National Cryptocurrency Association
By Stu Alderoty
President, National Cryptocurrency Association
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For years, the crypto conversation has been dominated by questions about coin prices, speculative trading and whether digital assets would ever have a place in mainstream finance. But now the conversation is finally catching up to the technology.
The next chapter of crypto will have much less to do with speculation and much more to do with something that is core to crypto's promise: how money moves.
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Stablecoins are digital assets designed to maintain a stable value, typically by being backed by U.S. dollars or other liquid assets like U.S. Treasuries. And they are increasingly being used to do things that traditional financial rails can’t do: move money quickly and efficiently, 24/7. Last year, roughly $33 trillion in transaction volume moved through stablecoins, a scale that illustrates how far the technology has come.
Stablecoins began largely as a tool to trade crypto. Today, banks, financial technology companies, payment providers and other financial institutions are exploring them as another way to move dollars. The power of stablecoins isn’t about replacing traditional finance but rather supercharging it.
Consider what that looks like in practice. Merchants and business owners get paid faster by their customers, which allows them to pay their suppliers around the clock without waiting for traditional rails to clear. Family members can remit money back home at a fraction of the usual cost. All of these use cases provide an alternative to traditional payment rails.
None of those use cases requires consumers or merchants to become crypto experts. In fact, technology is most successful when you don't have to think about it at all. Do you really know how your iPhone works?
The shift is already beginning to happen. Recognizing that stablecoins are moving into mainstream payment flows, Visa has expanded its stablecoin settlement pilot to allow issuers and acquirers to settle with the network using stablecoins. Mastercard already enables people to spend stablecoin balances at more than 150 million merchant locations worldwide. And major banks are exploring tokenized money and blockchain-based settlement for commercial payments.
These aren't signs that traditional finance is being displaced. They are signs that traditional finance is modernizing.
There is a tendency to frame the future of finance as a contest between crypto and banks. That is the wrong lens. The reality is that each brings something the other lacks.
Traditional financial institutions bring trust, compliance, customer relationships and enormous existing networks. Blockchain-based infrastructure can offer faster settlement and the ability to move value around the clock. Combining those strengths could produce better financial products and services than either side could deliver alone.
The regulatory landscape is evolving alongside the tech. Last year, Congress passed the GENIUS Act, establishing the first federal regulatory framework specifically for payment stablecoins. The law requires permitted stablecoin issuers to back their tokens one-to-one with U.S. dollars or Treasuries and includes consumer protection standards, from disclosure to redemption.
That was an important step. But it is not the end of the policy conversation. The Senate is now weighing the broader Clarity Act, which would establish a regulatory framework for digital assets beyond stablecoins.
Whether rules come from laws passed by Congress and/or rules adopted by financial regulators like the CFTC and the SEC, smart regulation should not get in the way of technological change. It should create clear rules that allow responsible innovation to flourish while protecting consumers and maintaining the integrity of the financial system.
Regardless of where the rules come from, financial institutions are not waiting for every policy question to be settled before adopting blockchain-based infrastructure to improve payments. Consumers aren't waiting, either. As mainstream and familiar financial companies integrate digital assets into products people already use, the distinction between traditional finance ("TradFi") and decentralized finance ("DeFi") will become increasingly difficult—and increasingly unnecessary—to define.
But technology and regulation are only part of the equation. Education matters, too. The National Cryptocurrency Association found that a lack of understanding remains the biggest barrier to crypto adoption. Nearly half of Americans who don't own crypto say they haven't participated because they don't understand it well enough to feel confident.
Consumers need clear, accessible information about what these technologies do, where they provide value and what risks they carry. Stablecoins' next chapter should not be about selling anyone on crypto. It should be about solving problems and ensuring everyone understands the potential benefits and risks.
If a tool can help a small business get paid faster, help a family send money more affordably or help financial institutions settle customer transactions more efficiently, that is worth exploring—regardless of what we call the technology behind it.
The future of finance does not have to be crypto versus traditional finance. It can be the traditional finance we already know and trust, with even better infrastructure. That may ultimately be the most important promise of stablecoins: not that they replace the financial system we already use, but that they quietly make that system faster, more efficient and more useful for everyone.
Stu Alderoty is president of the National Cryptocurrency Association.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.
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