Cui Sheffield, head of crypto at Visa, said in a fireside chat at the Solana Breakpoint event in Singapore that stablecoins backed by fiat currencies other than the dollar will see growth in the coming years.
“The dollar is great for moving across borders, but then you need to be able to exchange it quickly and efficiently,” Sheffield said. “And that’s where other local currency stablecoins can play a big role.”
The Visa executive added that in the future, all major fiat currencies will be represented on-chain, but said that US dollar stablecoins currently account for 99% of the total stablecoin market supply. Sheffield also said it would be “exciting” to see more stablecoins entering the market that try to differentiate themselves from USDT or USDC.
“I think most of the use cases now are where people are explicitly using stablecoins. They know what stablecoins are, and there are brands that are selling directly to consumers,” Sheffield said. “But I think there are a lot of other use cases that can happen on the backend where the brand isn’t as important, and then it’s all about the economics.”
Earlier this week, Singapore-based Token2049 announced that digital asset custodian BitGo is launching its own stablecoin. US dollarIt aims to differentiate itself from the two major market players by providing financial incentives to institutions that provide liquidity.
It joins a long list of new entrants into the stablecoin business, including PayPal’s PYUSD, which has become the fourth-largest stablecoin since its launch last year, the London-based fintech firm said on Wednesday. revolution It also announced plans to launch its own stablecoin.
Sheffield said 2024 will be a turning point for some non-crypto businesses to look to stablecoins to solve the payment problem for overseas freelancers.
“That’s one of the biggest use cases we continue to see with freelancers in Nigeria and Argentina. They want to get paid and they prefer dollars,” the Visa executive said.
It remains to be seen whether stablecoins can serve as a back-end payment method that bridges both cross-border and domestic payments, but it also presents a huge opportunity, Sheffield said.
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