Stablecoins are penetrating traditional finance in various ways. It looks very tempting, but for most companies, issuing their own tokens might be a bottomless pit.

Recently, the actions of a few major players are quite interesting. Klarna launched KlarnaUSD on Stripe's Tempo network, and PayPal's PYUSD has doubled in three months, approaching a market cap of 4 billion. Stablecoins now account for over 1% of the entire crypto market. Meanwhile, Stripe has started using USDC to settle payments with merchants, and Cash App is also expanding stablecoin services.

On the surface, these big companies are rushing to enter the stablecoin race. But a closer look reveals that their paths to success are completely different. Some choose to issue their own tokens, while others integrate existing infrastructure.

The problem is, issuing stablecoins sounds simple, but in reality, it’s fraught with pitfalls. Compliance costs, technical maintenance, liquidity management, market acceptance—any one of these can eat up your budget. Most companies simply don’t have the capacity to sustain this long-term. So why do they keep pushing?

The real profit doesn’t come from issuing tokens itself, but from companies that can provide stablecoin infrastructure. Stripe’s acquisition of Bridge says it all— they’re not aiming to make money from token issuance, but want to become the underlying payment pipeline. That’s the future direction.

In other words, 99% of companies shouldn’t issue their own tokens. Instead of wasting money on stablecoin issuance, it’s better to think about how to make good use of existing assets like USDC and USDT. Infrastructure is where the value lies; token issuance has become more of a burden.