Six Years of the Stablecoin Revolution: How the Digital Payments Ecosystem Has Evolved

Over the past six years, we have witnessed a remarkable transformation in the field of finance—from traditional institutions waiting on the sidelines to their active participation in the crypto ecosystem. This year is marked as the “Stablecoin Era” of financial technology, but the real story runs deeper than the hype we hear today.

The Moment When Everything Changed: Libra and The Great Awakening

In 2019, an event shook the entire financial industry. Facebook—one of the largest technology companies in the world—launched the Libra stablecoin project. In an instant, crypto was no longer just a toy for tech enthusiasts; it became a matter that banking and payments giants had to take seriously.

For major traditional institutions like Visa, Mastercard, and other payment networks, Libra was a wake-up call. Initially, most of the banking sector viewed blockchain as experimental technology, a side project unlikely to become part of core operations. But Libra demonstrated a different potential—this was a serious and ambitious effort to bring about change in the global payments system.

The institutional reaction was swift. Many Libra partnerships withdrew due to regulatory pressure, especially after intense opposition from government bodies and financial regulators. However, this withdrawal did not mean no impact. Instead, it left a significant and lasting shift in the strategies of major players—the need to develop their own crypto and stablecoin initiatives.

From Traditional Payments to Blockchain Infrastructure

This insight stems from a simple observation about how traditional payment systems operate. Within banks and payment networks, the settlement process still relies on outdated technology—SWIFT wires, mainframe systems, and T+2 settlement cycles. This means that if you send money abroad this Friday, it might still be received by the following Wednesday.

The problem is not technical but structural. The infrastructure supporting settlement was designed for a different era—where processing speed was not as critical as it is today. But blockchain offers a new possibility: instant settlement, 24/7 operations, and no intermediaries needed.

The first practical experiment took place on Ethereum, where a major crypto exchange partner began using USDC for direct settlement. Instead of transferring assets through traditional banking channels—a process that takes days and requires large pre-funding margins—settlement occurred within seconds. The impact is not just technical; it’s financial. Eliminating the need to maintain large cash reserves for slow settlement processes allows companies to use their funds more efficiently for business operations.

The Infrastructure-Application Cycle and the Labyrinth of the Crypto Ecosystem

In building Portal Finance, one of the key learnings is the relationship between infrastructure and applications. The conventional wisdom says, “Too much infrastructure, not enough applications.” But the reality is more complex.

Throughout technology history, the pattern repeats: better infrastructure enables new applications, which in turn drive demand for more advanced infrastructure. This is the cycle that must be supported—not just one or the other.

During the Portal era, the focus was on the infrastructure layer because that was the opportunity. Application layer solutions relied on fast, low-cost transactions, but existing blockchain systems could not handle that—or if they could, fees were prohibitive. Ethereum, despite having the largest developer community and liquidity, also has well-known limitations in throughput and cost efficiency.

The paradox: the strongest ecosystem is the slowest and most expensive. Other blockchains like Solana, Polygon, and Tron are faster, but liquidity and developer mindshare are fragmented. No perfect solution exists—yet.

This is why the acquisition of Monad Foundation by Portal is so important. Monad aims to launch a network with sub-second finality, EVM-compatible, and capable of high-performance transactions. For the payments ecosystem, this is critical—speed is not just a metric, it’s money. If a transaction takes 15 minutes to finalize, it’s impractical for high-frequency business applications.

The New Business Model of Stablecoins: From Interest Spread to Value-Added Services

The GENIUS Act, signed into law by the US government in July, signals a fundamental shift in stablecoin economics. The traditional model—where stablecoin issuers like Tether and Circle profit from interest spreads on US Treasury holdings—is gradually disappearing as regulatory frameworks require transparency and user benefit sharing.

New players like Paxos and M0 are implementing a different approach: directly passing the interest income from underlying assets to users. This is not just a profit-sharing change; it’s a fundamental reimagining of how money moves.

In traditional banking, interest is earned only when money is held in an account—no movement. But in blockchain-based stablecoins, money can generate returns while circulating, used, and transacted. This opens a new financial primitive we have not seen at this scale before.

The implications are broad. If money earns returns while circulating, the entire economic incentive structure changes. Users are more motivated to use stablecoins for daily transactions, not just hold them. Merchants have higher incentives to accept because settlement revenue increases. The entire system becomes self-reinforcing.

The New Era of Global Fintech: Banking Without Geographic Constraints

One of the most revolutionary aspects of stablecoin infrastructure is the possibility of “global from day one” banking platforms. The first generation of fintech companies—from Nubank in Brazil to Chime in the US—built on local banking infrastructure. This limited their addressable market to a single country or region.

But when a platform is based on stablecoins and blockchain, that constraint disappears. A new company can launch global banking services from day one, without complex regulatory negotiations in each country. Network effects are instant and global.

This opens a new category of founders and builders—those who are not limited by geographic boundaries but design from the start for a global market. The implication is not only for startups; even large financial institutions will need to rethink their product strategies.

The Next Frontier: AI Agents and High-Frequency Finance

If asked what is most exciting in the next three to five years, the answer is clear: the combination of AI Agents and high-frequency financial operations.

Current automation is limited to human efficiency. Algorithms can execute transactions faster than humans, but the magnitude is not just about speed—it’s about a new category of workflow.

When blockchain infrastructure can handle sub-millisecond transactions, and AI agents autonomously make financial decisions, the entire paradigm shifts. This is not exclusive to high-frequency trading on Wall Street. The same engineering rigor and algorithmic decision-making can be applied to everyday corporate financial operations.

Imagine a finance manager managing multi-currency funds across countries. Previously, it was manual scheduling and execution. In the future, with LLMs and high-performance blockchain infrastructure, the system will automatically optimize fund allocation across currencies and markets at scale, increasing operational efficiency. The “high-frequency trading” capability will no longer be limited to financial markets; it will become a standard feature of corporate finance operations.

The Message in the “Email Moment” of Money

Stablecoins are not just technology; they are a new primitive for value transfer—an ability comparable to the speed of the internet for communication. Just as email transformed how people communicate, stablecoins and blockchain will change how people transfer value.

The impact is not yet fully realized. It could revolutionize supply chain finance, reduce remittance costs to zero, or enable a new class of financial services we have not yet imagined. But the true unlock will happen only when the technology is seamlessly integrated into every application—so users no longer need to think about blockchain, but experience the speed of the internet in financial transactions.

Only then will the true revolution begin.