Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Key Takeaways Blockchain payments are surging, with stablecoin settlements now outpacing Visa and Mastercard combined.
But the industry’s rapid growth is hitting a wall — fragmented standards, inconsistent compliance and chain-by-chain differences — that make hybrid payments hard for traditional institutions to adopt.
The Blockchain Payments Consortium was established to help fix this by creating shared frameworks that make digital payments safe, fast and interoperable.
If you’ve been following the news lately, it seems like there’s a new stablecoin announced every day. Almost overnight, stablecoin payments have become a pillar of finance, with traditional institutions significantly accelerating or desperately chasing plans to integrate. To really capitalize on the potential, there are a few critical things that every participant needs to address, including existing blockchains.
The payments industry has traditionally kept blockchain payments at a distance. This was originally somewhat understandable. Anonymous wallet activities can seem like the antithesis of good financial governance for any regulated business. However, in 2024 alone, more than $15 trillion was settled onchain, surpassing Visa and Mastercard combined. And with the growth and explosion of stablecoins — which are ultimately on-chain assets just like your favorite memecoin or NFT — payments businesses have to solve for the key points of friction, rather than marginalize blockchain payments.
Existing blockchains like Sui have struggled to get payment processors and card networks to adapt their technologies to use the superpowers of blockchain. It’s not that blockchains are inherently less compliant; it’s that a form of gatekeeping has been taking place. The plausible argument has always been compliance, but one has to wonder if the real reason was always about the ways in which wallets (not cards), privacy innovations like zero knowledge, and instant settlement might make existing payments businesses lose their incumbent advantage.
But let’s not quibble on how we got here. With stablecoin growth rocketing, it is in everyone’s best interest to get on the same side of the table and fix the barriers between traditional fiat and on-chain payments.
Related: What Every Small-Business Founder Needs to Know About Stablecoins and Digital Dollars
Collaborating for growth — the Blockchain Payments Consortium
... continue reading