Stablecoins are transitioning from speculative crypto trading tools into mainstream financial instruments, with the total market cap reaching approximately $312 billion. Paul Golding, U.S. Head of Research Technology at Macquarie, identifies cross-border remittances and the tokenization of real-world assets as primary drivers for this institutional adoption. Functioning similarly to digital-native money market funds, 99% of stablecoins are pegged to the U.S. dollar and backed by collateral like sovereign debt to ensure 24/7 global settlement. Established payment networks like Visa and Mastercard are positioning themselves as critical bridges in this ecosystem by developing infrastructure that links traditional fiat currency with "money as data." These incumbents leverage consulting services and strategic partnerships, such as with Circle, to enable faster, cheaper execution for bank clients while maintaining their relevance as the underlying technology for global value transfer evolves.
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