SendTech Times
Fintech & Digital PaymentsNews|June 24, 2026, 09:51 PM
MARKET SIGNAL:

Circle And INFINIOS Put Stablecoin Rails Into Middle East Payments

BySendTech Times Fintech DeskNewsroom-edited, source-reviewed coverage
Newsroom brief

Circle and Bahrain-based INFINIOS signed an agreement to connect USDC, EURC and onchain payment APIs with payment, treasury and settlement tools for Middle East businesses and financial institutions.

Verified against source materialEdited by SendTech Times Fintech DeskSource: Circle Pressroom
Circle And INFINIOS Put Stablecoin Rails Into Middle East Payments
Image source: Circle

Circle And INFINIOS Target Regional Payment Rails

Circle and INFINIOS have signed a strategic agreement to expand digital finance infrastructure across the Middle East and beyond, with the work centered on stablecoin-powered payments, treasury tools and digital asset services for businesses and financial institutions.

INFINIOS is headquartered in the Kingdom of Bahrain and is licensed and regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain.

Circle said the integration will connect INFINIOS to USDC, EURC and onchain payment APIs that can support company payouts and treasury workflows.

The agreement is not a retail wallet launch.

It is an infrastructure arrangement aimed at enterprise and institutional use cases, where payment firms, platforms and financial institutions need settlement, liquidity and compliance controls before stablecoin tools can become part of operating workflows.

Circle listed intended use cases for the integration: cross-border payments, liquidity management for treasuries, merchant settlement, platform payouts, tokenized financial services and embedded finance.

The companies also tied the work to KYC, AML/CFT and data protection standards.

Bahrain Licence Gives The Deal A Regulatory Anchor

INFINIOS brings the regional regulatory base.

Circle described INFINIOS as a Central Bank of Bahrain licensed and regulated financial institution, a principal scheme member, and a regional issuer and processor of virtual commercial cards.

The Bahrain licence gives Circle a regulated payments partner for the Middle East integration.

Circle's release presents the deal as support for compliant payment and settlement solutions, not as a permissionless crypto rollout.

Sherif Abdelsalam, chief executive officer of INFINIOS, said the partnership with Circle is intended to build infrastructure for seamless, compliant and scalable financial innovation.

Circle's Middle East and Africa managing director, Dr. Saeeda Jaffar, said regional businesses and financial institutions are seeking faster and more connected ways to move value globally.

The public record leaves transaction volumes, customer names, bank partners, fee terms or a first live deployment under the agreement undisclosed.

Those missing details keep the announcement in the infrastructure-integration stage rather than proving enterprise adoption.

Circle And INFINIOS Have No Live Corridors Yet

For Gulf and Middle East payment firms, stablecoin settlement still has to move from partnership language into bank-grade operations.

Circle's release gives the product components: USDC, EURC, onchain payment APIs, Circle Payments Network and enterprise blockchain infrastructure.

Circle described its platform as including digital assets, payment applications and programmable blockchain infrastructure.

INFINIOS said its role is focused on payment and settlement solutions for global commerce, including virtual commercial card issuing and processing in the region.

Live corridors, named merchants, settlement volumes, treasury users or financial institutions would show whether the integration is moving into daily payment operations.

The public record does not yet include those results in the announcement.

A Bahrain-regulated fintech is linking its payment and settlement stack to Circle's stablecoin infrastructure, while the agreement frames compliance, interoperability and treasury use cases as the first operating layer.

Circle and INFINIOS have put USDC, EURC and onchain payment APIs into a Middle East payments-infrastructure agreement; the companies have not yet named the first live users, settlement volumes or launch corridors.

Share this article
inXf

Related articles

More
Circle OCC Approval Creates Federal Trust Bank Route For USDC Custody
Fintech & Digital Payments

Circle OCC Approval Creates Federal Trust Bank Route For USDC Custody

Final OCC approval for Circle National Trust creates a federally supervised custody route for USDC, but the bank opening date, first institutional customers and reserve-management migration timing remain outside the public record.

Augustus Raises $180m For Dollar Rails Across Emerging-Market Fintechs
Fintech & Digital Payments

Augustus Raises $180m For Dollar Rails Across Emerging-Market Fintechs

Augustus announced a $180 million Series B at a $1 billion valuation, with funding aimed at dollar accounts, payment rails and stablecoin-enabled banking for fintechs and banks across Latin America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

Open USD Stablecoin Draws 140 Backers But Launch Timing Stays Open
Fintech & Digital Payments

Open USD Stablecoin Draws 140 Backers But Launch Timing Stays Open

Open Standard launched Open USD with backing from banks, card networks and fintech firms, while the consortium said the stablecoin will go live later this year without naming commercial volumes or merchant adoption targets.

Cloudflare Wallet Handles Push Stablecoins Into AI Agent Payments
Fintech & Digital Payments

Cloudflare Wallet Handles Push Stablecoins Into AI Agent Payments

Cloudflare has begun a wallet rollout that lets users claim handles now, with stablecoin funding and agent payment controls due later, The Block reported.

OKX Draws Circle and Ripple Backing at $25 Billion Valuation
Fintech & Digital Payments

OKX Draws Circle and Ripple Backing at $25 Billion Valuation

OKX took undisclosed new investment from Circle, Ripple, Standard Chartered’s venture arm and Qube Research as it pushes beyond exchange trading into tokenized shares, stablecoins and consumer finance.

Revolut Adds VARA Crypto Approval To UAE Payments Licences
Fintech & Digital Payments

Revolut Adds VARA Crypto Approval To UAE Payments Licences

PYMNTS reported that Revolut received in-principle VARA approval for a UAE VASP licence, weeks after Central Bank of the UAE payment licences. PYMNTS said final approval is still required, with the UAE launch date, crypto pricing and first customer numbers outside the public record.

Sony Wins OCC Conditional Trust Charter For Stablecoin Unit
Fintech & Digital Payments

Sony Wins OCC Conditional Trust Charter For Stablecoin Unit

Sony disclosed that the OCC has conditionally approved a U.S. national trust bank for Connectia Trust, a Sony Financial Group subsidiary that would issue and manage dollar-denominated stablecoins. Sony said the unit will be capitalised at $40 million, while trade groups and consumer advocates objected to the charter path.

Big Banks Plan Tokenized Deposit Network to Counter Stablecoin Drift
Fintech & Digital Payments

Big Banks Plan Tokenized Deposit Network to Counter Stablecoin Drift

Major US lenders including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup are preparing a shared tokenized deposit network through The Clearing House for the first half of 2027. A March Jeffries report put possible core-deposit attrition at 3% to 5% over a five-year period and estimated an average bank earnings hit of about 3%. The next signal is whether bank-issued tokens can deliver round-the-clock settlement without moving customer deposits outside the regulated banking system.

Keep Reading

More Stories

Latest
Anthropic Program Pairs Claude With Infrastructure Security TeamsAIOct 10, 2026Anthropic Program Pairs Claude With Infrastructure Security TeamsAnthropic is pairing Claude models, its engineers and outside cybersecurity firms to scan critical infrastructure and open-source software for vulnerabilities, with an opt-in service for maintainers.ABC Shareholders Seek Board Seats After South Africa Market SanctionsPoliticsOct 10, 2026ABC Shareholders Seek Board Seats After South Africa Market SanctionsShareholders holding about 76% of Africa Bitcoin Corporation want a meeting to appoint two non-executive directors after South Africa's FSCA sanctioned three former Altvest executives.Morocco King Defends Spain Partnership After Ceuta Migrant RushPoliticsOct 10, 2026Morocco King Defends Spain Partnership After Ceuta Migrant RushKing Mohammed VI said Morocco’s partnership with Spain remains a sovereign choice after more than 70,000 migrants crossed into Ceuta, while promising partners a strategic vision for co-development and stability.Atlassian AMP Targets AI Code Attribution Across Enterprise WorkflowsAIOct 10, 2026Atlassian AMP Targets AI Code Attribution Across Enterprise WorkflowsAtlassian’s Agentic Multiplayer Protocol links agent identity, code attribution, Rovo Work oversight and EU-hosted inference controls to help enterprises track mixed human and AI software work.Unpatched AhsayCBS Flaws Used to Deploy Webshells and Crypto MinersCybersecurityOct 10, 2026Unpatched AhsayCBS Flaws Used to Deploy Webshells and Crypto MinersThreat actors are chaining two AhsayCBS vulnerabilities to bypass authentication, execute commands, install webshells and hide XMRig mining activity on backup management servers.Australian Security Teams Know Passkeys Are Safer, But Passwords Still DominateAIOct 10, 2026Australian Security Teams Know Passkeys Are Safer, But Passwords Still DominateYubico and Okta’s authentication survey found Australian technical teams recognise passkey security while legacy onboarding, fragmented MFA and AI phishing keep passwords embedded in enterprise access.Nasuni Adds Governed AI Access to File Data Platform After DryvIQ and Resilio DealsCloud & Data CentersOct 10, 2026Nasuni Adds Governed AI Access to File Data Platform After DryvIQ and Resilio DealsNasuni has folded DryvIQ governance and Resilio edge delivery into its file data platform, adding MCP-based AI access, enterprise search and a PSYCHIC framework for AI-ready data.Universal Quantum Raises $100 Million for Trapped-Ion Computing ExpansionChips & SemiconductorsOct 10, 2026Universal Quantum Raises $100 Million for Trapped-Ion Computing ExpansionUniversal Quantum raised more than $100 million in a Series A round to commercialise trapped-ion quantum products and expand in Singapore, the US, Japan and Germany.Neela Raises £2.1M To Pilot Waste-To-SAF BiotechEconomyOct 10, 2026Neela Raises £2.1M To Pilot Waste-To-SAF BiotechCambridge startup Neela Biotech raised £2.1m to move its AI-guided microbial waste-to-SAF process from lab work into pilot trials at an existing biogas plant over the next two years.India and Saudi Arabia Put Port Investment Talks on Strategic Maritime RouteEconomyOct 9, 2026India and Saudi Arabia Put Port Investment Talks on Strategic Maritime RouteIndia and Saudi Arabia discussed possible Saudi participation in Vadhavan and Galathea Bay port projects, linking Gulf trade, container transshipment and maritime capacity building.MIT Expands STEM Workforce Training Through AI And Design ProgramsAIOct 9, 2026MIT Expands STEM Workforce Training Through AI And Design ProgramsMIT for America will scale existing university education programs nationwide, combining calculus support, responsible AI resources and hands-on fabrication to address STEM workforce access gaps.Google Maps Expands Restaurant Search Into Food OrderingCapital & PolicyOct 9, 2026Google Maps Expands Restaurant Search Into Food OrderingGoogle Maps is adding more dining workflow features, with Gemini-powered Ask Maps ordering links through Toast, Square and Uber Eats plus city trend lists and practical restaurant review signals.