Coinbase has announced its plan to activate AQAv2 on USDC as the treasury deployer, with Circle serving as the technical deployer responsible for CCTP and native cross-chain infrastructure. Both Coinbase and Circle have committed to stake HYPE to activate AQAv2. As part of this transition, Native Markets has agreed to terms granting Coinbase the right to purchase the USDH brand assets. With Coinbase, in its role as treasury deployer, sharing the vast majority of reserve yield revenue with the protocol, USDC will become the most aligned stablecoin on Hyperliquid. As a result, canonical outcome (HIP-4) markets will use USDC as the quote asset in a future network upgrade. User and builder feedback has been consistent that fragmentation leads to degraded experience; now, the community no longer needs to choose between liquidity and protocol alignment. The pioneering work of Native Markets in launching USDH as the first production-scale stablecoin sharing yield directly with a protocol in a purely onchain implementation made AQAv2 possible. The learnings and mechanics pioneered by USDH will live on in AQAv2. The Hyper Foundation will give grants to eligible HIP-3 deployers, HIP-1 deployers, and builders who integrated USDH, supporting teams through migration over the next months. These grants reflect an ongoing commitment to teams who choose to build on Hyperliquid and align with the protocol. USDH markets are fully functional but will sunset over time. USDH remains fully backed, with feeless conversions to USDC and fiat available to users during this transition.

EXCLUSIVE: @_TalkingTokens sat down with Max Stein, a director on @BlackRock's digital assets team for his first podcast interview. We get an inside look at BlackRock's digital asset strategy, why tokenized cash will be the next huge opportunity, investor appetite for the industry and more. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 – Intro 01:18 – How Max defines tokenization and his role at BlackRock 01:40 – How BlackRock goes from idea to product in digital assets 03:16 – Regulatory environment and how it affects the pace of product development 05:21 – Stablecoins at BlackRock: reserve management and internal use 06:17 – Why BlackRock chose @Securitize and how BUIDL was designed 07:54 – How the FTX collapse actually accelerated BlackRock's tokenization work 08:54 – Why tokenized cash is still the biggest opportunity 14:09 – The shift from private chains to public networks and the hybrid model 22:17 – Stablecoins as utility: programmable money, flash loans, and same-rail settlement 27:36 – His thoughts on DeFi exploits, contagion, and what it means for tokenized asset design 33:13 – How AI agents may prefer onchain rails and accelerate crypto adoption 38:50 – Final advice: small decisions shape whether a product scales or sits on a shelf Full episode below: