Stablecoins Are Ready to Grow If Banks Get Involved — PayPal Opinion
Date: 2025-05-16 Author: Henry Casey Categories: CRYPTO PAYMENTS
At the Consensus 2025 conference in Toronto, PayPal Senior Executive Jose Fernandez da Ponte expressed his opinion on the future of stablecoins — digital assets tied to fiat currencies. He emphasized that such tokens serve as an important bridge between the volatile crypto market and traditional financial institutions. However, according to him, the widespread adoption of stablecoins is still hampered by regulatory uncertainties and government concerns about their impact on the stability of the financial system.
Da Ponte noted that the US authorities are in the home stretch in the matter of adopting a legislative framework for stablecoins. He believes that clear rules can not only legitimize their use, but also pave the way for banks to actively participate in the crypto economy. In his opinion, with the development of the legal field in the United States, a broader framework for regulating digital assets in general will emerge.
He also expressed confidence that new players will enter the market after the relevant rules are approved. As a result, instead of the two dominant stablecoins, which are currently USDT from Tether and USDC from Circle, hundreds of different tokens will be seen. Today, the combined market capitalization of these two leaders is approximately $211.5 billion - $151 billion for USDT and $60.5 billion for USDC.
As for PYUSD, PayPal's own stablecoin, which the company launched in partnership with Paxos Trust Company in August 2023, its capitalization is still more modest - $911.4 million. However, da Ponte is confident that the key metric of success should not be only market value. In his opinion, convenience and speed of transactions, as well as user engagement are more important - these are the factors that will drive the large-scale implementation of stable tokens.
It is worth noting that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently completed its investigation into PYUSD without making any claims against PayPal. The regulator had previously requested documents related to the token issue.
Thus, according to da Ponte, the participation of banks in the stablecoin ecosystem, supported by transparent regulation, can become a catalyst for a qualitative leap in the development of digital finance.
