Hey everyone, we saw a lot of important steps yesterday toward making cryptocurrency more common and making the space safer. This happened as Bitcoin staged a solid recovery back to $70k levels. Let’s take you through some of those major highlights.
Bitcoin Depot now requires ID for every ATM transaction
First up, leading U.S. Bitcoin Depot (NASDAQ: BTM), the company that runs Bitcoin ATMs, has announced a phased policy that will require everyone who uses its kiosks across the country to show proof of identity starting in February 2026. This adds to its October 2025 checks for first-time users’ IDs, making it the first major company to require KYC for each transaction.
The move makes it harder for people to share accounts, steal identities, scam people, and take over accounts. This is even more relevant now, as U.S. crypto ATM losses have ballooned to over $333 million reportedly.
Bitcoin Depot Now Requires ID For Every ATM Transaction.
Meta to integrate stablecoin payments by H2 2026
Meta Platforms is planning to re-enter digital payments by integrating third-party stablecoin support across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp in the second half of 2026, according to reports. After the 2022 Diem/Libra shutdown due to regulatory hurdles, Meta has avoided issuing its own coin. It is now looking to partner with providers to issue dollar-pegged tokens; a frontrunner includes Stripe via its Bridge acquisition.
With its own stablecoin, Meta hopes to have a faster and lower-cost payment method for creators on its platforms. It will also accelerate cross-border transfers, and integrate a new digital wallet. If all goes ahead as planned this could benefit the 3B+ users without past compliance pitfalls.
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Kraken and Coinbase now allow trading of US equities on their platforms
Kraken launched the world’s first regulated tokenized equity perpetual futures via its xStocks framework yesterday. This will enable non-U.S. users in 110+ countries to leverage up to 20x, 24×7 trading of tokenized U.S. stocks, indices, and gold ETFs. Similarly, Coinbase expanded its equity trading services to all U.S. users with commission-free 24×5 stock and ETF trading. Coinbase has also partnered with Yahoo Finance for integration, enabling discovery of tokenized equities in the future.
These steps blur the tradFi-DeFi lines, offering seamless multi-asset access to users, especially at a time when equities are outperforming crypto. Those were the highlights from yesterday, we’ll be back with more tomorrow.
