The $300 billion stablecoin market, initially designed for faster global transactions, has sparked a new question among businesses: how can they fully utilize these digital assets? This shift is driving a new phase of adoption, says Chunda McCain, co-founder of Paxos Labs, as the industry moves beyond foundational infrastructure to practical business applications.

In an interview with CoinDesk, McCain stated, 'The initial step was obtaining a stablecoin. The next question is: what now?' Paxos Labs recently secured $12 million in strategic funding, led by Blockchain Capital, to develop a 'financial utility stack' enabling companies to convert digital assets into products through a single integration. The newly launched Amplify Suite offers three core tools: Earn, for yield on digital assets; Borrow, for lending against them; and Mint, for branded stablecoin issuance.

This allows firms to integrate tokens into their business and add capabilities over time. For years, enterprise crypto adoption focused on basic capabilities like trading, custody, or issuing a stablecoin, which rarely generated returns on their own. However, the opportunity lies in how these assets are utilized. Payments are a prime example, as merchants typically lose 2% to 3% in fees, while stablecoin rails can reduce costs and generate yield on on-chain balances.

'You turn what has always been a cost into revenue,' McCain explained. Novel use cases emerge at the intersection of payments and credit, where payment providers can underwrite loans based on real-time merchant performance, allowing for instant cross-border settlements and yield on incoming payments. While not every firm needs its own stablecoin, companies like PayPal have launched branded tokens to control payments and margins. Nevertheless, issuing a token requires significant investment in liquidity, compliance, and distribution.

'If you just need the economics, you don’t need to build your own,' McCain said. Many firms can integrate existing stablecoins and still benefit from lower costs and added yield. This shift may lack the hype surrounding big firms launching their own tokens, but it has a tangible impact on business operations. Stablecoins are starting to redefine margins, unlock credit, and change how money moves globally, particularly where traditional systems are costly or slow.

'It might sound boring, but this is the math,' McCain noted.