,000, but equity grants increased significantly. 

Riot Platforms’ CEO secured a $79.3 million 2024 stock award, nearly double Marathon’s $40.1 million grant and multiple times the peer averages. Meanwhile, Core Scientific (CORZ), which was emerging from bankruptcy, issued its CEO $39.5 million in stock as part of remuneration.

Say-on-pay votes show mounting resistance

CORZ, Riot, and Marathon (MARA) failed their 2025 advisory votes on compensation, garnering approval rates of only 38%, 32%, and 22%, respectively. 

Industry-wide, six in eight companies missed the 70% support threshold that proxy adviser ISS flags as “low support,” a failure rate of 75% versus about 4% for the Russell 3000. 

Investors also scrutinised dilution. Equity plan expansions equal to roughly 10% of the shares outstanding were approved at Terawulf and CORZ, while smaller increases were approved at Bit Digital, Hut 8, and MARA. Analysts warned that generous share reserves amplify insider dilution when awards vest on short timelines. 

Gradual shift toward performance gating

Six of the eight miners now use performance stock units (PSUs) that vest on multi-year share price or total shareholder return targets, up from two in 2022. However, CleanSpark has yet to adopt PSUs, and Bit Digital has authorization but no issuance. 

VanEck noted that most plans still rely on two to three-year vesting horizons and “as-achieved” equity, leaving alignment gaps with long-term value creation. 

Comparing 2024 NEO pay with market cap gains shows stark dispersion: Riot’s $230 million aggregate NEO compensation equalled 73% of its market-cap increase, while Marathon’s 18% ratio and Core Scientific’s 2% ratio reflected better alignment. 

VanEck concluded that boards can temper push-back by tying bonuses to cost-per-coin-mined to enforce operating discipline, linking long-term equity to return-on-capital metrics instead of absolute share-price targets, and extending vesting schedules and capping awards to curb dilution. 

Mentioned in this article

The alleged operators of My Big Coin have been ordered to pay around $25.8 million in fines to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for their roles in the crypto scheme.

The CFTC said on Wednesday that a Massachusetts federal court judge entered a default judgment ordering My Big Coin Pay, Inc., My Big Coin, Inc., and its executives, Mark Gillespie and John Roche, to pay $19.32 million in civil monetary penalties and $6.44 million to investors they allegedly defrauded.

Gillespie, Roche and the companies were also barred from participating in markets or conducting any other market-related activities that fall under the jurisdiction of the CFTC.

My Big Coin defrauded $6 million, CFTC says.

The CFTC claimed Gillespie, Roche, and another operator, Randall Crater, solicited investors through My Big Coin (MBC) from January 2014 to June 2017, defrauding 28 investors out of over $6 million.

The regulator’s case against one alleged operator, Michael Kruger, was dropped due to his death.

The CFTC claimed that the defendants solicited investors under false pretenses and made “false and misleading claims and omissions about MBC’s value, usage, and trade status, and that MBC was backed by gold.”

Related:  CFTC’s Pham says it won’t give ‘easy street’ to anybody, crypto included

The CFTC cautioned defrauded investors that they might not get their money back “because the wrongdoers may not have sufficient funds or assets.”

Crater ordered to pay back allegedly defrauded investors

Earlier this year, the court ordered Crater to pay $7.6 million to investors he allegedly defrauded.

In February 2024, an appellate court denied Crater a new trial, as his legal team had stated that the court had violated his Sixth Amendment rights.

On Jan. 31, 2023, Crater was sentenced to over eight years in prison after he was convicted in July 2022 by a grand jury for four counts of wire fraud, three counts of unlawful monetary transactions and one count of operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business.

Magazine: China threatened by US stablecoins, G7 urged to tackle Lazarus Group