Visa believes stablecoin opportunity does not lie in retail. | Credit: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images.
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Key Takeaways
Visa’s head of crypto believes that stablecoins do not solve any real problem for consumer retail transactions in developed markets like the U.S.
Visa sees the true potential of stablecoins in cross-border payments and financial inclusion for emerging economies — particularly in Latin America.
While stablecoin adoption is expected to grow, forecasts of a $2 trillion market are seen as overly optimistic by institutions like JPMorgan.
Cuy Sheffield, the head of crypto at Visa, has claimed the firm is not at all worried about the impact stablecoins will have on payments.
Like other executives recently, Sheffield has reaffirmed that stablecoins do not solve any problems for retail payments and instead pose a new opportunity for the firm.
In an interview with Business Insider, Sheffield said that he does not think stablecoins will make much difference to how consumers shop and spend across the U.S.
“We don’t really think stablecoins solve much of a problem for retail payments,” he told the publication.
According to Visa data, most of stablecoin’s volume is created by what he called “high-value transfers, not retail transactions.”
However, Sheffield added that Visa has continued to see the opportunity in stablecoins for years now.
“We support many different currencies on our network today,” he said. “A stablecoin isn’t even a new currency, really. It’s just another way to represent an existing currency.”
A Stablecoin Opportunity For Visa
This opportunity, Visa believes, does not lie in retail — but rather in cross-border payments for emerging markets.
“We think the opportunity for stablecoins is overwhelmingly outside the United States, emerging market focused economies where there’s demand for dollars and not a lot of access,” he told the publication.
Sheffield said that the payment firm had seen increased activity throughout Latin America — including Brazil, Colombia, Chile, and Argentina.
“We think that the most impact we’ll have will be democratizing many emerging systems and providing dollars for places that weren’t really prepared before,” he added.
For Visa, Sheffield believes stablecoins will be able to connect the economies of emerging markets with developed countries.
“You can serve consumers and markets that haven’t really had many things that we’ve had in the U.S. and in Europe,” he said.
“I think stablecoins will become this platform that many different companies will build on top of to offer modern, efficient products in emerging markets.”
This sentiment was also echoed by Matthew Graham, founder of Ryze Labs, in a recent interview with CCN.
“Overwhelmingly people in situations like that [weak economies] choose stablecoins as their way to not have hyperinflation,” he said.
“It’s not only tech bros, it’s basically percolated all throughout society where people have figured out how to get onboarded to crypto just because it’s so existentially important to them to have stablecoins,” he added.
Stablecoin Forecast Decreases
JPMorgan strategists recently argued that projections of the stablecoin market reaching $2 trillion in the near future were unrealistic.
“The infrastructure/ecosystem that supports stablecoins is far from developed and will take time to build out,” bank analysts said in a July 23 client note.
Although the bank acknowledged stablecoin adoption is still expected to grow, they noted it will likely be slower than some anticipate.
Instead of multiplying eightfold, the bank sees the market instead doubling or tripling from its current size.
Western Union CEO Devin McGranahan also recently spoke about the limitations of stablecoins.
“Last I checked, you couldn’t spend Stablecoin if you wanted to buy a Coca-Cola,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg TV.
Kurt Robson is a London-based reporter at CCN, specialising in the fast-moving worlds of crypto and emerging technology. He began his career covering local news in Cornwall after graduating from Falmouth University with First Class Honours in Journalism. There, he cut his teeth on everything from council meetings to missing swans.
He quickly rose through the ranks to become a frontline journalist at several of the UK’s leading national newspapers. Over the years, he has interviewed musicians and celebrities, reported from courtrooms and crime scenes, and secured multiple front-page exclusives.
Following the upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kurt shifted his focus to technology journalism—just ahead of the AI boom. With a natural curiosity and a trained eye for emerging trends, he has found a new rhythm in reporting on innovation.
At CCN, Kurt's work focuses on the cutting edge of crypto, blockchain, AI, and the evolving digital world. Drawing on his background in people-first reporting and his deep interest in disruptive tech, Kurt delivers stories that are insightful, entertaining, and human-centric.
