The Green Sheet Online Edition
June 8, 2026 • 26:06:01
Stablecoin payments poised for the mainstream?
Stablecoins are coming to a retail checkout near you in the not-to-distant future. But fear not, stablecoins are not about to push credit and debit cards to the curb. "I don't think they will ever replace cards," said Yamini Sagar, CEO and founder of Instarails. "Most Americans live off of credit."
Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies whose values are pegged to another asset. Some are pegged to other cryptocurrencies; some are backed by commodities; but most are pegged to fiat currencies like the dollar.
"There is a big push on for stablecoins right now," said Attorney Adam Atlas. Indeed, President Donald Trump indicated he wants the United States to be the global center of digital assets, anchored by aggressive stablecoin legislation and massive government cryptocurrency reserves.
Cheaper, faster, more efficient
Advocates see important benefits accruing from stablecoins. As a new payment instrument, they offer cheap, fast and efficient payments based on blockchain ledger technology. "It should be easy to pay with stablecoins," Sagar noted.
"Because almost all outstanding payment stablecoins are backed by and denominated in U.S. dollars (USD), advocates also say they would support the global use of the dollar and increase the net demand for treasury bills," the Brookings Institute noted in a recent white paper. Another plus for stablecoins and other cryptocurrencies is that they are truly instant, with no holdups due to operating hours. In the United States, FedWire, the large-dollar network often used for business-to-business payments, operates 22 hours a day, Sunday through Friday.
The ACH operates when the Federal Reserve is open, closing on weekends and holidays. FedNow, the Fed's real-time network and its private-sector competitor RTP both operate 24/7/365. Card networks, too, take off weekends and holidays.
Another positive development for stablecoins is the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, legislation signed into law in 2025 that established the first comprehensive federal regulatory framework specifically related to payment stablecoin issuers and reserve management practices.
Since passage of the GENIUS Act, regulators have taken several actions. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, for example, granted national trust charters to several stablecoin fintech companies, including Circle, which is considered the largest issuer of the stablecoin US Dollar Coin.
President Trump also signed an executive order recently that prompted the Federal Reserve to move ahead with a proposal to allow nonbank financial services firms, like crypto firms, to gain direct access to the payment rails the Fed operates. Separate federal legislation, the Crypto Law and Regulatory Intermediary Transparency Yearning (CLARITY) Act, currently pending in Congress, is more controversial. Several prominent bankers, including JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, have voiced concerns that the legislation would offer high interest-like yields and rewards, unfairly competing with banks.
Sagar agrees stablecoins (which are held in digital wallets) could generate higher yields. She suggested banks should offer consumers higher yields on deposits if they don't want to lose deposits to stablecoins.
The consultancy Deloitte predicted that more than $200 billion of U.S. retail sales will be stablecoin-enabled by 2030. Growth of stablecoin-linked debit and credit cards, artificial intelligence-assisted shopping and branded loyalty programs will drive stablecoins further into mainstream commerce, according to Deloitte’s white paper How stablecoins could power the next era of retail payments.
The card brands get it
Visa and Mastercard are increasingly positioning themselves for a future in which stablecoins play a larger role in global commerce and settlement. "The networks are really into stablecoins," Atlas noted.
Visa has been piloting stablecoin settlement for several years, allowing issuers and acquirers to settle with the network using stablecoins pegged to the U.S. dollar. In 2025, Visa brought the pilot to the United States and, in April 2026, announced it was adding five blockchains to the initiative, bringing the total to nine. At the time, Visa said it had reached an annualized stablecoin run rate of $7 billion.
"Expanding our stablecoin settlement pilot program to more blockchains means our partners can choose the networks that best fit their needs, while relying on Visa to provide a common settlement layer across all of them," said Rubail Birwadker, global head of growth products and strategic partnerships at Visa.
Mastercard announced in March of this year a definitive agreement to purchase BVNK, with an eye toward connecting on-chain payments and fiat rails. "This acquisition reinforces what we have always done, using innovation and technology to power economies and empower people," Jorn Lambert, chief product officer at Mastercard, said in a statement. "Adding on-chain rails to our network will support speed and programmability for virtually every type of transaction."
BVNK functions like a stablecoin payment rail, allowing businesses to accept stablecoins at checkout, automate processing and settle funds in traditional fiat currencies such as the U.S. dollar. "For all of the advancements made in simplifying the digital currency opportunity, we have only scratched the surface of what's possible," said Jesse Hemson-Struthers, co-founder and CEO of BVNK.
Mastercard also recently received a BitLicense from the New York State Department of Financial Services to conduct digital asset business in the state. The license was granted to Mastercard Transaction Services, a subsidiary that handles money transmitter and cross-border payments activities. The authorization allows the company to expand into the settlement of stablecoins and other digital assets.
New York's BitLicense framework is recognized for its requirements related to consumer protection, cybersecurity, financial integrity and operational resilience.
More recently, reports have surfaced that Visa and Mastercard are collaborating on a new stablecoin platform. Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global and payment company Stripe are also reportedly participating in the initiative, although details about the platform and the roles of the various parties have not been made public.
Backend processors get it, too
Fiserv introduced the FIUSD stablecoin in mid-2025 and is now expanding it across the company's banking infrastructure, merchant services and partner payment networks, according to Steve Wager, Fiserv's vice president, digital assets platform.
While Fiserv’s initial focus is on backend infrastructure, the company plans to eventually extend stablecoin capabilities to POS acceptance through major payment networks, Wager said. He added that stablecoins could also provide treasury management advantages, including business-to-business settlement and instant supplier payouts.
“On the merchant side, Fiserv partnered with Mastercard to enable FIUSD across its network once live, and with PayPal to enable interoperable payments between FIUSD and PayPal USD,” Wager noted, adding that stablecoins also could reduce payment costs through lower interchange expenses while enabling continuous 24/7/365 settlement.
Another potential advantage is greater transaction transparency. Because stablecoin transactions are recorded on blockchain ledgers, businesses may gain improved visibility into payment flows and transaction histories. “Everything is recorded on the blockchain ledger,” Sagar said. “So you can keep track of everywhere (or everyone) in the transaction stream."
Not a lot of payments, yet
McKinsey, in its February 2026 report Stablecoins in payments: What the raw transaction numbers miss, estimated annual stablecoin transaction volumes could total as much as $35 trillion. “However, most of this activity doesn't represent true end-user payments, such as paying suppliers or sending remittances. It consists mainly of trading, internal shuffling of funds, and automated blockchain activity,” the consultancy wrote. Working with blockchain analytics provider Artemis Analytics, McKinsey reported the volume of annual stablecoin payments is about $390 billion, or roughly 0.02 percent of global payments volume.
"A core motivator for building stablecoin rails is responding to merchant demand for a cheaper domestic transaction alternative to traditional credit/debit card interchange network," Wager said.
Sagar agreed that cost savings will drive merchant stablecoin adoption. The instantaneous nature of transactions is another selling point, she added. "It will be just like a wallet-to-wallet transfer. It will be instant and there will be no fees. The sticking point will be educating consumers on the ease and benefits of using digital wallets," she said.
Cross-border will drive growth
Sagar believes cross-border remittances, where significant stablecoin activity already takes place, will derive the most benefit from stablecoins. BVNK recently conducted a survey with YouGov, querying over 4,600 stablecoin holders across 15 countries. "What we found was revealing," wrote Chris Harmse, co-founder and chief business officer at BVNK. "Around three quarters of cross-border workers report stablecoins have meaningfully improved their ability to work internationally."
Cross-border payments today must be initiated through a local bank, which sends the request to an international correspondent bank. Transactions typically go through several correspondent banks before landing in the payee's bank. Each bank takes a cut and adds time to the process: time taken to effect exchanges and delays because correspondent banks are usually closed on weekends and holidays.
Not all central banks favor stablecoins. Brazil, for example, recently banned electronic foreign exchange providers from using stablecoins and other crypto currencies to settle overseas remittances. The reasoning is that stablecoin remittances result in the loss of revenues as the transactions bypass traditional banking systems and send citizens' earnings underground, Atlas explained.
One response has been for central banks, like Brazil, to create government-based stablecoins in local currencies to maintain control over transactions and tax them as they would other citizen earnings. 
Patti Murphy is senior editor at The Green Sheet, president of ProScribes Ink (www.proscribes.net) and self-described payments maven of the fourth estate. Her Today in Payments reports are a regular feature of the Merchant Sales Podcast.
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