The market completely changed after the Genius Act was passed. While returns stablecoins are rejected by the banking sector, payment stablecoins suddenly became everyone's focus. This shift is actually very interesting because it seems like a new war has begun in the payment space.

In the past, the crypto industry was always focused on profit and yield stories. Now, the payment system has become central. Meta has turned back to stablecoins, Google has formed an alliance with over 60 companies for AP2, and Stripe sees stable currencies as the solution of the future. However, PayPal has already launched its own PYUSD, and Coinbase has recommended the x402 protocol. The interesting thing is that the actions of these major players actually show how worried the fintech sector itself is.

At this point, the question arises: what is stability and why has it become so important? Essentially, stability means being able to control the flow of money on the blockchain. The banking system has been resisting fintech companies for over 20 years. Wise's transfers, Stripe's payment collection services, PayPal's various initiatives... all aimed to create an independent payment channel outside of banks. But they failed. Because managing electronic dollar flows without banking seemed impossible—until the blockchain came into play.

Fintech companies' concerns are truly serious. Stripe is valued at $159 billion, Revolut reached $75 billion, but these figures are actually supported by artificial hype. The market doesn't know how much value to assign to them. In 2021, PayPal was valued at $340 billion, but now it's much lower. This volatility stems from concerns about stable currencies and the potential future rise of AI agents.

There are two main players in stable currencies: USDT and USDC. USDT, with $80 billion on Tron, meets global individual transfer needs. In Argentina and Nigeria, dollarization essentially turns into USDT. On the other hand, USDC is more common in DeFi and B2B corporate transactions. Circle works closely with the banking sector, while Tether aims to encircle the developed world through remittances from third-world migrants.

But the actual numbers are interesting. The global stablecoin transaction volume is around $390 billion. B2B payments amount to $226 billion, with a (annual growth rate of 733%, and cross-border money transfers reach $90 billion. From a pure payment functionality perspective, stable currencies are still in very early stages. But the trend is clear: crypto payment infrastructure is gradually replacing traditional fintech.

The relationship between fintech and the banking sector is historically interesting. It started in the 1970s with Merrill Lynch CMA and MMF products. The banking sector claimed these drained deposits from small banks. What happened in the end? Large banks leveraged scale advantages to take over deposits from small banks. Now, a similar dynamic is playing out with stablecoins. The banking sector is rejecting yield stablecoins while supporting payment stablecoins because they can be integrated into their systems.

Where is the real value in the payment space? Pure transfer, garbage clearing, and collection channels don't hold much value. Transaction volume is always a clear number. Payment is not a SaaS function but an infrastructure like Cloudflare. Stable currencies will go beyond the payment stage, ensuring that money remains entirely on-chain. This is the story that crypto aims to tell.

The relationship between profit and payment is very important. The yield effect currently remains only within on-chain DeFi. For example, MetaMask's U card entering the US with Aave, but it cannot enter the broader consumer system. However, USDC-based B2B corporate use cases and national money transfer projects involving USDT do not allow cryptocurrencies that provide stability for payments to reach global acceptance levels. These are just temporary solutions.

From a future perspective, four power sources are creating a new war in the payment space. Companies like Stripe are seeking a new story for IPO. Meta and Google see their channels as negotiation advantages. The banking sector wants to protect channel fees and cheap assets. Tether is making large investments to surround Circle and support payment companies. Stablecoin has become a de facto payment instrument. But no one is asking whether AI agents really need stable currencies. This question will be clarified in the future.