Executives from MoonPay, Ripple, and Paxos gathered at Consensus Miami 2026 to declare that stablecoin regulation has finally given traditional finance a green light-but only if they can figure out how to make a cup of coffee with it. The problem? Infrastructure so flimsy it could be mistaken for a particularly bad joke.
the core product works, but mass-market take-up depends entirely on the supporting infrastructure. “How do you use stablecoin to pay your rent?” he said. “How do you use it to buy a cup of coffee?” The answer, apparently, is “We’re working on it.”
Institutional demand versus real-world usability
Jack McDonald, Ripple’s senior vice president for stablecoins, told the panel that institutional clients are focused less on market capitalisation and more on practical details: regulatory compliance, custody security, and whether stablecoins can do something useful beyond trading. “We’re not here to play Monopoly,” he said. “We’re here to pay the bills.”
McDonald said Ripple continues to concentrate on treasury operations, collateral management, and cross-border payment settlement as the primary enterprise use cases, arguing that utility must drive adoption rather than speculative interest. “If it doesn’t work in real life, it’s just a fancy toy,” he added.
Harrison added that stablecoins currently represent a relatively small share of global remittance flows, though he projected the figure could reach around 10% of the market over the next five years as payment rails improve and more merchants integrate digital dollar services. “We’re not there yet,” he said, “but we’re definitely closer than we were last week.”
Stablecoin-based cross-border transfers already settle near-instantly at fees below one dollar, compared with traditional banking fees that can exceed 6%. “A penny saved is a penny earned,” said no one ever, but here we are.
Brent Perrault, a senior staff software engineer at Paxos, said privacy remains the sector’s most persistent unresolved problem. Public blockchains expose transaction amounts and the flow of funds, which creates compliance and confidentiality concerns for businesses handling sensitive financial data. “It’s like having a conversation in a public square,” he said. “You wouldn’t do it, would you?”
Perrault warned that partial privacy solutions are insufficient because users inevitably move between private and public blockchain environments. He said competitive differentiation among stablecoin issuers is now increasingly driven by trust, distribution partnerships, and user incentives rather than technical specification alone. “Trust is the new tech,” he quipped.
Distribution gaps and what comes next
Perrault pointed to PayPal USD’s growth and Charles Schwab’s use of Paxos infrastructure as evidence that demand from established financial institutions is real and expanding beyond crypto-native firms. “It’s like watching a toddler learn to walk,” he said. “We’re all just hoping they don’t fall over.”
The challenge, he said, is that even well-capitalised issuers with strong compliance records face significant friction when trying to connect stablecoin rails to the everyday payment systems consumers and businesses already use. “It’s like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole… but the hole is also a spaceship,” he added.
The panel’s comments at Consensus Miami came as the CLARITY Act moves toward its Senate Banking Committee markup on May 14. As crypto.news reported, five major banking trade groups rejected the Tillis-Alsobrooks stablecoin compromise language just days before the vote. “They’re like a group of people who refuse to agree on the rules of a game they’re not even playing,” said no one, but here we are.
The executives at Consensus did not directly address the markup, but their remarks underscored why the regulatory outcome matters to companies building stablecoin payment products at scale. “Regulation is like a safety net,” said Harrison. “You hope you never need it… but you also hope it’s there if you do.”
The stablecoin market currently sits at approximately 317 billion dollars in total value. Western Union announced its USDPT stablecoin on Solana earlier in May, with issuance through Anchorage Digital. “This is the future!” they said. “Or at least, the future of the future.”
That entry reflects exactly the dynamic Harrison described: regulation has lowered the barrier, but the infrastructure needed to make stablecoins work in everyday consumer contexts is still being built. “It’s like building a bridge… but the other side is still a mystery,” he said.
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2026-05-09 18:52