Stripe, Visa, Mastercard and Coinbase are pushing to form a consortium to issue a new stablecoin, The Information reported on Tuesday, citing sources familiar with the matter.
The report said the four companies are forming the consortium to challenge the dominance of Circle and Tether, which it said account for 80 percent of the stablecoin market. The new stablecoin would comply with the Genius Act, a stablecoin regulation bill passed in the United States last year.
Coinbase's moves are also drawing attention. Coinbase is Circle's largest distribution partner for the USDT stablecoin and shares part of Circle's USDC revenue.
As of the first quarter this year, USDC tokens held by Coinbase and Coinbase users totaled $19 billion, accounting for more than 25 percent of the total supply in circulation.
It is running a stablecoin issuance business through Bridge, the company that acquired Stripe, and has secured payroll solutions firm Deel and buy-now-pay-later company Klarna as partners. Visa and Mastercard are also expanding related businesses, including launching stablecoin-linked cards and settling payments based on stablecoins.
Chi-gyu Hwang
delight@d-today.co.kr