In 2025, the conversation around crypto and stablecoins fundamentally changed.

What was once framed as innovation at the bleeding edge of technology became infrastructure at the center of how financial organizations do business. Regulations matured, transaction volumes surged, and institutions moved decisively from experimentation to execution. In this environment, trust was no longer an aspiration. It became a prerequisite for scale.

For Notabene, 2025 was the year our founding vision became undeniable to the rest of the crypto and financial worlds. When the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) extended the Travel Rule to crypto in 2019, much of the industry viewed it as added friction—a compliance requirement imposed on a fast-moving ecosystem. At Notabene, we saw something fundamentally different.

We saw a catalyst for building what crypto had been missing since day one: a transaction authorization layer that enables digital assets to function as essential financial infrastructure. That belief has guided our work from the start, and in 2025 it began to fully take shape on Notabene as a powerful platform for trusted, programmable and revenue-generating transactions across the globe.

As the market evolved, so did our platform.

In 2025, Notabene evolved into a core payments infrastructure provider and system of record for financial institutions globally

That evolution was anchored by the launch of Notabene Transact, our next-generation transaction authorization and compliance engine.

Transact is the operational core of the Notabene platform and the system of record that regulated financial institutions rely on to move digital assets at scale. It is where counterparty due diligence, policy enforcement, and transaction authorization come together in real time, enabling institutions to make automated, risk-aware decisions before value moves.

By embedding compliance and authorization directly into transaction flows, Transact enables high straight-through processing rates while meeting the regulatory requirements of operating across jurisdictions. What began as Travel Rule infrastructure has evolved into a foundational layer that institutions depend on to operate, scale, and connect with confidence on the Notabene Network.

When we started Notabene, we saw compliance as a critical stepping stone—the core—but not the end goal. Enabling compliant transactions at scale meant starting with the hardest problem first: getting compliance right. The vision was to embed trust directly into how transactions are authorized, coordinated, and settled so that digital assets could support real-world payments at scale. We made this possible last year with the launch of Notabene Flow, the first open stablecoin payments platform built for businesses.

Notabene Flow introduces new payment capabilities such as pull payments and recurring subscriptions, enabling our fast-growing network to provide instantaneous stablecoin payments to  the global B2B market. It also represents a shift from enabling individual transactions to enabling complete payment workflows that meet both operational and regulatory expectations.

By embedding compliance, identity, and authorization directly into payment flows, Notabene Flow takes stablecoins beyond simple transfers and into real commercial use, enabling new revenue flows for institutions in our network. It is a critical step toward making stablecoins usable at scale in everyday business.

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When we look back at 2025, a few themes become clear to us.

Growing transaction volume across borders requires a built-in trust layer

In crypto’s early years, compliance was often treated as an add-on, implemented only when regulation made it unavoidable—and as a result, it was frequently viewed by business teams as friction rather than an enabler. By 2025, that mindset no longer held.

As transaction volumes grew and stablecoins moved into real payment flows, trust could no longer be bolted on after the fact. Growth itself began to require shared standards, interoperability, and regulatory alignment built directly into how value moves.

That shift was not anecdotal. It was visible in the data and in the scale of the Notabene Network, which by Mid-2025, surpassed $1 trillion in total transaction volume processed across our network. While the first $500 billion took us three and a half years to grow into, the second happened in just 6 months. This exponential growth trend continues with the Notabene Network knocking on the door of $2T just a few months later.

This milestone reflects both the scale at which our customers operate and the role Notabene plays in enabling compliant global transactions. As institutions handle higher volumes across more jurisdictions, Notabene increasingly serves as the connective infrastructure that allows crypto and stablecoin payments to move safely between counterparties.

Compliance became an enabler of doing business for anyone working with digital assets

As regulatory expectations moved from concept to enforcement across 2025, one question dominated the industry: Is the market ready?

In April 2025, Notabene released the State of Crypto Travel Rule 2025 Report, the fourth annual edition of our comprehensive analysis of Travel Rule adoption, readiness, and implementation trends across the digital asset ecosystem. The report draws on survey data from nearly one hundred Virtual Asset Service Providers and input from regulatory bodies to capture how the industry is navigating evolving compliance landscapes.

One finding stood out. An unprecedented 100% of VASPs surveyed reported that they plan to be Travel Rule compliant by the end of 2025, reflecting a decisive shift from earlier years when compliance was optional or aspirational. Nearly nine in ten respondents expected to meet requirements in the first half of the year, underscoring the urgency across the market.

What the survey data shows is reinforced, and in many cases surpassed, by what we see across the Notabene platform itself. Over the past year, there has been a sharp increase in due diligence questionnaire requests, rapid adoption of policy engines, and a growing density of live connections between institutions. These are not theoretical commitments. They are operational signals that firms are actively raising their compliance standards to work with one another.

The data also revealed deeper operational change. Institutions are increasingly blocking withdrawals until beneficiary information is confirmed and returning deposits if originator data is missing. Compliance is no longer a policy exercise. It is becoming embedded directly into transaction flows, counterparty selection, and go to market decisions.

Taken together, the message is clear. Travel Rule compliance is no longer a regulatory checkbox. Companies operating on the Notabene platform are setting a global standard for what good looks like, proving that robust compliance has become a prerequisite for participation, connectivity, and growth in an increasingly interconnected and regulated digital asset economy.

Open messaging layers are essential for global stablecoin payment networks

Stablecoins will only deliver on truly global, borderless payments if the messaging layer is open. We’ve seen this before: shared standards like SWIFT and ISO 20022 made global bank-to-bank transactions possible, just as HTTP, SMTP, and SSL allowed the open internet to scale beyond closed, proprietary networks.

The same is true for crypto. Travel Rule compliance and transaction authorization cannot rely on closed protocols controlled by a few players. That approach fragments the ecosystem and limits innovation.

This is why we built the Transaction Authorization Protocol (TAP). TAP is an open messaging standard that enables pre-settlement coordination while preserving the permissionless nature of blockchain networks. It adds the missing authorization layer so transactions carry intent, compliance, and accountability alongside value.

By embedding regulatory checks directly into transaction flows, TAP turns compliance into infrastructure. Stablecoin payments become faster, safer, and more interoperable than traditional rails.Backed by Notabene’s open network of 2,000+ institutions, TAP lays the foundation for mainstream, compliant global stablecoin adoption.

Policy, payments, and infrastructure are converging

‍Trust is not built by infrastructure alone. It is reinforced through community. Our community-building initiatives in 2025 helped to generate a shared understanding, open dialogue, and alignment across the crypto payments ecosystem.

At our second annual Notabene Summit in New York City, we convened leaders from financial institutions, crypto-native companies, regulators, and infrastructure providers as stablecoins and compliant payments moved from theory to execution. The Summit focused on the convergence of traditional finance and crypto, the role of stablecoins in cross-border payments, and the importance of industry-regulator collaboration as adoption accelerates.

The event also marked a major milestone for Notabene with the launch of Notabene Flow, opening a new chapter in compliant stablecoin payments. Panels featured senior leaders from organizations including Mastercard, Robinhood, the U.S. Treasury, the Blockchain Association, BVNK, and Bitso, with discussions centered on real-world execution: operationalizing stablecoin payments, navigating regulatory expectations, and building interoperable infrastructure that can scale globally.

We carried these conversations forward with Stack Chats, a video interview series focused on the strategic and operational realities of payments, compliance, and digital asset infrastructure. Episodes featured leaders including Clarisse Hagege, Anoosh Arevshatian, and Kevin Lehtiniitty, sharing candid perspectives on innovation, regulation, and global scale.

The next episode will launch in early 2026 as these conversations continue into the year ahead.

Looking Ahead to 2026: From Momentum to Execution

The foundation we laid in 2025 sets a clear direction for the year ahead and we could not be more excited to execute our vision for an open, trusted, and value-accruing network of regulated financial institutions.

We’re focused on the following areas as we hit the ground running in 2026.

Building the system of record for regulated financial institutions

As large financial institutions and regulated crypto exchanges continue to build and grow in additional jurisdictions across the globe, they demand a best-in-class authorization and orchestration layer to power their transactions in a compliant and trusted way.

In the United States, proposed legislation such as the GENIUS Act reflects a broader shift toward clear, enforceable expectations for digital asset transactions. While regulatory frameworks differ by jurisdiction, the direction is consistent: regulated institutions need infrastructure that can support authorization, compliance, and reporting by default. This continued alignment reinforces the need for a shared system of record as digital assets move further into mainstream financial activity.

With our powerful set of tooling that facilitates automated decision-making and compliance engine with unmatched straight-through processing rates, we are fast becoming the de facto system of record for FIs, fintechs, and crypto-natives as they build out their payments infrastructure. Our commitment to open standards, interoperability, and industry-leading security have made Notabene the first name that regulated institutions turn to for compliant, trusted digital asset transactions.

Combined with automated reporting and analytics, our powerful transaction authorization platform has evolved beyond so much more than a Travel Rule compliance solution. Our customers are now turning to us as a foundational piece of their core digital asset infrastructure—and we're doubling down on our investment in product innovation to help our customers drive even more efficiency and compliant transaction volume on their platforms while de-risking their business at the same time. You can expect many more product enhancements on our core platform in 2026 to drive even more value for our customers.

Enabling high-value B2B stablecoin payment flows across the globe

As we write about in our Notabene Flow whitepaper, there is a good reason that stablecoins have yet to take a meaningful bite out of the $120T global B2B payments market. Context is missing. Trust is missing. Authorization is missing. While the gains in transaction speed and affordability are undeniable for a classic one-directional push payment, the reality is that the higher-value payments that unlock real utility for large enterprise need to have Trust, Context, and Authorization in place to enable payment types that they rely on for daily commerce, pull payments and recurring subscriptions, and metered billing.

This is where the Notabene Flow vision meets reality. By bringing this payment layer to our existing network of active regulated FIs and exchanges, Notabene is set to kickstart the adoption of stablecoins for B2B payment applications in 2026. We’re thrilled to be working side-by-side with our founding partners of Notabene Flow to continue building out our APIs and tooling to support their business use cases and many more as the year unfolds.

You can sign up today to join the network, and join us in-person in New York and London to learn more at our Notabene Flow Roadshow meetups next month.

Accelerating the agentic payments future

Perhaps the only word more ubiquitous than stablecoins last year was agentic. And for good reason, with agentic payments poised to revolutionize the way that consumers and businesses operate in 2026 and beyond. Notabene is actively investing in building this future with some exciting new developments in our Transact product, bringing robust and instantaneous counterparty due diligence to our 250+ customers, as well as working to bring more complex payment routing to members of the Notabene Flow network with real-time payment orchestration built not only on efficient routing but also factoring in the critical elements of counterparty trust and transaction context so that agentic payments can really prioritize what matters most to each individual party.

Keep an eye on this space as we invest in accelerating the future of agentic payments for our customers in 2026.

Thank you for building with us in 2025. Here’s to an even more incredible 2026!

To our customers, partners, and community, thank you for being a part of the Notabene ecosystem in 2025. A core part of our philosophy is the belief that no one company alone can build the future we all want to see. We thank you for being a part of our story in 2025 and are honored for you to join us as we move forward in 2026 with clarity of vision and a commitment to building real value for businesses across the globe.

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2025 was the year trust became infrastructure.

2026 will be the year we scale it into everyday global payments.

Join us as we continue building the trust layer for global money movement.

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