Stripe Eyes Stablecoin Integration—Bank Talks Heat Up

Fintech giant Stripe is reportedly in early-stage discussions with major banks to weave stablecoins into its payment infrastructure. The move signals a growing institutional embrace of crypto—or at least the less-volatile flavor of it.

Why now? After years of waffling, traditional finance is finally waking up to the efficiency gains (and cost cuts) of blockchain rails. Stablecoins offer the holy trinity: speed, transparency, and—crucially—a way to bypass SWIFT’s Jurassic-era settlement times.

But let’s not pop champagne yet. Banks love ‘exploring’ innovations right up until they kill them in committee. Remember when JPM Coin was going to revolutionize everything? Exactly.

Stripe bets on the growing role of stablecoins in international payments

BREAKING:

PAYMENT PROVIDER STRIPE IN TALKS WITH BANKS TO USE STABLECOINS FOR GLOBAL PAYMENTS.

BULLISH FOR CRYPTO! pic.twitter.com/HS88dxy00M

— Mister Crypto (@misterrcrypto) May 30, 2025

Stripe made headlines earlier this year by acquiring stablecoin tech startup Bridge for $1.1 billion. Bridge has since then rolled out its own stablecoin, USDB, while Stripe introduced stablecoin accounts in over 100 countries. Collison said a lot of his company’s future payment volume WOULD be in stablecoins, pointing to costly FX fees and multi-day processing times as pain points that stablecoins could address.

Bank technology providers like Fidelity National Information Services Inc., Fiserv Inc., and Jack Henry & Associates Inc. were also considering how to help their customers use the technology. Visa Inc. launched a platform last year to help banks issue stablecoins globally. 

“Regulated bank-issued stablecoins offer faster, more efficient, and globally accessible payment options…With proper regulation, banks will become central players in digital assets, driving innovation while ensuring consumer protection.”

–Julia Demidova, head of digital currencies product and strategy at FIS

Collison hoped that Stripe’s new products would “eat away” at the FX fees that banks and other technology providers charged consumers sending money overseas. He added that traditional money remittance technologies were also very slow.

Stablecoin payment volume reaches $94B

A survey by Artemis found that stablecoin payment volumes have reached $94.3 billion this year, primarily driven by Business-to-business (B2B) transfers. B2B transactions accounted for an annual run rate of $36 billion, and P2P payments had a run rate of $18 billion. Card-linked stablecoin payments followed with $13.2 billion in annual volume, while B2C payments and prefunding had annual volumes of $3.3 billion and $2.5 billion, respectively. The annual run rate pace for these settlements reached $72.3 billion in February 2025.

The report also revealed that B2B stablecoin monthly volumes grew from under $100 million at the start of 2023 to over $3 billion by early 2025. Stablecoin-linked card payments also ROSE from $250 million in monthly volume at the start of 2023 to over $1 billion by the end of 2024. B2C payments increased from $50 million in monthly volume at the start of 2023 to over $300 million by early 2025.

According to the study, approximately 10 million blockchain addresses made a stablecoin transaction every day, and over 150 million blockchain addresses held a nonzero stablecoin balance. Tether’s USDT was the most used stablecoin by volume, with a market share of around 90%, followed by Circle’s USDC. USDT remained the primary stablecoin for B2B transfers, although USDC maintained a 30% share of monthly volumes. The BIS also estimated that around $400 billion of annual cross-border flows were settled in USDC and USDT.

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