​Two Sides Of The Same Coin: Making Stablecoins And The Fiat System Work Together

This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.Pratik Khowala is Executive Vice President and Global Head of Transfer Solutions at Mastercard.

gettyRegulatory clarity has opened the stablecoin floodgates. A year on from the GENIUS Act, the first federal law to set clear rules for stablecoins in the United States, stablecoins have moved from the margins of the financial system to the mainstream. Overall stablecoin payment volume reached $390 billion in 2025, more than double the year before. In cross-border payments, businesses and consumers moved $135 billion through stablecoin rails in 2025, up 64% year on year. That’s less than 1% of the total market, but the rapid acceleration has made banks and fintechs across the world rethink how they move money.

The answer is not to create another isolated rail. In a multi-money world where fiat, stablecoins, tokenized deposits and other forms of value coexist, the opportunity is to make them work together. Banks and fintechs need infrastructure that can move value between digital currencies and traditional accounts, cards, wallets and local payment systems, while keeping the experience simple for customers.

Stablecoins can add speed, availability and predictability to cross-border payments because they can move across blockchain networks around the clock. But they are not complete payment networks on their own. To be useful at scale, they need the same capabilities customers expect from mainstream payments: onboarding, compliance, liquidity, clearing, settlement, dispute processes and reliable ways to move into and out of fiat currencies.

The strongest demand is coming from practical cross-border use cases. Businesses want to pay suppliers, partners and workers faster across markets. Payment providers want more flexible ways to fund and settle payouts. Treasurers want to reduce idle balances and manage liquidity more efficiently. Remittance providers want to reach corridors where traditional systems remain slow, expensive or hard to access.

Regulatory clarity helps, but adoption still depends on trust. For stablecoin-enabled payments to scale, banks and fintechs need to make them feel as reliable, secure and simple as the payment experiences customers already know.

That creates a clear infrastructure challenge. A business in Germany paying a supplier in the Philippines may need euros converted into stablecoin, value moved across a blockchain network, funds converted into Philippine pesos and payment delivered to a bank account or wallet, all while meeting anti-money-laundering requirements in each market. The customer should not have to manage that complexity. They simply want to know their payment will work.

A patchwork approach will not hold as volumes grow. Managing separate wallets, chains, liquidity providers, banking partners and compliance processes one corridor at a time creates cost and operational risk. The more durable path is a trusted operating layer that can orchestrate stablecoin and fiat flows across networks, markets and payment endpoints.

That means stablecoin strategy should start with the customer proposition, not the technology. Which use cases matter most: B2B payments, remittances, payouts, settlement, treasury flows or wallet funding? Where does stablecoin add real advantage through speed, availability, liquidity or reach? And how can those capabilities be offered without forcing customers to rebuild around every new innovation?

The second decision is whether to build, partner or connect. Few institutions will want to build blockchain connectivity, wallet infrastructure, liquidity access, fiat conversion rails and multi-jurisdiction compliance controls from scratch. Just as banks connect to card networks rather than building global acceptance and settlement systems themselves, stablecoin infrastructure will increasingly be accessed through trusted platforms that make the underlying complexity invisible.

For banks and fintechs, a practical road map has three parts.

• First, they should connect stablecoins to existing fiat endpoints so customers can pay or get paid through the methods they already use: bank accounts, cards, wallets or local payment networks.

• Second, they must embed trust and compliance into the flow, including screening, transaction monitoring, verified wallet identity and clear controls.

• Third, banks and fintechs should preserve choice so customers can use the right rail, currency or settlement asset for the transaction without being forced into a new ecosystem.

This is where established networks can play a useful role. Cross-border money movement already depends on reach, reliability and connections into the endpoints people and businesses use every day, from bank accounts and cards to wallets and cash. As an example, at my organization, we’ve designed our money transfer system to help bring that kind of global fiat connectivity, while our recent adoption of a stablecoin platform adds capabilities to send, receive, hold, convert and settle value across digital currencies through that platform’s infrastructure.

Together, those capabilities point to a practical path for banks and fintechs: plugging into infrastructure that already connects fiat and stablecoin flows, instead of building the full stack themselves or stitching together fragmented providers and one-off integrations.

Stablecoins will not replace every existing payment rail, nor should they. Their potential lies in expanding choice and making cross-border money movement more connected, flexible and accessible. For banks and fintechs, the question is no longer whether stablecoins belong in the conversation. It is where they create real customer value, and how quickly institutions can connect them into trusted, interoperable payment experiences.

The information provided here is not investment, tax or financial advice. You should consult with a licensed professional for advice concerning your specific situation.

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