The Decibel fund announced the launch of its own native stablecoin called USDCBL. The token will be issued by Bridge and will appear before the February mainnet launch of the decentralized derivatives exchange based on Aptos.
According to a statement published Thursday, USDCBL will be pegged to the US dollar and become the main collateral asset for trading on-chain perpetual futures. This approach will allow the platform to keep reserve economics within the protocol, without fully relying on third-party stablecoin issuers.
The Decibel project, which was incubated by Aptos Labs, plans to go to mainnet this month. The exchange will operate fully on-chain and use a unified cross-margin account model. This means users will be able to manage risk across all positions within a single balance, simplifying trading and increasing capital efficiency.
According to the team, the December testnet showed high interest in the platform. More than 650,000 unique accounts were registered, and the daily number of trades exceeded 1 million. However, it is worth noting that these figures have not yet undergone independent verification.
At launch, users will deposit USDC at a rate of $1 and convert it into USDCBL as part of the onboarding process. The stablecoin itself will be issued through the Bridge Open Issuance platform, which allows for the creation of regulated and fully backed tokens with integrated on-ramp and off-ramp mechanisms.
Bridge, in turn, was acquired by Stripe at the end of 2025, adding an extra level of institutional infrastructure and compliance to the project.
The Growth of Native Stablecoins Within Ecosystems
The trend of issuing proprietary dollar tokens covers not only crypto projects, but also traditional financial companies. Increasingly, platforms prefer to create stablecoins integrated into their own infrastructure, rather than fully relying on third-party issuers.
The closest analogy for Decibel is Hyperliquid. This decentralized perpetual futures exchange launched its own stablecoin USDH in September after a competitive battle for the right to issue.
The dollar-pegged token is issued in an Ethereum-compatible version HyperEVM and is used as collateral within the exchange. This approach reduces dependence on external issuers and keeps settlement economics within its own network.
Total stablecoin market capitalization. Source: DefiLlama
The trend goes beyond crypto-native platforms. In November, JPMorgan Chase introduced JPM Coin for institutional settlements in its own blockchain infrastructure. Essentially, these are tokenized dollar deposits held at the bank.
The pilot launch took place on the Base network by Coinbase, allowing institutional clients to settle on blockchain 24/7. Unlike public stablecoins, JPM Coin operates on a permissioned model and is available only to the bank’s clients.
Fintech companies are also actively developing their own solutions. PayPal launched PYUSD in 2023 as a dollar stablecoin built directly into its payment system. This allowed the company to gain greater control over internal settlements.
In 2025, PayPal added a rewards program with a 3.7% annual yield for US users who hold PYUSD in PayPal or Venmo wallets. Thus, the stablecoin became more deeply integrated into the company’s consumer payment ecosystem.
Stablecoin as a Protocol Economic Control Tool
Against this backdrop, it is becoming clear that stablecoins are increasingly turning from a universal settlement tool into a vertical integration element. Platforms strive to control not only the trading infrastructure but also the settlement asset itself. This makes it possible to manage reserve yields, flexibly adjust risk parameters, and reduce dependence on third-party issuers’ decisions.
However, this model also has a downside. The deeper a stablecoin is embedded in a particular platform’s ecosystem, the higher the concentration of risks. Any problems with reserves, regulatory restrictions, or infrastructure failures can directly affect liquidity within the protocol. As a result, users become dependent not only on the quality of the trading platform but also on the stability of its internal monetary model.
That is why the launch of USDCBL can be seen not just as a technical update, but as a strategic step in the fight for control over the protocol’s economy.
