"JP Morgan and Visa Jump In"…Wall Street and Big Tech Officially Enter the Stablecoin Race

Reports have emerged that Fortune 500 companies, Wall Street financial institutions, and global payment firms are officially beginning to compete in the issuance of stablecoins.

On the 28th, CNBC, a US economic media outlet, reported that "major players such as JP Morgan, Visa, and Mastercard are racing to build blockchain-based token infrastructure," adding, "They are seeking to enhance payment efficiency while maintaining their connection with the traditional financial system."

Global payments company Mastercard recently launched the private blockchain-based 'Multi-Token Network (MTN),' which supports four types of stablecoins. MTN serves institutional clients by providing 24/7 settlement functionality. Visa also recently stated in an interview that it is accelerating modernization of its infrastructure using stablecoins.

Global financial firm JP Morgan has taken a more conservative approach. Instead of using the US dollar, JP Morgan launched a token called 'JPMD,' backed by its commercial bank deposits. Navin Mallela, co-global head of Kinexys, JP Morgan's blockchain division, said, "(JPMD, which is similar to a stablecoin,) provides institutional clients with a faster and cheaper payment method while maintaining connectivity to the existing banking system."

PayPal is also issuing its own stablecoin, PYUSD. Jose Fernandez da Ponte, Senior Vice President of PayPal's blockchain division, emphasized, "The general public doesn't need to know about stablecoins. They're merely infrastructure—a technical means for transferring value," adding, "The technology has now reached maturity and is entering the real-world application stage."

Meanwhile, major players in the digital asset ecosystem are also accelerating their stablecoin strategies. Circle, the issuer of the stablecoin USDC, was listed on the New York Stock Exchange earlier this month, at one point seeing its share price surge 750%. After its listing, Circle rapidly formed partnerships with companies such as Coinbase and Fiserv. In reality, US crypto exchange Coinbase has partnered with e-commerce platform Shopify to roll out USDC payments, and Fiserv plans to implement its own stablecoin into its payment infrastructure, which handles as many as 9 billion transactions annually.