Wolf&Grayson EditorialStablecoins represent the next great platform shift in finance. As a form of programmable and borderless money, they are digital tokens pegged one-to-one to fiat currencies such as the U.S. dollar. This one-to-one backing aims to remove the volatility that makes assets like Bitcoin impractical for everyday payments.
Just fifteen years ago, leading fintech firms were grappling with a similar challenge: how to make payments more stable and accessible. Digital wallets, mobile payments and tokenised credit cards were then experimental. Safwan Zaheer, veteran fintech executive and former Head of Fintech & Digital Financial Services at KPMG US, recalls: “We tested payment systems at a time when Apple Pay didn’t yet exist.” Fast-forward to 2025 and he sees the pattern repeating with borderless money built on token rails that traditional systems simply cannot match. “Stablecoins are becoming money’s new operating system,” he says. “They abstract the complexity of legacy financial systems and present money as APIs and modules that are fungible, programmable and global.”
Why Stablecoins Matter Now
The timing of this shift is not coincidental. Two U.S. legislative milestones, the Genius Act and the Clarity Act, have given stablecoins legitimacy as a financial instrument. The Genius Act provides a framework for their use in payments, while the Clarity Act outlines which regulatory body has oversight. Meanwhile, adoption is surging. In 2024, stablecoins reportedly processed ~$27 trillion in on-chain transactions, more than Visa ($15 trillion) and MasterCard ($8 trillion) combined. “It’s not a question of if anymore,” Zaheer says. “It’s already happening. Institutions not using stablecoins are missing a major shift in financial services.”
Programmability Unlocks New Use Cases
What makes stablecoins revolutionary is not just their speed or global reach. It is their programmability. Through smart contracts, stablecoins enable conditional, scheduled, and even micro-payments that legacy systems simply cannot support. This means money can now move autonomously, governed by rules instead of manual approvals. It can split a payment the instant a transaction occurs, charge users in real time for what they consume, or release funds to a vendor only after goods are confirmed delivered.
Conditional payments could tie vendor payouts to proof of delivery. Scheduled payments can release funds at precise times. Micro-payments allow for real-time revenue sharing or content monetization at fractions of a cent. “These are programmable instructions were impossible with the old rails,” Zaheer says. Three categories of use cases are already emerging. In B2B treasury operations, financial institutions can settle vendor invoices instantly across borders. In C2C remittances, migrants can send money to family abroad at low or zero fees, with full transparency. And although still early, C2B use cases are surfacing, such as consumers in one country paying merchants in another with stablecoin-linked cards.
The Challenges Ahead
Despite momentum, stablecoin adoption faces hurdles. Regulatory frameworks outside the U.S. remain uneven with many countries still treating stablecoins as exotic assets rather than a financial services infrastructure. Incumbent financial institutions remain understandably cautious about overhauling long-standing treasury, banking, and payments systems. The strategic question now is whether to build proprietary stablecoin rails, partner with an issuer, or integrate third-party solutions to accelerate adoption.
Zaheer uses the iPhone analogy: “No one today thinks about iOS when they use their phone. They just benefit from seamless apps built on top.” He argues: “Financial institutions don’t need to build stablecoin rails themselves. They should be innovating with applications on top of those rails to deliver better customer experiences.”
The Role of AI and Agentic Commerce
Looking ahead, Zaheer sees a powerful convergence between stablecoins and artificial intelligence. Stablecoins provide the infrastructure for 24/7 programmable money, while AI powers the intelligence and automation layer for personalized financial interactions. “AI and stablecoins complement each other in radical ways,” he says. Payments driven by intelligent agents can execute seamlessly on stablecoin infrastructure. This is already underway: PayPal has launched its PYUSD stablecoin, Visa and MasterCard are enabling AI-led commerce, and MoneyGram has partnered with the Stellar Foundation to use stablecoins in remittance flows. For Zaheer, this alignment represents more than technical progress, it is a glimpse into finance’s future. “Stablecoins will serve as the foundational operating system,” he says, “and AI will be the intelligence layer that makes money smarter, faster and more adaptable.”
A Call to Action for Financial Institutions
“Staying on the sidelines is no longer an option,” he warns. “If you’re not actively testing and deploying stablecoin-based solutions, you risk being left behind this platform shift.” The most immediate opportunities lie in B2B treasury management and remittances, where inefficiencies are well known and the benefits of instant, low-cost, programmable money are undeniable. Institutions that start experimenting today will be better positioned as stablecoins and AI continue to redefine financial services. Just as mobile wallets reshaped payments, Zaheer believes stablecoins are poised to reshape money itself. “Stablecoins are money’s new operating system,” he says. “The question is whether institutions will embrace it or be left behind.”
Readers can connect with Safwan Zaheer on LinkedIn to learn more.
