Stablecoins are no longer just a promise of the crypto ecosystem or a solution for early adopters. Looking towards 2026, they are consolidating as a new rail in payment infrastructure on a global scale. And although maturity is still needed in areas like regulation or user education, the advances are clear: networks like Visa and Mastercard are already incorporating stablecoins into their daily operations, banking institutions are starting to design products with them, and remittance and B2B exchange flows are adopting them for their efficiency, speed, and liquidity.
Undoubtedly, they are positioning themselves as a critical layer in the new digital financial architecture. One that complements cash and cards, allowing real-time payments while moving money globally without friction. For those of us integrating payment infrastructure, this is not just a trend: it's a business opportunity, especially in contexts where traditional infrastructure is costly or fragmented.
Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies whose value is linked to a stable asset, generally fiat currencies like the dollar, and are used to make digital payments without the typical volatility of other cryptocurrencies. Essentially, they combine the stability of traditional money with the agility of blockchain technology. They can be backed in various ways:
By fiat currency reserves with 1:1 parityBy cryptocurrency collateralization, like DAIBy algorithm, meaning no direct backing as they use algorithms to control supply and demandBy government securities or physical assets, like goldAccording to McKinsey, the circulation of stablecoins, mostly issued in US dollars, doubled in the last 18 months. However, they still represent only a fraction of the total money moved globally: less than 1% of global flows, with a daily volume close to 30 billion dollars.
This figure speaks volumes: the growth is real, but the potential is much greater. The challenge is to scale adoption, connect digital rails with concrete use cases, and transition from being a marginal option to becoming a structural part of the global financial system.
The impact of stablecoins is explained by their ability to improve critical points in traditional financial infrastructure: their design allows them to be efficient for international payments, remittances, and e-commerce. For financial institutions, this represents a way to offer faster, more accessible, and secure services: in the B2B sector, over $36 billion in international payments were processed using stablecoins last year, making this currency the category that recorded the most transactions, according to PYMNTS.
Let's look in detail at their most notable advantages:
Lower operational costs: they eliminate currency conversion friction, reconciliation, and bank fees.Greater financial inclusion: they allow operations with digital money without the need for traditional bank accounts.Interoperability: they drive integration between platforms, digital wallets, cards, crypto, and traditional banking systems.In Latin America, structural challenges such as inflation, informality, and low banking penetration explain why this technology can have an even more transformative impact. Compared to traditional, costly, or fragmented rails, stablecoins position themselves as an efficient, transparent, and global alternative.
The major players in the payment system are already taking concrete steps. In April, Visa announced an alliance with Bridge, a Stripe startup specializing in stablecoin infrastructure, to launch cards linked to stablecoins in Latin America. The cards can be issued in Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and Chile, and users can use them in any merchant accepting Visa.
In July this year, the United States Congress approved the GENIUS Act, the first major federal legislation on cryptocurrencies, focused on establishing a regulatory framework for asset-backed stablecoins like the dollar. According to an EY-Parthenon survey, thanks to the regulatory clarity provided by the law, 54% of companies plan to adopt stablecoins in the next 6 to 12 months.
On the embedded finance front, Walmart and Amazon are exploring the development of their own stablecoins as part of their strategy to integrate financial services directly into their ecosystems. Their idea is to issue stable digital currencies, pegged to the dollar, which can be used on their platforms for payments, loyalty benefits, remittances, and more.
Both companies see stablecoins as an opportunity to enhance user experience, reduce operational costs, and strengthen relationships with their millions of customers, especially in geographies with limited access to banking services.
At Pomelo, we believe that a smooth user experience and a competitive cost structure are key to the massive adoption of stablecoins. Therefore, adapting our card issuance and processing infrastructure to the local expectations of each market, without losing efficiency in transaction costs, is crucial. This includes supporting both domestic and cross-border card rails, and offering an experience linked to stablecoins that matches or exceeds what traditional banks offer today.
As our CEO & Co-Founder, Gastón Irigoyen, commented in the latest report published by Privy, a company in the Stripe ecosystem, “Stablecoins signify the emergence of a new financial system that will resolve inefficiencies inherited from the past.”
Stablecoins reflect a deeper change in how we think about payments. And what's at stake is not a new currency: it's a new, more open, efficient, and digital financial infrastructure.
A journalist and Communications graduate born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, she joined Pomelo’s marketing team after writing for media outlets, agencies, and IT companies—experiences that honed her ability to decipher technical information regarding software and blockchain. She is a cinephile who loves music and exploring new places, and—above all—she is a cat lover.
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