[Digital Today reporter Chi-gyu Hwang] Swift and Stripe are making major blockchain-related announcements, intensifying competition among leading companies over tokenised payment infrastructure.

Swift said on July 14 local time it would expand its blockchain payment network after completing a pilot with 17 global banks. It is currently working with more than 40 financial institutions. Stripe then made an offer to acquire PayPal for $53 billion.

According to a recent CoinDesk report, Swift connects more than 11,500 financial institutions and handles cross-border payment messaging worth trillions of dollars. Stripe processes hundreds of billions of dollars annually, and PayPal processed $1.79 trillion in 2025 with 439 million active accounts.

Ilies Larbi (일리에스 라르비), founder and CEO of Wenix, called the moves by the two companies "a competition to dominate next-generation payment infrastructure".

If a Stripe-PayPal tie-up goes through, it could reduce reliance on intermediaries such as Visa and Mastercard and provide access to PayPal's consumer base. Jason Lee (제이슨 리), co-founder and CEO of MPCVault, said, "It costs $53 billion to get 400 million people to actually use stablecoins," adding, "Stripe already has issuers, chains and merchants. What it is buying this time is a consumer wallet."

Rob Hadick (롭 해딕), a general partner at Dragonfly, said, "Stripe and PayPal have similar payment scale, but Stripe's net revenue is about one-fifth that of PayPal," and said it would have a financial effect in boosting performance. He warned, however, that integrating a merger and acquisition of this size would be very difficult.

Several executives see the competitive focus shifting from validating blockchain technology to controlling distribution networks.

Pankaj Bangani (판카지 벤가니), founder and CEO of Meld, said, "Stablecoins have moved from experimentation to core payment infrastructure." Citi analysts said the stablecoin competition has become a "default-setting game" in which scale accrues not to the issuer with the best technology, but to the player that becomes the default based on the largest merchant, consumer wallet and autonomous trading base.