Recent news indicates that Walmart, the largest retailer in the United States, and Amazon, the largest e-commerce platform, have recently been exploring whether to issue stablecoins in the United States. For large retailers, using stablecoins can save a significant amount in fees paid to payment networks and also accelerate the speed of capital flow.
On June 13, the Financial Associated Press reported that with the prospect of the U.S. stablecoin bill being approved as early as this summer, various industries in the U.S. have entered a tense state calculating how to profit from it.
According to the latest market news on Friday, the largest retailer in the U.S. $Walmart (WMT.US)$ and the largest e-commerce platform in the U.S. $Amazon (AMZN.US)$ are recently exploring whether to issue their own stablecoin in the U.S. There are also reports that the largest online travel platform in the U.S. $Expedia (EXPE.US)$ And a number of airlines have also discussed potential plans for issuing stablecoins internally.
For these well-known publicly listed companies, there are two obvious benefits to targeting stablecoins: cost savings and accelerated settlement cycles.
It is reported that U.S. merchants typically need to pay payment networks like Visa and MasterCard a fee of 1%-3% for each credit card transaction. For large retailers with transaction volumes in the billions or even hundreds of billions of dollars, these fees can add up to a significant amount.
Meanwhile, traditional card payments usually require 1-3 business days for settlement, while stablecoins can almost complete settlements in real-time, allowing merchants to manage global supply chains more efficiently. This is even more attractive for merchants with international payment needs.
It is known that Amazon's related plans are still in the early stages, with some discussions focusing on platform tokens intended for online shopping. Walmart is lobbying U.S. legislative bodies to add an independent amendment to the stablecoin bill to introduce more competition into the credit card industry. Walmart has long been trying to enter the financial services sector, leveraging its vast retail customer base as a business advantage.
Even if they ultimately do not issue their own stablecoins, these companies are evaluating how to utilize external stablecoins to achieve the aforementioned benefits. Of course, for the U.S. banking industry, especially regional and community banks, the money saved by retail giants directly translates into revenue for these banks.
In the face of challenges, Banks are also closely monitoring the potential of stablecoins. At the end of May, there were reports that traditional Wall Street giants were considering jointly issuing stablecoins, and some regional banks were also contemplating whether to form independent stablecoin alliances. Undoubtedly, for small banks, even starting stablecoin projects would face intense competition.
Interestingly, there were also reports yesterday that the focal point of the U.S. stock market—the world's largest financial clearing institution, DTCC (The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation)—is exploring the issuance of a dollar stablecoin. This institution has previously launched several blockchain and tokenized staking pilot projects.
Of course, whether Walmart, Amazon, major Wall Street banks, and DTCC will eventually launch stablecoin projects is still highly tied to the progress of U.S. stablecoin legislation. The proposed rules will set clear compliance obligations for the issuance of digital assets and will also provide regulatory certainty, making it a prerequisite for many large institutions to initiate projects.
Editor/joryn
