- Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, and Coinbase have reportedly partnered for a “stablecoin initiative.”
- It’s unclear, though, if the consortium plans to create a new token or a platform processing stablecoin payments.
Key players in traditional finance (TradFi) and on-chain finance have recently forged a partnership for a new “stablecoin initiative.” The consortium consists of payments giant Visa and Mastercard, fintech company Stripe, and crypto exchange Coinbase.
Are Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, And Coinbase Working on a New Stablecoin?
The group doesn’t have an official confirmation about its so-called “stablecoin initiative” yet. Reports claim, though, that it could be planning to launch a token that would directly compete with Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC.
However, many argued that such an assumption is unlikely, raising Coinbase’s strong ties with Circle via USDC. The exchange has been benefiting from a revenue-sharing agreement for USDC transactions across external platforms and decentralized finance (DeFi) applications.
Coinbase is also one of the largest corporate holders of USDC, disclosing $19 billion worth of the token in its reserves. Its holdings account for approximately a quarter of all USDC in circulation.
Coinbase and Circle are about to renew their agreement by August this year. Hence, it remains to be seen whether they will proceed with the renewal amid speculations of the exchange’s involvement in a new stablecoin.
A Payment Platform Powered by Stablecoins
Others suggest that the new alliance may be developing a payments platform involving stablecoins. This appears to be a more feasible projection, as a joint platform would leverage each corporate giant’s infrastructure and recent acquisitions.
In late 2024, Stripe acquired Bridge for $1.1 billion. The move unlocks the company’s access to a stablecoin issuance and payment infrastructure.
Meanwhile, Mastercard acquired BVNK earlier, enabling it to expand its stablecoin and real-world asset (RWA) tokenization infrastructure. It also allied with over 85 crypto companies, payment providers, and fintech firms this year for its Crypto Partner Program to accelerate digital asset innovation and create a venue for information sharing among key stakeholders in the sector. These include crypto-natives, such as Ripple, Canton Network, Binance, Solana, Bitgo, Bybit, Gemini, Paxos, and more.
On the other hand, Visa has been advancing its payment rails by integrating stablecoin solutions through major partnerships with nine blockchain infrastructure providers. These include Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche, Stellar, Base, Polygon, Canton Network, Arc, and Tempo.
Given these things, a unified infrastructure layer would solve a massive bottleneck for the payments industry: fragmentation. Furthermore, it gives the consortium a unique position to build a frictionless routing network that could compete with SWIFT and other traditional card processing networks.
