The stablecoin talk is loud this earnings season

Stablecoins are catching on. Legislation is creating regulatory clarity—the Treasury Department and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency are busy crafting rules following passage of last year’s Genius Act, while the Clarity Act is gaining traction in Congress. Meanwhile, payments giants like Mastercard and PayPal are making big bets on the digital asset.

Executives of numerous payments companies shared their stablecoin strategies and laid out budding use cases in recent earnings calls.

The regulatory movement and major investments “taken together describe a structural shift, the size of which leaves room for everyone to play,” Akshay Naheta, CEO of digital-assets platform Bakkt, told investors on a May 11 earnings call.

To be sure, these executives want to put their stablecoin initiatives in the best possible framing. CFO Brew previously detailed stablecoins’ inherent risks; experts advised companies to use caution before proceeding. But some finance leaders sound ready to go into them whole hog.

“As a corporate CFO, and I talk to a lot of CFOs out there, we all know the benefits of stablecoins and stablecoin rails, and we’re all looking forward to a world when we can easily use these and when they’re integrated into our existing systems and control infrastructure,” Jeremy Fox-Geen, CFO of digital asset firm Circle, posited on a May 11 earnings call.

Fox-Geen added that widespread use will depend on underlying treasury infrastructure. Stablecoins’ integration into treasury-management platforms is a “necessary step to that mainstream adoption,” he said.

There are options. Payments companies have also been busy launching their own digital currencies. PayPal launched its stablecoin, PayPal USD, in March, and Western Union launched USDPT in early May.

Western Union CEO Devin McGranahan said on an April 24 earnings call that USDPT’s release “represents the completion of a significant build across issuance, treasury operations, settlement and controls, and positions us to operate a native digital dollar embedded within Western Union's global network.”

Use cases. Payments company executives name-dropped some major customers that are already using stablecoins. Meta is using Circle’s USDC to pay creators and DoorDash is using the stablecoin to pay drivers, according to Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire. He also noted on the earnings call that Polymarket adopted USDC “for funding and settlement on their leading prediction market.”

Some companies are using “stablecoin-linked Visa cards” for purchasing things like digital ads and business supplies, Visa CEO Ryan McInerney said on an April 28 earnings call.

Visa—which settled almost $13 trillion last year, mostly in fiat currencies—is now allowing businesses to settle with stablecoins. This allows settlements to occur “seven days a week,” rather than being restricted to weekdays, which “provides immense liquidity and efficiency benefits,” McInerney said.