The stablecoin market, valued at $300 billion, has evolved beyond its initial purpose of facilitating rapid global transactions. Today, businesses are exploring the vast potential of stablecoins to drive revenue growth and reshape their financial operations. According to Chunda McCain, co-founder of Paxos Labs, the industry is transitioning from basic infrastructure development to practical business applications. In a recent interview with CoinDesk, McCain noted that the initial focus on creating stablecoins has given way to a new question: what can businesses do with them now?
Paxos Labs, a subsidiary of Paxos, the New York-based digital asset firm behind popular stablecoins such as PYUSD and USDG, has secured $12 million in strategic funding to develop a 'financial utility stack.' This platform enables companies to integrate digital assets into their products through a single integration, providing a suite of tools called Amplify Suite. The suite includes three core components: Earn, which offers yield on digital assets; Borrow, which facilitates lending against them; and Mint, which supports the creation of branded stablecoins.
By leveraging these tools, businesses can transform their cost structures into revenue streams. For years, enterprise crypto adoption has focused on 'first-touch' capabilities like trading, custody, or issuing stablecoins. However, these initial steps rarely generated significant returns on their own. McCain pointed out that stablecoins have long been 'loss leaders' for businesses.
The true opportunity lies in how these assets are utilized. Payments are a prime example, as merchants typically incur 2% to 3% fees, while stablecoin-based payments can reduce these costs and even generate yield on on-chain balances. 'You turn what has always been a cost into revenue,' McCain explained. Some of the more innovative use cases lie at the intersection of payments and credit.
Payment providers can track merchant revenues and cash flow, positioning them to underwrite loans. This could enable merchants to access financing based on real-time performance, earn yield on incoming payments, and settle transactions instantly across borders. While these models are still in their early stages, the building blocks are beginning to fall into place. Not every company needs to issue its own stablecoin to capture these benefits.
While some companies, like PayPal, have launched branded tokens to control payments and margins, issuing a stablecoin 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 businesses 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 how businesses operate.
Stablecoins are starting to reshape margins, unlock credit, and change how money moves globally, particularly in areas where traditional systems are costly or slow. 'It might sound boring, but this is the math,' McCain said.