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NewsBriefs

This article contains summaries of news stories recently posted under for U.S. retailers, while potentially accelerating the shift
Breaking Industry News on our homepage. For links to these and other toward electronic payments. The U.S. Mint halted penny
full news stories, please visit www.greensheet.com/breakingnews.php. production in November 2025 after the Treasury Depart-
ment confirmed it costs 3.7 cents to mint a one-cent coin.
Although 114 billion pennies remain in circulation, short-
ages are already disrupting retail operations.

Retailers are increasingly resorting to rounding cash
transactions to the nearest five cents, a practice endorsed
Crypto wallets gaining ground by the Treasury Department. POS providers have been en-
as everyday finance tools couraged to support rounding functionality, and Square
launched a pilot program in December based on its ex-
Self-custodial crypto wallets are evolving beyond trading perience in Australia and Canada. Square reports that
utilities into multi-purpose financial platforms that in- roughly 19 percent of transactions on its platform are still
creasingly resemble digital banks, according to usage data cash-based.
from Bitget Wallet. Activity throughout 2025 shows strong
growth across decentralized trading, payments and yield Even before production ended, many retailers faced acute
products, reflecting broader momentum toward on-chain shortages. A Retail Industry Leaders Association survey
financial services outside centralized exchanges. found that nearly a quarter of large retailers had more
than 1,000 locations without pennies. While two-thirds
Bitget Wallet reported monthly swap trading volumes rounded in favor of consumers, the practice reportedly
regularly exceeding $900 million, up 232 percent year over cost businesses millions of dollars.
year, while perpetual derivatives trading approached $5
billion per month, a 291 percent increase. These gains mir- The Treasury Department's guidance recommends fair,
ror industry-wide shifts, with decentralized perpetual consistent rounding after taxes and fees, citing National
trading accounting for 18.7 percent of total volume, signal- Conference of State Legislatures guidance on symmetrical
ing growing user comfort with decentralized execution rounding. However, retail trade groups argue the guid-
models. ance lacks legal protection. The National Association of
Convenience Stores and RILA warn that without federal
The most notable growth, however, has occurred in pay- legislation, retailers remain exposed to legal and tax com-
ments and spending. Since the launch of the Bitget Wallet pliance risks.
Card in July 2025, monthly spending volume has increased
more than sixfold. The wallet has expanded support for Bipartisan legislation known as the Common Cents Act
national QR payment systems, direct bank transfers in would codify Treasury's rounding recommendations and
select regions, and in-app crypto shopping, positioning provide a legal safe harbor. Retail groups are urging Con-
stablecoins as practical payment instruments rather than gress to act quickly to prevent further disruption and fi-
speculative assets. nancial losses as pennies gradually disappear from circu-
lation.
Stablecoin infrastructure is gaining traction beyond cryp- CFPB gets a reprieve
to-native ecosystems, with traditional payment networks
and fintechs integrating stablecoin support and banks ex- A federal district court ruling has temporarily preserved
ploring regulated issuance under legislation such as the funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,
GENIUS Act. rejecting Trump Administration arguments that the agen-
cy is legally barred from receiving funds from the Federal
At the same time, demand for yield products continues to Reserve. The decision holds, pending an appeals court
rise, with Bitget Wallet's earn offerings nearing $200 mil- ruling expected in February, in a case brought by the Na-
lion in quarterly subscriptions as users seek stable, pre- tional Treasury Employees Union.
dictable returns.
Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and
Despite this progress, mainstream adoption remains lim- Budget and acting CFPB director, has sought to shut down
ited. Research shows many consumers still find Web3 wal- the agency since January 2025. In November, the admin-
lets unintuitive compared with Apple Pay or PayPal. As istration argued that CFPB funding must come only from
wallets blend payments, savings, and investing, closing Federal Reserve "profits," asserting that the Fed's recent
that usability gap will be critical to their emergence as ev- operating losses made such funding unlawful.
eryday financial infrastructure.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson rejected that position, call-
Life after the penny: rounding, regulation, retail risk ing it an unsupported attempt to defy a prior court order

The federal government's decision to phase out penny barring the administration from dismantling the agency.
production is creating operational and legal challenges She noted that the Federal Reserve has funded the CFPB
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