Only a few years back, institutions wrote off stablecoins as instruments of crypto traders, dark, loosely regulated, and too distant from the universe of regulated finance. Now, that scenario is shifting remarkably. In a development that marks maturity in digital finance, major financial infrastructure players such as Fiserv, Circle, Visa, and others are bringing stablecoins onto the rails of global finance.
This change is not about trends. It’s about getting ready for a world where programmable, compliant, and real-time digital dollars will be the foundation of global liquidity, settlement, and financial automation. Stablecoins such as FIUSD, introduced by Fiserv in June 2025, are leading the way towards a world where money acts like code. And where financial infrastructure providers are no longer merely passive enablers but active rearchitects of the system itself.
Stablecoins Transmute into Strategic Infrastructure
Stablecoins have moved far from where they started out as tethered assets, largely confining themselves to crypto exchanges. They are now becoming programmable, fiat-pegged assets collateralized with full reserves and framed to operate under the structures of regulated finance. Unlike regular cryptocurrencies, developers design stablecoins to be stable and usable, bringing the comfort of fiat and the speed and programmability of blockchain.
More than 64% of the world’s financial institutions are currently piloting or planning stablecoin adoption in 2025, according to a recent Deloitte report. This was less than 20% as recently as two years ago. PwC research estimates programmable stablecoins will dominate digital asset transactions in B2B scenarios by 2027.
The message is unmistakable that is the financial world no longer views stablecoins as speculative. It views them as infrastructure.
The Growing Role of Financial Infrastructure Providers
To grasp why this is important, we must determine who is propelling the change. Although Financial infrastructure providers (FIPs) are the businesses that run the systems behind transactions, banking, merchant services, and clearing. The end user seldom sees them, but they are crucial to money flowing globally.
These include such major companies as Fiserv, FIS, ACI Worldwide, Visa, Mastercard, Plaid, and Circle. These are the most impactful in this space. They link banks, fintech platforms, retailers, lenders, and even governments. Their tech enables everything from real-time payments to embedded finance.
Over the last few years, while customer expectations for speed and transparency have hit new heights, these providers have come under pressure to update not only interfaces but fundamental money movement paradigms. And stablecoin, especially those designed with compliance and integration in mind, provides the correct solution at the correct moment.
Key Drivers Behind the Shift
Regulatory Momentum is Gaining Ground
For years, regulatory uncertainty held back stablecoin development at the institutional level. But 2025 is a different world. The U.S. Stablecoin Clarity Act, introduced this year, establishes a clear framework for fiat-backed digital assets. Eventually, it sets capital requirements, audit standards, and redemption procedures. And the EU’s MiCA regulation, effective now, provides a harmonized regulatory channel for digital assets and stablecoins in 27 member states.
That clarity has removed risk from stablecoin use for financial infrastructure companies. Rather than dreading enforcement, they are constructing within well-defined boundaries. Fiserv’s FIUSD, for example, is completely collateralized by U.S. dollar reserves and independently verified and compliant-ready from its inception.
Real-Time Settlement Has Become a Baseline Expectation
The system bases its financial operations on latency. Old clearing cycles can take days. That time lag introduces risk, drives up costs, and diminishes the efficiency of capital. But with the advent of systems like FedNow in the United States and SEPA Instant within the EU, this is shifting.
Stablecoins enable final, instant, and also programmable settlement even across borders. Stablecoins are being leveraged by financial infrastructure providers to enhance or extend the functionality of these real-time systems, providing round-the-clock settlement modes that operate outside the customary banking hours.
Fintech Competition is Pushing Legacy Providers Forward
The last five years have seen fintech companies such as PayPal, Coinbase, and Revolut incorporate stablecoins into their systems, providing users with lower fees, quicker transactions, and new financial instruments. This put pressure on traditional providers to meet or surpass these features in order to remain competitive.
Stablecoins are one of those responses. FIPs now view them as competitive enablers rather than disruptive threats. With programmable stablecoins, these operators can provide the same advantages, speed, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness with regulatory integrity maintained.
Institutional Demand for Liquidity Control and Cost Efficiency
Treasury groups now seek alternatives to float-based systems. They require real-time access to cash, exact liquidity deployment, and low friction for internal and external movements.
Stablecoins solve this problem by offering always-on liquidity. A CFO at a European digital bank told Financial Technology Insights: “We’re testing stablecoins not for novelty, but because it gives us the fastest way to deploy working capital globally at a fraction of the current cost.” FIPs recognize this demand and embed stablecoin capabilities into their APIs, treasury tools, and payment platforms.
The Rise of Programmable Money Use Cases
Stablecoin’s most significant advantage is its programmability. Smart contracts can automatically, conditionally, and data-based make payments.
Financial infrastructure firms are already researching applications such as milestone payments to vendors, immediate processing of insurance claims, and programmable trade finance. In such uses, stablecoins are no longer just currency; They program software into instruments of trust.
A Boston Consulting Group report estimates that stablecoin-driven programmable finance will free up more than $10 trillion in business value by 2030, through higher automation, lower fraud, and improved processes.
How Providers Are Implementing Stablecoin Strategies
Various infrastructure participants are adopting different strategies depending on their business competencies and customer base. Fiserv’s introduction of FIUSD is a case of an end-to-end integrated stablecoin for regulated financial institutions. It is compatible with their current platforms with programmable settlement and compliance controls.
Circle, already established with its USDC stablecoin, has been working on multi-chain growth, developer APIs, and bank-grade transparency. PYUSD by PayPal is aimed at merchant and retail use cases, whereas Visa and Mastercard are looking to directly settle stablecoins with chosen partners.
And then there’s Stripe, which now enables SaaS firms and marketplaces to accept and pay out stablecoin payments natively, with speed and reduced international fees, without needing deep blockchain knowledge.
Each of these actors has something in common: they are integrating stablecoins not as an overlay, but as a fundamental transaction infrastructure.
A Glance at the Next Layer of Financial Infrastructure
What makes this moment particularly notable is what it makes possible next. Stablecoins are fast becoming the underlying layer for a tokenized financial system. They are the gateway that allows digital assets, whether they’re tokenized securities, programmable bonds, or real-world assets such as real property, to flow, settle, and act like native digital money.
Major banks are already building the next phase. JPMorgan is testing tokenized collateral on its Onyx Digital Assets platform using blockchain and stablecoin-based settlement. Citi’s Regulated Liabilities Network (RLN) is trialing central bank money and stablecoins on shared ledgers. And the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has launched multiple pilots under Project Guardian, aimed at cross-border tokenized asset exchange.
The message is clear: stablecoins, which were once crypto fringe, are now becoming the connective tissue of programmable finance. And providers of financial infrastructure are the builders of this new operating system.
FAQs
1. Why are Fiserv and other companies issuing their stablecoins?
Because they are looking to upgrade how money flows, making it programmable, instant, and lower in cost across banking and enterprise applications.
2. Are stablecoins regulated yet?
Yes. The U.S., EU, and some APAC countries have announced frameworks that mandate stablecoin issuers to be licensed, disclosed, and fully collateralized.
3. How do stablecoins facilitate cross-border payments?
They cut out intermediaries, lower FX fees, and facilitate real-time settlement, thus making international payments cheaper and faster.
4. How does a stablecoin differ from a CBDC?
Decentralized, fiat-collateralized digital tokens represent stablecoins; central banks issue CBDCs as digital cash. Both can exist side by side in future finance systems.
5. Is programmable money already widely adopted in finance?
Yes. Companies are employing smart contracts for milestone payments, automated reconciliation, and digital escrow, mainly with stablecoins.
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