The Daily: Google’s stablecoin payments for AI agents, Bitwise’s ‘spectacular’ end-of-year rally call, CleanCore’s 100M DOGE buy, and more
The following article is adapted from The Block’s newsletter, The Daily, which comes out on weekday afternoons.Happy Tuesday! Bitcoin and Ethereum hold steady as traders await the Fed's rate decision on Wednesday, with markets pricing in a 25 bps cut and only slight odds of a 50 bps surprise. Analysts say a dovish tilt could spark upside, while a cautious tone risks near-term chop despite rising crypto ETF inflows.In today's newsletter, Google launches an AI agent-to-agent payments protocol with stablecoin support, Bitwise predicts the crypto market is setting up for a "spectacular" end-of-year rally, CleanCore buys another 100 million DOGE, and more.Meanwhile, Coinbase's Apple App Store ranking suggests retail is still on the sidelines.Let's get started!P.S. Don't forget to check out The Funding, a biweekly rundown of crypto VC trends. It's a great read — and just like The Daily, it's free to subscribe!Google brings stablecoin payments to AI agentsGoogle has launched an open-source agent-to-agent payments protocol that supports both card networks and U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins.The solution was built in collaboration with Coinbase and over 60 other firms, including Salesforce, American Express, and Etsy, to extend Google's agent interoperability framework into payments.The protocol lets AI agents verify user consent, encode guardrails, and settle transactions using cards or onchain assets.If AI agents go mainstream to become shoppers, brokers, and back-office bots, stablecoin-enabled payments could extend crypto's use beyond trading, with a clear audit trail that businesses can rely on.The launch builds on Google Cloud's Universal Ledger blockchain pilot for programmable institutional settlements, signaling a broader push to merge traditional and crypto rails for automation.The Ethereum Foundation also unveiled a decentralized AI team this week, highlighting growing competition to anchor the AI economy's financial layer.Bitwise predicts 'spectacular' end-of-year rallyBitwise CIO Matt Hougan predicted that the Securities and Exchange Commission's proposed generic listing standards could unleash a wave of new crypto ETPs and spark a year-end rally.Current rules force each crypto ETP through a one-off SEC filing that can drag on for 240 days with no guarantee of approval.Generic standards would allow predictable approvals in as little as 75 days, provided the ETPs meet predefined criteria — most likely tied to whether the asset already has a regulated futures market in the U.S. at exchanges like the CME or Cboe, Hougan said.ETPs make it easier for the broader audience of traditional investors to allocate to crypto, so assets are better positioned to "rip" when fundamentals improve, he argued.Dogecoin treasury firm CleanCore adds 100 million more DOGECleanCore Solutions has bought another 100 million DOGE, boosting its treasury past 600 million as it targets amassing 1 billion of the OG memecoin within 30 days.The NYSE-listed firm, backed by the Dogecoin Foundation and its corporate arm House of Doge, aims to eventually control up to 5% of DOGE's circulating supply.CleanCore's strategy is to position Dogecoin as a reserve asset for payments, tokenization, remittances, and staking-like products, with support from investors like Pantera and GSR.Elon Musk's personal lawyer, Alex Spiro, chairs CleanCore's board, with DOGE's price climbing over 25% since the firm launched its treasury on Sept. 8.PayPal to expand P2P crypto payments with new Links featurePayPal is introducing a new peer-to-peer payments feature called PayPal Links, with plans to expand support to BTC, ETH, and PYUSD stablecoin transactions soon.It lets users send one-time payment requests and avoids 1099-K tax reporting for gifts, reimbursements, and shared expenses between friends and family on PayPal and Venmo.PayPal will first roll out the feature in the U.S. before expanding to the UK and other markets later this month, aiming to connect billions of wallets worldwide, the company said.The move builds on PayPal's growing crypto push, with PYUSD now a $1.3 billion market cap stablecoin powering its "Pay with Crypto" feature for merchants.Crypto execs join lawmakers in Washington to advance strategic bitcoin reserve billStrategy co-founder Michael Saylor, MARA CEO Fred Thiel, and more than a dozen other crypto execs joined Sen. Cynthia Lummis and Rep. Nick Begich in Washington, D.C. to push for U.S. strategic bitcoin reserve legislation.The BITCOIN Act proposes acquiring one million BTC over five years with "budget neutral strategies," building on President Trump's executive order establishing permanent federal bitcoin holdings.The bill sits before House and Senate committees, though hearings are not currently scheduled, with backers now working to expand support beyond its current Republican base.In the next 24 hoursUK CPI data are released at 2 a.m. ET on Wednesday. Eurozone CPI figures follow at 5 a.m. The U.S. Federal Reserve's latest interest rate decision is due at 2 p.m.The U.S. FOMC has a press conference scheduled for 2:30 p.m.IOTA, ZKsync, and ApeCoin are set for token unlocks.EDCON 2025 continues in Osaka. Crypto Invest Summit kicks off in Berlin.Never miss a beat with The Block's daily digest of the most influential events happening across the digital asset ecosystem.Disclaimer: This article was produced with the assistance of OpenAI’s ChatGPT 3.5/4 and reviewed and edited by our editorial team.Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.© 2025 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.