Banks ‘very interested’ in stablecoin use —Stripe exec

Payment giant Stripe has reportedly held early discussions with banks about potentially integrating stablecoins, signaling growing acceptance in global banking.

After debuting stablecoin-based accounts in 100 countries in early May, Stripe has noticed significant interest in stablecoins — cryptocurrencies tied to fiat currencies like the US dollar — from global banks.

“In the conversations we have with them, they’re very interested,” Stripe co-founder and president John Collison said in an interview with Bloomberg News on May 30.

“This is not something that banks are just kind of brushing away or treating as a fad. Banks are very interested in how they should be integrated with stablecoins into their product offerings as well,” he stated.

Stablecoins will be a big part of future payments

The growing interest by banks to integrate stablecoins comes from understanding that such cryptocurrencies offer significantly lower transaction costs for payments, including foreign exchange fees by banks.

“It’s extremely expensive to do. It’s very slow. It takes a matter of days,” Collison said. “No one is happy with that equilibrium today. And so I think you will see those kind of profit pools come under attack.”

2024 quarterly transfer volumes of stablecoins vs. Visa and Mastercard. Source: CEX.io

On the other hand, stablecoins offer instant transactions with fees being significantly less than those of FX, Collison said, making a perfect case for payment use globally.

Related: US big banks hold early talks on joint crypto stablecoin: WSJ

“A lot of our future payment volume is going to be in stablecoins,” Collison said. “This is, for sure, a big part of our business on a go-forward basis,” he added.

Stablecoins have already made an impact on traditional finance, beating volumes of Visa and Mastercard combined in 2024.

Stablecoin growth requires green lights from regulators

While showing interest in stablecoins, some jurisdictions like the United Kingdom might be falling behind in the race to attract stablecoin operators if they don’t move faster with regulations, Collison said.

“You have companies that are being set up to serve this industry — if maybe there was a really good regulatory framework, they would choose to base here,” the Stripe exec said, adding:

Collison referred to the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation taking force in late 2024, while the UK Financial Conduct Authority is still seeking public feedback on new stablecoin rules as recently as May 28.

The latest insights by Collison align with reports suggesting that banks in the United States have been seeking even clearer guidelines from the government clarifying what they can do in crypto.

On the other hand, despite falling behind in terms of stablecoin regulation, the UK has seen the largest increase in new crypto owners in the past year, outpacing Europe, according to Gemini.

Magazine: Crypto wanted to overthrow banks, now it’s becoming them in stablecoin fight