FinTech Partnerships Look to Crack Stablecoin On- and Off-Ramp Challenges
Highlights
Stablecoin adoption is growing, with partnerships like Mastercard and MoonPay signaling mainstream interest and proving key to usability, but scalability remains hindered by limited fiat on- and off-ramps, merchant acceptance and regulatory uncertainty.
Stablecoins offer benefits, especially for cross-border payments and emerging markets, thanks to their speed, reliability and programmability, but they require better infrastructure and integration with legacy financial systems.
Banks and FinTechs can act as stablecoin issuers, custodians and fiat liquidity providers, but U.S. regulatory hurdles — highlighted by political blocks like the GENIUS Act — may ultimately shape their future more than the technology itself.
Solutions in search of problems tend to get nowhere. Stablecoins, which have the potential to become widely used for payments, are trying to avoid that fate.
Stablecoins are being held as more than a cryptocurrency curiosity, as evidenced by news Thursday (May 15) that Mastercard launched a stablecoin-focused partnership with crypto payments FinTech MoonPay .
However, the full potential of the fiat-pegged digital asset class remains constrained by limited on- and off-ramp infrastructure and insufficient acceptance among merchants and consumers. There's also the regulatory elephant in the room in the United States.
The benefits of stablecoins can be enticing, particularly in cross-border and emerging market transactions. These programmable dollars (or euros, or pesos) can move at the speed of the internet. They combine the reliability of traditional money with the speed and efficiency of blockchain rails . Still, like all powerful tools, stablecoins' value depends on the system they're part of. That could require legitimate institutions to build the rails, encourage acceptance, align with regulations and integrate with legacy systems. Read More Digital Dollars and a Bitcoin ETF on the Horizon - Bloomberg
On paper, stablecoins may seem like the perfect bridge between two financial worlds. Citi Institute 's Future of Finance think tank projected that the stablecoin market could jump to at least $1.6 trillion by 2030, assuming regulatory support and institutional integration continue apace .
In practice, however, stablecoins can be stuck in a transactional limbo where they are underused and misunderstood. The key to unlocking their full potential could lie in partnerships for seamless fiat on- and off-ramps , as well as widespread acceptance from merchants and consumers.
See also: 3 Things Payment Stakeholders Can All Agree On About Stablecoins The Plumbing of Digital Money: On- and Off-Ramps
For most Americans not actively involved in crypto markets, stablecoins might as well not exist. But most Americans still bank with institutions that are centuries old.
In the crypto economy of certain regions, wallets like MetaMask , Coinbase Wallet and others are the new front ends of finance, and fiat ramps serve as the connective tissue between these wallets and the fiat world.
Today, most stablecoin entry points still rely on centralized crypto exchanges like Coinbase , Binance or Kraken . These platforms offer fiat gateways where users can link bank accounts or cards to buy stablecoins. However , for stablecoins to become ubiquitous , access needs to move beyond crypto-native tools. That means embedding on-ramps into FinTech apps, remittance platforms and retail bank services.
Emerging markets, where banking infrastructure is often limited or unreliable, stand to benefit the most.
For example, Ramp announced May 7 an expansion of its issuing partnership with Stripe to launch stablecoin-backed corporate cards designed to facilitate cross-border transactions. The integration will start with select Latin American markets and then expand to countries in Europe, Africa and Asia .
Currency.com CEO Konstantin Anissimov told PYMNTS this week that there has been 'a big shift in terms of adoption of stablecoin payments that is being driven by uncertainty in geopolitics.'
'I am personally seeing a big increase of small to medium enterprises utilizing stablecoin payments because banking rails are harder and harder to use,' Anissimov said.
Read also: Crypto Firms Chase Bank Charters as Circle Launches Stablecoin Orchestration Layer Can Stablecoins Successfully Change the World's Financial Fabric?
From Shopify plugins to crypto-friendly point-of-sale (POS) systems, technical solutions exist to enable stablecoin acceptance. However, what's lacking is incentive. Traditional payment processors like Visa or PayPal offer reliability, fraud protection and settlement services that most blockchain payment systems can't yet match.
Equally critical are off-ramps — the pathways through which users convert stablecoins back into fiat currency. Without these, stablecoins risk becoming digital dead-ends. Users want to spend, not just hold.
That's in part why, rather than resisting, banks can reposition themselves as custodians of digital assets, offering secure storage and compliance partnerships that handle know your customer and anti-money laundering obligations for stablecoin issuers. At the same time, they can serve as liquidity providers offering fiat backstops and redemption services.
They could even be issuers themselves. Some, like J.P. Morgan , already are.
'I think the largest banks will succeed as stablecoin issuers,' Amias Gerety , former assistant secretary of the Treasury, told PYMNTS in March.
Still, policy could shape the stablecoin trajectory in the U.S. more than technology. Perhaps the most eye-catching development in 2025 has been the President Donald Trump family's foray into stablecoins . The USD1 token, unveiled at a Dubai conference and reportedly used in a $2 billion Binance investment by Abu Dhabi's MGX , raised eyebrows and strategic questions.
That foray , as well as others , resulted in the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins of 2025 (GENIUS) Act , a bill to promote stablecoins , being blocked in the U.S. Senate over political disagreements.
For all PYMNTS digital transformation coverage, subscribe to the daily Digital Transformation Newsletter . See More In: banking, Banks, Bitcoin, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, digital assets, digital currency, digital transformation, digital wallets, FinTech, Government, Mobile Wallets, News, partnerships, PYMNTS News, regulations, stablecoins, Technology
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