The integration of bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrencies by traditional financial corporations has gone from an eccentricity to an essential strategic move. Global payments and remittance giants such as Mastercard, Visa and Western Union are accelerating the exploration and development of financial tools based on cryptocurrency networks.
This is a notable paradigm shift considering the skeptical, and even hostile, stance that some entities in the traditional system maintained for years towards digital currencies.
The integration fever is manifesting itself in a series of high-profile movements. Mastercard, for example, is in negotiations to acquire Zerohash, a company specialized in developing infrastructure for the management of stablecoins and cryptocurrencies.
Furthermore, Mastercard, together with entities such as Citi, Deutsche Bank, Santander and Fidelityparticipates in a project called Prividiums, led by Matter Labs (main contributor to Ethereum’s second layer network, ZKsync), with the aim of integrating large financial institutions into a new architecture on the Ethereum network.
In the case of Visa, it reported this week that it is working on add support for four stablecoins that operate on four different networks. This future expansion allows the company to accept and convert these digital assets to more than 25 fiat currencies, suggesting real and active use by consumers beyond the simple function of financial infrastructure.
For its part, Western Union plans to launch its own stablecoin linked to the US dollar. The new digital asset, called US Dollar Payment Token (USDPT), will be issued on the Solana network in partnership with Anchorage Digital Bank, an entity with federal bank status in the United States.
Cost reduction and the imperative of competition
The accelerated adoption of digital assets by the traditional sector It is due to a confluence of economic and geopolitical factors. One of the main causes is the reduction of operational costs, particularly in the area of remittances and cross-border payments.
Stablecoins, due to their digital nature and the efficiency of decentralized networks, allow almost instantaneous settlements and at a fraction of the cost of traditional transfer systems.
«The risk they pursue [las empresas tradicionales] “is that of losing market share because, even though they are not integrating solutions with digital currencies, the sector’s solutions generally mean lower transaction costs, lower intermediary costs, lower operating costs,” Venezuelan economist Daniel Arráez, specialized in bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, told CriptoNoticias.
Arráez puts in context that in the remittance market, the savings from using stablecoins versus traditional mechanisms, for example, between Argentina and Brazil is between 40% and 60%, a margin of advantage that translates into a completely new market.
Regulations in the US boost the use of cryptocurrencies
Another crucial factor is the general market trend and regulation. The need not to be left out of an increasingly popular industry encourages these companies to “take up the flag” of digital assets so as not to lose users.
Arráez also points to the change in regulatory policy in the United States, with the perspective that the nation seeks to position itself as the world capital of cryptocurrencies, as its president Donald Trump has said.
A clear example of this policy change was the approval of the GENIUS Act (Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoin) in the United States last July. This regulation establishes clear rules for stablecoins that maintain the same price as the US dollarrequiring them to be backed by liquid assets, including cash and short-term Treasury bonds.
In addition, it forces issuers to regularly publish details about the composition of their reserves, introducing measures against money laundering and other risks associated with the use of these digital currencies. In this way, the law seeks to promote the security and use of these assets that reinforce the dominance of the dollar globally, a regulatory framework that gives confidence to large corporations to venture into the sector.
Stability as a vehicle for stablecoin adoption
A central point in the strategy of these large corporations is the focus on stablecoins. Arraez highlights that this type of digital asset eliminates the “volatility factor” inherent to bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.
While international markets can fluctuate, the use of stablecoins means that “you maintain value over time and, for the end user or institutional user, this protection of value represents an advantage for those who do not want to engage in speculative markets,” he added.
The incursion of the financial giants into the territory of digital assets has a double effect: generates a larger market and simultaneously limits user losses that these corporations could face if the digital ecosystem managed to displace the traditional system. In the end, The need to reduce operating costs and the imperative of global competition is marking a new phase in the interconnection between traditional finance and cryptocurrencies.