Anna Pernice came to Beijing solo — and the city met her exactly where she was. Lazy mornings by the lakes of Shichahai. Getting lost (deliberately) in the Forbidden City. A quiet hour at the Temple of Heaven that she probably didn't plan but definitely needed. Then the city turned up the volume — local flavors that actually delivered, an evening at Jixiang Theatre that she's still talking about, the buzz of Wangfujing after dark, and a morning at Huanghuacheng Lakeside Great Wall with almost no one else around. Solo, female, foreign — and not once did Beijing make that feel complicated. This is what it looks like when a city is just... ready for you. Beijing — explore it your way.

Payment giants and platforms are doubling down on stablecoins. Here’s what made the headlines this week: → @Visa expanded its stablecoin pilot to 9 networks, including @base, @0xPolygon, @CantonNetwork, @arc and @tempo, pushing multi-chain settlement → @Meta partnered with @stripe to launch stablecoin payouts for creators, bringing crypto into social platforms → @tether led a $14M round in Belo, backing crypto-powered payments in Argentina → @WesternUnion plans to launch its @solana based stablecoin USDPT next month, alongside a broader crypto payment network → Shinhan Card, South Korea’s largest card issuer, is enabling stablecoin payments for 28M users via Solana → Over $1T in stablecoins has already been transferred in April alone Follow us and stay tuned for weekly stablecoin market updates.