Fedwire to Visa: Crypto Hits the Core

Welcome to our Crypto news in 10, a daily podcast bringing you the latest news about crypto in under 10 minutes.

Here’s what’s new in crypto today—Wednesday, March 4, 2026.

We’ve got a real rails-meets-crypto moment as Kraken’s Wyoming bank says it secured a Federal Reserve master account for direct access to Fedwire.

In Washington, the CFTC chair just put a timeline on U.S.-regulated crypto perpetual futures.

In stablecoins, Tether’s new U.S.-compliant token, USAT, received a reserve attestation from Deloitte.

Payments giant Visa and Stripe’s Bridge are scaling stablecoin-linked cards to more than one hundred countries.

And in Japan, Sony Bank signed a memorandum with JPYC to explore real-time bank-to-stablecoin purchases.

Five headlines... one theme: crypto moving deeper into mainstream finance.

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First up, a milestone for crypto’s connection to the U.S. banking core.

Kraken Financial — Kraken’s Wyoming Special Purpose Depository Institution — says it has been granted a Federal Reserve master account. In practice, that means direct connectivity to Fedwire and other core payment rails — no more relying on correspondent banks.

Kraken will roll this out in phases, starting with institutional clients. Early press and the company describe it as the first approval of its kind for a digital asset bank.

If you follow market plumbing, you know what this could do — shorten settlement times, cut operational risk, and enable more seamless fiat-to-crypto workflows for big traders and corporates.

This follows years of case-by-case fights over master accounts for nontraditional banks... and it signals crypto-native institutions are getting closer to the financial core.

In D.C., the derivatives cop on the beat is moving.

CFTC Chair Michael Selig says the agency plans to allow U.S.-listed crypto perpetual futures within weeks — bringing onshore the instrument that dominates offshore venues. Perpetuals — 24-7, no-expiry contracts with funding rates that keep prices near spot — are beloved by pros and controversial with risk teams.

If the CFTC builds a framework exchanges can plug into, expect liquidity to migrate, better transparency on leverage, stricter risk controls, and a clearer path for institutions that won’t touch offshore books.

Selig delivered the remarks at the Milken Institute’s Future of Finance event. It’s a notable pivot after years of U.S. hesitation on perps... and it could be the biggest structural change to American crypto markets since spot ETFs.

Story three...

Tether’s U.S.-regulated stablecoin — USAT — just received its first reserve attestation, and the auditor is Deloitte. The snapshot covers reserves as of January 31, showing about 17.6 million dollars in assets backing roughly 17.5 million tokens outstanding, with cash and short-dated, Treasury-collateralized repo in the mix.

Two quick caveats: this is an attestation, not a full audit — and the scale is tiny compared with USDT. But the Big Four sign-off matters symbolically; Tether has long said large firms were reluctant to engage. And USAT is designed to live squarely within the U.S. regime created by the 2025 GENIUS Act.

If USAT scales, expect competitive pressure on disclosures and reserve quality across dollar stablecoins operating in the U.S.

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On to payments.

Visa and Bridge — the stablecoin infrastructure platform Stripe acquired — are expanding their stablecoin-linked Visa cards from 18 countries today to more than one hundred by year-end. Developers use Bridge to issue Visa cards that spend directly from stablecoin balances. Behind the scenes, funds convert and settle on-chain with Visa through partner banks like Lead Bank.

It’s a big distribution leap — the same tap-to-pay experience, but the wallet’s balance is a stablecoin. Visa says this is part of a multi-year modernization of its settlement layer. If execution matches the ambition, expect more fintechs and merchants in emerging markets to lean on stablecoin balances for everyday spend — while issuers tap faster, 24-7 settlement.

And in Japan, bank rails are inching closer to stablecoins.

Sony Bank signed a memorandum of understanding with JPYC to explore direct, real-time purchases of the yen-pegged JPYC token from Sony Bank deposit accounts — potentially inside JPYC’s own interface. That’s the classic last-mile problem in stablecoins: moving from exchange off-ramps to integrated banking flows.

The memorandum also points to entertainment tie-ins across Sony’s ecosystem and assigns a build role to Sony Bank’s web3 subsidiary, BlockBloom. It’s an M O U, not a finished product... but it’s a measured, regulator-friendly way to stitch stablecoins into mainstream banking under Japan’s Payment Services Act.

Quick takeaways...

Kraken’s master account sets a precedent for crypto banks to touch the Fed’s core rails.

The CFTC is teeing up a perps regime that could repatriate offshore liquidity.

Tether landed a Big Four attestation for its U.S. stablecoin, signaling rising disclosure standards.

Visa and Bridge are turning stablecoin balances into swipeable money in more than one hundred markets.

And Sony Bank’s memorandum with JPYC shows how direct bank-to-stablecoin flows may roll out in tightly regulated jurisdictions.

Big picture, all five stories point the same direction — crypto is being wired, supervised, and settled like the rest of finance... which is exactly what it needs to scale.

Thanks for listening and see you tommorow!