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Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Circle, says stablecoins are on the edge of a big leap.
Think iPhone-level big.
He believes we’re close to the moment when devs realize how powerful digital dollars can be online. It’s like when people first understood what iPhones could do for mobile apps.
“All the utility of money. Programmable. On the internet,” Allaire posted on Saturday.
Big Names Are Jumping In
Walmart and Amazon are both exploring US dollar-backed stablecoins. Shopify also wants to accept USDC by the end of 2025.
Allaire’s comments were a response to Sam Broner from a16z Crypto. Broner said stablecoins are a game changer because they bring competition and make it cheaper to build fintech tools.
With programmable money, anyone can build finance apps. More builders = better services.
$33 Trillion in a Year?!
Daren Matsuoka, a data scientist at a16z, says stablecoins might be crypto’s secret weapon. He thinks they could bring a billion people into the crypto world.
In the last year alone, stablecoins moved $33 trillion. That’s nearly 20 times more than PayPal, and three times more than Visa. They’re even catching up to ACH, the system behind your bank transfers.*
(*ACH = Automated Clearing House, a network used for moving money between bank accounts in the US)
Public Debuts and Rivalries
Circle went public on the NYSE on June 5. Its stock soared 167% on day one.
But its biggest competitor, Tether (the folks behind USDT), doesn’t want to follow. Their CEO said on June 8 they’re not interested in going public.
