The second week of September 2024 marks a turning point for blockchain adoption, as some of the world’s largest financial institutions and payment platforms deepen their integration with decentralized infrastructure. From PayPal and Venmo enabling Ethereum Name Service addresses for millions of users, to Japan’s mega-banks launching a stablecoin cross-border payment platform built on SWIFT and blockchain rails, the lines between traditional finance and Web3 are rapidly dissolving.
TL;DR
- PayPal and Venmo integrate ENS — U.S. users can now send crypto using
.ethdomain names instead of wallet addresses, dramatically simplifying the user experience. - Japan’s Project Pax launches — MUFG, SMBC, and Mizuho back a stablecoin cross-border settlement platform using SWIFT’s API framework and blockchain technology.
- Starknet pushes Bitcoin-Ethereum interoperability — StarkWare partners with sCrypt to build a trustless bridge using OP_CAT covenants and ZK proofs, while Starknet achieves 503 TPS on mainnet.
- Sonic Labs demonstrates 720ms finality — The rebranded Fantom network shows testnet speeds that could set a new benchmark for L1 performance.
- UK introduces digital asset property bill — Parliament considers legislation that would create a third category of property for cryptocurrencies and NFTs.
PayPal and Venmo Bring ENS to the Masses
ENS Labs announced on September 10, 2024, that PayPal and Venmo now support Ethereum Name Service domains for cryptocurrency transfers. Users of both platforms in the United States can enter an ENS name — such as alice.eth — directly into the recipient field when sending digital assets, eliminating the need to copy and paste long hexadecimal wallet addresses.
The integration represents one of the most significant mainstream adopters of Ethereum’s naming infrastructure. PayPal alone serves over 400 million active accounts worldwide, and the company has been steadily expanding its crypto capabilities since launching its own stablecoin, PYUSD, in August 2023. Adding ENS support signals that the payments giant views blockchain addressing as a permanent feature of its platform rather than a novelty.
For ENS, the PayPal and Venmo integration validates years of work building a decentralized domain name system on Ethereum. The protocol allows anyone to register a human-readable name that maps to a wallet address, making transactions less error-prone and more accessible to non-technical users. The risk of sending funds to an incorrect address — a persistent problem in crypto — drops substantially when users type a name rather than a 42-character string.
Japan’s Mega-Banks Launch Project Pax
Three of Japan’s largest financial institutions — Mitsubishi UFJ Bank (MUFG), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), and Mizuho Bank — are backing a new stablecoin initiative called Project Pax, aimed at streamlining the $182 trillion global cross-border payments market. The project is a collaboration between blockchain firms Datachain, Progmat, and TOKI, and is expected to attract participation from financial institutions worldwide.
Project Pax leverages stablecoins to enable fast, cost-effective, and 24/7 cross-border transfers. Critically, the platform integrates with SWIFT’s existing bank API framework, allowing institutions to instruct Progmat to settle transactions on blockchain networks without building entirely new infrastructure. This design addresses two major barriers to institutional blockchain adoption: regulatory compliance and operational integration costs.
The G20 has identified cross-border payment inefficiencies — including speed, cost, and transparency — as a priority area for reform. Project Pax directly targets these pain points by combining the reach and compliance frameworks of traditional banking with the speed and programmability of blockchain settlement. Pilot tests are expected to begin in Q4 2024, with commercial deployment targeted by the end of the year.
Starknet Builds the Bitcoin-Ethereum Bridge
StarkWare, the company behind the Starknet Ethereum Layer 2, announced a partnership with sCrypt in September 2024 to develop a proof-of-concept bridge design connecting Bitcoin and Starknet. The bridge relies on OP_CAT-based covenants and zero-knowledge proof technology, preparing StarkWare to deploy a canonical trustless bridge between the two largest blockchain networks if and when OP_CAT is reactivated on Bitcoin.
To support research into OP_CAT’s potential, StarkWare launched a $1 million OP_CAT fund. The first beneficiary, LimeChain, explores how OP_CAT can significantly improve token trading on Bitcoin. Separately, StarkWare’s exploration team released Raiko, a ZK Bitcoin client implemented in Cairo that brings trustless validation of the Bitcoin blockchain through STARK proof verification.
On the performance front, Starknet’s Bolt upgrade delivered tangible results. The network achieved 503 transactions per second on mainnet, surpassing initial theoretical projections. Starknet also introduced staking directly on L2 — a first among major rollups — and conducted its first community governance vote on mainnet to determine staking parameters. The network’s prover, Stone v3, was open-sourced during the month, giving the community visibility into the technology that powers Starknet’s 10x efficiency gains.
Sonic Labs Targets Sub-Second Finality
Sonic Labs, the project formerly known as Fantom, demonstrated testnet performance with transaction finality of just 720 milliseconds in September 2024. CTO Andre Cronje showcased the results, positioning Sonic as a potential new benchmark for distributed ledger speed. The L1 network, which provides a secure bridge to Ethereum, claims throughput exceeding 10,000 TPS with one-second confirmation times.
The Fantom rebrand to Sonic Labs was officially announced on August 1, 2024, as the team prepared for a significant technical overhaul. Sonic’s whitepaper describes a layer-one network optimized for the fastest settlement of digital assets, targeting developers and applications that require near-instant confirmation. If mainnet performance matches testnet results, Sonic could reshape expectations for what L1 blockchains can deliver.
UK Moves to Legally Define Digital Assets as Property
The United Kingdom government introduced a bill in Parliament aimed at officially recognizing digital assets — including cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and tokenized real-world assets — as a new form of personal property. Justice Minister Heidi Alexander stated that the legislation would create a third category of property, distinct from “things in possession” and “things in action,” granting digital assets specific legal protections.
The bill responds to a 2023 Law Commission report that found existing property categories do not adequately cover digital assets. If passed, the legislation provides legal recourse for owners in cases of fraud, scams, and disputed assets, while giving courts clearer frameworks for handling digital assets in settlements and litigation. The UK’s move adds to a growing global trend of jurisdictions building regulatory clarity around blockchain-based assets.
Why This Matters
The convergence of developments in the second week of September 2024 tells a clear story: blockchain infrastructure is no longer an experiment running parallel to traditional finance — it is being woven into it. When PayPal and Venmo, platforms collectively serving hundreds of millions of users, integrate ENS domain names, the message is unambiguous: crypto addressing is becoming a standard feature of mainstream payments. When Japan’s three largest banks build a stablecoin settlement layer on top of SWIFT, the world’s most established interbank messaging system, the institutional commitment to blockchain is undeniable.
Simultaneously, the technology stack continues to mature at every level. Starknet’s 503 TPS on mainnet and its progress toward a Bitcoin-Ethereum bridge demonstrate that Layer 2 scaling is delivering real-world results. Sonic Labs’ 720ms finality pushes the boundary of what L1 networks can achieve. And regulatory frameworks like the UK’s digital property bill provide the legal certainty that enterprises need before committing further capital and resources to blockchain-based systems.
For developers, investors, and enterprises watching the space, September 2024 offers a compelling signal: the infrastructure phase of blockchain is accelerating, and the applications built on top of it are increasingly backed by the world’s largest financial institutions.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrency markets are highly volatile, and readers should conduct their own research before making any investment decisions. BitcoinsNews.com does not endorse any specific token, protocol, or project mentioned in this article.
MUFG SMBC and Mizuho building stablecoin settlements on SWIFT rails is the real story. japan is quietly building the bridge between tradfi and crypto
starkware partnering with sCrypt for OP_CAT covenants and ZK proofs for BTC-ETH bridge is technically fascinating. 503 TPS on starknet mainnet too
OP_CAT enabling trustless BTC bridges could be huge. the covenant debate has been going on for years and finally theres a real proposal