Stablecoins Have Their Permission Slip — Now Comes the Hard Part

The GENIUS Act handed stablecoin builders what MoonPay's Richard Harrison called a "permission slip" — regulatory clarity that has traditional finance firms moving faster than before. But executives from MoonPay, Ripple and Paxos told Consensus Miami 2026 that the legislation is the easy part; infrastructure, privacy and real-world distribution are the walls still standing between stablecoins and mainstream payments.

Ripple's Jack McDonald said institutional volume won't move on-chain until regulated products, trusted custody and clear counterparties are in place — and that Ripple's stablecoin is built around utility in payments, corporate treasury and capital-markets collateral, not market-cap competition. Harrison put stablecoin penetration of global remittances at roughly 10% within five years, with B2B payments already a proven lane and consumer adoption lagging.

Paxos' Brent…