Stablecoins aren’t hype anymore. They’re strategic tools. Retail is about to find out.
A seismic shift is coming to the global payments ecosystem—and it’s not being led by crypto-native startups. It’s coming from Amazon and Walmart.
The two retail juggernauts are reportedly launching their own USD-pegged stablecoins, signaling a full-scale assault on the $143 billion in interchange fees banks extract from merchants every year.
And they’re not alone. From Ripple’s RLUSD to JPMorgan’s JPMD, stablecoins are no longer speculative tokens from fringe corners of crypto—they’re becoming the new rails of global commerce.
The Real Story: Killing the Interchange Fee
Every time you tap your card, multiple layers of fees quietly eat into the transaction:
- Visa & Mastercard: 0.14% “network fee”
- Payment processors (Stripe, Fiserv, etc.): 0.40%
- Banks: 1.8% interchange fee — the biggest slice
In 2024 alone:
- Banks raked in $143 billion
Processors made $30 billion - Card networks earned $19 billion
That’s money not going to merchants, not going to consumers, and not reinvested in the real economy. Amazon and Walmart—two of the largest merchant ecosystems on the planet—are done paying it.
Their solution? Cut out the middlemen. Issue their own programmable money. Settle instantly. Regain control over cash flow and consumer incentives.
What Is a Stablecoin, Anyway?
At its core, a stablecoin is a digital asset that maintains a 1:1 value with a fiat currency—typically the U.S. dollar. Unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum, which can swing wildly in price, stablecoins are designed to be, well… stable. This makes them incredibly useful for payments, settlement, and remittance.
Most are backed by real-world reserves (like USD cash or U.S. Treasuries), and they live on blockchains, enabling real-time, cross-border transactions without banks, wire fees, or delays.
In the crypto space, stablecoins have become essential tools for liquidity, trading, and cross-exchange arbitrage. Now, they’re entering the mainstream economy.
Legal Green Light: The GENIUS Act
Fueling this movement is fresh legal clarity in the United States.
The GENIUS Act, recently passed by the Senate, introduces a federal regulatory framework for USD stablecoins. It allows issuance by:
- Regulated banks
- Licensed fintechs
- Qualified state-chartered entities
The requirements are serious: 1:1 fiat backing, monthly audits, AML compliance. But the message is clear: the U.S. wants to lead in stablecoin innovation.
Retail’s Big Leap
Amazon and Walmart aren’t trying to replace Visa or Mastercard directly. The real target is the legacy banking system that profits off the float and friction.
By moving to on-chain settlement:
- They own the rails
- They reduce costs
- They create programmable incentives (imagine loyalty points that double as spendable dollars)
For consumers, it might look like just another wallet upgrade. But for the financial industry, this is a tectonic power shift. Stablecoins are being used to reprogram how money flows, who controls it, and who gets paid.
Strategic Implications
If Walmart and Amazon succeed in rolling out stablecoin-based payments at scale, here’s what could happen:
- $100B+ in annual bank revenue could be reallocated
- Merchants get margin back to reinvest in price cuts or loyalty
- Payment networks face existential questions about their future role
- Banks lose grip on consumer spending data
This isn’t crypto as a curiosity. It’s crypto as an infrastructure layer.
Stablecoins are now part of the strategic toolkits of the world’s largest companies.
And that changes everything.
