Blockchain startup Codex has raised $15.8 million to build a layer-2 network specifically for stablecoins, signaling that more builders are rushing to capitalize on the growing industry and regulatory alignment around fiat-backed stable assets. 

The seed round was led by Dragonfly Capital, with additional participation from Coinbase, Circle, Cumberland Labs, Wintermute Ventures and others, Codex told Fortune.

The funding will be used to help Codex build its stablecoin-only platform from the ground up, said co-founder and CEO Haonan Li.

Codex has disavowed “general-purpose blockchains” because of their inefficiencies in meeting real-world use cases, said Li. Instead, Codex is building a stablecoin-only chain on top of Optimism, an Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution that uses rollup technology to boost transaction speeds and lower costs.

Although details about the Codex chain were sparse, Li said the stablecoin solution aims to create a predictable fee structure that isn’t influenced by volatile blockchain activity. 

Codex is also aiming to build stablecoin off-ramps with existing cryptocurrency exchanges and local brokers, which would allow users to cash out their onchain assets for fiat. 

Related: Stablecoin adoption grows with new US bills, Japan’s open approach

The stablecoin “hunch” 

In 2023, Li had a “hunch” that stablecoins would be the next major blockchain growth story, which at the time “was a pretty contrarian view among these core crypto people,” he told Fortune. 

Codex co-founder Victor Yaw said the stablecoin market has grown 60 times in the last six years, but still only accounts for less than 2% of offshore US dollar deposits. 

“We haven’t even scratched the surface,” he said.

Stablecoin demand has shown signs of resilience, growing in the face of adverse crypto market conditions. Although crypto markets plunged in the first quarter, stablecoin supplies increased by $30 billion during that period, according to crypto intelligence firm IntoTheBlock. 

The total stablecoin market capitalization now sits at nearly $230 billion. The vast majority of stable assets are backed by US dollars. 

Codex isn’t the only stablecoin network to emerge from stealth this year. In January, a layer-1 network called 1Money raised $20 million to further develop its stablecoin payment platform. 

1Money’s founder and former Binance.US chief Brian Shroder told Cointelegraph that the future of stablecoins will be “multicurrency,” with stable assets extending beyond the dominant US dollar. 

Growth beyond the US dollar will likely be fueled by “demand for localized stablecoin financial solutions and use cases,” said Shroder.

Related: ‘We’re bullish on stablecoins,’ next-gen DeFi — Coinbase Ventures head

Stablecoin firm Circle, the issuer of the USDC (USDC) dollar-pegged token, is reportedly mulling a delay of its initial public offering (IPO) plans amid the macroeconomic uncertainty created by the Trump administration’s trade policies.

According to The Wall Street Journal, “Circle had been nearing its next steps in going public, but is now watching anxiously before deciding what to do,” and joins a growing list of companies considering IPO delays, including fintech company Klarna and ticketing firm StubHub.

On April 1, Circle filed an S-1 registration form with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to take the company public in an IPO originally slated for April 2025.

The stablecoin firm is planning to sell shares of the company under the ticker symbol “CRCL,” but Circle’s prospectus materials have not yet outlined details of the number of shares offered or the initial stock price.

Circle delaying its IPO comes amid turmoil in the stock market as trillions in shareholder value dissipated following US President Donald Trump’s April 2 announcement of sweeping trade tariffs and investor fears that a protracted trade war could cause a global recession.

Related: Trump ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs create chaos in markets, recession concerns

Bitcoin (BTC) sits in one of its least bullish phases since January 2023. According to Bitcoin’s “bull score index,” investor sentiment is showing its lowest reading in two years. 

CryptoQuant’s “Crypto Weekly Report” newsletter explained that “bull score index” readings that sit below 40 for extended periods increase the likelihood of a bear market. The bull score remained above 40 throughout 2024, only dipping below this threshold in February 2025, as identified in the chart above. 

However, over the past 24 hours, Bitcoin price has displayed resilience when compared against the massive losses seen in the US stock market. On April 3, Bitcoin closed the day with a green candle, while the S&P 500 was down 4.5%, a historic first.

The S&P 500 and Dow Jones extended their decline on April 4, dropping 3.87% and 3.44%, respectively, while Bitcoin held steady near the breakeven point.

Related: Arthur Hayes loves tariffs as printed money pain is good for Bitcoin

Is Bitcoin near a risk-on phase?

Data from CryptoQuant indicates that Bitcoin’s Value Days Destroyed (VDD) metric currently sits around 0.72, suggesting that Bitcoin price is in a transitional phase. Since 2023, such periods have preceded either price consolidation or renewed accumulation before a bullish breakout.

The Bitcoin VDD metric tracks the movement of long-term held coins, and it has signaled a notable market trend since late 2024. The metric peaked at 2.27 on Dec. 12, signaling aggressive profit-taking and this dynamic matched the highs seen in 2021 and 2017. However, VDD dropped to 0.65 in April, reflecting a cooling-off period where profit-taking has subsided. 

This opens the possibility of a “risk-on” market for Bitcoin. In financial terms, a “risk-on” scenario occurs when investors embrace higher-risk assets like cryptocurrencies, often driven by optimism and mean reversions in trends.

Amid ongoing market uncertainty that has been fueled by the US-led trade war, Bitcoin could unexpectedly gain from these tense conditions.

Speaking on Bitcoin and the crypto market’s potential as a hedge against traditional market volatility, crypto trader Jackis said, 

“A reminder, this is not a crypto-driven drop but an overall risk-on, tariff, trade war-driven drop. While all of that is unfolding, it seems that crypto has likely undergone most of its downside already and has been lately absorbing all of the selling well.”

Similarly, the Crypto Fear & Greed Index also exhibited a “fear” category with a score of 28 on April 4. The index registered an “extreme fear” score of 25 on April 3, suggesting that the current price may present a compelling buying opportunity.

Related: 10-year Treasury yield falls to 4% as DXY softens — Is it time to buy the Bitcoin price dip?

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Global payments platform PayPal has expanded its cryptocurrency offerings to include Chainlink (LINK) and Solana (SOL), giving US-based users the ability to buy, sell and transfer the popular tokens. 

Support for LINK and SOL will be rolled out over the next few weeks and will also be extended to users of Venmo, a US mobile payment platform owned by PayPal, the company disclosed on April 4. 

Roughly 83 million people used Venmo at least once in 2023, according to the latest available information from PayPal. 

PayPal’s global reach extends to roughly 428 million accounts as of December, the majority of which are in the United States. 

The company’s crypto services are available only to US residents. 

PayPal is expanding its crypto offerings in response to growing consumer demand, according to May Zabaneh, an executive in PayPal’s crypto and blockchain division.

“Offering more tokens on PayPal and Venmo provides users with greater flexibility, choice, and access to digital currencies,” she said.

PayPal’s US crypto offerings now include seven digital assets in total, including its payment stablecoin PayPal USD (PYUSD).

Related: Tabit offers USD insurance policies backed by Bitcoin regulatory capital

PayPal’s stablecoin push

The launch of PYUSD in 2023 solidified PayPal’s entry into the cryptocurrency market. Roughly one year after its launch, PYUSD surpassed $1 billion in total market capitalization for the first time. 

Since then, PYUSD’s circulating supply has fallen to around $760 million, according to industry data. 

To demonstrate the utility of PYUSD, PayPal settled an invoice with global consulting firm Ernst & Young in October for an undisclosed amount.  

At the time, PayPal’s senior vice president of blockchain, Jose Fernandez da Ponte, said “The enterprise environment is very well-suited” for stablecoin payments.

Despite PYUSD’s modest circulating supply compared to stablecoin leaders USDt (USDT) and USDC (USDC), the company’s involvement in the sector cannot be understated, according to Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron.

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Boiron credited companies like PayPal and Stripe for catalyzing stablecoin adoption at a time when regulators and enterprises were still uncertain about the technology.

Magazine: Unstablecoins: Depegging, bank runs and other risks loom

Digital asset manager Grayscale registered with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to list the Grayscale Solana (SOL) Trust exchange-traded fund (ETF) on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

The ETF will trade under the ticker symbol “GSOL” and will hold spot SOL as the underlying asset, according to the April 4 S-1 filing.

Grayscale announced plans to convert its existing Grayscale Solana Trust into an ETF in its 19b-4 application filed with the SEC in December 2024.

The filing is among several crypto ETF applications in the United States following a regulatory shift in Washington DC, and Solana is widely expected to be the next digital asset ETF approved by the SEC.

Related: Grayscale files S-3 for Digital Large Cap ETF

Solana price slumps despite Trump’s attention

US President Donald Trump in March announced the inclusion of SOL in the country’s first crypto reserve, alongside Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), XRP (XRP), and Cardano’s native token ADA (ADA).

Digital assets held in the reserve will be acquired through asset forfeiture and may not significantly contribute to demand for SOL or price appreciation.

“A US Crypto Reserve will elevate this critical industry after years of corrupt attacks by the Biden Administration” and include “made in America” cryptocurrencies, Trump wrote in a March 2 Truth Social post.

Following the announcement, SOL’s price declined to multi-week lows and is down approximately 60% since its all-time high of $295 recorded in January 2025.

SOL’s negative price performance reflects a broader downturn in the crypto markets brought on by fears of a prolonged trade war and the Trump administration’s tariff policies.

Risk-on assets tend to suffer during trade wars as investors flee volatile asset classes for more stable alternatives such as cash and government bonds.

The approval of a Solana ETF could mitigate this price decline by giving traditional financial investors exposure to SOL and funneling capital from the stock market into the altcoin.

Fresh investment capital pouring into SOL may prop up prices during general market downturns, making the altcoin more resilient to price shocks than digital assets lacking traditional investment vehicles.

Magazine: Solana ‘will be a trillion-dollar asset’: Mert Mumtaz, X Hall of Flame