Stripe, Visa, Mastercard and Coinbase form stablecoin…

Stripe, Visa, Mastercard, and Coinbase are forming a consortium to launch a new stablecoin designed to compete directly with Tether and Circle, according to The Information. The move would bring together four of the most influential names in payments and crypto infrastructure under a single stablecoin initiative — a combination of reach and legitimacy that neither USDT nor USDC has ever faced from a single rival project.

Why it matters

This is not a fintech startup entering the stablecoin market — it is the payments establishment. Visa and Mastercard together process the majority of global card volume; Stripe is the dominant infrastructure layer for internet commerce; Coinbase is the largest US-regulated crypto exchange and already the distribution backbone for USDC. A consortium-issued stablecoin backed by this group would arrive with instant merchant acceptance pathways, regulatory credibility, and on-chain liquidity from day one. Circle and Tether have spent years building those moats — this consortium could compress that timeline dramatically.

Market impact

The announcement is a structural signal for the stablecoin sector: the addressable market is now large enough that legacy payments giants are willing to co-operate rather than compete individually. For USDC, the threat is particularly acute given Coinbase's existing equity stake in Circle — a defection of this scale would reshape that relationship entirely. Watch for USDC market cap flows and any regulatory commentary from the OCC or FinCEN as this consortium takes shape.