The stablecoin market, valued at $300 billion, has evolved beyond its initial purpose of facilitating rapid global transactions. Today, companies are exploring the potential use cases of these digital dollars. This shift is driving a new wave of adoption, as the industry transitions from building basic infrastructure to developing practical business applications, according to Chunda McCain, co-founder of Paxos Labs. In a recent interview with CoinDesk, McCain stated, "The initial step was to establish a stablecoin, and now the question is: what's next?" Paxos Labs, a subsidiary of Paxos, a New York-based digital asset firm, has raised $12 million in strategic funding to develop a "financial utility stack" that enables companies to transform digital assets into products through a single integration.
The newly launched Amplify Suite offers three core tools: Earn, which provides yield on digital assets, Borrow, which enables lending against them, 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 basic capabilities like trading, custody, or issuing a stablecoin.
However, these steps have rarely generated significant returns on their own, according to McCain. He noted that stablecoins have long been loss leaders for companies. The opportunity lies in how these assets are utilized. Payments are a prime example, as merchants typically incur fees of 2-3%, while stablecoin rails can reduce these costs and even generate yield on balances held on-chain.
McCain explained, "You convert what has always been a cost into revenue." Some novel use cases emerge at the intersection of payments and credit. Payment providers already track merchant revenues and cash flow, positioning them to underwrite loans, McCain argued.
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, he said.
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. McCain stated, "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 surrounding big firms launching their own tokens, but it has a tangible impact on business operations. Stablecoins are starting to redefine profit margins, unlock credit, and change how money moves globally, particularly in areas where traditional systems are costly or slow. McCain concluded, "It might sound boring, but this is the math."