The 18th BRICS summit adopted the New Delhi Declaration, backing a payment architecture designed to bypass the Western financial system, according to ChainCatcher. The declaration says BRICS members will expand trade and investment settled in their local currencies, connect national payment systems, and study cross-border interoperability. The brief also mentions BRICS Pay as a decentralized payment framework. It would combine India’s Unified Payments Interface, or UPI, with Russia’s System for Transfer of Financial Messages, or SPFS, into a shared layer used to clear payments among member states. The report focuses on the declaration’s payment and settlement direction and does not provide additional implementation details.

Augustus, a startup building a federally chartered clearing bank around stablecoins and programmable money, said Tuesday it has raised $180 million in a Series B round at a $1 billion valuation. The financing was led by Tiger Global, with backing from Hummingbird, QED, the founders of Nubank, Ramp, Circle, and Deel, along with crypto and fintech figures including Circle co-founder Sean Neville, former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan, and Rain’s Farooq Malik. Augustus said total funding now stands at $210 million. The company is targeting correspondent banking, the cross-border system that moves funds between institutions. Instead of launching its own stablecoin, Augustus is building infrastructure for banks and fintech firms to transact across both traditional payment rails and blockchain networks. Its API-first platform supports operating and FBO accounts, with settlement through Swift, ACH, SEPA, and stablecoins on a proprietary core banking system called Marble. The raise comes after Augustus received conditional approval in May for a U.S. national bank charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The company said it plans to use the new capital to expand across Latin America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, where access to dollars remains limited.

The OCC conditionally approved Augustus Bank N.A., the first AI-native stablecoin clearing bank to reach this stage. 25-year-old Thiel Fellow Ferdinand Dabitz will be CEO, potentially the youngest U.S. federally chartered bank CEO in 140 years. Augustus processed billions in volume in 2024, serving clients like Kraken exchange.

The OCC conditionally approved Augustus Bank N.A., the first AI-native stablecoin clearing bank in the U.S. If fully approved, 25-year-old CEO Ferdinand Dabitz would become the youngest federal bank chief in 140 years. Augustus processed billions with 10x growth in 2024, serving clients including Kraken, amid regulatory clashes over crypto banking access.

The OCC has conditionally approved Augustus Bank N.A., the first clearing bank built on stablecoin and AI infrastructure. 25-year-old Thiel Fellow Ferdinand Dabitz will become the youngest CEO of a federally chartered U.S. bank in 140 years if fully approved. The bank has processed billions in volume with 10x YoY growth, serving clients like Kraken.

A senior Russian official said the BRICS payment system is no longer hypothetical, describing it as a parallel settlement channel designed to operate when dollar-based routes are disrupted.

A senior Russian official said the BRICS payment system is no longer theoretical, describing it as a practical parallel channel for settlements when dollar-based routes fail. The plan is presented as a supplement rather than a full replacement for the U.S. dollar.

BRICS nations are pushing for local currency payments, with India proposing a new system to bypass the US dollar. The rise of digital wallets like Apple Pay shows a trend towards cashless transactions. This article analyzes the potential impact on the cryptocurrency market.