Here’s what happened in crypto today

Today in crypto, Bolivia is evaluating a regulatory framework to allow Tether’s USDT stablecoin to circulate alongside the boliviano and US dollar as it seeks to ease a persistent dollar shortage. Meanwhile, Coinbase Ventures led all crypto-focused investors in the first half of 2026 by completing 30 venture deals despite a broader slowdown in funding. In Thailand, the central bank is working with the securities regulator to audit high-volume stablecoin and cash transactions as part of a wider crackdown on money laundering and illicit financial flows.

Bolivia weighs USDT for national payments amid dollar shortage

Bolivia is evaluating a regulatory framework to allow Tether’s USDT stablecoin to circulate alongside the boliviano and US dollar as it seeks to ease a persistent dollar shortage.

Economy and Public Finance Minister Jose Gabriel Espinoza said the proposal would treat USDT as “just another currency,” enabling its use for payments, savings and trade if approved. Authorities are reviewing the framework, which would include anti-money laundering safeguards, as Bolivia remains on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list.

The plan builds on Bolivia’s shift toward digital assets following the lifting of its cryptocurrency ban in 2024. President Rodrigo Paz Pereira’s administration has pledged to integrate crypto into the formal financial system, including allowing banks to offer stablecoin-related products and services.

The stablecoin push comes as Bolivia faces a prolonged shortage of US dollars following pressure on foreign exchange reserves and the collapse of its long-standing currency peg, driving demand for dollar-backed digital assets. USDT, the world’s largest stablecoin with a market capitalization above $184 billion, has increasingly been used for payments as the gap between official and parallel exchange rates widened.

Coinbase Ventures invests in 30 VC deals in 2025

Coinbase Ventures, the corporate venture capital (VC) arm of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, led the ranks of crypto-focused VC's with 30 deals in the first half of 2026.

Runner-up Animoca Brands completed 19 investments while Silicon Valley VC a16z logged 18 deals and stablecoin giant Tether completed 15, according to data aggregator CryptoRank. 

In the past 12 months Coinbase Ventures completed a peer-best 75 deals, followed by Animoca Brands with 40, YZi Labs (previously Binance Labs) with 39, GSR with 31 and a16z with 30.

Those VC deals defy a bear market that saw the total amount raised by cryptocurrency companies fall to $1.4 billion in June, down 63% decline from $3.8 billion in April. 

Deal counts also fell in June, to 61 fundraising rounds, down from 89 rounds in May. Still, last month showed a slight recovery compared to April, when crypto VC funding hit a two-year low of $698 million across 71 total fundraising rounds.

Top active investors and top categories by funding deals. Source: CryptoRank

Bank of Thailand targets USDT and cash flows in gray money crackdown

Thailand’s central bank is stepping up stablecoin surveillance as part of a wider effort to crack down on money laundering, illicit finance and “gray money” in the country.

The Bank of Thailand is working with the Kingdom’s Securities and Exchange Commission to audit high-volume stablecoin transactions, with a focus on USDt (USDT), cash transactions and currency exchanges, to identify and stop illicit financial flows.

“The measures we are implementing are not short-term fixes; they require the continuous deployment of multiple parallel strategies,” Bank of Thailand Governor Vitai Ratanakorn said, according to local media outlet The Nation on Saturday.

Thailand is targeting the “gray economy,” which largely consists of cash that may have come from suspicious origins, such as scam call centers that have proliferated in the region. While there are no reliable figures for the gray economy, scam losses were 115 billion THB ($3.4 billion) in 2025, with around 173 million scam calls and texts recorded. 

Stablecoins have become a popular method of transferring large amounts due to near-instant cross-border settlement.