Stablecoins on the march: Government green light and AI drive growing enterprise interest in digital currency

The major shift in US government sentiment towards cryptocurrencies combined with innovation from artificial intelligence makes the stablecoin market an emerging force in the digital asset economy. In fact, there is growing evidence that cryptocurrencies exist “ChatGPT moment” And stablecoins are leading some of the world’s largest companies to programmable finance.

Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc., X Corp., Airbnb Inc., Meta Platforms Inc., Google LLC, and Uber Technologies Inc. They are all companies It is said Exploring stablecoin integration on its platforms. There are also ten major banks, including Bank of America and Deutsche Bank Investigation Whether they will issue stablecoins as part of their offering. Stablecoins are digital assets linked to the value of fiat currency, often the US dollar.

“It seems like everyone is launching a stablecoin,” he said. Amy KalnockiCo-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Bitwave Inc. “Investing in digital assets has become mainstream. “The question is no longer if companies will embrace digital assets, but when.”

The GENIUS Act redefines financial rules

Kalnoki spoke on Thursday at BuildETH Conference In San Francisco, a gathering of leaders of the Ethereum decentralized blockchain community. She pointed to the volume of stablecoin transfers now exceeds Those of global credit issuers Visa and Mastercard, reaching $27 trillion last year.

One of the main reasons for the tailwind behind stablecoins is the emergence of a US law creating the first comprehensive regulatory framework for the emerging currency. Guide and establish national innovation for US stablecoins (Genius) law It was signed by President Donald Trump in July and reduced regulatory uncertainty for financial institutions, issuers and investors.

The Law of Genius, along with A “Encryption Project” The SEC’s initiative to update the rules and regulations that will enable cryptocurrency trading has infused real financial power into the issuance and settlement of digital currencies, according to… Garyfounding partner at Eureka Finance.

“The GENIUS Act and Project Crypto are redefining the rules of the financial game,” Yang told the BuildETH audience. “If everyone can print money, you have to build the pricing power of your money. That’s what the Law of Genius does.”

What this latest wave of regulatory leniency misses is the answer to a key question: How will consumers be able to use stablecoins as ubiquitous currency if they rely on every issuer’s platform? This interoperability issue has not been resolved by the US government, and is a major topic of interest to those working in the cryptocurrency world today.

“The main question is will stablecoins be interoperable or will they be isolated?” Kalnokki pointed out. “It’s a really interesting time to see how fragmented things are right now. It’s an interesting time to see who wins the stablecoin race.”

Striving for payment standards

The impact of artificial intelligence in the cryptocurrency industry may push digital currency providers to build interoperable models for stablecoins. This is currently happening at a time when major players are grappling with implementing, and likely using, a consistent payments standard Open x402 protocol Which has been around on the internet for decades.

The x402 protocol is the “Payment Required” status code at the top of HTTP. Last month, Cloudflare Inc. and Coinbase Inc. Fired x402 Foundation to further develop the open Internet standard for payments.

There is some urgency behind this initiative, as companies continue to adopt and implement AI agents. Agents are expected to ultimately do the shopping, make purchasing decisions, and process payments on behalf of users. The x402 standard, along with the Proxy Payment Protocol or AP2 Under development By Google, providing an early look at how AI can automate consumer purchasing processes.

Coinbase’s Kevin Leffew highlighted institutional interest in the x402 standard.

“x402 is intended to be something similar to Kubernetes,” Kevin LevioThe market leader of developer platform Coinbase told the BuildETH gathering. “It drives value across platforms.”

For the x402 standard to succeed as a proxy payment protocol, it must be fast. This is not an easy problem to solve within a cryptocurrency world that has been built on the often cumbersome application of per-transaction settlement fees called “gas.”

In a software company Edge and knotdevelopers are working on improving the x402 system that will allow deferred payment plans via signed vouchers that reduce gas costs and settle micropayments on-chain. The company previously built the Graph infrastructure to index on-chain data and views a proxy payment protocol as an important next step.

“Trillions of dollars will flow from agent to agent,” according to the CEO of Edge & Node Rodrigo Coelho. “We have to ride this wave instead of being overwhelmed.”

Overcome security and privacy concerns

The current momentum behind stablecoins and the world of cryptocurrencies has also led to renewed scrutiny of the industry’s privacy and security. If the floodgates open to agent payments in DeFi, there is also a risk that users will end up exposing much more than they bargained for.

Blockchain technology uses a “mempool,” which is a public queue of unconfirmed transactions waiting in line to be added to the next available block. Malicious actors can exploit this process, known as MEV Maximum extractable value Exploiting these blocks by reminding blocks to steal or taking advantage of visibility and forcing victims to sell at a lower price.

Losses in this category began to accumulate. He was there Reports Coinbase lost $300,000 due to MEV bots in August, and one user fell victim to an attack. Exploit MEV For $1 million in stablecoins last month.

SKALE Labs Inc. Developed byte protocol Designed to encrypt blockchain transaction details before sending them to the chain. That’s what the co-founder and CEO is Jack O’Holleran Passing is called the “Barista Test.” You want to buy coffee from your friendly barista, but you don’t want to reveal all your financial details in the process.

“There’s a lot of innovation happening, but at some point, you have to deliver and reach the masses,” O’Holleran explained. “You’re going to have a lot of coffee-making robots. We need to live in a world where you can buy things with stablecoins and not reveal what you own.”

Social engineering attacks and inadvertent disclosure of private keys have exposed new vulnerabilities in the world of cryptocurrencies. This was reinforced in February when hackers were allegedly from North Korea Chairs: $1.5 billion From an Ethereum wallet controlled by Bybit Technology Ltd., a vulnerability believed to be the exploit greater Cryptocurrency theft so far.

Evgenia Prochevan from Hacken explained the security risks facing the world of cryptocurrencies.

“Having access to private keys is something we keep seeing over and over again,” he said. Yevenia Prochevanco-founder and CEO of Hacken. “Be really careful about what you click on and where it comes from.”

Despite ongoing setbacks and risks in the cryptocurrency market, enthusiasm for stablecoins and mainstream growth in DeFi continues to grow. Optimism is fueled by the desire to become a force in the Forex market, which has a daily trading volume of $9.6 trillion The total value ranges from $3.4 quadrillion to $3.9 quadrillion. By all accounts, this is real money.

“The foreign exchange market is ultimately the only market these stablecoins seek,” he said. Matthew KruszelskiEcosystem Leader at ZetaChain Inc. “Who wouldn’t want to be part of $3.9 quadrillion?”

Image: SiliconANGLE/Microsoft designer; Photos: Mark Albertson