As payment innovations increase, settlement and infrastructure have traditionally raised your head as THE strategic choke points.
For example, at the start of the digital payments revolution, industry titans like MasterCard, Visa And Paypal built their empires not just by issuing cards or enabling online transactions, but by owning the infrastructure (the gateways, switches, and clearing systems) that made those transactions possible.
Today, while the financial world is moving towards blockchain-native infrastructure and eyes stable coin payments with increasing interestthe same pattern emerges. Only this time, the infrastructure is programmable, global, transparent and instantaneous.
Three transactions have crystallized this transformation in FinTech and cryptocurrency. That’s Mastercard’s rumored $2 billion. acquisition of zero hashcryptographic capabilities of last month, Bandthat’s 1 billion dollars purchase of Bridge finalized in Februaryand the Friday (October 31) report that Coinbase gets closer to acquire stablecoin infrastructure startup BVNK at the price of 2 billion dollars.
Not to be outdone, Visa has developed its own global strategy stablecoin settlement service, allowing banking partners to settle cross-border stablecoin payments directly on public blockchains.
Each move reflects a strategic recalibration designed not to replace fiat payments outright, but to expand the underlying technology stack. necessary to orchestrate stable payments at scale, while reach cross-chain settlement and multi-chain compatibility.
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If it seems like FinTech companies are rushing to build their own stablecoin infrastructure and orchestration layers, that’s because they just might.
See also: Why Stablecoins Are stuck to the obstacle of acceptance
How Stablecoins are Rewriting the Original Payments Playbook
Stablecoins today represent more than 250 billion dollars in circulation valuebut this still represents only a drop in the ocean of global monetary movements. What held them back wasn’t helpfulas they already generate billions of dollars in daily volume, but the orchestration. Most businesses don’t want to hold crypto wallets, deal with gas fees, or expose themselves to digital asset regulation. They want the speed and savings of stablecoins with the familiarity of integrated payment systems.
To understand what is happening today, it helps to revisit the playbook of the past. In traditional digital payments, the most successful players have invested in enabling infrastructure. Payment gateways have created connective tissue between merchants, banks and card networks. Acquirers managed settlement flows and risk models. Switches moved messages across networks. Clearing systems reconciled transactions across international borders. It was an era defined by proprietary messaging formats, regulatory negotiations, and decades-long partnerships.
These systems have evolved, but they did it within the constraints of existing banking rails. The settlement still took days. Cross-border fees remained high. Integrating into these networks has been fraught with compliance challenges. FinTech companies like Stripe and Square have succeeded by eliminating some of that complexity, but ultimately they’re still plugged into the same old pipes.
Blockchain, and more specifically stablecoins, have introduced a new layer of plumbing where assets transfer And settlement occurs simultaneously, without borders and by programming. But the ability to orchestrate stable payments at scale, while routing, converting, reconciling and honoring, still requires enterprise-grade infrastructure.
Read also: Stablecoins Are Not Created Equal: Issuer Market Mapping for CFOs
Beyond the First Mile of Blockchain Payments
Ten years ago, if you wanted to transfer money across borders, you needed correspondent banks, Fast messages and 72 hours. Today, a stablecoin like USDC can settle $10 million in 10 seconds, with programmable deposit and instant finality. However, without orchestration, it’s just a demo.
Just as cloud computing did not eliminate data centers but made them programmable, blockchains make payment systems more flexible. The infrastructure may be decentralized, but the orchestration will likely remain to be executed by the same institutions that have always excelled in this field, as those with scale, confidence and regulatory mastery.
During the last edition of Visa winnings report on Tuesday (October 28), for example, the company revealed that it was expanding its stablecoin settlement platform to support four stablecoins on four separate blockchains.
“We are adding support for four stablecoins, running on four unique blockchains, representing two currencies… which we can accept and convert to over 25 traditional fiat currencies,” the Visa CEO said. Ryan McInerney said.
Visa’s ambition, like its Peer FinTechsis not to replace card networks with blockchains, but to make its own network blockchain-enabled, allowing stablecoins to circulate through familiar channels while retaining compliance and anti-money laundering (AML) safeguards.
At the same time, stablecoin issuers like Circle Internet Group, Kraken, Bridge (Band), Ripple And more are racing For federal trust or bank charters below THE Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
The big remaining questions revolve around jurisdictions and regulation. Will stablecoins be regulated like bank deposits? Will governments allow companies to hold them on their balance sheets? How will risk weighting work for capital adequacy? How will central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) interact with private stablecoins?
In the meantime, orchestration platforms are under construction. Just as importantly, these acquisitions show that business demand is real, not hypothetical. When payments giants and crypto companies buy the same types of infrastructure, this is no longer a problem. future orient yourself. This is a current change.
