a16z: More than just payments, stablecoins reshape the global financial landscape

Writing by: Noah Levine, Guy Wuollet, Robert Hackett

Translated by: Luffy, Foresight News

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The global financial system is being reconstructed on a new infrastructure, and the pace of this process is far beyond most people's understanding outside the crypto industry.

Stablecoins are the core catalyst of this transformation. They have long evolved from niche trading tools into the foundational infrastructure of the financial system and are becoming the cornerstone for building a new generation of global financial products. This article outlines our views on this change. The landscape of companies within the sector may undergo shifts, and the boundaries of sub-sectors will continue to merge and evolve, but the more fundamental change lies in structural upgrades: how the new architecture of global finance is being built, in what aspects it is maturing, and what gaps still remain.

The core idea of this article is that stablecoins are fostering a new form of Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS). In the previous wave of BaaS, fintech companies mainly relied on leasing banking licenses and connecting to traditional core systems to conduct business. The current transformation differs fundamentally: companies are building their operations on on-chain infrastructure, reducing friction with self-custody wallets, and decreasing dependence on intermediaries; at the same time, they are integrating basic financial functions such as accounts, payments, foreign exchange, and credit into end-to-end financial products.

Ten years ago, building such full-stack financial services required applying for multiple regional licenses and coordinating with local banking partners; today, any team equipped with this new underlying technology architecture can quickly deploy related services.

Stripe’s acquisition of Bridge and Privy, and Mastercard’s acquisition of BVNK, indicate that these established companies are adopting similar strategies to respond to the rapidly changing market landscape. Major giants are actively consolidating and acquiring, aiming to firmly control key underlying links before the new infrastructure pattern is fully established.

All signals point to the fact that on-chain financial transformation has become an irreversible trend. The choice before us is either to embrace and adapt to it or be left behind by the times.

Stablecoin Market Map

Three Types of Blockchain

The traditional view that all blockchains compete for similar application scenarios is breaking down. The industry has now differentiated into three distinct types of blockchain networks, each designed based on different needs, with performance trade-offs tailored accordingly. Clarifying these differences is essential to understanding the real deployment of global fintech:

General-purpose public chains (represented by Solana, Ethereum, and their main Layer 2 networks) remain the core battleground of the crypto capital market, covering key scenarios such as trading, lending, and decentralized finance. This sector has a large market size and steady development, but it cannot fully encompass all industry trends.

Payment-specific blockchains represent another emerging category, focusing specifically on financial service applications. Networks like Stripe’s Tempo and Circle’s Arc are competing in areas that general-purpose blockchains have not optimized: native gas fees for stablecoins, privacy protections, and crucially, predictable transaction costs. For a fintech company processing millions of payments, cost modeling capabilities are vital. Companies in this field bet that payment-oriented blockchains will become the preferred settlement layer for the next generation of financial infrastructure.

Institutional networks are the third category, such as Canton, designed for regulated entities that require programmability and privacy protections without violating legal compliance frameworks. As banks and asset managers accelerate their involvement, the core role of these compliant networks will become increasingly prominent.

Banking Bottlenecks Are Easing

Over the past decade, bank cooperation channels have been the biggest bottleneck for native crypto financial services. High barriers to cooperation and fragile relationships are the main risks for crypto enterprises’ survival.

While this situation has not disappeared entirely, it has improved significantly. A group of compliant banks embracing crypto are opening up interoperability between on-chain infrastructure and traditional fiat systems.

The core challenge of deposit and withdrawal channels has greatly improved. Opening fiat channels is fundamental for stablecoin-native fintech companies’ operations, which is not only crucial for payments but also vital for the entire tech stack.

Stablecoin Issuers: A Far-Reaching Licensing Race

The competition in the stablecoin issuance sector is unprecedentedly fierce, with the core focus shifting entirely to regulatory compliance. Since the enactment of the U.S. “GENIUS Act,” major issuers are rushing to apply for trust licenses from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).

In the short term, licenses confer compliance credibility, official recognition at the federal level, and trust from regulators and institutional partners.

In the long run, the stakes are even higher. If regulators in the future open Federal Reserve clearing channels to institutions holding nationwide banking licenses, stablecoin issuers that have secured compliance licenses early will deeply integrate into the core of the global financial system and become key players in the digital financial transformation.

This competition is less about branding and more about vying for dominance within the payment system. More importantly, it’s about who can lay the foundation for the prosperity of credit and capital markets.

Liquidity Service Providers: The Last Mile

Stablecoins have achieved significant breakthroughs in cross-border payments, greatly simplifying intermediary steps in international fund flows: faster settlement, reduced reliance on pre-funded correspondent accounts, and lower cross-border transfer costs.

The remaining challenge is liquidity between stablecoins and local fiat currencies, especially in emerging markets. Many cross-border channels lack sufficient liquidity depth, leading to slippage, settlement delays, and unstable quotes. If unresolved, this could severely hinder stablecoins’ potential in B2B applications.

This gap is narrowing through three channels:

• FX service providers adapted for stablecoins (e.g., OpenFX, XFX);
• Regional exchanges with deep local fiat resources (e.g., Bitso in Latin America, Yellowcard in Africa, Coins.ph in Southeast Asia);
• Future collaborations with banks directly supporting stablecoin FX settlements.

All three are indispensable. FX providers offer technical integration; regional exchanges deepen local market liquidity; banks provide balance sheet support and global agent networks. No single channel can complete the full loop independently.

Bank Connectivity: An Essential Link

The entire infrastructure for stablecoins is almost entirely built by fintech firms, non-bank payment institutions, and native crypto companies, operating outside the traditional banking system. This model offers efficient, open development advantages but also embeds structural risks: the underlying architecture of stablecoins is inherently incompatible with most banks’ legacy core systems, requiring dedicated bridging layers for integration.

“Bank onboarding services” are precisely this critical bridging layer. These companies build dedicated infrastructure to help banks quickly launch stablecoin-related services without completely replacing their outdated legacy systems.

Forward-looking service providers are gradually expanding their scope—from crypto capital markets and payments to on-chain lending—anticipating future banking needs for stablecoin-related services.

Application Layer: New Financial Functions in Practice

Two major trends are reshaping the end-user application ecosystem.

The first is the integration of fintech new banks and crypto wallets.

Exchanges are adding features like virtual accounts, payment cards, and rewards; internet banks are accelerating the integration of crypto assets with traditional wealth management products. The boundaries between these two types of products are rapidly blurring, ultimately forming a unified, comprehensive financial platform that serves both crypto-native users and the general public through a single interface.

The ultimate winners in this competition may not be those with the best current products but those that effectively combine distribution channels, customer trust, and products/services that meet customer needs.

The second trend is the application of stablecoins in enterprise banking. In markets with limited, unreliable, or costly USD banking infrastructure (such as most of Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia), stablecoins provide an unprecedented USD settlement channel, covering essential scenarios like supplier payments, global collections, and cash pooling.

This demand is not about crypto concepts but about the high efficiency and accessibility of USD assets. In regions with weak local financial systems and volatile currencies, enterprises actively adopt stablecoins for operational needs.

At the application layer, the most profound long-term change stems from value-added ecosystems built on top of basic account services.

USD asset access is just the beginning. Micro-entrepreneurs in Lagos, freelancers in Buenos Aires, or savers in Jakarta—all holding stable, stablecoin-denominated assets—can access a full suite of financial services previously out of reach: credit, investment, wealth management, insurance, and more.

Internet banks and super apps that first capture user account entry points will leverage their customer bases to cross-sell a full range of financial products, reaching vast underserved markets long neglected by traditional finance. Payments are merely the entry point; credit and investment are the core value carriers.

Credit Market: A Deep-Impact Sub-Transformation

If payments are the first step, then credit is likely the second—and perhaps even more important.

The common interpretation of stablecoin growth often focuses narrowly on scaled banking models: dollar tokenization, wallet storage, instant settlement, on-demand redemption. But this perspective overlooks the core change after widespread stablecoin adoption: when trillions of dollars in stablecoins circulate in the market, idle capital will demand investment opportunities. Companies holding stablecoins need to activate their idle funds, protocols require liquidity, and end users will develop borrowing needs.

A new on-chain credit market will inevitably emerge. This is not about early DeFi cycles of collateralized, highly speculative lending products, but a return to the core of banking: supporting capital formation, real asset and receivables-backed lending, and providing operational funding for enterprises in regions with underdeveloped banking infrastructure.

The era of unregulated, wild-growth DeFi is ending, giving way to a more stable, mature on-chain financial era.

This evolution mirrors the development of private credit over the past decade: under regulatory pressure, traditional banks have gradually shrunk certain lending activities, while private credit funds have rapidly filled the gap, growing from niche alternative assets into a multi-trillion-dollar core sector capable of competing with syndicate loans. The underlying logic of on-chain credit is similar: bypassing traditional banking systems to build capital, serving borrowers ignored by traditional finance. The key advantage is that on-chain financial infrastructure is inherently open, programmable, and global—an unmatched edge over private credit.

Traditional credit institutions are already paying close attention, with early movers acquiring and consolidating, poised to lead the future development of on-chain capital markets.

Dollar Hegemony and Geopolitics

Behind this market map lies a bigger story than fintech itself, with two main directions.

For individuals and enterprises, the new financial system offers tangible economic empowerment: effectively hedging currency devaluation risks, accessing global payment channels, and conducting operations in the world’s most liquid currency—USD. Farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa, manufacturers in Southeast Asia, small importers in Latin America—all can hold, transact, and save USD without opening US bank accounts or relying on traditional correspondent banking systems, breaking the privilege barriers that once limited USD services.

For the US, stablecoins further reinforce its existing financial hegemony. Over the past century, the dollar’s dominance relied on institutions like the IMF, World Bank, global correspondent banking networks, and bilateral agreements, allowing the US Treasury and Federal Reserve to wield significant influence over global finance. Stablecoins open a more direct channel: every wallet holding USD stablecoins becomes a new node in the dollar financial network, enabling low-cost, instant value settlement between any two points worldwide. The higher the adoption of stablecoins, the stronger the network effect, and the deeper the penetration of USD in weak financial regions.

This is the most profound strategic value of stablecoins: with regulations like the GENIUS Act, it’s not just about controlling a new financial product but about the US leveraging stablecoin infrastructure to long-term solidify the dollar’s central role amid ongoing challenges to its global supremacy since the Bretton Woods era.

Beyond Payments: Rebuilding the Global Financial Foundation

The new global financial infrastructure is still under construction, and its strategic significance extends far beyond the payments sector.

This transformation is essentially a comprehensive upgrade of the global financial system. The new on-chain infrastructure features open, programmable, interconnected networks capable of covering regions, populations, and scenarios that traditional systems have never served. Its core value includes:

• Providing stable USD services to underdeveloped financial regions;
• Creating steady growth channels for vast idle capital;
• Offering inclusive credit services to underserved populations;
• Enabling billions of ordinary people to participate in global capital markets for the first time without barriers.

Today, companies deeply involved in each link of this new financial industry chain will define the next era of global finance and lead the future shape of the dollar economy worldwide.