This Week in Stablecoins: The Race to Own the Rails

Blockchain was built to be the infrastructure for a new era of financial services. Until recently, the industry had seemed far from that goal, stuck primarily in “offshore casinos” and peddled by speculators.

That’s changing amid a shifting policy posture in the U.S., and as stablecoins — fiat-pegged tokenized assets — are becoming the potential infrastructure foundation of payments, treasury, international flows and national-currency digitization.

While marketplace momentum is building, from a risk and regulatory perspective, stablecoins remain under scrutiny. Regulators are increasingly focused on financial stability, consumer protection, anti-money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC) concerns and the boundary between tokens and deposits. Firms venturing into token issuance or payments infrastructure must wrestle with multi-jurisdiction compliance. Adoption among cautious corporates and consumer users may not be immediate in every geography.

Still, with Mastercard’s rumored $2 billion bid for stablecoin infrastructure provider Zero Hash, Western Union’s new WUUSD stablecoin on Solana, the world’s first yen-pegged stablecoin debuting in Japan and Visa expanding stablecoin support across four more blockchains, it was a busy week for stablecoins.

Read also: Making Stablecoins ‘Grandma-Friendly’

Infrastructure as a Key

Stablecoins are no longer niche experiments: big-league payment firms are willing to invest billions. Reports that Mastercard is in late-stage talks to acquire Zero Hash for between $1.5 and $2 billion indicate the company views stablecoin infrastructure as core to its future.

What’s notable here is not merely the headline deal size. Mastercard appears intent on owning and integrating the rails of stablecoin issuance and settlement, rather than remaining a peripheral partner. The reason? As stablecoins scale, settlement and infrastructure become the strategic chokepoints. Zero Hash promises to bring banks and FinTechs access to trading, custody and tokenized deposit settlement — essentially enabling classical financial institutions to plug into web3-style flows.

The acquisition is not finalized, however, and owning infrastructure is one thing; driving adoption is another. Mastercard will still have to attract banks, FinTechs and counterparties willing to transact via stablecoin rails.

The Mastercard and Zero Hash rumors come on the heels of Stripe’s billion-plus purchase of stablecoin infrastructure firm Bridge. And during Visa’s latest earnings release Tuesday (Oct. 28), the company revealed it was expanding its stablecoin settlement platform to support four stablecoins across four distinct blockchains.

CEO Ryan McInerney noted: “We are adding support for four stablecoins, running on four unique blockchains, representing two currencies … that we can accept and convert to over 25 traditional fiat currencies.”

See also: Stablecoins Power Billions in Payments. One in Ten Could Be Illicit

Stablecoins Seek Global Growth

In parallel to the infrastructure plays, global stablecoin issuance is also diversifying beyond the U.S. dollar. A Japanese startup, JPYC, has launched (and received regulatory approval for) the world’s first yen-pegged stablecoin, fully backed by domestic deposits and Japanese government bonds.

Elsewhere in the world, stablecoin-focused startup ZAR raised $12.9 million to bring stablecoins to Pakistan, while the European Central Bank could reportedly begin a pilot phase for the digital euro in 2027.The announcement follows a report Wednesday (Oct. 29) that the ECB was targeting 2029 for the launch of its central bank digital currency (CBDC).

Meanwhile, in the remittance world, Western Union plans to launch a new stablecoin and a network designed to enable real-world utility for digital assets. For decades the firm has relied on correspondent banking, prepaid settlement and regional networks. Now it’s embracing tokenized flows and aiming for real-time, capital-efficient global transfers. The digital-asset network concept reflects the fact that issuance is only the start. The wallet, off-ramp, agent interface and customer experience are equally key to adoption.

For industry watchers, the next 12 to 18 months could reveal whether the hype crystallizes into wholesale payments rails, global treasury networks and local-currency tokenization that truly rewires how money moves.

Ultimately, six questions could determine whether the promise matures into execution: 1) whether card networks and crypto-as-a-service providers actually ship bank-grade rails; 2) how quickly remittance incumbents move from pilots to production; 3) if non-USD stablecoins can break out of domestic niches; 4) whether settlement platforms attract real volume, not just press; 5) how regulators box the activity; and 6) whether the market converges on open, interoperable rails or fragments across chains and rule sets.