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Stablecoins have become the most important infrastructure story in crypto.

Every fintech wave promised to fix payments but just layered better UX on the same infrastructure. Revolut and Nubank delivered better experiences while transactions still flowed through the same four party model: merchant, acquirer, card network, and issuer.

Stablecoins are the first primitive that compresses the stack.

Settlement happens onchain and bypasses these intermediaries. Adoption reflects this. Total supply has grown 33% this year to over $304 billion, monthly adjusted volume now eclipses Visa and PayPal, and stablecoins have become the 19th largest holder of US Treasuries at $133 billion.

The irony is that crypto companies are now competing with each other on traditional payment rails. A stablecoin funded card that routes through Visa is a meaningful first step but not a new paradigm. Many competitors will fall to the side if they can't provide a self sovereign way to hold and spend on everyday things.

The incumbents have noticed. Stripe integrated USDB after acquiring Bridge. PayPal has PYUSD. Klarna just announced KlarnaUSD. When fintech companies start issuing stablecoins, the land grab is well underway.

Stripe's move to aggregate the full stack from issuance to its own blockchain to merchant infrastructure suggests consolidation is approaching faster than most expect.

The winners will be the ones who actually replace the rails, not just build a better interface on top of them.

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