The next phase of stablecoin adoption will be shaped less by crypto-native companies and more by traditional banks integrating tokenized deposits directly into corporate treasury systems, according to Ran Goldi, SVP of Payments and Network at Fireblocks.
In an interview with Yellow.com on the sidelines of Solana's Breakpoint event, Goldi said the stablecoin landscape is heading toward a period of fragmentation and “chaos” before consolidating into just a handful of global payment rails.
Goldi argued that enterprises are no longer hesitating because of regulatory uncertainty or compliance concerns, but because treasury operations are not yet equipped for the complexities of on-chain liquidity.
“People underestimate how hard it is to do liquidity management and treasury management,” he said. “Compliance is a solved issue — it just costs a lot of money. The real headache is adding another currency called a stablecoin and ten different liquidity providers around it.”
A Shift In Sentiment Is Underway
Goldi described the current moment as a “tale of two cities,” crypto markets wrestling with volatility, while the stablecoin and payments sector experiences unprecedented institutional interest.
“Every large Fortune 500 company or very large institution wants to come in,” he said, adding that the turning point arrived when regulatory attitudes shifted in 2024–25 and Stripe acquired Bridge.
Still, widespread adoption requires banks to move first.
“Once the banks come more inside, then every business would feel like it's just another FX for them,” Goldi said. “They don’t need to interact with the blockchain. They just need to interact with someone they already know.”
Goldi noted that this shift is already visible in emerging markets.
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“If you go to Latin America today, you’ll see probably like fifteen banks that already offer stablecoin accounts,” he said. “In APAC, DBS is already offering a USDC account for businesses.”
Remittances poised to become 2026’s breakout use case
Goldi identified remittances, not consumer payments, as the sector furthest ahead in real-world deployment.
Major global players who resisted blockchain-based payment rails for years are now active.
“We’ve been banging at their door for seven, eight years and nothing,” he said. “Last year, with the change in sentiment, they’re all in. Remittance will be the big winner of 2026.”
Other early use cases he highlighted include vendor–supplier settlement, on-chain treasury movements, and payroll payouts to individuals in countries where sending even small amounts is difficult through legacy rails.
A Coming Consolidation And A Push For Privacy
Goldi expects the next five to seven years to bring a dramatic contraction in the number of stablecoins and networks.
“We are now heading to chaos in terms of the amount of stablecoins and the amount of networks,” he said. “Five to seven years from now we’ll probably only have three.”
He also warned that public blockchains, as they exist today, do not meet institutional privacy expectations. “The biggest change we’ll see over the next two or three years is privacy coming in very hard,” he said, pointing to ongoing work on privacy layers across Solana, Polygon, and Stellar. “Banks and incumbents are going to want privacy on these chains.”
Stablecoins Aren’t cheaper, But They Unlock Speed
Goldi pushed back against the common assumption that stablecoins materially reduce transaction costs.
“The biggest misconception about stablecoins is that they are not cheaper,” he noted. “They are faster, and it’s the velocity of money that creates economic value.”
For many companies, a single instant settlement with a partner is enough to change long-held assumptions. “The partner calls them and says, ‘I got it,’ and it’s within 30 minutes,” he said. “That’s a wow moment.”
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