Stablecoins have spent years as a niche tool for exchanges and settlement, but that’s changing fast. In this conversation with Marc Boiron, CEO at Polygon Labs, we unpack why stablecoins are starting to move from the back office into real payment experiences—and why the biggest shift may come from enterprises, marketplaces, and banks rather than everyday consumers first.
The short version: stablecoins are becoming useful where payments are slow, costly, or fragmented. That includes cross-border payouts, creator earnings, remittances, and marketplace settlements. It also raises bigger questions about who controls the rails, whether banks will launch their own stablecoins or tokenized deposits, and how governments will respond. If you’re trying to understand where stablecoins fit in the future of money, this post breaks down the shift in plain English.
Why Stablecoins Are Moving Beyond Trading and Settlement
For a long time, stablecoins were most visible in two places: crypto exchanges and settlement flows. They helped people move money in and out of trading positions, and they made transfers between platforms faster than traditional rails. That use case is proven. What’s changing now is the expansion into payment systems. Marc’s view is that this shift is not happening because stablecoins suddenly became trendy. It’s happening because the infrastructure around them is improving, and regulations are becoming clearer. He pointed to the passing of the Genius Act as a moment that removed some of the uncertainty around stablecoins and allowed more practical use cases to emerge. But he also drew an important line: not every payment needs to become a stablecoin payment. Stablecoins are not replacing every payment There are some situations where stablecoins simply do not add much value. For example, if you’re paying for dinner in New York City, there is no real reason to use a stablecoin instead of a card, cash, or mobile wallet. That’s because stablecoins make the most sense when the existing payment system is slow, expensive, or inconvenient. In other words, they are not a universal replacement. They are a better tool for specific problems. This is a key point if you’re trying to understand the market. Stablecoins won’t win by replacing everything. They’ll win by being the best option in places where the current system breaks down. Where the strongest use cases already exist The best examples are often outside developed-market retail payments. Marc highlighted creator payouts in places like the Philippines and Colombia, where Meta is using stablecoins to move money faster and at lower cost. That matters because the problem is not just the transfer itself. The real issue is what happens after the transfer. If someone receives money and can only use it after converting it, paying fees, or waiting for settlement, then the system still feels clunky. Stablecoins become more valuable when they fit into the full money lifecycle—receive, hold, spend, send, repeat.
Why Marketplaces Could Be the First Big Consumer-Friendly Use Case
One of the strongest parts of the discussion was the role of marketplaces like Uber, Careem, and other platform-based businesses. These are not just payment businesses. They sit at the center of large, repeated transactions between consumers, workers, and businesses. That makes them ideal candidates for stablecoin adoption. If a driver, courier, or creator is being paid through a platform, the platform already controls the transaction layer. That means it can potentially offer faster payouts, lower costs, and even more flexible ways to use those funds. Faster payouts change the economics for workers Marc’s point was simple but important: if someone completes a ride or delivery, they should be able to receive that money immediately. Even a delay of a day or two has a real cost. Why? Because money that arrives earlier can be used earlier. That means:
- A worker can earn interest sooner
- A family member can receive support faster
- The recipient has more freedom to move money elsewhere right away
Those are small improvements individually, but they add up to real economic value. This is one reason marketplaces are so interesting. They are not just moving money. They are shaping how money flows through everyday life. Remittances are only the beginning A lot of people think of stablecoins as a remittance tool first. That makes sense. If someone in Dubai sends money home to family, or if a worker in the UAE needs to move earnings across borders, stablecoins can reduce fees and speed up delivery. But Marc argued that the real opportunity is bigger than remittance alone. The next step is not just sending money home. It’s being able to use that balance inside the same ecosystem. Imagine getting paid in stablecoins through a marketplace and then immediately using that balance for another ride, another purchase, or another transfer. That’s when stablecoins stop being an off-ramp tool and start becoming part of the payment experience itself. The ecosystem has to support spending, not just holding This is the part many people miss. It is not enough for stablecoins to exist. There has to be somewhere useful to spend them. Marc used Argentina as an example, where stablecoins are already used in many everyday payment situations because the local payment system is weak. That’s a sign of where the market may be heading in other regions too. The real milestone is when people stop asking, “How do I convert this?” and start asking, “How do I spend this?”
What Stablecoins Mean for Visa, Mastercard, and Banks
The next big question is obvious: if stablecoins can move money more directly, what happens to the existing payment giants? Marc’s answer was nuanced. Visa and Mastercard are not just card brands. They are complex networks that connect consumers, merchants, processors, and banks. Stablecoins do not instantly replace that whole system. But they do create a new option. Stablecoins introduce a real alternative Today, the card is often the interface you use because you don’t have many other good choices. Cash is inconvenient for most online and cross-border use cases. Mobile wallets help, but they still often sit on top of traditional rails. Stablecoins change that by giving merchants and consumers another path. That does not mean everyone will switch immediately. But even the existence of an alternative changes the dynamics. If a merchant can bypass parts of the traditional card stack, that is a real shift. And if consumers can pay through stablecoin-backed cards or wallets, then the competitive pressure increases. The savings may not flow to consumers immediately A lot of people assume that if stablecoins reduce costs, those savings will automatically go to consumers. Marc was skeptical .His view is that some of the savings may be captured by issuers, networks, or banks instead. For example, one major area of savings is pre-funding—the cost of keeping money parked in advance to support payments. Reducing that cost creates value. The question is who gets to keep it. If the card network feels threatened, some of those savings may be passed through to consumers. If not, the economics may stay mostly inside the system. This is why stablecoin adoption by Visa and Mastercard matters so much. It’s both defensive and opportunistic. Banks will likely adapt through tokenized deposits The bank side of the story is just as important. Marc expects banks to move toward tokenized deposits and, in some cases, their own blockchain infrastructure. That does not necessarily mean every bank will launch a stablecoin. In fact, he thinks most banks would prefer not to move deposits out of traditional balance-sheet products and into stablecoins. Instead, they may use tokenized deposits as the bridge. Here’s the logic:
- A customer holds tokenized deposits
- They want to move into stablecoins
- The conversion happens instantly
- Funds can move across chains or networks more easily
- They can move back into tokenized deposits when needed
This creates flexibility without forcing banks to fully abandon their existing models too quickly.
Why Interoperability Will Matter More Than the Number of Stablecoins
One of the most practical points in the conversation was about fragmentation. Right now, there are already many stablecoins in circulation, and many different tokenized deposit systems are being explored. That creates a familiar financial problem: too many assets, not enough seamless conversion. The current system is already messy Marc argued that we already have a version of this problem today. There are many stablecoins, and moving between them is not always smooth. The same is true for different chains and different deposit systems. This is not a reason to stop. It is a reason to build better plumbing. Polygon, for example, is focused on helping money move smoothly between chains and tokens. That kind of interoperability is what turns stablecoins from a set of isolated instruments into a usable financial network. Smooth conversion will make the system feel simpler The funny thing about financial infrastructure is that the backend can be very complicated while the user experience feels simple. That’s probably where stablecoins are headed. Marc pointed out that moving between chains and tokens can already happen in seconds. If the whole experience becomes real-time, users won’t think about the underlying complexity. They’ll just see money moving quickly. That is the real shift. A payment system that settles in seconds feels completely different from one that settles in days, even if the mechanics behind it are just as complex. And from a cost-of-capital perspective, that difference is huge.
What Governments and Regulation Will Do Next
The final big tension is state control. If stablecoins become widely used in countries with weaker currencies, governments will naturally pay attention. In places like Argentina or Turkey, people may use stablecoins as a way to protect themselves from local currency risk. That can be empowering for users, but it also reduces the government’s control over money supply and policy tools. Governments will shape, not eliminate, stablecoins Marc does not think governments will kill stablecoins outright. Instead, he expects them to influence the rules around issuance and use. That may mean more support for non-USD stablecoins, especially in regions where governments want to preserve control over their own currencies. He pointed to European examples and regulatory frameworks that could encourage more local-currency stablecoins over time. So the likely future is not “stablecoins vs. governments. “It is more likely to be a negotiated system where governments allow stablecoins, but within a framework that keeps domestic currency policy intact. Expect more non-USD stablecoins Today, USD stablecoins dominate much of the conversation. That makes sense because the dollar is already a global reserve asset and a popular store of value in countries facing inflation or currency weakness. But Marc expects that pattern to evolve. As more jurisdictions define their own rules, we should see more euro stablecoins, more local-currency stablecoins, and more diversification overall. Polygon already supports around 20 different currencies of stablecoins, and usage is growing. That could eventually lead to a more active forex market inside stablecoins themselves. That’s a big idea, and it opens the door to a much broader financial system than the one most people imagine when they first hear the word “stablecoin.”
The Next Six Months: Where the Real Momentum Will Come From
So what happens next? Marc’s answer was not a single prediction, but a broader pattern: the snowball is already rolling. The biggest shift over the next six months may not come from crypto-native companies. It may come from enterprises. Enterprise adoption may be the real catalyst Right now, many stablecoin announcements come from fintechs and neobanks—companies already close to money movement. The next wave may come from large enterprises and marketplaces with huge payment volumes but less direct involvement in financial infrastructure. Meta is one example. Marketplaces are another. These players move a lot of money and have clear reasons to want cheaper, faster, more programmable payments. If they adopt stablecoins in meaningful ways, the market can change very quickly. The biggest change may be psychological Perhaps the most important shift is not technical at all. When stablecoins move from being an interesting option to being the preferred option in certain workflows, everything changes. That is when the ecosystem starts to feel inevitable rather than experimental. The market stops asking whether stablecoins work. It starts asking where stablecoins should sit in the payment stack. That is the stage we are entering now.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are stablecoins used for today? Stablecoins are most commonly used for trading, settlement, cross-border transfers, and payouts. They are especially useful when speed, cost, or currency stability matters. Will stablecoins replace cards like Visa and Mastercard? Not entirely. Stablecoins create an alternative payment path, but cards still offer a familiar and widely accepted interface. The more likely outcome is hybrid models where stablecoins sit alongside card networks. Are stablecoins useful for everyday consumer purchases? In some places, yes—especially where local payment systems are weak or inflation is high. In developed markets, stablecoins are more likely to gain traction first in payouts, remittances, and backend settlement. Will banks launch their own stablecoins? Some may, but many are more likely to use tokenized deposits as a bridge. That lets them participate in the stablecoin ecosystem without moving away from traditional deposit models too quickly. Why does interoperability matter so much? Because having many stablecoins is not enough if moving between them is hard. The future value of the space depends on smooth conversion across chains, tokens, and deposits.
Stablecoins are no longer just a crypto market tool. As Marc Boiron explains, they are becoming part of a larger shift toward real-time, programmable payments—especially in marketplaces, cross-border payouts, and enterprise workflows. The next phase is not about replacing every payment method, but about making money move faster, cheaper, and with more flexibility where it matters most. If you want to explore the full conversation, watch the complete interview.
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