Payment giants Stripe, Visa, Mastercard said to be among backers of soon-to-debut stablecoin platform

U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase is also said to be looking into the possibility of participating in the new stablecoin platform.

What to know:

• Stablecoins are a focal point for the large card networks, with Stripe acquiring Bridge in 2024 and Mastercard buying BVNK earlier this year.
• Late last year, Coinbase announced a white-label stablecoin service, as well as the Coinbase Business service for stablecoin payments.

Global payment networks Stripe, Visa and Mastercard are close to introducing a new stablecoin platform, according to three people familiar with the plans.

U.S.-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase (COIN) is also looking into the possibility of participating in the stablecoin platform, one of the people said.

Coinbase, Stripe and Visa declined to comment. Mastercard had not responded to requests for comment by publication time.

Stablecoins, one of the busiest areas of crypto, have become a focal point for the large card networks and payments players. The total stablecoin market cap is about $325 billion, according to CoinGecko data. The market is dominated by Tether's USDT, at $115 billion.

Stripe acquired stablecoin infrastructure firm Bridge in late 2024 for $1.1 billion. Mastercard, which acquired stablecoin firm BVNK earlier this year, said this week it plans to expand always-on stablecoin settlement.

In April, Visa announced it was expanding a stablecoin settlement pilot to nine blockchains, adding Base, Polygon, Canton Network, Arc and Tempo to existing support for Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche and Stellar.

Late last year, Coinbase announced a white-label stablecoin service, as well as the Coinbase Business service for stablecoin payments.

Since August 2023, Coinbase and Circle Internet (CRCL), issuer of the second largest stablecoin, have had a revenue-sharing agreement, which comes up for renewal in August this year. The token, USDC, has a market cap of $76 billion.

Under the deal Coinbase keeps 100% of the interest income generated from USDC held on the exchange, while splitting revenue 50/50 for USDC circulating across all off-platform and decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystems.

More For You

Lenders are particularly interested in blockchain's back-office applications, but security failures are blocking wider adoption.

What to know:

• Industry executives say DeFi’s long-term value lies in overhauling banks’ back-office operations rather than in speculative trading.
• Institutional capital will remain sidelined, however, until DeFi addresses persistent security flaws.
• Societe Generale said regulated banks can close these gaps with tokenized assets and bank-issued stablecoins, offering the safety and custody that...

Grayscale launches lowest-fee U.S. Hyperliquid ETF as competition heats up around HYPE

1 minute ago

Crypto PACs go undefeated in June primaries as Fairshake scores bipartisan winning streak

14 minutes ago

Bitcoin momentum gauge hints at recovery. Experts remain cautious.

41 minutes ago

Bitcoin steadies at $67,000, faces critical juncture after sliding 9.5% in seven days

1 hour ago

Apparent Zcash outage was a block explorer problem, infrastructure provider says

1 hour ago

UK's financial watchdog cracks down on Premier League crypto partnerships

1 hour ago

DeFi won't win over big banks until it fixes its hacking problem, executives say

2 hours ago

Bullish crypto bets lose $1.6 billion as ETH, SOL, DOGE drop 9%

7 hours ago

Banks' survey says people don't want to rock the boat if stablecoin yield risks lending

3 hours ago

Bitcoin's slide to $66,000 is accelerating a shift into digital dollars

9 hours ago

Prediction market traders bet bitcoin's selloff has further to run

5 hours ago