The $300 billion stablecoin market has evolved beyond its initial purpose of facilitating rapid global transactions, with businesses now exploring the potential applications of these digital currencies. This shift is driving a new wave of adoption, as stated by Chunda McCain, co-founder of Paxos Labs, who believes the industry is transitioning from basic infrastructure to practical business use cases.
In a recent interview with CoinDesk, McCain emphasized that the initial step of obtaining a stablecoin has given way to a new question: what's next? Paxos Labs, a subsidiary of Paxos, the New York-based digital asset firm behind popular stablecoins such as PayPal's PYUSD and the Global Dollar, recently secured $12 million in strategic funding.
The investment will be used to develop a 'financial utility stack' that enables companies to integrate digital assets into their products through a single integration. The newly launched Amplify Suite offers three primary tools: Earn, which provides yield on digital assets; Borrow, which facilitates lending against these assets; and Mint, which supports the issuance of branded stablecoins. This suite allows firms to integrate tokens into their business and add capabilities over time. For years, enterprise crypto adoption has focused on 'first-touch' capabilities such as trading, custody, or issuing a stablecoin.
However, these initial steps rarely generated returns on their own, according to McCain. He noted that stablecoins have been 'loss leaders' for years, but the opportunity lies in how these assets are utilized.
A clear example is payments, where merchants typically incur 2% to 3% in fees, while stablecoin rails can reduce these costs and even generate yield on balances held on-chain. This allows businesses to convert what has traditionally been a cost into revenue. Some novel use cases are emerging at the intersection of payments and credit.
Payment providers already track merchant revenues and cash flow, positioning them to underwrite loans, as argued by McCain. This could enable merchants to access financing based on real-time performance, earn yield on incoming payments, and settle transactions instantly across borders. Although these models are still in their early stages, the building blocks are starting to come together, according to McCain.
Not every company needs its own stablecoin to capture these benefits. While some companies, like PayPal, have launched branded tokens to control payments and margins, issuing a token requires significant investment in liquidity, compliance, and distribution. As stated by McCain, 'If you just need the economics, you don’t need to build your own.' Many firms can integrate existing stablecoins and still benefit from lower costs and added yield.
This shift may lack the hype associated with big firms launching their own tokens, but it has a tangible impact on how businesses operate. Stablecoins are starting to transform profit margins, unlock credit, and change the way money moves globally, particularly in areas where traditional systems are costly or slow.
As McCain stated, 'It might sound boring, but this is the math.'