Stablecoin monthly transaction volume hit $7.2 trillion in February 2026, surpassing the U.S. Automated Clearing House network's $6.8 trillion for the first time, according to data from Artemis. Total stablecoin supply stands at approximately $321 billion. Tether (USDT) and Circle (USDC) together...
"Visa's role is not to displace banks, but to act as connective tissue between banks, PSPs, and new on-chain payment rails." — Cuy Sheffield, Head of Crypto, Visa
Stablecoin monthly transaction volume hit $7.2 trillion in February 2026, surpassing the U.S. Automated Clearing House network's $6.8 trillion for the first time, according to data from Artemis. Total stablecoin supply stands at approximately $321 billion. Tether (USDT) and Circle (USDC) together control roughly 80% of that market.
That duopoly now faces a coordinated challenge from two directions. On June 3, 2026, reports surfaced that Stripe, Visa, Mastercard, and Coinbase are forming a consortium to issue a new stablecoin — combining 175 million merchant acceptance points, two dominant card networks, the largest U.S. crypto exchange, and Stripe's Bridge infrastructure (acquired for $1.1 billion in late 2024). Separately, on June 10, Japan's three largest banks — MUFG, Mizuho, and SMBC, collectively managing over $7 trillion in assets — signed a memorandum of understanding to issue a joint yen-denominated stablecoin, targeting live corporate transactions by March 2027.
These moves represent the most significant structural threat to the existing stablecoin order since the sector crossed $100 billion in supply in 2023. The question is no longer whether traditional finance enters stablecoin issuance, but whether crypto-native issuers can retain market share against institutions with existing regulatory licenses, payment infrastructure, and client relationships.
The Information reported on June 3, 2026, that Stripe, Visa, Mastercard, and Coinbase plan to form a consortium to issue a new stablecoin. No official name, token specification, reserve structure, or launch date has been disclosed. The project remains in early stages, according to people familiar with the plans cited by CoinDesk.
The strategic logic is straightforward. Stripe processes payments for millions of internet businesses. Visa and Mastercard together operate acceptance networks spanning 175 million merchant locations globally. Coinbase, a publicly traded exchange with a New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) trust charter, provides crypto distribution and custody infrastructure. Stripe also owns Bridge, the stablecoin infrastructure company it acquired for $1.1 billion in October 2024.
Each participant has been building stablecoin capabilities independently:
A consortium-issued stablecoin backed by these four entities would immediately command merchant reach, regulatory licensing, and distribution infrastructure that no existing stablecoin issuer can match individually.
On June 10, 2026, MUFG, Mizuho, and SMBC — Japan's three largest banks by assets — signed a memorandum of understanding to issue a joint yen-denominated stablecoin, according to CoinDesk. The stablecoin will be issued under a trust agreement, with all three banks acting as joint settlors and a trust bank serving as trustee.
The three institutions collectively manage over $7 trillion in assets. They target live corporate settlement transactions by March 2027, building on a November 2025 pilot conducted under Financial Services Agency (FSA) supervision.
Japan's regulatory infrastructure supports this move. The Payment Services Act (PSA), amended in June 2023 with further refinements effective June 1, 2026, restricts stablecoin issuance to banks, fund transfer service providers, and trust companies. All issuers must maintain 100% reserves and ensure on-demand redemption. As of June 1, 2026, Japan also permits licensed operators to handle foreign-issued stablecoins that meet domestic standards.
Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party provided additional support on June 1, 2026, when an LDP panel submitted a proposal to Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama recommending promotion of yen-based stablecoins for settlements across Asia and a legal framework for crypto ETF trading.
The mega-bank stablecoin targets a specific gap: USD-pegged tokens hold 84-90% of the $321 billion stablecoin market. A bank-issued yen stablecoin backed by $7 trillion in combined balance-sheet assets would represent the largest non-dollar stablecoin issuance attempt by regulated financial institutions.
Earlier entrants in the Japanese yen stablecoin space include JPYC Co., which launched a regulated yen-pegged stablecoin in October 2025, and SBI Holdings and Startale Group, which signed a development memorandum in December 2025 for a yen stablecoin targeting Q2 2026.
Tether's USDT market capitalization stands at approximately $186.8 billion, representing 57.96% of total stablecoin supply. That share has declined from 60.46% earlier in 2026 — a 2.5 percentage point erosion, according to data compiled by CryptoNews.
Circle's USDC holds approximately $75.8 billion in circulation. Circle, which listed on the NYSE under ticker CRCL in June 2025, generated $1.25 billion in revenue in the first half of 2026, with full-year projections of $2.7 billion based on its 2026 proxy filing. USDC's share of stablecoin transaction volume grew from 39% in Q3 2025 to nearly 50% in Q4 2025, according to Coin Metrics — marking the first time it approached parity with USDT since 2019.
Both issuers face regulatory asymmetries. Tether has declined to comply with Europe's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) stablecoin framework, leading to delistings on major European exchanges. Circle, by contrast, has leaned into compliance, obtaining registrations across multiple jurisdictions. However, Tether launched USAT in January 2026, a U.S.-focused stablecoin product that CoinDesk characterized as "the first major threat" to Circle's institutional dollar business.
PayPal's PYUSD, once viewed as a potential third force, saw its market capitalization decline from approximately $4.09 billion in March 2026 to $2.64 billion by mid-June 2026, despite its expansion to 70 markets in March.
The consortium — if it materializes — would enter a market where Tether and Circle earned their positions through first-mover advantage and liquidity depth on crypto exchanges. Whether a payment-network-backed stablecoin can replicate that liquidity in DeFi and on centralized exchanges remains an open question.
The capital deployed by payment networks to build stablecoin capabilities is substantial:
| Acquirer | Target | Value | Date | Purpose | |---|---|---|---|---| | Stripe | Bridge | $1.1B | Oct 2024 | Stablecoin infrastructure, API layer | | Mastercard | BVNK | Up to $1.8B | Mar 2026 | On-chain settlement, fiat connectivity | | Stripe | (PayPal evaluation) | Undisclosed | Feb 2026 | Stripe reportedly weighing acquisition of all or parts of PayPal |
Total disclosed M&A by Stripe and Mastercard alone in stablecoin infrastructure exceeds $2.9 billion. This capital deployment signals a strategic assessment that stablecoin payments represent a durable revenue opportunity, not a speculative position.
The geographic footprint of stablecoin payment infrastructure is expanding rapidly:
Stablecoins processed $28 trillion in real economic volume in 2025, according to Chainalysis, and accounted for 75% of total crypto trading volume in Q1 2026. Monthly volume climbed to $7.5 trillion by March 2026, per Artemis.
The stablecoin business model is fundamentally a reserve-yield operation. Issuers hold customer deposits in short-duration government securities and money-market instruments, earning the spread between the risk-free rate and zero (since most stablecoins pay no yield to holders).
At current U.S. Treasury yields, a $100 billion stablecoin in circulation generates approximately $4-5 billion in annual reserve income with minimal operational costs beyond compliance and technology. Circle's $2.7 billion projected 2026 revenue on roughly $75 billion in average circulation illustrates this economics.
For Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe, the value proposition extends beyond reserve income. A consortium stablecoin could:
The question for existing stablecoin issuers is whether their competitive moat — deep liquidity on crypto exchanges and integration across DeFi protocols — is sufficient to withstand competitors who already own the merchant and consumer payment relationship.
For Japan's mega-banks, the calculus differs. A yen stablecoin addresses a specific use case: yen-denominated settlement across Asian trade corridors without the latency and cost of traditional correspondent banking. The LDP panel's explicit recommendation to promote yen stablecoins "for settlements across Asia" frames this as both a commercial and monetary-sovereignty initiative.
The stablecoin market is undergoing a structural ownership transition. For four years, crypto-native issuers — primarily Tether and Circle — built and dominated the $321 billion sector. In June 2026, the largest payment networks and banking institutions are simultaneously entering the issuance layer, armed with existing regulatory licenses, merchant infrastructure, and balance-sheet scale that crypto-native firms cannot replicate.
Whether the Visa-Mastercard-Stripe-Coinbase consortium materializes as reported, and whether Japan's mega-bank stablecoin reaches production by March 2027, remain uncertain. No official product specifications, reserve structures, or governance frameworks have been disclosed for either initiative.
What is clear from the data: the incumbents are preparing. Stripe spent $1.1 billion on Bridge. Mastercard committed up to $1.8 billion for BVNK. Japan's FSA rewrote its regulatory framework effective June 1, 2026, to enable bank-issued stablecoins. Visa is deploying stablecoin-linked cards across 100+ countries. These are capital and regulatory commitments, not announcements of intent.
The economic incentive is significant. At $321 billion in supply and growing, stablecoin reserve income alone represents a multi-billion-dollar annual revenue pool. For payment networks processing trillions in annual volume, the opportunity to capture even a fraction of stablecoin settlement represents a material line of business.
Tether and Circle retain structural advantages: deep exchange liquidity, broad DeFi integration, and years of operational history. But the entry of Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Coinbase, and Japan's $7 trillion banking sector into stablecoin issuance marks the end of the period where crypto-native firms competed primarily with each other. The next phase of competition involves institutions that already own the payment relationship with billions of consumers and millions of merchants worldwide.