Now, money and assets are undergoing their own fundamental transformation.

It’s all happening by way of tokenization on the blockchain. On-chain tokenization is moving from concept to practice, with players like Visa, Mastercard, J.P. Morgan and other commercial banks exploring or piloting real-world tokenized payment and financial systems.

For chief financial officers and corporate treasurers, tokenization isn’t just a tech issue; it could represent a capital strategy shift.

As recently as Friday (April 18), Vera Capital announced a partnership with Blocksquare to tokenize “a substantial portfolio of commercial and multifamily real estate assets” across the United States, having already tokenized a $5.4 million commercial property in Fort Lauderdale.

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink also wants all assets to be tokenized on a blockchain and tradable online, writing in his shareholder letter: “Every stock, every bond, every fund — every asset — can be tokenized.”

At its most fundamental level, tokenization refers to representing real-world assets, such as fiat currency, deposits, securities and investment contracts, as digital tokens on a distributed ledger. These tokens can then be transferred, programmed or settled in ways traditional systems don’t allow.

Tokenization isn’t a cryptocurrency play. Tokenization helps give businesses and financial services stakeholders a way to move value faster, cheaper and more securely across different networks. It’s about modernizing the movement of money and assets while democratizing investment access to institutional-grade products.

See also: Stablecoin Sandwiches? Here’s What CFOs Need to Know About Crypto Jargon

What Is on-Chain Tokenization?

Unlike traditional digital assets, which are typically ledger entries in a private system (like a bank or card network), on-chain tokens are blockchain-native. They can be programmed, split, audited or transferred with a few lines of code, and often faster than traditional methods allow.

These tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) can be anything: fiat currency (like dollars or euros), real estate, equities, loyalty points or invoices.

Payments giants aren’t waiting on regulators to get started prototyping. Last year, Visa tested the settlement of stablecoins. J.P. Morgan’s JPM Coin is now facilitating billions of dollars in daily transactions, primarily for institutional clients.

“Banks are in the state where they are thinking about blockchains as public infrastructure that they need to rely on,” Chainalysis co-founder and CEO Jonathan Levin told PYMNTS this month.

“When we started the business in 2014 … cryptocurrency only meant blockchains that had native cryptocurrency tokens,” he said. “Today, people are putting all types of financial instruments on the blockchain.”

As appetite grows from corporate treasurers for 24/7 programmable money, tokenization could provide tangible benefits to companies managing global supply chains, complex vendor networks or digital platforms. While tokenized payments are not a panacea, they can help to solve specific, persistent pain points in the global movement of money.

Read also: 3 Things Payment Stakeholders Can All Agree on About Stablecoins

The Relevance for Payment Leaders

Cross-border payments, treasury management and programmable contracts are among the emerging real-world use cases for on-chain RWA.

Traditional correspondent banking networks are fragmented and slow. Tokenized fiat or deposits on a shared ledger allow for near-instant cross-border transfers, potentially collapsing multiday settlement windows into minutes or seconds. This is among the main benefits of stablecoins, an increasingly popular payment mechanism that involves the tokenization of fiat and other reserve backings.

At the same time, multinational corporations can struggle with liquidity fragmentation across jurisdictions. Tokenized deposits can be moved 24/7 across entities or regions, enabling just-in-time funding and optimizing working capital.

Blockchain-based smart contracts can also allow conditional or milestone-based payments to execute automatically, which could prove useful for trade finance, supply chains or royalty payments. Ultimately, tokenization’s benefits such as real-time liquidity, conditional payments and borderless value exchange can create competitive advantages.

Two primary roadblocks to scalable utility across the enterprise are regulatory fragmentation and digital identity.

Regulatory alignment remains patchy, especially across borders. Cybersecurity and smart contract auditing are still evolving. And adoption depends not just on technology, but on user trust and industry coordination.

Sensitive financial data and transactions may be increasingly exposed to public scrutiny on-chain, so there’s a pressing need to address privacy and identity challenges within crypto.

However, the marketplace isn’t standing still, and work is being done to overcome these challenges. For forward-thinking finance leaders, it could be worth entertaining that the next decade of payments may be built not just with APIs and rails, but with tokens, smart contracts and interoperable ledgers.

For all PYMNTS digital transformation and B2B coverage, subscribe to the daily Digital Transformation and B2B Newsletters.

The post The Digital Asset Primer: On-Chain Tokenization for Payments Professionals appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

Trading market infrastructure company LSEG is among the first to open an account. Its SwapAgent division and global commodities firm Trafigura will are the first to open London-based blockchain accounts, which aim to streamline 24/7 real-time payments and foreign exchange (FX) settlements across global financial centers. This roll-out expands upon earlier Kinexys launches — most notably, the EUR-denominated blockchain accounts in Frankfurt — and underscores the firm’s push to increase operational efficiency and reduce transaction friction for multinational corporations.

Key Points From the Announcement:

• 24/7 Cross-Border Transactions: Clients can now seamlessly transact among USD, EUR and GBP anytime, including on weekends and beyond traditional branch cut-off times.
• Enhanced FX Capabilities: By integrating same-day and near-real-time settlements into its blockchain framework, J.P. Morgan Chase provides improved flexibility and speed for corporate treasury operations.

SwapAgent, an LSEG Post Trade Solutions business, plans to leverage these new accounts for its digital post-trade services pilot project, with a view to broadening its blockchain adoption. “Integrating the innovative Kinexys Digital Payments blockchain deposit accounts into our SwapAgent offerings could allow us to operate beyond traditional branch cut-off times and manage settlements in a programmable manner in the future,” said Nathan Ondyak, CEO at SwapAgent.

Meanwhile, Trafigura, one of the world’s largest commodities suppliers, plans to harness the London-based accounts to support 24/7 global payments across financial hubs in New York, London and Singapore. Chris McLaughlin, Global Head of Group Treasury at Trafigura, said the collaboration “will enable us with 24/7 near-real-time payments across major global financial centers” and offer greater efficiency for real-time cross-border transactions.

According to J.P. Morgan, since its inception in 2019, the Kinexys platform has processed over $1.5 trillion in transaction volume, with average daily transactions exceeding $2 billion and registering 10x year-over-year growth in payments. In addition to deposit accounts, KDP provides a Programmable Payments feature with an “if-this-then-that” interface, allowing corporate clients to automate treasury workflows and enhance liquidity management.

In November, J.P. Morgan announced a significant enhancement to its blockchain platform, recently rebranded from Onyx to Kinexys. The bank will integrate Kinexys Digital Payments with J.P. Morgan FX Services, enabling on-chain FX settlement. This move positions Kinexys as a key player in the landscape of digital cross-border payments and foreign exchange.

Initially supporting USD and EUR, with plans to expand to other currencies, this integration allowed clients to execute near real-time FX transactions and settlements via the J.P. Morgan global FX platform. This is expected to significantly reduce FX settlement risk and accelerate trade settlements, potentially revolutionizing how businesses manage international payments.

“Together with our clients, we aim to move beyond the limitations of legacy technology and realize the promise of a multichain world,” said Umar Farooq, co-head of J.P. Morgan Payments said at the time. “Our goal is to foster a more connected ecosystem to break down disparate systems, enable greater interoperability and reduce the limitations of today’s financial infrastructure.”

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With the news this week that private equity and insurance giant Apollo has made a strategic investment in Plume, a blockchain platform focused on RWAs, boardrooms and treasury offices are now paying closer attention to efficiencies gained by turning real-world assets into digital ones through tokenization.

The Plume investment follows Apollo’s January partnership with RWA infrastructure provider Securitize to tokenize investment opportunities.

As digital transformation reshapes capital markets, RWAs represent a potent convergence of blockchain technology and traditional finance. For chief financial officers (CFOs) and corporate treasurers charged with steering balance sheets, optimizing liquidity and mitigating risk, RWAs could offer both compelling opportunities as well as new layers of complexity.

Unlike cryptocurrencies, which derive their value from consensus and scarcity, RWAs are anchored in real-world value and can often generate cash flow. For CFOs, this shift signals a move from speculative digital assets toward instruments that might be able to play tangible roles in liquidity management, yield generation and even collateralization strategies.

Read also: Need for On-Chain Trust Grows as AI Agents Flood Crypto

The Institutional Shift Toward RWAs

Real-world assets are tangible or intangible assets — such as U.S. Treasuries, real estate, invoices, carbon credits, securities or even art — that have been tokenized and placed on a blockchain. Tokenization refers to the process of issuing a digital token that represents ownership or a claim on an underlying asset. These digital representations are often embedded with smart contracts that automate compliance, yield disbursements and governance functions.

Once these assets are tokenized, organizations and enterprises can take advantage of automated processes on various blockchains which can reduce transaction fees, streamline settlement times and enhance operational efficiency. Additionally, tokenizing traditionally illiquid assets makes them easier to buy, sell and trade on secondary markets.

Major financial players, and not just Apollo, are taking RWAs seriously. BlackRock recently launched its first tokenized fund on the Ethereum blockchain, backed by short-term U.S. Treasurys. JPMorgan’s Onyx platform has already settled billions in tokenized collateral transfers, while Citigroup partnered with Wellington Management and WisdomTree to explore the tokenization of private markets.

Earlier this year, it was also announced that Ondo Finance would be the first provider to bring real-world assets to Mastercard’s Multi-Token Network (MTN).

“Banks are in the state where they are thinking about blockchains as public infrastructure that they need to rely on,” Chainalysis Co-founder and CEO Jonathan Levin told PYMNTS. “Back in 2014 … cryptocurrency only meant blockchains that had native cryptocurrency tokens. Today, people are putting all types of financial instruments on the blockchain.”

For CFOs and treasurers responsible for safeguarding corporate capital and ensuring optimal deployment, RWAs present novel use cases across several financial disciplines.

See also: Stablecoin Sandwiches? Here’s What CFOs Need to Know About Crypto Jargon

Strategic Considerations for CFOs and Treasurers

Digital asset fluency is quickly becoming a core competency for finance teams. The blockchain can offer CFOs and treasurers a powerful toolkit, but, like all advanced technologies, it is one that must be wielded with precision and foresight.

PYMNTS Intelligence this year found that blockchain technology has numerous potential benefits to serve the unique needs of regulated industries, including finance, healthcare, identity verification and supply chain management, to name a few.

But holding tokenized assets requires secure digital custody solutions. Custodians must be vetted not only for cybersecurity but also for their legal and compliance frameworks. Additionally, many RWA platforms still rely on centralized issuers who can pose operational or credit risk.

Among the biggest uncertainty impacting the RWA space, just as with the rest of the on-chain economy, is the lack of operational clarity around regulation in the U.S. marketplace. But the tide is beginning to turn.

“The largest financial institutions are eager to explore tokenized assets,” Nikola Plecas, head of commercialization, Visa Crypto, told PYMNTS, but added that they require regulatory certainty to do so at scale.

PYMNTS covered Wednesday (April 9) how crypto industry participants and attorneys told a House subcommittee that existing regulations from the SEC lack clarity and are outdated, while the lawmakers in attendance said new legislation tied to market structure and oversight would be forthcoming.

The post The CFO and Treasurer’s Guide to Digital Assets appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

The retail gaming destination also announced this update to its investment policy in a Form 10-K filed Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), saying that a portion of its cash or future debt and equity issuances may be invested in bitcoin.

“We have not set a maximum amount of Bitcoin we may accumulate, and may sell any Bitcoin we may acquire,” GameStop said in the Form 10-K.

The company said in the filing that its bitcoin strategy has not been tested and may prove unsuccessful, and that the firm is continually examining the risks and rewards of its strategy.

“The Bitcoin markets have historically experienced significant volatility in price, limited liquidity and trading volumes, relative anonymity, potential susceptibility to market abuse and manipulation, compliance and internal control failures at exchanges and other risks inherent in its entirely electronic, virtual form and decentralized network,” GameStop said.

GameStop announced this move on the same day it reported its fourth quarter and fiscal year 2024 results and said it would not hold a conference call on Tuesday.

The company said its net sales totaled $3.823 billion in fiscal year 2024, down from $5.273 billion the previous year. Its net income was $131.3 million, up from $6.7 million in fiscal year 2023.

During the fourth quarter, GameStop completed its divestiture in Italy and its wind-down of store operations in Germany, according to the Tuesday earnings release.

The gaming retailer has been facing challenges as it adjusts to the rise of digital distribution and changing consumer behavior, PYMNTS reported in December.

GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen has been cutting costs and streamlining operations as he works to revive the struggling brick-and-mortar business, CNBC reportedTuesday.

The report noted that GameStop’s plan to buy bitcoin with its corporate cash is a strategy made famous by MicroStrategy, which is now known as Strategy. That firm saw a rapid but volatile rise in its stock after it invested billions of dollars in bitcoin and became the largest corporate holder of that cryptocurrency.

The post GameStop Board Votes to Add Bitcoin as Treasury Reserve Asset appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said an audit is “our top priority,” but did not specify which accounting firm the company is talking with or when the audit would be conducted, Reuters reported Friday (March 21).

The company has said for years that it will release a full financial audit, but it has so far released only quarterly reports on its reserves compiled by accounting firm BDO Italia, according to the report.

Tether has issued more than $140 billion worth of its dollar-pegged stablecoin and says it holds dollar-denominated reserves for every token it creates, the report said.

Ardoino said getting an audit of Tether’s reserves will be easier under President Donald Trump, who has pledged to be a “crypto president,” per the report.

“If the President of the United States says this is a top priority for the U.S., Big Four auditing firms will have to listen, so we are very happy with that,” Ardoino said, per the report.

Tether’s latest attestation report, which was conducted by BDO, said that as of Dec. 31, the reserves for Tether tokens in circulation amounted to about $143.7 billion and the value of assets composing the reserves exceeded the value of the liabilities of the companies issuing Tether tokens by about $7.1 billion.

The company said in a March 3 press release that it appointed a new chief financial officer, Simon McWilliams, as part of its “firm commitment” to completing a full audit and expanding across the institutional financial system.

“Simon’s expertise in financial audits makes him the perfect CFO to lead Tether into this new era of transparency,” Ardoino said in the release. “With his leadership, we are moving decisively toward a full audit, reinforcing our role in supporting U.S. financial strength and expanding institutional engagement.”

It was reported in January that Tether is one of the stablecoin issuers that will be boosted by Trump’s executive order on digital assets issued Jan. 23. The order aligned stablecoins with the government’s efforts to maintain the global supremacy of the dollar and blocked a potential competitor to stablecoins by barring development of a central bank digital currency.

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Amid the noise surrounding crypto, tokens and Web3 hype cycles, the most consequential choice for builders, product leaders and decision-makers in the financial services and payments space often boils down to a deceptively simple question: public or private?

After all, not all blockchains are built the same. For stakeholders in financial services and payments ecosystems building infrastructure, developing new products, or simply assessing risks around embracing on-chain operations, understanding the difference between public and private chains is key to informing any crypto or blockchain strategy.

Both iterations of blockchain technology promise some version of faster, more secure and more transparent transactions. But, under the hood, they are fundamentally different; and for institutions operating at scale or under regulatory scrutiny, those differences can matter immensely.

Read more: 5 Blockchain Projects the World’s Biggest Banks Are Behind

Trust in the System, or the System of Trust?

Public blockchains, like Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana, are open networks. Anyone can participate, validate transactions and view the ledger. They’re decentralized by design, governed by protocol rules and maintained by distributed communities of node operators.

Private blockchains, on the other hand, are permissioned systems. Access is restricted to selected participants, usually enterprises or consortia, who control who gets to read from and write to the network. Think of JPMorgan’s Onyx platform and other banking initiatives where a public blockchain’s transparency can inadvertently reveal sensitive information.

Public blockchains offer radical transparency but limited control. For institutions used to operating in closed systems, the idea that anyone could audit their transactions, or build interoperable layers on top of their infrastructure, is both powerful and potentially threatening.

In public chains, trust is algorithmic. Consensus mechanisms like proof of work or proof of stake ensure that no single entity can manipulate the ledger. The system is the source of trust.

Private blockchains, meanwhile, deliver enterprise-grade control and governance. But they sacrifice the kind of transparency and resilience that make public blockchains attractive for high-trust, low-friction applications like cross-border payments, stablecoins or tokenized assets.

In private chains, trust is institutional. Participants must trust the consortium, or the company running the network, not to change the rules unilaterally or abuse access. This can be entirely acceptable for closed-loop systems like supply chain finance, interbank settlement or corporate treasury management.

Read more: Blockchain Interoperability Hits the Right Note for Crypto Payments

Strategic Fit, Not Ideological Purity

Ultimately, the choice between public and private blockchain architectures isn’t about ideology, it’s about strategy. What are you building? Who are you serving? What risks are you managing?

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution. What’s becoming clear is that the future of financial infrastructure will be multi-chain, with smart routing between public and private environments depending on context.

For a global remittance provider seeking interoperability across borders and partners, a public chain might offer better reach and lower friction. For a bank digitizing its internal settlement processes, a private chain may offer better security, governance and control.

On Thursday (March 20), Circular Protocol, Arculus by CompoSecure and IT Lab announced that they plan to launch a blockchain-compliant ecosystem for healthcare providers in the U.S. market in the second quarter. Circular Protocol uses a dual approach, offering both private and public blockchains within its architecture.

While preconceptions have favored private over public blockchain for regulated industries due to strict data privacy requirements public blockchain has numerous potential benefits to serve the unique needs of healthcare and other regulated industries that must adhere to numerous requirements, according to the PYMNTS Intelligence and Solana collaboration, “Blockchain’s Benefits for Regulated Industries.”

Still, as financial institutions tokenize real-world assets (RWAs), FinTechs experiment with programmable payments, and more of consumers and enterprises financial lives moves onto the blockchain, the line between public and private chains is set to blur even further.

For decision-makers in financial services, this is both a challenge and an opportunity. The right blockchain architecture won’t just support your current business model — it will shape your strategic flexibility, regulatory posture and innovation capacity for years to come.

Because in the blockchain world, the architecture is the strategy. And innovative applications of that architecture are already transforming areas such as corporate treasury operations.

The post Making Sense of Public Versus Private Blockchains for Banks appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

The companies’ solution will integrate into clinical networks and serve as the secure passkey for recording, managing and safeguarding healthcare data within facilities using the MedTech device, according to a Thursday (March 20) press release.

The solution will be enabled by the Circular blockchain and by security and software offerings from Arculus by CompoSecure and IT Lab, according to the release.

In use, the ecosystem’s solution will include a physical card holding a private key that will enable authorized administrators, operators and patients to digitally sign off procedures, exams and other transactions on the blockchain by simply tapping the card on their computer, per the release.

“Tech needs to be invisible and easy to use while delivering the benefits of secure and immutable records on a public registry, so the rights of medical institutions and patients are protected, and their data safely stored,” Dr. Gianluca De Novi, founder and CEO at Circular Protocol, said in the release.

Blockchain has numerous potential benefits to serve the unique needs of healthcare and other regulated industries that must adhere to numerous requirements, according to the PYMNTS Intelligence and Solana collaboration, “Blockchain’s Benefits for Regulated Industries.”

The report found that blockchain enables robust know your customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) by verifying identities in real time and providing an immutable record of data and transactions; facilitates secure data sharing between authorized parties by using cryptography and access controls; and, with smart contracts, can enforce rules automatically to aid compliance and reduce human error.

“For example, in healthcare, blockchain’s distributed ledger technology can be leveraged to streamline centralization of patient records while ensuring that only authorized parties have access to their confidential data,” the report said.

At a time when authentication-based fraud is skyrocketing, tap-to-authenticate technology is currently being considered as a security measure by 77% of financial institutions, according to the PYMNTS Intelligence and Arculus collaboration, “To Stamp Out Authentication-Based Fraud, Banks Want Metal Cards.”

The post Circular, Arculus and IT Lab Partner on Healthcare-Focused Blockchain Ecosystem appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

For crypto markets, the answer appears, at least for the past few days, to be “down.” The price of bitcoin and other popular digital assets have plummeted, with crypto markets at their lowest in three months as of Wednesday (March 12). Of course, the equity markets haven’t been doing much better on news of tariff uncertainty.

Still, after years of uncertainty, the regulatory environment around cryptocurrency is beginning to take clearer shape in the U.S. Unlike previous market cycles where stablecoins were largely tied to crypto trading activity, the news this week revealed that there is now a focus on real-world utility, including cross-border payments, remittances and corporate treasury management.

As major players from financial institutions to policymakers continue to make strategic moves, the question, as always, remains: Where is crypto headed next?

Read more: The Payment Professional’s Key Takeaways From Trump’s Crypto Summit

Stablecoins as Bridge Between Traditional Finance and Crypto

Stablecoins have emerged as one of the most promising digital asset classes, with industry leaders touting their potential to revolutionize payments. Traditional financial giants are actively exploring their own stablecoin initiatives. However, regulatory frameworks surrounding stablecoins remain fragmented and have kept certain players on the sidelines. But that’s all beginning to change.

During testimony and under questioning by representatives of the House Financial Services Committee, witnesses, including executives from PayPal and Stripe, told lawmakers Tuesday (March 11) that payment stablecoins, blockchain and other digital innovations, including tokenization, will enable more efficient money movement across the globe, while ensuring primacy of the U.S. dollar.

At the same hearing Tuesday, House Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill, R-Ark., said he supports the development of a federal framework for payment stablecoins and opposes the creation of a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

In his remarks, Hill said he supports two bills recently introduced or re-introduced in the House: the STABLE Act, which is focused on stablecoins, and the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act, which would prohibit a U.S. CBDC.

PYMNTS reported Monday (March 10) how the world’s biggest banks and FinTechs are scrambling to roll out their own stablecoins.

See also: OCC Says Banks Can Hold Crypto, but Should They?

The Regulatory Pendulum Swings

After years of uncertainty, the regulatory environment around cryptocurrency is beginning to take clearer shape.

Under the Trump administration, the first-ever White House “Crypto Summit” signaled a newfound openness to digital assets. While light on specific regulations, the event emphasized America’s need to lead in blockchain innovation and digital finance. President Donald Trump’s remarks reflected a shift in tone, acknowledging crypto’s potential economic impact rather than focusing solely on its risks.

After the White House Crypto Summit held Friday, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency reclarified certain crypto banking permissions, confirming that crypto-asset custody, certain stablecoin activities and participation in independent node verification networks such as distributed ledger are permissible for national banks and federal savings associations, PYMNTS reported.

Despite its promise, the crypto sector continues to grapple with security breaches and high-profile legal cases. The cryptocurrency exchange OKX recently found itself under regulatory scrutiny following a major hack at Bybit, raising concerns about the industry’s ability to safeguard user funds.

Meanwhile, former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is making headlines again, reportedly lobbying for a presidential pardon following his conviction on fraud charges. His downfall remains one of the most dramatic collapses in financial history.

More like this: Regulations Become Crucial as Stablecoins Push Payments Frontier

Crypto Innovation in the Marketplace

On Tuesday, crypto payments network Mesh announced it had raised $82 million in a Series B funding round to accelerate product development and the expansion of its application programming interfaces (APIs).

Elsewhere, cryptocurrency firm Gemini, headed by billionaire twin brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, reportedly filed confidentially for an initial public offering (IPO). Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken is also reportedly preparing to go public as soon as the first quarter of 2026. The plan came after the company settled one case with the SEC and fought another one until the SEC agreed to drop it.

Looking ahead, the future of cryptocurrency will depend on the balance between regulation, innovation and market adoption. If regulatory clarity continues to improve, stablecoins could become the default choice for cross-border payments, bridging the gap between traditional banking and decentralized finance. Meanwhile, as security measures tighten and institutions adopt blockchain-based solutions, trust in digital assets may grow.

Whether driven by regulatory shifts, technological advancements, or evolving consumer behavior, the next chapter of digital finance is being written now.

The post This Week in Blockchain: Stablecoins Distance Themselves From Crypto Markets appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

During testimony and under questioning by representatives of the House Financial Services Committee, witnesses at the nearly four-hour hearing also contended that it is the private sector — and not a central bank-created CBDC — that will expand financial services and the benefits of digital dollar options to the world at large.

Chairman Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., said during his opening remarks: “The evolution of payment stablecoins and their increasing adoption beyond the digital asset ecosystem reflect broader modernization efforts in the U.S. and global payments landscape,” noting that the offerings streamline cross-border payments.  

He stated, too, that a “properly regulated stablecoin market can strengthen the U.S. dollar’s dominance, modernize our payments infrastructure and promote financial access,” but said later that a CBDC represented a “competing vision about the future of digital payments” that would put the central bank in direct competition with the private sector.

Offering a contrasting view of CBDCs, ranking member Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said: “I’m deeply concerned that we are considering a bill today to strip the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau of supervision of big tech payment apps … the Republican resistance to even allow the Fed to study Central Bank Digital Currencies is not only anti-innovation, but is anti-American as it helps China win the digital currency ‘space race’ and undermines the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency.”

Blockchain Moves Money Faster

Caroline Butler, global head of digital assets at BNY, told the committee that “blockchain technology has the potential to make money move smarter and faster,” and said that the overall payments ecosystem, and particularly stablecoins, would benefit from federal legislation that “advances clarity and consistency” no matter the issuer or regulatory regime.

Her written testimony added that tokenization will “result in greater speed, resiliency and operational efficiencies” against a backdrop where the digital assets ecosystem would also include tokenized deposits.

Paxos CEO: Private Sector Leads Innovation, No Need for CBDC

Charles Cascarilla, CEO of Paxos, which issues stablecoins including PayPal’s PTUSD, said in remarks before the committee that “stablecoins are a national imperative for the United States to modernize our financial system and preserve the dollar’s global dominance,” while it will be incumbent on the U.S. to set global standards for financial adoption and interoperability. The U.S. dollar, he said, “must adapt to an always-on, internet-based, software-driven and AI-enabled global economy.” 

Stablecoins, continued Cascarilla, represent the next evolution of money movement: secure, programmable money that moves immediately, 24/7, at near-zero cost.

“This is not science fiction, it exists today thanks to blockchain technology,” he said. 

The financial system already accommodates various forms of dollars: physical cash in your wallet, bank liabilities in an electronic account or balances held in PayPal or Venmo.

“The private sector is the source of financial innovation, and I see no use for a CBDC at this time,” Cascarilla said.

Stripe’s CEO Sees ‘Utility’ in Stablecoins

Patrick Collison, CEO of Stripe (which acquired stablecoin platform Bridge last year), said that stablecoins are providing “real utility today,” as business clients are finding better ways to manage treasury functions and handle international transfers and “to access U.S. dollars overseas … stablecoins are creating economic opportunities for American businesses at this moment.”

Looking at the regulatory environment, Randall D. Guynn, chairman of the financial institutions group at Davis Polk & Wardwell, testified: “It makes sense to base the regulatory framework for stablecoins on the framework of the dual banking system.” He said that the STABLE Act’s 100% reserve requirement should make payment stablecoins as secure and safe as bank deposits. 

Noting that most of the use cases with payment stablecoins have been in settlement and trading activities, Carole House, senior fellow, GeoEconomics Center, Atlantic Council, cautioned that regulatory frameworks promoting new use cases must guard against risks and cybersecurity threats.

“We need to have strong AML protections in place,” she told lawmakers.

During questioning after the testimony, Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Okla., asked if a CBDC might be used by a politicized central bank. Guynn maintained that a CBDC would give “the Federal Reserve staff a direct window … into every transaction every person in America makes” and that at least some staff might use that info to serve what they’d deem “worth political goals.”

Looking Toward a Payments Framework

Speaking generally, Rep. John Rose, R-Tenn., asked what Congress “should focus on when aiming to modernize the payments world.”

Citing stablecoins as an example, Collison said: “Putting in place a shared framework with prudent rules will do a tremendous amount of good. More broadly, on payments, Stripe strongly supports the concept of some sort of federal payments charter. There’s no single shared framework for payments companies like Stripe today … We think that with access to things like the Fed’s payment system, we can provide better services to businesses and consumers.” 

He noted that payments are primarily (but not solely) regulated at the state level, “and we don’t think that should go away — but in addition to that there should also be a federal framework.”

Asked about what that framework would look like, Collison said that there are analogues to the a payments charter in other jurisdictions including Europe that would be helpful in the U.S.

The post Stripe, Paxos CEOs Say Payments Ecosystem Needs Stablecoins and Blockchain but Not CBDC appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

On Tuesday (Feb. 25), Bank of America’s CEO Brian Moynihan said in an interview that the bank would “go into” stablecoins if regulation were passed in the U.S., signaling a potential strategic pivot by one of the nation’s largest banks toward digital assets. Bank of America already holds over 80 blockchain-related patents, making it a banking leader in terms of blockchain IP.

But the second part of Moynihan’s commentary was crucial: there exist a number of issues that need to be resolved from a regulation standpoint for banks to be comfortable with embracing stablecoins and other on-chain — particularly public chain — solutions.

On Wednesday (Feb. 26), stablecoin regulation took center stage during the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs subcommittee hearing titled “Exploring Bipartisan Legislative Frameworks for Digital Assets.”

“We have seen stablecoins being used as fast and efficient tools for corporate treasury management,” Jai Massari, the co-founder and chief legal officer at Lightspark, said during her witness testimony at the hearing. “We are starting to see how stablecoins can lower payment frictions and transaction costs, spur new kinds of payments, and, crucially, unlock new kinds of economic activity. We expect access to instant, secure, interoperable communications like email and messaging globally; we should demand the same from payments.”

“For stablecoins to support more mainstream payments use cases, users must be able to think of stablecoins as digital cash. This requires users having confidence that stablecoins are protected by a strong legal framework and operational infrastructure,” Massari added.

This is as true for banks as it is for consumers.

Read more: 5 Blockchain Projects the World’s Biggest Banks Are Behind

Why Regulated Stablecoins Matter

Stablecoins, which are digital assets pegged to stable fiat currencies, offer the benefits of cryptocurrency — such as fast transactions and borderless transferability — but without the volatility. However, until now, regulatory uncertainty has hindered their adoption, particularly among institutional use cases.

Risks for security-critical sectors like financial services remain despite marketplace advances.

According to data from Chainalysis, stablecoins are involved in 63% of illicit crypto transactions, by far the most popular digital asset, having taken the top place from bitcoin in recent years as the tool of choice for criminal activities, including laundering stolen funds and evading sanctions. The 2025 crypto crime report data excludes revenue from non-crypto native crime such as drug trafficking or money laundering, where crypto could be used as a means of payment.

2024 was a landmark year for on-chain crime, with illicit cryptocurrency transactions likely exceeding $51 billion. On Monday (Feb. 24), a judge fined the operator of the OKX cryptocurrency exchange more than $504 million for breaking anti-money laundering (AML) laws. As the payments industry continues to innovate, with cryptocurrencies playing an increasingly central role, balancing innovation with security is critical.

That’s because any maturation of the stablecoin market is likely to be one where compliance and transparency are as important as technology and innovation. This is what could drive continued adoption among banks, corporations and governments.

Read more: What a B2B Stablecoin Strategy Looks Like

Staying Smart About the Road Ahead

The interest from traditional banking players like Bank of America potentially signals not just validation of stablecoin technology but also a strategic shift where banks may eventually use stablecoins for internal liquidity, cross-border transactions and even consumer-facing products.

Other stakeholders within the financial services space are also laying claim to stablecoin’s white space opportunity. PayPal Holding’s senior management laid out a strategy at its annual Investor Day on Tuesday (Feb. 25) and included crypto in its “PayPal 2.0” vision.

The company plans to integrate its PYUSD stablecoin into more of its products this year, including as an option for its more than 20 million small- to medium-sized merchants to pay their vendors, with a focus on cross-border B2B transactions — a market plagued by high fees, slow settlement times and limited transparency.

For businesses with international operations, this development is particularly compelling. Multinational corporations often face the challenge of managing cash flow across different currencies and jurisdictions. A stablecoin could serve as a bridge asset, something PYMNTS explored at the end of last year with Ran Goldi, senior vice president, payments and network at Fireblocks, and Nikola Plecas, head of commercialization, Visa Crypto.

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