Summary
Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, and Coinbase are reportedly joining forces to support a new stablecoin platform. Mastercard's CEO revealed that value-added services now account for 40% of revenue, with the Tempo network enabling 24/7 global settlement. Coinbase launched stablecoin payment acceptance, Deel issued DLUSD for 40,000 enterprises, MoneyGram introduced its own stablecoin, and the first U.S. bank issued a stablecoin, signaling a pivotal moment for stablecoin payments entering mainstream finance.
Payment Giants Unite: Stablecoin Infrastructure Goes Mainstream
According to multiple industry sources, the three pillars of global payment networks—Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe—are collaborating with cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase to support a new stablecoin payment platform. This move signals that the boundary between traditional finance and crypto infrastructure is rapidly blurring, and stablecoin payments are no longer niche experiments but are becoming integral components of the global payment network.
The strategic significance of this collaboration lies in combining the merchant coverage and compliance frameworks of traditional payment networks with the instant settlement and low-cost advantages of blockchain technology. For digital asset custody providers, this means clients can more conveniently use their stablecoin holdings in traditional commercial scenarios without frequent fiat conversions.
Data disclosed by Mastercard's CEO during a recent earnings call further validates the commercial value of this trend. He stated that value-added services now account for 40% of the company's total revenue, with stablecoin settlement and blockchain payments forming core components of these emerging services. Traditional payment networks are no longer solely reliant on transaction fees but are creating new revenue streams by offering real-time settlement, cross-border payments, data services, and other value-added functions.
Tempo Network: Breaking Traditional Payment Time Constraints
Mastercard's Tempo network serves as the technological foundation for this transformation. Unlike traditional interbank settlement systems that process in fixed daily batches, the Tempo network enables 24/7 global real-time settlement. This capability is crucial for cross-timezone international trade, instant payroll for the gig economy, and round-the-clock crypto asset trading needs.
Tempo's architecture allows financial institutions to conduct instant clearing of fiat and stablecoins on blockchain rails while maintaining compatibility with existing banking systems. This hybrid model provides traditional financial institutions with a gradual transformation path: they can progressively migrate portions of their business to more efficient blockchain rails without completely abandoning existing infrastructure.
For institutional clients, this means dramatically improved efficiency in capital liquidity management. Cross-border settlements that previously required one to three business days can now be completed in minutes, which is particularly important for trading firms, market makers, and multinational enterprises that need to frequently move capital.
Coinbase and Checkout: Merchant Acceptance for Stablecoin Payments
Coinbase's partnership with payment processor Checkout launched a new stablecoin payment acceptance service, allowing merchants to directly accept customer stablecoin payments with instant settlement into fiat currency in their bank accounts. This service addresses two major pain points for merchants accepting crypto payments: price volatility risk and accounting complexity.
Through this service, merchants need not hold or manage crypto assets, nor worry about stablecoin price volatility, as all payments are instantly converted to dollars or other fiat currencies. This crypto-frontend, fiat-backend model significantly lowers the barrier for merchants to accept stablecoin payments and is expected to accelerate stablecoin adoption in e-commerce, subscription services, and cross-border trade.
From a custody provider's perspective, this trend means increased client demand for stablecoin liquidity management. Institutions need to support clients in holding, transferring, and settling stablecoins across different blockchain networks while providing seamless connectivity with traditional bank accounts. Multi-chain support, instant clearing, and compliance monitoring will become core competencies for institutional-grade stablecoin custody services.
Deel's Corporate Stablecoin: A New Model for Cross-Border Payroll
HR and payroll platform Deel launched its own corporate stablecoin, DLUSD, specifically designed to serve the cross-border payroll needs of 40,000 enterprises on its platform. Deel's clients are primarily companies employing global remote workers, where traditional cross-border payroll often involves multiple intermediary banks, high fees, and lengthy settlement times.
DLUSD's design philosophy simplifies the payroll process into an end-to-end stablecoin flow: companies convert fiat to DLUSD, instantly send it to employees worldwide via blockchain networks, and employees can choose to continue holding DLUSD or instantly exchange it for local fiat through Deel's partners. The entire process can be completed in minutes at a cost far lower than traditional bank wire transfers.
The innovation here lies in deeply binding stablecoin issuance to a specific business scenario. DLUSD is not a general-purpose stablecoin but is specifically designed for Deel's payroll ecosystem, enabling targeted optimization in compliance, user experience, and cost control. This also suggests that more industry-specific corporate stablecoins may emerge in the future.
MoneyGram and Bank Stablecoins: Tokenizing Remittances and Deposits
MoneyGram, one of the world's largest remittance service providers, launched its own stablecoin for international remittance operations. This move demonstrates that even the most traditional financial service sectors are actively exploring blockchain technology applications. MoneyGram's stablecoin will integrate with its existing agent network, allowing customers to exchange cash for stablecoins or stablecoins for cash at any MoneyGram location worldwide.
More symbolically significant is that the first U.S. bank has issued its own stablecoin. While the specific bank name has not been publicly disclosed, the event itself carries important regulatory and industry implications. It indicates that U.S. regulators are shifting from cautious observation to conditional support regarding bank-issued stablecoins, paving the way for more banks to enter the stablecoin space.
Bank-issued stablecoins are often referred to as tokenized deposits, essentially representing bank deposits as blockchain tokens, enabling instant transfer and settlement on blockchain networks while maintaining traditional banking protections like deposit insurance. This model complements stablecoins issued by non-bank entities like USDC and USDT: the former focuses more on internal circulation among bank customers and compliance, while the latter emphasizes open ecosystems and cross-platform interoperability.
Industry Landscape Restructuring: A New Phase of Coexistence and Competition
The stablecoin payment sector is currently forming a multi-layered, multi-stakeholder landscape. The first layer is the infrastructure layer, jointly constituted by traditional payment networks like Visa and Mastercard alongside public blockchains like Ethereum and Solana, providing stablecoin issuance, transfer, and settlement capabilities. The second layer is the stablecoin issuance layer, including independent issuers like Circle and Tether, vertical scenario issuers like Deel and MoneyGram, and bank issuers about to enter the market. These issuance entities have different focuses and will coexist across various application scenarios. The third layer is the application and service layer, including payment service providers like Coinbase and Stripe, as well as digital asset custody institutions, which provide end-users and enterprise clients with stablecoin storage, transfer, exchange, and compliance services.
For digital asset custody institutions, this evolving landscape brings new opportunities and challenges. The opportunity lies in the fact that as stablecoin payments become mainstream, institutional client demand for professional custody services will grow rapidly, especially among enterprise clients who need to simultaneously manage traditional and digital assets. The challenge is that custody services need to support an increasing variety of stablecoin types, blockchain networks, and compliance requirements, with rising technical complexity and operational costs.
Gradually Clarifying Regulatory Environment
The event of the first U.S. bank issuing a stablecoin also reflects the gradual clarification of the U.S. regulatory environment. Over the past few years, U.S. regulatory attitudes toward stablecoins have shifted from strict restrictions to conditional openness. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve, and the Securities and Exchange Commission are all progressively developing regulatory frameworks for stablecoins.
The current regulatory trend is: for bank-issued tokenized deposits, regulators tend to incorporate them into existing banking regulatory systems; for stablecoins issued by non-bank entities, regulators require holding equivalent reserve assets and undergoing regular audits. This tiered regulatory approach both protects financial system stability and leaves room for innovation.
For globally operating institutions, understanding and adapting to stablecoin regulatory requirements across different jurisdictions will become a core competency. The EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, Singapore's stablecoin regulatory framework, and Hong Kong's Virtual Asset Service Provider regime are all shaping the rules of the global stablecoin market.
Outlook: The Next Phase of Stablecoin Payments
Stablecoin payments are transitioning from early-stage technical experiments to large-scale commercial applications. In the coming years, we may see more traditional financial institutions launching their own stablecoins or tokenized deposit products, stablecoin payments becoming standard options in cross-border trade, payroll disbursement, supply chain finance and other scenarios, further refinement of regulatory frameworks and enhanced interoperability between stablecoins and traditional financial systems, and multi-chain, multi-currency stablecoin management becoming routine for institutional clients.
For digital asset custody institutions, this trend means continuous investment in technological infrastructure, compliance capabilities, and client services is necessary to support clients in safely and efficiently managing their digital assets within this rapidly evolving payment ecosystem. The mainstreaming of stablecoin payments is not only a transformation of the payments industry but also an important marker of the entire digital asset industry moving toward maturity.
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