The FSB told the G20 that stablecoin rules have never met a crisis, and Grok Bot’s terms put agent purchases on the shopper

On 12 October 2026 the Financial Stability Board sent the G20 a note on global stablecoins whose plainest sentence is about failure: “Global stablecoins and national regulatory frameworks remain untested in severe stress and insolvency” [2]. It went out with a letter from the FSB Chair, Andrew Bailey, to finance ministers and central bank governors ahead of their meeting on 15 October [1] [4].

Bailey’s letter says national regulations “are taking shape at different speeds and cross-border cooperation in this area is still in its infancy” [4] [3]. The FSB puts the market at around $300 billion as of mid-2026, essentially unchanged from a year earlier, with 99 per cent of it by value pegged to the US dollar [2]. CoinDesk’s report gives $306 billion [3].

The most concrete worry in the note is the multi-issuer setup. Affiliated issuers share liability for one global stablecoin but hold separate reserves, and the FSB writes that rebalancing those reserves “may face frictions during stress” while holders can redeem with any affiliate [2] [3]. The tokens also trade around the clock on secondary markets, and an issuer may not know who holds them or where those holders are based [2] [3]. Anyone who has chased a reconciliation break across three time zones on a public holiday will recognise the shape of that problem.

The FSB asks for closer monitoring of cross-border weak points, support for putting its 2023 recommendations into practice and more information sharing between authorities [1] [2]. The recommendations are not legally binding, as CoinDesk notes [3], and the note names no issuer [2]. The same package carried the FSB’s final sound practices for responsible AI adoption [1].

Grok Bot puts the charges on the shopper

On Saturday 10 October Elon Musk posted on X that users could “take a picture of your credit card, drop it in the chat” and Grok Bot would find the best deal and place the order [5] [6]. Replying to a user, he said Grok “will find another way to buy stuff” and that it had bought LEGO from the LEGO website [5] [6]. An X Community Note on the post pointed to xAI’s own privacy warning [6].

The product’s documented flow looks different. Startup Fortune, citing the product’s changelog, reports that since late August Grok Bot has shown an Allow or Deny card with the amount, and Link, Stripe’s wallet, completes the payment [6]. The Grok Bot terms say the approval controls are “provided as aids only” and “do not reverse completed actions”, and that the customer is “solely responsible for charges” [6]. Musk did not say whether shopping is live for everyone, which plans or countries get it, or what spending limits apply [5].

Sierra publishes the Poppy draft

Sierra published a draft of the Personal Agent Protocol, which it calls Poppy, on 9 October and named 35 more design partners, among them Adyen, Mastercard, OpenAI, PayPal, Plaid and Visa [7] [8]. A company publishes one file at /.well-known/poppy.json that tells agents what they can do there and how customers sign in [7] [8]. An agent can open a session as a guest, which is enough to check stock or a returns policy, and it identifies itself as an agent. Anything that needs the customer’s account goes through sign-in on the company’s own page [7] [8].

Sierra describes Poppy as complementary to the Universal Commerce Protocol: UCP covers shopping, and Poppy covers who the agent is and what the customer has allowed [7]. In Sierra’s post, Bret Taylor and Clay Bavor call it a starting point, with design workshops over the next month and a reference implementation to follow [7]. The post sets no rules on who carries a disputed payment [7].

Meta changes the model under Muse

Meta released Muse Wonder and Muse Wonder Full on 12 October, models built for agent tasks [9] [10]. Developers can use Muse Wonder now through the Meta Model API and Muse Code, and Meta says it “will soon power” the Muse agent, rolling out first to subscribers [9] [10]. The release lists an insurance claim, a lease and a working app among the jobs it was built for, and it does not mention shopping or payments [9].