In the span of one week in March 2026, Mastercard (MA -0.28%) launched a global crypto partner program with more than 85 digital asset firms and agreed to acquire BVNK, a stablecoin infrastructure start-up, for up to $1.8 billion, the largest stablecoin acquisition on record, according to Fortune. In mid-May 2026, the total stablecoin market cap hit a record $323 billion.
Big banks, credit card networks, and payment processors are no longer watching stablecoin growth from a distance. They are buying in, building products, and lobbying for rules that keep them at the center of how money moves.
What big banks are building to integrate stablecoins
Several of the largest U.S. banks have moved beyond exploration and are launching digital money products, though most are only available to institutional clients at this point in time.
- JPMorgan Chase (JPM +1.15%) launched a U.S. dollar-denominated deposit token called JPM Coin (JPMD) in June 2025. JPMorgan describes the token as enabling 24/7 settlement and interest payments, and says it can be treated as a bank deposit on client balance sheets.
- Citigroup (C -0.10%) offers Citi Token Services, which converts institutional deposits into blockchain-based tokens for instant cross-border settlement. In September 2025, Citi integrated the service with its 24/7 USD Clearing solution for institutional clients in the U.K. and U.S. CEO Jane Fraser stated in July 2025 that the bank is also exploring a dedicated "Citi stablecoin."
- Bank of America (BAC +0.61%) has said publicly it is ready to launch a stablecoin once regulation is clear and customer demand is sufficient, according to multiple 2025 statements from CEO Brian Moynihan.
A coalition of major international banks, including Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs (GS +0.87%), Barclays (BCS -0.58%), BNP Paribas (BNPQY -1.24%), Deutsche Bank (DB -1.43%), UBS (UBS -1.28%), Santander (SAN -2.35%), MUFG (MUFG +0.10%), and TD Bank (TD +0.68%), is also jointly exploring a reserve-backed digital currency tied to G7 currencies and operating on public blockchains, according to a 2025 Wall Street Journal report. That initiative would compete directly with crypto-native issuers like Circle (CRCL -1.58%) and Tether.
How credit card networks and payment processors are responding to stablecoins
Visa and Mastercard are not trying to become stablecoin issuers. Instead, they are positioning themselves as the connective layer between stablecoin wallets and the existing payments infrastructure, a strategy designed to keep their networks essential as stablecoin payments scale.
- Mastercard launched a global crypto partner program in March 2026 with more than 85 digital asset firms, including Circle, Binance, Gemini, PayPal (PYPL -0.11%), Kraken, MetaMask, and Ripple. The program connects stablecoin transactions to Mastercard's global merchant acceptance network.
- Mastercard followed six days later by agreeing to acquire stablecoin infrastructure company BVNK for up to $1.8 billion, including $300 million in performance-contingent payments.
- Visa (V -0.58%) announced in April 2025 that it would accept stablecoins through partners including Bridge, a Stripe-owned platform, allowing customers to link Visa cards to stablecoin wallets. Stablecoins are converted to fiat at checkout, and merchants receive local currency. In November 2025, Visa Direct added an option for recipients to receive payouts in a USD-backed stablecoin while the sending business transacts in fiat.
- PayPal operates its own dollar-backed stablecoin, PayPal USD (COIN:PYUSD), issued by Paxos on Ethereum and Solana. PYUSD can be used at checkout, where PayPal converts it to fiat, and can be transferred domestically at no fee or withdrawn to external wallets for a network fee.
Stablecoins have been pitched as a way to cut credit card network fees entirely. Shopify (NYSE:SHOP) partnered with Stripe and Coinbase (COIN -4.42%) in 2025 to let merchants accept USDC directly, bypassing traditional payment processing networks and fees. Visa and Mastercard's response is to make themselves indispensable to the firms pushing stablecoin adoption rather than compete against them.
The GENIUS Act: rules are in place, final regulations are not
Congress passed the GENIUS Act, short for Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act, on July 17, 2025. President Trump signed it into law the following day.
- The law requires all payment stablecoin issuers to maintain 1:1 reserves in eligible assets: U.S. dollars, demand deposits, or short-term Treasury bills maturing within 93 days, per the Congressional Research Service (2025). Repurchase agreements backed by Treasuries are also permitted.
- Both banks and nonbanks can issue stablecoins under the GENIUS Act, but nonbank issuers require approval from the Treasury Secretary and the chairs of the Federal Reserve and the FDIC. Companies including Walmart (NYSE:WMT) and Amazon (AMZN -0.70%) are reportedly exploring issuing their own coins.
- Federal regulators have until July 18, 2026 to publish final implementing regulations. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued a 376-page proposed rule in February 2026, and the Federal Reserve has not yet issued any proposal. If regulators miss the deadline, the law's substantive requirements default to an effective date of Jan. 18, 2027.
The GENIUS Act does not require stablecoin issuers to meet the same capital standards as traditional banks, a gap critics argue leaves consumers underprotected. Detractors also contend the law does not do enough to prevent stablecoins from being used for illicit transactions.
The OCC projected in early 2026 that stablecoin market cap could reach $500 billion by year-end, up from roughly $200 billion in 2025, per Chainalysis.
Stablecoin risks, according to the Federal Reserve
The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta published an article on stablecoin risks on March 16, 2026. Some of the main takeaways include the following
- Reserve quality and redemption risk are the top structural concerns: regulators need assurance that stablecoin reserves are high-quality, transparent, and redeemable on demand, but those conditions vary across issuers and are not yet uniformly enforced.
- De-pegging events pose a systemic threat: if a major stablecoin issuer, exchange, or counterparty fails, and the value of a stablecoin loses its 1:1 peg to the dollar, a loss of confidence could trigger a run, comparable to bank panics in the pre-deposit insurance era.
- Stablecoin transactions may not be captured in traditional economic data, creating blind spots for monetary policymakers. International standards for stablecoins remain fragmented, and cross-border use adds further complexity.
Data from Chainalysis, a blockchain data platform, cited in the report showed global digital asset use grew significantly in 2025, driven by inflation hedging in Latin America, remittances in South Asia, and geopolitical demand in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. The United States ranked as the world's second-largest regional crypto market in 2025.
$33 Trillion: Stablecoin Transaction Volume Now Exceeds Visa, Mastercard, and American Express Combined
Stablecoin transaction volume reached $33 trillion in 2025, according to blockchain network Morph -- more than Visa, Mastercard, and American Express's transaction volume combined that year, according to data collected from The Nilson Report and American Express's latest quarterly earnings report.
