Làn sóng xếp hàng phát hành stablecoin: Tái cấu trúc câu chuyện về thanh toán của AI Agent và stablecoin doanh nghiệp

“Stablecoins and digital assets are reshaping money itself, a trend still severely underestimated by the market.” In May 2026, Anchorage Digital CEO Nathan McCauley made this judgment at the Consensus conference. His confidence stems from a set of data sufficient to rewrite the competitive landscape of the stablecoin industry: since the passage of the GENIUS Act, Anchorage has obtained authorization to issue all major stablecoins in the market, with about 20 financial institutions and large tech companies queuing to issue their own stablecoins through Anchorage. Almost simultaneously, Anchorage launched the “Agentic Banking” platform in partnership with Google Cloud, aimed at providing regulated access channels for AI agents. The convergence of these two events marks a paradigm shift in crypto financial infrastructure—from “asset issuance compliance” to “payment agent intelligence.”

Three Dimensions of Anchorage’s Intensive Deployment Phase

In early May 2026, Anchorage Digital completed a series of high-density strategic moves:

First, announcing full authorization to issue all major stablecoins. McCauley clearly stated that Anchorage has obtained the regulatory approval needed to issue all large stablecoins in the market, serving clients including banks seeking specific goals and stablecoin issuers with distribution channels.

Second, disclosing about 20 institutions queuing to issue stablecoins. These clients include financial institutions and large tech companies, queuing to issue their own stablecoins via Anchorage. McCauley emphasized that agency business is reshaping the industry landscape. Notably, Tether made a strategic equity investment of $100 million in Anchorage Digital in February 2026, with an estimated valuation of about $4.2 billion, and its US-made stablecoin USA₮ for the US market is also issued by Anchorage Digital Bank.

Third, launching the AI-driven “Agentic Banking” platform. Relying on Anchorage’s federal chartered crypto bank license, this platform provides compliant trust, governance, and settlement layers for AI agents, enabling enterprises to allocate funds to AI agents and execute transactions under controllable conditions. The platform has partnered with Google Cloud, which builds an “intelligent layer” supporting discovery and collaboration among AI agents, while Anchorage handles fund execution and settlement.

The high concentration of these three events in time suggests that the market should view them as an organic part of Anchorage’s “compliant issuance + agent payment” dual-driven strategy under the GENIUS Act framework, rather than isolated actions.

How the GENIUS Act Reshapes Industry Rules

From Legislation to Implementation Key Nodes

On July 18, 2025, the U.S. “Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act” (Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act, i.e., GENIUS Act) was officially signed into law, after passing the Senate 68-30 and the House 308-122. This is the first federal law in U.S. history targeting digital assets.

The core institutional arrangements of the bill can be summarized as follows:

• Issuance Access: Establishing the “Permitted Payment Stablecoin Issuer” system, including three pathways: subsidiaries of depository institutions (approved by federal banking regulators), federally qualified non-bank issuers (approved by OCC), and state-qualified issuers.
• Reserves Requirements: Issuers must maintain at least 1:1 high-quality liquid assets, including USD cash, deposits at depository institutions, U.S. Treasuries with remaining maturity no more than 93 days, and other federal government liquid financial instruments. The bill prohibits paying interest or any yield to stablecoin holders.
• Legal Classification: Clarifies that payment stablecoins are payment and settlement tools, neither national currency nor securities or commodities. Stablecoins are not protected by federal deposit insurance.
• Large Issuer Upgrade Mechanism: If a state-level issuer exceeds a certain scale threshold, it must upgrade to a federal regulatory framework to prevent regulatory arbitrage.
• Effective Window: The bill will take full effect no later than January 18, 2027, or 120 days after the issuance of implementing rules by the main federal stablecoin regulators, whichever is earlier.

In legislative evolution, the CLARITY Act was passed by the House in July 2025, aiming to resolve the industry’s long-standing issue of classification of digital assets as securities or commodities. In March 2026, the SEC and CFTC jointly issued an interpretive release (Interpretive Release No. 33-11412), establishing a five-category classification system for digital assets. Stablecoins are explicitly excluded from securities, but algorithmic or yield-bearing stablecoins may still fall into securities. This provides a more refined coordinate system for the compliance boundaries of the stablecoin industry.

Why Anchorage

Anchorage Digital obtained a federal banking charter approved by the OCC in 2021, becoming the first federally chartered crypto bank in the U.S. This constitutes a structural first-mover advantage under the GENIUS Act framework—holding a federal banking license means that institutions naturally meet the qualification requirements for “subsidiaries of depository institutions” issuing stablecoins, saving time and uncertainty compared to starting from zero. McCauley has publicly stated that Anchorage aims to be the infrastructure provider for crypto banks, hoping all banks become crypto banks. Anchorage completed its upgrade from a licensed bank to a stablecoin issuance infrastructure provider within the window period after the GENIUS Act’s implementation.

Data and Structural Analysis: Enterprise Stablecoin Supply Map

Core Data Highlights

All information below is a summary of publicly available data as of May 8, 2026:

• Number queuing: About 20 banks and tech giants are queuing to issue stablecoins via Anchorage.
• Licensing coverage: Anchorage has obtained all major stablecoin issuance authorizations.
• Partnership network: On April 30, 2026, Anchorage partnered with M0, which provides modular stablecoin design and interoperability layers; Anchorage offers issuance, custody, and reserve management backend, forming an integrated issuance solution.
• Disclosed issuance cases: Western Union’s USDPT launched on Solana with Anchorage as issuer; Tether’s US market-facing USA₮ is also issued by Anchorage Digital Bank; Ethena Labs’ USDtb (with Anchorage as sole issuer), OSL’s USDGO, and others are also issued by Anchorage Digital Bank.
• Strategic investments: Tether invested $100 million in Anchorage Digital in February 2026, deepening cooperation in regulated digital asset infrastructure.
• International expansion: In February 2026, Anchorage launched “Stablecoin Solutions” for international banks, supporting multiple stablecoins including Tether US₮, Ethena Labs USDtb, OSL USDGO, and Western Union USDPT (future issuance at that time).
• Platform capabilities: Agentic Banking has partnered with Google Cloud, covering identity verification, policy control, and settlement across crypto and traditional finance systems.

Overall stablecoin market data:

• Market size (as of May 2026): MakerDAO’s USDS surpassed $5 billion, becoming one of the fastest-growing stablecoins. The overall stablecoin market continues to expand, with Wall Street analysts generally predicting that under the regulatory certainty brought by the GENIUS Act, the market could continue to swell from trillions of dollars in the next decade.
• Institutional adoption pace: PayPal expanded PYUSD to over 20,000 merchants in April 2026; Visa disclosed in Q2 2026 earnings that stablecoin card payments increased by 200% YoY, with over 160 card projects, and annualized stablecoin settlement reaching $7.00 (original data format abnormal); BitPay reported in April 2026 that stablecoins accounted for 18% of its payment processing volume and are still growing.

Corporate Stablecoin Supply Structure

Based on the above data, the current corporate stablecoin issuance market can be preliminarily divided into three participant categories:

First, bank-based stablecoin issuers. Represented by SoFi. In December 2025, SoFi launched the fully reserve-backed USD stablecoin SoFiUSD through its national bank subsidiary SoFi Bank, N.A., becoming the first nationwide bank to issue stablecoins on a public permissionless blockchain. SoFi positions itself as “infrastructure provider for stablecoins,” offering white-label stablecoin issuance or SoFiUSD integration services for banks, fintechs, and large enterprise platforms. In May 2026, SoFiUSD expanded to Solana, with enterprise banking head Ben Reynolds citing “low transaction costs, extremely fast settlement, and high throughput” as reasons for choosing Solana.

Second, licensed infrastructure providers (represented by Anchorage). These institutions do not issue their own brand stablecoins but provide regulated issuance, custody, and settlement infrastructure for third parties. Anchorage’s clients include banks with specific use cases, stablecoin projects with distribution channels, and payment platforms or fintechs seeking on-chain dollar embedding. Tether’s $100 million strategic investment further reinforces this model’s market recognition.

Third, large enterprises’ own stablecoins and regional projects. Payment giants like PayPal have launched PYUSD and are expanding use cases. Fiserv, in partnership with North Dakota banks, plans to launch the state-supported stablecoin Roughrider Coin in 2026, positioned as the first stablecoin issued at the state level in the U.S., targeting state banks and credit unions, aiming to facilitate interbank transactions and global fund flows.

Structurally, the core driver of the enterprise stablecoin narrative is: the regulatory certainty provided by the GENIUS Act lowers entry barriers for institutions, and licensed institutions quickly seize the infrastructure layer, forming a closed-loop service capability from issuance, custody, to settlement.

Public Opinion Dissection: Optimistic Narratives, Competition Concerns, and Political Games

Public opinion around the enterprise stablecoin issuance wave roughly divides into three orientations:

Optimistic view: Represented by Anchorage itself and industry researchers, believing that the regulatory clarity brought by the GENIUS Act will drive the stablecoin market to grow from current trillions of dollars to over a quadrillion in the next decade. McCauley’s statement that “agency business is reshaping the industry landscape, stablecoins and digital assets are reconstructing money itself” reflects this stance. SoFi CEO Anthony Noto also calls blockchain a “supercycle of technology,” believing it will fundamentally change every aspect of payments and finance.

Concerns about competition: A December 2025 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis pointed out that while the GENIUS Act has built a regulatory framework, the specific implementation rules are still being formulated, and the timing and standards of rules from various federal agencies will directly impact industry progress. Additionally, the bill distinguishes compliance obligations for primary and secondary market stablecoin trading, with uncertainties remaining in secondary market compliance boundaries.

Political dimension: Senator Elizabeth Warren warned of “major loopholes” in the GENIUS Act during its passage, which could allow tech giants like Meta to re-enter the stablecoin space with minimal regulation. On May 7, 2026, Warren publicly questioned Meta’s integration of stablecoins regarding financial stability, illegal finance, and consumer protection, demanding responses by May 20, 2026. This indicates ongoing regulatory and political controversies surrounding big tech’s entry into stablecoins.

Industry Impact Analysis: Three-layer Restructuring of Infrastructure

First layer: reshaping from “permissionless issuance” to “licensed access”

Before the GENIUS Act, U.S. stablecoin issuance was in a regulatory gray area. After implementation, issuance is explicitly under federal banking regulation, with only licensed entities permitted to issue legally. This shifts industry barriers from “technical capability” to “license acquisition.” As the earliest federally licensed crypto bank, Anchorage’s “license first-mover advantage” is transforming into actual client acquisition power.

For banks, fintechs, and enterprise platforms wishing to issue branded stablecoins, self-building issuance channels require a lengthy licensing process, whereas partnering with licensed institutions like Anchorage enables “compliance-as-a-service” rapid deployment. This division is fostering a new layer of financial infrastructure—an intermediary B2B stablecoin issuance infrastructure not directly retail-facing. Tether’s $100 million investment in Anchorage is essentially recognition of this infrastructure’s value.

Second layer: cross-border agency mechanisms for non-U.S. bank stablecoins

In February 2026, Anchorage launched “Stablecoin Solutions” for international banks, providing compliant USD stablecoin issuance, custody, and settlement services as an alternative to traditional correspondent banking. McCauley describes it as “bank-to-bank providing a federally regulated USD global circulation channel, without sacrificing custody, compliance, or operational control.”

Global correspondent banking relationships have declined over the past decade, with high costs, delays, and shrinking coverage. If stablecoin-based cross-border settlement scales, its impact on international payment infrastructure will be structural—especially for emerging-market banks facing dollar liquidity issues. Western Union’s USDPT on Solana, issued by Anchorage, exemplifies this transition from traditional cross-border infrastructure to blockchain.

Third layer: financial infrastructure for AI agent economy

Anchorage’s Agentic Banking platform, together with emerging AI agent payment schemes, forms a new narrative: building financial infrastructure for the AI agent economy.

On May 7, 2026, AWS, Coinbase, and Stripe jointly launched an USDC-based AI agent payment track. AWS introduced Bedrock AgentCore Payments, enabling developers to configure digital wallets and automated payments for AI agents, allowing execution of micro-payments (even below $0.01) for resource and service acquisition; Coinbase’s x402 protocol automates on-chain payments for unlocking paid services; Stripe’s machine payment protocol supports real-time streaming billing based on computation.

Other key developments include:

• MoonPay’s MoonAgents Card: Launched on May 1, 2026, a virtual Mastercard debit card allowing AI agents to spend stablecoins directly from self-custodied wallets, with real-time crypto-to-fiat conversion during transactions, via MoonPay, Monavate, and Mastercard partnership.
• RedotPay and Tempo: Using Tempo’s Machine Payments Protocol, AI agents can perform fully automated transactions from product search to settlement on RedotPay. The first payment skill is expected online by June 2026.
• Visa’s strategic focus: In Q2 2026 earnings call, Visa explicitly prioritized AI, agent economy, ecosystem interoperability, and stablecoin settlement as growth directions. CEO McInerney called AI and agent economy “major opportunities,” with net income up 17% YoY.

Current AI agent economy faces a bottleneck: traditional payment infrastructure (credit card flows, two-factor authentication, manual authorization) is unsuitable for autonomous machine transactions. Stablecoins’ programmability, low cost, and near-instant settlement make them a natural payment layer for AI agents. Anchorage’s Agentic Banking positions itself as a hub between AI decision-making and financial settlement—enforcing corporate spending policies, KYA (Know Your Agent) standards, and real-time compliance, then settling via stablecoins, fiat, or tokenized vouchers.

Conclusion

The implementation of the GENIUS Act essentially provides a legal answer to the core question: “Who issues USD stablecoins, and under what standards?” The answer: licensed financial institutions—banks and their subsidiaries, OCC-approved non-bank issuers, and federally compliant state-level issuers.

Legal clarity is rapidly translating into industry action. Anchorage’s about 20 queued clients, SoFiUSD’s issuance and expansion to Solana, Western Union’s USDPT on Solana, and the dense rollout of AI agent payment infrastructure like Agentic Banking all reflect this momentum. Tether’s $100 million strategic investment, Fiserv’s Roughrider Coin project with North Dakota banks, further demonstrate that both native crypto institutions and traditional financial infrastructure providers are actively deploying in this space.

However, the rapid narrative development raises two fundamental issues: first, whether enterprise stablecoins can truly break into the market already dominated by USDT and USDC’s network effects, with key scenarios including cross-border agency banking, brand ecosystem loops, and AI automation—these directions are clear but scaling needs time; second, the AI agent payment represented by Agentic Banking remains at the infrastructure deployment stage—AWS’s Bedrock just launched, MoonPay’s MoonAgents card just went live, RedotPay and Tempo’s payment skills are only expected to be online by June 2026—moving from “AI agents can pay” to “AI agents perform large-scale autonomous transactions” requires maturity in technology, user habits, and regulation.

In the coming years, the construction of compliant stablecoin infrastructure will continue, and the ultimate winner may not be the one with the strongest technology, but the one most adept at integrating licensing advantages, technological capabilities, and payment scene depth. The narrative of money’s reconstruction has just begun, and the ending is far from written.