3 min read
For years, stablecoins were crypto’s business, dominated by Tether and Circle and used mostly to trade digital assets. That era is ending.
Over the past few months, and especially the past few weeks, the biggest names in traditional finance have moved en masse to claim a piece of the onchain dollar. Here’s the map of a land grab that’s accelerating fast.
The clearest signal came this week, when Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Santander, and Deutsche Bank were reported to be among banks committing roughly $270 million to a joint dollar-stablecoin venture codenamed “Project Faro.”
The capital funds five years of operations for a U.S.-incorporated issuer targeting a 2027 launch, part of a 21-institution coalition that has swelled from an initial group of 10. The goal is explicit: challenge Tether and Circle, which together still control about 85% of a roughly $290 billion market.
While the consortium plans, SoFi has shipped. Earlier this week, its SoFiUSD, billed as the first stablecoin from a U.S. national bank, expanded onto Polygon this month alongside Ethereum and Solana, reaching the bank’s 17 million-plus members.
SoFi also launched SoFi Earn, a tokenized deposit paying 4.40% yield that converts into SoFiUSD, and already settles its entire card program over Mastercard’s network.
Meanwhile, the federally chartered crypto bank Anchorage Digital has positioned itself as a settlement backbone.
Anchorage’s tokens can now settle transactions on Visa’s network, starting with Western Union’s USDPT, and it recently anchored both sides of the U.S.-Mexico stablecoin corridor, custodying tokens across one of the world’s largest remittance routes.
Mastercard has been the most aggressive incumbent among payment giants.
It launched a Global Money Platform with acquired stablecoin firm BVNK, rolled out a Stablecoin Security tool to screen payments for fraud, and unveiled Agent Pay for Machines, letting AI agents transact in stablecoins.
Visa, meanwhile, has expanded its own stablecoin settlement program across multiple blockchains.
The crypto-native incumbents, not to be left out, are also racing to entrench.
Circle struck a deal to bring USDC settlement to banking rails in Latin America, starting with a Colombia pilot, part of a broader expansion into dozens of emerging markets.
The catalyst is regulation. The GENIUS Act, signed in 2025, created the first U.S. framework for dollar-pegged tokens, giving regulated institutions a clear path into a business they had largely watched from the sidelines.
The Donald Trump administration has framed dollar stablecoins as a tool to extend the dollar’s reach and global hegemony, and banks that once dismissed crypto now see a settlement business they can’t afford to cede.
Much of this remains early. Project Faro has no token, no CEO, and no final name. Tether and Circle still dominate, and bank-issued tokens face a steep climb to win share.
But the direction is unmistakable: the onchain dollar, once crypto’s turf, is now contested ground, with Wall Street, the card networks and the stablecoin incumbents all racing to own the rails money moves on.
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