A reported consortium plan involving Stripe, Visa, Mastercard and Coinbase would create a new stablecoin aimed at challenging Tether and Circle in digital-dollar payments.
The structure would place three of the world’s most important payment companies beside one of the largest crypto exchanges, giving the proposed stablecoin a rare mix of merchant reach, card-network relationships, crypto distribution and stablecoin infrastructure.
Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC still dominate stablecoin supply and liquidity. USDT leads offshore trading and exchange settlement, while USDC has stronger U.S.-regulated payments positioning. A consortium backed by Stripe, Visa, Mastercard and Coinbase would attack that market from the payments side rather than only from crypto trading venues.
The companies have not yet released a full public launch announcement. The main details still missing are the issuer, reserve structure, supported networks, launch markets, redemption model, partner access and whether the token will be aimed at consumer payments, merchant settlement, exchange liquidity or all three.
Stripe And Mastercard Already Built The Rails
The reported plan lands after a year of aggressive stablecoin infrastructure moves.
Stripe completed its acquisition of Bridge, giving it stablecoin issuance, orchestration and payment infrastructure for businesses. It later added wallet infrastructure through Privy, strengthening its ability to embed crypto payments inside normal apps without making users manage blockchain complexity directly.
Mastercard has moved in the same direction. The company is acquiring BVNK and recently expanded stablecoin settlement options, including always-on settlement over blockchain rails. Its latest push into stablecoin settlement on Solana showed that card networks are no longer treating stablecoins as an outside threat. They are building around them.
Visa has also been expanding stablecoin-linked card and settlement programs, giving the planned group another major payments rail. Together, the companies already touch merchants, banks, fintechs, card issuers, wallets and payment processors. A stablecoin controlled by that group could move faster into real payment flows than a crypto-native issuer starting from zero.
Coinbase Adds Distribution And USDC Tension
Coinbase makes the plan more interesting because of its existing relationship with Circle. Coinbase helped launch USDC through the former Centre structure, later took an equity stake in Circle and still has a major commercial relationship tied to USDC economics.
Joining a new stablecoin consortium would put Coinbase beside a potential USDC competitor while it remains one of USDC’s most important distribution partners. That does not automatically mean Coinbase is walking away from USDC. It does mean the exchange is positioning itself for a market where stablecoin issuance, reserve income, settlement volume and merchant payments are becoming too large to depend on one partner.
The timing is clear. Stablecoin activity has moved well beyond exchange balances. Cash App recently opened USDC transfers across Solana, Ethereum, Polygon and Arbitrum, while MoneyGram launched MGUSD on Stellar as remittance companies bring digital dollars into consumer apps.
Stablecoins have also become one of crypto’s largest settlement layers, with adjusted monthly transfer value already moving above ACH in earlier comparisons.
Stablecoin Competition Moves Into Payments
The proposed consortium would shift the stablecoin fight from issuer market share into payment-network control.
Tether dominates liquidity. Circle dominates regulated U.S. dollar stablecoin branding. Stripe, Visa, Mastercard and Coinbase would bring a different advantage: the ability to put a stablecoin behind merchants, cards, fintech wallets, exchanges and cross-border settlement flows.
That is where the market is heading. Stablecoins are no longer only trading collateral. They are becoming settlement infrastructure for card networks, remittance apps, neobanks, exchanges and global merchants.
The next test is whether the group can turn the reported plan into a launched token with clear reserves, strong redemption rights, regulatory coverage and enough distribution to matter. If it does, the stablecoin market will no longer be only a USDT-versus-USDC race. It will include a payments-backed challenger built by companies that already move money at global scale.
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