By Hal Pratt
DALLAS—Stablecoins are rapidly moving from the fringe of cryptocurrency into the center of global payments infrastructure, and credit unions risk falling behind unless they begin developing collaborative strategies now, according to one speaker at the Trellance EDGE 26 Technology Conference here Thursday.
During a session titled “Stablecoins: The Always-On Dollar. Creating a 24/7/365 Economy,” Bob O’Brien, senior director of GTM crypto solutions at Visa, argued that member expectations for instant, always-available payments are accelerating pressure on financial institutions to modernize settlement systems and digital payment capabilities.
“Today’s economy is 24/7. Member demand is 24/7. Settlement has to keep up with what’s going on in the economy,” said O’Brien.
O’Brien described stablecoins as “simply digital dollars,” telling attendees they should think of them as digital representations of fiat currency designed to move continuously across blockchain-based networks.
O’Brien said adoption of stablecoins first accelerated in Asia and is now expanding westward as digital wallets, crypto-linked payment cards and tokenized payment systems gain traction globally. He predicted more than two billion digital wallets will exist worldwide by 2030, arguing that growth will fundamentally reshape how consumers store and move value digitally.
Visa has increasingly positioned itself around that transition, launching stablecoin settlement pilots and expanding crypto-linked card offerings globally. Reuters recently reported Visa’s annualized stablecoin settlement volume has already climbed into the billions as the company races to integrate blockchain-based payment rails into its existing network.
One area O’Brien highlighted was the rapid growth of crypto-linked debit and payment cards tied to accounts at firms such as Coinbase and Crypto.com, which allow consumers to spend digital assets using traditional payment rails. Visa also now offers a “Visa Flex” account structure combining a traditional deposit account with a digital wallet, allowing users to toggle between paying with fiat currency or digital assets.
Industry forecasts cited during and around the conference suggest stablecoins could become a significant force in global payments over the next decade. Recent research from Citigroup projects stablecoin issuance could grow to roughly $1.9 trillion by 2030 under baseline assumptions, while blockchain analytics firms are forecasting stablecoin transaction volumes could eventually rival traditional card networks.
For credit unions, however, O’Brien suggested the larger challenge may not be technology itself, but scale. He told attendees smaller institutions likely will need to form consortiums or collaborative networks around stablecoin adoption in order to compete with larger banks and fintech firms that already hold significant advantages in digital payments infrastructure in an “always-on” economy.